Ecuador protests: The volunteers resupplying indigenous anti-government activists

Issued on: 27/06/2022

02:08

For the past two weeks, members of Ecuador’s indigenous population has blocked roads and occupied oil wells to protest higher fuel prices and living costs. At least five people have died in the protests, and around 500 others have been injured. FRANCE 24 went to meet the volunteers supplying the protesters with food and clothes. “Many people don’t realise how poor people live, that’s why we came here to support our comrades fighting,” Eliza Sanchez, one of the volunteers, explained. “There’s lots of suppression, the government is shooting, some of us are dying. The government doesn’t want to take indigenous people into account, and we’re indigenous people.”

Ecuador promises fuel price cuts amid protests

Mon, June 27, 2022

Violent protests in the capital were replaced this weekend by normal events such as a cultural festival

Ecuador's president has promised to lower fuel prices across the country after weeks of disruptive mass protests over the cost of living.

Protesters have blocked key roads and staged mass rallies demanding action on fuel and food prices - some of which have turned violent.

In response, Guillermo Lasso vowed to cut 10 cents a gallon from both petrol and diesel prices.

That is only a third as much as demonstrators had demanded.

Since 2020, the cost of diesel has almost doubled and petrol prices have risen dramatically in the oil-producing nation.

President Lasso also said that despite his move to lower fuel prices, any violent protesters would face consequences for their actions.

"Ecuadorians who seek dialogue will find a government with an outstretched hand," he said in a Sunday night address. "Those who seek chaos, violence and terrorism will find the full force of the law."

The move comes after an initial meting between the government and the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), which began the demonstrations.

No deal was reached, but the two sides agreed to begin dialogue after a state of emergency was lifted at the request of Conaie, more than a week after President Lasso imposed it.

But the president is also facing political pressure amid the crisis. Over the weekend, the national parliament began a debate tabled by the opposition on removing him from office. It is set to conclude later this week.

The extent of the disruption caused by the mass demonstrations is significant.

The blocking of key roads has led to fears of food shortages in the capital, Quito, as agricultural workers outside of it campaign for fairer food prices.

Leonidas Iza, the leader of Conaie who was briefly arrested over the protests, asked his supporters to guarantee "corridors" into the capital over the weekend for essential supplies.

The weekend was broadly calm, as demonstrators took a break amid the political movements.

But concerns about supplies and the broad economic impacts remain.

On Sunday, the energy ministry issued a statement warning that oil production - a key export which the country's economy relies on - could come to an end within 48 hours if protests and roadblocks continued this week.

Production was at a "critical" point, it said, and could stop because of "vandalism, takeover of wells and closing of roads".

The country was hard-hit by the Covid pandemic and its economy is still recovering.

Mass same-sex wedding in Mexico challenges discrimination

Even after five years of living together in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco, something as simple as holding hands or sharing a kiss in public is unthinkable for Dayanny Marcelo and Mayela Villalobos

By Fabiola Sánchez 

Associated Press
June 25, 2022


MEXICO CITY -- Even after five years of living together in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco, something as simple as holding hands or sharing a kiss in public is unthinkable for Dayanny Marcelo and Mayela Villalobos.

There is an ever-present fear of being rejected or attacked in Guerrero, a state where same-sex relationships are not widely accepted and one of five in Mexico where same-sex marriage is still not allowed.

But this week they traveled the 235 miles (380 kilometers) to Mexico’s capital, where the city government hosted a mass wedding for same-sex couples as part of celebrations of LGBT Pride Month.

Under a tent set up in the plaza of the capital’s civil registry, along with about 100 other same-sex couples, Villalobos and Marcelo sealed their union Friday with a kiss while the wedding march played in the background.

Their ability to wed is considered one of the LGBT community’s greatest recent achievements in Mexico. It is now possible in 27 of Mexico’s 32 states and has been twice upheld by the Supreme Court.

Mexico, Brazil and Argentina top Latin America in the number of same-sex marriages.

Mariaurora Mota, a leader of the Mexican LGBTTTI+ Coalition, said the movement still is working to guarantee in all of Mexico the right to change one’s identity, have access to health care and social security and to let transsexual minors change their gender on their birth certificates.

Walking around Mexico City a day before their wedding, Marcelo and Villalobos confessed to feeling strange holding hands in the city streets. Displays of affection between same-sex couples in the capital are commonplace, but it was difficult to shed their inhibititions.

“I feel nervous,” said Villalobos, a 30-year-old computer science major, as Marcelo held her hand.

Villalobos grew up in the northern state of Coahuila in a conservative Christian community. She always felt an “internal struggle,” because she knew she had a different sexual orientation, but feared her family would reject her. “I always cried because I wanted to be normal,” she said.

She came out to her mother when she was 23. She thought that moving to Acapulco in 2017 with a young niece would give her more freedom.

Villalobos met Marcelo, a native of the beach town, there. Marcelo, a 29-year-old shop employee, said her acceptance of her sexual orientation was not as traumatic as Villalobos’, but she still did not come out as pansexual until she was 24. She said she had been aided by the Mexico City organization Cuenta Conmigo, — Count on Me — which provides educational and psychological support.

Walking around the capital this week with massive rainbow flags hanging from public buildings and smaller ones flapping in front of many businesses, Villalobos could not help but compare it to her native state and her present home in Guerrero.

