Soccer-Amnesty International urges Spanish clubs to take a stand in Saudi Arabia


FILE PHOTO: LaLiga - FC Barcelona v Real Madrid

Sun, January 9, 2022

(Reuters) - Amnesty International is calling on the four clubs involved in the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia this week to take a stand over women's rights and equality issues.

Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Athletic Bilbao will compete in the revamped Super Cup in the Saudi capital Riyadh from Jan. 12-16 after the Spanish FA agreed a contract with the Saudis until 2029 that will earn the governing body 30 million euros ($34 million) a year.

The human rights organisation has sent the clubs and the Spanish soccer federation purple armbands and asked the team captains to wear them during the tournament as a show of solidarity.

"We are asking your organisation to honour its commitments and responsibilities to human rights," Amnesty urged the clubs in a letter sent last week and seen by Reuters.

"Your club has an opportunity to take advantage of the tournament to make human rights concerns visible in Saudi Arabia. We invite your captain to wear the armband either during matches, or at events around the tournament such as press conferences, training sessions and other public exhibition spaces, including social media."

The clubs have not yet responded to Amnesty's letter, the human rights body said. Reuters has contacted the clubs for comment.

"The Spanish FA presented it in 2019 as 'the Super Cup of equality' but, two years later, we denounce the continuation of serious violations of human rights in this country, in particular towards women and LGBTI people," Amnesty said in a statement.

The Spanish Super Cup is one of many sports events hosted by Saudi Arabia, including the Dakar Rally, a Formula One Grand Prix and the 2019 Italian Super Cup.

Saudi Arabia has no codified legal system and no laws regarding sexual orientation or gender identity. Judges have convicted people for "immorality", having sexual relations outside of marriage, and homosexual sex.

At the Saudi Grand Prix in December, seven-times Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton wore a rainbow-coloured Progress Pride helmet to draw attention to LGBTQ+ intolerance in the country where gay sex is a criminal offence.

Real Madrid and Barcelona will meet in the first semi-final on Wednesday while Athletic Bilbao and Atletico will play on Thursday for the other spot in Sunday's final.

($1 = 0.8806 euros)

(Editing by Toby Davis)

ASIAN EXCLUSION ACT 2.0

House GOP candidate calls for Texas-wide ban on Chinese students

Carl Samson
Mon, January 10, 2022
A Texas Republican candidate for the House of Representatives has ignited controversy after calling for a ban on Chinese students from universities in the state.

“Chinese students should be BANNED from attending all Texas universities,” Shelley Luther originally wrote in a since-revised tweet. “No more communists!”

In subsequent tweets, Luther went on to say the state’s taxpayers “should not be subsidizing the next generation of CCP [Chinese Communist Party] leaders” and that it is “common sense” that CCP members “should not have access to our schools.”

Luther, a hairdresser, made headlines in 2020 when she refused to close her Dallas salon amid emergency orders, according to the Texas Tribune. She ended up spending two nights in jail.

Shelley Luther Racist Tweet

On Jan. 7, Rep. Gene Wu, a Chinese American Democrat from Houston, called Luther’s tweet “racist” and demanded a public apology.

“Luther's statements are ignorant, hateful, and incite violence against not only Chinese Americans, but all Asian Americans,” Wu said, citing the spike in anti-Asian incidents amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“To casually conflate all Chinese students in America with actual registered members of the ruling party in the People's Republic of China is not only ignorance of an extreme nature, it is also the type of rhetoric that drives anti-Asian hate crimes.”

In response to Wu’s statement, Luther posted tweets accusing him of “simping for the CCP” and calling him an “enemy of the people.”

“It doesn’t surprise me that a socialist Democrat who doesn’t show up to work thinks the position that Communist Chinese citizens should not access taxpayer funded state institutions is racist. Texas Republicans agree with me on this,” Luther wrote.

One Texas House Republican appeared to oppose Luther’s claim. Rep. Jacey Jetton, who is Asian American, tweeted that their party “should stand against cancelling Chinese students on college campuses.”

“To do otherwise is an attempt to score cheap political points by targeting Chinese people, but real leaders know there is a huge distinction between Chinese individuals and the Chinese government,” Jetton wrote.



Luther vehemently denied that she was being racist.

“As far as anyone thinking that I’m racist, I’m a Spanish teacher of 13 years and in my salon when I opened it, I was the sole white person that worked in there out of 19,” she said, according to the Tribune News Service. “So, me being called a racist is ridiculous… I do not agree with communist thinking, and I do not want our state to be run, or I do not want our state to be influenced by any communism.”

Luther, however, has previously engaged in other forms of anti-China rhetoric, referring to COVID-19 as the “China virus” on Sunday.

Luther’s remarks have already caught the attention of Chinese state media. On Sunday, Global Times published an op-ed claiming that they were “clearly more ideological.”

“Luther's rhetoric was made to confuse the public and further sow seeds of hatred for Chinese students and Chinese Americans among voters in Texas,” Global Times noted.

Ben Carson Echoes Trump, Says Covid Test Shortage Isn’t ‘Such a Bad Thing’ Because It Means Fewer ‘Positive People’

BRAIN SURGEON PROVES SELF SURGERY IS DANGEROUS

Peter Wade
Mon, January 10, 2022

Ben Carson - Credit: Nati Harnik/AP

Dr. Ben Carson, who previously claimed that asymptomatic people shouldn’t be tested for Covid even though they can still spread the virus, appeared on Fox News on Monday to take his absurd testing stance a step further.

“It’s quite clear the tests are not going to arrive in time,” he said of the White House working to make sure more tests are available. “But maybe that’s not such a bad thing, because the more tests you have the more positive people you’re going to have.”

Once again, this man is a doctor.

