YOU CANNOT MAKE THIS SHIT UP😈

Musk Shares a Nazi Meme Then Tells Twitter to Vote Republican

Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling
Mon, November 7, 2022 

Life comes at you fast. Six months ago, Elon Musk wrote, “For Twitter to deserve public trust, it must be politically neutral, which effectively means upsetting the far right and the far left equally.”

On Monday morning, weeks after buying the platform for $44 billion, he shared a meme featuring a Nazi soldier then told his 115 million followers to vote Republican in Tuesday’s midterms.

“To independent-minded voters: Shared power curbs the worst excesses of both parties, therefore I recommend voting for a Republican Congress, given that the Presidency is Democratic,” he wrote.

Musk has faced criticism for snuffing out roughly 50 percent of the company’s employees last week, including those responsible for monitoring disinformation days ahead of Election Day. The purge was likened by some critics to a Category 5 hurricane.

“Hardcore Democrats or Republicans never vote for the other side,” Musk added on Monday, “so independent voters are the ones who actually decide who’s in charge!”

The CEO’s tweet on voting red garnered over 43,000 retweets and nearly 180,000 likes a couple hours after posting. His Nazi meme, which used a photo of German Wehrmacht soldier with a cage of carrier pigeons during the Nazi invasion of France, had about 14,000 retweets in the three hours after it was posted.

Musk, who in late 2021 surpassed Jeff Bezos in wealth with a reported net worth of $219 billion, has had a rocky start to his latest tech foray, blaming a recent “massive drop in revenue” on “activist groups pressuring advertisers,” rather than his own antics.

At a campaign event in Chicago on Friday, President Joe Biden called out the site after Musk shared—then deleted—a baseless conspiracy theory about the attack on Paul Pelosi, calling Twitter “an outfit that spews lies all across the world.”

In an effort to change his fortune and turn a profit at the historically unprofitable social media platform, Musk has proposed a pay-to-play verification system and an end to permabans, including one on Donald Trump.

But the new plan didn’t stop the thin-skinned billionaire from suspending comedian Kathy Griffin on Monday after she changed the name on her profile to Musk’s and encouraged people to vote Democrat.

“Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended,” he tweeted.

Twitter Suspends Kathy Griffin After She Changed Her Handle to ‘Elon Musk’

Elon Musk tells his Twitter followers to vote for Republicans the day before the midterms, despite saying Twitter should be 'politically neutral'

Nicole Gaudiano

Mon, November 7, 2022 

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.Danny Matson/Getty Images for SXSW, BRITTA PEDERSEN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

• Elon Musk told his followers on Monday to elect a Republican Congress in the midterm elections.

• In August, Musk was reportedly a VIP guest of House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy at his annual donor retreat.

• The billionaire reportedly complained about his tax bill at the retreat.

Tesla CEO and Twitter's new owner Elon Musk urged his Twitter followers on Monday to elect a Republican Congress on Tuesday in an appeal to "independent-minded voters" on the eve of the midterm elections.

"Shared power curbs the worst excesses of both parties, therefore I recommend voting for a Republican Congress, given that the Presidency is Democratic," he tweeted, adding "Hardcore Democrats or Republicans never vote for the other side, so independent voters are the ones who actually decide who's in charge!"

In August, Musk was reportedly a VIP guest of House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy's at his annual donor retreat in Wyoming, multiple outlets reported. Axios reported that McCarthy interviewed Musk in a fireside Q&A chat and that Musk complained during the event about the $11 billion tax bill he incurred in 2021 after selling Tesla stock.

Attendees also told Axios that the US would benefit if the Democratic Party stayed "out of people's wallets," and Republicans stayed "out of people's bedrooms."

Musk announced in May that he would vote Republican in the upcoming election cycle after years of voting for Democrats.

Responding to Musk's tweet, Punchbowl News founder Jake Sherman tweeted that Musk has "long been friendly with Kevin McCarthy."

Musk's acquisition of Twitter ended last month. Reaction to his tweet came swiftly.

Democratic strategist Max Burns tweeted: "The @GOP ought to list your Twitter acquisition as an in-kind campaign contribution."

Reuters journalist Kanishka Raj Singh dug up a tweet from Musk in April in which he said Twitter should be politically neutral.

Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was among those killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, tweeted that "shared power in the market place curbs excesses. I recommend buying Mustang Mach E or Hyundai Ioniq over Tesla as we need to curb this maniac and his wealth who is trying to influence election outcomes."

Twitter Reacts to Elon Musk Tweet With Nazi Soldier Image: ‘He’s Exactly What We Thought He Was’

Sharon Knolle
Mon, November 7, 2022

Amidst the Twitter verification brouhaha and suspensions of verified users who changed their name to “Elon Musk,” Musk drew more fire Monday for sharing an image of a Nazi soldier.

In the photo, a WWII-era soldier has three carrier pigeons in a cage on his back; the text “3 UNREAD MESSAGES” has been added to the photo. Musk’s own caption, “How times have changed,” was innocuous enough, but the fact he chose an image of a member of Hitler’s Wehrmacht is not.