“In the same country the people are very open and in another (place) ... the people are close-minded, with messages of hate toward the community,” she said.

Elihú Rendón, a 28-year-old administrative employee for a ride-sharing application, and Javier Vega Candia, a 26-year-old theater teacher, grew up in Mexico City and coming out for them was not so complicated.

“We’re in a city where they’re opening all of the rights and possibilities to us, including doing this communal LGBT wedding,” said Vega Candia as he held out Rendon’s hand to show off a ring he had given him shortly before they moved in together.

When they walk through the city’s streets they don't hesitate to express affection, sometimes hugging and dancing in a crosswalk while traffic was stopped.

“I’m happy to have been born in this city thinking that we have these rights and not in another country where we could be killed,” Vega Candia said.

Villalobos and Marcelo do not expect much in their daily lives to change when they return to Acapulco as a married couple. But Marcelo said that with the marriage certificate, she will try to get Villalobos included on the health insurance she receives through her employer.

“With a marriage certificate it is easier,” Marcelo said. “If something happens to me or something happens to her, we’ll have proof that we’re together.”

Turkish police release all activists detained during Istanbul Pride march

Turkish police have released all of the nearly 400 activists detained during a banned Pride march in Istanbul, organisers said on Monday.

© Dilara Senkaya, Reuters

Although homosexuality has been legal throughout the period of the modern Turkish republic, Istanbul Pride has been banned since a 2014 parade drew tens of thousands of participants in one of the biggest LGBTQ events in the majority Muslim region.

Kaos GL Association, which campaigns to promote the human rights of LGBTQ people against discrimination, said on Twitter that all 373 people detained by police on Sunday have been released, many of them “after a night in custody”.

The detention began even before the banned rally’s start, with riot police raiding cafes and streets in a scenic district of Istanbul near Taksim Square where the event was to be held, according to an AFP team.

Those detained included an AFP photographer, who was released late on Sunday.

Police prevented the media from filming the Istanbul arrests, according to AFP journalists.

The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatovic, had urged Turkish officials to let the the march to go ahead and to ensure the safety of the marchers.

“The human rights of LGBTI people in Turkey need to be effectively protected,” she said in a statement.

(AFP)

Turkish police detain over 200 at Pride march — organizers

The LGBTQ march in Istanbul had been banned by Turkish officials, who said it might lead to unrest. But a crowd still gathered near the city's Taksim Square.

LGBTQ activists said they were not intimidated by the clampdown

Turkish police detained more than 200 participants at an LGBTQ Pride march in Istanbul on Sunday, organizers said.

Local authorities in Istanbul's Beyoglu district banned Pride Week events between June 20-26, saying that they could lead to public unrest. The event has been officially banned every year since 2015, but crowd still gather near the city's Taksim Square to mark the end of the Pride Month.

What happened at the march?

Authorities cordoned off large parts of the city's central Cihangir neighborhood ahead of the march. Public transportation in the area was also shut down.

Local residents banged pots and pans from their windows and balconies in a show of support for marchers.

According to the MLSA lawyers' association, Agence France-Press photographer Bülent Kilinc was among those detained.

Journalists' union DISK Basin-Is said "many" participants in the march were beaten by police.

LGBTQ activist organization Kaos GL published a video from the event on Twitter. 

"We do not give up, we are not afraid! We will continue our activities in safe places and online," pride week organizers said.

Pride events banned

Turkey's first pride march was held in 2003, the year after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's conservative AKP party came to power. Istanbul authorities banned the event more than ten years later.

The Turkish government has adopted a harsh approach to pride events, and police have made large numbers of arrests and have used tear gas and plastic pellets.

Demonstrations by nationalists and Islamists have also threatened participants.

sdi/dj (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters) 

02:30Two women kiss as they hold up a placard that reads in Turkish: "I live free. Who's the fool who will put me in chains? I would be shocked" during the LGBTQ Pride March in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, June 26, 2022. © AP - Emrah Gurel


Turkish authorities arrest more than 200 at banned Pride march in Istanbul

Issued on: 26/06/2022 - 

Turkish police on Sunday broke up a banned Pride march in Istanbul, detaining more than 200 demonstrators and an AFP photographer, journalists and organisers reported.
The governor's office had forbidden the march around Taksim Square in the heart of Istanbul, but protesters gathered nearby under heavy police presence earlier than scheduled.

Police detained protesters, loading them on to buses. AFP journalists saw four busloads of detained people, including AFP's chief photographer Bulent Kilic.

Kilic, who was taken away handcuffed from the back, was being held in police custody. He was also detained during last year's Pride march.

Police prevented the press from filming the Istanbul arrests, according to AFP journalists.

Turkey's largest city has banned the march since 2015, but large crowds nonetheless gather every year to mark the end of Pride Month. Organizers called the ban unlawful.

“We do not give up, we are not afraid! We will continue our activities in safe places and online,” the Istanbul LGBTI+ Pride Week Committee said on Twitter.

Kaos GL, a prominent LGBTQ group, said shortly before the march’s 5 pm (1400 GMT) start that 52 people had been detained. The Pride Week Committee later said more than 100 had been arrested.

There was no immediate word on the number of arrests from the police or the governor’s office.

Images on social media showed people being frisked and loaded onto buses, including at least one news photographer. Journalists' union DISK Basin-Is said “many” were beaten by police.

