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Factory work used to pay far better that fast-food jobs - but thanks to the labor shortage, the gap is quickly closing, and manufacturers are losing staff

Grace Dean

Tue, June 22, 2021,

Fast-food chains like McDonald's have offered lucrative staff perks as they scramble to find new hires as the economy reopens and customers return. Mikhail Metzel\TASS via Getty Images

• Factories are struggling to raise wages as quickly as fast-food chains during the labor shortage, the WSJ reported.

• Restaurants can offer perks to attract new workers, but manufacturers say it's more difficult for them.

• "Everybody is fighting for the same people," one expert said.

• See more stories on Insider's business page.

Fast-food chains are pushing up wages amid the current labor shortage - and factories are struggling to raise theirs as quickly, which is one of the reasons a stream of workers is leaving the manufacturing industry, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

Factories have historically offered better wages than restaurants and retail companies. They still pay workers much higher wages on average, The Journal reported, but fast-food chains are now raising their wages at a much faster rate.

Factories are now struggling to find enough workers to meet the booming demand for furniture and other goods, manufacturing experts told the paper.

"There is just more opportunity to work somewhere else than there was in the past if you are looking for a living-wage job," Julie Davis, head of workforce development for the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, told The Journal.

"Everybody is fighting for the same people," Daniel Quintanilla, director of talent acquisition at Michigan automotive supplier Gentex, told The Journal.

Hourly factory workers made an average of $23.41 an hour in April, or 56% more than restaurant and fast-food workers, according to the Journal's analysis of federal data. This was down from 83% 10 years ago.

Read more: How Starbucks is defying the labor shortage crisis with transformative perks, not cash teasers like McDonald's

Grocery stores, restaurants, and hotels are offering perks from higher wages and education benefits to cash bonuses and even free iPhones as they scramble to find new hires as the economy reopens and customers return.

Manufacturing executives told The Journal that as well as struggling to find workers, they're also being hit by higher prices of raw materials including fuel, lumber, and packaging amid the current shipping crisis, making it harder for them to afford new staff perks.

Some restaurants have been hiking up prices to offset the higher wages. But Paul Isely, a business professor at Michigan's Grand Valley State University, told The Journal that it's harder for manufacturers to raise prices because they have to compete with factories around the world, not just nearby restaurants.

Lawrence Mishel, an economist at left-leaning think tank the Economic Policy Institute, told the publication that global competition, outsourcing and contractors, and lower unionization rates were also causing manufacturing jobs to lose their wage premium.

As a result of all these changes, the proportion of US workers employed in the manufacturing industries was shrinking. Less than 9% of US workers are currently employed by manufacturers, The Journal reported. In the early 1980s this was more than 20%.

One manufacturer told the Dallas Fed for June's Beige Book that even with a starting hourly wage of $14, the company was unable to fill more than 20 open positions. Texas uses the federal minimum wage of $7.25.

The Federal Reserve said that the tight labor market could last months, but Bank of America expects the job market to recover by early 2022.

Hotel workers keep switching jobs for 'minor salary bumps' during the US labor shortage, a hotel owner said. Some don't even show up for their first shift.
Grace Dean
Tue, June 22, 2021, 

Karen Stamand, a housekeeper at Nonantum Resort, cleans a room. Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images

Some workers are getting jobs at hotels but not turning up to first shifts, a NYC hotel owner said.


He told Fox Business that some staff had left the company for minor salary bumps, too.


The industry is offering perks like free accommodation and fitness machines amid the labor shortage.


Hotel workers are quitting their jobs for better pay during the US labor shortage, making recruitment a huge challenge, the owner of a New York City told Fox Business.

"Hiring has been incredibly challenging," Michael Achenbaum, founder and president of Gansevoort Hotel Group, which owns a 186-room room in NYC's Meatpacking district, told the publication.

He added that some employees weren't showing up for their first ship. He didn't elaborate.

"Not only is finding qualified candidates difficult but there is a consistent acceptance of offers and then no-shows on the first day," Achenbaum.

Read more: How Starbucks is defying the labor shortage crisis with transformative perks, not cash teasers like McDonald's

Achenbaum said that some staff were leaving the Gansevoort Hotel Group to work at other hotels "for minor salary bumps."

Hotels are scrambling to both recruit and retain employees amid the US labor shortage hitting industries from healthcare to hospitality and ride-hailing apps. The lack of workers is causing some businesses to cut operating hours, slash production, and raise prices, and the US Chamber of Commerce said it could hold back the country's economic recovery from the pandemic.

The Labor Department said that about 4 million workers in the US quit their jobs in April - a 20-year record.

Insider's Áine Cain reported that long hours, unruly customers, and low pay have caused minimum-wage workers to quit their jobs in droves during the pandemic. Other reports suggest that unemployment benefits, COVID-19 health concerns, and caring responsibilities also played a role.

Grocery stores and restaurants have been offering perks from higher wages and education benefits to cash bonuses and even free iPhones to attract new hires as the economy reopens and customers return. Some hotels have been offering free accommodation to staff, while Achenbaum told Fox Business that his hotel, the Gansevoort Meatpacking Hotel, gave senior staffers a $1,345 connected-fitness machine when they returned to the hotel after working virtually for eight months.


Teenage fast-food workers are landing $50,000-a-year manager jobs at a Texas chicken restaurant thanks to the labor shortage
Anna Cooban
Mon, June 21, 2021

A restaurant chain in Texas has promoted young workers to manager roles amid a labor shortage. Getty Images

Layne's Chicken Fingers promoted some workers in their late teens to managers, The WSJ reported.

CEO Garrett Reed said the fast-food chain was losing staff to Walmart and McDonald's.


