Ukrainian soldiers uncover ancient amphorae while digging trenches


Officials believe the amphorae date to between the 3rd and 4th century, when Odessa was an ancient Roman settlement. Photo courtesy of the 126th Territorial Defense

May 17 (UPI) -- Ukrainian soldiers digging trenches in the city of Odessa in preparation for a Russian attack uncovered artifacts dating as far back as the 3rd century, the military announced.

Ukraine's 126th Brigade of Territorial Defense of Odessa unveiled the discovery May 11 in a Facebook post.

The archaeological find included multiple amphorae used to store liquid or dry goods. This style of amphora -- with a tall, bottle-necked shape -- was popular in ancient Roman, Greek and Byzantine settlements, ARTnews reported.

The items date to between the 3rd and 4th century at a time when Odessa was a Roman settlement known as Odessus, Heritage Daily reported.

Because of the dangerous nature of the war in Ukraine, archaeologists were unable to document the site of the finds. Instead, the brigade said it recovered the artifacts and handed them over to staff at the Odessa Archaeological Museum.

Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, UNESCO estimates some 127 archaeological or culturally significant sites have sustained damage, including religious buildings, museums, historic buildings, monuments and libraries.

Second endangered cheetah cub dies in Iran: state media

A critically endangered Asiatic cheetah is seen in its enclosure at Pardisan Park in the

 Iranian capital Tehran in 2017. Just a dozen individuals are believed to survive in the wild.

The second of three Asiatic cheetah cubs born in captivity in Iran has died in a blow to conservation efforts for the critically endangered subspecies, state media reported Wednesday.

"The cause of death of the cub is being investigated and the result will be announced after the post mortem," environment department official Hassan Akbari told state news agency IRNA.

The announcement came just two weeks after a first cub from the litter died.

The cause of death was established as congenital malformation of the left lung, an environment department statement said.

The cubs were born in the Touran Wildlife Refuge by caesarean section on May 1, in what the department said was the first birth of an Asiatic cheetah in captivity.

The world's fastest land animal, capable of speeds of up to 120 kilometres (75 miles) per hour, cheetahs once stalked habitats from the eastern borders of India to the Atlantic coast of Senegal.

They are still found in parts of southern Africa, but have practically disappeared from North Africa and Asia.

The Asiatic subspecies -– Acinonyx jubatus venaticus—is critically endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Iran is the last country in the world where the Asiatic cheetah can be found in the wild. Authorities launched a United Nations-supported protection programme in 2001.

In January, deputy environment minister Hassan Akbari said only a dozen individuals were left in the wild—down from an estimated 100 in 2010.

Their situation "is extremely critical", Akbari said, adding that animals had been lost to drought, hunters and car accidents.Rare birth of Asiatic cheetah cubs in Iran

© 2022 AFP

OH, SO IT WAS DELIBERATE THEN

Pentagon finds no fault in 2019 Syria airstrike that killed civilians

The Pentagon under U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Tuesday that there was no need to reprimand anyone in response to a 2019 airstrike in Syria that resulted in the deaths of at least four civilians. Pool File Photo by Win McNamee/UPI | License Photo

May 17 (UPI) -- A U.S. Department of Defense investigation into dozens of people killed during a 2019 airstrike in Syria found no rules or laws were broken but a number of compliance deficiencies caused the initial reporting of the incident to be delayed.

A two-page executive summary of the report made public Tuesday states that no Rules of Engagement or Law of War violations occurred on March 18, 2019, when the U.S. military conducted an airstrike targeting ISIS militants in Baghuz, Syria.

The airstrike was conducted in support of ally Syrian Democratic Forces who had requested Coalition air support.

The investigation was launched in November with Michael Garrett, a four-star general of the Army's Forces Command, tapped to lead the probe by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin after a report from The New York Times said 80 people including civilians were killed in the strike while alleging officials attempted to cover it up.

