‘What has the Queen ever done?’ Dr Shola rips into the royals and demands reparations

She said the Queen had "failed as head of state" in an explosive interview on Sky News.

 by Joseph Connor

2022-04-28 


Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu has said the British monarchy’s popularity is at an “all-time low” in an explosive interview on Sky News.

The political commentator showed no sign of holding back during an interview aired today.

She said: “From the Cambridges to the Wessexes it shows that the Royal Family isn’t listening. It is an insult to Afro-Caribbeans in those countries. It is also a testament that the Queen as head of state of those nations failed.

“She failed as head of state, she has no legacy to leave because the first question you have to ask is, what did the Queen ever do as political head of state for these Afro-Caribbean nations?

“What did she ever do for her subjects, the Afro-Caribbean citizens? What has she ever done for the British Afro-Caribbeans who were born and raised in this country?”

“When these countries are demanding reparations, what is the response we’re getting from the Royal Family? Nothing. No apology or reparations. America paid $1.6 billion in reparations to the Japanese Americans.”

A must watch:

UK Parliament passing ‘deplorable’ Tory borders bill ‘is a devastating blow to LGBT+ people’

JOSH MILTON APRIL 28, 2022

PINK NEWS

Government plans to tighten immigration rules have been met with fierce criticism.

 (Hesther Ng/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The UK government’s overhaul of the immigration system through the Nationality and Borders Bill has been passed by parliament in a move that will imperil LGBT+ asylum seekers.

Home secretary Priti Patel’s reviled borders bill will toughen Britain’s already hawkish immigration process and criminalise entering the country without a valid visa or through what the government calls “irregular routes”, such as by boat.

In other words, it will legalise even more ways to criminalise or block altogether asylum seekers entering Britain, LGBT+ and refugee welfare groups told PinkNews.

With parliament being suspended – or prorogued – on Thursday (28 April), MPs and peers scrambled to ensure the bill passed on Wednesday night.

If lawmakers had not, the legislation may have been scrapped altogether. The bill will become law once it receives royal assent.


In a “factsheet“, the Home Office touted the Nationality and Borders Bill as a way “fix Britain’s broken asylum system” and tackle people smuggling by deterring so-called “illegal entry”.

Though, the number of overall asylum applications last year was far lower than its peak nearly two decades ago. The total in 2021 was a little more than half of what it was in 2002.

Even from the onset the Nationality and Borders Bill drew backlash. The United Nations’ refugee agency said the law would undermine Britain’s commitment to the 1951 UN convention on refugees.

Home Secretary Priti Patel has sought to toughen Britain’s already hardline immigration rules with the Nationality and Borders Bill. 

(PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images)

Among other critics of the bill, nearly 250 top human rights organisations have signed a pledge urging for the law to be repealed. These include LGBT+ groups such as Stonewall and Mermaids.

Another signatory includes Safe Passage International, a campaign group that lobbies for more accessible, legal routes to Britain for child refugees.

“Refugees who have escaped war and persecution, like Afghans fleeing Taliban, will be denied safety and sanctuary,” the group’s CEO Beth Gardiner-Smith said in a statement to PinkNews.

Most of those fleeing from war-torn countries such as Syria and Yemen who arrived in Britain by boat had valid asylum claims, research has found. But not anymore – a refugee arriving by boat could face up to four years in prison, regardless of validity.

“As people open their homes to those fleeing the war in Ukraine, it’s disgraceful that the government is slamming the door shut on refugees with this bill,” she added.

‘Deplorable’ Borders Bill will have a ‘grievous impact’ on LGBT+ asylum seekers

For LGBT+ people fleeing persecution and violence, in particular, the bill will throw many into jeopardy.

Rainbow Migration, a charity that supports LGBT+ people seeking asylum, told PinkNews that regardless of the validity of their claim for safe haven, many queer asylum seekers face unconcern from the Home Office.

“It is deplorable that this harmful bill has passed,” a Rainbow Migration spokesperson said.

“There will be a grievous impact on LGBTQI+ people who have sought safety in the UK. They face being disbelieved about their sexual orientation or gender identity to a greater extent than now.”

Indeed, the bill is about to make what is already an invasive and exhaustive process so much worse.

By increasing the burden of proof needed for queer asylum seekers and making them disclose their identity on arrival, some may simply not have the language to immediately describe their gender identity or sexual orientation to officials.

The Home Office currently refuses four out of five LGBT+ claims. When deciding whether an LGBT+ person is who they say they are, officials are understood to often rely on demeaning stereotypes

.