Some of these younger workers were now earning more than $50,000 a year, he said.

A Texas chicken-restaurant chain has promoted workers in their late teens and early 20s to managerial positions that pay more than $50,000 per year because of a staff shortage, its CEO told The Wall Street Journal.

Garrett Reed, the CEO of Layne's Chicken Fingers, a fast-food chain with six restaurants across the state, told The Wall Street Journal he was training 16- and 17-year-olds to run new stores because he was so short on staff.

Layne's was struggling to hire and had lost employees to larger employers such as Walmart and McDonald's, Reed told The Journal.

"We're so thin at leadership that we can't stretch anymore to open more locations," he told the Journal. "I've got a good crop of 16- and 17-year-olds, but I need another year or two to get them seasoned to run stores."

The hospitality industry is facing a severe labor shortage. Job openings in the accommodation and food-services industry rose by 349,000 in April, the highest of any industry that month, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed, and some restaurants have hiked wages to attract workers.

Reed said in an interview with the Dallas publication D Magazine in May that he hoped to open between 100 and 120 franchise locations in Texas by 2028. The company recently opened applications for new franchises on its website.

But Reed had delayed signing leases for four new restaurants in Dallas because he couldn't find enough workers, particularly managers, he told The Journal.

"The biggest challenge for small companies to grow right now is your labor force," Reed said. "We'd be growing at twice the rate if we had more people."

"There's only so much I can pay and remain profitable without raising prices too much," Reed told The Journal.

Layne's did not immediately respond to Insider for comment.

Read the original article on Business Insider

WHITE SUPREMACY
‘Redneck Rave’ Descends Into Throat Slashing, Impalements, and Mass Arrests


Blake Montgomery

DAILY BEAST
Tue, June 22, 2021

Screenshot/YouTube

A massive country music festival in Kentucky this past weekend started off on rocky footing: Police found meth, marijuana, and an open bottle of alcohol in the first vehicle they stopped at a traffic checkpoint. One of the people in the car had two active warrants out for their arrest.

“We were like, ‘Well, this doesn’t bode well for the weekend,’” Edmonson County Sheriff Shane Doyle told the Lexington Herald-Leader.

By the end of the five-day bash, dubbed the “Redneck Rave,” one man had been impaled, one woman had been strangled to the point of unconsciousness, and one throat had been slit. In all, Edmonson authorities arrested 14 people, and charged four dozen people from five states.

The event, organized by country rapper Justin Time, took place in Blue Holler Offroad Park and drew a crowd of tens of thousands, doubling the population of the unincorporated town of Ollie, which is so small it does not have a stoplight. Redneck Rave promoters bragged that they had sold more than 20,000 tickets. The lengthy getdown, advertised as the “biggest country party you’ll ever go to,” boasted a demolition derby, goldfish racing, and a full-scale football game as well as a series of concerts.

The details of the Redneck Rave’s incidents are grisly. One person slit a friend’s throat and remains at large, a 29-year-old man had allegedly strangled a woman until she passed out, one person lost the better part of a finger, and another was impaled when he drove a side-by-side over a 2-3 inch log that broke through the bottom of the recreational vehicle. Paramedics left the log inside him as they airlifted him to a hospital.

Justin Time, whose legal name is Justin Stowers, wrote on Facebook, “This was the biggest event we’ve ever done and with as many people and random things that popped up unexpectedly I feel like we all handled it very well.”

Doyle told the Herald-Leader last year’s Redneck Raves—there were two—“overwhelmed” his staff. He ordered all his deputies to work mandatory overtime this year and requested assistance from the Kentucky State Police. At least one person died at the event last year. Another Redneck Rave is scheduled for October of this year.

“There were so many intoxicated people, we just decided, ‘If dispatch sends an ambulance in, we’re sending a deputy in with them,’” said Doyle.

Six of the festival-goers face felony charges, and the sheriff’s office filed roughly 30 charges stemming from drug and alcohol violations.

World’s No. 1 Stock Owner Grapples With Child Labor Dilemma






Lars Erik Taraldsen and Leanne de Bassompierre
Mon, June 21, 2021,\

(Bloomberg) --

In Oslo, where the world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund decides how to allocate $1.4 trillion, a huge contradiction lurks.

The fund is trying to reconcile a sustainable-investing mantra with the billions it owns in companies that source cocoa from regions where children pick beans that feed the world’s craving for chocolate. So far, it has chosen to stay involved rather than sell so it can push for positive change.

“We expect companies to work against child labor, but at the same time we recognize that child labor in supply chains and agriculture has complex underlying causes,” said Line Aaltvedt, a spokeswoman for the fund.

In a global financial world increasingly obsessed with ethical matters, the world’s biggest investors -- from BlackRock Inc. to Fidelity Investments -- are navigating gray areas and trying to figure out the best way to engage. While the Norwegian fund’s actions are primarily financial, as was the case when it sold $6 billion worth of companies that purely focus on oil exploration and production last year, ethical considerations increasingly play a part.

The stakes aren’t insignificant for Norway’s wealth fund, which according to its most recent filings owns shares valued at more than $16 billion in some of the world’s largest chocolate makers and confectioners, including Nestle SA, Hershey Co. and Barry Callebaut AG. The companies all acknowledge child labor exists in their supply chain, have explicit policies forbidding the practice and programs in place to mitigate the problem.

It’s the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour, and the United Nations held its World Day Against Child Labor a week ago. Still, the practice remains hard to eradicate in the world’s cocoa farming regions. Just ask Nouffo.

