Colombian Congress approves creation of Ministry of Equality

The Colombian Congress has approved, after several favorable votes in the House of Representatives and the Senate, the creation of the Ministry of Equality, which will be headed by the country's vice-president, Francia Márquez.


Vice President of Colombia, Francia Márquez. - CHEPA BELTRAN / ZUMA PRESS / CONTACTOPHOTO© Provided by News 360

The new portfolio of the Executive of the president, Gustavo Petro, has counted with 139 votes in favor and eight against in the House of Representatives, by the 61 who have said 'yes' and the six of 'no' in the Senate, details the radio station RCN.

"What we are building is a path of material, real equality, this ministry was clearly missing in the public administration scenario", stressed the Minister of the Interior, Alfonso Prada, who thanked Márquez for his important participation in order for this campaign promise to go ahead.

Casa Nariño has bet on the creation of this new Ministry to implement public policies to achieve, among other things, wage equality between men and women, the recognition of work in the home as a work history, a minimum vital income for mothers who are heads of household, and benefits and property and credit rights within the agrarian reform.

The Alianza Verde representative Katherine Miranda has welcomed the creation of this portfolio as it comes to try to combat problems as "undeniable" as the wage gap that exists between men and women, or femicides.

However, for some in the opposition, the Ministry of Equality "represents more bureaucracy". This is the opinion of Uribism, which accuses the Government of not having published the costs that this new portfolio will entail for the public treasury.

Union "sickened" as Iran soccer player faces possible death sentence

Story by CBSNews • 

Paris — The world union of professional soccer players FIFPRO said it was "shocked and sickened" by the risk of Iranian player Amir Nasr-Azadani being sentenced to death in connection with protests which have shaken the country for three months. Nasr-Azadani was arrested in the city of Isfahan two days after allegedly taking part in an "armed riot" in which three security agents were killed on September 16, Isfahan's judiciary chief Abdullah Jafari said, quoted Sunday by Iran's ISNA news agency.

Jafari said the 26-year-old had been accused of "rebellion, membership in illegal gangs, collusion to undermine security and therefore assisting in moharabeh" — or "emnity against God" — a capital crime in the Islamic republic.

"FIFPRO is shocked and sickened by reports that professional footballer Amir Nasr-Azadani faces execution in Iran after campaigning for women's rights and basic freedom in his country," the union wrote on its Twitter page late Monday.

"We stand in solidarity with Amir and call for the immediate removal of his punishment."

The alarm comes after a global outcry following the execution by Iran in the past days of two young men arrested over the protests.

Nasr-Azadani, who played at Under-16 level for the national team, began his football career with Tehran team Rah-Ahan, with whom he played for the first time in Iran's top flight league.

The defender briefly played for Tractor SC under former Wales coach John Toshack and is currently at FC Iranjavan Bushehr.

Former Iranian international star Ali Karimi, a strong supporter of the protests, backed Nasr-Asadani in a tweet, saying "Do not execute Amir."

The Iranian national team took part in the World Cup in Qatar and staged their own protest by refusing to sing the national anthem in their opening match against England.

However, they rolled back to sing the anthem for subsequent matches against Wales and the USA.


© Provided by CBS News

Iran is facing protests sparked by the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd who died after she was arrested by morality police for allegedly violating the Islamic republic's strict dress code for women.

According to Amnesty International, 11 people have been confirmed to have been sentenced to death over the protests and at least another nine, including Nasr-Azadani, risk being sentenced to death.

Iran calls the protests "riots" and says they have been encouraged by its foreign foes.

Prominent former international star Voria Ghafouri was arrested in Iran last month after he backed the protests and condemned the crackdown but was later released on bail.

Opinion: The likely constitutional fly in Alberta's Sovereignty Act ointment

Opinion by Special to National Post • 
By Mark Mancini, Léonid Sirota and Maxime St-Hilaire


Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Justice Minister Tyler Shandro share details on the province's sovereignty bill on Nov. 29, 2022.© Provided by National Post

There had been a great deal of apprehension about the Alberta government’s plans for a “sovereignty” law. This was followed by relief when the bill was finally introduced two weeks ago: it did not go as far as it might have. Several commentators, including legal scholars (some of them our friends), have defended its constitutionality. The bill has now been further scaled back in response to criticism.