Prime minister Boris Johnson (C) has said the navy would take over patrolling the Channel for migrants trying to cross from France. 

(DAN KITWOOD/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

“If they manage to be successfully recognised as refugees, they will be left in limbo for 10 years before they can gain the right to stay in the UK permanently,” the spokesperson added.

Sabir Zazai, chair of refugee group coalition Together With Refugees and himself a refugee, said that the measure will prove not only costly for the government but do little to achieve its aims of tackling people-smuggling.

In fact, he said, it will increase the number of LGBT+ asylum seekers resorting to the dangerous practice – an outcome that LGBT+ refugees themselves warned last year would happen to PinkNews.

“This is a devastating blow to LGBTQ+ people forced to find safety in the UK,” Zazai said.

“I arrived here in the back of a lorry from Afghanistan more than 20 years ago, now anyone doing the same could face imprisonment in the UK. Yet two-thirds of the population think we should welcome refugees.

“It is very clear that this bill does not reflect who we are as a nation.”

LGBT+ asylum seekers ‘offshored’ to Rwanda face an ‘uncertain future’

The problems do not end there, however. The bill passing all but paves the way for the government to push through with its plans to ‘offshore‘ some asylum seekers to processing centres in Rwanda.

While full details of the migration partnership with the central African nation have yet to be released, it immediately raised alarms with LGBT+ groups and legal experts, concerned that queer people will be “deported to their deaths“.

Forcibly resettling refugees, Refugee Migration added, will make it even “easier for the government to not even consider people’s asylum claims”.

Rwandans sit in the Gikondo Transit Center in 2015. (Getty)


LGBT+ claimants will likely face “an uncertain future in Rwanda”, they said. While same-sex relations are not illegal in Rwanda, LGBT+ people have described facing bogus arrests and hiding who they are to avoid violence and hardship.

Members of one LGBT+ Rwandan campaign group, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for their safety, told PinkNews that British ministers have strived to present Rwanda as a “safe” place.

But “from experience”, they said, it’s anything but.

“It is neither safe nor good for us,” they said.” They expressed concern that those being deported to Rwanda will likely face harassment from processing centre officials, among other services, who hold “homophobic and conservative attitudes”.

Striking a hopeful tone, the members said that if any LGBT+ people are offshored to Rwanda, they will be waiting for them with open arms.

“We hope and look forward to working with them to protect LGBT+ rights,” they said.

UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell visits drought impacted Somali region in Ethiopia and calls for an immediate scaled up response to save the lives of millions of children

UNICEF Posted 28 Apr 2022 

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The worst climate-induced emergency in 40 years is threatening the lives of 10 million children across the Horn of Africa

Addis Ababa, April 28, 2022 – At the end of a four-day visit to Ethiopia, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell urged the international community to immediately scale up support to avert a humanitarian catastrophe due to the drought in Ethiopia and the rest of the Horn of Africa.

“The impact of the drought in Ethiopia is devastating,” said Ms. Russell. “In Somali region, one of the worst hit drought areas in the country, I met children and families who have literally lost everything. Their livestock have died and as a result they have no source of income. They cannot feed their children and are on the move in search of food and water. We need to reach these families now before it is too late.”

Due to three failed consecutive rainy seasons, four countries across the Horn of Africa are experiencing one of the worst droughts in decades. Overall, in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, 10 million children need urgent life-saving support.

The drought is pushing up malnutrition for children and their families at an alarming rate. Overall, 1.7 million children are severely malnourished across the subregion. In Ethiopia, admission rates for treatment of severe acute malnutrition for children under 5, in drought affected areas, was 15 per cent higher in February 2022 compared to February 2021. “Not only are we facing a malnutrition crisis, the lack of clean water is also further exacerbating the situation of children and women,” said Ms. Russell.

“Children are forced to drink contaminated water, and this puts them at risk of cholera and other killer diseases. In Somali region, we have had reports of over 1,000 cases of measles with 16 confirmed deaths.” But it is not only malnutrition and disease that are threatening the lives of children.

Over 600,000 children in drought hit regions have dropped out of school as a result of the drought. Schools have shut due to lack of water, and many children drop out because they have to travel long distances in search of food and water, or to look after other children while their caregivers try and find water for their families and cattle. “Travelling long distances exposes children to many risks, including child marriage,” said Ms. Russell. “Child marriage often increases in times of drought as families marry off their daughters in the hope that they will be better fed and protected, as well as to earn dowries. In some drought-hit areas in Ethiopia, there has been a 51 per cent increase in child marriage.”