He was rescued as part of a police operation to clamp down on child labor in Soubre, the heart of the Ivory Coast cocoa belt in early May. Nouffo said he was brought to the country from neighboring Burkina Faso by his father when he was 13 years old. He was left to work on his uncle’s plantation, where he was found splitting open cocoa pods with a machete.

“Two Ramadans have passed since I’ve been here,” said Nouffo in his limited French. That makes him 15 now.

Nouffo, who spoke while being held in a center in Soubre, said he worked seven days a week splitting open cocoa pods gathered by adult workers, drying them and then transporting them by motorcycle to buying centers. School was out of the question.

His uncle was among 24 people arrested as part of the two-day police raid in partnership with the National Committee for the Monitoring of Actions to Combat Child Trafficking, Exploitation and Labor, which is led by First Lady Dominique Ouattara.

Five of those arrested were sentenced to 20 years in prison for child trafficking, including Nouffo’s uncle, said Luc Zaka, the police commissioner in charge of the raid. Seventeen others were handed five years behind bars and two were released.

As supply chains in the cocoa market are difficult to track, it could not be established whether any of the world’s large chocolate makers were supplied by the farm Nouffo worked on.

Demanding Action

”We must increase the pressure on companies to force them to take responsibility, also for what happens further down the value chain,” Freddy André Ovstegard, a member of parliament for the Socialist Left Party who sits on the Standing Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs, said in an email. He said he lodged a request Monday with the “Minister of Finance to explain how these concerns have been followed up.”

Last year, the Norwegian fund conducted about 3,000 meetings with portfolio companies to discuss how ESG targets were being met. Children’s rights were the topic of 17 such meetings. In 2019, it initiated talks with nine companies in the cocoa business on the subject.

“Typically, the chocolate producers are in the fund, while the cocoa producers are private farms in West Africa,” said Eli-Ane Lund, a spokeswoman for the ethics council that makes recommendations to guide the fund.

The debate usually revolves around how patient investors should be with transition assets – those with a self-improvement plan – and when it’s time to punish companies through exclusion. When it comes to child labor, mostly in the cocoa business but also in the coffee, tea, cotton, seeds and palm oil trade, the Norwegian fund has often decided to stay involved.

Take Barry Callebaut, the Swiss chocolate maker that says it will probably continue to have child labor in its supply chain until 2025. It counted Norway’s wealth fund among its biggest shareholders, with a 1.4% stake, the latest filings show.

The fund, which also meets with non-governmental organizations as part of its environmental, social and governance investing strategy, is putting pressure on firms like Barry Callebaut to improve, Carine Smith Ihenacho, chief corporate governance officer at the Oslo-based fund, said in an interview.

In another example, Norges Bank’s executive board asked the fund in 2018 to address the risk of child labor at UPL Ltd., an Indian agro-chemicals maker, and its Advanta Seeds unit.

“In our dialogue with the company, we have, among other things, addressed the need to prevent child labor in the supply chain and the company’s approach to monitoring the supply chain,” fund spokeswoman Aaltvedt said.

That led to Advanta recently updating its agreements with farmers and further developing procedures for monitoring the supply chain to uncover possible child labor. It also has information activities aimed at farmers, suppliers and local authorities to prevent child labor.

“Child labor in the production of hybrid cotton seeds and other seed varieties was among the very first issues considered by the Council on Ethics, and this was an issue that the council worked on for many years,” said Eli-Ane Lund, a spokeswoman for the council.

The ethics panel, an independent body, has made three recommendations for observation or exclusion of companies on child labor grounds: Monsanto Co. in 2006, Zuari Agro Chemicals Ltd. in 2013 and UPL in 2018. Of the three, only Zuari Agro Chemicals was actually excluded.

Global Footprint

With so much money to invest, Norges Bank Investment Management’s footprint spans the globe, and it owns close to 1.5% of all listed companies, making it the biggest stock owner in the world.

Other companies exposed to child labor that counted the fund as a shareholder as of the end of 2020 included Nestle, Hershey, Mondelez International Inc., Procter & Gamble Co., Starbucks Corp. and Lindt & Spruengli AG. The fund’s investments in those companies, including Barry Callebaut, amounted to more than $16 billion.

While some progress is being made, the task remains monumental.

Barry Callebaut says poverty is the root of the problem, and that it works to alleviate it, provide access to education and raise awareness. It has a code of conduct regarding human rights, forced labor and child labor that all employees are obliged to follow.

Working with the International Cocoa Initiative in 2019/20, the company monitored and took remedial action covering 113 farmer groups, including 39,909 farmers in Ivory Coast and Ghana. It uncovered 22,965 cases of child labor.

“ESG has moved from a peripheral investment criteria to a central one,” the company said in an emailed statement. “Barry Callebaut welcomes the dialogue with its shareholders on ESG topics.”

Read more: Supreme Court Backs Nestle, Cargill on Child-Slavery Suit

Read more: Switzerland Inc. Sweats as Global Accountability Vote Nears

Cocoa-producing nations in West Africa have come under increased pressure to clean up the industry, with a report last year sponsored by the U.S. government showing that despite chocolate companies pledging to cut child labor, the problem actually got worse in the 10 years prior to the publication of the report.

Lagging ESG Standards

While the EU prepares to introduce stricter laws later this year, Europe remains the leading destination for Ivorian beans, accounting for 67% of its cocoa exports. As fund managers wait for global ESG standards, they’ve created their own methodologies to fill in the perceived gaps.

Norges Bank Investment Management says divestments tied to ESG standards are set to rise as it screens for wrongdoers.

The fund has set seven criteria for sustainable investing, according to Ihenacho. For the S in ESG, it looks at how well companies protect children’s rights and human rights, whether they’re transparent taxpayers, and whether they avoid corruption.

