McDonald's is sued for $10 billion for alleged bias against Black-owned media

By Jonathan Stempel

 Reuters/Mike Blake FILE PHOTO: A McDonald's restaurant is pictured in Encinitas, California

(Reuters) - McDonald's Corp was sued on Thursday for at least $10 billion by two companies owned by media entrepreneur Byron Allen, who accused the fast-food chain of racial discrimination for not advertising enough with Black-owned media outlets.

The complaint filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court said McDonald's violated federal and state civil rights laws through its "racial animus and racial stereotyping" in allocating ad dollars.

According to the complaint, Chicago-based McDonald's has refused to advertise with Allen's Entertainment Studios Networks, which owns several lifestyle channels, or his Weather Group, which owns The Weather Channel.

The complaint said Blacks comprise about 40% of McDonald's customers, but the company devoted less than $5 million of its $1.6 billion U.S. ad budget in 2019 to Black-owned media.

"McDonald's, like much of corporate America these days, publicly touts its commitment to diversity and inclusion, but this is nothing more than empty rhetoric," the complaint said.

Allen sued on the same day McDonald's said it would boost its national ad spending with Black-owned media to 5% from 2% by 2024, and also spend more on Hispanic-, Asian-American, women- and LGBTQ-owned platforms.

"We have doubled down on our relationships with diverse-owned partners," McDonald's said in a statement. It said it will "review and respond accordingly" to Allen's lawsuit.

In April, General Motors Corp pledged to advertise more with Black-owned media, after Allen and other entrepreneurs took out full-page newspaper ads accusing the automaker of ignoring those media.

A former stand-up comic and co-host of the NBC reality TV show "Real People," Allen also sued Comcast Corp for $20 billion in 2015 over its refusal to carry his channels.

He settled in June, three months after the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Comcast in setting a high burden for Allen to prove he was discriminated against.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

ORTEGA FORMER STALINIST NOW CATHOLIC DICTATOR
Nicaragua police raid NGO and news outlet offices

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — Nicaraguan national police raided offices of a prominent nongovernmental organization and an independent news outlet Thursday — both linked to children of a former president — as the government of President Daniel Ortega continued to clamp down on critical voices in advance of November presidential elections.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement that it was investigating Cristiana Chamorro, former director of the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation for Reconciliation and Democracy and daughter of the former president.

The ministry said Chamorro and others connected to the foundation had been called in to explain alleged “inconsistencies” in financial reports filed with the government between 2015 and 2019, did not comply with their obligations and that an analysis turned up “clear indications of money laundering.”

Chamorro attended a meeting Thursday at the Interior Ministry, where she was notified of the investigation against her.

After the meeting, she accused Ortega of ordering that evidence be fabricated against her.

“This is a process to not only inhibit me, but to impede Nicaraguans from freely voting and having the sacred right that the law allows us next November 7,” Chamorro said. “This is part of the whole process that the dictatorship is setting up to impede that right.”

Also Thursday, police raided the Managua offices of the news outlet Confidencial, run by Carlos Fernando Chamorro, Cristiana Chamorro’s brother and son of former President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro. In December 2018, police also raided and seized the independent outlet’s offices. The government confiscated the property and turned it over to the Health Ministry.

Ortega alleged at the time that the news outlet and other nongovernmental organizations that were also raided were part of a failed coup attempt in 2018. Street protests of a change to social security in April 2018 set off months of protests that were violently put down by the government.

Carlos Fernando Chamorro was not present Thursday, but denounced the raid and called for authorities to respect the safety of his colleagues. After the raid on his old offices in 2018, Chamorro spent a year in exile in Costa Rica before returning to Nicaragua in January 2020.

He said that a cameraman who was in the offices at the time of Thursday's raid had been detained and was being held by police. The government “has again raided and confiscated our media, but they are not going to silence us, we will continue doing journalism.”

Anti-riot police blocked access to the site. Police briefly detained a photographer from the French news agency AFP, who was covering the raid.

Cristiana Chamorro has not ruled out the possibility of running for president in the November elections. In January, she stepped down from her role at the foundation. A month later, it closed its operations in Nicaragua after passage of a “foreign agents” law that aimed to track foreign funding of organizations operating in the country.

