Secret JPMorgan project aims to push bank deeper into growing market serving private companies

Hugh Son 


JPMorgan has been quietly hiring programmers and creating products for a new fintech business that aims to provide an array of services to start-ups and investors around the world, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The business, known internally by the code name "Project Bloom" because of its goal of helping early-stage private firms grow, is run by Michael Elanjian, head of digital private markets, said the people, who declined to be identified speaking before its launch.

A key part of Project Bloom is a digital network for JPMorgan clients that will match start-ups with investors, helping them in fundraising rounds, said the people.

© Provided by CNBC JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon gives a speech during the inauguration of the new French headquarters of US' JP Morgan bank on June 29, 2021 in Paris.

JPMorgan Chase is preparing to go all-in on private companies.

For the past year, the bank has been quietly hiring programmers and creating products for a new fintech business that aims to provide an array of services to start-ups and investors around the world, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The business, known internally by the code name "Project Bloom" because of its goal of helping early-stage private firms grow, is run by Michael Elanjian, head of digital private markets, said the people, who declined to be identified speaking before its launch.

JPMorgan, the biggest U.S. bank by assets, raised eyebrows last month when it said that expenses would surge this year, in part because of an annual technology budget that has grown to at least $12 billion. CEO Jamie Dimon is aggressively investing to help his bank battle fintech firms, and executives see an opportunity to create a private-markets winner before start-ups can dominate the space.

A key part of Project Bloom is a digital network for JPMorgan clients that will match start-ups with investors, helping them in fundraising rounds, said the people. Other planned-for services include helping companies sell shares in tender offers or providing loans on private stakes, offering a digital interface for secondary trading of private company stock, and helping venture capital firms raise new funds.

While elements of these offerings exist across parts of JPMorgan's sprawling operations, the new effort aims to create a one-stop digital portal for start-ups and venture capital firms, family offices and other institutional investors, said the people.

The business aims to tie in offerings from the firm's corporate and investment bank, commercial bank and private bank. For instance, the private markets trading desk first reported by CNBC in 2020 will feed into the new platform, according to the sources.

By creating a self-service platform, JPMorgan can target smaller, earlier-stage companies than its bankers traditionally engage with, helping them raise funds and offering automated recommendations, the people said.

That has lifted the fortunes of start-ups like Carta, Brex and Forge that cater to private companies in one way or another. Banks have historically geared their services to public companies and more established start-ups that are approaching public listings, leading to the rise of specialty providers.

Now, JPMorgan appears to be betting that if it can create a fully-scaled private company network before the fintechs do, its place in a future in which private companies have even greater importance will be assured.

Stealth mode

The new JPMorgan business has grown to 80 or so employees operating in stealth mode, walled off from other JPMorgan employees in more than a half dozen cities around the world, including in New York and New Jersey; Plano, Texas; Chicago; Glasgow; London and Buenos Aires, said the people.

The bank is in the midst of a hiring spree, pushing for 200 employees for the private markets business by year-end and specifically looking for software engineers, data wranglers and artificial intelligence specialists, according to job listings.

"We are building a high-profile and exciting new data-driven fintech business for the firm, with the goal of creating a market leading platform for private markets," the bank said in one job post. The team "building the product brings together data scientists, finance specialists, former entrepreneurs, product managers, designers, and engineers, who work together with the benefits of a startup culture that can leverage the scale of JPM."

Another job post, this one for a business development manager, said the bank was looking for "individuals with entrepreneurial experience" like founders and investors to help it acquire clients for the business, referred to as Digital Private Markets.

In response to queries, JPMorgan spokeswoman Jessica Francisco had this response: "We've been a leader in private capital markets for years, and we see opportunity to provide new digital capabilities to private companies and investors."

Word about the project began circulating within JPMorgan and at competitors earlier this month after Elanjian gave a presentation to Dimon and 200 other executives at the bank's annual senior leadership conference in Miami, according to people familiar.

The firm is gearing up to release a suite of products this year and recently launched its inaugural piece of software to a small group of clients, these people said.

Elanjian, who joined JPMorgan from archrival Goldman Sachs in 2018, hopes to sign several hundred companies and hundreds of investors onto the platform before its official launch later this year, according to the people

As MLB lockout reaches crucial point, it's clear the owners were never going to lose 

| Opinion

Gabe Lacques, USA TODAY 

Misery Monday has arrived in Major League Baseball’s industry shutdown, a day in which the game’s overlords decreed there must be a deal struck for a new collective bargaining agreement, or else.