Local residents banged pots and pans from their windows and balconies in a show of support for the marchers as a police helicopter circled overhead.

Metal fences and lines of riot officers cordoned off streets around Taksim Square and Istiklal Avenue in the Beyoglu district, the heart of the city’s shopping and tourism sectors, as well as a traditional gathering point for protesters.

Metro services around Taksim Square were shut down for hours ahead of the march.

Turkey previously was one of the few Muslim-majority countries to allow Pride marches. The first was held in 2003, the year after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party came to power.

In recent years, the government has adopted a harsh approach to public events by groups that do not represent its religiously conservative views. Large numbers of arrests and the use of tear gas and plastic pellets by police have accompanied Pride events.

Counter-demonstrations by nationalists and Islamists, who claim the LGBTQ community is a danger to “Turkish values,” have also threatened marchers.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)

INDO-CANADIAN MOOSE WALA
Murdered rapper’s song pulled from YouTube in India

By AFP
Published June 27, 2022

Sidhu Moose Wala's murder sparked anger and outrage from fans from across the world - 

Copyright AFP Narinder NANU

YouTube has removed a viral music video in India released posthumously by murdered Sikh rapper Sidhu Moose Wala following a complaint by the government.

The song “SYL” talks about the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal which has been at the centre of a long-running water dispute between the late Sikh rapper’s home state of Punjab and neighbouring Haryana.

The track, released posthumously on Thursday, also touches on other sensitive topics such as deadly riots targeting the Sikh community that broke out in India in 1984 and the storming of an important Sikh temple in Amritsar by the army the same year.

It had garnered nearly 30 million views and 3.3 million likes on the singer’s YouTube page before it was pulled down over the weekend.

“This content is not available on this country domain due to a legal complaint from the government,” said a message posted on the song link.

The song is still available in other countries.

In an email to AFP, a YouTube spokesperson said it had only removed the song in “keeping with local laws and our Terms of Service after a thorough review”.

The government did not immediately respond to enquiries.

Moose Wala’s family termed the removal of the song “unjust” and appealed to the government to take back the complaint, local media reports said.

“They can ban the song but they cannot take Sidhu out of the hearts of the people. We will discuss legal options with lawyers,” uncle Chamkaur Singh was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times daily.

Moose Wala — also known by his birth name Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu — was shot dead in his car in the northern state of Punjab last month.

The 28-year-old was a popular musician both in India and among Punjabi communities abroad, especially in Canada and Britain.

His death sparked anger and outrage from fans from across the world.

Last week, Indian police arrested three men accused of murdering Moose Wala and seized a cache of weaponry including a grenade launcher.

The men had allegedly acted at the behest of Canada-based gangster Goldy Brar and his accomplice Lawrence Bishnoi who is currently in jail in India.

Moose Wala rose to fame with catchy songs that attacked rival rappers and politicians, portraying himself as a man who fought for his community’s pride, delivered justice and gunned down enemies.

He was criticised for promoting gun culture through his music videos, in which he regularly posed with firearms.

His murder also put the spotlight on organised crime in Punjab, a major transit route for drugs entering India from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Many observers link the narcotics trade — mostly heroin and opium — to an uptick in gang-related violence and the use of illegal arms in the state.

'Get your boy Elon in line:' Former NASA official says she was ridiculed for supporting SpaceX in new memoir

Grace Kay
Sun, June 26, 2022 

Elon Musk and Lori Garver  Getty

Former NASA official Lori Garver said in a new memoir that she faced criticism for supporting SpaceX.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told her to "get your boy Elon in line," in one exchange, she said.

Garver's book follows the commercialization of space and her history with Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.

Former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said government and NASA officials ridiculed her for supporting SpaceX.

"Senior industry and government officials took pleasure in deriding the company and Elon in the early years," Garver said in her new book, "Escaping Gravity: My Quest to Transform NASA and Launch a New Space Age," published June 21.

The memoir follows the commercialization of the US space industry during Garver's time as NASA's Deputy Administrator during Obama Administration, highlighting the agency's early interactions with SpaceX and Garver's efforts to make space launches more affordable — despite pressure from NASA to keep production in-house.

In recent years, NASA has appeared to embrace the commercial space industry as billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos vie for multi-billion dollar contracts with the agency, but Garver says it was not always this way.

Getty Images/Insider

The book takes aim at current NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, who Garver accuses of attempting to rewrite history and "wrap himself in the Commercial Crew flag" after years of fighting against it. She said that if it were up to Nelson, NASA would still be entirely dependent on Russia's Soyuz rocket to send astronauts to the International Space Station.

She recalled an incident where Nelson, then a Florida senator, took her to task for allowing private companies a chance to propose alternatives to NASA programs.

"In one particularly uncomfortable one-on-one meeting in his Senate hideaway, the intensity of his ire felt personally threatening," Garver wrote. "In response to public comments Elon Musk had made about SpaceX's ability to improve on NASA existing programs, Bill Nelson shouted at me to 'get your boy Elon in line.'"

A spokesperson for NASA and Nelson did not respond to a request for comment from Insider.

A 'Target'

In her book, Garver describes an environment where senators and NASA workers were motivated more by self-interest than the greater good of the program.

"NASA's leaders were typically astronauts and engineers who didn't question the public value or relevance of their activities, indeed, many considered flying themselves and their friends in space to be an entitlement," Garver said. "They had little interest in transitioning what they enjoyed and got paid to do over to the private sector and they assumed that was their decision."