Ortega is seeking his fourth consecutive presidential term in November. Nicaragua's Supreme Electoral Council and congress have been narrowing the space for maneuver for the country's opposition. On Tuesday, the council cancelled the legal status of the Democratic Restoration Party, which was expected to potentially be a vehicle for an opposition coalition bid against Ortega.

Violeta Barrios de Chamorro beat Ortega to win the presidency in 1990 and served until 1997. Her husband Pedro Joaquin Chamorro ran La Prensa, his family newspaper, and was jailed and forced into exile multiple times before his assassination in 1978.

His killing galvanized opposition forces against dictator Anastasio Somoza and propelled the Sandinista revolution led by Ortega that resulted in his ouster.

The Associated Press

First Nations group criticizes Woodside Petroleum's move to sell Kitimat LNG stake

VANCOUVER — A British Columbia First Nations coalition says it's disappointed by the news that a second major investor is looking to sell its shares in the Kitimat Liquefied Natural Gas development.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Woodside Petroleum Ltd., an Australian company, says it plans sell its 50 per cent stake in the 480-kilometre Pacific Trail Pipeline and the proposed LNG facility at Bish Cove.

The First Nations Limited Partnership, which represents 16 First Nations in northern B.C., says the decision to sell is both disappointing and poses a threat to its members' commercial interests.

Woodside's announcement comes after Chevron Canada Ltd., the operator of the project, said earlier this year that it would stop funding further feasibility work on the project.

The company put its interest up for sale in December 2019, but has failed to find a buyer.

A Woodside spokeswoman said in a statement that the company had worked hard to try to find a mutually acceptable solution, and had not "arrived at this decision lightly."

They added that the company still believes the Kitimat LNG project is well-positioned to supply gas to Asian markets.

Mark Podlasly, the partnership's chair, said he believes the energy project has national benefits and the latest news hurts the group's members.

"We are incredibly disappointed by this setback. The (First Nations Limited Partnership) stands ready to support the right buyers who will treat us as a genuine partner and recognize the unique value we can bring to the table," he said.

Woodside says it will keep a position in the Liard Basin upstream gas resource.

At one time, about 20 LNG terminals were proposed for the West Coast, but the $40-billion LNG Canada project headed by Shell Canada is the only one to reach the construction stage.

Woodside acting CEO Meg O'Neill said the decision to sell will allow the company to focus on higher-value opportunities in Australia and Senegal.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 20, 2021.

Nick Wells, The Canadian Press

The anger driving Colombia's protest movement isn't going away anytime soon

By Natalie Gallón and Polo Sandoval, CNN

What started as a tax reform proposal to help ease the strain of the pandemic on the economy and balance government finances ended with people taking to the streets to express their discontent.

© Joaquin Sarmiento/AFP/Getty Images A man is arrested during clashes with the police following a protest against a tax reform bill launched by Colombian President Ivan Duque in Medellin, Colombia on April 29, 2021.

Large-scale protests in Colombia are now in their third week, and prosecutors have announced homicide charges after a national police officer was seen on video shooting and killing a 17-year-old in the city of Cali during the first day of demonstrations.

Last week, Colombia's Attorney General's Office released a statement charging the police officer, Luis Ángel Piedrahita Hernández, with aggravated homicide in connection to the killing of Marcelo Agredo Inchima. Officer Piedrahita Hernández maintains his innocence and the case will go before a criminal court.

The charges were announced on the same day that the head of Colombia's National Police, General Jorge Luis Vargas, just four months into the new role, defended the credibility of the force -- which has been fiercely criticized for its heavy-handed response to the protests -- while admitting that police would be the first to recognize their faults.

"Any act that a police officer commits against the law is forcefully rejected," General Vargas said, speaking to Spanish newspaper El País last week. "Whoever has individual responsibility, we hope that the full weight of the law falls on him. And we will be the first to ask for forgiveness when it is determined," he added.

The institution the general oversees has found itself in the middle of a credibility crisis, as reports of human rights violations increase and international humanitarian groups including the United Nations voice concerns. On Saturday, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) formally requested access to the country to investigate these abuse allegations.

At least 42 people have died in the protests according to Colombia's Ombudsman Office. Rights groups say the death toll could be higher. According to a compilation by human rights organization Temblores, at least 2,387 cases of police violence have been reported.