Democratic strategist Adam Parkhomenko tweeted, “Wait. Elon endorsed Republicans AND shared a picture of a Nazi soldier? So he’s exactly what we thought he was.”



Others shared the archival photo’s listing on Getty Images, which confirms the image’s origins. “A German Wehrmacht soldier carries a cage of carrier pigeons used for relaying messages, on the western front during the German invasion of France, known as the Battle of France, in WWII, circa May 1940,” reads the Getty caption.

It comes with this note on Getty: “Please note: images depicting historical events may contain themes, or have descriptions, that do not reflect current understanding. They are provided in a historical context.”

Some floated the theory that Musk simply shared the image without being aware of its context. ‘”It’s easy to read this as “Elon Musk keeps posting Nazi s—” but I think the actual story is that because he loves stealing posts form his replies, there are a bunch of people trying to get him to post Nazi s— and succeeding because he’s easily manipulated. Seems worse!” tweeted Cooper Lund.

Also Read:
Twitter to Delay New Blue Check Subscription Launch Until After Midterms Amid Concerns of Election Misinformation

Although the photo does not include Nazi insignia, the helmet worn by the soldier appears to be a Stahlhelm, which was part of the Germany army’s uniform.

Musk has already been blasted for his refusal to moderate ethnic and racial failures on the platform, as well as blatantly pro-Nazi tweets.

Read a roundup of more Twitter responses to Musk’s latest misstep below.

 

Hundreds of Twitter employees on H-1B visas fear being deported if Elon Musk fires them

Ryan Hogg, BI
Sun, November 6, 2022 

Hundreds of Twitter employees on special visas could be deported after Elon Musk's job cuts.

He cut thousands of jobs with the mass layoffs equating to as much as half of the company workforce.

A Forbes report suggests nearly 700 Twitter employees were on H-1B employment-tied visas.

Elon Musk's cost-cutting plans may have left hundreds of Twitter employees on high-skill work visas on a countdown to deportation.

At least 250 Twitter workers appear to be employed on H-1B visas, according to official records, and now face an uncertain future.

And according to analysis of US Citizenship and Immigration Services data by the National Foundation for American Policy, that number could be as high as 670, or 8% of the company pre-cuts, Forbes reported.

Musk began culling the social-media giant's workforce on Thursday night, Insider reported, with access to work applications like Slack suddenly cut off for many now-former employees.

About half of Twitter's workforce, or about 3,700 people, are expected to have lost their jobs, per Insider. But for some of these workers, the consequences could be even more severe.

According to data from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Twitter has given "initial approval" to 168 H-1B visas since 2020. The company has received approval for 673 such visas since 2009.

Companies give H-1B visas to people from other countries with "highly specialized knowledge" and a relevant bachelor's degree, per USCIS. They are intended to last for three years, but can go up to six.

If sponsored employment is lost, a migrant has 60 days to find a new job before facing deportation. The US allows 65,000 successful applications a year. Workers on H-1B visas are able to stay in the US if they can find new employment, according to "portability" rules.

Records suggest Immigration Services granted "continuing approval" for 242 visas earlier this year, suggesting hundreds of employment-conditional migrants were working at Twitter before Musk's layoffs.

Musk asked vice presidents to compile lists of employees deemed least worthy of staying as he endeavors to radically alter the way Twitter works. It is unclear what departments visa-tied Twitter employees work for, or how susceptible their positions are to layoffs.

According to immigration law, Musk must pay the "reasonable costs" of transportation of migrant workers whose employment has been terminated before the end of their authorized stays.

According to multiple reports, Musk himself was able to stay in the United States after finishing his college degree thanks to the H-1B visa. He previously reprimanded Donald Trump in 2017 for Trump's decision to suspend the special work visas.

Musk also faces a lawsuit from former employees for not giving adequate notice over mass layoffs, which may provide some from of respite for vulnerable workers. The billionaire has since tweeted that the company offered everyone who got laid off three months' worth of severance, though some staff have disputed his claim.

Twitter user @maybettl, who said they were laid off from the company this week, tweeted that some staff were offering to be laid off to save their colleagues on work visas. Insider wasn't able to verify this information.

Twitter didn't respond to Insider's request for comment on the number of employees on special work visas, or the number of those employees it had laid off.

Elon Musk is a ‘brutalist decision-maker’: Twitter employees are flooding Blind with bad reviews
Jyoti Mann
Sun, November 6, 2022 

Twitter laid off nearly half of its workforce on Friday.Getty Images

Twitter employees are posting bad reviews about the company and Elon Musk on anonymous forum Blind.


One person called Musk a "brutalist decision-maker." Another said he has "no idea" what he's doing.


Posting on the day the layoffs were announced, one user said management was causing "stress."


Twitter employees are flooding the employee forum Blind with bad — and some good — reviews about the company and its new CEO, Elon Musk.

Insider trawled through the community app, where employees can anonymously write reviews and post about their workplaces, to see what Twitter staff are saying about the company.

Twitter laid off thousands of employees on Friday when Elon Musk completed his $44 billion takeover of the platform. After axing nearly half of the Twitter workforce, Musk tweeted on Friday that there was "no choice" as the company was losing more than $4 million a day.