In this photo provided by NASA, NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver talks during a press conference with Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser spacecraft in the background at the University of Colorado at Boulder on February 5, 2011 in Boulder, Colorado.

Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images

The space community's early opposition to SpaceX is well documented. In 2010, Neil Armstrong was one of several astronauts to diss the commercial space industry.

"I was very sad to see that," Musk told "60 Minutes" in 2012. "Those guys are heroes of mine, so it's really tough."

Garver said her support of commercial space initiatives — as well as her gender — made her a "target." She described an environment that was often hostile, despite her role as second in command.

"Many who disagreed with my views attacked me with vulgar, gendered language, depredation, and physical threats," Garver wrote. "I've been called an ugly whore, a motherfucking bitch, and a cunt; told I need to get laid, and asked if I'm on my period or going through menopause."

The 'space barons'

In her book, Garver is quick to praise Musk, Bezos, and Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson. She affectionately dubs them the "space barons."

"Whether we personally like the billionaire space titans as individuals is beside the point," she wrote. "By all accounts, they are following established laws, and instead of investing in space companies, they could be spending all of their money on creature comforts that do little for our national economy."

Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, stands beside a rocket in Los Angeles in 2004.

Paul Harris/Getty Images

Garver said she quickly developed close personal relationships with all three. Her discussions with Bezos were "like talking to a friend I've known for years," Garver wrote. She says Branson is the "most naturally charismatic" of the group and credits him with making space tourism glamorous.

But, Garver's highest praise is saved for Musk and Spacex -- which she says is leaps and bounds ahead of other space ventures.

"My story is difficult to separate from Elon's because I wouldn't have managed to pull off much of a transformation at NASA without him and SpaceX. We've bled for the same cause and amassed the same enemies," she wrote. "We each needed the other to succeed."

Tesla is laying off workers who only just started and withdrawing employment offers as Elon Musk's job cuts begin

Sam Tabahriti

Sun, June 26, 2022

Elon Musk announced in June Tesla's headcount would increase.Patrick Pleul/Getty Images

• Tesla has laid off workers who only started at the company months or even weeks ago.

• An intern had his full-time offer rescinded, while a recruiter was let go after just two weeks.

• One employee told Insider they thought their position as manager made them "safe."

Tesla workers who started their jobs only months or even weeks ago have been let go while others have had offers withdrawn as the company begins to impose cuts announced by Elon Musk in early June.

Insider found a number of posts from Tesla employees who said they'd been laid off as part of the cut, while others had their job offers rescinded.

A senior employee who had only started earlier this year told Insider: "I was very shocked when I was told that I was being let go. Being a manager, I was under the impression that my position was safe."

Asked how Tesla had decided which roles to cut, he said: "They said that layoffs were based on performance reviews but that is not true in my opinion because I had only been at Tesla for a few months and had yet to have performance goals set or a performance review. I asked what metrics they used and they refused to tell me."

"The process definitely was not fair because I was never given the team that I requested."

Iain Abshier, who was part of the recruiting team, said on Tuesday in a LinkedIn post: "Damn, talk about a gut punch. Friday afternoon I was included in the Tesla layoffs after just two weeks of work."

Robert Belovodskij had his job offer as a "manufacturing controls development engineer" rescinded. He said: "The timing of the situation is also unfortunate as I was due to start in early August."

At the start of June Musk told Tesla executives to pause all hiring because he had a "super bad feeling" about the economy and needed to cut 10% of the company's workforce. However, he later tweeted that the headcount would increase, but the number of salaried staff would not rise.

Mansi Chandresha started at Tesla in February as a data analyst and posted on LinkedIn after learning she was being cut: "I have been trying to gather myself to the news that my position with Tesla was terminated."

Nevertheless she added: "I am grateful for the fact that I got an opportunity to work with a fantastic team."

Chandresha said she was urgently seeking a new role before her student visa expired at the end of July.

Two former employees are suing the company claiming the electric carmaker violated federal law by laying off hundreds of employees on short notice.

John Lynch and Daxton Hartsfield, who filed the lawsuit, said at least 500 of their coworkers in Nevada lost their jobs at around the same time, the document showed.

Insider found at least 11 more workers whose jobs had been cut. More are likely to suffer a similar fate as Musk said at the Qatar Economic Forum last week that reduction would take effect over the next three months.

Elon Musk confirms termination of 10 percent of Tesla salaried employees amid economic turmoil

Ike Sasson

WSWS.ORG

On Tuesday, Tesla CEO and multibillionaire Elon Musk confirmed that the company would be laying off as much as 10 percent of its salaried workforce, or roughly 3.5 percent of its total workforce, over the next three months. His announcement has taken place amid disruptions in supply chains, which have impacted the electric vehicle industry, a drop in Tesla’s stocks, and numerous lawsuits filed against Tesla for frequent violations of labor and civil rights laws.

Earlier in the month, Reuters stated that they had obtained emails sent from Musk to executives in which he expressed that he had a “super bad feeling” about the economy and would be carrying out a mass layoff of salaried employees and would “pause all hiring worldwide.”

Since the leaked information, Musk has attempted to reassure employees about the current stability of the company while also openly admitting to Tesla’s economic uncertainty.

