It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, October 23, 2021
BIAFRAN FREEDOM FIGHTER POLITICAL PRISONER Nnamdi Kanu: Nigeria separatist pleads not guilty to terrorism
Fri, October 22, 2021 This was the first time Nnamdi Kanu (in white) had been seen in public since June
The Nigerian separatist Nnamdi Kanu has pleaded not guilty to charges levelled against him by the authorities, including terrorism and treason.
His appearance in court was the first time he had been seen in public since he was captured abroad and repatriated in June.
Mr Kanu's initial arrest in 2015 triggered protests by his supporters. The authorities deem his Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob) group a terror organisation.
Journalists were barred from entering the court in the capital, Abuja, with critics calling it a "secret trial".
At the trial, the Ipob leader appeared healthy and happy in pictures taken with his lawyer that are circulating online, including one photo where he can be seen smiling.
There was a strong security presence at the court proceedings, including the army and police who were deployed outside the premises. Along with terrorism and treason, Mr Kanu is facing charges of running an illegal company and publishing defamatory material, which appears to relate to comments he made about President Muhammadu Buhari.
He is also alleged to have encouraged Ipob members to attack Nigerian security operatives, BBC Pidgin reports.
His lawyer Ifeanyi Ejiofor said the charges against the separatist leader had no basis in Nigerian law, the BBC's Chris Ewokor reports.
The case has now been adjourned to 10 November.
Mr Kanu was originally arrested in 2015 but he fled Nigeria in 2017 while out on bail.
Ipob wants a group of states in the south-east of the country, which mostly comprises the Igbo ethnic group, to break away from Nigeria and form an independent nation called Biafra.
In 1967 Igbo leaders declared independence for the state of Biafra, but after a civil war, which led to the deaths of up to a million people, the secessionist rebellion was defeated. But the idea of Biafra has never gone away and despite arrests of his members, Mr Kanu's movement has seen a recent swell in its numbers.
Truckers in Brazil disband blockade after provoking fuel shortages
FILE PHOTO: Truckers block highways in support of President Jair Bolsonaro, in Brazil
Roberto Samora and Gram Slattery Fri, October 22, 2021, 9:31 AM·2 min read
SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Truckers blockading a major refinery in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais disbanded on Friday, allowing fuel supplies to normalize in the nation's second most populous state.
The protesters, principally truckers who deliver fuel, had been demanding a decrease in taxes on diesel. Since Thursday, they had blocked roads near the REGAP refinery near state capital Belo Horizonte, an action that spooked industry leaders and motorists and caused some gas stations in Minas Gerais to run low on fuel.
Truckers have grown increasingly vocal in recent months as a rise in global crude prices has pushed up the cost of diesel domestically and eaten into margins. Trucker groups have threatened a general strike next week, a move that could prove crippling for Brazil's economy, if widely observed.
A truckers strike over high fuel prices in 2018 ground the economy to a halt, and destroyed the remaining political capital of the already unpopular government at the time. As a result, Brasilia remains attentive to their demands.
On Thursday evening, President Jair Bolsonaro, who is expected to run for re-election next year, said that the government would give Brazil's 750,000 truckers 400 reais ($70) each, to help cushion the impacts of rising fuel prices.
Shortly after, four key Treasury officials quit amid signs the government is looking to lift a constitutional spending cap, a move that battered local equities markets and the real currency.
Speaking in Brasilia on Friday, Bolsonaro played down overspending concerns, saying that the payment to truckers would cost the government less than 4 billion reais in total.
Brazil-listed shares in Vibra Energia SA and Ultrapar Participacoes SA, the owners of the nation's largest and second-largest gas station chains, respectively, were both down over 3.5% in afternoon trade. The benchmark Bovespa equities index was off 1.1%.
(Reporting by Roberto Samora in Sao Paulo and Gram Slattery in Rio de Janeiro, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
'Rolling coal' to blow a thick cloud of exhaust like video of a busy Texas restaurant shows is legal in most states
Kenneth Niemeyer Thu, October 21, 2021, 11:33 AM·2 min read
"Rolling coal" is legal in most states. Toa55/Getty Images
A viral TikTok video showed a Texas driver blasting a dark cloud of exhaust into a fast-food restaurant.