Over the past two decades, the ethics council has successively introduced socially responsible guidelines for the fund manager to follow, ranging from selling stakes in fossil-fuel companies to blacklisting firms that abuse migrant workers or dabble in corrupt practices.

After Walmart Inc. was beset by criticism for human rights violations in 2005, including the risk of child labor, the fund sold out. The retail giant cleaned up its act and was removed from the fund’s exclusion list more than a decade later, in 2019. Norway now owns a stake in Walmart valued at about $2.1 billion.

In a more recent instance, the fund has for two years voted in favor of a proposal at Facebook Inc. “to assess the risk of possible exploitation of children on the company’s platforms,” Aaltvedt said.

Measuring Misconduct

The fund says it’s harder to catch companies guilty of social misconduct than to identify climate sinners.

“It’s quite clear that the S is in many ways harder to quantify and measure” than the E in ESG, Ihenacho said.

Amnesty International in Norway, which follows the wealth fund closely, says the screening can be tightened up.

“It would have been better if the fund could have avoided investing in a company where there’s a high risk of breaching the ethics council’s framework,” said Hanne Sofie Lindahl, political adviser at Amnesty in Oslo. “Preemptive screening in countries where we know that there are widespread abuses of human rights could help strengthen the fund’s ethical framework.”

The fund’s chief executive officer, Nicolai Tangen, says databases with different sustainability targets now used on portfolio companies will be used to improve its screening of companies being considered for addition.

“You have good and bad companies in all countries, really,” Tangen said in a June 2 live-streamed discussion. “The goal is to keep the rotten apples out of the basket.”

(Adds comment from opposition lawmaker in 13th paragraph)


©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

Thousands of people flocked to a South African village digging for diamonds, only to find out they were quartz

Ashley Collman
Mon, June 21, 2021




Thousands are seen digging for diamonds in KawHlathi village in South Africa last week. The stones found there have turned out to be only quartz. Phill Magakoe/AFP via Getty


Thousands rushed to a rural South African village last week to dig for diamonds.


But government officials said Sunday that the stones found at the site were actually quartz.


The value of quartz is extremely low, especially compared to diamonds, the officials said.


The quartz found near KwaHlathi village actually has little to no value, officials said.


The hopes of thousands who rushed to a rural South African village last week in search of diamonds have been crushed, after government officials said Sunday that the stones were only quartz, which have little to no value.

According to Reuters, the diamond rush started when a herder found an unidentified stone in a field near the village of KwaHlathi, about 186 miles east of Johannesburg, and tipped off others.

Thousands of people traveled to the village to dig for stones themselves, prompting the government to send experts to take samples for testing, ABC Australia reported.

A boy holds an unidentified stone at KwaHlathi village, South Africa, on June 15, 2021. Phill Magakoe/AFP via GEtty

At a media briefing on Sunday, Ravi Pillay, provincial executive council member for economic development and tourism, said that the stones found there were only quartz.

"The tests conducted conclusively revealed that the stones discovered in the area are not diamonds as some had hoped," he said, according to Reuters.

"The value, if any, of the quartz crystals is yet to be established but it must be mentioned that the value of quartz crystals is very low compared to that of diamonds."

Quartz is second only to feldspar as one of the most abundant minerals on earth, according to the BBC.

A woman uses a pick axe to dig as others search for diamonds in rural South Africa on June 15, 2021. Phill Magakoe/AFP via Getty

Pillay said he counted some 3,000 diggers when he visited the site, and said the diamond rush highlighted some of the socio-economic challenges of the area.

The region the quartz was found in earlier this month is one of the poorest in South Africa, the BBC reported.

South Africa has been dealing with high levels of unemployment for years, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only worsened the country's economic situation.

The diggers remaining at the site have been asked to leave, since they are damaging the land and making it dangerous for cattle, according to Reuters.

Read the original article on Insider

Pakistani lawyer who represented Asia Bibi says he faces threats to his life

ASIA BIBI IS SAFE IN CANADA

Secunder Kermani - BBC News
Mon, June 21, 2021,

Saif ul Malook represented Asia Bibi in a blasphemy case that rocked Pakistan

A Pakistani lawyer who has successfully overturned a number of convictions for "blasphemy" has said he believes his life is in danger from extremists.

Saif ul Malook most recently oversaw the acquittal of a Christian couple who had been sentenced to death.

Mr Malook shared social media posts with the BBC which called for him to be "executed" for securing the acquittal.


Blasphemy is a deeply emotive topic in Muslim-majority Pakistan and is legally punishable by death.

While no one has ever been executed for the offence, dozens of people accused of blaspheming have been killed by vigilantes.

Human rights groups say the country's blasphemy laws often unfairly target religious minorities and can be used in personal feuds.

Earlier this month, the high court in Lahore quashed the convictions of Christian couple Shagufta Kausar and her husband Shafqat Emmanuel, citing a lack of evidence.

The pair were sentenced to death in 2014 for allegedly sending blasphemous text messages insulting the Prophet Muhammad. They insisted they were innocent. Ms Kausar's brother told the BBC last year he doubted the couple were literate enough even to have written the messages.

The couple's lawyer, Mr Malook, previously also represented Asia Bibi, a Christian villager who spent eight years on death row in a case that attracted international condemnation.

Pakistan overturns couple's blasphemy death sentences

Asia Bibi: 'I always believed I would be freed'

Ms Bibi was eventually acquitted by Pakistan's supreme court in 2018 and subsequently flown out of the country. The legal ruling led to large and violent protests by thousands of followers of a hardline cleric.