The centrepiece of the bill as it now stands is a scheme whereby the legislative assembly, by resolution, can denounce an existing or proposed federal law or policy as unconstitutional. The cabinet can then direct individual ministers to rewrite provincial regulations (but not legislation, as in the bill’s original version) to fit the resolution. In doing so, ministers can stymie the enforcement of federal law by provincial agencies.

Defences of this scheme focus on the principle of federalism: arguing that provinces are not required to enforce federal laws or otherwise co-operate with the federal government. They also point to the legislative assembly’s involvement as a valuable democratic safeguard.

In our view, however, these arguments neglect other fundamental principles protected in Canada’s constitutional framework: the rule of law and separation of powers. Following these principles, one narrow but still significant aspect of the Sovereignty Act that has largely eluded the attention of commentators is likely unconstitutional. The bill’s overall policy may well survive judicial scrutiny, but it is nonetheless corrosive to the Canadian constitutional order for no good reason.

The specific provision whose constitutionality is most doubtful is the one concerned with judicial review of ministerial orders made under the Sovereignty Act’s authority. These orders could be called into question either because they exceed the scope of Alberta’s constitutional powers or because they exceed the authority granted the ministers by the legislature. Yet the bill provides that this review must be extremely deferential: only “patently unreasonable” orders can be declared invalid.

Rahim Mohamed: Danielle Smith's Alberta Sovereignty Act pretty awkward for the RCMP

However, a 2019 decision of the Supreme Court of Canada holds that, by virtue of the rule of law principle, compliance of these sorts of ministerial orders with the Constitution, for instance the division of powers between the federal government and the provinces, is to be reviewed for correctness. In other words, if an order is unconstitutional in the courts’ independent opinion, they will invalidate it.

On this point, the Sovereignty Act is trying to do something the Constitution does not permit, and for good reason; it would liberate ministers and administrators from constitutional constraint. Review of government acts for their constitutionality is a quintessentially judicial task, one that involves measuring these acts against the benchmark of constitutional law. When it comes to the division of powers between the federal government and the provinces, consistent interpretation of the Constitution, which the judiciary provides, is all the more important. Left without judicial supervision, each level of legislature and government would be driven by self-interest to extend its powers at the other’s expense, creating conflict and confusion for citizens.

The question of what degree of deference can be required in a judicial assessment of whether an order complies with the law that purportedly authorizes it is murkier. As the law now stands, the legislature may well be able to require considerable deference. Yet the rule of law principle and the Constitution’s provisions enshrining the role of the superior courts, such Alberta’s Court of King’s Bench, mean this deference must not be tantamount to judicial review being ousted altogether. Courts must still be able to ensure that there is some plausibility to the claim that an order is authorized by the law.

Yet the Sovereignty Act makes judicial review of ministerial orders difficult if not impossible. This is because it does virtually nothing to circumscribe the powers ministers can exercise upon the passage of legislative assembly resolution. The limits come not from the bill itself, but from the resolution at issue.

This is a problem. Judicial review is concerned with whether government complies with the law, yet a resolution of the assembly is not law. It is a statement of opinion, unlikely to be drafted with the precision with which laws usually are, and as such can hardly provide the controls necessary on executive discretion, further complicating the courts’ task of review.

But the Sovereignty Act’s unusual and partly unconstitutional distortion of judicial review of government action is only a symptom of its broader tendency to bypass the courts in favour of political institutions. As we have seen, in addition to restricting judicial review of ministerial orders, the bill calls upon the legislative assembly to determine whether federal laws or policies are unconstitutional. This compromises not only the rule of law but also separation of powers.

Canada’s constitutional system, like those of other federations, relies on an independent judiciary upholding the division of powers between the federal government and the provinces. This is because the Constitution is a legal instrument ― indeed, the “supreme law of Canada” ― and its interpretation is a legal, rather than a political, question.

