It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Friday, July 22, 2022
THANKS JOE
DeSantis uses federal COVID-19 relief funds to send nearly 60,000 Florida families a $450-per-child check to 'offset the costs of rising inflation'
Katie Anthony
Thousands of Florida families will receive one-time checks for $450 per child starting this week.
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced he set aside $35.5 million of COVID-19 relief funds to send out the checks.
The stimulus is aimed at offsetting the costs of inflation, according to state officials.
Thousands of low-income Florida families are expected to receive relief checks to help offset inflation costs.
Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration on Thursday announced he's re-allocating some COVID-19 relief funds and sending $450 per child directly to struggling families in the state.
"This one-time payment assists families who are being affected by rising inflation and preparing to send their children back-to-school," Laura Walthall, spokesperson for the Florida Department of Children and Families, said in a statement to Insider.
The governor has set aside $35.5 million from the state's $1 billion American Rescue Plan Act to send out the checks, according to an announcement from Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis.
Eligible recipients include foster parents, relative and non-relative caregivers, and families recieving funds from the Florida Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program or Guardianship Assistance Program, according to Walthall.
Florida's Department of Children and Families said they expect around 59,000 families to receive the check, and, like other COVID-19 relief funds, there's no application.
Food expiration dates don't have much science behind them – a food safety researcher explains another way to know what's too old to eat
Jill Roberts,
Associate Professor of Global Health,
University of South Florida Thu, July 21, 2022
THE CONVERSATION Without obvious signs of contamination like the mold in this jam, consumers use expiration dates to decide whether to keep or throw away food.
Florida’s outbreak of listeria has so far led to at least one death, 22 hospitalizations and an ice cream recall since January. Humans get sick with listeria infections, or listeriosis, from eating soil-contaminated food, undercooked meat or dairy products that are raw, or unpasteurized. Listeria can cause convulsions, coma, miscarriage and birth defects. And it’s the third leading cause of food poisoning deaths in the U.S.
Avoiding unseen food hazards is the reason people often check the dates on food packaging. And printed with the month and year is often one of a dizzying array of phrases: “best by,” “use by,” “best if used before,” “best if used by,” “guaranteed fresh until,” “freeze by” and even a “born on” label applied to some beer.
People think of them as expiration dates, or the date at which a food should go in the trash. But the dates have little to do with when food expires, or becomes less safe to eat. I am a microbiologist and public health researcher, and I have used molecular epidemiology to study the spread of bacteria in food. A more science-based product dating system could make it easier for people to differentiate foods they can safely eat from those that could be hazardous.
Costly confusion
The United States Department of Agriculture reports that in 2020 the average American household spent 12% of its income on food. But a lot of food is simply thrown away, despite being perfectly safe to eat. The USDA Economic Research Center reports that nearly 31% of all available food is never consumed. Historically high food prices make the problem of waste seem all the more alarming.
The current food labeling system may be to blame for much of the waste. The FDA reports consumer confusion around product dating labels is likely responsible for around 20% of the food wasted in the home, costing an estimated US$161 billion per year.
It’s logical to believe that date labels are there for safety reasons, since the federal government enforces rules for including nutrition and ingredient information on food labels. Passed in 1938 and continuously modified since, the Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act requires food labels to inform consumers of nutrition and ingredients in packaged foods, including the amount of salt, sugar and fat it contains.
The dates on those food packages, however, are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. Rather, they come from food producers. And they may not be based on food safety science.
For example, a food producer may survey consumers in a focus group to pick a “use by” date that is six months after the product was produced because 60% of the focus group no longer liked the taste. Smaller manufacturers of a similar food might play copycat and put the same date on their product.
More interpretations
One industry group, the Food Marketing Institute and Grocery Manufacturers Association, suggests that its members mark food “best if used by” to indicate how long the food is safe to eat, and “use by” to indicate when food becomes unsafe. But using these more nuanced marks is voluntary. And although the recommendation is motivated by a desire to cut down on food waste, it is not yet clear if this recommended change has had any impact.
A joint study by the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic and the National Resources Defense Council recommends the elimination of dates aimed at consumers, citing potential confusion and waste. Instead, the research suggests manufacturers and distributors use “production” or “pack” dates, along with “sell-by” dates, aimed at supermarkets and other retailers. The dates would indicate to retailers the amount of time a product will remain at high quality.
The FDA considers some products “potentially hazardous foods” if they have characteristics that allow microbes to flourish, like moisture and an abundance of nutrients that feed microbes. These foods include chicken, milk and sliced tomatoes, all of which have been linked to serious foodborne outbreaks. But there is currently no difference between the date labeling used on these foods and that used on more stable food items.