In response, UNICEF Ethiopia is targeting an estimated 3.4 million people, including 1.4 million children, as part of our immediate response. UNICEF is rehabilitating and installing boreholes, emergency water trucking, treating severely malnourished children and providing education and child protection support. UNICEF is also investing in climate-resilient solar powered water systems for long-term sustainable solutions.

“While we appreciate the generous support of donors, we must do more to save the lives of millions of children,” said Ms. Russell. “We have to remember that behind every statistic, there is a child with the same hopes and dreams as children everywhere – and the same right to reach their full potential.”

Ms. Russell also met with Government officials including Ethiopian President SahleWork Zwede and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Demeke Mekonnen Hassen. During both meetings, Ms. Russell discussed the long-standing partnership with UNICEF and the Government and how to further strengthen the joint response to the drought and invest in resilience building.

About UNICEF

UNICEF works in some of the world's toughest places, to reach the world's most disadvantaged children. Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, to build a better world for everyone. For more information about UNICEF and its work for children, visit www.unicef.org. UNICEF's overall Horn of Africa emergency response is USD$250 million. UNICEF's drought appeal in Ethiopia is USD$65 million.

For more information, please contact: Dheepa Pandian, Chief of Communication, UNICEF Ethiopia, dpandian@unicef.org, +251 91 125 5109

Additional resources for media: Multimedia materials available here

UNICEF and WHO warn of 'perfect storm' for spread of measles outbreaks among children

Apart from its direct effect, which can be lethal, the measles virus also weakens the immune system and makes a child more vulnerable to other infectious diseases like pneumonia and diarrhoea

Published: 28th April 2022 

A nurse prepares vaccine shots against measles at a clinic.

 (Photo | AP)
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: An increase in measles cases in January and February 2022 is a worrying sign of a heightened risk for the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases and could trigger larger outbreaks, particularly of measles affecting millions of children in 2022, warn WHO and UNICEF.

Pandemic-related disruptions, increasing inequalities in access to vaccines and the diversion of resources from routine immunization are leaving too many children without protection against measles, the acute viral respiratory illness, and other vaccine-preventable diseases, they said.

They further said as millions of people were displaced due to conflicts and crises including in Ukraine, Ethiopia, Somalia and Afghanistan, disruptions in routine immunization and Covid-19 vaccination services, lack of clean water and sanitation, and overcrowding had increased the risk of vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks.

Almost 17,338 measles cases were reported worldwide in January and February 2022, compared to 9,665 during the first two months of 2021.

Apart from its direct effect on the body, which can be lethal, the measles virus also weakens the immune system and makes a child more vulnerable to other infectious diseases like pneumonia and diarrhoea.

Most cases occur in settings that have faced social and economic hardships due to Covid-19, conflict, or other crises, and have chronically weak health system infrastructure and insecurity.

“Measles is more than a dangerous and potentially deadly disease. It is also an early indication that there are gaps in our global immunization coverage, which vulnerable children cannot afford,” said Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director.

“It is encouraging that people in many communities are beginning to feel protected enough from Covid-19 to return to more social activities. But doing so in places where children are not receiving routine vaccination creates the perfect storm for the spread of a disease like measles.”

As of April 2022, the agencies report 21 large and disruptive measles outbreaks around the world in the last 12 months. The figures are likely higher as the pandemic has disrupted surveillance systems globally, with potential underreporting.

In 2020, 23 million children missed out on basic childhood vaccines through routine health services, the highest number since 2009 and 3.7 million more than in 2019.

Countries with the largest measles outbreaks since the past year include Somalia, Yemen, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Ethiopia.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has interrupted immunization services, health systems have been overwhelmed, and we are now seeing a resurgence of deadly diseases including measles. For many other diseases, the impact of these disruptions to immunization services will be felt for decades to come,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO.

“Now is the moment to get essential immunization back on track and launch catch-up campaigns so that everybody can have access to these life-saving vaccines,” he said

Alan Cumming offers $10,000 reward for information on chimpanzee Tonka who he starred alongside in comedy Buddy

Tonka was last seen in a cage at a now-defunct Missouri Primate Foundation, a chimpanzee breeding facility that rented the primates out for movies and parties or sold them to private owners.


Friday 29 April 2022  UK

Rene Russo (left), Alan Cumming and a chimpanzee at a film

 premiere of Buddy in 1997


Actor Alan Cumming is offering a $10,000 (£8,000) reward for information about the whereabouts of a chimpanzee who starred in the 1997 comedy, Buddy, with him.