But Mr Malook, who is the most prominent lawyer defending blasphemy cases in Pakistan, told the BBC that he considered the current threats against him the "most dangerous" he had ever received.

"Even this was not done during Asia Bibi's case," he said. "Now they [the extremists] think I am the only hurdle in their way."

He criticised the government for not providing him with adequate security. "Not even a clerk from the Pakistani government has contacted me," he said. Pakistani officials did not reply to a request for comment.

It is not clear how serious the specific threats are to Mr Malook, but in 2014 a lawyer representing another blasphemy defendant was shot dead. Rashid Rehman was sitting in his office when he was shot and two of his assistants were injured.

Blasphemy convictions in Pakistan by lower courts are often overturned on appeal. Human rights activists say more junior judges are intimidated into convicting suspects despite flaws in their cases.

Hearings at Lahore High Court in the case of Ms Kausar, a caretaker at a Christian school, and her paralysed husband Mr Emmanuel, had been repeatedly delayed.

Mr Malook suggested the judges were concerned at the possibility of being targeted themselves if they acquitted the pair. In April, however, the European Parliament passed a resolution urging Pakistan to reform its blasphemy laws, citing concerns over the Kausar-Emmanuel case in particular.

Mr Malook told the BBC that had case had not been highlighted internationally, he feared the appeal would've been delayed indefinitely.

Nature bites back: Animals push human boundaries



Issued on: 22/06/2021 - 

Animals and humans are increasingly coming into close contact, as when an elephant burst into a house in Thailand

 Radchadawan PEUNGPRASOPPORN FACEBOOK/AFP

Paris (AFP)

The pandemic and climate change is testing as never before the delicate balance of human co-habitation with the natural world.

As an Australian prison is evacuated after it was overrun by the plague of mice ravaging the east of the country, we look at some of the most spectacular recent examples.

- Australia mice plague -

Battling a massive plague of mice after the end of a three-year drought, eastern Australia is seeing crops destroyed, grain silos and barns infested and homes invaded by the rodent that was first introduced to the country by European colonialists.

Skin-crawling videos of writhing rodent masses have been shared around the world along with reports of patients bitten in hospital, destroyed machinery and swarms running across roads en masse.#photo1

In the latest twist on Tuesday, mice forced the evacuation of hundreds of inmates from a jail after they gnawed through ceiling panels and wiring.

Experts warn that climate change could make such chronic infestations more regular.

Indeed the Gippsland region in the southeast of the country has been covered in a sea of spider webs after an invasion of sheet web spiders fleeing flooding in early June.

- China's herd -

A herd of elephants which has wandered off its reserve in Yunnan province in China has made headlines around the world, with 3,500 people in their path evacuated from their homes and hundreds of trucks deployed to keep them away from densely populated areas.#photo2

State broadcaster CCTV is carrying a 24-hour live feed of the migration which began late last year and which has so far cost farmers more than a million dollars in damage to crops.

- Elephant in the room -

An elephant stuck his head through Kittichai Boodchan's kitchen wall in western Thailand on Sunday night to nose through his larder for a midnight snack.

Kittichai lives near a national park and this was not the first such visit. Last month the elephant knocked a hole through the wall, creating an opening reminiscent of a drive-through restaurant window.

- Tough teen -

A California teenager became a social media sensation when a video of her shoving a large bear off her suburban garden wall to protect her dogs went viral earlier this month.#photo3

"The first thing I think to do is push the bear. And somehow it worked," said the 17-year-old, whose shove sent the bear falling off the low wall and retreating with her cubs.

- Conservation controversy -

But there was a grim end to another ursine encounter in Slovakia last week when a brown bear killed a 57-year old man outside Bratislava.

The death sparked fury from hunters who claim that bear numbers have become too high because of a ban on hunting to save the species.

The outcry echos similar debates in other countries over bear conservation.

- Wolves divide -

The protection of wolves is equally divisive, with an outcry in the US in March after licensed hunters in Wisconsin killed 216 wolves in 60 hours -- a fifth of the state's entire population.

Donald Trump lifted federal protection for wolves, exposing them to trophy hunting in several states.#photo4

A similarly heated debate is raging in France where the wolves have flourished since 1992, after being previously hunted to extinction.

While their numbers are only a fraction of those found in Italy, Spain, Romania or Poland, farmers baulk at the ban on killing the predator across most of the EU.

- Gatecrashing boars -

Wild boars also raise hackles across most of continental Europe, damaging well-manicured lawns and golf courses from the French Riviera to the Baltic, where they have become notorious for venturing into residential areas looking for food.#photo5

In one of the funnier incidents, a German wild boar stole a nudist's laptop last year by a lake in Berlin, with a video of the naked sunbather chasing after the animal clocking up millions of views.

- Lockdown liberty -

Pandemic lockdowns have brought a new-found freedom to many wild animals, allowing them to wander into the heart of cities.

With half the world's population locked down last year, social media was full of images of wildlife reclaiming the streets, from herds of wild sika deer wandering through metro stations in Japan to packs of jackals congregating in the centre of Tel Aviv in Israel.

UPDATED

UN Afghanistan official warns over Taliban gains

AFGHANISTAN DEFEATED THE BRITISH, RUSSIANS AND NOW AMERICA

Issued on: 22/06/2021

A top UN official has raised worries over Taliban gains in Afganistan

 Joël SAGET AFP/File

United Nations (United States) (AFP)

The head of the United Nations Afghanistan aid operation expressed strong concerns Tuesday over military gains by the Taliban insurgents as US and coalition forces pull out of the country.