An email was sent out to all employees to clarify that the layoffs would “not apply to anyone actually building cars, battery packs or installing solar.” He also stated that Tesla would continue to hire for hourly positions. However, Electrek, a news website focused on electric transportation, later confirmed that there has been a second round of layoffs impacting hourly workers in sales and delivery teams.

The company reported in 2021 that it employed 100,000 people, which would translate to roughly 3,500 layoffs by the end of the summer if the 3.5 percent figure given by Musk is accurate.

On Tuesday, he attempted to reiterate his claims of stability, giving a statement at the Qatar Economic Forum that “A year from now, I think our [employee] headcount will be higher.” Musk’s statement likely reflects an attempt at damage control as Tesla stocks have spiraled following Reuters’ report on the layoffs.

Workers at the company have said they were “blindsided” by the sudden layoff. Some have also taken to social media to lament the poor working conditions among salaried employees at Tesla and to lament that they had not left the company sooner.

On TheLayoff.com, one worker wrote: “They utilized PIP [performance improvement plan, an internal policy often used to justify firings] to trim the people who they don't like for whatever reason. Obviously, Elon doesn’t have any sense about this. He doesn’t think that feeding your family is his job as a boss.”

Another worker left an anonymous post that stated: “Musk has obviously lost his damn mind. He wants everybody to work 60+ hour weeks with no breaks, no vacations, no days off, and certainly no work from home. All of this for the same pay (the lower the better)—just like the ‘exemplary’ employees in China do. You know, the desperate people who have no other choice if they want to survive. That's his ideal employee. If you got away from that, your situation can only improve.”

Musk’s public confirmation of mass firings took place between filing a lawsuit by former employees at Tesla’s factory in Sparks, Nevada—where a separate mass firing took place—and the release of statements Musk gave in late May in which he raises the possibility of Tesla going into bankruptcy.

The lawsuit, which was filed on June 19 by John Lynch and Daxton Harsfield, alleges that Tesla carried out a mass firing of 500 workers at Gigafactory 2 in May and June. The plaintiffs allege that the largest electric vehicle producer was in violation of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act because it fired over 499 workers without providing a written notice 60 days in advance.

Tesla is also the subject of multiple other lawsuits including one alleging that the company allowed for “rampant sexual harassment” of women at the Fremont, California factory. In a separate suit a judge had awarded Owen Diaz, an African American elevator operator at Tesla’s Fremont plant, $15 million in payment for the racial abuses he experienced on the job. Diaz has rejected the payment, instead calling for a new trial claiming the amount would not change the conduct at the company. In an initial trial Diaz was awarded $137 million by a jury, which was later reduced.

In June, Solomon Chau, a Tesla investor, disclosed that he was also suing the company claiming the poor workplace culture is damaging the company’s reputation and in violation of its fiduciary responsibilities to investors. Chau’s suit specifically names Musk, Tesla’s board members and the company as defendants.

Chau’s lawsuit likely also reflects growing concerns among investors over Tesla’s economic downturn. In an interview with Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley in late May, but published this week, Musk described the factories in Berlin, Germany and Austin, Texas as “gigantic money furnaces,” which are unable to produce because of continued supply chain concerns. Musk specifically pointed to the inability to supply these factories with batteries due to COVID-19 related lockdowns in China.

Tesla operates a plant in Shanghai, which produces batteries used in their vehicles.

Musk also raised the possibility of Tesla going into bankruptcy if it is unable to keep up production. Business experts have also pointed out that the company could face difficulty transferring funds out of China and that Tesla is likely going to announce a drop in earnings compared to the previous year. Analysts at Refinitiv estimated adjusted earnings could drop to $2.5 billion in the second quarter compared to $3.7 billion in the first quarter.

Musk’s statements are surprising given his history of making grandiose claims about the operations of various companies he is a part of. He has frequently used Twitter, a company he is currently attempting to purchase, as a means of encouraging stock and digital currency speculations.

Tesla’s high market valuation, particularly compared to the number of vehicles it produces, has largely been the byproduct of rampant speculation and the ruthless treatment of workers. Throughout the pandemic this has found a particularly sharp expression with Musk rejecting remote work and violating California’s lockdown measures to reopen the Fremont factory.

The announced firings confirm that in times of economic downturn, Tesla and other companies will respond even more ruthlessly to unload the crisis onto the workers.

Notably, the layoffs at Tesla have coincided with job cuts among the more traditional automakers as well as tech companies, and portends further attacks on autoworkers.

British microchip factory faces shutdown if China deal approved, ministers warned


Matt Oliver
Sun, June 26, 2022 

nexperia newport wafer fab - Matthew Horwood /Getty Images Europe

Britain’s biggest microchip factory is likely to be closed and production shifted to Shanghai if ministers allow a Chinese takeover of the business to go ahead, a report has warned.

Researchers at the Policy Exchange think tank claimed there was a “strong possibility” that Newport Wafer Fab’s new owner, Nexperia, will in future seek to move the company’s facilities out of South Wales.

This risks strengthening China’s stranglehold on the global semiconductor market, the think tank said, which has suffered huge disruption because of the country’s strict zero-Covid policy and subsequent lockdowns.

Semiconductors are a crucial component in electrical goods such as smartphones and televisions, and are essential in car manufacturing -

The Policy Exchange said Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, should consider these implications when he is deciding whether to undo the deal, they said, alongside American concerns and the military applications of the company’s technology.