Garrett's report found that the strike killed 56 people, including 52 enemies and four civilians, one woman and three children, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters during a press conference Tuesday.

Of those labeled enemies, 51 were adult men and one was a child.

There were also 15 civilians wounded, including 11 women and four children, he said.

The report said U.S. ground forces commander "acted reasonably" and within the bounds of the law when he initiated the strike.

The officer received confirmation that no civilians were in the strike area before conducting the attack, the report said, adding that "[u]nbeknowst to the GFC, civilians were within the blast radius," resulting in deaths, it said.

"I found clear evidence that the GFC demonstrated awareness and concern for CIVCAS and took steps to mitigate harm," Garrett wrote in his summary.

Garrett said his review included additional information not available to the ground forces commander that showed he relied on data that was not "fully accurate" but that was "no fault of his own."

"In accordance with the [Law of War], the GFC's actions cannot be judged based on what we know now in hindsight, but only on the reasonableness of his decisions given the information known at the time," he said.

The report also found numerous policy deficiencies at multiple levels of command that led to delays in reporting the incident, which Garrett said contributed to the impression that the Pentagon was not treating it seriously and was not being transparent.

In a memo, Austin said he was "disappointed" that issues led to the original incident review missing deadlines and that the negative perception the department gave off could have been avoided by timely review and a clear explication of the situation surrounding the strike.

In response, he ordered several policy changes concerning reviews of civilian casualty incidents.

"Our efforts to mitigate and respond to civilian harm resulting from U.S. military operations are a direct reflection of U.S. values," he wrote.

Concerning why no one was held responsible for the civilian deaths and casualties, Kirby said Garrett did not see need for reprimands as he did no find anyone who acted outside the Law of War or with malicious intent.

He also added that Austin is holding the entire department accountable for the issues that affected the incident's reporting.

"In this case, Gen. Garrett found that the ground force commander made the best decisions that he could, given the information he had, at the time, given a very lethal, very aggressive ISIS threat in a very confined space," he said. "And it is deeply regrettable, we deeply regret, we apologize for the loss of innocent life that was taken in this particular strike."


"It matters to us," he said.

Los Angeles observatory evacuated as firefighters battle blaze


The Griffith observatory, opened in 1935, has appeared in many Hollywood films such as the James Dean movie "Rebel Without a Cause."

 (AFP/MARIO TAMA)

Tue, May 17, 2022, 5:14 PM·1 min read

A small fire broke out at a park in the heart of Los Angeles on Tuesday, causing officials to evacuate the city's historic Griffith Observatory.

Los Angeles Fire Department declared the four-acre blaze a "major emergency" and were tackling the flames from the ground and by air.

Park rangers were called in to ban hikers from trails in the area, which is popular with tourists and residents of the nearby upmarket Los Feliz neighborhood.

Griffith Park is a sprawling and rugged expanse of countryside criss-crossed by hiking and riding trails, home to Griffith Observatory as well as Los Angeles Zoo.

The landmark observatory, opened in 1935, is world-famous and has appeared in many Hollywood films such as the James Dean movie "Rebel Without a Cause."

The news evoked memories of a major fire in 2007 which ripped through 800 acres of the park before it was contained.

The cause of Tuesday's fire was not known, and no homes had been evacuated by mid-afternoon.

Wildfires are a natural phenomenon in the western United States, but their frequency and ferocity has increased in recent years as the planet warms.

Human behavior, including the unchecked burning of fossil fuels, is altering weather patterns, exacerbating droughts in some areas and generating unseasonal storms in others.

Southern California is in the grip of a multi-year drought.

In California, average temperatures during the summer are 1.6C higher than at the end of the 19th century.

amz/hg/jh

Global pollution kills 9 million people a year, study finds


- Smoke and steam rise from a coal processing plant in Hejin in central China's Shanxi Province on Nov. 28, 2019. A study released on Tuesday, May 17, 2022, blames pollution of all types for 9 million deaths a year globally, with the death toll attributed to dirty air from cars, trucks and industry rising 55% since 2000.