“If you don’t have a good plan on what to do with those positive people, it just adds more to the confusion,” Carson, a neurosurgeon, continued. “Are we going to be afraid of [the Omicron variant], or are we going to hunker down and hide from it, or use the knowledge that we have in order to live effectively with it?” he added

Carson then said the country should be “focusing on therapeutics,” which are currently in short supply thanks to unprecedented case numbers across the country. Also in short supply are health care providers as doctors and nurses experience burnout, mental health issues, and catch Covid themselves. And we still haven’t reached Omicron’s predicted peak.

Anchor Martha MacCallum gave Carson an opportunity to clarify his remarks about testing because, yikes!

“We need to be more measured in who we’re testing,” Carson said. “To just go out widely and test everybody when you have a virus that is spreading this fast and you don’t have a plan to deal with it, all you’re doing is adding to the confusion.” But, he conceded, we should test people who “have high risk” or who interact with “people who have high risk.”

“Let’s not be just indiscriminately testing people and then throwing up our hands when we have so many people who are positive and not knowing what to do with them,” Carson concluded.

Carson’s comments are part of a narrative embraced by Fox News, Donald Trump (who infamously ordered staff to “slow the testing down”), and anti-vax conservatives who are willing to sacrifice American lives on the altar of the economy. “Go to work,” and “live with Covid,” Fox & Friends anchors told viewers last week while broadcasting from separate studios instead of their usual couch, part of the network’s policies to… prevent the spread of Covid. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) even suggested on Fox News last week Omicron is good, calling it “nature’s vaccine.”

Network favorite and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis downplayed the need for testing last week. “Now think about it,” he said. “Before Covid did anyone go out and seek testing to determine if they were sick? It’s usually you feel like you’re sick and you get tested to determine what you maybe have come down with.”

Of course, it’s a ridiculous argument. Cancer screenings and STI screenings, just to name a couple of examples, are often performed when people feel perfectly fine. Anti-science messaging like what’s being broadcast on Fox News and across right-wing America are dangerous and only serve to undermine recommendations from experts, especially doctors who, unlike Carson, specialize in infectious disease and epidemiology.

What it's like to spend 125 days flying the U-2, according to the only active-duty pilot to ever do it


Katie Sanders
Mon, January 10, 2022

A US Air Force U-2 at the California Capital Airshow in Sacramento, September 25, 2021.

US Air Force/Nicholas Pilch


For more than 60 years, the high-flying U-2 has gathered intelligence on hotspots all over the world.


In that time, however, only one active-duty pilot has surpassed 3,000 flying hours in the vaunted Dragon Lady.


Here's what it takes to hit that milestone, according to the pilot who did it.

When US Air Force pilot Lt. Col. "Jethro" first learned about the U-2, he was determined to get into the highly selective training program.

Piloting the vaunted "Dragon Lady" meant flying "single-seat, high-altitude, wearing the space suit, alone, unarmed, and unafraid, many miles from your homebase," he told Insider.

Lt. Col. "Jethro" — his call sign, an alias used for security — went on to complete the training program and land his dream job piloting the U-2. It's a distinction that just 1,079 people have earned.

Lt. Col. Jethro after becoming the second pilot to reach 3,000 hours in the U-2 while on active duty, at Beale Air Force Base, September 29, 2021.

US Air Force/Senior Airman Jason W. Cochran


Following 10 deployments between 2007 and 2018, Jethro became an instructor pilot with the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron, which is responsible for training all U-2 pilots.

Today, he trains the newest cadre of U-2 aviators at Beale Air Force Base in California, putting them through the same rigorous program he completed 15 years ago.

In September, Jethro became the second pilot in history to reach 3,000 hours piloting the U-2 — and the first to do it while on active duty.

He told Insider about his milestone flight and what it has been like to spend the equivalent of 125 days flying the U-2.

'It never gets old'

A U-2 above California's Sierra Nevada Mountains, March 23, 2016.

US Air Force/Staff Sgt. Robert M. Trujillo

The jet frequently flies at about 70,000 feet, which offers a unique view of the curve of the earth.

"It's weird because your eyes are so used to seeing the horizon being flat that you kind of have to step back and look at it to go, 'Hey, it is curved,'" he says. "It's absolutely beautiful. It never gets old."

But 70,000 feet is also above Armstrong's Line, where water boils at body temperature and life is not sustainable, which requires not only a pressurized cockpit but also a bulky full-pressure suit similar to what astronauts use on shuttle missions.

Suiting up to fly in the Lockheed U-2 is about as close as a pilot can come to suiting up for a mission to space.

But a suit that keeps you alive at zero pressure — and allows men and women pilots to urinate mid-flight — isn't easy to get into. For that, Jethro and other U-2 pilots have dedicated technicians from the Physiological Support Squadron.

Airmen from the 9th Physiological Support Squadron help Lt. Col. Jethro into his pressure suit, September 29, 2021.

US Air Force/Senior Airman Jason W. Cochran

The technicians care for the flight suits with the same attention aircraft maintainers give their aircraft. Watching new U-2 trainees work with the Physiological Support technicians to get in and out of the suit can be awkward and comical.

"It's a dance, and the first time you do it you have no idea how that dance works," says Jethro.

Once he's suited up, he gets moved to a big reclining chair and hooked up to oxygen and cooling air. It can be hot and tight in the inflated suit. Walking up the ladder into the aircraft and getting seated is yet another dance, as U-2 pilots can't strap themselves into the cockpit while wearing the suit and again need the technicians' help.

The technicians also handle the pilots' food orders and preferred Gatorade color pre-takeoff. Their in-flight meals are pureed and come in a metal toothpaste-style tube for ease of use.

"We do a high-protein, low-residue diet," Jethro said. "You don't want to be gassy up there. As the pressure goes down, gas expands, so it can lead to you being uncomfortable in the jet."

3,000 hours with the Dragon Lady

Jethro does pre-flight checklists in a U-2, September 29, 2021.