The practice of "rolling coal" to blow excess exhaust from a truck is only illegal in a handful of states.
People can report vehicles emitting excessive exhaust in North Texas, but drivers can't be ticketed for it.
"Rolling coal" - when drivers blow thick exhaust clouds from the tailpipe of a truck - may be obnoxious, but it isn't illegal in most US states.
Only a handful of states including Maine, Utah, New Jersey, Maryland, Colorado and Connecticut have laws that specifically prohibit the practice.
Most state laws that ban exhaust blasts also make it illegal to add modifications to the truck that would give it the ability to create excess amounts of exhaust.
New Jersey SB 2418, which went into effect in 2015, says "retrofitting any diesel-powered vehicle with any device, smokestack, or other equipment which enhances the vehicle's capacity to emit soot, smoke, or other particulate emissions" is prohibited.
Police have not arrested another teen driver in the state after he ran over a group of cyclists in Waller while trying to blow exhaust on them last month. The Waller Police Department posted a statement on Facebook that said it is still investigating the circumstances of the incident, and will submit its findings to the local district attorney to determine what charges may be warranted.
Still, the practice of "rolling coal" is not illegal in Texas.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality decommissioned a state-wide smoking vehicle reporting program in 2015. People in the northern region of the state can still submit reports of vehicles emitting excessive exhaust to the North Central Texas Council of Governments through its reporting program, but vehicles can only be reported in 16 of the state's 254 counties.
Drivers with out-of-state vehicles can not be reported to the NCTCOG and reported drivers also do not receive a ticket or citation after the report.
According to the council's website, when a vehicle is reported for excessive exhaust, the driver is sent a letter "encouraging" the owner to "have the vehicle checked out by their mechanic and to voluntarily repair it."
While "rolling coal" is not illegal in Texas, some public officials in the state think it should be, according to the Houston Chronicle.
" 'Rolling coal' when a person is in the vicinity and when the individual 'rolling coal' intentionally or knowingly causes that excess exhaust to contact that bystander is at a minimum an assault," Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis wrote on Facebook.
Rolls-Royce Just Flew a Boeing 747 Jumbo Using 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel
Rachel Cormack Thu, October 21, 2021 The world may be one step closer to cleaner air travel thanks to Rolls-Royce.
The company has just completed a successful test flight in a Boeing jumbo jet using 100 percent Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). The 747 in question was equipped with a Trent 1000 turbofan engine running solely on unblended SAF while the remaining three RB211 mills used standard jet fuel, according to Rolls-Royce. Boeing was on hand to provide technical support, while World Energy provided the low-carbon fuel for the flight.
The aircraft flew from Tuscon airport in Arizona across New Mexico and Texas, before arriving back at the airport just shy of four hours later. Rolls-Royce said there were no engineering issues during the test, which is further proof that SAF is a viable alternative to fossil jet fuel and could be suitable for commercial use. One of the 747’s engines ran solely on unblended SAF. - Credit: Rolls-Royce
To recap, SAF is made from waste materials, such as the cooking oil or animal fats used in restaurants. Instead of flooding landfills, the waste is turned into this sustainable jet fuel that reduces carbon dioxide emissions by up to 80 percent. The biofuel also results in 90 percent less particulate matter (that white stuff you see in the sky) and eliminates sulfur oxide.
Aircraft are currently only certified to operate on a maximum of 50 percent SAF blended with conventional jet fuel, though Rolls-Royce says it continues to support efforts to green light non-blended SAF. In fact, just last week, the company announced plans to make all its Trent engines compatible with 100 percent SAF by 2023.