Such questions should be decided by legally trained and independent judges, not politicians. If Alberta’s government doubts the constitutionality of a federal law, it already can refer this question to the Alberta Court of Appeal. If unsatisfied with that court’s decision, it can appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. And if it loses there, as it did in relation to the constitutionality of the federal carbon tax regime, it must accept the loss ― subject to seeking a constitutional amendment.

Even an analogy with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms’ notwithstanding clause cannot shield the Sovereignty Act. Of course, there is no equivalent provision allowing legislatures to “override” the constitutional division of powers, and rightly so. An optimistic interpretation of the notwithstanding clause is that it allows legislatures to impose their own answers to the complex questions of morality and policy at stake in disputes about rights. Whatever the validity of this view in relation to rights, it is simply inapposite to the purely legal disputes about the Constitution’s division of powers provisions.

The great Victorian constitutional scholar A.V. Dicey, who popularized the phrases “parliamentary sovereignty” and “rule of law,” had a warning that the proponents of Alberta’s Sovereignty Act would do well to heed. “A federal system,” he wrote, “can flourish only among communities imbued with a legal spirit and trained to reverence the law.” Without these, it collapses in political recrimination.

But Dicey warned, also, of the danger that a supreme court entrusted with interpreting a federal constitution will “be swayed by political feeling and by reasons of state,” for “the moment that this bias becomes obvious a court loses its moral authority.” Each of us have criticized Canadian courts vehemently when they have gone astray in this way, and we must all be alert to this peril. This is not the place to discuss whether such improper considerations have affected the Supreme Court of Canada, for example, in its opinion on the carbon tax. Suffice it to say that those who defend judicial authority need also to be alert to this peril. But this is no reason to dilute or oust judicial review altogether.

Special to National Post

Mark Mancini is a PhD student at the Peter A. Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia.

Maxime St-Hilaire is Associate Professor at Faculty of Law of the Université de Sherbrooke.

Leonid Sirota is Associate Professor at the School of Law of the University of Reading.

IRONIC

Belmarsh prison authorities prevent Assange from attending Sakharov award ceremony

Wikileaks has denounced Tuesday that the authorities of Belmarsh prison, where activist and founder of the organization, Julian Assange, is imprisoned, have prevented him from participating in the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize award ceremony, an event scheduled for Wednesday.

Image of Julian Assange projected onto a building in Leake Street, London, on the occasion of his arrest at Belmarsh Prison. - 

Victoria Jones/PA Wire/dpa

The organization has indicated in a brief statement that the prison authorities have not granted the relevant permission to the also journalist and programmer, and has confirmed that, instead, his wife, Stella, will participate telematically.

Thus, Assange will not be able to participate in the events prior to the ceremony, such as seminars and press conferences, despite the fact that "more than 40 MEPs chose him as a candidate to receive the award this year", as Wikileaks has stressed.

"Julian's nomination is a sign of the support he has from human rights groups around the world, as well as recognition of his work for peace and justice," said Stella, who will deliver a message on behalf of Assange.

In addition, he will attend the ceremony of delivery of the Sarajev this Wednesday at 12.00 following the invitation sent by the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola.

Wikileaks has taken the opportunity to recall that "Assange remains in custody in a UK maximum security prison, where he has been held since he was arrested in April 2019." "He has been indicted in the United States for disseminating information about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and torture programs. He faces up to 175 years in prison," the organization lamented.

In this regard, it has stressed that the governor of the prison in question has denied the requests of MEPs and political groups that "requested Assange's presence via telematics for the Sakharov ceremony." "The governor has prevented his presence on the grounds that it is not included in the official visiting regime," the text states.

COMMENTARY: Economists and Canadians are not on the same page

Opinion by globalnewsdigital •

Canadian dollar "loonie" coins.© THE CANADIAN PRESS IMAGES/Bayne Stanley

Majority of Canadians worry they won’t have enough money to feed their families: Poll

There is a growing divergence between the macroeconomic indicators that economists examine and the microeconomic realities that Canadians say they are facing.