AP Photo/Sam McNeil

SETH BORENSTEIN
Tue, May 17, 2022,

A new study blames pollution of all types for 9 million deaths a year globally, with the death toll attributed to dirty air from cars, trucks and industry rising 55% since 2000.

That increase is offset by fewer pollution deaths from primitive indoor stoves and water contaminated with human and animal waste, so overall pollution deaths in 2019 are about the same as 2015.

The United States is the only fully industrialized country in the top 10 nations for total pollution deaths, ranking 7th with 142,883 deaths blamed on pollution in 2019, sandwiched between Bangladesh and Ethiopia, according to a new study in the journal The Lancet Planetary Health. Tuesday’s pre-pandemic study is based on calculations derived from the Global Burden of Disease database and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle. India and China lead the world in pollution deaths with nearly 2.4 million and almost 2.2 million deaths a year, but the two nations also have the world's largest populations.

When deaths are put on a per population rate, the United States ranks 31st from the bottom at 43.6 pollution deaths per 100,000. Chad and the Central African Republic rank the highest with rates about 300 pollution deaths per 100,000, more than half of them due to tainted water, while Brunei, Qatar and Iceland have the lowest pollution death rates ranging from 15 to 23. The global average is 117 pollution deaths per 100,000 people.




Pollution kills about the same number of people a year around the world as cigarette smoking and second-hand smoke combined, the study said.

“9 million deaths is a lot of deaths,” said Philip Landrigan, director of the Global Public Health Program and Global Pollution Observatory at Boston College.

“The bad news is that it’s not decreasing,” Landrigan said. “We’re making gains in the easy stuff and we’re seeing the more difficult stuff, which is the ambient (outdoor industrial) air pollution and the chemical pollution, still going up.”

It doesn’t have to be this way, researchers said.

“They are preventable deaths. Each and every one of them is a death that is unnecessary,” said Dr. Lynn Goldman, dean of the George Washington University School of Public Health, who wasn’t part of the study. She said the calculations made sense and if anything. was so conservative about what it attributed to pollution, that the real death toll is likely higher.

The certificates for these deaths don’t say pollution. They list heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, other lung issues and diabetes that are “tightly correlated” with pollution by numerous epidemiological studies, Landrigan said. To then put these together with actual deaths, researchers look at the number of deaths by cause, exposure to pollution weighted for various factors, and then complicated exposure response calculations derived by large epidemiological studies based on thousands of people over decades of study, he said. It’s the same way scientists can say cigarettes cause cancer and heart disease deaths.

“That cannon of information constitutes causality,” Landrigan said. “That’s how we do it.”

Five outside experts in public health and air pollution, including Goldman, told The Associated Press the study follows mainstream scientific thought. Dr. Renee Salas, an emergency room doctor and Harvard professor who wasn’t part of the study, said “the American Heart Association determined over a decade ago that exposure to (tiny pollution particles) like that generated from the burning of fossil fuels is causal for heart disease and death.”

“While people focus on decreasing their blood pressure and cholesterol, few recognize that the removal of air pollution is an important prescription to improve their heart health,” Salas said.

Three-quarters of the overall pollution deaths came from air pollution and the overwhelming part of that is “a combination of pollution from stationary sources like coal-fired power plants and steel mills on one hand and mobile sources like cars, trucks and buses. And it’s just a big global problem,” said Landrigan, a public health physician. “And it’s getting worse around the world as countries develop and cities grow.”

In New Delhi, India, air pollution peaks in the winter months and last year the city saw just two days when the air wasn’t considered polluted. It was the first time in four years that the city experienced a clean air day during the winter months.

That air pollution remains the leading cause of death in South Asia reconfirms what is already known, but the increase in these deaths means that toxic emissions from vehicles and energy generation is increasing, said Anumita Roychowdhury, a director at the advocacy group Centre for Science and Environment in New Delhi.