Blind requires that users give their work email address, the company they work for, and their job title when they sign up. The site does not verify employment, but requests that people use their work email to "gauge the professional status" of users, Blind's website states.

Users have posted a total of 953 Twitter reviews to the site since 2020 and the company has an overall star rating of 3.8 out of 5 stars. Each poster adds a star rating to their review. Some of the reviews were posted the day some staff members learned of the mass layoffs the next morning, but the majority are from earlier.

One poster who described themself as an engineering manager said on Wednesday: "Brutalist decision-maker at the helm. Emergency driven work is exciting for those who like thrills. Pay is no longer tied to the stock market fluctuations."

The anonymous poster, who gave Twitter a two-star rating, added: "The absolute and swift destruction of a compassionate, human-first corporate culture is leaving Tweeps feeling like we've lost our family."

Another user, who posted the day the company sent staff a memo announcing layoffs, said it "was good until Elon take over."

The self-described senior software developer listed getting to "work for Elon" as a "pro" of working at the company, then put being treated as a "labor robot" on an accompanying list of "cons."

"Sense of achievement on delivering mission critical projects with 24/7 working and sleeping at office," the post said.

A Twitter employee tweeted a picture of a manager sleeping at the office this week after Musk took over. Musk announced plans to launch new product features, including a verification subscription for $8.

A software engineer said on November 2 that before the company was made private, it was an "incredible" place to work.

They added: "Elon mother flipping Musk and his ego the size of mars. Twitter is already chaos, but come layoffs Friday, it will a massive dumpster fire. The man has no idea what he's doing and I'd bet $8 Twitter won't be around or relevant in a couple years."

It is not possible to tell which of these posters, if any, had been laid off.

Another Blind user wrote on Thursday that the management changes are creating "stress" as a result of people being fired or quitting.

Twitter did not respond to Insider's request for comment.

Not just job cuts: Elon Musk eliminated Twitter's ‘Days of rest’ and work-from-home policies last week — pushing a '24/7' work culture hard. 

Jing Pan
Mon, November 7, 2022 

Not just job cuts: Elon Musk eliminated Twitter's ‘Days of rest’ and work-from-home policies last week — pushing a '24/7' work culture hard. Here are 3 other investments the billionaire likes

If you are a Twitter employee who has a satisfying work-life balance, you may not want to hear what the new boss has to say.

Elon Musk has completed his acquisition of Twitter, despite saying that he overpaid for the company. And now, he’s finding ways to reduce expenditures at the social media giant.

The billionaire entrepreneur cut close to 3,700 jobs at Twitter, or half of the workforce, via email last week.

Musk has also removed Twitter’s “Days of rest” — monthly days off for employees to rest and recharge — in his push to implement a “24/7” work culture.

Additionally, Bloomberg reported that Musk plans to end the company’s remote work policy and ask remaining employees to return to the office full-time.

Who would want to join Twitter now? It's still hiring for more than 90 roles despite cutting thousands of jobs
Jyoti Mann

Sun, November 6, 2022

Elon Musk now owns Twitter.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Twitter is still hiring to fill more than 90 roles despite laying off half of its workforce.


Twitter's careers page advertised 92 jobs a day after the mass layoffs.


Twitter posted seven roles on LinkedIn's jobs section a few days before Elon Musk took over.

Twitter is still hiring for more than 90 roles despite the company laying off half of its workforce on Friday.

Twitter's careers page listed at least 92 open roles on Saturday. More than a third of the positions are based at its headquarters in San Francisco.

Twitter first advertised seven roles, all of which are based in London, on LinkedIn two weeks ago. Six jobs are for software engineers, despite one London-based senior engineer being fired while he slept.

Elon Musk sent a memo to Twitter employees on Thursday telling staff they would find out if they were being laid off via email on Friday. Some employees learned their fate on Thursday night after being cut off from accessing their work emails and laptops.

The Tesla founder took control of Twitter last week after his $44 billion deal to buy the platform was complete. He immediately fired top executives including CEO Parag Agrawal, and Ned Segal, the chief financial officer.

Musk later floated new ideas for the company, including charging users $8 to gain a "verified" status along with seeing fewer ads.

A growing chorus of companies including Pfizer, General Motors, and Volkswagen have since paused ads on Twitter amid concerns over the platform's approach to content moderation.

Musk told some of the leading advertisers on the platform in a call that Twitter will have varying tiers of how it would moderate content, likening it to age ratings for films, The Financial Times reported.

Musk then tweeted Friday that Twitter's "strong commitment" to moderating content remained "absolutely unchanged." He also said in another tweet that he had "no choice" but to make mass layoffs because the company was losing $4 million a day.

He said: "Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required." Some Twitter staff have disputed that claim.

Twitter didn't respond to Insider's request for comment.

Elon Musk wants to nickel-and-dime Twitter users for features that were once free just 7 months after saying he 'didn't care about the economics'

Samantha Delouya

Sun, November 6, 2022

Elon Musk carrying a sink into Twitter's headquarters in San FranciscoElon Musk/Twitter

• Elon Musk is haphazardly suggesting ways to "pay the bills" at Twitter as debt interest payments soon come due.