Economists are telling Canadians that we’re closer to the end of the interest rate-raising cycle than we are to the beginning of it. They’re telling us that the inflation rate is starting to edge lower, and that we’re still trending for a “soft landing.”

They’ve pegged the chance of recession somewhere around 50 per cent, depending on whom you speak to. And there’s even good news: unemployment rates remain low, although this is a double-edged sword as a tight labour market means higher wages, which add fuel to the inflation fire.

None of this aligns with what Canadians themselves say they’re experiencing. Ipsos polling for Global News has shown that Canadians’ financial anxieties are rising faster than interest rates.

Read More

Majority of Canadians fearful about feeding their families as economic anxiety grows: poll

Since October, more Canadians are now concerned that they might not have enough money to feed their family (+9 percentage points), that they might not be able to afford gasoline for their cars (+13 points) and or that they might get in over their head with holiday spending (+15). The concern among parents with kids in their household is even more pronounced. We don’t often measure such significant shifts in public opinion over such a short period of time.

Moreover, there is growing concern (and a general consensus among Canadians) that Canada will face an economic recession in the next year. Four in 10 (42 per cent, up nine points since October) are worried that they may lose their job if the economy does not improve. This is a lot of job anxiety.

We could not be looking at two more different realities: that which is studied by economists and that which is lived by Canadians. It’s true that individual Canadians may not be as informed about the macroeconomic situation as economists.

But they do know their own household, and given interest rate increases and inflationary pressures, they’ve noticed that they have less money left over at the end of the month. This is particularly true for younger Canadians, women and parents, who are feeling especially squeezed.

Regardless of what economists are saying, many Canadians believe we’re already in a recession and are altering their behaviour accordingly.

Ipsos poll finds close to half of Canadians prefer a charitable gift this holiday season over material items

Consumers are cutting back on dining out (52 per cent) and on entertainment (46 per cent). They’ve started looking at flyers for sales (50 per cent) or are couponing (31 per cent). Some have even had to dip into savings to make ends meet (24 per cent). Others are buying fewer fruits and vegetables (26 per cent) or not renewing or fulfilling a medical prescription (nine per cent).

The thing about economics is that it can be a self-fulfilling prophecy: if Canadians already believe we’re in a recession, and are acting like it, then it is more likely to cause a recession. This is rational behaviour based on one’s own perceptions, but it could exacerbate the economic challenges already facing Canada.

The trouble with a recession is that by one definition, we don’t know we’re in one until six months after we’ve entered it, making the declaration of a recession itself a lagging indicator. How helpful is that in the moment? In contrast, public opinion is a harbinger of things to come and acts as a leading indicator. Even though we’re technically not in a recession — yet — Canadians are already feeling and acting like we are.

WINDFALL PROFIT TAX ELIMINATES THE NEED FOR RISE IN INTEREST RATES

Read more:

Bank of Canada ‘still prepared to be forceful’ on interest rates if needed: official

Do we need a term for this phenomenon? Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter called it a crisis of confidence, which was then called the "malaise." Maybe it’s something plainer, like “recession perception”? Whatever we call it, the feeling is real, acute, and it impacts Canadians’ behaviour in profound ways.

Who has the nerve to tell Canadians that things are getting better? Or that they’re wrong, their concerns are overblown, feelings unfounded, and they can relax a little bit? Hopefully nobody. Instead, understanding and empathy are key – both from government and businesses, many of whom are being accused of price gouging disguised as inflation.

Governments and policymakers should be paying closer attention to the perceptions and anxieties of Canadians — and reacting in ways that provide relief. Instead, many concerns of Canadians are falling on deaf ears.

Sean Simpson is senior vice-president of Ipsos Public Affairs in Canada.