“This data is a reminder of what is going wrong but also that it is an opportunity to fix it,” Roychowdhury said.

Pollution deaths are soaring in the poorest areas, experts said.

“This problem is worst in areas of the world where population is most dense (e.g. Asia) and where financial and government resources to address the pollution problem are limited and stretched thin to address a host of challenges including health care availability and diet as well as pollution,” said Dan Greenbaum, president of the Health Effects Institute, who wasn’t part of the study.

In 2000, industrial air pollution killed about 2.9 million people a year globally. By 2015 it was up to 4.2 million and in 2019 it was 4.5 million, the study said. Toss in household air pollution, mostly from inefficient primitive stoves, and air pollution killed 6.7 million people in 2019, the study found.

Lead pollution — some from lead additive which has been banned from gasoline in every country in the world and also from old paint, recycling batteries and other manufacturing — kills 900,000 people a year, while water pollution is responsible for 1.4 million deaths a year. Occupational health pollution adds another 870,000 deaths, the study said.

In the United States, about 20,000 people a year die from lead pollution-induced hypertension, heart disease and kidney disease, mostly as occupational hazards, Landrigan said. Lead and asbestos are America’s big chemical occupational hazards, and they kill about 65,000 people a year from pollution, he said. The study said the number of air pollution deaths in the United States in 2019 was 60,229, far more than deaths on American roads, which hit a 16-year peak of nearly 43,000 last year.

Modern types of pollution are rising in most countries, especially developing ones, but fell from 2000 to 2019 in the United States, the European Union and Ethiopia. Ethiopia’s numbers can’t quite be explained and may be a reporting issue, said study co-author Richard Fuller, founder of the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution and president of Pure Earth, a non-profit that works on pollution clean-up programs in about a dozen countries.

The study authors came up with eight recommendations to reduce pollution deaths, highlighting the need for better monitoring, better reporting and stronger government systems regulating industry and cars.

“We absolutely know how to solve each one of those problems,” Fuller said. “What’s missing is political will.”

___

Aniruddha Ghosal contributed from New Delhi, India.

____

Follow AP’s climate coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate

___

Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears

___

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Pollution behind 1 in 6 global deaths in 2019: study

(AFP/Valentin RAKOVSKY)

Kelly MACNAMARA
Tue, May 17, 2022, 4:30 PM·4 min read

Pollution caused some 9 million people to die prematurely in 2019, according to a new global report published Wednesday, with experts raising alarm over increasing deaths from breathing outside air and the "horrifying" toll of lead poisoning.

Human-created waste in the air, water and soil rarely kills people immediately, but causes instead heart disease, cancer, respiratory problems, diarrhoea and other serious illnesses.

The Lancet Commission on pollution and health said the impact from pollution on global health remains "much greater than that of war, terrorism, malaria, HIV, tuberculosis, drugs and alcohol".

Pollution is an "existential threat to human health and planetary health, and jeopardises the sustainability of modern societies," it added.

In general, the review found, air pollution -- accounting for a total of 6.7 million deaths globally in 2019 -- was "entwined" with climate change because the main source of both problems is burning fossil fuels and biofuels.

"If we can't manage to grow in a clean and green way, we're doing something terribly wrong," said the report's lead author Richard Fuller, of the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution, adding that chemical pollution also harms biodiversity -- another major global threat.

"These things are terribly connected and strategies to deal with one have ripple effects all the way through," he said.

Overall, one in six premature deaths globally -- or nine million -- were caused by pollution, a figure unchanged since the last assessment in 2015.

Researchers noted a reduction in mortality linked to indoor air pollution, unsafe drinking water and inadequate sanitation, with major improvements seen in Africa.

But early deaths associated with industrialisation -- outdoor air and chemical pollution -- are on the rise, particularly in southern and eastern Asia.