• His approach is starkly different than when he said he "didn't care about the economics" of buying it in April.

• Musk has reportedly suggested paid direct messages and "paywalled" videos to advisors as ways to make Twitter more money.

Not long after Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter for $44 billion in April, he said he "didn't care about the economics at all" of the purchase.

"This is just my strong, intuitive sense that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization," Musk said at the TED2022 conference.

Seven months later, the world's richest man seems to have changed his tune, haphazardly suggesting ideas to his advisors, and even his Twitter followers, in an attempt to make the platform profitable.

Earlier this week, Musk announced that Twitter would begin charging $8 per month for its "blue check" verification program, which was previously free to those who qualified.

"We need to pay the bills somehow!" Musk wrote in a tweet responding to complaints about the fee.

But that's not the only idea Musk has in mind to squeeze cash out of his new company. The New York Times reports that Musk and his advisers have weighed adding a service that would allow users to send direct messages to high-profile users for a fee and "paywalled" videos.

Musk has also considered charging for user analytics and reviving the short-form video platform, Vine, according to his interactions with followers on Twitter.

The rushed attempts to drum up new revenue streams at Twitter are at odds with how Musk spoke about the purchase of the social media platform last spring when he extolled the platform's virtue as a "de facto town square" and compared the Twitter deal to Jeff Bezos' purchase of The Washington Post.

Now, Musk has Twitter employees working 24/7, trying to find a way to make to eke out money from the platform as Twitter will eventually be expected to pay massive interest payments. Musk borrowed $13 billion from banks to partially fund the deal, and the company will have to pay $1 billion in annual interest as a result. Twitter's entire cash flow last year totaled less than $1 billion, according to the Times.

Charging for previously free services isn't the only way Musk has tried to save the company money. On Thursday night and Friday morning, large swaths of Twitter's staff learned they had been laid off, either via email or by simply losing access to their Slack and email accounts.

Vice President Harris is wrapping up her midterm campaign push by meeting with union leaders a day before the elections
Juliana Kaplan
Mon, November 7, 2022 

Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) tours an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) training facility on September 7 2020 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with union leaders on Monday in California.


Harris will meet with United Farm Workers and dial in to a Unite Here get out the vote call.


Unions are popular right now among Americans, making them a rarity among many issues.

Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with union leaders on Monday to discuss the Biden administration's continued support for workers, according to a White House official.

Harris, who has her own union and activism roots, has emerged as one of several high-level members of the Biden administration on the frontlines of meeting with workers and supporting the resurgent labor movement.

Harris will meet with leaders from United Farm Workers in Los Angeles, along with joining a Unite Here call focused on turning out the vote in swing states like Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.

UFW recently staged a 24-day long march in an effort to get California Governor Gavin Newsom to sign onto legislation that would ease the process for farm workers to unionize. Newsom eventually signed on to an amended version of the bill. Unite Here represents service workers across restaurants, hotels, and other leisure and hospitality businesses.

Harris has hit the road ahead of the midterms, bolstering mostly female candidates and focusing on reproductive rights as Democrats pull out all of their stops to try and fend off a potential red wave. Along the way, according to a White House official, she is prioritizing meeting with local labor leaders.

Harris chairs the Biden administration's task force on strengthening unions and union membership. In May, Harris — along with co-chair Marty Walsh, Biden's Secretary of Labor — welcomed union organizers from the likes of Starbucks and Amazon to the White House. The president made an appearance at that event, which Alex Speidel, a lead organizer with United Paizo Workers/CWA, told Insider was "an unbelievable surprise."

The Biden administration has made clear its intentions to embrace organized labor. One of Biden's first actions in office was to dismiss Peter Robb, the Trump-appointed general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board. Instead, Biden installed Jennifer Abruzzo, an NLRB veteran who had been serving as a union-side lawyer for the Communication Workers of America. Abruzzo has already made her mark on the agency, working towards ending the practice of mandatory anti-union meetings. Petitions for union representation are up 58% in the first 9 months of fiscal year 2022 compared to fiscal year 2021, according to the NLRB.

"President Joe Biden and I are determined to lead the most pro-union administration in America's history," Harris said in April remarks. "Unions negotiate better wages and safer working conditions for millions of workers around our country."

Organized labor has emerged as a rare issue that Americans seem to largely be on board with. Unions are at their highest approval level since 1965, according to Gallup, with 71% of Americans approving of them.

That comes as Americans' confidence in everything from religion to Congress have wavered. Another Gallup poll from June surveyed Americans about their confidence in 16 major institutions, including the presidency and the Supreme Court. Only organized labor did not see a drop in confidence from the year prior.

Now, as Democrats head into the uncertain midterms the administration is again turning towards organized labor.

Harris "has been focused on reaching women, young people, and communities of color," a White House official said. "There's an inherent link to labor unions and the members that compose those unions, and just the critical importance of this moment to recognize what's at stake in this election and the progress that the administration has made, but that we need to continue to build on."