ROFLMAO UNENFORCEBLE

Congress introduces bill to ban TikTok over spying fears

Story by Jon Fingas 

American politicians aren't just restricting access to TikTok — they now hope to ban it outright. Members of the House and Senate have introduced matching bills that would block transactions from any social media company in or influenced by China, Russia, Cuba, Iran, North Korea or Venezuela. The ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act (Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party) is meant to shut down access to TikTok and other apps that could theoretically funnel American user data to oppressive governments, censor news or otherwise manipulate the public.


Congress introduces bill to ban TikTok over spying fears

CHINA - 2021/04/02: In this photo illustration the Chinese video-sharing social networking service company TikTok logo is seen on an Android mobile device with United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US), flag in the background. (Photo Illustration by Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)© SOPA Images via Getty Images

The rationale echoes what US political leaders have argued for years. While TikTok has taken efforts to distance its international operations from those in China, such as by storing US data domestically, critics have argued that parent company ByteDance is ultimately at the mercy of the Chinese government. TikTok could potentially profile government workers and otherwise surveil Americans, according to the often-repeated claims.

Related video: TikTok Banned on Government Devices in Alabama and Utah (Cheddar News)
Duration 0:34
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Republican bill co-sponsors Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Mike Gallagher tried to draw links between some ByteDance leadership and the Chinese Communist Party in an opinion piece in The Washington Post this November. At the time, 23 directors had previously worked for state-backed media, and "at least" 15 employees still did. The bill is also sponsored by House Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi.

In a statement, a TikTok spokesperson said it was "troubling" that members of Congress were putting forward legislation to ban the app rather than waiting for a national security review to wind down. The bills will "do nothing to advance" national security, according to the company. The firm added that it would "continue to brief" Congress on plans developed under the watch of security officials. The social network has consistently denied plans to track American users or otherwise deliberately assist Chinese surveillance efforts in the country.

TikTok already faces some legal action. The states of Maryland and South Dakota have banned TikTok on government devices over security concerns. Indiana, meanwhile, sued TikTok for allegedly deceiving users about China's data access and child safety violations. That lawsuit would fine TikTok and demand changes to the service's info handling and marketing claims.

Whether or not the bills become legislation isn't certain. President Biden revoked former President Trump's orders to ban TikTok downloads, and instead required a fresh national security review. He's not expected to override his own order. And while the bill sponsors characterize the measure as bipartisan, it's not clear the call for a TikTok ban has enough support to clinch the necessary votes and reach Biden's desk. To some degree, the ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act is more a signal of intent than a practical attempt to block TikTok.

Exclusive-Musk's banks to book Twitter loan losses, avoid big hits -sources

Story by By Lananh Nguyen, Saeed Azhar and Shankar Ramakrishnan 


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Some of the banks that lent Elon Musk $13 billion to buy Twitter are preparing to book losses on the loans this quarter, but they are likely to do so in a way that it does not become a major drag on their earnings, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the situation.

Banks typically sell such loans to investors at the time of the deal. But Twitter's lenders, led by Morgan Stanley, could face billions of dollars in losses if they tried to do so now, as investors shy away from buying risky debt during a period of economic uncertainty, market participants said. In addition, Twitter has seen advertisers flee amid worries about Musk's approach to policing tweets, hitting revenues and its ability to pay the interest on the debt.

Banks still have to mark the loan to its market value on their books and set aside funds for losses that are reported in quarterly results. In the absence of a price determined by actual sales of the debt, however, each bank can decide how much to write it down based on its market checks and judgment, according to the three sources who are familiar with the process of determining the value of such loans.

The biggest chunk of the debt -- $10 billion worth of loans secured by Twitter's assets -- might have to be written down by as much as 20%, one of the sources said. The hit on the loan, distributed among seven banks, could probably be managed by most of the firms without creating a significant hit to profits, the source added.

Another one of the three sources with direct knowledge of the matter estimated that some banks might only take a 5% to 10% writedown on the secured portion of the loan.

The deliberations of how some of these banks are thinking about accounting for these losses have not been previously reported. They come as Wall Street banks are bracing for lower fourth-quarter earnings due to a slump in investment banking revenue and a rise in loan-loss reserves amid a weakening global economy.