US Air Force/Senior Airman Jason W. Cochran

The United States has been using the U-2 for more than a half-century, flying intelligence-gathering missions over the Soviet Union, Vietnam, China, and Cuba during the Cold War. In recent years, it has conducted missions over Iraq and Afghanistan. It's designed to fly at all hours and in all weather.

The U-2 has received technical upgrades, but the basic cockpit hasn't changed much in the past 40 years.

Having iPads and state-of-the-art navigation technology replace paper charts and maps is probably the biggest difference since Jethro's early days. Before that technical upgrade, "You were lucky if you knew where you were," he says.

The East Texas native joined ROTC in college to pursue his childhood dream of being a pilot. He started training two months after September 11, 2001, had his first solo flight in 2002, and was on track to fly a larger aircraft, like the C-135 Stratolifter.

When he graduated from pilot training, he still wasn't sure exactly what he wanted to fly. His squadron commander and mentor, who was a U-2 pilot, suggested the U-2. From there, Jethro did a Google search for the U-2 pilot application and began the arduous training and selection process.

Jethro in a U-2 at Beale Air Force Base, September 29, 2021.

US Air Force/Senior Airman Jason W. Cochran

The training program is selective. Candidates who make it through a two-week interview move on to training in a T-38 Talon, a two-seat supersonic jet trainer. After that, remaining candidates move onto training in an actual U-2, learning to fly, land, and do emergency procedures.

Students' seventh flight is their first time solo in an U-2. That's followed by high-altitude training with the space suit, Jethro said.

After 14 flights, pilots go through an evaluation. Passing that means you're qualified on the U-2, and "then we send you over to mission qual[ification] — another syllabus where now that you know how to fly it, you know how to defeat threats," he added. "When you're done with that, you are [a] qualified pilot ready to go on the road."

In 2007, as a newly qualified U-2 pilot, Jethro was deployed for the first time. Stationed at Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates, he flew missions over Iraq and Afghanistan.

Flying in the desert, he racked up his first 1,000 hours within three years. Some of those missions involved talking to assets on the ground and making decisions while flying over unforgiving terrain far from home, out of radio range of base.

He recalls one mission on a cloudy day over Afghanistan in August 2007, when two separate helicopters crashed roughly 100 miles from each other. He started talking to the downed pilots and joined the effort to pick them up, coordinating with an F-15 to keep the enemy away.

One pilot and a team effort

Cory Bartholomew aids a U-2 during takeoff at Beale Air Force Base, March 23, 2021.

US Air Force/Airman 1st Class Luis A. Ruiz-Vazquez

The U-2 is a challenging plane to fly and even harder to land. The plane's 105-foot wingspan is perfect for flying high but ungainly closer to the ground.

The U-2 has also been stripped down in order to fly at high altitudes for extended periods — its bicycle-style landing gear is supplemented by wing-mounted wheels that detach during takeoff. The pilot's position in the cockpit also makes it harder to see the runway on approach.

Those factors mean it takes a lot of physical exertion from the pilot to land, as well as the coordination of an entire team to get the aircraft onto the ground.

Another U-2 pilot in a chase car gives directions over the radio as the returning pilot approaches the runway. Once the plane comes to a stop, now without its wing-mounted wheels, it tilts to one side.

Cory Bartholomew, right, presents Jethro with the 3,000-hour patch at Beale Air Force Base, September 29, 2021.

US Air Force/Senior Airman Jason W. Cochran

When Jethro landed at Beale to conclude a routine proficiency flight on September 29, he'd hit 3,000 hours.

He would have settled for a low-key post-flight beer to celebrate the milestone. But his squadron made a show of it, coming out to his airplane and cheering. Also there to congratulate him were his wife and kids, fellow U-2 instructor pilot Cory Bartholomew, and the base's wing commander, who'd also been on Jethro's very first deployment.

They presented him with a bottle of champagne and, in keeping with tradition, challenged him to launch the cork on to the top of the hangar while keeping one foot on the ground and the other on the ladder up to the parked aircraft's cockpit.

"I'm awful at that part," he says. "I haven't hit the hangar yet."

Read the original article on Business Insider

‘It’s a Tough History’: With Black Man In an Executive Position, Top Real Estate Organization Issues Formal Apology For Past Discrimination Against Black Homebuyers

Finurah Contributor

ATLANTA BLACK STAR
Sun, January 9, 2022, 

In the 1930s, it was not uncommon for real estate agents to use language describing areas as “negro-blighted” and filled with an “infiltration of undesirable racial elements” to dissuade white homebuyers from purchasing in specific communities.

This language, spearheaded by the National Association of Real Estate Boards, led to the development of redlining maps and discriminatory practices within the real estate industry that contributed to de facto segregation throughout the United States, decreasing the home value in Black communities and contributing to inequitable community resources.

NAR Logo, 1923-1973 (Image: Society of American Archivists website) Bryan Greene, NAR’s recently appointed director of fair housing policy, a newly created post (Photo: NAR website)

Today, the leadership of the National Association of Realtors, the largest trade group representing real estate agents, has issued a formal apology to Black Americans and other non-whites who have experienced housing discrimination in the United States. (NAR is the successor of the National Association of Real Estate Boards.)

This apology comes despite internal conflicts within the organization, which is 78 percent white, and previously supported Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again campaign as late as 2019.

Yet as the socio-political climate in the United States is experiencing change, leadership within the organization sees the importance of confronting past discrimination and current inequities head-on.

Bryan Greene, who worked for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for 29 years, joined NAR in 2019. Green became the organization’s first director of fair housing policy in 2019 and now serves as NAR’s vice president of policy advocacy and oversees legislative and regulatory advocacy initiatives.

With Greene, a Black man, as part of the executive leadership of the organization, it would appear change is coming in the organization.