In Pakistan's Sindh province, Hindu culture fights the odds

 

RIAZAT BUTT
Sun, November 6, 2022 

SUKKUR, Pakistan (AP) — On the sandy banks of the Indus River, which flows top to toe through Pakistan and into its southern Sindh province, Hindus waited for brightly colored boats to ferry them to a peaceful island that has housed a temple for almost 200 years.

Cheers rang out across the water as the marble and sandalwood Sadhu Bela temple complex heaved into view. “Long live Sadhu Bela!" the boat's passengers cried.

The temple attracts tens of thousands of Hindus from within Muslim-majority Pakistan every year for festivals and rituals, including the recent celebrations of Diwali, an important Hindu holiday.

The island was gifted to the Hindu community by wealthy Muslim landlords in Sindh two centuries ago. It would have been an unthinkable act in modern-day Pakistan, where Hindus are often marginalized, persecuted, and even killed.


Around 4 million Hindus live in Pakistan, or about 1.9% of the country’s population, and 1.4 million are in Sindh.

There is no ban on Hindu worship in Pakistan, but Hindus say openly practicing the faith is not a matter of routine. Decades of political hostility between majority-Hindu India and predominantly Muslim Pakistan present a challenge for the minority community, as many in Pakistan equate Hindus with India. The reverse exists in India where Muslims complain of discrimination.

But the landscape of Pakistan, and Sindh in particular, retains their imprint. It has temples, although their numbers have plummeted. There are Hindu-run businesses as well as education and healthcare institutions, many established before the country was created in 1947. They are part of Pakistan's heritage, even as Hindus are forced into the shadows.

As Sadhu Bela came alive with the delight of devotees exploring the courtyards and gardens, Dewan Chand Chawla, a local politician and general secretary of the Pakistan Hindu Temple Management Committee, spoke proudly of the temple's origins and features. The shrine, which celebrates its bicentennial in 2023, was built by craftsmen from the Indian city of Jodhpur and reflects the architectural style of the Taj Mahal.

“A large part of the Hindu population migrated to India after Pakistan came into being, but those who stayed here are happy and prosperous,” Chawla said, keen to stress the harmonious relationship between the Muslim majority and Hindu minority. “I am thankful to the Muslim community of Pakistan, which fully supports us on all occasions. We follow the law and we are supported by the government.”

His assertion about a happy and prosperous Hindu community is not the majority view, however. Rights groups have long alleged that Pakistan is not doing enough to protect Hindus' freedom of religion and belief. They cite temple desecrations, attacks on businesses, homes, and individuals and the abduction, forced conversion, and forced marriage of young Hindu women.

Chawla is not the only politician to emphasize an image of religious coexistence in Pakistan. “Most of the Hindu population of the country live in Sindh province satisfactorily, peacefully and without any fear or threat," said Waqar Mahdi, a senior advisor to Sindh’s chief minister.

Mahdi said provincial officials have prioritized protecting the rights of minorities like Hindus and Christians.

But Zahida Rehman Jatt, a University of Sindh lecturer in anthropology and social sciences, said there has been a surge in discrimination and marginalization of Hindus because of rising extremism and fundamentalism in the country. This intolerance risks undermining Pakistan's ties to its Hindu heritage, she said.

“It’s sad because their (Hindus’) contribution is huge to Pakistan," she said. "Most Pakistanis are not aware of the importance of Hindu heritage or the contribution that Hindus — and Sikhs — made for the betterment of Pakistani society.”

Some Hindu-founded institutions had their names changed after Pakistan was created, she said, citing Hyderabad’s Kundan Mal Girls’ School as an example. It was founded in 1914 by Hindu philanthropist Saith Kundan Mal, but is now known as Jamia Arabia Girls School. Such changes are one reason why Pakistanis don't know about the contribution of minority faiths, she said.

Other institutions still bear the names of their Hindu benefactors, including a red brick college and two hospitals in the city Shikarpur, around 35 kilometers (22 miles) from Sukkur.

On the first night of Diwali, one of the most important festivals in Hinduism, clay lamps subtly illuminated doorways and windowsills in Shikarpur. But there were no elaborate light displays or street festivities, and traditional Diwali firecracker fun took place away from the public gaze.

The city of about 200,000 people has a rich Hindu history and traditions, now gradually fading.

One of the keepers of that history can be found in a vast courtyard off a side road. On a recent day in late October, sweet shop owner Dewan Narain Das, 67, enjoyed the cool air. Vats of food bubbled away, children ran and played outdoors, and people gathered to exchange Diwali gifts and good wishes on the holy occasion.

His family has owned a business in Shikarpur since the late 19th century. It started as a soft drink store and, after partition, became a sweet shop. It is famous in the city for falooda, an ice-cream-based dessert with noodles. Das is so well-known in the city that it is easy to find him just by asking for “Dewan Sahib, who owns the falooda shop.”

“People who have lived here for a long time say that the taste they enjoyed 20 years ago is still there in our products,” said Das.

He said Shikarpur once had a sizable Hindu community and scores of temples, a number that has since dwindled. “Rich people used to organize picnics at the Indus River,” he said. “They used to live here, but their businesses spread to Singapore, Hong Kong, and Mumbai.”

