US Workers Are Standing Up Against Railway Unions’ Raw Deal

Biden forced railway workers to accept an agreement that lacked paid sick days; now rallies against the deal have spread across the country.


BY SHUVU BHATTARAI
DECEMBER 15, 2022

Shuvu Bhattarai
A Railroad Workers United member speaks at the rally outside Grand Central Terminal in New York City.

On December 7, outside of New York City’s Grand Central Terminal, a crowd of more than 100 Metro-North Railroad workers, airline pilots, construction workers, teachers, and activists held a solidarity rally in support of railway unions.

The rally is the latest in a string of protests that have taken place across the country after President Joe Biden and the U.S. Congress imposed a tentative agreement on Class I freight rail workers, an agreement that had been voted down the membership of four rail unions representing a total of around 60,000 workers. The agreement grants only one additional day of paid sick leave, which was a major concern for the rail workers, many of whom are on call virtually 24/7.

Five days before the Grand Central rally, on December 2, about 200 protesters held a demonstration outside of Boston’s JFK Museum, while Biden was visiting. They called the President a “scab” and a “strikebreaker,” chanting “striking is a human right,” and demanding sick leave for all. On December 5, around 30 people demonstrated outside of the Brooklyn home of Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer. Schumer had voted for the tentative agreement.

On December 6, a small protest was held at the University of California, Berkeley, where striking UC Grad Workers spoke about how their struggle was connected to that of the rail workers. The next day, a group of twenty-five union members and activists in Baltimore, Maryland, gathered with similar demands.

At the Grand Central rally, which was partly coordinated by the December 12th Movement, a Black human rights organization based in New York City, organizer Omowale Clay echoed the feeling of betrayal by the Democratic establishment that’s been driving these outpourings of solidarity: “To take away the right of our brothers and sisters to strike is a violation of their human rights. To take away their right to be sick so that they can speed up and exploit us more is a violation of their human rights.”

Justine Medina, a worker organizing with the Amazon Labor Union added, “We won our election on April 1, eight months ago, and the bosses refused to recognize Amazon Labor Union, refused to come to the table to negotiate a contract, just like the railroad workers.”

Similar messages of support were echoed by teachers, construction workers, and others during the protest. A member of Railroad Workers United, a cross-union solidarity caucus of railroad workers, spoke of how the conditions in the job deteriorated especially over the past few years.

Recognizing that anger is running high among the workforce and the general public, the rail unions SMART-TD and BLET announced on December 9 that they would be hosting rallies across the country. That same day, Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont, and Congressmember Jamaal Bowman, Democrat of New York, alongside seventy other lawmakers presented a letter to Biden calling for executive action to guarantee seven days of paid sick leave to rail workers.

On December 13, twelve rallies were held around the country, with the main protest in Washington, D.C. There was a crowd of roughly 100 people at the D.C. gathering. Among those in attendance were several Congressmembers such as Senators Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Democratic Representatives Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Jamaal Bowman of New York, Cori Bush of Missouri, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

Among the crowd were also workers and staff from a variety of unions including the railroad unions SMART and BMWED. Other unions, such as the American Postal Workers Union, the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, and the National Association of Letter Carriers, also showed up in support.

Speakers at the protest conveyed a general message against “corporate greed.” As Sanders said in a speech addressed to railroad workers, “What you have shown the country is how outrageous this level of corporate greed, and how we have got to in the rail industry and other industries, to tell the people who own this country that we will put an end to their corporate greed.”

The Other Americans: Human Rights Abuses Grow Amid Gang Crackdowns in Central America

In El Salvador, the self-declared ‘world’s coolest dictator’ has overseen a program of arbitrary detention, child arrests, torture, and dozens of deaths.


BY JEFF ABBOTT
DECEMBER 20, 2022

As El Salvador endures the ninth month of President Nayib Bukele’s war on gangs, the Salvadoran human rights organization Cristosal, in conjunction with Human Rights Watch, has issued a report documenting widespread abuses there.

“We are not talking about some policeman or soldier acting insubordinately, violating internal regulations,” Juan Pappier, an analyst with Human Rights Watch, tells The Progressive. “We are talking about widespread human rights violations throughout the country.”

The study was based on more than 1,000 interviews with victims of abuse and their families. According to human rights observers and researchers, many of those arrested have regularly faced torture, arbitary detention, and the absence of due process. The report also documented arrests of children, and the deaths of eighty-four alleged gang members.

Often, these operations by security forces have targeted communities in poverty, adding further terror to a precarious existence.

“[These are] communities that for years have suffered from gang violence and today many of them are really devastated because the people who provided for the households have been captured [by police],” Pappier says.

The report also finds that security forces have benefitted from impunity for their actions during the war on gangs. Police and military have arrested anyone who appears to be “suspicious,” or “acting nervous,” the Salvadoran independent periodical El Faro reported in August.

A “state of exception” lifting individual rights was declared in March of this year by the country’s young president—who has described himself as the “world’s coolest dictator”—after a weekend of violence that left nearly ninety people dead. The new state of exception has resulted in the often arbitrary arrest of more than 58,000 people accused of gang activity.

Homicides and extortions have plummeted during the state of exception, but some argue this trend will swing the other way after the declaration is lifted. Experts with Human Rights Watch fear that these operations could increase gang violence in the future.

“[The decline in homicides] is valuable,” Pappier says. “But there are serious reasons to doubt that these improvements will be sustainable.”