Yet, NAR recently had to adopt a rule against hate speech as several members were caught making racist comments on social media. Also, NAR is supporting President Biden’s initiative of adding three million Black homeowners within the next 10 years.

In addition, a faction of NAR members has lobbied for changes within the organization such as reduced commissions for non-white homebuyers and sellers.

“It’s a tough history,” said Greene at a recent NAR event. “But we have turned the corner.”

We Must Overcome Our Divisions and Come Together to Face Longterm Global Risks


Saadia Zahidi

TIME
Tue, January 11, 2022

Demonstrations against Corona measures

A demonstration against Corona restrictions and compulsory vaccination moves through the city center. Several thousand people have once again turned out for the weekly demonstration. Credit - Bernd Wüstneck-dpa-Zentralbild

As the world enters the third year of living through a pandemic, people are struggling.

COVID-19 has caused a staggering 5.4 million deaths globally and led to an additional 53 million cases of major depression. Notwithstanding the Great Resignation in advanced economies, global employment lags behind its pre-pandemic levels. And extreme weather is compounding a jobs crisis as it impacts business operations, working conditions and living standards globally.

Health and welfare challenges are weighing on societies, rich and poor. Today, the world’s top short-term risks include environmental catastrophe, social division and health concerns—according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2022, which draws on the views of nearly 1,000 experts, policymakers, and industry leaders.

These global threats are compounding anxieties within borders. According to the report, social cohesion erosion is the risk that worsened the most due to COVID-19. Just 11% of experts believe the global recovery will accelerate towards 2024, while 84% are either concerned or worried about the outlook for the world. Meanwhile, domestic strife is growing: differing views over vaccinations and COVID-related restrictions are adding to social pressures, with several countries experiencing riots against national pandemic responses.

Yet experts are clear on the most pressing long-term challenge: addressing the climate and nature crisis. Environmental challenges dominate the long-term risk outlook; climate change, extreme weather and nature loss also rank as the three most severe risks for the next decade.

Short-term domestic pressures, along with pervasive disillusionment and mistrust, makes taking action on the climate crisis even more complicated. Social, political and economic realities will lead to divergent transition paths that risk stranding swathes of workers, further polarizing societies and rendering decarbonization efforts futile. Already, the most optimistic scenario for global warming estimates a 1.8°C increase in temperature.

Immediate concerns will also limit the attention and political capital that some governments worldwide will allocate to longer-term issues. Stronger national interest postures risk further fracturing the global economy and impacting the foreign aid and cooperation needed to resolve conflicts, protect refugees and address humanitarian emergencies.

COVID-19 responses could also exacerbate long-term risks if not addressed with an eye toward the future. In the poorest 52 economies, home to a fifth of the world’s population, the vaccination rate is just 6%. Vaccine disparity means that some economies have been able to sprint towards recovery while many are still struggling to get back on their feet.

The adoption of new digital practices and technologies spurred by the pandemic are also forcing relatively disconnected workers and countries to prioritize digital access over security to avoid getting stranded in the pre-pandemic economy. With ransomware attacks alone increasing by 435% in 2020, as parts of the world move rapidly toward an Internet 3.0 and the metaverse, the risk of vulnerabilities in this space will only grow.

But the future presents an opportunity for advanced and developing countries alike to build resilience and, in that way, restore public confidence.

Resilience starts at home. Governments need to rebalance risks and rewards so that neither taxpayers nor businesses alone bear the cost of confronting future crises. They must create data-sharing agreements to ensure rapid response and continuity of critical systems and streamline regulation to allow flexibility in in times of crisis.

At the same time, the COVID-19 crisis has again proven that global challenges need global solutions. Stronger multilateral governance and more effective international risk mitigation are essential. On climate action, the urgency to recover jobs and livelihoods will make it especially harder for developing economies to balance short-term domestic pressures with long-term planetary goals. As a result, advanced and developing economies will need to cooperate more closely with each other to leverage the financing and technical cooperation mechanisms that emanated from COP26.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us how vulnerable our economies and societies can be. Global leaders must come together now to address these rising threats and create durable solutions for the years ahead.

World Economic Forum warns cyber risks add to climate threat

Via AP news wire
Tue, January 11, 2022,

EU Davos Forum Global Risks (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Cybersecurity and space are emerging risks to the global economy, adding to existing challenges posed by climate change and the coronavirus pandemic, the World Economic Forum said in a report Tuesday.

The Global Risks Report is usually released ahead of the annual elite winter gathering of CEOs and world leaders in the Swiss ski resort of Davos but the event has been postponed for a second year in a row because of COVID-19. The World Economic Forum still plans some virtual sessions next week.

Here's a rundown of the report, which is based on a survey of about 1,000 experts and leaders:

WORLD OUTLOOK

As 2022 begins, the pandemic and its economic and societal impact still pose a “critical threat” to the world, the report said. Big differences between rich and poor nations’ access to vaccines mean their economies are recovering at uneven rates, which could widen social divisions and heighten geopolitical tensions.

By 2024, the global economy is forecast to be 2.3% smaller than it would have been without the pandemic. But that masks the different rates of growth between developing nations, whose economies are forecast to be 5.5% smaller than before the pandemic, and rich countries, which are expected to expand 0.9%.

DIGITAL DANGERS

The pandemic forced a huge shift — requiring many people to work or attend class from home and giving rise to an exploding number of online platforms and devices to aid a transformation that has dramatically increased security risks, the report said.

“We're at the point now where cyberthreats are growing faster than our ability to effectively prevent and manage them," said Carolina Klint, a risk management leader at Marsh, whose parent company Marsh McLennan co-authored the report with Zurich Insurance Group.

Cyberattacks are becoming more aggressive and widespread, as criminals use tougher tactics to go after more vulnerable targets, the report said. Malware and ransomware attacks have boomed, while the rise of cryptocurrencies makes it easy for online criminals to hide payments they have collected.