Expiration dates could be more meaningful if they were based on scientific studies of a food’s rate of nutrient loss or microbial growth.
Infant formula is the only food product with a “use by” date that is both government regulated and scientifically determined. It is routinely lab tested for contamination. But infant formula also undergoes nutrition tests to determine how long it take the nutrients - particularly protein – to break down. To prevent malnutrition in babies, the “use by” date on baby formula indicates when it’s no longer nutritious.
Nutrients in foods are relatively easy to measure. The FDA already does this regularly. The agency issues warnings to food producers when the nutrient contents listed on their labels don’t match what FDA’s lab finds.
Microbial studies, like the ones we food safety researchers work on, are also a scientific approach to meaningful date labeling on foods. In our lab, a microbial study might involve leaving a perishable food out to spoil and measuring how much bacteria grows in it over time. Scientists also do another kind of microbial study by watching how long it takes microbes like listeria to grow to dangerous levels after intentionally adding the microbes to food to watch what they do, noting such details as growth in the amount of bacteria over time and [when there’s enough to cause illness]. Consumers on their own
Determining the shelf life of food with scientific data on both its nutrition and its safety could drastically decrease waste and save money as food gets more expensive.
But in the absence of a uniform food dating system, consumers could rely on their eyes and noses, deciding to discard the fuzzy bread, green cheese or off-smelling bag of salad. People could also might pay close attention to the dates for more perishable foods, like cold cuts, in which microbes grow easily. They can also find guidance at FoodSafety.gov. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Jill Roberts, University of South Florida.
Parkland survivor David Hogg was kicked out of a House gun control meeting
Parkland survivor David Hogg was kicked out of a House gun control meeting after tearing into Rep. Andy Biggs for using the same logic of 'mass shooters in your manifesto'
Lauren Frias Wed, July 20, 2022
March for Our Lives founder David Hogg confronted Rep. Andy Biggs over his rhetoric on gun ownership.
The Parkland shooting survivor spoke out at a House Judiciary meeting on gun control Wednesday.
Biggs said Americans need guns to defend themselves against an "invasion of the southern border."
Parkland survivor David Hogg was thrown out of a House gun control meeting on Wednesday after he accused GOP Rep. Andy Biggs of parroting the same rhetoric employed by gunmen in mass shootings.
The House Judiciary Committee gathered on Wednesday to discuss gun control policies, including the 2021 Assault Weapons Ban and the Equal Access for Victims of Gun Violence Act.
During the meeting, Biggs, a Republican from Arizona, claimed Americans, specifically residents of his state, need assault weapons to protect themselves against an "invasion" of undocumented migrants, whom the conservative lawmaker said posed "a danger or threat."
"The reality is it is an invasion of our southern border," Biggs said.
Biggs' remarks prompted Hogg to rise from his seat in the gallery and yell: "You're reiterating the points of mass shooters in your manifesto!"
"Guess what? Those guns are coming from the United States of America. They aren't coming from Mexico," he added as security escorted him from the committee room. "You are reiterating the points of a mass shooter, sir. You are perpetuating violence."
A spokesperson for Biggs did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
David Hogg Confronts Politicians
During House Judiciary Committee
Meeting
David Hogg, a gun control activist and survivor of the 2018 Parkland school shooting, confronted politicians during a House Judiciary Committee meeting on Wednesday, July 20.
The committee was holding a meeting on legislation that would ban the sale, import, manufacture or transfer of some semi-automatic weapons.
This footage, filmed by Po Murray, shows Hogg standing up and yelling at the representatives, saying, “you are reiterating the points of mass shooters in their manifestos. The shooter at my high school, anti-semitic, anti-black and racist. The shooter in El Paso described it as an invasion…”. Hogg is then seen being escorted out of the room by a security officer.
In a video posted to Twitter after the meeting, Hogg said “before that video was recorded, there was a Republican who was repeatedly saying there was a ‘Mexican invasion’, a ‘hispanic invasion’… reality is, these mass shooters are reiterating talking points that sure as hell sound a lot like what these Republicans are saying.”
“if you’re saying something that mass shooters are also agreeing with, maybe you shouldn’t be saying that same thing at the same time.” He continued: “The shooter at my high school was not on opioids, the shooter at my high school was not mentally ill, the shooter at my high school was not an undocumented or illegal immigrant… Stop saying these talking points that these mass shooters are using”. Credit: Po Murray via Storyful
Video Transcript
- --reiterating the points of mass shooters in your manifesto. The shooter at my high school, anti-Semitic, anti-Black, and racist. The shooter in El Paso described it as an invasion. Guess what, those guns are coming from the United States of America! They aren't coming from Mexico! They are not coming from Mexico!