Three banking industry sources said the remaining $3 billion, which is unsecured, could lead to steeper losses for the seven Twitter banks. Reuters could not determine how much the banks were planning to write down the unsecured portion of the debt.

The lenders have considered replacing the unsecured part of the debt with a loan to Musk backed by his shares of Tesla Inc, the electric carmaker, one of the sources familiar with the talks said. Musk, however, has said it is best to avoid such loans in the current macroeconomic environment. Bloomberg previously reported the margin loan possibility.

Besides Morgan Stanley, the syndicate includes Bank of America Corp, Barclays Plc, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc, BNP Paribas SA, Mizuho Financial Group Inc and Societe Generale SA.

SocGen, Musk and representatives for Twitter did not respond to emailed requests for comment. Representatives from the other banks declined to comment.

ACCOUNTING FLEXIBILITY

Under accounting standards, the banks must mark the loan to its market value when some of them report earnings for the fourth quarter in January, several bankers and accountants said.

But with market activity coming to a standstill, the banks have a fair amount of flexibility on how to value them, which means each one could value them differently. They also have leeway on how to report any write downs and the time they take to sell the debt. Leveraged loan deals after the 2008 financial crisis took years to clear.

Each bank would make market checks with two or three potential buyers to arrive at a value of the loans, which an auditor would have to agree with, one of the three sources said.

The person, who is familiar with the thinking of one of the banks in the lending syndicate, added that some lenders are likely to take a smaller hit initially and write it down over time if valuations keep getting worse.

Projected losses could also be divided between investment banking and trading divisions, making it small enough that it doesn't have to be disclosed separately, one of the sources said. Any writedowns would probably be broken into chunks and spread over several months, reducing the hit to earnings in any one quarter, two of the sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Some market participants expect the losses from the debt to be significant unless market conditions improve. Two of the banking industry sources said if the banks tried to sell the loans now, they would not get more than 60 cents to the dollar on the secured bond and an even lower price on the unsecured portion. That would add up to billions of dollars in losses for the syndicate as a whole.

In September, Wall Street lenders led by Bank of America suffered a $700 million loss on the sale of about $4.55 billion in debt backing the leveraged buyout of business software company Citrix Systems Inc.

Some $35 billion to $40 billion of such loans are stuck on banks' books, according to two fixed income bankers.

Twitter's bankers, however, are more sanguine. "I wouldn't bet against Elon Musk," Morgan Stanley Chief Executive James Gorman said in an interview at Reuters NEXT earlier this month. "We don't get behind that kind of business and that kind of opportunity unless we believe it is real."

(Reporting by Lananh Nguyen, Saeed Azhar and Shankar Ramakrishnan in New York, additional reporting from Matt Tracy, and Abigail Summerville; editing by Paritosh Bansal and Claudia Parsons)

A major medical ethics group just asked the FDA to disqualify data from Elon Musk’s Neuralink animal experiments: ‘We want the FDA to proactively launch an investigation’

Story by Prarthana Prakash 

Elon Musk has several different businesses, from making electric cars at Tesla to building rocket ships at SpaceX. But one of his lesser-known businesses has been in the spotlight lately over accusations that it needlessly killed about 1,500 animals.

Neuralink, Musk’s brain technology startup, has come under fire recently for its animal testing practices, and the company is being investigated for violations of animal welfare. Over 20 current and former employees claim that the tests were being conducted hastily, and that workers were under pressure from Musk to expedite trials, leading to botched experiments and excessive animal deaths.

Now, a major medical ethics advocacy group, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, has requested the Food and Drug Administration hold Neuralink accountable for violating protocols on biological tests, and disqualify the data obtained from animal testing, the Washington Post reported Tuesday. It has also asked the FDA to ban additional animal tests by Neuralink

“Between what we’ve seen in public records and what has been reported, it’s hard to imagine that Neuralink’s animal experiments meet FDA’s requirements,” Deborah Dubow Press, Esq., associate general counsel with the Physicians Committee, said in a statement.