While those responding to the survey cited cybersecurity threats as a short- and medium-term risk, Klint said the report's authors were concerned that the issue wasn't ranked higher, suggesting it's a “blind spot” for companies and governments.

SPACE RACE

Space is the final frontier — for risk.

Falling costs for launch technology has led to a new space race between companies and governments. Last year, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' space tourism venture Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic's Richard Branson took off, while Elon Musk's Space X business made big gains in launching astronauts and satellites.

Meanwhile, a host of countries are beefing up their space programs as they chase geopolitical and military power or scientific and commercial gains, the report said.

But all these programs raise the risk of frictions in orbit.

“Increased exploitation of these orbits carries the risk of congestion, an increase in debris and the possibility of collisions in a realm with few governance structures to mitigate new threats," the report said.

Space exploitation is one of the areas that respondents thought had among the least amount of international collaboration to deal with the challenges.

CLIMATE CRISIS

The environment remains the biggest long-term worry.

The planet's health over the next decade is the dominant concern, according to survey respondents, who cited failure to act on climate change, extreme weather, and loss of biodiversity as the top three risks.

The report noted that different countries are taking different approaches, with some moving faster to adopt a zero-carbon model than others. Both approaches come with downsides. While moving slowly could radicalize more people who think the government isn't acting urgently, a faster shift away from carbon intense industries could spark economic turmoil and throw millions out of work.

“Adopting hasty environmental policies could also have unintended consequences for nature," the report added. “There are still many unknown risks from deploying untested biotechnical and geoengineering technologies."

Climate failure and social inequality top global risks for 2022

LaToya Harding
·Business Reporter
Tue, January 11, 2022

In a media briefing in Switzerland on Tuesday, risk experts warned that failure to act on climate change could shrink global GDP by one-sixth, adding that the commitments taken at COP26 in November are still not enough to achieve the 1.5 C goal. 

Photo: Denis Balibouse/Reuters

The ongoing climate crisis and social inequality are the top global risks for this year, a new report has revealed.

According to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) latest global risks report, climate risks dominate the short-term concerns, as the world enters the third year of the pandemic, and also remains the biggest long-term threat facing humanity.

This includes climate action failure, extreme weather risks, biodiversity loss, natural resource crises, and human environmental damage.

The report, which is in its 17th year, is published in partnership with Marsh McLennan, Zurich Insurance Group (ZURN.SW) and SK Group, and ranks the biggest risks facing the world as judged by global risk experts and decision makers.

Read more: WEF predicts three more years of volatility and uneven recovery

In a media briefing in Switzerland on Tuesday, risk experts warned that failure to act on climate change could shrink global GDP by one-sixth, adding that the commitments taken at COP26 in November are still not enough to achieve the 1.5C goal.

Environmental issue dominate the long-term global risks. Photo: World Economic Forum

COVID-19 and its economic and societal consequences also continue to pose a critical threat to the world. Vaccine inequality and an uneven economic recovery risk compounding social fractures and geopolitical tensions, the report said.

In the poorest 52 countries, home to 20% of the world’s population, only 6% had been vaccinated at the time of publication. By 2024, developing economies (excluding China) will have fallen 5.5% below their pre-pandemic expected GDP growth, while advanced economies will have surpassed it by 0.9%, widening the global income gap.

Saadia Zahidi, managing director at the WEF, said: “Health and economic disruptions are compounding social cleavages. This is creating tensions at a time when collaboration within societies and among the international community will be fundamental to ensure a more even and rapid global recovery.

“Global leaders must come together and adopt a coordinated multi-stakeholder approach to tackle unrelenting global challenges and build resilience ahead of the next crisis.”

Read more: UK must mandate top firms to plan for net zero, warns WWF

The report further revealed the top short-term global concerns include heightened cyber threats, which are now growing faster than the ability to eradicate them permanently, societal divides, livelihood crises, and mental health deterioration.

A growing dependency on digital systems, intensified by the pandemic, has also altered societies.

“Over the last 18 months, industries have undergone rapid digitalisation, workers have shifted to remote working where possible, and platforms and devices facilitating this change have proliferated,” the WEF said.

"At the same time, cybersecurity threats are growing. In 2020 alone, malware and ransomware attacks increased by 358% and 435% respectively."

Other challenges the data highlighted were higher barriers to international mobility and crowding and competition in space.

Read more: WTO director-general says trade critical in solving pandemic and climate change

Most experts said they believe a global economic recovery will be volatile and uneven over the next three years, with just one in 10 believing the global recovery will accelerate.

The global risks report 2022 comes ahead of the Davos Agenda this month, which will mobilise heads of state and government, business leaders, international organisations and civil society to share their outlook, insights and plans relating to the most urgent global issues.

The meeting will provide a platform for connection, enabling the public to watch and interact through live streamed sessions, social media polling and virtual connections.

Unequal vaccine access could hamper climate fight: WEF


Nearly 100 countries have yet to vaccinate 40 percent of their populations, the WHO says (AFP/Gagan NAYAR)

Tue, January 11, 2022

Unequal access to Covid-19 vaccines is widening the gap between rich countries and the developing world, threatening the cooperation needed to tackle common challenges such as climate change, the World Economic Forum warned on Tuesday.

In its annual Global Risks Report, the Swiss foundation behind the annual Davos gathering of the rich and powerful warned that vaccine haves and have-nots were increasingly on divergent paths.

"A greater prevalence of Covid-19 in low-vaccination countries than in high-vaccination ones will weigh on worker availability and productivity, disrupt supply chains and weaken consumption," the 17th edition of the report, which surveys global experts, warned.

"Moreover, a lower post-pandemic risk appetite in the vaccinated world -- comprised mostly of advanced economies -- could weaken their investment in the non-vaccinated world," it added.