“We believe in air travel as a force for cultural good, but we also recognize the need to take action to decarbonize our industry,” Simon Burr, Rolls-Royce’s director of product development and technology for civil aerospace, said in a statement. “This flight is another example of collaboration across the value chain to make sure all the aircraft technology solutions are in place to enable a smooth introduction of 100 percent SAF into our industry.” The flight proved SAF is a viable alternative to fossil jet fuel. - Credit: Rolls-Royce
World Energy is the world’s first (and America’s only) SAF producer currently working on a commercial scale, though that may soon change. President Biden recently recognized the need to significantly increase the production of SAF, launching a sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge to produce 3 billion gallons of the fuel a year by 2030. This is part of a wider aviation climate action plan that is to be released in the coming months.
The geography of the Great Resignation: First-time data shows where Americans are quitting the most
Alyssa Fowers and Eli Rosenberg Fri, October 22, 2021
Kentucky, Idaho, South Dakota and Iowa reported the highest increases in the rates of workers who quit their jobs in August, according to a new glimpse of quit rates in the labor market released Friday.
The largest increase in the number of quitters happened in Georgia, with 35,000 more people leaving their jobs. Overall, the states with the highest rates of workers quitting their jobs were Georgia, Kentucky and Idaho.
The report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics builds out a portrait of August's labor market, with historic levels of people leaving jobs and a near-record number of job openings showing the leverage workers have in the new economy. It offers the first detailed insight into the state-by-state geography of this year's Great Resignation.
"It is a sign of health that there are many companies that are looking for work - that's a great sign," said Ben Ayers, senior economist at Nationwide. "The downside is there are many workers that won't come back in. And long term you can't sustain a labor market that's as tight as it is right now."
Nick Bunker, an economist at the online jobs platform Indeed, said it was notable that more-rural states had the highest quit rates.
"Service-sector jobs tend to be concentrated in more dense, urban parts of the country, so to see the quits rate pick up in other places was interesting," he said. That "may be a sign there's more competition in those parts of the country than other parts."
The data comes on top of another government snapshot showing that 4.3 million people quit jobs in August - about 2.9% of the workforce, a pandemic-era record.
The phenomenon is being driven in part by workers who are less willing to endure inconvenient hours and poor compensation, and are quitting to find better opportunities. There were 10.4 million job openings in the country at the end of August - down slightly from July's record high, which was adjusted up to 11.1 million, but still a tremendously high number. This gives workers enormous leverage as they look for a better fit.
Mary Kaylor is part of that groundswell.
She left her job in early July after her employer began calling workers back to the office, saying they'd have to be at their desks at least four days a week.
But her old commute - 90 minutes each way, or worse with traffic, from where she lives north of Baltimore to her office in Alexandria, Va. - was no longer acceptable to her.
"It was affecting my health, and I couldn't get my work done," she said. "I decided, 'Why am I doing this?'"
So Kaylor resigned, even though she did not have another job lined up. It didn't take long for her to land on her feet, however.
Just a few weeks after she quit, a recruiter reached out to her on LinkedIn about a position at Robert Half, a San Ramon, Calif.-based consulting company. The job allowed her to work remotely, and she said she felt that the company had a very employee-centric culture that made the switch easy from afar. She started the new position in August.
"Everything that I had read about the jobs market being hot and opportunities being out there was absolutely 100% correct," she said.
Now she says she has a job she likes, but with more balance at home and time to take care of herself with no commute.
"I've been able to get back to a regular workout and exercise routine - time to run in the morning and do yoga," she said. "All the time I used to spend sitting on the Beltway I can spend outside, so I'm excited about that."
A volcano erupts in Spain – and challenges notions of recovery
Colette Davidson Fri, October 22, 2021
In the first few days after the Cumbre Vieja volcano erupted, Roberto Leal frantically helped his family evacuate their homes in a rush to escape the spewing gray plumes of smoke and rivers of lava engulfing his isle on the Spanish Canary Islands. But soon, it swallowed up his own lifetime of memories too.
“I always thought it was going to stop,” he says. “But then the town church fell, my uncle’s house, my parents’ house, my brother’s and sister’s houses. On the 20th day, mine fell as well.”
Now, he and his extended family have been dispersed across the island in temporary housing – with little idea of when they might return if ever. “Where will we go for Christmas? New Year’s?” he asks, his eyes welling.
