Nevado del Ruiz is one of the deadliest volcanic eruptions in history

Nathan Howes
Sat, November 13, 2021

Nevado del Ruiz summit 1985 

Nevado del Ruiz is one of the deadliest volcanic eruptions in history

This Day In Weather History is a daily podcast by Chris Mei from The Weather Network, featuring stories about people, communities and events and how weather impacted them.

The Nevado del Ruiz, also known as La Mesa de Herveo, is a volcano located on the border of the regions of Caldas and Tolima in Colombia. It lies around 129 kilometres (80 miles) west of the capital city, Bogotá.

Volcanic activity at Nevado del Ruiz began about two million years ago, since the Early Pleistocene or Late Pliocene era, with three major eruptive periods. This volcano had been dormant for almost 70 years. When it blew, it caught everyone by surprise and nearby towns were unaware.

The Nov. 13, 1985 eruption became known as the Armero tragedy -- the deadliest of its kind in recorded history. It claimed the lives of an estimated 25,000 people. (Jeffrey Marso/United States Geological Survey (USGS) geologist)

On Nov. 13, 1985, a small eruption produced an enormous landslide that buried and destroyed the town of Armero in Tolima. It became known as the Armero tragedy -- the deadliest of its kind in recorded history. It claimed the lives of an estimated 25,000 people.

The volcano continues to pose a threat to the nearby towns and villages, and it is estimated that up to 500,000 people could be at risk from lahars from future eruptions.

1. Nevado del Ruiz Volcano, Colombia - facts & information ...
   https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/nevado_del_ruiz.html

   2021-11-07 · Nevado del Ruiz covers more 200 sq km and it is composed by 3 major andesitic and dacitic edificed of lavas and tuffs. The present-day cone is composed by lava domes built within the summit caldera of the older Ruiz volcano. Its summit contains the 1-km-wide and 240-m-deep Arenas crater. The prominent La Olleta flank cone on the SW flank was probably built in historic time. Nevado …

   • FAQ · Nevado Del Ruiz Volcano Eruptions · Deutsch · Nevado Del Ruiz Volcano Books · Videos

2. Global Volcanism Program | Nevado del Ruiz
   https://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=351020

   Nevado del Ruiz is a broad, glacier-covered volcano in central Colombia that covers more than 200 km2. Three major edifices, composed of andesitic and dacitic lavas and andesitic pyroclastics, have been constructed since the beginning of the Pleistocene. The modern cone consists of a broad cluster of lava domes built within the caldera of an older edifice. The 1-km-wide, 240-m-deep Arenas ...

3. Nevado del Ruiz Volcano Volcanic Ash Advisory: CONTG VA ...

   https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/nevado-del-ruiz/news/147280/Nevado...

   3 hours ago · Nevado del Ruiz 

A trucker explains the truck-driver shortage: We're 'tired of carrying the country on our backs'

Grace Kay

Thu, November 11, 2021, 

One high school is offering a truck-driving elective for students amid a widespread trucker shortage and an aging workforce. Mint Images/Getty Images

• A trucker explained why companies are reporting a truck-driver shortage.

• Port driver Shauntai Robinson said it's become increasingly difficult to sustain a trucking career.

• In October, the American Trucking Association said the US needed 80,000 more truck drivers.

A trucker broke down the key issues that are causing the truck-driver shortage. She said it's not a worker shortage, but a matter of unsustainable wages.

Shauntai Robinson, an owner operator out of the ports in South Carolina, said in a post on Medium that after 16 years in the industry, she was beginning to question the viability of a career as a truck driver.

"There are thousands of valid class A CDL holders, across the United States, who have elected to not drive a truck anymore," Robinson wrote. "These people have not relinquished their credentials. Instead, these valuable people have been forced to seek alternative forms of employment in order to be able to provide for their families."

For Robinson, truck driving began as an opportunity to quickly learn a set skill that could support her family, but it's gradually become a liability. As a local port driver, she was able to deliver loads on a set schedule and return home every night to be with her child. But as a company driver and single parent, it wasn't always enough to pay the bills.

"If I needed to take a day off because one of my children were ill, or had an appointment, it would take me two to three months to financially recover. I found myself in this predicament several times," Robinson wrote. "At the time, by making $16 per hour, I had maxed out my earning potential as a company driver."

Robinson explained that there are four types of local harbor drivers, which are categorized into two groups: company drivers who are paid per hour and independent contractors, also known as "owner operators," who are paid per load. The title "owner operator" can be deceiving. Robinson said most owner operators worked for a single carrier, either leasing their truck through the company or independently from a dealership.

These contracts often leave drivers with low profit margins. Drivers who lease their vehicles from the carriers can see much of their earnings recouped by the company, as drivers are typically responsible for 90% of expenses, including fuel and maintenance. Similarly, truckers who lease from a dealership are contracted to carriers for a set percentage of each load, typically 74%, Robinson wrote. But these drivers often never get to see the overall freight bill, she said.

Some owner operators, such as Robinson, can be lucky enough to establish their own companies, and they can choose which loads to haul. But even that isn't always enough. Robinson formed her own company, Mid-Carolina Transportation, in 2018, but she said if the trucking industry continued on its current trajectory, she might be forced to consider other careers.

Insider previously reported that the supply-chain crisis has created a major headache for truck drivers such as Robinson who work at the ports. Four truck drivers who worked at the nation's largest ports told Insider they've waited for up to eight hours without pay in order to pick up loads.

"There's no glitz and glam, and hardly enough money to maintain a business and a household," Robinson wrote. "If the trucking industry continues its present trajectory, it will be unable to sustain itself. It will implode under all the weight that the people on the bottom of the totem are bearing. It honestly seems as though that process has already begun. Like many before me, and even more on this journey with me, we must now decide whether to stay aboard, or to abandon ship as it quickly takes on water."

Read Robinson's full story here.

Black Farmworkers Say They Lost Jobs to Foreigners Who Were Paid More

Miriam Jordan
Fri, November 12, 2021

Steve Rosenthal, a three-term mayor of Indianola, Miss., stands for a portrait near City Hall on Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021. (Sarahbeth Maney/The New York Times)

INDIANOLA, Miss. — For more than a quarter-century, Richard Strong worked the fertile farmland of the Mississippi Delta, just as his father and his grandfather did, a family lineage of punishing labor and meager earnings that stretched back to his enslaved ancestors brought from Africa.