You are reiterating the point of a mass shooter, sir. Sir, you are perpetuating the violence. You need to realize this not a Democrat or Republican. Stop these things now.
- Go, David!
[INAUDIBLE]
- --reiterating the points of mass shooters in your manifesto. The shooter at my high school, anti-Semitic, anti-Black, and racist. The shooter in El Paso described it as an invasion. Guess what, those guns are coming from the United States of America! They aren't coming from Mexico! They are not coming from Mexico!
You are reiterating the points of a mass shooter, sir. Sir, you are perpetuating the violence. You need to realize this is not about a Democrat or a Republican. Stop these things now.
- Go, David!
- [INAUDIBLE]
Norfolk Southern to increase conductor trainee pay to $25 an hour and add biweekly $300 incentive
Published: July 21, 2022
By Ciara Linnane
Norfolk Southern Corp. NSC, +1.78% said Thursday it is increasing pay for its conductor trainees to $25 an hour with a minimum fo $200 in earnings per shift. The railroad operator said it's also offering an on-the-job training incentive of $300 per bi-weekly pay period, for trainees who make themselves available for work. Applicants interested in the program can apply online at Jobs.NSCorp.com, the Atlanta, Ga.-based Norfolk said in a statement. Conductor trainees in priority locations can earn up to $5,000 in starting bonuses. Those locations include: Bellevue, Ohio, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Binghamton, New York, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Cincinnati, Ohio, Louisville, Kentucky , Conway, Pennsylvania, Peru, Indiana, Decatur, Illinois, Princeton, Indiana , Elkhart, Indiana and Roanoke, Virginia. At non-priority locations, starters can get a bonus of up $2,500. In their first year, conductors can earn an average of $67,000 and are entitled to join a pension and have a a 401 (k) savings option, health care coverage and other benefits. Training takes about 16 weeks and includes classroom and field training. Shares were not active premarket but are down 20% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 SPX, +0.99% has fallen 17%.
Clench your teeth and take a look at the private jet flight patterns of the rich and famous
Reid McCarter Thu, July 21, 2022 Warming up for a quick run to the grocery store.
The celebrities are not doing a good job of persuading all of us unwashed masses that they’re handling their wealth responsibly. Last week, in the middle of a summer that’s seen the weather across vast swathes of the planet resemble the air just above a low-boiling pot of soup, Kylie Jenner posted a photo showing her and Travis Scott posing between their matching private jets. In reaction to the post, people started sharing records of Jenner’s private flights, digging up tweets showing her jet taking off and landing to run errands that required as little as three minutes in the air.
These tweets come from Jack Sweeney, the creator of the automated Celebrity Jets Twitter account, which, as its name implies, gives us a way to watch our demigod rulers’ behavior in despair via posts that track the private flights of various celebrities along with their financial and environmental cost.
A typical example of one of these posts sees Spielberg’s jet flying for approximately 24 minutes last Tuesday, using 1,437 pounds of jet fuel and producing 2 tons of CO2 emissions in the process. On Monday, in another example, one of Drake’s private flights lasted about 52 minutes, burned 10,190 pounds of jet fuel, and created 16 tons of CO2 emissions. Most of the celebrities whose names appear on the tracker take these kind of flights regularly.
As Mel Magazine points out in an article about Celebrity Jets, private jets “are disproportionately wasteful” and “pollute up to 14 times more than commercial planes per passenger, and up to 50 times more than rail travel.” The same article notes that private jet usage is only increasing, with 2021 marking a huge increase in new buyers and flights.
This leave us with only one conclusion: The celebrities, like the Roy family from Succession, must be pressured to give up their “PJs” for the good of the rest of the world.
A 17-minute flight? The super-rich who have ‘absolute disregard for the planet’
Oliver Milman, graphics by Andrew Witherspoon Thu, July 21, 2022 Photograph: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Kylie Jenner has faced a torrent of criticism for her decision to take her private jet on a flight that lasted just 17 minutes. But the practice of taking brief journeys on luxury aircraft appears to be common among the rich and famous despite mounting concerns over the climate crisis.
Jenner, the 24-year-old socialite and businesswoman, has faced online opprobrium after she posted an Instagram picture of herself and her partner, rapper Travis Scott, on the runway of an airport between two private jets with the caption “you wanna take mine or yours?”