"All of the major trends -- politics, security, the peace process, the economy, the humanitarian emergency, and Covid -- all of these trends are negative or stagnant," Deborah Lyons told the UN Security Council in a video conference.

"The Taliban's recent advances are even more significant and are a result of an intensified military campaign," said Lyons, who leads the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

"For the Taliban to continue this intensive military campaign would be a tragic course of action," she said.

She said the Islamist insurgents have seized more that 50 of the country's 370 districts, mostly districts which surround provincial capitals.

That, Lyons said, suggests the Taliban "are positioning themselves to try and take these capitals once foreign forces are fully withdrawn."

She said if the insurgents continue their fight, the prolonged violence "would extend the suffering of the Afghan people and threaten to destroy much of what has been built and hard won in the past 20 years."

She expressed special worries for the rights of women as the ultra-conservative Taliban gain ground.

"Preserving the rights of women remains a paramount concern and must not be used as a bargaining chip at the negotiating table," she said.

In the same forum, the US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, stressed that the world would not accept the Taliban seizing control of Kabul and the government.

"The world will not recognize the establishment in Afghanistan of any government imposed by force, nor the restoration of the Islamic Emirate," Thomas-Greenfield said.

"There is only one way forward: a negotiated and inclusive political settlement through an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned process. "

UN Afghan envoy Deborah Lyons alarmed at Taliban gains


Tue, June 22, 2021

Afghan security forces said they would launch an offensive to reclaim lost territory

Taliban fighters have seized dozens of districts in Afghanistan as they step up attacks during the final withdrawal by foreign troops, the UN has warned.

The insurgents have taken more than 50 of 370 districts since May, UN special envoy Deborah Lyons told the Security Council, warning of "dire scenarios".

She said increased conflict "means increased insecurity for many other countries, near and far".


The US and Nato are still aiming for a complete troop pullout by 11 September.

However, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the situation remained "dynamic" and, although the Taliban gains had not changed the withdrawal, there was still the flexibility to alter its "pace and scope".

The hardline Islamist group's recent advances were the result of an "intensified military campaign", Ms Lyons told the the 15-member UN Security Council in New York.

The Taliban have stepped up their military campaign now foreign troops are leaving for good

"Those districts that have been taken surround provincial capitals, suggesting that the Taliban are positioning themselves to try and take these capitals once foreign forces are fully withdrawn."

The Taliban also captured Afghanistan's main border crossing with Tajikistan on Tuesday, officials said. The crossing stands in the northern province of Kunduz, where fighting has escalated in recent days.


'We have won the war, America has lost'


Have things got better in Afghanistan?


Who are the Taliban?

Taliban fighters say they have control of the whole province, with only the provincial capital - also named Kunduz - retained by the government. But the defence ministry in Kabul said Afghan forces had recaptured some districts and operations were ongoing.

Kunduz city is strategically significant, and briefly fell to the insurgents in 2015 and again a year later, before being retaken both times by Nato-backed government forces.

Afghan security forces pictured in the strategic city of Kunduz

Local media report that the Taliban have also seized large quantities of military equipment, and killed, wounded or captured dozens of troops. The group's own casualty figures are unclear.

Afghan security forces said they would launch a massive offensive shortly to reclaim lost territory.

"You will soon witness our advances across the country," said spokesman Gen Ajmal Shinwari.

US-led forces ousted the Taliban from power in Afghanistan in October 2001. The group had been harbouring Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures linked to the 9/11 attacks in the US.

US President Joe Biden says the American pullout is now justified as US forces have made sure Afghanistan cannot again become a base for foreign jihadists to plot against the West.

A senior United Nations official warned last year, however, that al-Qaeda was still "heavily embedded" within Taliban militants in Afghanistan.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says government forces are fully capable of keeping insurgents at bay, but many believe the withdrawal could cast Afghanistan back into the grip of the Taliban.

How can the West fight terror after leaving Afghanistan?

20 years in Afghanistan: Was it worth it?

Mr Biden has pledged that the US will continue to support Afghanistan after pulling troops out, but not "militarily".

Afghanistan's leaders say Afghan security forces are capable of keeping the Taliban's fighters at bay

Writing in the Washington Post on Tuesday, Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan said his country was willing to be a "partner for peace in Afghanistan" with the US, but would not host US bases.

He said Pakistan had previously made mistakes by choosing between warring parties in neighbouring Afghanistan, and pledged to work with anyone who enjoyed the confidence of the Afghan people.

Afghan leaders have long accused Pakistan of supporting the Taliban. The country's co-operation is seen as critical to US withdrawal goals.

Mr Khan said recently that he would "absolutely not" allow the CIA into Pakistan to conduct cross-border counter-terrorism missions against al-Qaeda, the Islamic State group or the Taliban.

Taliban launch major offensives in northern Afghanistan


Afghan Commando forces are seen at the site of a battle field where they clash with the Taliban insurgent in Kunduz province

Tue, June 22, 2021

KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents have conducted a wave of offensives in Afghanistan's north in recent days, moving beyond their southern strongholds as international forces withdraw.

The United Nations' envoy for Afghanistan said the Taliban had taken more than 50 of 370 districts and was positioned to take control of provincial capitals.

Fierce fighting between the Taliban and Afghan government forces has taken place on the outskirts of three provincial capitals in the northern provinces of Faryab, Balkh and Kunduz provinces in recent days, officials said.

Since the United States announced plans in April to withdraw its troops with no conditions by Sept. 11 after nearly 20 years of conflict, violence has escalated throughout the country as the Taliban seeks more territory.

Peace talks in Doha have largely stalled, officials say, though there have been meetings in recent days and the Taliban say they are committed to talks.