He tilled the soil, fertilized crops and irrigated the fields, nurturing an annual bounty of cotton, soybeans and corn for a prominent farming family. “I’ve been around farming all my life,” Strong said. “It’s all we knew.”

Black families with deep connections to the Delta have historically been the ones to perform fieldwork. That began to change about a decade ago, when the first of dozens of young, white workers flew in from South Africa on special guest worker visas. Strong and his co-workers trained the men, who by last year were being lured across the globe with wages of more than $11 an hour, compared with the $7.25 an hour that Strong and other Black local workers were paid.

Growers brought in more South Africans with each passing year, and they are now employed at more than 100 farms across the Delta. Strong, 50, and several other longtime workers said they were told their services were no longer needed.

“I never did imagine that it would come to the point where they would be hiring foreigners, instead of people like me,” Strong said.

From the wheat farms in the Midwest to the citrus groves in California’s Central Valley, growers have increasingly turned to foreign workers as aging farmworkers exit the fields and low-skilled workers opt for jobs in construction, hospitality and warehouses, which offer higher pay, year-round work and, sometimes, benefits.

The agricultural guest worker program, known by the shorthand H-2A, was once shunned by farmers here and elsewhere as expensive and bureaucratic. But the continuing farm labor shortages across the country pushed H-2A visas up to 213,394 in the 2020 fiscal year, from 55,384 in 2011.

“Our choice is between importing our food or importing the workforce necessary to produce domestically,” said Craig Regelbrugge, a veteran agricultural industry advocate who is an expert on the program. “That’s never been truer than it is today. Virtually all new workers entering into the agriculture workforce these days are H-2A workers.”

In the Mississippi Delta, a region of high unemployment and entrenched poverty, the labor mobility that is widening the pool of workers for growers is having a devastating effect on local workers who are often ill-equipped to compete with the new hires, often younger and willing to work longer hours.

The new competition is upending what for many has been a way of life in the rich farmlands of Mississippi. “It’s like being robbed of your heritage,” Strong said.

In Mississippi, where the legacy of slavery and racism has long pervaded work in the cotton fields, a federal lawsuit filed by Strong and five other displaced Black farmworkers claims that the new foreign workers were illegally paid at higher rates than local Black workers, who it said had for years been subjected to racial slurs and other demeaning treatment from a white supervisor.

Two additional plaintiffs are preparing to join the suit, which says farmers violated civil rights law by hiring only white workers from South Africa, a country with its own history of racial injustice.

“Black workers have been doing this work for generations,” said Ty Pinkins, a lawyer at the Mississippi Center for Justice, which is representing the Black farmworkers in the lawsuit. “They know the land, they know the seasons, they know the equipment.”

A region steeped in poverty

A vast flood plain, the Mississippi Delta boasts some of the country’s richest soil. It also is the poorest pocket of the poorest state. In Indianola, a town of almost 10,000 about 95 miles north of Jackson, the median household income is $28,941.

The hometown of blues legend B.B. King, Indianola is the seat of Sunflower County, where empty storefronts line forlorn downtowns and children play outside crumbling shacks.

The region, which is more than 70% Black, remains rigidly segregated. Black children attend underfunded public schools while white students go to private academies. Black and white families bury their dead in different cemeteries.

The Delta is only one of a number of places where South Africans have been hired for agricultural work in recent years. While Mexicans accounted for the largest share of last year’s H-2A visas, or 197,908, the second-largest number, 5,508, went to South Africans. Their numbers soared 441% between 2011 and 2020.

Garold Dungy, who until two years ago ran an agency that recruited foreign farmworkers, including for Pitt Farms, the operation that employed Strong and the other plaintiffs, said South Africans represented the bulk of his business. They are “the preferred group,” he said, because of their strong work ethic and fluency in English.

Under the program, growers can hire foreign workers for up to 10 months. They must pay them an hourly wage that is set by the Labor Department and varies from state to state, as well as their transportation and housing.

Farmers must also show that they have tried, and failed, to find Americans to perform the work and they must pay domestic workers the same rate they are paying the imported laborers.

According to the Black workers’ lawsuit, Pitt Farms paid the South Africans $9.87 an hour in 2014, a rate that reached $11.83 in 2020. The plaintiffs who worked in the fields were paid the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour or $8.25 on weekends, plus occasional bonuses.

Both Walter Pitts, a co-owner of Pitts Farms, and the farm’s lawyer, Timothy Threadgill, declined to discuss the farm’s hiring strategy because of the pending litigation.

The reliance on South Africans may reflect the nature of agriculture and the demographics in the Mississippi Delta, compared to places like California.

“In the Mississippi Delta, row-crop production requires fewer workers but workers who have skills to use machinery and equipment,” said Elizabeth Canales, an agricultural extension economist at Mississippi State University. “We hardly have any Latinos in this remote region. Naturally, it’s easier to hire South Africans where language will not be a barrier, especially because in this area, you have a very small Spanish-speaking population.”

The South Africans arrived in the region willing to work weeks that sometimes stretched to 75 hours or more, grueling schedules that might have been difficult for older local workers to maintain, industry analysts said.

There was initially no public controversy over the program in Indianola. Growers in the region described the South Africans as “good workers,” said Steve Rosenthal, a three-term mayor of Indianola who lost his bid for reelection in October. Until the lawsuit was filed, he did not realize that some Black workers had been let go.

“If you have a man that you’ve trained and worked with for years and he knows how to get stuff done,” he said, “how in good conscience can you bring somebody over and pay him more than a man that’s been with you five, eight, 10 years?”

A long family history in the Delta

The Strong family has worked for generations for the Pitts family, which has farmed in the Mississippi Delta for six decades. Richard Strong’s grandfather Henry and grandmother Isadora worked their land. So did his father and his uncle.

Strong and his brother got hired in the 1990s; he eventually operated not only tractors, but big equipment like combines and cotton pickers. He mixed chemicals to control weeds and pests. He ran irrigation pivots in 19 fields, covering some 3,000 acres. He rose to manager, driving across the farm to verify that everything was in working order.

When Strong first heard that Africans were coming to work on the farm, about eight years ago, “I didn’t question it. I just went along doing my job,” he said.