The shooting of Marcelo Agredo Inchima

Marcelo Agredo Inchima was among the first casualties that resulted in the protests, on a day when social media videos of brutal repression by police would ignite fury across an already angered nation.

Seventeen-year-old Agredo and his brother joined an anti-tax bill rally on April 28, the first day of protests in Cali — a city in southwest Colombia that would soon become the heart of the movement. Little did they know it would be the last day he would be seen alive.

Dramatic social media footage shot from a balcony in the Mariano Ramos neighborhood shows Agredo kicking a police officer on a motorcycle. Shots can be heard as people scatter in panic. Agredo attempts to run away on foot, but the police officer grabs his gun and shoots, downing the young man.

A second social media video from another angle shows Agredo running and then falling to the ground. A third shows his body on the pavement in a pool of blood, as people frantically try to move him. "They killed him!" a woman screams, terror resonating in her voice.

"No, he's already dead," she sobs near Agredo's still body.

The following day, the young man's father spoke on camera with Temblores and confirmed the death of his son.

"My kid died there as a result of a shot that a police officer gave him. My son attacked a policeman with a kick," Armando Agredo Bustamante said, arguing the kick wasn't a reason to take his son's life when his son was unarmed and "defenseless."

For many Colombians, what started as protests over the now-withdrawn tax reform that would have hit many families already struggling economically, have transformed into a cry to end excessive police force directed at protesters— something they say has plagued the nation for decades.

"The way that they decided to take these things is to bring the police and the military forces against their own people. That's why we are all here," Juan Pablo Randazzo, 21, told CNN during a peaceful protest in the capital of Bogotá, the brightly colored yellow, blue and red Colombian flag wrapped around his neck like a cape.

"We are not prepared to hear the next day that one of our friends, that one of our family, that one of our brothers is getting killed," the university student added with emotion in his voice.

In an exclusive interview with CNN's Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour last week, Colombian president Iván Duque announced 65 investigations have been opened into police abuse adding that there were "strict protocols" on the use of force in the country.

Duque said his government had "always trusted and defended the fundamental right in our institution for specific protests."

Nevertheless, government officials also maintain that leftist militants and illegal armed groups are behind some of the violence.

Last week, Colombia's Defense Ministry announced security forces had detained a leader of a local cell of the largest leftist guerrilla group in the country, the National Liberation Army (ELN). The Ministry accused him of attempting to blend into the protests in Cali with plans to detonate a hand grenade and blame security forces, but offered no proof.

A cascade of discontent

The withdrawal of the tax reform proposal, which the government said was necessary to ease the pandemic's blows, was too late to allay protesters' fury over months of economic pressure, reinforced by police brutality, all of which has deepened the sense of inequality that many Colombians feel.

Protesters have burned public buses, police precincts, looted stores and blocked roads throughout the nation, further hampering the economy and flow of goods.

"The Colombian Constitution does not establish the right to block, for violence, or vandalism," Interior Minister Daniel Palacios said on Twitter. "The blockades generate poverty, don't build a country and end the economy," he added.

Negotiations between the Colombian government, indigenous groups and the National Strike Committee are ongoing but have so far been unsuccessful. Even President Duque's announcement last week to cut tuition for lower-income students in the second semester of 2021 has failed to stem the protests.

Meanwhile, Colombians are sinking deeper into poverty, a problem exacerbated by the pandemic and nationwide lockdowns. According to the country's National Statistics Department (DANE), the poverty rate increased from 36 percent in 2019 to 42.5 percent in 2020.

A study from DANE also reports the number of Colombian families eating less than three meals per day has tripled since the start of the pandemic.

Sociology and history professor Jose Alejandro Cifuentes tells CNN the economic situation Colombia faces is grim and entangled with its history of civil war and inequality.

"We are in a very serious situation in the face of access to higher education, employment, and we are facing a situation of high informal employment that is the only space left for these youths," Cifuentes said in regard to the many young Colombians taking to the streets to voice their frustrations and concerns.

Not only has the pandemic hit the future generations though. It has also affected people like Marlon Rincon Peralta, 46, a father of five who we met as he waved down the few visitors who drove past his mostly empty tables.

Rincon Peralta was forced to go from business owner to waiting tables at a restaurant in the once bustling colonial tourist town of Zipaquirá, north of the capital.

"Never, never have I seen this situation," Rincon Peralta told CNN as he got emotional sharing how the pandemic only helped make the rich richer and the poor poorer due to the inequality the country has faced and continues to live.