Or else regular season games will be canceled. Or else players – oh, those greedy players! – will miss paychecks. Or else the sport will wear yet another proverbial black eye and the cries of “Never again!” from angry fans could be heard.

But that scenario is torn from the pages of history.

Sure, fans will be mad, and some will jump ship and never return, but a vaster share will simply continue regarding baseball for what it is now – background noise through the spring and summer months, save for the rare moments when the hometown nine breaks through and makes the World Series, or a player, team or both are caught up in scandal.

And we can dispense with the notion of “winners and losers” once this thing – if this thing? – is settled. While the sides remained zip codes apart in 11th-hour negotiations, the players likely will ultimately point to nominal gains made in some areas, largely involving pay for younger players.

Where things stand: MLB calls talks 'productive' while MLBPA says sides are still 'very far apart' entering deadline day

Bob Nightengale's Notebook: MLB's lockout is doing more permanent damage every single day

First COVID, now a lockout: MLB labor dispute latest blow for spring training businesses

Yet this lockout – imposed by MLB at midnight Dec. 1 – was never going to be an avenue for labor to gain back losses to management in previous CBA negotiations. In fact, all it did was reveal just how challenging it will be for players to pry so much as a nickel from franchise owners.

This wasn’t quite the nuclear winter we all saw coming three to five years ago, and that’s due largely to the players, relatively early on, dropping the concepts of free agency after five years of service time and salary arbitration after two. Those concessions might have resembled an olive branch. Instead, it only emboldened MLB to fortify its wall.

© Isaiah J. Downing, USA TODAY 

Sports Chicago Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts and Colorado Rockies owner Dick Monfort take in a 2021 game at Coors Field.

What we’ve seen over these 89 days was not a negotiation, but the owners deploying a four-corners offense that would have impressed Dean Smith himself.

MLB needed nothing from these negotiations and acted like it. The luxury tax ceiling? It’s pretty much fine the way it is – and how about we ramp up the penalties for offending teams, while we’re at it.

An increased arbitration-eligible class? We’d rather not. A draft lottery to deter teams from not bothering to win? We’ll think about it, but only if you’re good boys and accept a 14-team playoff!

And so Rob Manfred and Dan Halem and Dick Monfort and Ron Fowler spread the floor and tossed the ball back and forth to each other. And Tony Clark and Bruce Meyer and Max Scherzer and Marcus Semien could only scamper after them, pressure them, but could not compel them to shoot.

Instead, a series of unserious luxury tax proposals came forth – a bump from the already grossly outdated $210 million in 2021 to $214 million in 2022, rising to $222 million in 2026. Those also were accompanied by stiffer penalties for exceeding it – up to 95% for the third tier.

While the players’ initial ask of a $245 million ceiling seems audacious, it is an area in which they’re making up for lost time. The luxury tax ceiling has grown just 18% since 2011, from $178 million to $210 million, a period during which industry revenues grew 70%, from an estimated $6.29 billion to $10.7 billion in 2019, the last season untouched by pandemic.

Perhaps the players must live with the losses they took in the past two CBAs, but some market correction is in order. As for MLB’s proposed tax ceiling rising from just $214 million to $222 million from 2022-26, just one question: With massive national TV deals coming online, the untapped revenue stream of sports gambling and the specter of expansion, do team owners really believe their revenues will grow by less than 4% in that five-year span?

Besides, just because owners have a limit on spending does not mean they’ll be compelled to reach it.

And that brings us to our original point – even if Manfred fell under the spell of Che Guevara’s ghost and capitulated to every labor demand, how many owners would actually bother to spend upward of $245 million on payroll?

If the past seven or so years proved anything, it’s that ownership – hiding behind the “smarts” of their army of front-office analysts – has proven quite capable of price-fixing without appearing downright collusive. It is how All-Stars are frozen out of the market, veterans all receive the same one-year, $1 million tender and scores of arbitration-eligible players get tossed back into six-figure salaryland when they reach three years of service and are subsequently not offered a contract.

Even the only three franchises who combine excessive revenue with an apparent desire to win – the Red Sox, Yankees and Dodgers – play limbo with the tax threshold, ducking under it as long as possible and showing a willingness to sacrifice championships rather than exceed the ceiling for a difference-making player.