But when four white men showed up, they were not the Africans he had expected. Even so, Strong said, the men, a good 20 years younger than him, were “cool guys.”

He taught the men how to properly plow, how to input GPS settings into the tractors’ navigation systems, how to operate the irrigation system so just the right amount of water was sprinkled on the crops.

Over the next few years, more South Africans came, until more than half the farm’s workforce was there on foreign visas.

One of them was Innes Singleton, now 28, who learned about the opportunity to work in Mississippi from a friend in 2012.

He had recently finished secondary school and did not know what to do next.

He arrived in Indianola in early 2013, and is now earning $12 an hour, making in one week what would take a month for him to earn in South Africa, where the unemployment rate now exceeds 30%.

“I learned a lot here,” he said, adding that he sometimes had to work up to 110 hours a week. South Africans now do the main work on the farm, he said, and four locals “help us out.”

The end of an era

After the 2019 season, Strong traveled to Texas to visit his ailing father-in-law. When he returned, the Pitts Farm truck that he drove had disappeared from outside the house he had rented from the grower for about a year. He was told to vacate and was not offered work for the 2020 season.

A year later, others were let go, including his brother, Gregory, who said he had devoted much of his life to Pitt Farms.

“I gave them half my life and ended up with nothing,” he said. “I know everything on that place. I even know the dirt.”

Andrew Johnson, another plaintiff in the lawsuit, is 66 and said he had worked 20 years at the farm.

“I used to work rain or shine or anything,” he said.

But before the 2021 season began, he said, one of the Pitts owners told him, “he didn’t need me no more.”

Since the lawsuit was filed, other Black workers have come forward, saying they had labored in the fields and catfish farms of the Delta before unfairly losing their jobs, Pinkins, the lawyer, said.

In late October, as the harvesting season came to a close, 18-wheelers in Indianola rumbled down the highway, loaded with bales of cotton. Driving alongside the farm where he spent 24 years, Strong scanned the rows of neatly carved earth as far as the eye could see. “I put in all that,” he said, with a certain pride.

Then a tractor passed by, a young South African man at the wheel, and Strong looked away. “I miss working the land,” he said.

© 2021 The New York Times Company

BUERAUCRATIC COLLECTIVISM

Video of Viet minister being fed $1,900 gold-leaf steak after visiting Karl Marx's grave stirs anger



Jiselle Lee
Thu, November 11, 2021, 11:11 AM·2 min read

A viral video showing Vietnam’s minister of public security being served a gold-leaf steak by Turkish chef Nusret Gokce, aka “Salt Bae,” is stirring outrage in Vietnam.

Viral video: The video of To Lam was first published on Gokce’s TikTok account, where it amassed thousands of views before being deleted quickly after.

Lam is seen enjoying the £1,450 (approximately $1,900) tomahawk steak at Nusr-Et Steakhouse in Knightsbridge, London, in the video, which was re-uploaded by Radio Free Asia.

Lam was visiting the restaurant after attending a United Nations climate change summit (COP26) in Glasgow and paying tribute to Karl Marx’s grave in North London’s Highgate Cemetery.

Considered one of Vietnam’s most powerful officials, Lam is in charge of police and agencies who scrutinize corruption and dissent.

A minister in the country is paid an official monthly salary of around 16 million Vietnamese dong (approximately $700), according to Reuters.

Other uploads of the video have been removed from the app for violating "community standards," Vietnamese TikTok users told Reuters.

The video also appears to show Vietnamese ministry spokesman To An Xo seated next to Lam.

Viewers of the video criticized Lam for enjoying such an extravagant meal, especially because his country's citizens have an average monthly income of 3.45 million Vietnamese dong (approximately $150), according to Vietnam Online.

Only two months ago, Ho Chi Minh City experienced food shortages and overwhelmed hospitals during a total COVID-19 lockdown.

Facebook blocks #saltbae: The hashtag #saltbae was originally blocked on Facebook after the video went viral but was unblocked by the social media platform on Tuesday.

"We've unblocked this hashtag on Facebook and we're investigating why this happened," a spokesperson for Facebook’s Meta told Reuters.

Vietnam, a Communist-ruled county, routinely checks on and removes local political content on online platforms.

The country threatened to shut down Facebook within its borders last year if the platform did not remove what it considered “anti-state” content online.

Reuters reported that Facebook refused to comment on whether the Vietnamese government requested the video’s removal. But the spokesperson also confirmed the hashtag was blocked worldwide for all Facebook users, including Vietnam.

After two months of entertaining diners in London, Gokce revealed on Instagram that he will be leaving England this week to focus on opening his new venue in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The Official’s Gold-Flecked Steak And The Underlying Problems Of Vietnam

Jason Nguyen12 Nov 2021

Vietnamese social media was flooded last weekend with images and footage of Minister of Public Security, To Lam and his delegates enjoying a luxurious dinner at an upscale restaurant in London.

The video, showing General Lam being hand-fed a gold-leaf steak by the Turkish celebrity chef Nusret Gokce, popularly known as Salt Bae, immediately attracted public attention before soon being removed from the chef’s TikTok account.

Across the internet, media users in Vietnam expressed their criticism and anger at the lavish lifestyle of the Vietnamese Communist Party’s (VCP) top officials.

While some users posed questions regarding the restaurant’s costly dinner bill and To Lam’s modest monthly salary as a government official, many other users were outraged because the luxurious dinner was held at a time when Vietnam’s economy is still feeling the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Strict lockdown measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus have caused many Vietnamese people to experience food shortages and overwhelmed the country’s healthcare capacity.

However, To Lam’s pricey meal provides us the paradigm of differing realities between Communist government officials and its ordinary citizens, but it also exposes the underlying problems that Vietnam is inherently facing as a country where civil rights suppression and corruption are prevalent.

Corruption and the lack of oversight on government officials

It was still unclear whose money was used to pay for the dinner bill. Still, many observers alleged that it was paid by the backyard companies with close business links to Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS).

Corruption and fiscal mismanagement are significant problems in the Communist country’s governance system.

According to the 2020 Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International, a non-governmental coalition promoting transparency and ending corruption, Vietnam was ranked 104 out of 180 countries.