According to the World Health Organization, 98 countries have yet to vaccinate 40 percent of their population -- a stark contrast with the situation in many Western countries, where vaccination rates hover around the 70-80 percent mark.

Rich countries have been accused of hoarding vaccines, with only a fraction of the billions of doses produced last year winding up in the arms of people in countries with the most fragile health systems.

The WEF warned that the growing gulf between rich and poor countries would create a poisonous legacy of resentment, making it harder to reach agreements on global issues such as climate change, managing migration flows and halting cyberattacks.

The climate crisis displaced the pandemic this year as the biggest risk for the world, accounting for five of the top 10 risks for the world over the next 10 years.

But the report also highlighted the continuing fallout of the pandemic, with developing economies struggling to bounce back from successive lockdowns while rich countries emerge more resilient.

"By 2024, developing economies (excluding China) will have fallen 5.5 percent below their pre-pandemic expected GDP growth, while advanced economies will have surpassed it by 0.9 percent -- widening the global income gap," the survey predicted.

The WEF also emphasised the "societal scarring" caused by the pandemic, including in rich countries.

As protesters around Europe rally against the introduction of vaccine mandates, one of the top threats flagged up in 31 countries, including France and Germany, was the "erosion of social cohesion".

alb/cb/lth/

Sen. Jon Ossoff set to introduce bill barring members of Congress from trading individual stocks: report



John L. Dorman
Sun, January 9, 2022, 

Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia.Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Sen. Ossoff is set to introduce a bill that would bar members of Congress from trading stocks, per The New York Post.

The proposal would apply to members that are currently serving in office, along with their families.

Insider released findings that revealed dozens of lawmakers had infringed on the STOCK Act.

Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia is set to introduce legislation that would bar members of Congress from holding or trading individual stocks while they're in elective office, according to The New York Post.

The ethics bill — which the 34-year-old freshman Democratic senator reportedly hopes to file once he has a Republican cosponsor — would tackle legislative conflicts of interest by banning members and their families from trading stocks, according to a source in Washington, DC, with knowledge of the matter.

In addition, the legislation would likely mandate that lawmakers place their financial assets in blind trusts — an action that Ossoff took himself after being elected to the Senate in a January 2021 runoff election.

The proposed bill would present a huge contrast to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who last month publicly defended the practice after Insider's Bryan Metzger asked if she would support a stock-trading ban for members at a press conference.

"We are a free-market economy. They should be able to participate in that," the veteran California Democrat said at the time in response to the question.

When the speaker was asked about Conflicted Congress — Insider's comprehensive investigative project which revealed that 52 congressional lawmakers and 182 senior congressional staffers had infringed on the STOCK Act, an Obama-era law crafted to clamp down on insider trading — she indicated that she had not yet reviewed the body of work.

Pelosi then stated that it was imperative that members adhere to the terms of the law.

So far, no Senate Republicans have publicly voiced opposition against stock trading among members, but House Republicans including Reps. Michael Cloud and Chip Roy of Texas back legislation ending the practice.

And Democrats including Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York have held firm to their endorsement of stock-trading bans.

A proposed bill that would end trades among members — the Ban Conflicted Trading Act — was introduced in the Senate last year by four lawmakers, including Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Georgia's other freshman senator, Raphael Warnock. A House version is backed by Ocasio-Cortez and Cloud, along with additional members from both parties.

However, the bill would bar trades among members and senior staffers, while excluding congressional spouses and other family members.

According to Insider, Pelosi is one of the wealthiest members of Congress — with a minimum estimated net worth of $46 million and reported assets dispersed among mutual funds, property holdings, and stocks owned by her husband, Paul.

Pelosi's husband possesses holdings in a range of companies, from Alphabet and Netflix to Salesforce and Slack.

Ossoff's bill would close the spousal loophole, according to the earlier source who had knowledge of the proposal.

According to a December survey conducted by the conservative group Convention of States Action, 76 percent of voters give a thumbs down to lawmakers and their spouses trading stocks — with the opinion that those individuals have garnered an "unfair advantage" in the stock market — while only 5 percent of voters were fine with the practice.

California farmworkers now get overtime pay after 8 hours. Some growers say it’s a problem

Nadia Lopez

FRESNO BEE
Sun, January 9, 2022

For the past two decades during the harvest season, 58-year-old farmworker Lourdes Cárdenas would wake up at 3 a.m. to get dressed, say her daily prayers and prepare lunch before driving an hour south from her home in Calwa to a farm in Huron. She’d pick crops like cherries, nectarines, and peaches from daybreak until sundown — at least 10 hours a day, six days a week.

There would be days where she wouldn’t get home until 7 p.m or 8 p.m., depending on traffic, she said. For many of those years, she was paid minimum wage. There was no overtime pay.

“It’s a long work day,” she said in Spanish. “I’d get home very late, exhausted. It’s very hard work being in the fields.”

For years, hundreds of thousands of farmworkers toiling in California’s agricultural heartland weren’t entitled to overtime pay unless they worked more than 10 hours a day. But that has changed due to a 2016 state law that’s been gradually implemented over four years. As of Jan. 1, California law requires that employers with 26 or more employees pay overtime wages to farmworkers after eight hours a day or 40 hours a week.

That means many farmworkers like Cárdenas will now be compensated time-and-a-half for working more than eight hours. It’s a change advocates say is long overdue to provide the agricultural labor force with the same protections afforded to other hourly workers. But opponents argue that the law — though well-intentioned — strains farmers who already operate on thin margins and confront other financial challenges. Employers also say the new rules will disadvantage workers, as they’ll likely reduce hours in an attempt to cut increasing labor costs.

Under the law, which was authored by Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, farmworkers began in 2019 to gradually receive the same overtime pay as employees in other industries. Farmworkers previously became eligible for overtime benefits after 10 hours, but the law has lowered the threshold for overtime pay by half an hour annually for the past three years, until reaching the standard eight hours this year.