Tonka was last seen in a cage at a now-defunct Missouri Primate Foundation, a chimpanzee breeding facility that rented the primates out for movies and parties or sold them to private owners.

Animal rights group PETA said Cumming is doubling its reward, raising it as high as $20,000 (£16,000) for information about the chimpanzee.

Missouri Primate Foundation has come under repeated criticism from animal rights groups who claim the company mistreated its chimpanzees.

The facility has been closed and no one seems to be able to locate Tonka.

Cummings said: "During the months we filmed together, baby Tonka and I became good friends, playing and grooming each other and just generally larking about.

"It’s horrible to think he might be in a cage in a dark basement somewhere or have met some other fate, so I’m appealing to whoever knows what has become of him to please come forward and claim the reward."

The actor has previously raised concerns about Tonka's conditions in the Missouri facility and has campaigned alongside animal rights groups.

Sky News tried to contact people connected with the now defunct business.

PETA previously sued Missouri Primate Foundation over the living conditions of the chimpanzees there and was granted permission last year to rescue Tonka along with six others and move them to a sanctuary.

Alan Cumming in Buddy

However last July, when PETA came to carry out the rescue, Tonka was not there.

PETA's Brittany Peet said: "If you know where Cumming's former co-star may have been shipped to, sold, or hidden away, PETA wants to hear from you.

"If he's still alive, Tonka deserves to live out the rest of his days surrounded by chimpanzee friends at a lush sanctuary, as ordered by the court, and someone out there might be able to help PETA get him there."

Buddy featured Cumming, alongside Robbie Coltrane and Rene Russo, and was about a couple who adopt and raise a feeble young gorilla.

UK-Rwanda deal: British govt facing legal action over controversial Rwanda deportation policy

The British government faces forthcoming challenges against plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda as UK refugee charities gear up for legal action.

The New Arab Staff
28 April, 2022

Britain promised Rwanda an initial £120m as part of an 'economic transformation and integration fund' [source: Getty]


The UK government is expected to face legal action against its controversial plan to ship asylum seekers to Rwanda after British charities raised “serious human rights concerns” over the policy.

The British Home Office received a pre-action letter from Freedom From Torture via their solicitors Leigh Day requesting full details about the policy, including risk assessments and the memorandum of understanding between the UK and Rwanda.

The letter is likely to lead to a judicial review claim and the charity has set up a crowdfunding page for costs involved in delivering the legal challenge.

Sonya Sceats, Chief Executive at Freedom from Torture, told The New Arab: “The decision to send to Rwanda refugees who take dangerous routes to claim asylum must be challenged because it is an affront to basic human decency.

“It is also a clear violation of Britain’s international legal obligations towards torture survivors and other refugees."

“We believe strongly in the rule of law and Freedom from Torture and others will not hesitate to hold the government accountable in the courts for these transgressions,” she added.

The charity’s crowdfunding page has raised just over £20,000 so far.

It aims to raise a further £10,000 over the next 28 days.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the plan to send people fleeing violence and persecution to Rwanda two weeks ago.

He presented the policy as means to tackle people-smuggling gangs, saying “there is simply no other option".

Separate legal challenges have been launched by other charities, including Detention Action and Care4Calais, as well as the PCS union, whose members include Home Office staff and Border Force officers.

This week the UK government U-turned on plans to implement a "refugee pushback" strategy ahead of a High Court hearing.

Freedom From Torture said this was because "they realised they were going to lose” forthcoming legal challenges.

Editorials
In Support of Boycott, Divest, Sanction and a Free Palestine

By The Crimson Editorial Board
HARVARD

When oppression strikes anywhere in the world, resistance movements reverberate globally. The desire for rightful justice spreads, like wildfire, moving us to act, to speak, to write, and right our past wrongs.

Over the past year, the Harvard College Palestine Solidarity Committee has strived to do just that. Amid escalating tensions between Israel and Palestine, PSC has hosted informational programming, organized weekly demonstrations of support through “Keffiyeh Thursdays,” and even installed a colorful, multi-panel “Wall of Resistance” in favor of Palestinian freedom and sovereignty.

In at least one regard, PSC’s spirited activism has proven successful: It has forced our campus — and our editorial board — to once again wrestle with what both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have called Israel’s “crimes against humanity” in the region.