Meanwhile, the MPS, which controls the national police force and agencies tasked with suppressing dissent and investigating corruption cases, is nevertheless seen as the most corrupt ministry in the opinion of the Vietnamese people. According to a report titled “Vietnam Corruption Barometer 2019,” published by Towards Transparency, a locally-based non-profit organization and a coordinator for Transparency International, which helps raise awareness of corruption issues in Vietnam.

In reality, Vietnamese apparatchiks have their ways to conceal illicit wealth without being scrutinized by the public.

One of the most common methods adopted by VCP officials is to use “nominees,” who can be their relatives or hired people, to hold assets on their behalf, or to set up “backyard companies,” which can be used to gain “unfair business advantages” and “exclusive access to business opportunities,” according to Le Hong Hiep, a coordinator of the Vietnam Studies Programme at ISEAS, the Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.

Moreover, the absence of the independent press and lacking an active civil society in Vietnam make it even easier for these officials to shield their illicit assets from public scrutiny, writes Hiep.

The country also lacks formal mechanisms to verify the asset declarations of officials who are required to file these, says Hiep, adding that corrupt officials can use hired nominees or “backyard companies” to evade financial inspections by local authorities.

An unfree press

At the same time, Vietnam does not have an independent media environment that carries out investigations into the government's wrongdoings and holds these corrupt officials accountable for their alleged misconduct.

The public in Vietnam only learns about these issues via social media and Vietnamese language services of non-governmental newspapers such as Radio Free Asia (RFA) and BBC. Meanwhile, state-owned media and government mouthpieces remain silent about such issues, as observed by The Vietnamese Magazine.

Nonetheless, according to public opinion, the exposed luxurious dinner is just the tiny tip of a giant hidden iceberg.

In most cases, the corruption of Vietnamese government officials is only brought to light thanks to investigation projects by foreign media agencies or the infighting between the conflicting groups within the Communist Party. This infighting is only a direct result of the crusade of political purge camouflaged as the vigorous anti-corruption campaign initiated by the Party’s chief Nguyen Phu Trong.

Late last year, an investigative unit of Qatari-based Al Jazeera revealed in a leaked document called “The Cyprus Papers” that Vietnamese Congress member Pham Phu Quoc allegedly bought so-called “golden passports” from Cyprus between 2017 and 2019.

According to Al Jazeera, the purchased passports are worth “a minimum investment of $2.5M” each. The Cyprus passport scheme itself is easily abused by political figures “vulnerable to corruption” to gain EU citizenship legally, the investigative report concludes. It was not clear how the Vietnamese congressman acquired the amount of money needed to buy his foreign citizenship, just like who had paid for the gold-flaked steak of General To Lam remained a mystery.

Reporting on corruption remained a dangerous task for Vietnam’s media. Recently, members of the Bao Sach (Clean News) organization were arrested and subsequently imprisoned for shedding light on the misdeeds of many corrupt Vietnamese officials. Even journalists working for state-run media who sway from the Party’s guidelines by reporting government mismanagement and corruption face constant harassment or even long jail terms.

With no independent journalism in the country, and the distribution of information strictly regulated with state media only parroting government propaganda, ordinary Vietnamese people cannot seek impartial and unbiased reports or demand the transparency of government officials. Vietnamese citizens can only rely on unofficial sources of information on social media, which are often prone to fake news, or investigations by foreign media which help uncover the misconduct of their state leaders.

Unless Vietnam develops independent media, a vigorous civil society, and democratic and effective institutions that monitor government leaders regardless of their political affiliates, its public will remain in the dark. Most of all, the citizens will be unaware of other countless opulent feasts that go unexposed in the future.

SEE

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for bureaucratic collectivism 

TIGRAY

WHO chief says his home region in Ethiopia under 'systematic' blockade


World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a ceremony to launch a multiyear partnership with Qatar in Geneva

Fri, November 12, 2021, 11:43 AM·2 min read

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization's chief said on Friday his home Tigray region in northern Ethiopia was being subjected to a "systematic" blockade and people were dying because of a lack of supplies.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus did not say who he thought was stopping aid getting through to Tigray, where rebellious forces have been fighting a year-long war with Ethiopia's government.

Ethiopia's government has denied blocking aid to Tigray and has said it is rebuilding infrastructure. The United Nations has repeatedly called on the government to get aid into the north, and has said that shortages there are "man-made".

Government spokesperson Legesse Tulu did not immediately respond to a request for a comment on Tedros's statement on Friday.

"People are dying because of lack of supplies," Tedros, who is an ethnic Tigrayan, told a press briefing in Geneva.

"We cannot send supplies and medicines to Tigray because it is under blockade, and the blockade is systematic," he said. In unusually frank public remarks, he described the situation in Ethiopia as "really distressing".

War broke out in November 2020 between Ethiopian federal troops and forces loyal to the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the ruling party of Tigray. Thousands have been killed in the conflict, which has since spread into two neighbouring regions in northern Ethiopia.

Soon after the conflict started, the Ethiopian army's chief of staff accused Tedros of backing the Tigray rebels. He denied that.

The WHO Director-General, who was Ethiopia's health minister during the era when the TPLF dominated national politics, has repeatedly said he is not taking sides in the war.

No U.N.-organised humanitarian supplies have entered Tigray for more than three weeks, the U.N. said on Thursday, adding some 364 trucks are waiting in a neighbouring region, pending authorization from authorities to proceed.

Around 80% of essential medicine is no longer available in Tigray and most health facilities are not functioning, the U.N. said in a report on Thursday.

The warring parties have so far rejected calls from the United States, the United Nations and the African Union for a ceasefire. Both the government and the Tigrayan forces have set conditions that the other rejects.

(Reporting by Emma Farge and Sri Kalyani Manojna Maddipatla in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Maggie Fick in Nairobi; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Tigrayan forces say they will 'hunt down' foreign mercenaries


Man walks on the outskirts of Addis Ababa

Fri, November 12, 2021, 7:05 AM·2 min read

NAIROBI (Reuters) -Rebellious Tigrayan forces threatened on Friday to "hunt down" foreigners they said were supporting the Ethiopian government as mercenaries and technical experts in a year-long war.

Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) spokesperson Getachew Reda said the foreigners could be from Turkey, China, Israel or the United Arab Emirates.