(At least the Dodgers learned their lesson, breaking a 32-year title drought the same year they traded for and guaranteed $375 million to Mookie Betts.)

So what now? Negotiations will ramp up Monday and, in a perfect world, enough progress will be made that MLB – which imposed the lockout – also won’t have to announce Opening Day cancellations. That will require both sides to again touch the third rail of luxury tax ceilings, and MLB will surely try to stand firm once common ground is found on minimum salaries and, perhaps, a new bonus pool for high-achieving young players.

Yet even the highest end of those proposals amount to nickels and dimes. On minimum salary, the sides are hardly worlds apart (MLB: $640,000, players: $775,000) and the difference would cost teams a mere $1.35 million if they had up to 10 minimum-wage earners on their team. The $20 million bonus pool proposed by MLB would, in theory, cost less than $1 million per team. It would cost each team $3.83 million under the $115 million proposed by the union – and you get the sense that number, more than any, has significant flexion from the players’ side.

Meanwhile, as owners cough up hundreds of thousands to younger players, they’d be aiming for billions more in revenue, ready to pilfer your municipality for real estate developments with a side of baseball. We already saw Manfred dump on the current Oakland Coliseum site to help nudge the A’s toward a mixed-use development – or Las Vegas – even as their own fans express satisfaction with the current location.

Get ready for Royals owner John Sherman to continue touting the import of a downtown Kansas City ballpark, even as a true gem, Kauffman Stadium, glistens from renovations and remains a fan favorite. Hey, the 2015 World Series title was nice, but a cluster of 800-square foot condos with a Starbucks in the basement would be much, much better.

See where this is going?

So get ready for more posturing this week, some furious negotiations and, perhaps, an agreement. The players will rightfully tout their gains, relieved it is over but also crestfallen that another five years will pass before any substantive change. The owners will aim to keep a straight face while lauding what they’ll call significant concessions made amid a fair deal.

And perhaps a 162-game season will be salvaged, before MLB loses any other shares of the attention economy following a winter in which arguably its most popular venture – trades and free agency – was doused.

It all starts back up Monday morning. And once again, MLB can simply hold the ball in the corner, knowing the clock will eventually run out.

Biden's top student-loan official said much more student debt relief is to come, but asks borrowers 'not to flood our phone lines'

asheffey@businessinsider.com (Ayelet Sheffey) 

© Provided by Business Insider FSA head Richard Cordray Pete Marovich/Getty Images)

The Education Department recently announced temporary reforms to Public Service Loan Forgiveness.

FSA head Richard Cordray told borrowers "not to flood our phone lines" as he delivers debt relief.

Thousands of public servants were previously denied relief due to flaws in the loan forgiveness program.

A top student-loan official said much more student-debt relief is to come — borrowers just need to sit back and wait.

"Please continue to be patient, log in to FedLoan's borrower portal to check your progress, and try not to flood our phone lines so we can focus on doing this work for you," Federal Student Aid head Richard Cordray wrote on Twitter last week.

His plea comes after thousands of student-loan borrowers saw their debt balances turn to zero after President Joe Biden's Education Department launched temporary reforms to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program in October.

PSLF was created in 2007 to forgive student debt for public servants, like teachers and nonprofit workers, after ten years of qualifying payments. But since the first group of borrowers became eligible for forgiveness in 2017, the program ran up a 98% denial rate, prompting reforms from Biden's Education Department. Although some of the reforms are limited-time — including a waiver through October that would allow any past payments to count toward forgiveness progress — the department said at the time thousands of borrowers would become eligible for billions in relief.

For example, a month after the reforms were announced, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said 10,000 public servants had already gotten $715 million in student debt wiped out, and $2 billion in relief would be coming for over 30,000 more borrowers. According to recent Education Department data, over 70,000 borrowers have had their debt wiped out to date.

"Over the last year 70,000 first responders, teachers, service members & other public servants received debt forgiveness, 4x the previous total," Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal wrote on Twitter in January. "We are proud to have their back."

As Insider previously reported, and as Cordray noted in his tweet, little action on the borrower's part needs to be taken to receive loan forgiveness. The main thing borrowers must do is ensure their loans are consolidated into a direct federal loan, and after submitting a PSLF application, the department will take it from there.