Researchers said: “There is a strong possibility that when Wingtech’s Shanghai plant reaches full capacity the company might close Newport and shift production to China, thus supporting China’s drive to reduce semiconductor imports.”

Nexperia, which is owned by Shanghai-listed Wingtech, described suggestions that it will relocate the Newport Wafer Fab's production abroad as "nonsense".

A spokesman said: “This is complete nonsense. There is no factual basis for such idle conjecture. In addition to acquiring the Newport Wafer Fab site, repaying a £17m loan to the Welsh Government, Nexperia has committed a further £160m of new investment to its UK business in the past year, to help respond to strong global demand for semiconductors.

"This investment has secured the 450 high value manufacturing jobs at Newport, with a further 50 people hired already, as well as the 1,000 at our Manchester site.

"Those are not the actions of a business that is about to shut up shop.”

The £63m takeover of Newport Wafer Fab was announced last year but provoked a furious backlash from MPs, amid concerns about growing Chinese ownership of technology assets around the world.

Mr Kwarteng announced a national security review of the takeover in May but a decision has been delayed amid a Cabinet split over the issue.

The plant fell into financial trouble during the pandemic, allowing Netherlands-based Nexperia, which owned 14pc of Newport Wafer Fab, to exercise an option to buy it.

Ministers had initially waved through the deal but Mr Kwarteng later ordered a detailed review under new national security legislation.

The laws give him the power to reverse the takeover once an investigation has been carried out.

Calls for the takeover to be blocked have grown amid a global chip shortage and increasing concerns over China’s technology ambitions.

A group of US Members of Congress has urged Joe Biden to intervene if the takeover is not reversed, saying the UK should be removed from a security whitelist that allows British investments in America to avoid screening.

FIRST TIME SINCE 1918

Russia has defaulted on its foreign debt for the first time in more than a century, reports say
Huileng Tan
Mon, June 27, 2022 

Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov and President Vladimir Putin have slammed sweeping sanctions against the country.Olga Maltseva/AP

Russia missed a Sunday deadline to pay $100 million in interest on two foreign-currency bonds.


Russia has the money to pay, but sanctions are blocking payments from moving through the global system.

Russia last defaulted on its foreign debt in 1918 during the Bolshevik Revolution.

Russia has defaulted on its foreign debt for the first time in more than a century as the country can't pay creditors due to sanctions over the war in Ukraine, according to media reports.

The country missed a deadline to pay $100 million in dollar- and euro-denominated interest on two foreign-currency bonds on Sunday, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing bondholders. Some Taiwanese holders of Russian bonds also did not receive interest due by the deadline, Reuters reported citing two sources.

Russia said it has sent the money to Euroclear for distribution to investors, but the payment seems to be held up there, the BBC reported. Euroclear would not say whether the distribution had been blocked, and said it follows all sanctions, the report said.

In May, the US Treasury ended a key sanctions exemption that allowed Russian sovereign bond payments to pass through to US investors. In response, Russia said it would start using rubles to pay down dollar bond payments.

Moscow said it had sent the Eurobond payments to the country's National Settlement Depository, Reuters reported last week. But the bonds' covenants do not allow for payments in rubles, which means the payments would still constitute a default.

It's also unclear how bondholders can access the ruble payments, as Russia's National Settlement Depository has been sanctioned by the EU.

This marks Russia's first default on its foreign debt since 1918, when, during the Bolshevik Revolution, communist leader Vladimir Lenin repudiated the debt of the Tsarist era.

But Russia isn't defaulting this time around because it doesn't have the money to pay; its finances are holding up well currently, thanks to soaring energy prices. Instead, the default comes as sweeping US and European Union sanctions are blocking its bond interest payments from moving through the international payments system.

Up until Sunday, Russia had been making good on its bond payments even amid sweeping sanctions. But markets have been expecting the country to eventually default on its foreign bonds as international trade restrictions intensify.

To counter the situation, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Wednesday to handle payments on foreign bonds under a new program — which signals that Moscow considers the interest paid, even when payments are made in rubles, Reuters reported. Russia has about $40 billion in outstanding foreign currency payments.
Russia says it's not a default

Formal default declarations are typically issued by credit rating agencies, but the big three agencies — S&P, Moody's and Fitch — have all withdrawn ratings on Russian entities due to sanctions.

Russia has hit back against what it called a "force-majeure situation," with finance minister Anton Siluanov calling the situation a "farce," Bloomberg reported last Thursday.

"Anyone can declare whatever they like," Siluanov said in an emailed statement to Bloomberg last week. "But anyone who understands what's going on knows that this is in no way a default."

Russia made the bond payments it made in May, and the fact Western sanctions were holding them up at Euroclear is "not our problem", a Kremlin spokesperson said, per Reuters.

Russia may still have until the end of the day on Monday to pay up, as there's no exact deadline specified in the bonds' prospectus, lawyers told Reuters.

And while Russia may still be able to get the money through the financial institution to bondholders, "the overwhelming probability is they won't be able to, because no bank is going to move the money," Jay S. Auslander, a top sovereign debt lawyer at Wilk Auslander, told the Associated Press.

The impact of Russia's debt default on the world's financial systems would be limited, as the country doesn't have extensive financial links globally, Insider's Harry Robertson reported in March.

Russia's foreign debts are pretty low compared to the size of its economy, so a default is unlikely to severely affect the country now. However, a default would impact Russia's credit trustworthiness, making it harder for the country to borrow on the international markets in the future.