Government spokesperson Legesse Tulu did not immediately respond to a request for comment. There have been no independently verified reports of the warring sides using mercenaries to date.

Getachew told Reuters via satellite phone: "We don’t care (what their nationality is). We will hunt them down. They will be treated like the mercenaries they are."

The war, which has killed thousands and forced more than two million people from their homes.

The conflict escalated this month after rebellious forces from the northern region of Tigray and their allies made territorial gains and threatened to march on the capital. The government says the gains have been exaggerated.

The government declared a state of emergency https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/addis-ababa-government-urges-residents-register-arms-media-2021-11-02 on Nov. 2.

That allows suspects to be detained for as long as the state of emergency lasts; allows house-to-house searches without a warrant; and requires citizens to carry identity cards, some of which - like those issued by some regions - can be an indication of ethnic origin.

The warring parties - the Ethiopian government and the rebellious Tigrayan forces - have so far rejected calls from the United States, the United Nations and the African Union for a ceasefire. Both sides have set conditions that the other rejects.

More than 400,000 people are facing famine in Tigray, the United Nations warns.

No U.N.-organised humanitarian supplies have entered Tigray for more than three weeks, the U.N. said on Thursday, adding some 364 trucks are waiting in a neighbouring region, pending authorization from authorities to proceed.

An estimated 100 trucks per day must enter Tigray to meet critical humanitarian needs, the U.N. says. Around 80% of essential medicine is no longer available in Tigray and most health facilities are not functioning, it says.

The TPLF dominated national politics for three decades until Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018 and curbed its power.

(Reporting by Maggie Fick;Editing by Alison Williams and Andrew Heavens)

Dozens of armed farmers reject ruling on Mexico land dispute

Fri, November 12, 2021

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Dozens of farmers armed with rifles and shotguns gathered in a pocket of mountain forest in southern Mexico on Friday and angrily rejected a Supreme Court ruling on a decades-old land dispute.

Video posted by inhabitants of the hamlet of Rafael Cal Y Mayor showed about 20 men with guns — mostly hunting rifles. One of the men claimed there were 50 to 100 men under arms in the district.

Farmers in that area are demanding to remain part of Chiapas state and have vowed to resist plans to redraw boundary lines that will put them in neighboring Chiapas state.

One of the local farm representatives, Heriberto Cruz, said that “we do not accept this ruling by the Supreme Court” and warned of “unfortunate consequences” if authorities tried to enforce the ruling.

The conflict is centered on the Chimalapas, an area of tropical and cloud forest and pine-covered mountain tops that is threatened by logging and cattle ranching. For years, settlers have claimed the area belongs to Chiapas, while farmers in Oaxaca say their ancestral lands were invaded by people from Chiapas.

This week, the Supreme Court ruled that about 400,000 acres (160,000 hectares) rightfully belong to Oaxaca, saying its determination was based on a study of documents dating back to 1549. It gave authorities 2 1/2 years to enforce the ruling.

BOSSES DID NOT CONSULT

Headquarters move raises concerns among Remington Arms workers, officials in Ilion


Donna Thompson, Times Telegram
Thu, November 11, 2021

The announcement that Remington Firearms would be moving its global headquarters to Georgia and opening a factory and research operation there raised concerns among workers at the Ilion manufacturing plant and local officials alike. Company CEO Ken D'Arcy said the operation at the Ilion plant will continue and plans call for hiring more workers.

ILION — When Mayor Brian Lamica opened Facebook during his lunch period Monday, he learned about gun-maker Remington Firearms’ announcement that it would be moving its global headquarters to Georgia and opening a factory and research operation there.

He got on the phone and started making calls.

Facebook was where RemArms employees at the Ilion plant first learned of the announcement as well.

“There’s an uneasy feeling,” said Chris French, vice president of United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) Local 717, who was called back to work in June after being laid off last September.

Remington Arms: Gun-maker moving headquarters to Georgia; company says Ilion jobs will stay

What we know: Remington Arms moving headquarters to Georgia: What we know now

CEO Ken D’Arcy said the company is increasing production in Ilion and plans to hire more employees. The decision to invest $100 million in a new facility in LaGrange, Georgia, was made because Georgia is a state that is friendly to both businesses and firearms, he said.

Despite the assurances, there are concerns.

“Naturally this is concerning to our folks because they have already gone through so much over the last year,” said Jacquie Sweeney, president of UMWA Local 717. “It’s been a roller coaster ride.”

She has yet to be called back to work, but noted that some of those who are working there now left training opportunities or quit jobs to return to the plant. Some accepted shifts that were not the best schedule for their families.

“Their heart and soul are in this place,” said Sweeney. “At the end of the day, my union brothers and sisters offer the best workforce for the job.”

Her comments echoed one made by Herkimer County Industrial Development Agency Executive Director John Piseck. "I still think we offer a fantastic workforce here," he said.

A plaque in the Ilion pedestrian mall reminds residents of the village's place in the firearms history of the United States and stands a few yards from the sire of rally Wednesday in support of almost 600 workers laid off this week by the Remington Arms Co. which has its factory across Central Avenue.

“Ilion and Remington, Remington and Ilion go hand in hand,” said Lamica. “There’s a lot of history here.”

He wasn’t overly concerned with where the company’s headquarters were located, pointing out that years ago the headquarters had been moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut, and then on to other locations. “I get it. The corporate office needs to be close to where they’re selling the products.” He hopes that the jobs in Ilion remain here and more are added.

“It would leave a big hole,” if the company were to move out, he said.

Donna Thompson is the government and business reporter for the Times Telegram. Email her at donna@timestelegram.com.

John Deere, United Auto Workers report reaching third tentative contract agreement amid strike


Tyler Jett, 
The Des Moines Register
Fri, November 12, 2021

Deere & Co. and the United Auto Workers have agreed to a third potential contract, the union announced Friday night.

After UAW members in Iowa, Illinois and Kansas voted down two previous agreements over the last month, representatives for the company and the union met again Thursday and Friday. According to a UAW news release, the two sides reached an agreement that includes "modest modifications" over the most recent rejected contract offer.

Union members will vote on the contract Wednesday. UAW spokesperson Brian Rothenberg said Friday night that he was not sure when members will be given details about the contract.