Many Hindus left after partition, and their properties were taken over by a government trust. Today, Pakistan has a population of some 225 million people.

Jatt, the scholar, said that the properties were allotted to refugees coming into newly created Pakistan from India. Most of the tenants paid minimal rent and were often unable to take care of the properties. “They (the residents) are very poor and these properties are grand, previously owned by wealthy Hindus," Jatt said.

After partition, politicians trying to forge a Pakistani narrative emphasized the Muslim heritage, downplaying the contributions of other communities, Jatt said.

“I don’t think we will see this kind of legacy or contribution again from Hindus, the opportunities are on the decline,” she said. "There may be individual cases of philanthropy, but the scale of building and philanthropy will decrease.”

A man buys sweet at a famous 67-year-old sweet shop run by a Hindu businessman, in Shikarpur, Pakistan, Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022. The landscape of Pakistan, and Sindh in particular, retains their imprint. It has temples, although their numbers have plummeted, businesses, education and healthcare institutions, many established before the country was created in 1947. These places are part of Pakistan's heritage, even as Hindus are forced into the shadows. 

(AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Qatar’s promise of ‘carbon-neutral’ World Cup raises doubts




Solar panels sit in front of Khalifa International Stadium, also known as Qatar's National and oldest Stadium, which will host matches during FIFA World Cup 2022, in Doha, Qatar, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022. Organizers of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar have said the event will be soccer’s first “carbon neutral” event of its kind. FIFA and Qatari organizers say they will reduce and offset all the event's carbon emissions, which will be calculated once the games are over. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

SUMAN NAISHADHAM
Mon, November 7, 2022 

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the 12-year run-up to hosting the 2022 men's World Cup soccer tournament, Qatar has been on a ferocious construction spree with few recent parallels.

It built seven of its eight World Cup stadiums, a new metro system, highways, high-rises and Lusail, a futuristic city that ten years ago was mostly dust and sand.

For years, Qatar promised something else to distinguish this World Cup from the rest: It would be ‘carbon-neutral,' or have a negligible overall impact on the climate. And for almost as long, there have been skeptics — with outside experts saying Qatar and FIFA's plan rests on convenient accounting and projects that won't counteract the event's carbon footprint as they advertise.

"It's not very helpful for this type of event to market itself as carbon-neutral,” said Gilles Dufrasne, a researcher at the Brussels-based non-governmental organization Carbon Market Watch, which authored a report questioning Qatar's sustainability plan. “It gives the impression that we can build massive state-of-the-art stadiums ... and fly people from all over the world to watch football matches and that’s somehow compatible with reaching climate targets."

COUNTING EMISSIONS

In an official report estimating the event's emissions, Qatari organizers and FIFA projected that the World Cup will produce some 3.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from activities related to the tournament between 2011 and 2023. That's about 3% of Qatar's total emissions in 2019 of roughly 115 million metric tons, according to World Bank data.

Qatar famously moved the tournament to the winter to protect players and spectators from extreme heat. Even so, the gas-rich nation will air condition seven stadiums that are open to the sky. For water, it will mostly rely on energy-guzzling desalination plants that take ocean water and make it drinkable to satisfy the more than 1.2 million fans expected to touch down for the monthlong event. The Gulf Arab sheikdom is normally home to 2.9 million people.

Qatar and FIFA say the largest source of emissions will be travel — mostly the miles flown from overseas. That will make up 52% of the total. Construction of the stadiums and training sites and their operations will account for 25%, the report said. Operating hotels and other accommodations for the five weeks, including the cruise ships Qatar hired as floating hotels, will contribute 20%.

But in its report, Carbon Market Watch said those figures are not the whole story. It said Qatar vastly underestimated the emissions from building the seven stadiums by dividing the emissions from all that concrete and steel by the lifespan of the facilities in years, instead of just totaling them.

“This is problematic,” Carbon Market Watch said, questioning the likelihood that Qatar, which is smaller than the U.S. state of Connecticut, would have erected seven large stadiums without the World Cup.

Qatar defended its math and said it has worked hard to avoid creating “white elephant” venues that often sit idle in host countries after a tournament has ended. It says it has developed plans for each stadium after the games are over.

“No other country has engaged so deeply with its citizens to ensure a sustainable legacy is left behind after a FIFA World Cup,” a spokesperson for the Qatari Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy said.

But last-minute hiccups continue to undercut the country's climate promises. For years, Qatar said the country's small size would reduce the amount of travel needed between stadiums and games. But despite all the construction, the country is still short of hotel rooms and thousands of fans who are unable to find lodging in Qatar will sleep in nearby Dubai — 45 minutes away by plane — and other Gulf cities.

Qatari organizers did not respond to a request for comment about whether they will count the flights in pollution totals, instead saying in a statement that any discrepancies would be explained after the World Cup.

A spokesperson for the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy called the methodology behind Qatar's carbon-neutral pledge “best in practice.”