In a Twitter post on Wednesday, Gonzalez said “none of my bills stole my heart more.”

The full implementation of the law for larger-scale growers marks the most recent win for labor advocates, who had been running a decades-long campaign to secure overtime pay for farmworkers. California is one of six states, alongside Hawaii, Maryland, Minnesota, New York and Washington, to provide overtime pay to agricultural workers. Many states, however, only provide overtime pay after the 60-hour threshold has been met.

Fresno growers concerned about farmworker overtime law

Eriberto Fernandez, the government affairs deputy director at the UFW Foundation, which sponsored the California bill, said the law secures a basic protection for a workforce that has long been exploited. He added that agricultural workers were excluded from the federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 that gave most employees the right to minimum wage and overtime pay.

“It’s a very historic and momentous occasion for farmworkers that they now, for the first time in the history of agricultural labor, have the same rights as all other Californians do,” he said. “For the first time since the 1930s, equal overtime pay now also applies to farmworkers.”

Fernandez said the law will provide farmworkers with more quality time with their families. He also said farmworkers, many of whom work ten- to twelve-hour shifts during the peak harvest season, will be fairly compensated for their labor.

“This is about leveling the playing field for farmworkers,” he said. “We’re hoping that this new law now puts farmworkers on equal ground with all other industries in California.”

But many growers say the new law could do more damage than good.

Ryan Jacobsen, a farmer and Fresno County Farm Bureau CEO, said the law doesn’t address the needs of the farming industry, arguing that agriculture requires a unique set of rules because it is subject to changing weather and seasons. And unlike other businesses, the labor-intensive industry requires more flexibility on scheduling and working, especially during peak harvest times, he said.

“Most of these jobs in the industry are still seasonal in nature and there are times of the year where there’s more work than there is in other times of the year,” he said. “In the California ag industry, there was always — up until the passage of this bill — an understanding that these employees would be able to make up these hours during these shorter windows because there’s not as much availability of farm agricultural work (in other times of the year).”

Daniel Hartwig, a fourth generation grape farmer from Easton who also works as the procurement manager at Woolf Farming, agreed. He said that the law makes an already fickle industry even more complicated for growers.

Growers have been concerned about labor costs increasing, in part due to California regulations, Hartwig said. He said many growers are reducing their employees’ hours and transitioning to cultivating other crops that don’t require as much human labor. Instead of planting fruit trees, Hartwig has switched over to nuts like almonds and pistachios, he said.

“We can’t absorb those additional labor costs,” he said. “So we’ve just kind of refocused on making sure more of our crops are able to be mechanically harvested. Those are the choices we’re making. (The law) is hurting farmers, and it’s hurting the farm workers as well.”

Fresno County broke its own record for agricultural and livestock production in 2020, peaking at more than $7.98 billion, according to the crop report from county Agricultural Commissioner Melissa Cregan. Nuts were among the top earners. Almonds were the county’s top-grossing crop, earning $1.25 billion, while pistachios made up $761 million, the report found.

Fernandez, of the UFW Foundation, said it’s “unfortunate” that farmers are reducing hours for their employees given the county’s record-breaking years.

“These are the same arguments that we hear over and over again about how these laws are going to destroy agribusiness in California,” he said. “And if anything, we’ve seen the opposite — we’ve seen the California businesses thriving. For them, it’s a matter of economics and of profitability. They’re choosing to shorten worker hours to save money that they would otherwise have paid for overtime pay.”
California farmworker wages increasing

Farmworkers are some of the lowest-paid workers in the U.S, according to a 2021 report from The Economic Policy Institute. On average, farmworkers in 2020 earned about $14.62 per hour, “far less than even some of the lowest-paid workers in the U.S. labor force,” the report found. Farmworkers at that wage rate earned below 60% compared to what workers outside of agriculture made, according to the report.

Lourdes Cardenas is shown waving a UFW flag with other demonstrators in front of the state building in 2017.

In some states though, wages are increasing. California’s minimum wage on Jan. 1 rose to $15 an hour for employers with 26 or more employees and increased to $14 an hour for employers with 25 or fewer employees.

Cárdenas is hopeful the new overtime protections and increased minimum wage will help her family in the long run. While she acknowledges that she may lose hours due to the new rules, she said the overtime law is “a huge relief” for farmworkers like her.

“We have been marginalized and mistreated,” she said. “But we are workers, just like any other worker. It’s sad they didn’t value us before. This is a big change.”

She said during the busy season farmers may not have a choice but to keep their employees working for longer periods of time, providing workers with a financial cushion they previously didn’t have. She hopes it will provide her with the ability to afford her car repairs, rent, food and other utility bills she had struggled to pay in the past.

“This is a great victory and a great triumph for us,” she added. “Sometimes, I couldn’t even afford food. But now we’ll have equal pay.”

KVPR’s Madi Bolaños contributed to this report.

Bernie Sanders says Democrats are failing: ‘The party has turned its back on the working class’


Steven Greenhouse

THE GUARDIAN
Mon, January 10, 2022

Senator Bernie Sanders has called on Democrats to make “a major course correction” that focuses on fighting for America’s working class and standing up to “powerful corporate interests” because the Democrats’ legislative agenda is stalled and their party faces tough prospects in this November’s elections.

The White House is likely to see his comments as a shot across the bow by the left wing of a party increasingly frustrated at how centrist Democrats have managed to scupper or delay huge chunks of Biden’s domestic policy plans.

In an interview with the Guardian, Sanders called on Joe Biden and the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, to push to hold votes on individual bills that would be a boon to working families, citing extending the child tax credit, cutting prescription drug prices and raising the federal hourly minimum wage to $15.

Such votes would be good policy and good politics, the Vermont senator insisted, saying they would show the Democrats battling for the working class while highlighting Republican opposition to hugely popular policies.