Russia Is Hours Away From Its First Foreign Default in a Century

Giulia Morpurgo
Sun, June 26, 2022

(Bloomberg) -- After months of teetering on the edge of default, Russia is now just hours away from a dramatic moment in the financial battle that the US and others have waged against the Kremlin over its invasion of Ukraine.

A grace period on about $100 million of missed bond payments -- blocked because of wide-ranging sanctions -- ends on Sunday night. There won’t be an official declaration, and Russia is already disputing the designation, but if investors don’t have their money by the deadline, there will be an “event of default” on Monday morning, according to the bond documents.

It’s largely a symbolic development for now, given that Russia is already an economic, financial and political outcast across most of the world. But it showcases how the US, Europe and others have tightened the screws since the invasion started in February to make it all-but impossible for Russia to conduct what would otherwise be normal financial business.

For Russia, it will mark its first foreign default since the Bolshevik repudiation of Czarist-era debts in 1918. The country tipped very near to such a moment earlier this year, but managed a last-ditch escape by switching payment methods. That alternative avenue was subsequently shut off in May -- just days before the $100 million was due -- when the US closed a sanctions loophole that had allowed American investors to receive sovereign bond payments.

Now the question is what happens next, as markets are faced with the unique scenario of a defaulted borrower which has the willingness and resources to pay, but can’t.

Major ratings agencies would usually be the ones to issue a default declaration, but sanctions bar them from Russian business. Bondholders could group together to make their own statement, but they may prefer to wait to monitor the war in Ukraine and the level of sanctions as they try to figure out the chance of getting their money back, or at least some of it.

“A declaration of default is a symbolic event,” said Takahide Kiuchi, an economist at Nomura Research Institute in Tokyo. “The Russian government has already lost the opportunity to issue dollar-denominated debt. Already as of now, Russia can’t borrow from most foreign countries.”

As the penalties on Russian authorities, banks and individuals have increasingly cut off payment routes, Russia has argued that its met its obligations to creditors by transferring the May payments to a local paying agent, even though investors don’t have the funds in their own accounts.

Earlier this week, it made other transfers in rubles, despite the fact that the bonds in question don’t allow that payment option.

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has cited “force-majeure” as a justification for the currency switch, calling the situation a “farce.” The legal argument of force majeure hasn’t historically encompassed sanctions, according to lawyers who spoke to Bloomberg earlier this month.

“There is every ground to suggest that in artificially barring the Russian Federation from servicing its foreign sovereign debt, the goal is to apply the label of ‘default’,” Siluanov said Thursday. “Anyone can declare whatever they like and can try to apply such a label. But anyone who understands the situation knows that this is in no way a default.”

Trophies made from human skulls hint at regional conflicts around the time of Maya civilization's mysterious collapse


Gabriel D. Wrobel, 

Associate Professor of Anthropology, Michigan State University

THE CONVERSATION
Sat, June 25, 2022 a

How did military conflict fit into the end of a mighty civilization?

  AP Photo/Moises Castillo

Two trophy skulls, discovered by archaeologists in the jungles of Belize, may help shed light on the little-understood collapse of the once powerful Classic Maya civilization.

The defleshed and painted human skulls, meant to be worn around the neck as pendants, were buried with a warrior over a thousand years ago at Pacbitun, a Maya city. They likely represent gruesome symbols of military might: war trophies made from the heads of defeated foes.

Both skulls are similar to depictions of trophy skulls worn by victorious soldiers in stone carvings and on painted ceramic vessels from other Maya sites.

Drilled holes likely held feathers, leather straps or both. Other holes served to anchor the jaws in place and suspend the cranium around the warrior’s neck, while the backs were sawed off to make the skulls lie flat on the wearer’s chest.

Flecks of red paint decorate one of the jaws. It’s carved with glyphic writing that includes what my collaborator Christophe Helmke, an expert on Maya writing, believes is the first known instance of the Maya term for “trophy skull.”

What do these skulls — where they were found and who they were from — tell us about the end of a powerful political system that thrived for centuries, covering southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and portions of Honduras and El Salvador? My colleagues and I are thinking about them as clues to understanding this tumultuous period.

What ended a civilization?

The vast Maya empire flourished throughout Central America, with the first major cities appearing between 750 and 500 B.C. But beginning in the southern lowlands of Guatemala, Belize and Honduras in the eighth century A.D., people abandoned major Maya cities throughout the region. Archaeologists are fascinated by the mystery of what we call “the collapse” of this once powerful empire.

Earlier studies focused on identifying a single cause of the collapse. Could it have been environmental degradation resulting from the increasing demands of overpopulated cities? Warfare? Loss of faith in leaders? Drought?

All of these certainly took place, but none on its own fully explains what researchers know about the collapse that gradually swept through the landscape over the course of a century and a half. Today, archaeologists acknowledge the complexity of what happened.

Clearly violence and warfare contributed to the end of some southern lowland cities, as evidenced by quickly constructed fortifications identified by aerial LiDAR surveys at a number of sites.

Trophy skulls, together with a growing list of scattered finds from other sites in Belize, Honduras and Mexico, provide intriguing evidence that the conflict may have been civil in nature, pitting rising powers in the north against the established dynasties in the south.