CARBON OFFSETS QUESTIONED

Central to Qatar's plan to reduce World Cup emissions are carbon offsets. Sometimes called carbon credits, these promise to cancel out or absorb the same amount of greenhouse gases emitted by a company or event, so that it's as if the event emitted nothing.

In theory, that would mean every mile flown into the country and every construction project related to the games would be countered by an equal amount of carbon dioxide reduced by planting trees or improvements made elsewhere.

So far, Qatari organizers have pledged to buy 1.8 million carbon offsets from the Global Carbon Council, a Doha-based carbon credit registry where renewable projects are verified and listed. One carbon credit is equal to one metric ton of carbon dioxide avoided or removed from the atmosphere.

But carbon analysts have said the credits issued by the registry are of dubious quality because it's unclear that they are “additional,” or fund carbon-reducing projects that would not have otherwise existed. As renewable energy infrastructure grows cheaper and more common across the world, it becomes less likely that investing in them through carbon credits is actually benefitting the environment, experts say. Approved projects registered to Qatari World Cup organizers so far include wind and hydropower energy projects in Turkey and Serbia.

“They’re relying on arguably some of the lowest quality credits that exist today,” said Danny Cullenward, an energy economist and lawyer who directs policy at CarbonPlan, a California-based nonprofit that evaluates climate programs. He said there are “severe problems with additionality" with the credits Qatar and FIFA are using, which he evaluated.

Cullenward and other experts say carbon credits often promise more than they deliver. The global carbon credits market remains largely unregulated.

“It’s not clear that the strategy of carbon offsetting is actually meaningful,” Cullenward said.

QATAR'S EFFORTS

Still, Qatari organizers insist the country is on track to host the first carbon-neutral World Cup. They point to the visibly green elements of Qatar's clean purchases: 800 new electric buses, 16,000 trees and nearly 700,000 nursery-grown shrubs, plus a new 800-megawatt solar power plant that was recently connected to the grid.

“It's really enhanced the energy basket for Qatar,” said Saud Ghani, an engineering professor at Qatar University who designed the stadiums' air-conditioning systems. “Before we only burned gas to generate power.”

Organizers have repeatedly said the country's decision to offset the event's carbon emissions “should be recognized rather than criticized.”

Karim Elgendy, a fellow at London's Chatham House think tank who previously worked as a climate consultant for the World Cup, said Qatar's efforts at ‘greening’ the tournament “show a positive trend for a sporting event."

It indicates that Qatar, one of the world's top natural gas exporters, is taking steps to improve its climate credentials, Elgendy said. Even if the country is "doing that in a way that works with them.”

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Follow Suman Naishadham on Twitter: @SumanNaishadham

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Activists fear for Qatar workers as World Cup spotlight dims




A labourer uses headphones to talk on his mobile phone as the others prepare dinner at their accommodations in the old Musheireb district of Doha, Qatar, Sunday, April 28, 2019. With just days to go before Qatar hosts the World Cup, rights groups fear that a window for addressing the widespread exploitation of foreign workers could soon close. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)More

JOSEPH KRAUSS
Sun, November 6, 2022 

With just days to go before Qatar hosts the World Cup, rights groups fear that a window for addressing the widespread exploitation of foreign workers could soon close.

The long run-up to this month's World Cup has brought unprecedented scrutiny to the treatment of the millions of foreign workers in the Gulf Arab nation who built stadiums and other infrastructure, and who will staff hotels and sweep the streets during the world's biggest sporting event.

In the face of heavy international criticism, Qatar has enacted a raft of reforms in recent years, including the partial dismantling of a system that tied workers to their employers and enacting a minimum wage — changes praised by the U.N. as well as rights groups.

But activists say abuses ranging from unpaid wages to harsh working conditions in one of the hottest countries on Earth, are still widespread, and that workers — who are barred from forming unions or striking — have few realistic avenues to pursue justice.

They also worry about what happens after the monthlong tournament ends in December, when the international spotlight moves on and employers slash their payrolls.

Qatar says it leads the region in labor reforms and that progress will continue after the World Cup. Officials from the ruling emir on down have lashed out at critics, accusing them of ignoring the reforms and unfairly singling out the first Arab or Muslim nation to host the Cup.

Qatar, like other Gulf countries, relies on millions of foreign workers, who make up a majority of the population and nearly 95% of the labor force — everyone from highly paid corporate executives to construction workers.

Qatar has dismantled much of what is known as the “kafala” system, which tied workers to their employers and made it virtually impossible for them to quit or change jobs without permission. But rights groups say much of that system survives in different, more informal ways.

Workers often must pay exorbitant recruitment fees, taking on debt even before they arrive. And employers can still cancel visas or report those who quit for “absconding,” a criminal violation.

“If a migrant worker walks away from a job that hasn’t paid them in several months, there’s just a real risk that they’re not going to get that money back," said Michael Page, of the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

Equidem, a London-based labor rights group, recently released a lengthy report documenting abuses in more than a dozen World Cup hotels, where it says workers from Africa and Asia face sexual harassment, discrimination, wage theft and health and safety risks.

Ella Knight, a researcher at London-based Amnesty International, says many migrants working as security guards or domestic helpers go months or even years without a day off, despite laws mandating at least one per week.