We first and foremost wish to extend our sincere support to those who have been and continue to be subject to violence in occupied Palestine, as well as to any and all civilians affected by the region’s bellicosity. We are not sure how these words will reach you, or whether they’ll do so at all. But our stance isn’t rooted in proximity or convenience, but rather in foundational principles we must uphold — even if (or perhaps especially when) it proves difficult.

This editorial board is broadly and proudly supportive of PSC’s mission and activism, including its recent art display. The admittedly controversial panels dare the viewer to contend with well-established, if rarely stated, facts. They direct our eyes towards the property and land confiscations, citizenship denials, movement restrictions, and unlawful killings that victimize Palestinians day in and day out. Art is a potent form of resistance, and we are humbled by our peers’ passion and skill.

In the wake of accusations suggesting otherwise, we feel the need to assert that support for Palestinian liberation is not antisemitic. We unambiguously oppose and condemn antisemitism in every and all forms, including those times when it shows up on the fringes of otherwise worthwhile movements. Jewish people — like every people, including Palestinians — deserve nothing but life, peace, and security.

Nothing about PSC’s Wall of Resistance denies that. While members of our campus might well find its messages provocative, or disagree with their philosophical outlook, nothing about them is, in our view, worthy of that delegitimizing label. We have a certain community-wide tendency to dismiss opposing views as inherently offensive and unworthy, straw-manning legitimate arguments and obfuscating difficult but necessary discussions. Yet civil discourse and debate, even when trying, are fundamental steps towards a better reality.

Israel remains America’s favorite first amendment blindspot. Companies that choose to boycott the Jewish state, or otherwise support the pro-Palestine Boycott, Divest, and Sanction movement face legal repercussions in at least 26 states. Even for journalists, openly condemning the state’s policies poses an objective professional risk. Only last year, the Associated Press prompted outcry after firing a news editor over college-age tweets critical of Israel. The controversial decision followed a long-established pattern: Dare question Israel’s policies or endorse Palestinian freedom and you will be shunned from the newsroom, past accomplishments or legitimate arguments be damned. For college students like ourselves, speaking bluntly about events in the region can prompt online harassment or even land you on a blacklist.

What this immense opposition to student activists and journalists makes clear is the overwhelming power imbalance that defines and constricts the ongoing debate. This stark power differential extends far beyond the arena of free speech, shifting from rhetorical to lethal on the ground in Palestine, where Israeli soldiers have killed nearly 50 Palestinians, including eight children, this year alone.

As an editorial board, we are acutely aware of the privilege we hold in having an institutional, effectively anonymous byline. Even on this campus, many of our brave peers advocating for Palestinian liberation can be found on watchlists tacitly and shamefully linking them to terrorism.

These twin factors — the extraordinary abuses and our privileged ability to speak to them and face comparatively less unjustified retribution — compel us to take a stand. Palestinians, in our board’s view, deserve dignity and freedom. We support the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction movement as a means to achieving that goal.

In the past, our board was skeptical of the movement (if not, generally speaking, of its goals), arguing that BDS as a whole did not “get at the nuances and particularities of the Israel-Palestine conflict.” We regret and reject that view. It is our categorical imperative to side with and empower the vulnerable and oppressed. We can’t nuance away Palestinian’s violent reality, nor can we let our desire for a perfect, imaginary tool undermine a living, breathing movement of such great promise.

Two decades ago, we wrote that divestment was a “blunt tool” that affected all citizens of the target nation equally and should be used sparingly. Yet the tactics embodied by BDS have a historical track record; they helped win the liberation of Black South Africans from Apartheid, and have the potential to do the same for Palestinians today. Israel’s current policy pushes Palestinians towards indefinite statelessness, combining ethnonationalist legislation and a continued assault on the sovereignty of the West Bank through illegal settlements that difficults the prospect of a two-state solution; it merits an assertive and unflinching international response. The arguments made against BDS could have been and indeed were once made against South Africa, and we are no longer inclined to police the demands of a people yearning to breathe free.

We do not take this decision lightly. BDS remains a blunt approach, one with the potential to backfire or prompt collateral damage in the form of economic hurt. But the weight of this moment — of Israel’s human rights and international law violations and of Palestine’s cry for freedom — demands this step. As a board, we are proud to finally to finally lend our support to both Palestinian liberation and BDS — and we call on everyone to do the same.

This staff editorial solely represents the majority view of The Crimson Editorial Board. It is the product of discussions at regular Editorial Board meetings. In order to ensure the impartiality of our journalism, Crimson editors who choose to opine and vote at these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on similar topics.