Ambient air pollution caused some 4.5 million deaths in 2019, according to the study, published in Lancet Planetary Health, compared with 4.2 million in 2015 and just 2.9 million in 2000.

Chemical pollution is also increasing, with lead poisoning alone causing 900,000 deaths. Even that, the report warned, is likely a "substantial undercount" in light of new research suggesting there is no safe level of exposure.

- Harmful to children -

Algeria banned lead in petrol in 2021, the last country to do so.

But people continue to be exposed to the toxic substance, largely due to unregulated recycling of lead-acid batteries and e-waste. Contaminated culinary spices are also a culprit.

"The fact that lead is getting worse, mostly in poorer countries, and ramping up in terms of the number of deaths, is horrifying," said Fuller.

Heart disease is the cause of almost all early deaths from exposure to lead, which hardens arteries, said Fuller.

But elevated lead levels in blood -- estimated to affect hundreds of millions of children -- also harm brain development and are linked to serious losses of cognitive function.

The report said lead is also linked to a spike in behavioural disorders and diminished economic productivity, with global economic losses estimated at almost $1 trillion annually.

In Africa, economic losses from lead-related IQ loss are equivalent to about four percent of gross domestic product, while in Asia it amounts to two percent.

- Silent killer -

Overall, excess deaths due to pollution have led to economic losses totalling $4.6 trillion in 2019, or around six percent of global economic output, researchers said.

Low- and middle-income countries are by far the most affected, with more than 90 percent of deaths in these regions.

There is also increasing evidence of pollution crossing national boundaries in wind, water and the food chain.

Wealthier nations that have reduced domestic outdoor air pollution effectively "displace" it overseas to countries with higher levels of manufacturing, the report said.

Prevailing global winds transport air pollution from east Asia to North America, from North America to Europe, and from Europe to the Arctic and central Asia.

Meanwhile, cereals, seafood, chocolate and vegetables produced for export in developing countries can be contaminated as a result of soil and water polluted with lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury and pesticides.

This "increasingly threatens global food safety", the report said, adding that "toxic metals found in infant formula and baby foods are of particular concern."

Fuller said the threat of pollution -- particularly air and lead pollution -- is underappreciated, with more attention focused on the health implications of microplastics.

"We can show a million people dying from lead pollution right now -- more than die from malaria, more than die from HIV -- and that's not even discussed," he said.

klm/mh/rl/jm

Casino mogul Wynn sued for acting as agent for China

Steve Wynn, the founder and former chief executive of Wynn Resorts, 

speaks at a global gaming expo in September 2014 in Las Vegas

 (AFP/Ethan Miller) 


Tue, May 17, 2022, 4:56 PM·2 min read


The US Justice Department sued Las Vegas and Macau casino mogul Steve Wynn Tuesday to force him to register officially as an agent for the Chinese government.

Wynn, the founder and former chief executive of Wynn Resorts, acted on behalf of Beijing in 2017 when he met with president Donald Trump and senior administration officials in a Chinese effort to gain custody over exiled tycoon Guo Wengui, the department said.

Guo was wanted in China for financial fraud and other allegations, but was close to Trump advisor Steve Bannon, supporting Bannon's media business and other activities, and had asked for political asylum in the United States.

The Justice Department said that in June and August 2017, Wynn contacted Trump and had dinner with the president to convey Beijing's request that the US cancel Guo's visa or have him otherwise removed from the country.

"Wynn engaged in these efforts at the request of Sun Lijun, then-vice minister of the MPS," the Justice Department said, referring to China's Ministry of Public Security.

Besides raising it with Trump, Wynn, who was a former Republican Party finance chairman, also had "multiple discussions" with senior White House and National Security Council officials "about organizing a meeting with Sun and other PRC government officials" on the issue, it said.

At the time Wynn's company owned and operated three casinos in Macau, Asia's largest gambling hub.

The Justice Department alleges that Wynn carried out Sun's requests "out of a desire to protect his business interests in Macau."