Financially, he is at his worst.

"I tell my wife, my kids, if we continue like this, no, no... what are we going to do?" he said with tears in his eyes.

"The pandemic has a cure," he said but the economy and inequality doesn't. "If we don't do something, we will never have a cure."

© Joaquin Sarmiento/AFP/Getty Images Demonstrators in Medellin take part in a new protest against the government of Colombian President Ivan Duque on May 19, 2021.

An ailing Sahrawi leader shakes Spain and Morocco's alliance

LOGRONO, Spain (AP) — The mysterious COVID-19 patient arrived at an airport in northern Spain in a medicalized jet. An ambulance ferried the 71-year-old man on a freeway that passed vineyards of Rioja grapes to a state-of-the-art public hospital in the city of Logrono.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The patient was sent directly to an intensive care bed, registered on April 18 with the identity on his Algerian diplomatic passport: Mohamed Benbatouche.

He turned out to be Brahim Ghali, the leader of the Polisario Front, an Algeria-backed pro-independence movement representing the local Sahrawi people of Africa's Western Sahara. Ghali's presence in Spain under a disguised identity didn't go unnoticed to the government in Morocco, the country that annexed Western Sahara nearly half a century ago.

Rabat, which regards Ghali as a terrorist, protested Spain's decision to grant compassionate assistance to its top enemy. It threatened there would be “consequences.” And they finally came to fruition this week when Morocco let down its guard on the border with Ceuta, a Spanish city perched on the northern African coastline.

The move allowed thousands of migrants to enter Ceuta, many of them children who swam or jumped over fences.

The humanitarian crisis has become a flashpoint between the two neighbors. Morocco recalled its ambassador in Madrid. Spain is under fire from human rights groups for pushing back most of the trespassers in bulk, which is illegal under international law.

And in what resembled an assertion of its sovereignty of Ceuta, which many Moroccan nationalists deem a colony of Madrid along with the nearby Spanish city of Melilla, Spain deployed soldiers to the border. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also made a quick trip to the overwhelmed city.

The Western Sahara region stretches along Africa's Atlantic Coast and is home to roughly 600,000 people. Since Morocco annexed the territory in 1975, filling a void left when Spain withdrew as a colonial power, the international community has been divided on its recognition, with most countries backing a long-running U.N. effort for a negotiated solution.

An announcement by the United States late last year supporting Rabat's claim - in exchange for Morocco normalizing diplomatic ties with Israel - undermined those efforts, rallying other countries behind Morocco's proposal to give the territory greater autonomy.

Pushing instead for a referendum on self-determination has been the main focus for Ghali, who was elected president of the self-declared Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in 2016. He previously served as its defense minister and as a Polisario diplomat in Spain (1999-2008) and Algeria (2008-2015).

Ghali, wearing combat fatigues while speaking in February at a military parade marking the 45th anniversary of the SADR, called on the new U.S. administration of President Joe Biden to find a solution that would allow the Sahrawi “to enjoy their inalienable right of freedom and independence.”

At the San Pedro hospital in Logrono, there is little sign of the presence of the Polisario's top man. People familiar with his condition say he recently came out of three weeks in critical care. A security guard performs identity checks on medical personnel and visitors entering the COVID-19 ward. Inside, Ghali receives a daily visit from his personal physician, an Algerian doctor, according to a police report seen by The Associated Press.

“They probably chose this place because nothing ever happens here, and we rarely make it to the news,” local resident Milagros Capellán, 64, said as she left the hospital after a medical check-up. “It feels strange that this is connected with the very sad developments in Ceuta.”

Moroccan intelligence officials knew about Ghali's whereabouts from the moment the Algerian jet carrying Ghali landed in Spain last month, leaking his presence to the media and exposing what had been designed by Spain as a covert “humanitarian” operation.

“What was Spain expecting from Morocco when it hosted an official from a group that is carrying arms against the kingdom?” Morocco’s minister for human rights, Mostapha Ramid, wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.

Spain's foreign minister responded the next day, blaming Morocco for the chaos at the border: “It tears our hearts out to see our neighbors sending children, even babies… (because) they reject a humanitarian gesture on our part," Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya said.