In an interview with Fortune, Ryan Merkley, director of research advocacy for the organization, said that it was concerned that the documents Neuralink was providing to the FDA were not “trustworthy.”

“We want FDA to take a very close look at whatever Neuralink is providing, and ideally, we want the FDA to proactively launch an investigation because it's clear that over the years from public records and whistleblower reports that Neuralink has not followed its own internal protocols.”

Neuralink did not reply to Fortune’s request for comment.

If the FDA does dismiss the results collected thus far, it could threaten Neuralink’s business plans for their brain implants, and the company’s stated vision of creating a “brain-computer interface.” At a Neuralink event in November, Musk said that implants on human brains were roughly six months away and that the company had already submitted its request to the FDA. He presented a video of a monkey named Pager playing “monkey mind pong,” which resembles ping-pong but he plays it in his mind. Musk claimed that Pager would not be able to do so without using a brain implant, which he described as “replacing a piece of the skull with a smartwatch.”

Related video: Musk’s Neuralink faces federal probe, employee backlash over animal tests (Reuters) (France 24)

Duration 2:41

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“Before we would even think of putting a device in an animal, we do everything we possibly can with rigorous benchtop testing, so we are not cavalier,” Musk said during the presentation. He also said that whenever a device was implanted into a sheep, pig or monkey, it was done to confirm their testing results rather that to explore the outcomes of the experiment on the animal.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine based their request to the FDA on 700 pages worth of documents that were obtained after suing the California National Primate Research Center at the University of California-Davis, which was tasked with conducting the Neuralink animal experiments. The tests were conducted on rhesus macaques, a pink-faced species of monkeys originating from Asia, the Washington Post reported.

Twitter has reportedly stopped paying rent on its offices and is considering not paying severance packages to laid-off workers

Story by sdelouya@insider.com (Samantha Delouya) •

Tayfun Coskun/Getty Images© Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Elon Musk is increasingly using radical cost-cutting measures at Twitter, according to the New York Times.
Twitter is reportedly no longer paying rent on its office buildings, and Musk has told workers not to pay vendors.
Management is reportedly weighing the possibility of not paying severance to former employees.

In Elon Musk's quest to make Twitter a more profitable company, he is reportedly implementing increasingly extreme cost-cutting measures.

According to the New York Times, Twitter has stopped paying rent for any of its offices, including its San Francisco headquarters, and Musk has instructed employees to no longer pay Twitter's vendors. The Times, citing a recent New Hampshire lawsuit, found that Twitter has also refused to pay nearly $200,000 in private plane flights taken in late October.

Last month, in an effort to save money, Twitter laid off 50% of its more than 7,000-person workforce, promising that fired US-based employees would get 3 months' pay, including 60 days of salaried pay, and one month of severance. The Times reports that Musk's team is now weighing the possibility of not paying the severance at all, and risking lawsuits from disgruntled former workers.

Twitter has also recently listed office supplies for auction in another cost-cutting attempt.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

Musk appears to be trying to save money as Twitter gears up for multiple legal battles, according to the Times. Twitter is reportedly facing an investigation from the Federal Trade Commission, and a potential class-action lawsuit from former employees. Musk has shaken up Twitter's legal department in recent weeks and has reportedly brought in lawyers from one of his other companies, SpaceX, to help run it.

The company also faces a hefty interest bill: owing roughly $1 billion in annual payments to banks due to the money Musk borrowed to help finance his $44 billion purchase of Twitter.

GLOBALIZATION IS OUTSOURCING
Vietnam factory workers laid off as West cuts imports

Story by AFP • 

Phan Thi Nhieu has spent a decade assembling shoes for worldwide brands such as Timberland and K-Swiss, but she is now among tens of thousands of Vietnamese factory workers laid off as Western consumers cut spending.


Thousands of Vietnamese factory workers have lost their jobs as Western consumers cut spending due to soaring inflation© Nhac NGUYEN

Almost half a million others have been forced to work fewer hours as orders fall in the Southeast Asian country, one of the world's largest exporters of clothing, footwear and furniture.