According to an automated Twitter account that tracks celebrity flights based on transponders and tail fin marking, Jenner’s flight on 12 July lasted just 17 minutes, taking her from Van Nuys in Los Angeles to the nearby town of Camarillo. The model had earlier taken a 27-minute trip in her jet, a $72m Bombardier BD 700, to Van Nuys from Thermal, California. Interactive
She was subsequently attackedby Twitter users for her “absolute disregard for the planet” and for being a “full time climate criminal”.
It’s estimated that her 17-minute jaunt would’ve resulted in a ton of carbon dioxide emissions, which, while in itself not a huge amount, is about a quarter of the total annual carbon footprint of the average person globally. The trip would have taken Jenner about 40 minutes in a car, causing just a fraction of the emissions.
But Jenner – who took an even shorter flight, lasting just nine minutes, between the same two locations in June – is far from the only celebrity to make short hops using private aircraft rather than driving or using public transport.
A review of the Celebrity Jets tracking account shows that just in the past month, the rapper Drake took an 18-minute flight from Hamilton, Ontario to Toronto; Kenny Chesney, the country music singer, was in the air for just 20 minutes between Akron, Ohio and Pittsburgh and the actor Mark Wahlberg took a 23-minute flight from Dublin to County Clare in Ireland, among other short trips.
Many of these brief flights are to “park” an aircraft at a convenient or less expensive location, or are part of a longer, two-part journey, but many appear to have an unclear rationale, such as the decision of Floyd Mayweather, the boxer, to fly 14 minutes from Las Vegas to nearby Henderson, then to fly 10 minutes back on Sunday.Interactive
“I’m not surprised people are upset, they are right to be mad at this,” said Jack Sweeney, creator of the Celebrity Jets account, which uses data from a company that tracks aircraft transponders.
Sweeney, a student at the University of Central Florida, has a similar account that just tracks the private jet of Elon Musk, the multi-billionaire head of Tesla. In May, Musk took a 28-minute flight in his jet between Houston and Austin, Texas, but Sweeney believes he should be judged differently for this.
“With Elon he’s just trying to be as quick as possible and efficient for work, but someone like Kim Kardashian (who has taken long and short private jet flights) is posting ‘Kim Air’ and flexing and all that,” he said.
Private jets are responsible for around 4% of all aviation emissions, according to a 2016 study, with the airline industry keen to point out that flying in general comprises just a small fraction of the overall sources of planet-heating gases.
However, private aircraft still emit more than 33m tonnes of greenhouse gases, more than the country of Denmark, and because they carry so few people they are five to 14 times more polluting than commercial planes, per passenger, and 50 times more polluting than trains, researchers have found.
“These startlingly short flights show the immense impact of the wealthy in overall aviation emissions,” said Scott Hochberg, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.
“The problem starts at the top with Kylie Jenner and other celebrities with private jets, which have a much larger impact than commercial aircraft on a per passenger basis. But it also includes many others, as the US constitutes the bulk of the wealthy elite that have the luxury of flying.”
Emissions from private jets flown in the US have surged since the 1990s and will balloon further as larger and more polluting aircraft come onto the market. Short trips using private jets are not solely an American phenomenon; in 2019, one tenth of all flights departing France were private jets, with half traveling less than 500km. The frequent use of aviation is the domain of the world’s wealthy, with just 1% of the global population responsible for half of the emissions associated with flying.
“There are plenty of alternatives to private jets and wanting to avoid traveling with the hoi polloi isn’t a good enough reason for excessive pollution,” said Nikita Pavlenko, fuels team lead at the International Council on Clean Transportation.
“These short flights have emissions that are small in relative terms but per person they are staggering. Aviation emissions are growing exponentially year over year and private jet pollution is growing more than general aviation.”
Major US airlines have announced climate plans that include commitments to ramp up the use of low-emission sustainable aviation fuels (or SAFs), such as cooking oil or hydrogen, with Joe Biden’s administration last year unveiling a goal of a 20% cut in aviation emissions by 2030. This target, however, is voluntary and there has been no significant shift by the industry towards lessening its climate impact.
“Aviation decarbonization is largely all talk and little substance in the US,” said Pavlenko. “As for celebrities, they need to set a positive example and ditch the planes. At the very least, they should exhibit some leadership and use sustainable fuels or a zero emissions plane when that becomes available.”
Thursday, July 21, 2022
EXPLAINER-Luton Airport runway meltdown shows airports vulnerable to climate change
Jamie Freed Thu, July 21, 2022 By Jamie Freed
July 22 (Reuters) - The temporary disruption at London's Luton Airport on Monday when soaring temperatures caused a small section of the asphalt to lift is an example of the challenges airports face in making their infrastructure resilient to climate change, experts say.