The Spanish Foreign Ministry declined to answer AP's questions on why it agreed to treat Ghali even when other European governments had refused. An official familiar with the decision who requested anonymity because of its sensitive nature said that the request was made directly to González Laya by her Algerian counterpart, Sabri Boukadoum.

Before the request was granted, it had caused deep divisions within Sánchez's Cabinet, the official said.

The Polisario Front’s representative in Spain, Abdulah Arabi, rejected depicting the circumstances of Ghali’s arrival in Spain as exceptional.

“He is the head of state and comes from a country that recognizes the Sahrawi Republic,” Arabi said. He accused Rabat of “trying to discredit the noble, peaceful struggle for resistance of the Sahrawi people by attacking somebody who is a symbol.”

Providing that his recovery goes well, Ghali’s future is now shrouded in uncertainty. With his whereabouts known, a discreet return to Tindouf, Algeria, where Sahrawi refugee camps are located, seems out of question.

Further complicating matters, Spain’s National Court on Tuesday re-opened a genocide probe from 2008 against Ghali and 27 other Polisario members. An investigating judge closed the case last year because the court couldn't locate the defendants.

Ghali is also expected to give testimony June 1 in the same Madrid-based court for a 2019 lawsuit filed by a Sahrawi activist who claims he was tortured in the refugee camps for his opposition to the Polisario.

On May 10, a police officer visited the Polisario leader to hand him a court summons for the lawsuit. According to the police report seen by The Associated Press, Ghali refused to sign the notice, asking for “several days” to consult with the Algerian Embassy and other advisors.

González Laya said that Spain's agreement with Ghali was for medical treatment only, suggesting that the government won't facilitate his immediate departure. “If he has pending matters with Spain's justice, he will have to appear (before the court)," she told Spain's public radio.

Behind the legal cases against Ghali are groups of Sahrawis aligned with Morocco’s position. Asadesh, which stands for the Saharawi Association for Human Rights, accuses 28 Polisario members of killing, torturing, illegally detaining and abducting prisoners and its own Saharawi people, some of whom the group claims were allegedly forced to remain in refugee camps against their will.

Pedro Altamirano is also suing Ghali for allegedly inspiring threats that the Spanish journalist and head of a recently founded platform to support “Sahrawi reunification” received from online netizens.

“The only thing that cannot happen is that by the hand of the devil this man leaves the country without appearing before a judge," said Altamirano, who supports Morocco’s claim on Western Sahara.

___

Associated Press writers Elaine Ganley and Angela Charlton in Paris, and Joseph Wilson in Barcelona, Spain, contributed to this report.

Aritz Parra, The Associated Press

Seven more arrests, 21 in total at anti-logging camp on Vancouver Island: RCMP

LAKE COWICHAN, B.C. — Mounties say they have arrested seven more people along a remote forest service road on southern Vancouver Island as they enforce a court injunction ordering the removal of blockades set up to protest old-growth logging.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Cpl. Chris Manseau says in a statement the RCMP have now arrested 21 people since enforcement began earlier this week, including 17 for breaching the civil injunction and four for obstruction of justice.

Of the 17 arrested for breaching the injunction, he says police are also recommending that two be charged with obstruction, two with possession of stolen property and one with obstruction and assaulting a police officer.

Manseau says the area along the McClure forest service road west of Lake Cowichan was cleared yesterday to allow Teal Cedar Products to resume work, but several people returned and attached themselves to structures.

Of the seven arrested today, he says six were found in civil contempt of court and one person was escorted out with no charges recommended.

Manseau says everyone arrested today refused to sign conditional release documents, so they will be held overnight at the Lake Cowichan RCMP detachment before appearing in B.C. Supreme Court in Nanaimo on Friday.

More than three dozen protesters gathered in front of the Environment Ministry offices in Victoria on Thursday saying they support those arrested.

The blockaders set up camp along the McClure forest service road in the Caycuse area around Easter, while others have been camped out since last August around the Fairy Creek watershed near Port Renfrew.

Activists say very little of the best old-growth forest remains in B.C. and Fairy Creek is the last unprotected, intact old-growth valley on southern Vancouver Island.

Teal Jones says about 200 hectares of the 1,200-hectare watershed is available for harvest and the rest is either protected or on unstable terrain.

The company says in a statement it plans to harvest about 20 hectares from the harvestable area, which is at a higher elevation on the north ridge of the watershed and contains mostly hemlock and cypress trees.