He joins some 7,000 people who have been forced from their homes since the La Palma volcano shot up from flat ground on Sept. 19. It has since destroyed more than 1,900 homes and more than 2,000 acres of land, including 600 acres of banana, grape, and avocado plantations – the island’s primary economic resource along with tourism.
Experts estimate that Cumbre Vieja is only halfway through its course, and no one can predict when it might end. On Wednesday and Thursday the area around the volcano registered 124 earthquakes. It’s creating a unique set of challenges for first responders and local authorities who are rushing to address immediate needs while the longer-term consequences mount.
It could be years before the ground cools enough to rebuild, and many whose homes have been swallowed up wonder whether they will ever feel confident enough to return. Amid so many unknowns, islanders are relying on the solidarity of local charities, churches, the military, and neighbors who are scrambling to preserve a sense of home, whatever form that takes.
“Completely different this time”
La Palma has seen a swell of volunteerism and donations since the volcano first erupted, some organizing with the Twitter handle #MasFuertesQueElVolcan, or “Stronger Than the Volcano.” People with second homes or extra rooms are offering their beds; hotels, recreation centers, and schools are also coming forward.
The Red Cross has received €3.3 million (about $3.8 million) in donations for immediate needs, but they say this relief work is unlike anything they have ever done before. “Our aid efforts are completely different this time,” says Miguel Angel Reyes, a technical coordinator for the Red Cross in La Palma. “With a forest fire or flood, people can go back home after about a week. With this type of emergency, it’s been a month and we can’t do anything to stop the volcano.”
Gen. Fernando Morón Ruiz of the Spanish army, which has provided shelter and emergency services to displaced people, says that “the situation of uncertainty and leaving everything behind has been very intense. We want to give people a sense of control and support. When they come (to shelter in army barracks) they can share the same experience as others, and this has provided a sense of resilience against fate and a bit of hope.”
General Morón’s soldiers are also working in the exclusion zone, removing ash that has piled up on roofs to heights of 1 ½ feet, to prevent their collapse.
“What can we learn from this?”
The residential hillsides in Tajuya, about three miles from the mouth of the volcano, offer a direct view of Cumbre Vieja, and full audio too. Deafening booms, as the volcano spits out rocks, are incessant. Piles of black ash collect on top of Sandra Riccoboni’s newly planted potato patches and leave a fine dust on her beloved orange trees.
“It’s horrid, like having a plane inside my head. … Sometimes the volcano goes berserk and the house starts to shake,” says Ms. Riccoboni, who has lived in her home for nearly 50 years. “You start crying at night, thinking maybe it’s your time to go. I’ll have nowhere to live. … I’m a bit old to start over again.”
This sense of control lost is something the Rev. Domingo Guerra is trying to help residents in the area sort through. Since the eruption, his church in Tajuya has become a meeting point, remaining open 24/7. Donations have poured in from around the world, and local churches are collaborating to distribute clothes and personal care items and provide floor space to sleep.
“There’s so much frustration. People are perplexed about what to do now,” says Mr. Guerra. “Humans aren’t owners of the earth, we’re the caregivers, and things like this make us seem even smaller. God is asking us, what can we learn from this? What do we really need in order to be happy?”
That question is measured in the tangible and intangible. In all, Mr. Leal’s family lost eight homes, as well as several banana plantations on which they had relied to make a living. The cedar chest that Mr. Leal’s grandfather handcrafted for his grandmother decades ago was too heavy to carry and had to be left behind, consumed by fiery crimson lava and pulled down the hillside into the Atlantic.
Sweeping a fine layer of ash from his desk, he pulls up a photo on his mobile phone of the land where the San Juan volcano struck the south of the island in 1949. It’s now covered in leafy green trees, growing on soil spread over the lava.
“We already live on lava. Towns [in Tenerife] like Garachico are built on lava. People once said that was impossible, but nothing is impossible,” he says. “If for some reason people don’t want to live there again, we can at least do this for agriculture to bring money to the island. Whatever happens, we need to do this.”