Below is an explanation of how global airports are coping with extreme heat and what may be needed to prevent future interruption if there is another heatwave.
WHAT HAPPENED AT LUTON AND WHY?
The Luton runway was closed for nearly two hours on Monday, prompting airlines to delay or divert flights as temperatures rose above 37C (98.6 Fahrenheit), adding to industry headaches in what has been a chaotic summer travel season in Europe.
A long-standing patch repair to a small section of the runway - the equivalent of 0.2% of the entire surface area - became so hot that it de-bonded and began to lift, a spokesperson for the airport said on Friday, adding it was repaired within two hours.
It is built to the same specification as others in Britain, meeting industry safety standards and regulations, the spokesperson said.
"We continue to evaluate all options regarding the ongoing maintenance and long-term resilience of all of our infrastructure."
The spokesperson did not comment on questions about the timing of the runway's resurfacing, the type of asphalt used or any possible changes to the material.
Runways are typically resurfaced every 10 to 15 years.
Experts say the airport, one of Britain's busiest and used by budget airlines including Ryanair and EasyJet , may be more vulnerable to heat because it is at a higher elevation than the others surrounding the capital: Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted.
Luton's climate change adaptation report released in November 2021 warned one of the key risks was high temperatures causing infrastructure damage or impacting operations.
The airport said in the medium term it would need to ensure all airfield resurfacing projects considered the impact of increasing temperatures.
HOW DO OTHER AIRPORTS COPE WITH EXTREME HEAT?
The surface materials used depend on the climate and local conditions as well as other factors such as cost.
In the Middle East, airports are more likely to use more expensive concrete runways because they are good at withstanding extreme heat, Greg White, director of the Airport Pavement Research Program at Australia's University of the Sunshine Coast, said this week.
In Britain and Australia, cheaper asphalt runways are more common, he said, though they use different stiffness levels depending on the local climate.
That means in Australia, where summer temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) are not unprecedented, asphalt runways do not melt like they did at Luton.
"This would only happen in Australia if Australia got to 50 degrees," White said. "You need something that's outside of the norm. But it can happen at the cold end as well. You'll get different failures, but it can happen in extreme cold if you've got something that's been engineered and designed for much warmer weather."
Luton could make its runway more resistant to a high temperature, but that would in turn make it more susceptible to an extremely low temperature, White said.
WHAT ARE THE OTHER CHALLENGES FOR AIRPORTS?
Airports Council International (ACI), a group representing airports globally, said it will soon publish an airfield maintenance handbook for members with a section dedicated to pavement management.
"This includes lists of probable cause of pavement distresses, and some are related to climate," an ACI spokesperson said.
Runway patches are only one of the potential challenges faced by airports as temperatures rise, with others including airplanes requiring longer take-off distances and weight restrictions in hotter conditions.
As temperatures get warmer, aeroplanes need a longer time and more fuel to take off, because hot air is thinner.
A Federal Aviation Administration study issued in November 2021 showed runways at eight or nine of the 30 busiest U.S. airports may need to be extended by at least 500 feet (152 metres) due to future increases in temperature or higher rainfall, which requires more braking distance.
Rising sea levels and more powerful storms mean many airport operators are also investing in measures https://www.reuters.com/article/us-airports-climatechange-idUKKCN1MB1OL such as higher runways, seawalls and better drainage systems to future-proof their immovable assets.
(Reporting by Jamie Freed in Sydney; additional reporting by David Shepardson and Paul Sandle in Farnborough, England; Editing by Josephine Mason and David Evans)
Sri Lanka security forces raid protest camp as new president takes office
Sri Lankan security forces raided a Colombo anti-government protest camp outside the president's office and evicted demonstrators early on Friday, multiple images from the scene show.
Why it matters: The crackdown came hours after former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as president. The fixture of Sri Lanka's establishment is deeply distrusted by protesters who brought down his predecessor after months of demonstrations over the country's economic crisis, per Axios' Dave Lawler.
Sri Lanka: Forces raid anti-government protest camp
George Wright & Frances Mao - BBC News
Thu, July 21, 2022
In this article:
Security forces in Sri Lanka raided the main anti-government protest camp in the capital early on Friday, arresting protesters and dismantling tents.
Hundreds of troops and police commandos moved on the protesters outside the presidential offices in Colombo, hours before they were due to leave the area.
A BBC video journalist was beaten by the army and one soldier snatched his phone and deleted videos.
Nine people, including two who are injured, have been arrested by police.