To help deliver relief to borrowers, the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) — a controversial student-loan company that manages PSLF — announced in November it would extend its contract one additional year to allow time for impacted borrowers to smoothly transition to a new company.

Even so, some public servants are confused by what the reforms mean for them and are waiting for the loan forgiveness they think they deserve. One borrower told Insider in November that even after working in public service for two decades, she has yet to receive relief and it's "anxiety-inducing" not knowing where her debt load stands.

Lisa Ansell — a teacher who got her remaining $44,000 student-debt load forgiven — told Insider she has "a new lease on her life," but she will not stop fighting until 45 million Americans holding $1.7 trillion in student debt can say the same.

"I'm just a sliver of the totality of borrowers drowning in crippling student debt," Ansell said. "I happen to have been fortunate enough in that of the millions of applications, somehow mine managed to land in the yes file."

Student-loan companies' 'illegal conduct' can ruin borrowers' chances of debt forgiveness, Biden's top consumer watchdog says — and they're about to face stepped up scrutiny

asheffey@businessinsider.com (Ayelet Sheffey) 

© Provided by Business Insider CFPB head Rohit Chopra. Getty/Tom Williams

The Education Department recently reformed the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

The CFPB is stepping up scrutiny over the information some student-loan companies provide on the reforms.

The agency reported companies' misleading behavior that can block borrowers from debt relief.

President Joe Biden's top consumer watchdog says he's cracking down on student loan companies' bad behavior that's jeopardizing some borrowers' chances of forgiveness.

Last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), led by Rohit Chopra, released a bulletin detailing how it will monitor student-loan companies' actions when it comes to debt forgiveness. Particularly, the agency is overseeing how companies are informing borrowers of recent reforms to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, which forgives student debt for public servants after ten years of qualifying payments.

Leading up to Biden's presidency, the program ran up a 98% denial rate, and the CFPB is stepping up its scrutiny over companies to ensure borrowers are no longer misinformed on the program.

"Illegal conduct by a student loan servicer can be ruinous for borrowers who miss out on the opportunity for debt cancellation," Chopra said in a statement. "We will be working closely with the U.S. Department of Education to ensure that loan cancellation promises for public service are honored."

The agency wrote that over past years, it has found that companies "made deceptive statements to borrowers about their ability to become eligible for PSLF," and the failure to provide accurate information has misled borrowers and resulted in tens of thousands of dollars of student debt that should have been canceled.

But things seem to be turning around for borrowers who have struggled to get relief from the program. As a result of announced reforms in October, the Education Department is temporarily allowing prior ineligible payments to qualify for PSLF through a waiver, and over 70,000 borrowers have so far seen their student debt wiped out as a result.

Federal Student Aid head Richard Cordray wrote on Twitter last week that the already delivered relief is "the tip of the iceberg." To ensure borrowers can continue reaping the benefits, the CFPB said it will be paying close attention as to whether student-loan companies are providing accurate information regarding the waiver and ensuring the waiver is being promoted to all borrowers who might be eligible.

"We want to make sure that every single borrower who could benefit from the PSLF Waiver has the chance to do so, and giving borrowers accurate and timely information about their eligibility is critical," Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement.

The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) —the student-loan company that manages PSLF — announced in November it would extend its contract one additional year to allow time for impacted borrowers to smoothly transition to a new company. However, PHEAA is checkered with controversy and has come under fire by lawmakers like Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who said the company has an "atrocious record" of misleading borrowers into taking on more debt than they can pay off.

This isn't the first time the CFPB is cracking down on student-loan companies. In July, the agency found borrowers "regularly" got inaccurate information from the companies collecting their debt, including misrepresenting eligibility requirements for PSLF.
Read the original article on Business Insider

WOULD U LIKE SOME CHEESE WITH THAT 

Stellantis CEO Once Again Complains About Electrification Costs

Mark Kane


He highlights an additional 40-50% increase in total production costs.

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares once again complained about the electrification costs, describing the issue as the "the gorilla in the room."

© insideEvs.com Copyright Chrysler Airflow Concept at 2021 Stellantis Software Day

According to an Automotive News Europe report, Carlos Tavares says that electrification will increase the total production cost by 40-50%, which is beyond what the company can accept. He already pointed that out in December, and in January, and continues to criticize the direction towards electric cars (instead of hybrids).

Last week, he said that automakers would need to find ways to absorb the additional costs.