The cost-of-living crisis in Europe and the United States -- major markets for Vietnamese-produced goods -- has seen the buying power of Western shoppers plunge.

Women factory workers, who make up 80 percent of the labour force in Vietnam's garment industry, have been hit the hardest by the knock-on effect.

Early last month, 31-year-old Nhieu -- who lives in a nine-square-metre (100 square feet) room in Ho Chi Minh City with her two young sons and husband -- was told she was no longer needed at Ty Hung Company, a Taiwanese shoemaker that supplies big Western labels.



Phan Thi Nhieu (right), who lives with her family in a nine-square-metre flat in Ho Chi Minh City, was laid off by a Taiwanese shoemaker as orders dwindled© Nhac NGUYEN

"They told us they did not have enough orders," she said of Ty Hung's announcement that it would fire 1,200 of its 1,800 staff.

"I was so, so shocked and so scared, I cried, but I can do nothing, I have to accept it."

The job earned Nhieu just $220 a month in an expensive city where the average monthly income is $370, but the money was regular and a step up from the mushroom picking she did as a teenager in the heat of the Mekong Delta.

- 'Worse than Covid' -

Now, with just two months' severance pay to survive on, Nhieu must feed her family on a few dollars a day, and her kids are struggling to get enough to eat.



As Western orders plummet, many of those lucky enough to keep their jobs have seen their work hours slashed© Nhac NGUYEN

"We have no one to help us. I will have to get us through this on my own."

Since September, more than 1,200 companies -- mostly foreign businesses in the garment, footwear and furniture sectors -- have been forced to sack staff or cut working hours, according to the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour.

Compared with last year, orders are down 30-40 percent from the United States and 60 percent from Europe, where inflation and energy bills have soared because of the war in Ukraine.

More than 470,000 workers have had their hours slashed in the last four months of the year while about 40,000 people have lost their jobs -- 30,000 of them women aged 35 or older, the confederation said.



Nguyen Thi Thom, who was laid off by a South Korean firm, told AFP that garment industry jobs are hard to come by in the wake of Covid-19© Nhac NGUYEN

Taiwanese giant Pouyuen, a Nike shoe producer, has put 20,000 of its workers on paid leave in rotation, while reports said Vietnam's largest foreign investor, Samsung Electronics, has started reducing its smartphone production at factories in the north.



Workers wave goodbye to security guards on their last day of work at the Taiwanese Ty Hung factory in Ho Chi Minh City© Nhac NGUYEN

The situation is bleaker than during the Covid-19 pandemic, say workers, who were helped out with food donations when strict quarantine measures forced them to stay home -- and were quickly in demand again once restrictions lifted at the end of 2021.

"It's not easy to find a new job like before (following the pandemic)," said Nguyen Thi Thom, 35, who was laid off from a South Korean garment firm that makes clothes for US retail giant Walmart.

- No dream -

Since her factory work finished, Thom, who has three young children, spends her days on the streets of a shiny new suburban district of Ho Chi Minh City, selling dried noodles, shrimp sauce and oranges to passers-by.

The slowdown has come as a shock because export businesses in Vietnam were running at "their fullest capacity" for the first half of 2022, according to Tran Viet Anh, deputy head of Ho Chi Minh City's Business Association.

"At the start of the third quarter, due to global inflation, consumption demands have shrunk, leading to the suspension of orders... and huge stock surplus," he told AFP.

But the downturn in Vietnam will likely only be temporary, Viet Anh added.

A cut in production during the pandemic led to a shortage of goods in the first six months of 2022, and the situation will likely repeat a year on.

Viet Anh said that "2023 will be a period where we increase production to compensate".

Until then, women like Nhieu and Thom, who form the backbone of a low-paid workforce that has helped Vietnam become a key manufacturing hub seen as an alternative to China, must find another way to keep their families afloat.

"I have never had the luxury of dreaming what I want from life. I have only one wish, of earning enough to survive," Nhieu said.

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