"The UAW will present the Company's offer for ratification and, as has been the case throughout the bargaining process, will support the outcome," he said in a statement.

Rothenberg said the latest agreement is Deere's "last, best and final offer." Deere spokesperson Jennifer Hartmann declined to comment Friday night, but she previously told the Des Moines Register that the company would not increase its offer above the one members rejected Nov. 2.

More: Deere executive says increased overseas production possible as UAW strike continues

Workers with the UAW picket outside of John Deere Des Moines Works in Ankeny, Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021.

About 10,100 UAW members have been on strike since Oct. 14. They include some 7,000 Iowa workers in Ankeny, Davenport, Dubuque, Ottumwa and Waterloo.

About 90% of members rejected the first contract proposed by the union and the company on Oct. 10, saying its offer of 5% to 6% raises were inadequate in a period when Deere was posting record profits.

More: Everybody wants a John Deere tractor. But not everybody wants a John Deere job. Why?

The second contract offer would have raised wages by 10%, boosted retirement benefits and preserved the pension program that the company previously proposed to eliminate for new workers. Fifty-five percent of UAW members rejected that contract, continuing the strike.

More: After 3½ weeks and two contract rejections, which side in John Deere strike can hold out longer?

The union did not specify what Deere meant when it said the third contract is the company's "last, best and final offer." Managers often uses that language when declaring that they are at an impasse with unions.

If the company declares an impasse, labor lawyers say, Deere can offer the contract to any workers willing to cross the picket line. But the union could challenge Deere's declaration before the National Labor Relations Board, kicking off a potentially long, contentious court battle that could force the two sides back to the bargaining table.

Meanwhile, a Scott County District Court judge will hold a hearing Nov. 19 about whether to overturn her prior injunction against the UAW at John Deere Davenport Works. At the request of Deere, which cited what it said were safety hazards, Judge Marlita Greve in an Oct. 20 order restricted picketing to four members per gate and banned fire barrels.

Attorneys for the union have argued that the injunction is inappropriate because union members already follow safety rules. They have criticized Greve and asked her to step aside from the case because she issued the injunction without alerting the union about the complaint or giving the UAW's lawyers a chance to argue against an injunction.

A Polk County judge rejected a similar injunction request for Deere's Des Moines Works in Ankeny, saying the company provided no proof the picketers there had engaged in illegal activity.

Tyler Jett covers jobs and the economy for the Des Moines Register
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: For third time, John Deere, UAW reach tentative contract agreement

Kellogg says union did not allow vote on U.S. cereal plant workers' contract

Thu, November 11, 2021

(Reuters) - Kellogg Co said on Thursday the union representing striking workers at its four cereal plants in the United States did not allow a vote on the company's revised offer for a new contract and that it had filed for a restraining order at one of its plant.

The revised offer was set to expire Thursday midnight and the company said no further negotiations were scheduled.

About 1,400 workers across the four cereal plants have been on strike since Oct.5, and the company has warned of a hit to earnings if it prolongs.

Kellogg had demanded that workers give up quality health care, retirement benefits, and holiday and vacation pay, the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) International Union had said at the start of the strike.

BCTGM was not immediately available for comment.

Kellogg said it had sought a temporary restraining order to help ensure the safety of all individuals in the vicinity of the plant, including that of the picketers.

The lawsuit names the BCTGM International Union, the Omaha chapter of the union, and Dan Osborn, the chapter's president, according to a Bloomberg report https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-11/kellogg-citing-threats-files-lawsuit-against-union-in-omaha?sref=WJKVI5nK

With plants not operating at full capacity, analysts have raised concerns that some of America's popular cereals could be in short supply in the coming months.

The Pringles maker last week said labor and supply issues could mean its fiscal 2021 adjusted profit growth forecast would be at the lower end of its 1% to 2% range, adding that cost inflation was the highest the company has seen in a decade.

The company said https://kelloggsnegotiations.com operations would continue at the four plants with the help of hourly and salaried employees and third-party resources.

(Reporting by Nivedita Balu and Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)


Kellogg's files lawsuit against its striking cereal workers


FILE - Workers from a Kellogg's cereal plant picket along the main rail lines leading into the facility, on Oct. 6, 2021, in Omaha, Neb. The Kellogg Co. has filed a lawsuit against its local union in Omaha. It's complaining that striking workers are blocking entrances to its cereal plant and intimidating replacement workers who are entering the plant. 

(AP Photo/Grant Schulte, File)

JOSH FUNK
Thu, November 11, 2021

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Kellogg Co. has filed a lawsuit against its local union in Omaha complaining that striking workers are blocking entrances to its cereal plant and intimidating replacement workers as they enter the plant.

The company based in Battle Creek, Michigan, asked a judge to order the Omaha chapter of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union to stop interfering with its business while workers picket outside the plant. The workers in Omaha and at Kellogg's three other U.S. cereal plants have been on strike since Oct. 5.

“We respect the right of employees to lawfully communicate their position in this matter. We sought a temporary restraining order to help ensure the safety of all individuals in the vicinity of the plant, including the picketers themselves,” company spokeswoman Kris Bahner said Thursday.

The president of the Omaha union declined to comment on the lawsuit Thursday.

Kellogg's lawsuit comes after a vehicle struck and killed a United Auto Workers member last as he was walking to a picket line to join striking workers outside a John Deere distribution plant in northwest Illinois. An Iowa judge issued a temporary restraining order against Deere workers in Davenport limiting their demonstrations to four picketers at a time.

Kellogg's said in its lawsuit that union members have been physically blocking the entrance to the plant as semitrucks and buses try to enter and leave.

The company also said in the lawsuit that people picketing outside the plant have threatened the lives of people working at the plant including “threatening that an individual’s wife and young children will be assaulted (including sexually) while he is away from home working with Kellogg.”

Two days of contract talks earlier this month failed to produce an agreement. Earlier this week, Kellogg's launched a PR campaign trying to sell workers on its latest offer because the union declined to put the deal up to a vote. But the company said Thursday that its offer to the union had now expired, and no additional talks have been scheduled.

Ken Hurley, the head of labor relations at Kellogg's, said in a video the company posted on its website that Kellogg's has tried to address the union's main concerns about its two-tiered pay system, wages and benefits in its offer.