Not all experts agree. Some geologists say the ultimate thickness of the hardened lava will determine whether it takes weeks or years to fully cool. Others say the magma will need to be broken up by dynamite in order for the soil to be useable again.
For local photographer Jonatan RodrÃguez, the notion of home is comforting in this time of uncertainty. Mr. RodrÃguez says he cried last week as he locked up his house in La Laguna, the latest town to receive an evacuation order, not knowing if he’d ever see it again.
He says if he has to start over and build a new house, he will, but it’s the daily routine he’ll miss most – going out to get bread, saying hello to neighbors in the street, playing racquetball with friends. Still, he’s confident the people of La Palma can restore what has been lost.
“We have a beautiful expression in the Canary Islands: ‘We’re made of sea salt and lava,’” says Mr. RodrÃguez. “I think if the lava takes my house, I’ll rebuild on the land. We’ve built on a volcano before, and we can do it again.”
Cargo Force Wins $100 Million Postal Service Contract for Priority Mail
FreightWaves Fri, October 22, 2021,
Cargo Force, which provides terminal handling services for U.S. Postal Service parcels moving by air via FedEx Express (NYSE: FDX), said Friday it is opening four new facilities to support express mail service after winning a seven-year, $100 million contract.
The new facilities in Seattle, San Diego, Detroit, and Orlando, Florida, cover 173,000 square feet in total and will create 255 jobs across the four sites, the company said. The contract also renews service in Jacksonville, Florida, and Omaha, Nebraska.
Last year, Cargo Force also won a large Postal Service contract to process Priority Mail in Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Boston, and Tampa, Florida. It now operates 14 airport facilities around the country to support the Postal Service.
Cargo Force is owned by investment firms Audax Private Equity and Greenbrier Equity Group. Sister company Alliance Ground International manages cargo operations for airlines at airports around the country and provides other services, such as de-icing aircraft and staffing ticket counters in passenger terminals.
Miami-based Cargo Force processes about 300 million pounds of Priority Mail, according to its website.
Local mail plants send Priority mail to Cargo Force warehouses, where it is scanned and sorted by destination, packed into containers, and tendered to FedEx. After FedEx flies the shipment to the destination city, Cargo Force retrieves and unpacks the containers, sorts and scans the mail by ZIP code, and delivers it to local mail centers. Postal drivers then carry the individual parcels to homes and businesses.
The Seattle-Tacoma facility opened Oct. 4 and the other locations will open Nov. 1, the company said.
Inside Japan’s Meltdown Over Princess’ ‘Cursed’ Wedding to Commoner
Jake Adelstein Fri, October 22, 2021 Carl Court
TOKYO—At long last, Japan's Princess Mako and her “commoner” boyfriend, Kei Komuro, will marry on Oct. 26, after a three-year delay. But will they live happily ever after?
Yes, probably, if they follow through on their plans and get the hell out of Japan.
Opposition to the marriage by the general public, the press, and conservative politicians is strong. In an opinion poll taken by AERA magazine, 93 percent of respondents said they felt the marriage was nothing to celebrate. There have even been small street protests by elderly fanatics holding handmade signs that read, “No! Komuro,” “Do Not Pollute the Imperial Family With This Cursed Marriage.” And yet, Mako will not stand down.
It should have been a classic Japanese imperial fairy tale: Princess meets brilliant boy in college, they fall in love and get engaged. This would be followed by a lavish royal wedding. But now, thanks to Japan’s post-war constitution—which also stipulates that patrilineage is the imperial way—the princess must immediately be booted out of the royal family upon tying the knot. There will be no elaborate Shinto rituals to mark the wedding of these two lovebirds. The traditional ceremonies for imperial family members’ weddings have been called off, and the official meeting with the emperor and empress prior to the marriage will not happen.