The U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan Deborah Lyons urged the Security Council to do all it could to push the parties back to the negotiating table.

"Increased conflict in Afghanistan means increased insecurity for many other countries, near and far," she said.

The latest surge in the north is outside the Taliban's traditional strongholds in southern districts such as Helmand and Kandahar where major fighting had previously taken place.

"The Taliban's strategy is to make inroads and have a strong presence in the northern region of the country that long resisted the insurgent group," said a senior Afghan security official on condition of anonymity.

"They would face less resistance in other parts of the country where they have more influence and presence."

Local officials in Kunduz said the Taliban on Tuesday seized Shir Khan port, a commercial local town situated on the border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan.

Ghulam Rabbani, a provincial council member, said fighting was also ongoing outside Kunduz's provincial capital and people were fleeing the city. The defence ministry said Afghan forces had recaptured key districts from the Taliban in Kunduz and operations were ongoing.

Local officials and Taliban members said the Taliban had reached the outskirts of Mazar-i-Sharif, Balkh's capital, on Monday evening before retreating.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the group's leadership had asked fighters to return after they reached the entrance of Mazar-i-Sharif as their top leadership did not want to seize provinces until all U.S. forces had left.

The United States began withdrawing troops on May 1 and has handed some bases over to the Afghan government, which has since given up some areas to the Taliban without a fight.

The government admits the Taliban have captured a number of districts and security forces have made "tactical retreats".

The crumbling morale of Afghan forces has raised fears of a Taliban military take over once the withdrawal of foreign forces is complete.

The security official said the government was not abandoning areas to the Taliban, but was retreating from some districts temporarily for tactical reasons as they sought to preserve stretched resources.

"Fighting has fiercely increased in recent weeks and now our main focus is to hold strategic areas and not to further stretch our forces," he said.

(Reporting by Kabul bureau; additional reporting by Michelle Nichols in New York, Berlin bureau and Pakistan newsroom; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

US may slow Afghanistan withdrawal as Taliban win series of victories

Ben Farmer
Tue, June 22, 2021, 

Afghan Commando forces are seen at the site of a battle field where they clash with the Taliban insurgent in Kunduz province, Afghanistan June 22, 2021. REUTERS

America could slow down its withdrawal from Afghanistan amid rapid battlefield gains by the Taliban which have raised alarm in Nato capitals, the Pentagon said.

Ashraf Ghani's forces have been swept out of many rural areas since the insurgents launched a nationwide offensive at the start of May.

Joe Biden has promised all US troops will be out of Afghanistan by September, but in recent weeks officials had briefed that the pull out was ahead of schedule and could be complete as early as July.


John Kirby, Pentagon spokesman, said September remained the deadline and the pace could be adjusted by conditions.

"The situation in Afghanistan changes as the Taliban continue to conduct these attacks and to raid district centres as well as the violence, which is still too high," he told reporters.

Afghan security forces have reportedly been surrendering in large number - Reuters

“If there needs to be changes made to the pace, or to the scope and scale of the retrograde, on any given day or in any given week, we want to maintain the flexibility to do that," he said.

"We're constantly taking a look at this, every single day: what's the situation on the ground, what capabilities do we have, what additional resources do we need to move out of Afghanistan and at what pace."

"All of these decisions are literally being made in real time," he added.

Afghanistan's main border crossing with Tajikistan was on Tuesday one of the Taliban's latest gains.

We are seeing mass surrenders of Afghan security forces," Kabul-based journalist Bilal Sarwary told the BBC. The Taliban have shared videos on their WhatsApp channels and websites showing government soldiers surrendering and being told to go home.

The onslaught had taken 50 of 370 districts in Afghanistan since May according to the United Nations special envoy.

Deborah Lyons told the U.N. Security Council that the announcement earlier this year that foreign troops would withdraw sent a "seismic tremor" through Afghanistan.

"Those districts that have been taken surround provincial capitals, suggesting that the Taliban are positioning themselves to try and take these capitals once foreign forces are fully withdrawn," the former Canadian diplomat said.

The seizure of Shir Khan Bandar, about 30 miles from Kunduz city, came a day after the Taliban had encircled the city.

"Unfortunately this morning and after an hour of fighting the Taliban captured Shir Khan port and the town and all the border check posts with Tajikistan," said Kunduz provincial council member Khaliddin Hakmi.

Separately, an army officer told AFP: "We were forced to leave all check posts... and some of our soldiers crossed the border into Tajikistan."

America has already turned over several of its last remaining bases to the Afghan forces and generals say more than half of the last stage of withdrawal is complete.

Mr Kirby said US forces continued to support Afghan troops in fighting the Taliban, but that would soon no longer be possible.

"So long as we have the capability in Afghanistan, we will continue to provide assistance to Afghan forces," he said

"But as the retrograde gets closer to completion, those capabilities will wane and will no longer be available."

New Zealand's Hubbard is first transgender weightlifter to compete at Olympics

Issued on: 22/06/2021 

New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard will become the first transgender athlete to compete at the Olympics at Tokyo 2020 © ADRIAN DENNIS AFP

Text by: NEWS WIRES


Laurel Hubbard hefted 628 pounds (285 kilograms) in two lifts on the way to qualifying in the women’s super-heavyweight division for the Tokyo Olympics.

That's heavy. But it's nowhere near the figurative weight Hubbard has carried to become the first transgender athlete to compete at an Olympic Games.

Hubbard was among five weightlifters confirmed Monday in New Zealand's team for Tokyo. At 43, she will also be the oldest weightlifter at the games, and will be ranked fourth in the competition on Aug. 2 for women 87 kilograms (192 pounds) and over.