“We have made every attempt to build a bridge toward a new agreement, but those efforts are met with rejections and more unrealistic demands,” Hurley said in the video. “We urge the union to reconsider its approach and agree to engage in real bargaining for a contract to get our employees back to work and back to their lives.”

Union officials told workers after those contract talks that they couldn't recommend Kellogg's offer because it was full of concessions.

The Kellogg’s strike includes roughly 1,400 workers four plants in Battle Creek; Omaha; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; and Memphis, Tennessee, that make all of Kellogg’s brands of cereal, including Frosted Flakes and Apple Jacks.

The company has said that it has restarted production at all of the plants with salaried employees and outside workers, and it is now hiring new employees at the plants. CEO Steven Cahillane also told investors earlier this month when the company reported a $307 million quarterly profit that Kellogg’s stockpiled cereal beforehand to help weather the strike.

Workers at Kellogg's and other companies feel emboldened this year to strike in the hope of obtaining a better offer because of the ongoing worker shortages.

Besides the Kellogg's strike, more than 10,000 Deere workers remain on strike after rejecting two different offers from the tractor maker.

Employees are also less willing to compromise this year after working long hours during the coronavirus pandemic to keep up with demand over the past 18 months.

Earlier this year, about 600 food workers also went on strike at a Frito-Lay plant in Topeka, Kansas and 1,000 others walked off the job at five Nabisco plants across the U.S. At meatpacking plants across the country labor unions have been successfully negotiating significant raises for employees.

PM 'Morrison, get out of the way': Bushfire victims' fury over Australia's climate change moves

Bushfire victims are calling on the government to act urgently on climate change and have shared their harrowing stories.

Fiona Lee lost her home during the 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfire season. Source: Supplied


LONG READ

Jann Gilbert lost everything when her house was destroyed in the Black Summer bushfires, and fears she and other bush dwellers will again experience infernos of equal intensity if Australia does not take urgent action to reduce carbon emissions.

She has one frank message for Prime Minister Scott Morrison — who has made a pledge of net zero by 2050 backed by a controversial plan, and has resisted calls to make deeper cuts to emissions by 2030 — if his government does not act swiftly.

"If he's not prepared to do something... I want him to get out of the way and let someone else do the job," Ms Gilbert said.


Jann Gilbert's house was destroyed in the Black Summer bushfire season, which ravaged parts of the eastern coast in 2019-2020. Source: Supplied

After a struggle between the Liberal Party and its coalition partner The Nationals over the net zero target, Mr Morrison formally confirmed at the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow this month that Australia would commit to this goal.

But he has attracted criticism for not committing to lifting the nation's short-term target.

Australian bushfire victims also want more to be done.

Bushfire survivors remember Black
'I'm furious at the way the climate crisis has been dealt with'

Bushfires aren't unusual in Australia, but climate change is thought to be making them worse.

The Black Summer bushfire season which ravaged parts of the eastern coast in 2019-2020 is often cited as an example of how a natural part of the Australian environment is worsening as the earth warms, and have been labelled as a "wake up call" to rapidly reduce emissions by some researchers.

It was a terrifying event that Ms Gilbert experienced first-hand.

Ms Gilbert's had spent 12 months renovating her home. It was destroyed 11 days after the work was completed. Source: Supplied

The marine biologist moved to Mallacoota, a coastal town in Victoria's East Gippsland region, after buying a property there toward the end of 2018. Twelve months and $50,000 later, it was fully renovated.

The work was completed on 20 December, 2019. Fast forward 11 days and her home "was rubble'.

Ms Gilbert remembers thinking her home would be safe as she evacuated to the Mallacoota Wharf, where many others fled, as the out-of-control fire approached.

"It probably wouldn't have gone if the neighbour's gas bottles had not exploded," she said. "It was actually fate that I wasn't there because that where the hose I would have been using (to fight the fire) is, and that's exactly where the gas bottles came through."

Ms Gilbert said her home "was rubble" when she returned following the fire. Source: Supplied

She said when she returned to the property "there was absolutely nothing left."

"It burnt so hot that it melted all of the windows on the northern and southern side of the house because it had blown in from the eastern side," she said. "And you could see that because all of the glass along the eastern side was smashed, but on the northern and southern windows, the glass was melted from the inside out."

The disaster means a "whole part of her life is now gone."

"[I have] no family photos, nothing from my parents... not one thing was left," she said.

But that wasn't the hardest thing for her — it was the environmental destruction that broke her heart.

"For the first two weeks after the fires all you heard was shotguns being fired, and vets were euthanising injured animals," she said.

She added: "And that's what I can't forgive the government for. What they don't seem to understand is that humans, like all the rest of the other animals on this planet, rely upon this planet for its resources.

"We were the last to arrive in evolutionary terms, we've done the most damage, and we are on the slippery slope to extinction."

Bushfire evacuees boarding one of HMAS Choules' landing craft at Mallacoota before being ferried to the ship on January 3, 2020. Source: Royal Australian Navy

After the fire, Ms Gilbert was first living in her caravan which survived the blaze and then secured a short-term rental. She finally obtained a modular unit through a Victorian Government initiative which was installed on a block of land she leased from a friend.

She "loves" Mallacoota and had no hesitation in deciding to rebuild and her new home will have a full fire-supression system. But she fears bushfires will continue to cause large-scale damage if climate change is not curbed.

"The thing that bothers me is that... I have no doubt that another catastrophic fire given where we're at with climate change," she said. "I have no doubt there'll be another catastrophic fire within the next four years. And it may not be Mallacoota, but it will be somewhere."

Veterinarians work on Jeremy, a young koala recovering from injuries that was rescued from the Victorian bushfires near Mallacoota, on January 23, 2020. Source: AAP

With Australia's climate having already warmed by an average of 1.4C since 1910, she said: "Can you imagine what 2 degrees is going to look like?"

"I'm just furious at the way that this whole environment climate crisis has been dealt with by both sides of government," she said.
'I want the government to take climate change seriously'

Fiona Lee (centre), with her partner and their daughter. Source: Supplied

Fiona Lee has a similarly harrowing story.

Ms Lee, her partner and their young daughter had been living at their home — which had been built over a long period of time and where they had stayed on-and-off — just outside the town of Bobin in the New South Wales Mid North Coast for full-time for two years.