Piecing together the skulls’ social context

Ceramic vessels found alongside the Pacbitun warrior and his (or her – the bones were too fragmentary to confidently determine sex) trophy skull date to the eighth or ninth century, just prior to the site’s abandonment.

During this period, Pacbitun and other Maya cities in the southern lowlands were beginning their decline, while Maya political centers in the north, in what is now the Yucatan of Mexico, rose to dominance. But the exact timing and nature of this power transition remains uncertain.

In many of these northern cities, art from this period is notoriously militaristic, abounding with skulls and bones and often showing war captives being killed and decapitated.

At Pakal Na, another southern site in Belize, a similar trophy skull was discovered inscribed with fire and animal imagery resembling northern military symbolism, suggesting a northern origin of the warrior it was buried with. The presence of northern military paraphernalia in the form of these skulls may point to a loss of control by local leaders.

Archaeologist Patricia McAnany has argued that the presence of northerners in the river valleys of central Belize may be related to the lucrative trade of cacao, the plant from which chocolate is made. Cacao was an important ingredient in rituals, and a symbol of wealth and power of Maya elites. However, the geology of the northern Yucatan makes it difficult to grow cacao on a large scale, necessitating the establishment of a reliable supply source from elsewhere.

At the northern site of Xuenkal, Mexico, Vera Tiesler and colleagues used strontium isotopes to pinpoint the geographic origin of a warrior and his trophy skull. He was local from the north. But the trophy skull he brought home, found atop his chest in burial, was from an individual who grew up in the south.

Other evidence at a number of sites in the southern highlands seems to mark a sudden and violent end for the community’s ruling order. Archaeologists have found evidence for the execution of one ruling family and desecration of sacred sites and elite tombs. At the regional capital site of Tipan Chen Uitz, approximately 20 miles (30 kilometers) east of Pacbitun, my colleagues and I found remains of several carved stone monuments that seem to have been intentionally smashed and strewn across the front of the main ceremonial pyramid.

Trophy skulls and power dynamics

Archaeologists are not only interested in identifying the timing and the social and environmental factors associated with collapse, which vary in different regions. We’re also trying to figure out how specific communities and their leaders responded to the unique combinations of these stresses they faced.

While the evidence from just a handful of trophy skulls does not conclusively show that sites in parts of the southern lowlands were being overrun by northern warriors, it does at least point to the role of violence and, potentially, warfare as contributing to the end of the established political order in central Belize.

These grisly artifacts lend an intriguing element to the sweep of events that resulted in the end of one of the richest, most sophisticated, scientifically advanced cultures of its time.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Gabriel D. Wrobel, Michigan State University.

Read more:

Misreading the story of climate change and the Maya

Soundscapes in the past: Adding a new dimension to our archaeological picture of ancient cultures

New Stonehenge discovery: how we found a prehistoric monument hidden in data

Cyberattack forces Iran steel company to halt production



ISABEL DEBRE
Mon, June 27, 2022 

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — One of Iran's major steel companies said on Monday it was forced to halt production after being hit by a cyberattack, apparently marking one of the biggest such assaults on the country's strategic industrial sector in recent memory.

The state-owned Khuzestan Steel Company said experts had determined the plant had to stop work until further notice “due to technical problems” following “cyberattacks.” The company's website was down on Monday.

The company's CEO, Amin Ebrahimi, claimed that Khuzestan Steel managed to thwart the cyberattack and prevent structural damage to production lines that would impact supply chains and customers.

“Fortunately with time and awareness, the attack was unsuccessful,” the semiofficial Mehr news agency quoted Ebrahimi as saying, adding that he expected the company's website to be restored and everything to return to "normal" by the end of Monday.

A local news channel, Jamaran, reported that the attack failed because the factory happened to be non-operational at the time due to an electricity outage.

The company did not blame any specific group for the assault, which constitutes just the latest example of an attack targeting the country's services that has embarrassed authorities in recent weeks. In a major incident last year, a cyberattack on Iran's fuel distribution paralyzed gas stations across the country, leading to long lines of angry motorists.

Train stations in Iran have been hit with fake delay messages. Surveillance cameras in the country have been hacked. State-run websites have been disrupted. Footage showing abuse in the country's notorious Evin prison has leaked out.

Iran has previously accused the United States and Israel for cyberattacks that have crippled the country's infrastructure.

Iran disconnected much of its government infrastructure from the internet after the Stuxnet computer virus — widely believed to be a joint U.S.-Israeli creation — disrupted thousands of Iranian centrifuges in the country’s nuclear sites in the late 2000s.

Khuzestan Steel Company, based in Ahvaz in the oil-rich southwestern Khuzestan province, has a monopoly on steel production in Iran along with two other major state-owned firms.

Founded before Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, the company for decades afterward had some production lines supplied by German, Italian and Japanese companies. Service has been continuous except during catastrophic Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, when Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein sent his army across the border.

However, crushing sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program has forced the company to reduce its dependence on foreign parts.

The government considers steel a crucial sector. Iran is the leading producer of steel in the Middle East and among the top 10 in the world, according to the World Steel Association. Its iron ore mines provide raw materials for domestic production and are exported to dozens of countries, including Italy, China and the United Arab Emirates.

Iran's crude steel production, however, was only 2.3 million tons last month, the WSA said. Its concurrent drop in exports has been largely attributed to sanctions-hit Russia flooding Iran's Chinese buyers with discounted steel after losing access to Western markets amid the war on Ukraine.