"We can expect electrification to represent an additional total production cost of around 40 to 50 percent against the conventional vehicle. There is no way we can transfer 40 to 50 percent of the additional total production cost to the customer."

Stellantis' plan is to increase productivity (by 10% per year, over the next five years, compared to 2-3% normally).

The company is changing its sales model. After canceling dealer contracts in Europe, the company is expected to implement by mid-2023 a new "retailer model," with more control on how the cars are sold by dealers. It potentially will result in taking some of the dealer's tasks and profits.

Another way will be to transfer the higher costs to suppliers. Carlos Tavares said that 85% of the value of a car is from outside components, so there should be no surprise that they will have to absorb higher costs.

The one thing that Stellantis doesn't want is to increase prices because that would prevent people from buying new cars.

"This is going to be mostly a cost-reduction race over the next five years to protect affordability in terms of protecting the size of the markets, so that we can keep the middle classes on board on new car sales,"

Stellantis' overall adjusted operating margin in 2021 was 11.8%, which is quite strong.

House advances legislation to award WWII battalion the Congressional Gold Medal

Eleanor Watson 

The House of Representatives Monday night passed legislation to award the 688th Central Postal Directory Battalion the Congressional Gold Medal, one of the highest civilian honors.

The women of the 6888th or "Six Triple Eight" deployed to Europe in 1945 to sort through the backlog of mail whose delayed delivery was hurting morale on the frontlines. Working through horrid conditions, the 855 women cut down the six-month backlog in just three months.

Their work is credited with ensuring aid got to the frontlines, comforting mothers and saving marriages, and yet, they did not receive much recognition upon their return following the war.

The legislation to award the group the Congressional Gold Medal is an effort to rectify that.

 

© Provided by CBS News Black Women's Army Corps Unit handling the mail / Credit: National Archives

The House bill, introduced by Representative Gwen Moore of Wisconsin and supported by 295 co-sponsors, passed the House Monday night. Moore introduced the legislation after the daughter of 6888 member Anna Mae Robertson, a constituent, inspired her to get involved.

"Facing both racism and sexism in a warzone, these women sorted millions of pieces of mail, closing massive mail backlogs, and ensuring service members received letters from their loved ones," Moore said in a statement. "A Congressional Gold Medal is only fitting for these veterans who received little recognition for their service after returning home."

The bill passed the Senate last year and will now go to President Joe Biden to sign into law.

The effort to recognize the women has been pushed in large part by Retired Lieutenant Colonel Edna Cummings, who co-produced the documentary, "The Six Triple Eight," highlighting the unit's achievements, and helped erect a monument at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas for the 6888.

"I'm grateful to the 6888 veterans, families, and thousands of supporters who worked to make this Congressional Gold Medal vision a reality," Cummings said in a statement.

There are less than ten known living members of the unit to receive the medal, but the honor will guarantee the story of their contributions to the World War II effort has a place in history.

NDP warns Alberta won't hit $10-per-day child care target without extra $200M from UCP

The Alberta NDP is again calling for the province to inject $200 million into child care staffing this year or risk failing to hit the federal government’s goal of $10-per-day child care within four years

.

© Provided by Edmonton Journal Rakhi Pancholi, 

Alberta NDP critic for children's services, speaks out about the Alberta UCP government's delay on signing a $10/day child care deal with the federal government at It's All About Kids Daycare in Edmonton on Monday, Nov. 8, 2021.

Alberta and the federal government reached an agreement announced in November to bring the average cost of child care for kids under six down to an average of $10 a day by the end of 2026, and fees by 50 per cent by the end of 2022.

The YMCA of Northern Alberta has estimated 20 per cent of Alberta’s early childhood educators have left the province or are no longer working in the industry. The province’s occupational outlook forecasts that by 2028, there will be a shortage of 4,600 early childhood educators across Alberta.

Opposition NDP children’s services critic Rakhi Pancholi said at a news conference Monday the province should have put some of its more than $500-million budget surplus into child care initiatives, while child care providers have been calling on the UCP government to better attract staff, as some parents still struggle to find available child care spaces.

“In order for more families to have access to affordable childcare, they need to be able to go to spaces that are staffed, and we have a staffing problem in this province – that’s what I’m hearing from providers from Fort McMurray to Calgary to Edmonton to Grande Prairie to Jasper,” Pancholi said.