$1,000 a Month for Farmworkers? Proposed Payments Aim to Help Amid Drought

A California state senator would offer guaranteed income for the next three years to farmworkers who lose work as a result of the ongoing drought.


BY MELISSA MONTALVO, CALMATTERS
APRIL 29, 2022

A Democratic lawmaker from the central San Joaquin Valley wants to put cash in the hands of eligible farmworkers to help them deal with the devastation of California’s drought.

Proposed by State Senator Melissa Hurtado, a Democrat from Sanger, Senate Bill 1066 would allocate $20 million to create the California Farmworkers Drought Resilience Pilot Project, a state-funded project that would provide unconditional monthly cash payments of $1,000 for three years to eligible farmworkers, with the goal of lifting them out of poverty.

“When we talk about climate change, we forget about those that are most impacted and are already hurting,” Hurtado said in a phone interview on Tuesday. “And that is the workers and the farmers.”

Part of the reason for the bill is that the agriculture industry lost over 8,000 jobs in 2021 alone due to the drought, Hurtado said.

“This is climate change; we know this (the drought) is ongoing,” Hurtado said. “I don’t anticipate it getting better.”

The proposed legislation comes nearly a year after Hurtado wrote a letter to Governor Gavin Newsom, urging him to prioritize farmworkers with the $35 million the state earmarked for guaranteed basic income pilot programs. The funding, agreed to by the Governor and the legislature as part of the fiscal year 2021-22 budget, will prioritize projects that serve former foster youth as well as pregnant individuals.

Hurtado said the state needs to create more policies that support the agricultural workforce. “Farmworkers have been long neglected and continue to be neglected,” she said. They need “the right policies for them to be successful.”
Fallowed Land Means Lost Jobs for California Farmworkers

Advocates say they’re already seeing the impact of the drought on farm work in the Valley.

Carlos Morales has worked in Fresno County’s fields for over 15 years. Earlier this month, he said that farmworkers in the county are already noticing that work is increasingly scarce due to the lack of water.

“There are many fields where the farmers have stopped growing,” Morales said in Spanish in an interview. “There’s no water; there are no jobs.”

In 2021, California farmers were forced to fallow 390,000 acres of land due to the drought and water allocation cutbacks–most of which were located in the Central Valley.

Hernan Hernandez, executive director of the California Farmworker Foundation, said that farmworkers are already seeing their work hours decreasing every year.

“Farmworkers now have to choose between putting food on their tables and paying rent, as there is less work in agriculture because of the lack of water in the Central Valley,” he said in a news release from Hurtado’s office, adding that the proposed legislation would bring “much-needed relief” to farmworkers and their families.

Some growers also support the legislation. Representatives of agriculture groups such as the California Fresh Fruit Association spoke in support of SB 1066 during a Senate committee hearing on Tuesday.

In a phone interview with The Bee on Thursday, Ian LeMay, president of the California Fresh Fruit Association, said the bill was an “interesting proposal” that acknowledges the many impacts of the drought on Central Valley communities.

“When we are in drought situations, or when we have low water allocations, not only are the businesses that we represent impacted, but ultimately our employees,” said LeMay.

He said he hopes the pilot program can help sustain the livelihoods of California’s farmworkers during the drought so they can remain in the community and be available for employment when the drought dissipates or when “an increased allocation of water is made to the growers in the central San Joaquin Valley.”

Who would Qualify for the Drought Relief Payments?

If SB 1066 becomes law, qualifying farmworkers would be eligible for $1,000 unconditional monthly payments for three years—or up to $36,000.

To be eligible for the program, a household must meet the following criteria:At least one member of the household is a California resident;
At least one member of the household has worked as a farmworker for the entire period between March 11, 2020 to January 1, 2022;
At least one member of the household is a farmworker at the time of consideration for, and throughout the duration of, the pilot project; and
The household received benefits under CalFresh, California Food Assistance Program, or would have been eligible to receive benefits “but for the immigration status of one or more members of the household.”

Undocumented individuals that would have qualified for CalFresh or FCAP, except for their immigration status, could be eligible for the supplemental payments if they meet the other criteria. The legislation does allow for short lapses of unemployment during the duration of the pilot project if the unemployment is “due to reasons out of their control.”

If approved, the pilot project would run from January 1, 2023, through December 31, 2026.

Some Farmworkers Still Left Out of Safety Net

Many farmworkers, especially those that are undocumented, are unable to access unemployment benefits.

Legislators and labor advocates are increasingly calling on the state to expand the safety net to the state’s most vulnerable workers, including undocumented workers.