“Impunity remains a massive problem, so employers are just not being held to account or not being penalized in a way that prevents abuses from being repeated," she said.

Qatari law bars workers from forming unions or staging protests, and authorities heavily restrict media access to laborers. Police detained at least 60 workers who struck over unpaid wages in August. Last year, two Norwegian reporters were detained while reporting on migrant workers.

Malcolm Bidali, a Kenyan security guard who had anonymously blogged about the plight of workers, was detained for three months — including 28 days in solitary confinement — and fined $6,800 before leaving the country last year.

In an article about his ordeal, he said Qatar's reforms “look splendid” on paper, but that the reality on the ground is different, with authorities seemingly more keen to silence dissent than penalize abusive employers.

“I can’t help but wonder what’s in store for migrant workers after the World Cup,” he wrote. “If workers still live in horrible conditions, if workers still go months without pay, if workers still can’t freely change jobs, if domestic workers still can’t get justice, what happens when no one’s looking?”

Qatar has defended its reforms and says it will continue to safeguard workers' welfare after the World Cup.

“Qatar has always acknowledged that work remains to be done, notably to hold unscrupulous employers to account — as is the case with any country around the world,” Ali Al-Ansari, Qatar's media attache in the United States, said in a statement. “We are already seeing the number of offences declining year-on-year as compliance increases among employers.”

Labor rights activists say Qatar still owes compensation to those who worked on World Cup infrastructure projects going back to the awarding of the tournament in 2010 — years before the reforms were enacted. Amnesty says authorities failed to investigate the deaths of workers during that period.

Amnesty and other rights groups now urge soccer's governing body FIFA to establish a $440 million fund — equivalent to the tournament's total prize money — to compensate workers, an appeal that several federations support. The global soccer body has said it is open to the idea.

Qatar established its own fund in 2018 to compensate workers who are injured on the job or who are not paid, which Al-Ansari said had paid out some $270 million this calendar year alone. He did not comment directly on the calls for a larger remedy fund.

Page, of Human Rights Watch, says the sizable payouts by Qatari authorities, which only cover claims in recent years, show the importance of establishing a larger fund to address the “very serious abuses” that took place in the several years before the reforms were enacted.

“If this is their stance now, in the heat of the spotlight, what is their position going to be — the Qatari authorities — after the World Cup, in terms of reforms and migrant worker protections, when the spotlight is off them? I think that’s really concerning,” he said.
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French building group summoned over Qatar working conditions


WCup Qatar Laborers 

NOT WEARING STEEL TOED BOOTS!!!

A Pakistani migrant laborer works on the corniche, overlooking the skyline of Doha, Qatar, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022. One of the world’s biggest sporting events has thrown an uncomfortable spotlight on Qatar’s labor system, which links workers’ visas to employers and keeps wages low for workers toiling in difficult conditions. 

(AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)More

SAMUEL PETREQUIN
Mon, November 7, 2022

French construction company Vinci said on Monday that one of its subsidiaries has been summoned by an investigating judge to answer charges that it did not respect the rights of migrant workers who were hired to build infrastructure for the World Cup in Qatar.

The charges relate to a complaint dating back to 2015 that was filed by French advocacy group Sherpa against Vinci Construction Grands Projets and the French executives of its Qatari subsidiary, including accusations of using “forced labor."

The Nanterre prosecutor had closed the case without further action in 2018, but Sherpa, which was joined by several former workers, filed a new complaint that led to the opening of a judicial investigation.

Qatar has faced intense scrutiny ahead of the tournament for its labor laws and treatment of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers, mostly from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and other South Asian countries.

Sherpa said it collected testimonies about the working conditions at some of the construction sites operated by Vinci’s subsidiary, which included working in temperatures over 45 C (113 F) with insufficient water, the withholding of passports, and lack of access to showers in accommodations.

Vinci has denied any wrongdoing and said Monday that none of the projects awarded to its Qatari unit QDVC has any connection to the World Cup in Qatar starting later this month.

“In fact, these projects were entrusted to QDVC before the competition was awarded to Qatar and mainly relate to transport infrastructures," Vinci said, adding that it did not sign any contract with the World Cup organizing committee to build any stadium or hotel in Qatar.

The construction group has, however, worked on some of the infrastructure that will be used during the World Cup, including the Doha metro connecting the airport with the historic city center, and the Lusail light-rail transit system transportation network.

Vinci said it is committed to “improve the living and working conditions of all workers at its construction sites, all around the world."

The group added that “respect for human rights and health and safety at work have been a priority for its staff since QDVC was formed in 2007."

The hearing by the Nanterre investigating judge has been set for Wednesday. Vinci complained about its timing, saying that facing charges just before the start of the World Cup amid huge media attention “might be rather unfavorable in terms of a dispassionate consideration of the facts."

Since FIFA awarded the tournament to Qatar in 2010, the country has taken some steps to overhaul the country’s employment practices. However, Human Rights Watch has urged Qatar to improve compensation for migrant workers who suffered injury, death and wage theft while working on World Cup-related projects.

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