It says that Wynn was advised that he had to register as a lobbyist for China under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, but refused to do so.

Asked about the department's move at a regular press briefing on Wednesday, Beijing said Washington was "deliberately hyping the threat of China."

"We hope the US can abandon a Cold War and zero-sum-game mentality, stop making China an issue, and stop throwing dirty water at China," said foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin.

Wynn was enlisted in the lobbying effort partly by another wealthy US businessman, Trump friend and former top Republican fundraiser, Elliott Broidy.

In 2020, Broidy pleaded guilty to violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act and forfeited $6.6 million in a plea deal.

Wynn, 80, was forced to step down as CEO of Wynn Resorts in 2018 amid sexual misconduct allegations.

In September, three companies owned by Guo were ordered by the US Securities and Exchange Commission to pay $539 million in penalties to settle charges over illegal cryptocurrency sales.

pmh-rox/leg

NOT MENTAL ILLNESS NOR VIDEO GAMES 

US is flooded with guns, over 139 million weapons produced over two decades: Justice Department

The Justice Department report came out after a shocking weekend showed how the vast surplus of guns has made its mark on US society

Agence France-Presse

May 18, 2022 



US firearms makers produced over 139 million guns for the commercial market over the two decades from 2000, including 11.3 million in 2020 alone, according to a new government report.

Another 71 million firearms were imported in the same period -- compared to just 7.5 million exported -- underscoring how the country is literally swimming in personal weapons that have stoked a surge in gun violence, murders and suicides, according to the Justice Department report.


The report shows that while Americans have made favorites of semi-automatic assault rifles seen in many mass shootings, they have bought en masse the increasingly cheap, easy-to-use and accurate semi-automatic 9 mm pistols like those that most police now use.

And, the report shows, authorities face a surge in unregistered "ghost guns" made at home with parts that can be bought online and produced with 3-D printer, and pistols and short-barrelled rifles that are as powerful and lethal as the semi-automatic assault rifles used in mass shootings.


"We can only address the current rise in violence if we have the best available information and use the most effective tools and research to fuel our efforts," said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.

"This report is an important step in that direction. The Department will continue to gather the data necessary to tailor our approach at the most significant drivers of gun violence and take shooters off the streets."


'Historic' increase

The report came out after a shocking weekend showed how the vast surplus of guns has made its mark on US society.

In Buffalo, New York an 18-year-old white man driven by racist hate used an assault rifle to murder 10 African Americans; in Laguna Woods, California a man shot five people in a church frequented by Taiwanese with a 9 mm pistol; and in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, more than 20 people were wounded in shootings in one evening in the downtown entertainment district.

Last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the number of gun deaths in the United States underwent an "historic" increase in 2020.

The US racked up 19,350 firearm homicides in 2020, up nearly 35 percent over 2019, and 24,245 gun suicides, up 1.5 percent.

The firearm homicide rate stood at 6.1 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2020, the highest for more than 25 years.

The CDC said the rise might be blamed in part by the stresses of the Covid-19 pandemic and poverty.

The gun industry has rocketed in two decades. In 2000, there were 2,222 registered active manufacturers. By 2020, the number hit 16,936.

Annual commercial gun production likewise surged: 3.9 million in 2000, hitting 11.3 million 20 years later. But that was down from the peak of 11.9 million in 2016.

Of those sold in 2020, almost exactly half were pistols, doubling their share of the market since 2000: the year 2020 saw 5.5 million pistols, and nearly a million revolvers, enter circulation.

Firearms made by official manufacturers must have serial numbers that allow them to be traced by law enforcement.

But officials are increasingly worried about homemade "ghost guns" that have no such markings and are increasingly found in crimes.

In 2021, the report said, officials recovered 19,344 such guns, compared to just 1,758 five years earlier.

In April President Joe Biden announced a crackdown on ghost guns, pushing back at pro-gun advocates who called his ideas "extreme".