“If the UCP doesn’t invest any additional provincial dollars into childcare, there is no way that all Alberta families will benefit from $10-per-day childcare by 2026, and the UCP knows this,” said Pancholi, who added that while many families are happy to see a reduction in fees, many low-income families are not seeing the reduction that was promised, and the province needs to invest to expand physical capacity and help hire workers.

Andrew Reith, press secretary to Children’s Services Minister Rebecca Schulz said in an email the UCP government is firmly committed to implementing all the elements of the $10-a-day plan.

“While we did see a reduction in the number of early childhood educators during the pandemic, as of December of 2021, we are encouraged to see that the number has increased steadily and is on par with pre-pandemic numbers,” he said.

In budget 2022-23, Children Services is spending $1.076 billion on early learning and child care – $350 million of which comes from the province.

Federal child-care agreement funding is worth $666 million in 2022-23, but it’s expected to grow to nearly $1 billion by 2024-25.

The Children’s Services operating expense budget, not including the Canada-Alberta Early Learning and Child Care agreement, is $1.7 billion in 2022-23.

Alberta’s budget earmarks a total of $879 million towards affordability and access and $197 million towards child care quality and worker supports in 2022-23.

Reith said about $120 million will be directed towards supporting early childhood educators with wage top-ups, and through the federal agreement.

“Through the Alberta-federal child care agreement, we are investing an additional $300 million to help child care operators hire more early childhood educators and retain and train the ones already working in the system. We are working with operators to determine the best use of this investment,” he said.

lijohnson@postmedia.com

twitter.com/reportrix

Ontario to bring in $15 minimum wage for gig workers, more legal protections

Bianca Bharti 

POSTMEDIA

© Provided by Financial Post Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford wants to give platform-based gig workers more legal protections, including a base minimum wage, in the latest announcement in a slew of pro-worker policy proposals recently put forth by the government.

If passed, the legislation would impact workers such as food delivery and ride share drivers for companies including Uber Inc. and SkipTheDishes Restaurant Services Inc. Ford’s government would create the Digital Platform Workers’ Rights Act, separate from the Employment Standards Act. The new act wouldn’t address employment status; rather gig workers would simply be afforded rights if they are on a platform.

“In the last few years, we’ve seen huge shifts around traditional labour markets and as we build a resilient economy, our government must keep pace with those changes,” Ford said at a press conference on Monday. “We know the gig economy is one of the fastest growing employment sectors in Ontario.”

On top of a minimum wage of $15 an hour, Ford wants to ensure apps cannot withhold tips and also give workers notice and a reason if they’re removed. If a work-related dispute arises, the government wants app companies to resolve the issue in the province. Currently it’s commonplace for issues to be resolved in a company’s headquartered city.

© Provided by Financial Post

The latest proposal is part of a series of policy announcements made by Progressive Conservatives recently, all targeting pro-worker policies. Last week, Ford and Labour Minister Monte McNaughton announced the government will pass new laws to boost labour in the skilled trades by making it easier for out-of-province workers to move to Ontario, as well as mandate that employers inform workers of electronic monitoring policies.

Ford faces an election this summer and some have questioned whether his political stripes are changing colour in a bid to win re-election. “Times have changed,” Ford told reporters, adding that inflation has become one of many economic issues weighing on the province. He underlined some recent moves by the government that would put more money in people’s pockets, such as scrapping tolls on some highways and getting rid of fees for licence plate stickers.

“We’re delivering smart, common sense policies that protect the working class and help middle class families earn more money and create a better future for them and their families,” McNaughton said in an interview. “That’s how we’re going to tackle the labour shortage and drive economic growth here in the province.”

In January, Uber signed a deal with United Food and Commercial Workers Canada, a private union, that would allow UFCW Canada to represent about 100,000 drivers and couriers, if requested, when they are facing disputes with the technology company. However, the deal doesn’t provide complete unionization; workers do not pay union dues.

Uber said it wants the government to introduce more reforms beyond the latest announcement, including accident coverage and a benefits fund that scales with time spent on platforms. It’s a change in tune for a company that’s strongly resisted unionization in the past.

“While Uber would like to provide benefits to drivers and delivery people, we can only do so once the government passes enabling legislation,” Uber said in an emailed statement. “Uber bringing these benefits in on our own would go against the current classification model of independent contractor. (It) would be seen as making drivers and delivery people as employees, and they would lose their flexibility of schedule and being able to work on multiple platforms.”