In an unprecedented decision, Mako has refused to accept a $1.3 million dollar “consolation prize” for giving up the royal registry for love and marriage. The money comes from taxes and is meant to ensure the dignity of departing aristocrats. The Imperial Household Agency, which rules over the royals here like China rules Hong Kong, announced, after much debate, that they “will allow her not to accept it.” No one in the Japanese press has had the temerity to ask the Agency, “Why do you even announce you've accepted her decision not to take the money? Were you going to stuff it in her suitcase, instead? Isn't that her decision, not yours?” There are conservative scholars who argue Imperial Family members don't have the basic human rights guaranteed in the constitution. These scholars are part of a loud contingent of people in Japan who oppose their marriage on dubious grounds.
At first, it seemed like everyone was happy for Princess Mako. In 2017, the two held a press conference to announce their unofficial engagement. The conference was held at the Akasaka East Palace in Tokyo's Minato Ward. They appeared to be beaming, happy, and deeply in love.
That bliss did not last long. What went wrong?
Komuro and the princess met in 2012 when they were students at the International Christian University in Tokyo. Their wedding was initially scheduled to take place on Nov. 4, 2018, but before that could happen, a weekly magazine threw a wrench in their plans. In December 2017, Shukan Josei (Weekly Woman) reported what was considered a major scandal with the headline: “Imperial Family Shocked And Shaken, Komuro's Mother Owes Money To Former Fiance.”
The entire affair boiled down to this: Komuro's mother and her former fiance had money issues. The man claimed the mother and son had failed to repay a debt that was owed to him of about $36,000. Not long after, both the tabloids and the mainstream were shamelessly reporting on the private life of the Komuro family. No mistake was too small, no rumor too unsubstantiated to be put into print. In the gutters of social media, some asserted that Komuro was actually Zainichi, Korean-Japanese. In Japan, the Korean-Japanese, many of whom are now fourth-generation residents, originally brought to Japan as slave labor, are often looked down upon and marginalized.
The Imperial Household Agency went into panic mode after the reports of financial trouble and other flimsy scandals kept flooding in. They announced in February 2018 that the ritual ceremonies were going to be postponed. They also pressured Mako to release a statement explaining why the marriage would be delayed. She reluctantly complied.
In August 2018, Komuro left for the United States to study at Fordham University’s law school. The two remained engaged but things looked bleak. A couple of months later, Mako’s father, Prince Akishino, held a press conference. He said it wasn't feasible to host an engagement ceremony until the financial disputes were resolved. He implied that it wasn't a situation where “the Japanese people could really celebrate the event.” He also told the press, “Recently, I have not spoken much with [Mako], so I don't know how she feels.”
Mako responded to her father by releasing a statement in which she was adamant about her desire to marry her college love. She let it be known that she would wait for Komuro to graduate from law school and take the bar exam.
Mako and Komuro reportedly didn't meet again in person until he returned to Japan this September. When he arrived at the airport, the mass media went agog over his new hairstyle: He had a ponytail! Clearly, this was a sign that he was unfit to marry into the proximity of the Imperial Family. One sports newspaper ran the headline, “Ponytail Returns,” and included a diagram of the offending hairdo.
KEI KOMURA Boyfriend of Japanese Princess Mako Kyodo via AP
A Japanese media outlet even decided that the haircut merited serious investigative journalism. While Komuro quarantined at home, he reportedly had his hairstylist come to the house and trim his long hair. Evening tabloid Nikkan Gendai concluded that getting your hair trimmed at home may be a violation of Japan’s Beautician Laws.
The amount of vitriol launched at Komuro is shocking to anyone outside of Japan. “The hate Komuro campaign stems from the sexism of a patriarchal order,” professor Jeff Kingston at Temple University, author of the seminal modern history text Contemporary Japan, told The Daily Beast. “They can't tolerate women making their own choices and standing up to male authority. The shameless attack on his looks is not journalism. It's institutionalized bullying with a green light from powers that be.”
In the end, Mako won't get the lavish ritual send-off that some might have hoped for. She has opted for a low-key exit, including visiting the mausoleum of her great grandparents, Emperor Hirohito and Empress Nagako. At their graves, she reportedly informed them of her decision to get married to a commoner. Perhaps they would have approved.