Hubbard won a silver medal at the 2017 world championships and gold in the 2019 Pacific Games in Samoa. She competed at the 2018 Commonwealth Games but sustained a serious injury that set back her career.

“I am grateful and humbled by the kindness and support that has been given to me by so many New Zealanders,” Hubbard said in a statement. “When I broke my arm at the Commonwealth Games three years ago, I was advised that my sporting career had likely reached its end. But your support, your encouragement, and your aroha (love) carried me through the darkness.


“The last eighteen months has shown us all that there is strength in kinship, in community, and in working together towards a common purpose. The mana of the silver fern comes from all of you and I will wear it with pride."

The additional burden Hubbard has had to carry is that her efforts have made her a flashpoint in the debate around the fairness of trans athletes competing in women’s events. She has faced anger, scorn and ridicule, and has been directly criticized by some opponents.

Competing as Gavin Hubbard, her birth name, Hubbard set national records in junior competition and had a best, combined snatch and clean and jerk total of 300 kilograms (661 pounds).

Hubbard transitioned eight years ago at the age of 35. She has since met all of the requirements of the International Olympic Committee’s regulations for trans athletes and fair competition.

The IOC policy specifies conditions under which those who transition from male to female are eligible to compete in the female category.

Among them is that the athlete has declared that her gender identity is female and that the declaration cannot be changed, for sporting purposes, for a minimum of four years.

The athlete must also demonstrate that her total testosterone level is below a specific measurement for at least 12 months prior to her first competition.

Hubbard met those standards.

The IOC policy also states: “the overriding sporting objective is and remains the guarantee of fair competition.”

Yet some within the weightlifting community argue the policy does not guarantee fair competition. The determining criteria — a maximum reading of 10 nanomoles per liter of testosterone — is as least five times more than a biological woman.

Belgium's Anna Vanbellinghen, who will likely compete against Hubbard, said the New Zealander's presence would be “like a bad joke” for women competitors.

“I am aware that defining a legal frame for transgender participation in sports is very difficult since there is an infinite variety of situations and that reaching an entirely satisfactory solution, from either side of the debate, is probably impossible,” Vanbellinghen has said. “However, anyone that has trained weightlifting at a high level knows this to be true in their bones: This particular situation is unfair to the sport and to the athletes.

“Life-changing opportunities are missed for some athletes — medals and Olympic qualifications — and we are powerless. Of course, this debate is taking place in a broader context of discrimination against transgender people and that is why the question is never free of ideology.”

Similar sentiments have been expressed by other athletes and weightlifting officials, who claim Hubbard has a natural advantage in terms of physiology and strength.

But New Zealand Olympic Committee chief executive Kereyn Smith said it's clear Hubbard has met all the criteria to compete in Tokyo.

“We acknowledge that gender identity in sport is a highly sensitive and complex issue requiring a balance between human rights and fairness on the field of play," Smith said. "As the New Zealand team, we have a strong culture of manaaki (hospitality) and inclusion and respect for all.

"We are committed to supporting all eligible New Zealand athletes and ensuring their mental and physical wellbeing, along with their high-performance needs, while preparing for and competing at the Olympic Games are met.”

Hubbard, whose father is a wealthy cereal manufacturer who became mayor of New Zealand’s largest city, seldom grants media interviews.

In 2017, she explained her approach to the criticism she faces on sporting and moral grounds to the New Zealand news website Stuff.

“All you can do is focus on the task at hand and if you keep doing that it will get you through,” Hubbard told Stuff. “I’m mindful I won’t be supported by everyone but I hope that people can keep an open mind and perhaps look at my performance in a broader context.

“Perhaps the fact that it has taken so long for someone like myself to come through indicates that some of the problems that people are suggesting aren’t what they might seem.”

(AP)

Raiders' Nassib comes out on Instagram, becomes first publicly gay NFL player

Issued on: 22/06/2021 - 02:31

Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib celebrates at the end of the game against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, U.S. November 8, 2020. © USA TODAY Sports - USA Today Sports Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports/File Photo

Text by: NEWS WIRES


Las Vegas Raiders' defensive end Carl Nassib said on Monday he was gay, making him the first active National Football League player to come out publicly.

"I just wanted to take a quick moment to say that I'm gay," Nassib, 28, said in a video he posted to Instagram. "I've been meaning to do this for a while now but I finally feel comfortable enough to get it off my chest," he said.

Nassib added: "I'm a pretty private person so I hope you guys know that I'm not doing this for attention. I just think that representation and visibility are so important."

"I hope that one day videos like this and the whole coming out process are just not necessary."

In an effort to cultivate a more accepting and compassionate culture, he said he was donating $100,000 to the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention service for LGBT+ youth in the United States.

Nassib played at Penn State before being drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the third round of the 2016 draft. He played for the Browns and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before signing with the Raiders ahead of the 2020 season.

(REUTERS)

Raiders' Carl Nassib has top-selling NFL jersey after coming out as gay



Shawna Chen
Tue, June 22, 2021


In this article:
Carl Nassib
|DE|#94

Las Vegas Raiders player Carl Nassib is the top-selling NFL jersey across the Fanatics network after becoming the first active NFL player in history to come out as gay, ESPN reported Tuesday.

Why it matters: The popularity of Nassib's jersey signals overwhelming support for the player, who said he was coming out now because "representation and visibility are so important."

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The vast majority NFL players who are in the LGBTQ community are closeted due to fear that their identity will negatively impact their career, former NFL player Ryan O'Callaghan told Reuters in 2019.


Worth noting: Nassib said he will be donating $100,000 to the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention service for LGBTQ youth in the U.S.