Teal Jones respects peaceful protest and has a "decades-long history of engagement with First Nations, responsible forest management, and value-added manufacture" in B.C., vice-president Gerrie Kotze says in a statement.

The company's work within its tree farm licence is "undertaken in accordance with British Columbia's strong environmental regulations and only after meaningful engagement with First Nations," he says.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 20, 2021.

The Canadian Press

Deutsche Bank Refers to Bitcoin Value As “Wishful Thinking”, Global Banks Join 

Anti-BTC Rant

By Bhushan Akolkar

IN BRIEF

The Deutsche Bank executive referred to Bitcoin’s value as the “Tinkerbell effect”.

JPMorgan notes institutions are now moving from Bitcoin to Gold.




Bitcoin’s (BTC) plunge this week has not only shaken investors but also rattled banking institutions. While the institutional players continue buying the dips, the traditional banks have once again joined the anti-Bitcoin rant.

Germany’s biggest banking institution published a note “Bitcoin: Trendy is the last stage before tacky,” on Thursday, May 20. While quoting fashion icon Karl Lagerfield, Deutsche Bank’s Marion Labouré said:

“What’s true for glamour and style might also be true for bitcoin. Just as a ‘fashion faux pas’ can happen suddenly, we just received the proof that digital currencies can also quickly become passé.”

She further referred to the Bitcoin phenomenon as the “Tinkerbell effect”. Labouré added:

“The value of bitcoin is entirely based on wishful thinking. Bitcoin’s value will continue to rise and fall depending on what people believe it is worth”.

Labouré also pointed out Bitcoin’s vulnerability to react to some news and tweets. As we know, Elon Musk’s Bitcoin bashing tweets earlier this week followed by China’s crackdown caused the entire crypto market to take a nosedive on Wednesday.

While Marion Labouré states that Bitcoin’s $1 trillion valuations certainly make it attractive, it still has limited utility for transactions. Speaking to Yahoo Finance, she adds: the “real debate is whether rising valuations alone can be reason enough for bitcoin to evolve into an asset class, or whether its illiquidity is an obstacle.”
Global Banks Join Anti-Bitcoin Rant

Just one BTC price correction was enough for traditional banks to hop on to their anti-Bitcoin rant while completely ignoring the phenomenal rally that the crypto asset registered earlier. UBS global wealth management, CIO Mark Haefele called Bitcoin a “speculative asset” referring to Wednesday’s price crash.

Referring to crypto in general, Haefele added that investors really don’t need to have crypto in their portfolio. “The portfolio benefits of holding cryptos are limited, in our view,” he added. Reminding his clients he further added: “only a handful of companies accept them as a means of payment” and that “most recently, Tesla reversed a decision to do so.”

In a recent note to clients, the JPMorgan strategists also noted that “institutional investors appear to be shifting away from bitcoin and back into traditional gold, reversing the trend of the previous two quarters,” while questioning Bitcoin’s status as a gold alternative.

Vitalik Buterin: Crypto is a Bubble But Isn’t a Toy

Author: Martin Young Last Updated May 21, 2021

Speaking to CNN Business in an exclusive interview, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin aired his views on the market crash and current state of the crypto industry.

Buterin, who has had a sizeable chunk of his personal wealth wiped out over the past week, told CNN that he is not concerned about the market crash stating that we have had several of them before.

He likened the current situation to a bubble stating that knowing when they will pop is “notoriously hard to predict.” “It could have ended already,” he added before continuing to suggest that “It could end months from now.”


“We’ve had at least three of these big crypto bubbles so far. And often enough, the reason the bubbles end up stopping is because some event happens that just makes it clear that the technology isn’t there yet.”

Buterin’s Ethereum address currently holds 325,000 ETH worth an estimated $895 million at current prices. This is 35% down from its peak value of $1.4 billion on May 12.
Crypto is Not a Toy

Comparing the current scene with that during the last ‘bubble’ four years ago, Buterin stated:


“It feels like crypto is close to ready for the mainstream in a way that it wasn’t even four years ago. Crypto isn’t just a toy anymore.”

The narrative has been different for Ethereum this time around, with large institutional players entering the scene and pushing up prices. Although, some industry observers are blaming highly leveraged trading on derivatives exchanges for the latest market downturn.