It comes as Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as president on Thursday, after ex-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country last week.
Mr Wickremesinghe - the former prime minister - is seen as deeply unpopular with the public, and has vowed tough action against demonstrators.
Separately on Friday, Dinesh Gunawardena - a senior politician considered to be a long-time Rajapaksa loyalist - took the oath as new prime minister, stepping into Mr Wickremesinghe's former shoes.
Sri Lanka has seen months of mass unrest over an economic crisis, and many blame the former government for mishandling the nation's finances.
Security forces have sealed off a section of the road
Protests had remained peaceful after Mr Wickremesinghe had been sworn into office on Wednesday. Despite deep distrust, many demonstrators had said they would give him a chance to lead the country out of its economic crisis.
In remarks after his inauguration, he said any attempt to topple the government or occupy government buildings was not "not democracy, it is against the law".
On Friday morning, security forces moved in on the protest camp and reclaimed the building from demonstrators, who had earlier pledged to hand the building back.
Police described the incident as a "special operation to take [back] control of the presidential secretariat".
When asked about the attack on the BBC journalist, one police spokesman said he was unaware of the incident.
The raid took place in the early hours of Friday, at around 01:00 local time (19:30 GMT Thursday). Security forces later completely sealed off a section of the road leading to the site.
BBC journalists attacked By Anbarasan Ethirajan, BBC News, Colombo
When we heard that troops might be raiding the anti-government protest site in Colombo after midnight, we went to the spot just in front of the Sri Lankan president's office.
Soon, hundreds of heavily armed soldiers and police commandos with riot gear descended from two directions, their faces covered.
When activists raised objections to their presence, the security personnel marched on and became aggressive. The protesters were pushed back.
Within seconds, we saw soldiers shouting, dismantling and destroying make-shift tents and other items on the pavement. Troops also moved into the president's office which was stormed by huge crowds last week.
Activists had earlier said they would hand over the building on Friday afternoon. As we followed the soldiers, we could see they were clearing everything in their way.
The protesters were pushed up to the designated protest site less than 100m away and steel barricades were set up to stop the activists.
When we were returning from the area, a man in civilian clothes, surrounded by troops, shouted at my colleague and said he wanted to delete the videos from his phone. Within seconds the man punched my colleague and snatched his phone.
Though I explained to them we were journalists and simply doing our job, they wouldn't listen. My colleague was attacked further and we raised strong objections. The mic of another BBC colleague was taken and thrown away.
The phone was returned after the videos were deleted from the device. Another army officer intervened and let us go.
My colleague was shaken but was able to walk back to the hotel, a few hundred metres away.
The BBC tried to get a response from the military and police on the attack, but no-one answered our calls. A state of emergency declared last week is still in place.
The government's violence against protesters has already been criticised by civil and legal groups.
"Unnecessary use of brute force will not help this country and its international image," said the nation's Bar Association leader, Saliya Peiris in a statement. Members of Sri Lankan security outside the Presidential Secretariat on Friday
The British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Sarah Hulton, also expressed concerns about the reports from the protest site.
"We have made clear the importance of the right to peaceful protest," she tweeted.
Sri Lanka has been wracked with protests for months because the country is effectively bankrupt and facing acute shortages of food, fuel and other basic supplies.
The country is currently in a state of emergency, which gives police and military the power to arrest and detain people without warrants.
It also allows for the detention of people without proof or the presumption of innocence, and severely restricts fundamental rights such as the freedom of movement and expression.
Sri Lanka: The basics
Sri Lanka is an island nation off southern India: It won independence from British rule in 1948. Three ethnic groups - Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim - make up 99% of the country's 22 million population.
One family of brothers has dominated for years: Mahinda Rajapaksa became a hero among the majority Sinhalese in 2009 when his government defeated Tamil separatist rebels after years of bitter and bloody civil war. His brother Gotabaya, who was defence secretary at the time and later became president, fled the country after mass unrest.
Presidential powers: The president is the head of state, government and the military in Sri Lanka, but does share a lot of executive responsibilities with the prime minister, who heads up the ruling party in parliament.
Now an economic crisis has led to fury on the streets: Soaring inflation has meant some foods, medication and fuel are in short supply, there are rolling blackouts and ordinary people have taken to the streets in anger, with many blaming the Rajapaksa family and their government for the situation.
UPDATE 3-Sri Lankan forces raid anti-gov't protest camp as new president takes office
Thu, July 21, 2022 at 6:43 p.m. By Devjyot Ghoshal and Uditha Jayasinghe
COLOMBO, July 22 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan security forces raided a protest camp occupying government grounds in the main city of Colombo early on Friday and cleared out a section of it, a sign that the country's new president was cracking down a day after his swearing-in.