“It is no great secret that the Republican party is winning more and more support from working people,” Sanders said. “It’s not because the Republican party has anything to say to them. It’s because in too many ways the Democratic party has turned its back on the working class.”

Sanders, who ran for the party’s nomination in both 2016 and 2020, losing out in fierce contests to Hillary Clinton and then Biden, is a popular figure on the left of the party. The democratic socialist from Vermont remains influential and has been supportive of Biden during his first year as the party tries to cope with the twin threats of the pandemic and a resurgent and increasingly extremist Republican party.

But his comments appear to reflect a growing discontent and concern with the Biden administration’s direction. “I think it’s absolutely important that we do a major course correction,” Sanders continued. “It’s important that we have the guts to take on the very powerful corporate interests that have an unbelievably powerful hold on the economy of this country.”

The individual bills that Sanders favors might not attract the 60 votes needed to overcome a Republican filibuster, and a defeat on them could embarrass the Democrats. But Sanders, chairman of the Senate budget committee and one of the nation’s most prominent progressive voices, said, “People can understand that you sometimes don’t have the votes. But they can’t understand why we haven’t brought up important legislation that 70 or 80% of the American people support.”

Sanders spoke to the Guardian on 6 January, the same day he issued a statement that the best way to safeguard our democracy is not just to enact legislation that protects voting rights, but to address the concerns of “the vast majority of Americans” for whom “there is a disconnect between the realities of their lives and what goes on in Washington”.

He said millions of Americans were concerned with such “painful realities” as “low wages, dead-end jobs, debt, homelessness, lack of healthcare”. In that statement, he said, many working-class Americans have grown disaffected with the political system because “nothing changes” for them “or, if it does, it’s usually for the worse”.

In the interview, Sanders repeatedly said that Democrats need to demonstrate vigorously and visibly that they’re fighting to improve the lives of working-class Americans. “The truth of the matter is people are going to work, and half of them are living paycheck to paycheck,” Sanders said. “People are struggling with healthcare, with prescription drugs. Young families can’t afford childcare. Older workers are worried to death about retirement.”

Americans want the wealthy to start paying their fair share of taxes

Bernie Sanders

Sanders has long been troubled by America’s increasing wealth and income inequality, but he made clear that he thinks it is time for Democrats to take on the ultra-wealthy and powerful corporations – a move he said vast numbers of Americans would support. “They want the wealthy to start paying their fair share of taxes,” he said. “They think it’s absurd that Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk don’t pay a nickel in federal taxes.”

He praised Biden for pushing for improved childcare and extending the child tax credit. But he said it would also be good to “show working people that you are willing to step up and take on the greed of the ruling class in America right now.” He pointed repeatedly to the high prices for prescription drugs as an example of “corporate greed”.

“There is no issue that people care more about than that we pay the highest prices for prescription drugs in the world,’’ he said, adding that the pharmaceutical industry has 1,500 lobbyists in Washington who “tried everything to make sure we don’t lower the cost of pharmaceuticals”.

The senator said: “I think the Democrats are going to have to clear the air and say to the drug companies – and say it loudly – we’re talking about the needs of the working class – and use the expression ‘working class’. The Democrats have to make clear that they’re on the side of the working class and ready to take on the wealthy and powerful. That is not only the right thing to do, but I think it will be the politically right thing to do.”

Last Wednesday evening, Sanders did a nationwide live stream in which he talked with the leaders of three long strikes: Warrior Met Coal in Alabama, Special Metals in West Virginia and the Rich Product Corporation’s Jon Donaire Desserts subsidiary in southern California. Noting that hedge funds or billionaires own large stakes in all three companies, he railed against those companies for offering modest raises or demanding that workers pay far more for health coverage even though the owners’ wealth has soared during the pandemic thanks to the booming stock market.

“These entities, where the people on top have done phenomenally well, are squeezing their workers and lowering the standard of living for workers who are striking,” Sanders said. “It’s unacceptable.”

Are we prepared to stand with working families and take on powerful corporate interests?

Bernie Sanders

In December, Sanders went to Battle Creek, Michigan, to support 1,400 Kellogg’s workers who were on strike at cereal factories in that city as well as in Memphis, Tennessee; Omaha, Nebraska; and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In the interview, Sanders said, “I think the Democratic party has to address the long-simmering debate, which is, Which side are you on? Are we prepared to stand with working families and take on powerful corporate interests?”

Sanders voiced frustration with the lack of progress on Biden’s Build Back Better legislation, which the Democrats sought to enact through budget reconciliation, a process that requires only a simple majority to pass. That effort was slowed by lengthy negotiations with the centrist senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona – and then blocked when Manchin said he opposed the $2tn package, sparking leftwing fury and deep frustration in the White House.

“We have tried a strategy over the last several months, which has been mostly backdoor negotiations with a handful of senators,” Sanders said. “It hasn’t succeeded on Build Back Better or on voting rights. It has demoralized millions of Americans.”

He called for reviving a robust version of Build Back Better and also called for holding votes on individual parts of that legislation that would help working-class Americans. “We have to bring these things to the floor,” Sanders said. “The vast majority of people in the [Democratic] caucus are willing to fight for good policy.”

Sanders added: “If I were Senator Sinema and a vote came up to lower the outrageously high cost of prescription drugs, I’d think twice if I want to get re-elected in Arizona to vote against that. If I were Mr Manchin and I know that tens of thousands of struggling families in West Virginia benefited from the expansion of the child tax credit, I’d think long and hard before I voted against it.”

Sanders also called for legislation on another issue he has championed: having Medicare provide dental, vision and hearing benefits. “All these issues, they are just not Bernie Sanders standing up and saying this would be a great thing,” he said. “They are issues that are enormously popular, and on every one of them, the Republicans are in opposition. But a lot of people don’t know that because the Republicans haven’t been forced to vote on them.”