Buterin added that although he’s not sure, there is a “possibility” that Ethereum eventually catches up and surpasses Bitcoin in market value. At the time of writing, the Ethereum market capitalization was $318 billion – 42.5% of Bitcoin’s market cap.

Regarding the ‘Elon effect,’ the Ethereum mastermind stated that it is something new to the scene, and his influence will eventually diminish.


“Elon Musk tweeting is something that the crypto space has only been introduced to for the first time literally last year and this year. I think it’s reasonable to expect a bit of craziness. But I do think that the markets will learn. Elon is not going to have this influence forever.”

Regarding his continued Dogecoin shilling, Buterin added, “I don’t think that Elon has a kind of malevolent intent in any of this.”
Ethereum Price Recovers

At the time of press, Ethereum had recovered 9% on the day to trade at $2,775. Prices touched $3K in late trading on Thursday but were unable to break resistance there, falling back below $2,700 before Friday morning’s recovery. ETH bottomed out at $2,350 during this correction.

 

Unpredictable Fortunetellers

Sat 00:50 | Re-run : Sat 07:45 (Seoul, UTC+9)

Program Info.

Fortune teller Seo Janghoon and child monk Lee Su-Geun give solutions

to their guests that work like a charm.

KBS WORLD TV - Program | Unpredictable Fortunetellers

How N. Korea Deals with Waste

# Inside North Korea l 2021-05-20

Korea, Today and Tomorrow

ⓒ Getty Images Bank

Environmental issues have become more important than ever before, with the ever-increasing amount of trash giving the entire world a big headache. In South Korea, local governments are staging various programs and campaigns to reduce waste. Today, we’ll learn about how North Korea deals with the country’s waste from Professor Jeong Eun Chan at the National Institute for Unification Education. 

After resettling in South Korea, I was surprised quite often to see such a huge amount of trash. In general, the amount of industrial waste increases in line with the mass production system, overpackaging and the emergence of containers made of new and different materials. North Korean industries aren’t as advanced as South Korean ones, so the amount of industrial waste in North Korea is not as large as South Korea’s. 

While South Korea uses gas, most local regions in North Korea depend on coal or coal briquettes. Brown coal is used in North Hamgyong Province. Coal briquette ash and coal cinders are included in waste. 

In South Korea, the concept of separating the recyclables from the garbage appeared in the early 1990s and the volume-based waste disposal system went into effect in 1995. Public awareness of waste recycling has since grown in the country, and the separated waste is kept clean on the whole. How do North Korean people dispose of trash? 

In North Korea, neighborhood units called inminban in each region separate waste or recycle it at a public dumpsite. As the smallest neighborhood watch program, one inminban consists of 20 to 30 households. In general, ten inminban units or 300 households use a single public dumpsite. They’re supposed to pay for cargo trucks and gasoline. That means each household shares the cost of trash disposal, in a similar way to waste disposal in South Korea. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the so-called “contactless” consumption significantly, with the amount of delivery goods shooting up. As a result, single-use plastic containers and other types of plastic waste are piling up, causing another problem. We can’t help but wonder if North Koreans also use a lot of disposable items. 

Waste from disposable products can be found in North Korea, too. But single-use items in the North are not as diverse as those in South Korea and packaging is also simpler. When ordering food in the North, some people bring their own dishes to restaurants and take food home, while some restaurants deliver food to customers and later take back their dishes. In local regions, eggs are mostly wrapped in straw. While plastic bags and containers are found in big cities, many consumers use bags made of cloth or natural material. 

North Korea has long suffered from a shortage of raw materials, due to strong and continuing international sanctions. Worse yet, the pandemic forced North Korea to shut down its borders, making raw materials even scarcer in the country. 

The Supreme People’s Assembly adopted a law concerning recycling in April last year, in an effort to tackle economic difficulties through self-reliance. Accordingly, the country has been carrying out an intensive recycling program. 

Recycling in North Korea means collecting and reusing waste. China accounts for 95 percent of North Korea’s foreign trade. But bilateral border trade has been blocked, making it impossible for North Korea to import raw materials from China. To produce goods locally and increase production using recyclable resources, North Korea adopted the law on recycling. The country mobilizes all recyclables available, including paper, scrap metal, plastic waste, glass and even shoe soles. After the enactment of the recycling law, North Korea created a recycling department within the Ministry of Light Industry and invested considerable resources in research of recycling-related technology. North Korea is said to push for a project of recycling urban waste in Pyongyang. 