They were preparing to go camping for the weekend on 8 November, 2019, but instead enacted their bushfire survival plan as they saw "smoke cover the sun and burnt leaves dropping [their] yard".

A few hours later, their house had burnt down.

Fiona Lee lost her home near Bobin on the the Mid North Coast in NSW during the 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfire season. Source: Supplied

"The experience of walking back to the house for the first time the next day was so eerie," Ms Lee said. "The bush was dead and quiet, it was like being in a cemetery.

"Everything was totally destroyed. Parts of the car were dripping down the hill and all the glass in the house had melted and everything had folded in on itself. There was nothing left."

Ms Lee said there was "nothing left" when she returned to her property following the fire. Source: Supplied

The next day, the family moved into Ms Lee's mother's single-bedroom home where they stayed for "a long time" before they eventually secured a rental in Newcastle.

"This is where we currently are. We don't have plans to rebuild," she said.

Ms Lee said she has no plans to rebuild her home, which was just outside Bobin on the New South Wales Mid North Coast.

The thought of returning to the bush to live is "difficult", especially if carbon emissions are not reduced "urgently and immediately", she said.

She said she would like the federal government to take "take climate change seriously."

"At COP26, we've seen world leaders stepping up to the climate change challenge and the prime minister barely made it there with a distant net zero target, and not any intentions to cut emissions significantly by 2030," she said.

She believes Australia is "one of the few countries that's still seen as part of the problem and not part of the solution to address climate change."

"I think that the government is full of promises but doesn't actually have any intention of reducing emissions," she said. "I want to see no new investment in coal, oil, and gas projects because we need to address climate change now."
Perfect storm increasing bushfire risk

In 2016, Australia was among many countries to sign the Paris Agreement. The Agreement's goal is to keep average global temperatures to well below 2C and preferably 1.5C through countries reducing their emissions as soon as possible and ultimately reaching net zero by 2050.

To achieve net zero, the amount of greenhouse gases being produced must not exceed the amount being taken out of the atmosphere.

Mr Morrison has said the mid-century target will be achieved through 'technology not taxes', which some have labelled as an ineffective approach.

The plan, released in late October, prioritises investment in clean hydrogen, energy storage, low emissions steel and aluminium, and carbon capture and storage which the federal government has been warned not to rely on.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison's government is taking a 'technology not taxes' approach to reducing Australia's carbon emissions. Source: Pool Getty Images Europe

Many scientists believe deeper emissions cuts need to be made by the end of this century to effectively limit global warming.

Indeed, Australian climate scientists recently warned that half of the emissions cuts needed to reach net zero by 2050 would need to be made by 2030 to keep global warming below 2C.

Mr Morrison has resisted committing to life Australia's 2030 emissions reduction target of 26-28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030, though the government says projections show they could be lowered by 35 per cent by the end of this decade.

READ MORE

‘A great disappointment’: UK climate advisor slams Australia’s emissions targets

Chair of the University of Melbourne's School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, Professor Rodney Keenan, said there is a link between climate change and extreme weather events such as bushfires.

"We've seen an increase in average global temperatures and that's leading to temperature extremes in southern Australia which is the most bushfire-prone area," Professor Keenan said.

"We're also seeing a drying trend with a strong decrease in rainfall, particularly in southwestern Australia, but also in southeastern Australia in Victoria and southern New South Wales.

"So the combination of those things is increasing bushfire risk."

READ MORE

How Australia can fast-track emissions reductions

What could be done to reduce emissions faster

Professor Keenan said it would have been "quite straightforward" for Mr Morrison to commit to an emissions reduction target of 35 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030 at COP26 because the states all have more ambitious targets.

The New South Wales, South Australian and ACT governments recently announced a "historic" agreement to work together to reach net zero emissions. The Western Australian government also signed on to the forum and said it was "necessary" in "the absence of real leadership from the federal government".

Professor Keenan said the federal government "needs to be making clear policy commitments to meet its [emissions reduction] objectives."

READ MORE

Fossil fuels vs renewables: Where the world's top 20 emitters stand

"The expectation that the technology will develop as a matter of course and that it will then be adopted is a very hopeful one; that the market will essentially solve this with a bit of input from the government on the technology development side," he said.

"I think it's clear that in order to drive the adoption and deployment of this technology, there needs to be clear price signals and other policy measures."

A "national consensus" on how to address the climate challenge was also necessary.

"We've argued in a recent article that it might be time for a national climate accord where the prime minister convenes the different sectors, the states and the different community groups, Indigenous communities and others to come together and talk through difficult tradeoffs and challenge."

READ MORE

US, China agree to boost their climate ambitions

Australia was not among a large cohort of countries to sign a pledge to transition away from coal — one of the most polluting fossil fuels — at COP 26. The nation also did not sign a pledge to reduce methane emissions.

Founder of Emergency Leaders for Climate Action and former commissioner of Fire & Rescue NSW, Greg Mullins, said that was a disappointing decision that put the nation's future prosperity at risk because coal would become more difficult to sell as other countries turned their backs on it.

Mr Mullins is also concerned by the federal government's technology-driven approach to emissions reduction. He believes a price on carbon would be more effective.

He said the money being invested in carbon capture and storage should instead go toward "subsidies for people to put solar panels on their roofs and get batteries", and to build wind turbines.

More trees, which absorb carbon dioxide, should also be planted, he said.

"I think this technology push is interesting but basically futile. And it's putting it off for someone to do the heavy lifting when it inevitably fails," he said.

In response to questions from SBS News, a spokesperson for Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor said "Australia’s emissions reduction story has been one of consistent achievement – our emissions are now more than 20 per cent below 2005 levels".

"We have reduced emissions faster than any other major commodity exporting nation in the world, and faster than the OECD average, Canada, Japan, NZ and the US," the spokesperson said.

Australia’s 'long-term emissions reduction plan' "sets out a credible pathway to net zero by 2050, while preserving our existing industries, including our important export-oriented agriculture, resources and energy industries", the spokesperson said.

READ MORE

Australians will be financially better off under net zero plan, climate modelling shows

"Australia has already reduced methane emissions faster than any other major methane emitter, including the US, except for the EU and Canada."

SBS News contacted Labor's Climate and Energy spokesman Chris Bowen for comment.