Media footage showed soldiers in riot gear and armed with assault rifles tearing down the camp, set up in April by protesters enraged with the country's economic collapse that has caused severe shortages of fuel, food and medicines.
"A joint operation involving the military, police and police special forces was launched in the early hours to recover the presidential secretariat from the protesters as they have no legal right to hold it," police spokesperson Nalin Thalduwa told Reuters.
"Nine people, including two injured, have been arrested."
Protesters had feared a crackdown was imminent under new President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was seen as an ally of his ousted predecessor, Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Protest organisers said hundreds of security personnel surrounded the "Gota Go Gama" protest camp, mockingly named after Rajapaksa, after midnight and then took apart a section of it.
As daylight broke, dozens of troops marched through the area and rows of protest tents that stood on both sides of the main road that passes in front of the office of the president completely cleared out. Dozens of protesters stood by, looking at newly set up barricades and security personnel.
At least 50 protesters were injured, the organisers said, including some journalists who were beaten by security forces. Hospital sources said two were hospitalised.
"They beat us really cruelly," said Buddhika Abeyrathne, 34, a protester who witnessed the raid but did not appear injured himself. "Mr Wickremesinghe doesn’t know what democracy is."
Sri Lanka is under a state of emergency since Monday. Previous emergency regulations have been used to give powers to the military to detain and arrest protesters, and curtail the right to protest.
Wickremesinghe, the former prime minister, was sworn into office on Thursday after winning a parliamentary vote this week, following the resignation of Rajapaksa who fled to Singapore in the wake of massive public protests triggered by the country's worst economic crisis in seven decades.
'DESPICABLE'
The president is expected to appoint Rajapaksa ally Dinesh Gunewardena as prime minister along with a new cabinet later on Friday.
After surrounding the protest camp, security personnel moved in front of the presidential secretariat, started dismantling some tents and assaulted protesters, protest organiser Manjula Samarasekara said.
Security forces appeared to have taken control of the entire secretariat, with many more personnel visible inside the building perimeter that was earlier this month seized by protesters, along with the president and prime minister's official residences. The residences were later handed back to government authorities.
Protest organiser Chameera Dedduwage told Reuters they had planned to hand over the presidential secretariat to government authorities on Friday afternoon. Police said they had no information on that.
"The excessive force and the violence used to remove protesters is a marked difference from what Sri Lanka needs right now, especially when the protesters had already said they will vacate the premises," said Bhavani Fonseka, a senior researcher at Colombo-based think tank Center for Policy Alternatives.
The Bar Association of Sri Lanka said the crackdown could destabilise the country, which is in need of foreign aid and a bailout from the International Monetary Fund.
"The use of the armed forces to suppress civilian protests on the very first day in office of the new president is despicable and will have serious consequences on our country’s social, economic and political stability," the collective of lawyers said in a statement.
U.S. and British diplomats also expressed concern.
"We urge restraint by authorities and immediate access to medical attention for those injured," U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Julie Chung, said on Twitter.
(Additional reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal and Krishna N. Das; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
World Court to Rule on Whether Myanmar Genocide Case Can Proceed
By Reuters July 21, 2022 An exhausted Rohingya refugee woman touches the shore after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border by boat through the Bay of Bengal in Shah Porir Dwip, Bangladesh, September 11, 2017.
Picture taken September 11, 2017. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
By Toby Sterling
THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The World Court is expected to rule on Friday on Myanmar's objections to a genocide case over its treatment of the Muslim Rohingya minority, a decision that could pave the way for the case to be heard in full.
Myanmar leader urges World Court to drop genocide case
Myanmar, currently ruled by a military junta that seized power in 2021, has argued that Gambia, which brought the suit, had no standing to do so at the top U.N. court, formally known as the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Gambia, which took up the cause after its then-attorney general visited a refugee camp in Bangladesh, argues that all countries have a duty to uphold the 1948 Genocide Convention. It is backed by the 57-nation Organisation for Islamic Cooperation in a suit aiming to hold Myanmar accountable and prevent further bloodshed.
A separate U.N. fact-finding mission concluded that a 2017 military campaign by Myanmar that drove 730,000 Rohingya into neighbouring Bangladesh had included "genocidal acts".
If judges reject Myanmar's objections, it paves the way for the case to be heard in full on its merits -- a process that will take years. A ruling in Myanmar's favour would end the ICJ case.