The problem is how to procure waste for recycling. Since the recycling law came into effect in North Korea, local residents have had to collect waste to meet their quotas. 

Households, workplaces and schools have to meet their waste collection quotas. They should fulfill their task even by picking up trash on the streets. But that may still not be enough. So, a new service has recently appeared. If a person pays certain fees, the service submits waste in place of the person. North Korea also operates stores that purchase waste, including empty bottles, or exchange waste with daily necessities. In doing so, the country encourages the people to actively participate in the recycling program. 

For the recycling project in North Korea, the Environment Research Institution at the State Academy of Sciences, the Chemistry Department at Kim Il Sung University, the Heat Engineering Faculty at Kim Chaek University of Technology and the Ministry of Light Industry have been developing new waste processing technology. Lately, the country set up science and technology distribution centers in each unit to develop recycling technology on their own. 

North Korean media outlets have introduced successful recycling examples based on creative ideas in order to promote the recycling law. 

North Korea uses waste industrial oil to produce paint and makes hats from recycled cloth. It also produces protein using waste water generated in the process of reeling silk from cocoons. The country uses various methods to turn industrial waste into useful resources. For example, part of a toothpaste dispenser can be separated to make a new toothpaste tube, while by-products from machine factories can be used to produce paving blocks. 

But North Korea still has to import some raw materials, which cannot be replaced with recycled resources. In this sense, the country’s recycling project has limitations. It tries to use recycling as a means of developing the economy but the impact is insignificant.

North Korea carries out the recycling campaign for the purpose of economic and industrial development, rather than in light of environmental protection. Clearly, there are limitations for the country to find a comprehensive solution to the shortage of raw materials simply through recycling. 

Sinovac outpaces Western jabs in trials

JAKARTA. – Sinovac Biotech Ltd’s vaccine is wiping out Covid-19 among health workers in Indonesia, an encouraging sign for the dozens of developing countries reliant on the controversial Chinese shot, which performed far worse than Western vaccines in clinical trials.

Indonesia tracked 128 290 health workers in capital city Jakarta from January to March and found that the vaccine protected 98 percent of them from death and 96 percent from hospitalization as soon as seven days after the second dose, Pandji Dhewantara, a Health Ministry official who oversaw the study, said in a Wednesday press conference.

Dhewantara also said that 94 percent of the workers had been protected against symptomatic infection – an extraordinary result that goes beyond what was measured in the shot’s numerous clinical trials. Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin earlier revealed a smaller version of the study involving 25 374 people in a Tuesday interview that had the same effectiveness data for hospitalisation and infection. Protection against death was 100 percent in the smaller group.

“We see a very, very drastic drop,” in hospitalizations and deaths among medical workers, Sadikin said. It’s not known what strain of the coronavirus Sinovac’s shot worked against in Indonesia, but the country has not flagged any major outbreaks driven by variants of concern.

A spokesman for Sinovac in Beijing said the company cannot comment on the Indonesian study until it acquires more details.

The Indonesian study compared vaccinated against non-vaccinated people to derive the estimated effectiveness. The median age of the participants is 31 years old.

In a separate interview, Sinovac’s chief executive officer Yin Weidong defended the disparity in clinical data around the shot, and said there was growing evidence CoronaVac is performing better when applied in the real world.

But the real-world examples also show that the Sinovac shot’s ability to quell outbreaks requires the vast majority of people to be vaccinated, a scenario that developing countries with poor health infrastructure and limited access to shots cannot reach quickly. In the Indonesian health worker study, and another in a Brazilian town of 45 000 people called Serrana, nearly 100% of people studied were fully vaccinated, with serious illness and deaths dropping after they were inoculated.

The mRNA shot developed by BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc. has been shown to be over 90 percent effective in preventing transmission in Israel.

While non-mRNA vaccines are unlikely to be that effective in preventing transmission, the growing body of evidence that Sinovac’s shot works is a boon to China’s mission of supplying the developing world in a bid to increase its influence and standing. It’s also somewhat of a vindication amid criticism that Chinese vaccine developers disclosed less data and were less transparent about severe adverse events compared with western companies. – Bloomberg.