• Email: bbharti@postmedia.com | Twitter: biancabharti

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How US 'wokeness' became a right-wing cudgel around the world

AFP 

With Covid-19 beginning to fade into the rear view mirror, the largest annual conservative gathering in the United States sounded the alarm this weekend over what they deem to be another fast-spreading virus: "wokeness."

© CHANDAN KHANNA L'ex-président américain Donald Trump devant la convention annuelle des conservateurs américains à Orlando, en Floride, le 26 février 2022

Once a rallying cry for Americans to be alert to racism, "wokeness" has become the political term of the hour, co-opted by culture warriors to denigrate "political correctness" and leftist orthodoxy.

"The radical left is trying to replace American democracy with woke tyranny," former US president Donald Trump told the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida during his keynote speech Saturday.

Speaker after speaker at CPAC invoked rightwing betes noires from "cancel culture" to the policing of pronouns. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a potential 2024 presidential hopeful, joined in the barrage of accusations, telling the crowd that "the woke is the new religion of the left."

The concept has metastasized from its US origins to penetrate the global body politic, from the English-speaking world to newsrooms, university boards and parliaments in Europe, Asia and South America.

"Among conservatives, wokeness is an all-pervasive ideology of extreme identity politics on behalf of minorities and women which is oppressive towards traditional cultural views," said Democratic political analyst Ed Kilgore.

The word "woke" as a means of describing enlightened skepticism over systemic injustice has its origins in African-American vernacular dating back before World War II.

American linguist John McWhorter points to the music of US blues-folk musician Lead Belly, who can be heard imploring his fans to "stay woke" on the 1938 protest song "Scottsboro Boys."

It appears to have crept into mainstream parlance in the early-to-mid 2010s, as the killings of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and other African-Americans ignited a firestorm of protest from Black Lives Matter activists who beseeched followers to "stay woke" to racially-motivated police brutality.

- Free speech -

Its appropriation by liberal whites as a watchword for heightened cultural awareness followed soon after.

From there conservatives turned it into a slur, an accusation of superficial, over-the-top sociopolitical sensitivity or authoritarian, performative political correctness.

In its new pejorative guise, the term spread quickly to Europe, particularly France, where "le wokisme" is seen by supporters of Eric Zemmour, a far-right election rival to President Emmanuel Macron, as a toxic, divisive US import.

In Britain, too, rightwing politicians have been pushing back against social-justice and LGBT activism, framing it as a threat to free speech and marker of progressiveness gone awry.

In the United States, "anti-woke" campaigners deplore politicians, CEOs and public figures who worry about cultural appropriation when they should be concerned with immigration, spiraling food prices and education.

A quick foray into Texas Senator Ted Cruz's Twitter pronouncements reveals he has used the word "woke" to call out the military, the news media, universities, Hollywood, the CIA, cartoons, Starbucks and even the sport of baseball.

At the four-day CPAC, marketed this time around under the slogan "Awake Not Woke," Cruz joked about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi flying on a broomstick and mocked leftists badgering people to get vaccinated.

Meanwhile serious conservative priorities such as low taxation, free trade and a hawkish foreign policy took a back seat to scorched-earth rhetoric about an America suffering under the jack boot of Marxist political elites.

- 'Woke, government-run everything' -

The Ukraine crisis came up here and there, but mostly just to be cast as a salutary warning about the excesses of political correctness.

"Woke weakness leads to things like we're seeing in the White House and what you're seeing around the world," former Wisconsin governor Scott Walker told attendees, while Senator Rick Scott warned of "woke, government-run everything."

Former White House advisor Steve Bannon lauded Russian leader Vladimir Putin for being "anti-woke," echoing the warm words of praise Trump and his chief diplomat Mike Pompeo had offered the former KGB spy.

The issue is not exclusively party political. One is as likely to hear Democratic strategist James Carville or comedian Bill Maher rail against "woke" ideology, for example, as leading Republicans.

And many critics of "wokeness" raise good faith concerns about over-medicalization of teen gender identity, zealous policing of language and the tendency to prioritize social justice over free speech.

This interpretation seems to chime with Middle America.

In November, ultra-conservative Glenn Youngkin defeated the Democratic frontrunner in Virginia's election for governor, in perhaps the biggest rejection yet of post-Trump political correctness.