"Is it extreme to protect police officers, extreme to protect our children?... It isn't extreme, it's basic, common sense," Biden said.

The new report was the first in a four-volume study of gun markets and illegal trafficking.

Updated Date: May 18, 2022 09:53:05 IST

In New York, nail salon workers fight for their rights

Andréa BAMBINO
Tue, 17 May 2022



Deepa Shrish Singgali gives a manicure to a client at Mt. Everest Nail Salon in Ridgewood, Queens, New York on May 11, 2022 

(AFP/Andrea RENAULT)More


They are the artisans of affordable beauty on almost every New York City street corner. But migrant nail salon workers endure low wages, poor conditions and health risks -- a reality they hope a new law will change.

"The first thought of coming to the US, it was a dream in itself," Maya Bhusal Basnet, who arrived from Nepal in 2009, says near multicolored rows of nail polish.

"But working in a nail salon for all these years, I have faced a lot of issues that I would not share with my kids," the 46-year-old tells AFP.

Last month, around a hundred nail salon workers protested in Manhattan, singing and dancing below towering skyscrapers.

They are demanding enforcement of the minimum hourly wage of 15 dollars, overtime payments, better access to protective gloves and masks, meal breaks and social protections.

The campaign, led by a coalition of activist groups supported by Democratic lawmakers, calls for the creation of an organization of employers and employees who would work together on minimum standards across New York state.

The state is estimated to have more than 5,000 salons and 17,000 employees, the vast majority of migrants from Asia and Latin America.

Authorities took up their plight after the New York Times published an investigation into exploitative practices in the industry.

Since 2016, the New York state government has identified more than 1,800 violations of labor laws at nail salons and ordered owners to pay $2 million in outstanding wages and damages.

The introduction of the $15 minimum wage in the 2016-17 budget and the abolition of tip credit have improved working conditions for many in the industry, according to New York's labor department.

But for Basnet there is still a lot more that needs to be done.

She says not all salon owners pay the minimum wage and some that do have reduced hours.

"How can I survive here working 26 or 27 hours a week or when I'm sent home and not paid, because there are no customers?" she said through a translator.

- Health problems -

A recent study by Cornell University Workers' Institute found that "unpredictable schedules" and "wage theft," when workers are not paid the money they are owed, are still prevalent.

"A lot of workers are experiencing economic insecurity, struggling to just pay the bills by the end of the month," Zoe West, one of the researchers of the study, told AFP.

"A lot of workers often don't have access to social protections. Most of them don't have health insurance from their jobs," she added.

According to official statistics, the hourly wage in the sector was $14.31 in the New York metropolitan area in 2021, below the legal minimum.

Employers' groups did not return requests for comment from AFP.

On top of money worries, there are health concerns.

Basnet says she has often experienced skin irritation, persistent coughs and breathing difficulties as a result of the chemicals, such as acetone or acrylic, that she handles.

Activists also cite risks for pregnant women and their unborn babies, even if scientific proof is not conclusive.

New nail parlors have been obliged to have adequate ventilation since 2016, but existing salons were given five years to update, a timeframe that New York state extended to October this year because of "the economic hardships" caused by the pandemic.

For West, one of the problems lies in the way the sector is structured, with many very small companies engaged in fierce competition that drag down costs of manicures and wages.

Deepa Shrish Singgali, a former employee, now boss of a salon in Queens, is faced with a problem.

"In the long term, I hope to raise the prices but now due to less customers because of the pandemic I'm not able to," she told AFP, noting that her competitors have recently lowered their prices.

arb/pdh/jh

Albania's Soviet-era sub awaits its fate, refusing to sink


PUBLISHED : 18 MAY 2022 AT 15:45

The Cold War-era submarine has become a symbol of Albania's tumultuous communist past

VLORë (ALBANIA) - Retired sergeant Neim Shehaj spends his days repairing a Soviet-era submarine, a witness to Albania's tumultuous communist past that is now rusting, half-submerged, at an Adriatic naval base.