Last month, Assembly member Eduardo Garcia, a Democrat from Coachella, introduced legislation that would create a pilot program to provide unemployment benefits to undocumented workers. The bill—a high-priority legislation for the Latino Legislative Caucus—would provide undocumented workers with $300 per week for up to 20 weeks of unemployment between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2023.

Researchers at the U.C. Merced Community and Labor Center released a report last month making a case for why California should provide unemployment benefits to undocumented workers. Undocumented workers risked their lives during the pandemic, the report found, and could be in significant jeopardy in the future due to climate change.

This article originally appeared in CalMatters, and is part of The California Divide, a collaboration among newsrooms examining income inequity and economic survival in California.


Melissa Montalvo is a reporter with The Fresno Bee and a Report for America corps member. She covers childhood poverty in the central San Joaquin Valley for the Bee in partnership with CalMatters' California Divide project.

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N. American oil companies scramble to find workers despite boom

© Reuters/DEEP WELL SERVICES
By Liz Hampton, Stephanie Kelly and Nia Williams

(Reuters) - When Jeremy Davis was laid off from his oilfield job in Texas in 2020, he did not want to leave the industry after 17 years in oil and gas.

But his next jobs brought one mishap after another. He was hospitalized for almost a week following a shift at a chemical manufacturing facility; another company he worked for never paid him, leaving him short $5,000.

"There comes a point and time where you also get extremely frustrated with the unpredictability and (lack of) stability," said Davis, 38, who now works in construction closer to his home and family near Austin, Texas.

Davis says he would be open to returning to energy, but for now, he is one of thousands of workers in the United States and Canada who have left oil and gas jobs, put off by arduous conditions, remote locations, and insufficient compensation, or lured to the renewables sector as the world transitions to cleaner energy.


© Reuters/DEEP WELL SERVICESFILE PHOTO:

 DWS Hydraulic Completion Unit (HCU) crew performs a Natural Gas drill-out operation on a well location in Ohio's Utica Shale Basin

Governments are pushing oil and gas producers to increase output with prices hovering around $100 a barrel amid a worldwide supply shortage. The shortage of workers is limiting how much producers in the United States and Canada can increase oil output this year as governments try to find ways to offset the effect of lost Russian barrels following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.


© Reuters/DEEP WELL SERVICESFILE PHOTO: 

An overview photo of Deep Well Services based field employees working in the Snubbing basket of a 300K 15M Hydraulic Completion Unit (HCU), in Texas

Oil workers left the industry in droves after the COVID-19 pandemic started. Now, the U.S. unemployment rate has fallen to 3.6%, just a hair above the pre-pandemic low, but there are still roughly 100,000 fewer oil and gas workers now in the country than before the pandemic.

Oil industry employment in Canada has rebounded more swiftly, which has allowed workers to drive a harder bargain in negotiations for benefit and wage packages as companies try to maintain their workforce.

"At a job fair in a place like San Antonio, pre-COVID, maybe 200 people would show up. Now it's 50 or 100," said Andy Hendricks, chief executive of Patterson-UTI Energy, which is currently running about a sixth of the 695 drilling rigs operating in the United States.

His company may hire another 3,000 workers this year after hiring back 3,000 in 2021, and even has recruiters set up at a shopping mall in Williston, North Dakota, to find potential workers.

HELP WANTED

Canadian producer Peyto Explorations and Development Corp would drill more wells if they could staff more rigs, said CEO Darren Gee. Calgary-based Peyto produces 98,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day of oil and natural gas.

"We probably would increase the capital budget this year if we could get people," Gee said, adding that new workers often lack experience. He pointed to the University of Calgary's move to suspend its oil and gas engineering program last year as an example of why the industry is struggling for new talent.




The rewards of economic development are many: an increase in living standards, higher literacy rates, technological advances, longer lifespans, and greater wealth, among other benefits.

Historically, the fastest way to improve people’s lives is through the use of fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, and petroleum, accessed through mining and drilling. Harnessing the power of these fuels accelerated with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, converting many of the world’s economies into industrial powerhouses from largely agrarian societies. It is only within the last century, with the rise of the environmental movement, that we have been made aware of the threat fossil fuels pose to the future of our planet. (These are 26 countries that consume more energy than they produce.)

Many countries, most of them developed nations, have taken steps to switch to cleaner energy sources. But some have not and continue to use fossil fuels to raise their standard of living.