She may have given up a million dollars to marry her beloved, but the princess did send a powerful “fuck you” to the powers that be in Japan. The diminutive princess is no weeping willow. With her marriage, there will be only 17 members of the imperial family left, and unless the rules change, the family will keep getting smaller and smaller and even risks fading into oblivion. The union has sparked discussions about changing the laws to allow women who marry commoners to remain in the imperial family.
Kaori Shoji, author and essayist, sees the opposition to the marriage as indicative of a generational divide. “The union seems to be a thorn in the side of people mostly over 60, who had long idolized former Empress Michiko. For the older generation of Japanese, Michiko-sama represents all that's wonderful about Japanese womanhood: Marriage at an appropriate age for child-bearing, sacrificing her personal life completely in the name of upholding tradition, and supporting her husband for what is effectively an eternity.”
Princess Mako, on the other hand, “is not adhering to her grandmother's model at all,” says Shoji.
“She's both headstrong and sensitive and has a will of her own. In short, she's a modern young woman who wants nothing to do with the sacrifice and child-bearing BS that has defined the destinies of women in the royal household. She also seems to have no qualms about ditching her country, family, and lineage to be in New York with the man she loves.”
Princess Mako and Komuro have already made plans to move to New York City where she will find work as an art curator, and where he already works at a law firm. “Marrying into royalty is a tough job,” Shoji says, “but someone's gotta do it. And most Japanese are thankful it ain't them.”
How the 'economics of global warming' are unfolding differently in Russia
Brigid Kennedy, Contributing Writer Fri, October 22, 2021 Russian Arctic. EKATERINA ANISIMOVA/AFP via Getty Images
The ever-present threat of climate change is a danger to all of us — but meanwhile, over in Russia, the "economics of global warming" are playing out differently, writes The New York Times.
Winter heating bills are on the decline, Russian fishermen have found "a modest pollock catch in thawed areas of the Arctic Ocean near Alaska," and, in Russia's Far North — where "rapidly rising temperatures have opened up a panoply of new possibilities" — potential mining and energy projects abound, the most "profound" prospect being year-round Arctic shipping as an alternative to the Suez Canal, writes the Times. Multiple government-supported companies across the Russian Arctic, in fact, are midway through a plan to invest the equivalent of $10 billion over five years developing the Northeast Passage — a shipping lane between the Pacific and Atlantic — with the goal of securing some of the business that currently traverses the Suez. Traffic through the Russian Arctic rose by approximately 50 percent last year (though it still could not hold a candle to the Suez), per the Times. Arctic visitiation is expected to increase still next year.
And the "thawing ocean has also made oil, natural gas and mining ventures more profitable," the Times writes, and analysts estimate at least half a dozen large Russian energy, shipping, and mining companies will benefit from climate change.
The Russian government is not blind to the threat posed by global warming, but they seem to be enjoying things while they can, profiting where possible. Still, said Marisol Maddox, an Arctic analyst: "The evidence suggests the risks far outweigh the benefits, no matter how optimistic the Russian government's language."
The U.K. spent 69 billion pounds ($95 billion) paying the wages of furloughed workers by the time the program came to an end last month, according to government figures.
The total cost of subsidizing lost earnings touched 97 billion pounds when grants to self-employed workers hit by the pandemic are included, the Office for National Statistics data published Thursday show.
The job support programs were the centerpiece of a government response to the Covid-19 crisis, which is estimated to have cost taxpayers more than 370 billion pounds. That’s drove the budget deficit to levels not seen during British peacetime.
The furlough program, which paid up to 80% of a full-time wage to people whose workplaces were closed during the pandemic, supported almost 12 million jobs at various times. An estimated 1.1 million people were still furloughed around the time the program finished on Sept. 30, ONS figures Thursday show. A relatively small number of them are expected to end up unemployed, however.
In September, the cost of the so-called Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme declined to 740 million pounds, the lowest figure of the pandemic. In the early stages of the crisis, the bill was totaling over 10 billion pounds a month.