The fate of the Cold War submarine at the Pashaliman base -- from where Moscow once hoped to control the Mediterranean -- hangs in the balance as authorities remain undecided over what to do.

"This submarine is like a church to me... I arrived here as a young sailor and now my hair is grey," Shehaj, 63, who served on it for about three decades, tells AFP.

If the submarine is not taken out of the sea soon "it risks sinking to the bottom, and all its history with it", he warns.

The vessel was part of the so-called Project 613 consisting of the first submarines that the Soviet Union built after World War II.

It is the only remaining one out of 12 that Moscow deployed at the Pashaliman base in Vlora Bay in the late 1950s when Albania and the USSR were still close allies.

"From there I could control the Mediterranean to Gibraltar," retired submarine commander Jak Gjergji recalls Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev as saying in 1959 during a visit to the base.

Khrushchev hoped to install long-range missiles, warships and an airport at the base in Albania's southwest.

- 'Tore it with rage' -

But Albania's paranoid communist dictator Enver Hoxha eventually broke off close ties with the USSR, accusing Moscow of deviating from true Marxism.

That complicated matters for the mixed Albanian-Russian submarine crews.

"The sailors of the two countries no longer spoke to each other and incidents were frequent," recalls the 87-year-old Gjergji.

"When a Russian sailor wanted to raise (his country's) red flag with the hammer and sickle, an Albanian one immediately tore it with rage."

After the 1961 split between Tirana and Moscow, the latter recalled eight submarines.

In 1997 almost a decade after the fall of communism, as unrest swept Albania after several bogus savings schemes collapsed, the base was looted and submarines were stripped of their weapons, engines and even the sailors' beds.

The authorities dismantled three of the four remaining submarines and sold them for metal in 2009.

Just one survived -- thanks to literature.

Albania's most famous writer Ismail Kadare in his 1973 novel "The Winter of Great Solitude", about the break between Moscow and Tirana, arbitrarily assigned the submarine the number 105.

- Saved by a novel -

"This is the only number that came to my mind while I was writing" the novel, Kadare tells AFP.

"Ever since, the submarine is known by this number. It is also thanks to this number... that it is alive today!"

Through the book, the sub's historical notoriety and cultural significance took on symbolic value.

Its fame was further cemented when a film based on the novel was made, for which the number 105 was painted on the submarine and still remains.

But its survival is also largely down to the determination of Shehaj, who for years has been refurbishing the 76-metre (250-foot) submarine, its electrical network, ventilation system, command post and torpedo room.

He tends to the tiniest of details, while also filling holes in the hull to stop the submarine from sinking for good.

"The authorities have to decide quickly what to do with it, the risks are major, the sea water accelerates the corrosion considerably," the 63-year-old warns.

The culture ministry, which pledged for years to restore the submarine, told AFP that it would "forward the file" to the defence ministry, which could include it in a future Cold War museum.

- Submarine tunnel -

Albania embraced the West after the fall of communism in 1990, joined NATO and aspires to join the European Union.

The base has been of "great importance since antiquity due to its geostrategic position... all maritime traffic in the Adriatic Sea but also in the Mediterranean can be controlled" from it, flotilla commander Sabri Gjinollari says.

At the nearby base of Porto Palermo, an abandoned vast anti-atomic submarine tunnel, dug into the rock in the late 1960s, was intended for Chinese missile boats that never arrived.

Hoxha broke ties with Beijing in 1978 and the tunnel, accessed by AFP, was used for a while as a shelter for submarines and other vessels.

Now, a giant red star painted on a dilapidated wall is the only hint of its past under communism.

Some would also like the site, in one of the most beautiful corners of the Albanian coast, to be turned into a museum.

But, the base commander Shkelqim Shytaj disagrees.

"We would prefer it to be used by the army, even in a reduced capacity."