To determine the 25 countries increasing emissions the fastest, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed data from two sources: the 2021 Global Carbon Budget published annually by the Integrated Carbon Observation System, a community of more than 500 scientists and 80 universities and institutes studying greenhouse gas concentrations and carbon fluxes worldwide; and the International Energy Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Energy 2021 Edition report.

We ranked 25 countries, lowest to highest, on the percentage of their change in CO2 emissions from 2010 to 2020, using data from the Global Carbon Project. Data on CO2 emissions change from 1971 to 2020 and total emissions by country is also from the same source. Data on each country’s change in CO2 emissions per capita and GHG emissions are from the IEA report.

Of the 25 countries on our list, all but one is in either Asia or Africa. The lone exception is Guatemala in Central America. (On a more local basis, these are the cities that emit the most carbon dioxide in the world.)

Virtually all of them have some of the fastest-growing economies in the world. For many, like Equatorial Guinea and the Republic of Congo, development has depended on drilling for oil. It has also sometimes meant unfettered deforestation, an issue especially in nations such as Mongolia, where environmental laws and institutions are weak.

Most of the nations on this list are signatories to the Paris Agreement on climate change. Many have action plans to address sustainability and combat climate change. Their challenge is raising the economic well-being of their citizens while being guardians of the health of the planet.

Employment in the U.S. oilfield services and equipment sector was nearly 609,000 in March, the highest since September 2021, but still below pre-pandemic levels of about 707,000, according to the Energy Workforce and Technology Council.

Mark Marmo, CEO of Deep Well Services, an oilfield firm based in Zelienople, Pennsylvania, said fracking work in places like West Texas is currently delayed about two weeks to a month because of a lack of labor.

"We hired 350. If we could hire another 350, we'd put them all to work," he said.

In the mining and logging industries, which includes oil and gas work, an estimated 14,000 workers quit in January, the highest level since early 2020, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. About 13,000 workers were estimated to have quit in February.

"We've had companies in the Permian that have gone out and hired 100 new employees and within six months there's only eight to nine original employees still working," said Tim Tarpley, with the Energy Workforce and Technology Council, a trade group whose members include Halliburton Co and Schlumberger.

U.S. and Canadian production is anticipated to grow even with a tight labor market, but executives said output could surpass expectations if more workers were available.

In the United States, output is expected to grow by about 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2022 to average 12 million bpd, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecast, short of 2019's all-time high of 12.3 million bpd. Canada's production, including natural gas liquids, is forecast to rise by 190,000 bpd to 5.75 million bpd, the EIA said.

COMPETING WITH AMAZON

Fewer skilled workers are willing to travel to the remote Canadian oil sands region for turnaround season, when thousands are needed for essential maintenance on oil sands plants, said Terry Parker, executive director of the Building Trades of Alberta, because companies no longer pay a big enough premium for the inconvenience.

Parker said oil sands labor rates ranged from C$30 ($23.78) an hour for less skilled work, to C$50 an hour for high-skilled workers like pipefitters, boilermakers and millwrights.

Unite Here, a union representing hospitality workers in industry accommodation camps, negotiated agreements for better overtime for workers at camps operated by Civeo Corp in the oil sands, the union's Canadian director, Ian Robb, told Reuters.

In March, the union also secured a wage increase of up to 22% for workers at an Atco Ltd camp serving the long-delayed Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion project, according to a news release.

In Alberta, the average weekly wage including overtime for all employees in mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction is up 7.3% since February 2020, according to data from Statistics Canada.

In the United States, hourly wages for production and nonsupervisory employees are currently about 5% higher on average than the year-ago level, and oilfield wages are due to rise about 10% for the year, according to oilfield consultancy Spears & Associates.

However, average hourly wages in the U.S. oil and gas extraction industry are still below pre-pandemic levels, currently estimated at $45.45 an hour for February 2022, versus $48.37 an hour in February 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Patterson-UTI raised wages last year because of competition from retailers that historically paid less than the oil industry, Hendricks said.

"We're competing against Amazon hiring drivers, or Target with positions in air-conditioned warehouses. It's easier than a drilling rig in west Texas in the summer," he said.

Oil and gas workers leave industry in droves https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/egvbkelekpq/Pasted%20image%201651180865162.png

($1 = 1.2618 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Liz Hampton in Denver, Stephanie Kelly in New York and Nia Williams in Calgary; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

60 Years of San Francisco Fortune Cookies

When you have questions about the future, what better way to get a hint about it than through a cookie? While fortune cookies are usually for a bite of positivity, one man and his family have made a business out of producing handmade cookies at his San Francisco shop.