During his campaign, the Republican Youngkin weaponized what he saw as performative outrage over America's racial history to cast himself as the man who would save the school curriculum from "critical race theory."

He won handily.

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About Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Former Acting Career, Including Voicing Paddington the Bear

Benjamin VanHoose 

© Provided by People Ukrainian Presidency/Anadolu Agency/Getty; Studiocanal

Prior to his leadership role in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a career as a comedian and actor.

A global spotlight is currently on 44-year-old Zelenskyy as he stays on the ground in Ukraine to help stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who launched an attack on the country Feb. 24, with forces moving from the north, south and east.

Details of the attack and the fighting change by the day, but this is the first major land conflict in Europe in decades — and hundreds have already been reported dead or wounded, including more than 100 children. Thousands more people have fled or tried to escape Ukraine amid warnings of a possible "refugee crisis."

"We are not putting down arms. We will be defending our country, because our weapon is truth, and our truth is that this is our land, our country, our children, and we will defend all of this," he said in a video last week, according to a CNN translation. "That is it. That's all I wanted to tell you. Glory to Ukraine."

After earning a law degree from the Kryvyi Rih Institute of Economics, Zelenskyy entered the entertainment industry, joining a competitive comedy team and going on to work as an actor.

Eventually, that led to roles in major feature films and work as an entertainment executive and, in 2015, a starring role as the president of Ukraine on the popular television series Servant of the People. He also voiced Paddington bear in the Ukrainian version of the 2014 film and its 2017 sequel, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed.

Member on the global impact of Putin's actions: 'It's an attack on the whole Democratic world."

RELATED: Ways to Help the People of Ukraine as Russia Launches War

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Paddington actor Hugh Bonneville reacted to that fact on Twitter over the weekend as social media pointed out Zelenskyy's voice work in the beloved role: "Until today I had no idea who provided the voice of @paddingtonbear in Ukraine. Speaking for myself, thank you, President [Zelenskyy]," wrote Bonneville.

Additionally, Zelenskyy won Ukraine's version of Dancing with the Stars back in 2006.

Observers say much of Zelenskyy's political success can be attributed to the unrest and revolution of 2014, when popular protest brought down Ukraine's then-President Viktor Yanukovich. By 2019, the disenchantment with the country's political elite had become even further ingrained, helping propel a political outsider to the highest office.

Zelenskyy — who is married to Ukrainian architect and screenwriter Olena Volodymyrivna Zelenska, with whom he shares two kids — ran with no party affiliation and no clear team of expert advisers until days before the election, and he attended no in-person campaign events and held no rallies, instead turning to social media to make a name for himself. After appearing in a slew of YouTube and Instagram posts and making television appearances, he handily won a first-round election and later, a runoff.

Zelenskyy campaigned on easing tensions with Russia, but some Ukrainians say that stance hasn't worked. He has attempted to project strength as Putin amasses troops on the border. Still, some analysts reportedly worry he's too politically inexperienced to stand up to the Russian autocrat.

Canada gets closer to building first EV battery refinery

The Government of Ontario is starting to warm up to electric vehicles (EVs) as it invests $250,000 into the development of North Aerica’s first battery-grade nickel sulfate facility.

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The government is investing this money alongside another $250,000 from Electra and $100,000 each from Glencore plc and Talon Metals.

The goal of these companies and the Ontario government is to study and collaborate on potentially building a nickel sulfate plant and a battery precursor cathode active materials plant beside an existing cobalt refinery and recycling factory.

Ideally, building these factories within the same area allows the companies to work more efficiently to transform raw metals and other mined materials into battery parts. In the future, Electra is hoping to supply 1.5 million EV batteries to the world annually.

The bodies involved are all hoping that Canada’s reliance on renewable hydroelectricity and the proximity to the feed materials will make the materials made in Canada some of the lowest carbon footprints around.

“The low carbon North American alternative that we are proposing is much more compatible with the transition towards zero-emission vehicles to lower global greenhouse gases,” said Electra CEO Trent Mell, in a press statement.

Electra is the company spearheading this operation, and it hopes get all of these buildings commissioned and under construction by 2025 at the latest. However, the company is getting closer to building the battery-grade cobalt sulfate refinery, so construction could launch as early as 2023.

Source: Electra