While the court's decisions are binding and countries generally follow them, it has no way of enforcing them.
In a 2020 provisional decision it ordered Myanmar to protect the Rohingya from genocide, a legal victory that established their right under international law as a protected minority.
However Rohingya groups and rights activists say there has been no meaningful attempt to end their systemic persecution and what Amnesty International has called a system of apartheid.
Rohingya are still denied citizenship and freedom of movement in Myanmar. Tens of thousands have now been confined to squalid displacement camps for a decade.
The junta has imprisoned democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who defended Myanmar personally in 2019 hearings in The Hague.
(Reporting by Toby Sterling and Poppy McPherson; Editing by Peter Graff)
Copyright 2022 Thomson Reuters.
Global slowdown fears darken prospects for Asian factories A man walks past Bank of Japan's headquarters in Tokyo
By Leika Kihara
Thu, July 21, 2022
TOKYO (Reuters) - Worries over a global slowdown are casting a shadow over Asia's recovery prospects with factory activity growth slowing in Japan and Australia, keeping pressure on policymakers to support their economies while tightening monetary policy to combat inflation.
Japan's manufacturing activity grew at the slowest pace in 10 months in July, the purchasing managers' index (PMI) survey showed on Friday, boding ill for an economy struggling to shake the wounds from the pandemic.
Factory activity also slowed in Australia with the index falling to 55.7 in July from 56.2 in June, a separate survey showed on Friday.
The surveys underscore the hit manufacturers are suffering from supply constraints, rising raw material costs and slowing global demand - all factors flagged by the Bank of Japan as among key risks to the country's economic recovery.
"July's PMIs suggest that the manufacturing sector is slowing as demand weakens, while the latest COVID-19 is starting to hit the services sector," Marcel Thieliant, senior Japan economist at Capital Economics, said on Japan's PMI.
"While that index never dropped as far as in other advanced economies, it is not showing the strong improvement seen elsewhere either."
PMI surveys for Britain, euro zone and the United States are due out later on Friday.
Soaring inflation, driven by Russia's war in Ukraine, has forced central banks across the globe to tighten monetary policy even at the cost of cooling their economies.
Despite suffering the economic pain from the Ukraine war, the European Central Bank raised interest rates for the first time in 11 years on Thursday as concerns about runaway inflation trumped worries about growth.
Aggressive rate hike plans by the Federal Reserve have stoked market worries over a U.S. recession. Many Asian central banks also found themselves scrambling to catch up tightening policy to tame inflation and keep their currencies from depreciating too much.
China and Japan remain exceptions by keeping monetary policy loose, a sign their economies - the second- and third-largest in the world - lack strength to offset the weaknesses in other parts of the globe.
China's economic growth slowed sharply in the second quarter, weighed by widespread COVID lockdowns and pointing to persistent pressure over coming months from a darkening global outlook.
The slowdown in the world's second-largest economy, as well as the fallout from aggressive central bank tightening, forced the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to slash its growth forecast for the region on Thursday.
(Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Sam Holmes)
Imperialism and Financialism. A Story of a Nexus
Imperialism and Financialism. A Story of a Nexus Bichler, Shimshon and Nitzan, Jonathan. (2012). Journal of Critical Globalization Studies. No. 5, March. pp. 42-78. (Article - Journal; English).
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Abstract or Brief Description
Over the past century, the nexus of imperialism and financialism has become a major axis of Marxist theory and praxis. Many Marxists consider this nexus to be a prime cause of our worldly ills, but the historical role they ascribe to it has changed dramatically over time. The key change concerns the nature and direction of surplus and liquidity flows. The first incarnation of the nexus, articulated at the turn of the twentieth century, explained the imperialist scramble for colonies to which finance capital could export its excessive surplus. The next version posited a neo-imperial world of monopoly capitalism where the core's surplus is absorbed domestically, sucked into a black hole of military spending and financial intermediation. The third script postulated a World System where surplus is imported from the dependent periphery into the financial core. And the most recent edition explains the hollowing out of the U.S. core, a red giant that has already burned much of its own productive fuel and is now trying to financialize the rest of the world in order to use the system's external liquidity. The paper outlines this chameleon-like transformation, assesses what is left of the nexus and asks whether it is worth keeping.
Language
English
Publication Type
Article - Journal
Keywords
capital dependency finance hegemony imperialism Marxism monopoly world systems
What Is Imperialism? Finance Capitalism, Globalization and Ecological Sustainability
Jun 2, 2014 Haider Khan Haider Khan lectures on Imperialism, Finance Capitalism, and Ecological Sustainability by using a circuits of global capital theory
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