In November, Bukele announced that the country’s anti-gang efforts would enter into a fifth stage, and that he would be deploying the police and military to towns across the country to fight gangs. On December 3, he deployed 10,000 police officers and soldiers to the town of Soyapango, near the capitol city, to “root out gangs in the area.”

The state of emergency was once again renewed on December 15.

Meanwhile, neighboring Honduras also announced that it will also deploy the police and military to select neighborhoods in its two major cities to fight gang activities.

In Honduras, the new left-leaning president Xiomara Castro announced that her government was declaring a state of emergency to combat rampant extortions by gangs across the country. She was surrounded by masked soldiers and police officers—one of whom wore a patch with the logo of Marvel’s “The Punisher,” which has become associated with vigilante police gangs and hate groups in the United States, and has been suggested to mean “social cleansing” in Honduras, one human rights defender in Honduras previously told The Progressive.

On December 3, the Castro administration clarified that the declaration will suspend some constitutional rights in Honduras’ two largest cities, Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, and would only affect certain neighborhoods in order to target gangs that extort millions of dollars from businesses as a “war tax.”

The state of emergency will last for thirty days.

Extortions and gang activity continue to increase across the region. According to the Washington, D.C., based Global Financial Integrity think tank, extortions in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras are estimated to cost $1.1 billion annually.

In Honduras, extortions are estimated to have cost residents and businesses between $52 million and $72 million so far in 2022; in Guatemala extortions have cost individuals between $42 million to $57 million (this data does not include business extortions); and in El Salvador, extortions are estimated to have cost individuals and businesses around $1 billion already this year.

In Honduras, not paying an extortion or “war tax” can turn deadly. According to the Associated Press, fifty bus drivers have been killed so far in 2022, and around 2,500 in the past fifteen years.

But it is important to note that gang members are not the only ones who are demanding payments for protection or extortion. Police, too, are often involved in schemes to extort money out of residents.


It is important to note that gang members are not the only ones who are demanding payments for protection or extortion. Police, too, are often involved in schemes to extort money out of residents.

As of August 2022, there have been twenty-eight bus drivers or their assistants, taxi drivers, or moto-taxi drivers killed in Guatemala. More killings have been registered since then. In the past twelve years, there have been 2,188 victims within the public transportation sector alone.

Human rights advocates are concerned about the potential impacts of this new state of emergency in Honduras, and have rejected the use of the military—especially given the brutal tactics security forces utilized following the 2009 coup d’etat that removed Castro’s husband, Manuel Zelaya, from office.

But the Castro administration is unlikely to go as far as Bukele has gone in El Salvador. Pappier suggests that following Bukele’s model would be a mistake, as the use of the military to respond to gangs “in the long term is an inadequate, counterproductive, and insufficient response to address the problem.”

Honduras’ actions reflect a trend across the hemisphere, where governments have chosen to deploy the military and police to confront social problems and unrest. This has occurred in Chile, Ecuador, Peru—most recently during President Pedro Castillo’s attempt at a self-coup that led to his removal from office and arrest—and consistently in Guatemala in every government since 2014. All of these uses have resulted in violations of human rights.

“We are in a pandemic of ‘states of emergencies,’ ” Pappier says. “Suspending rights is not ever necessary to seriously address security problems. What is needed is serious security policies, criminal prosecutors that know how to strategically address the problem of organized crime, and a strengthening of the justice system.”

Jeff Abbott is an independent journalist currently based out of Guatemala. “The Other Americans” is a column created by Abbott for The Progressive on human migration in North and Central America.

'No way' NHS in Scotland can survive in current form, warns doctors' union chief

Dr Iain Kennedy of the BMA has warned the "whole health and social care system in Scotland is broken".

Chris McCall

Deputy Political Editor

28 DEC 2022

The health service in Scotland is struggling to meet demand (Image: PA)

A top doctor has warned "there is no way that the NHS in Scotland can survive" in its current form as he called for a national conversation on the future of the health service.

Dr Iain Kennedy, chairman of the British Medical Association (BMA) in Scotland, today warned that his NHS colleagues had told him over the past fortnight the "whole health and social care system in Scotland is broken".

In a stark warning, he said: "There is no way that the NHS in Scotland can survive. In fact, many of my members are telling me that the NHS in Scotland has died already."

"It’s already broken in some parts of the country. So the time is now, we need the national conversation now, it cannot be delayed any further."

Dr Kennedy will meet with under-pressure health secretary Humza Yousaf in the New Year.

MAGA GOP CANDIDATE

NY prosecutors open investigation into Rep.-elect George Santos

"The numerous fabrications and inconsistencies associated with Congressman-Elect Santos are nothing short of stunning"

Rep.-elect George Santos, R-New York, speaks at an annual leadership meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition Saturday, Nov. 19, 2022, in Las Vegas. Santos, who won a seat in Congress in the November election is under pressure to explain himself amid evidence that he fabricated parts of the life story that endeared him to New York voters.

 (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

PUBLISHED: December 28, 2022

By Bobby Caina Calvan | Associated Press

NEW YORK — Long Island prosecutors have launched an investigation into U.S. Rep.-elect George Santos of New York, after revelations surfaced that the now-embattled Republican lied about his heritage, education and professional pedigree as he campaigned for office.

But despite intensifying doubt about his fitness to hold federal office, Santos has thus far shown no signs of stepping aside — even as he has publicly admitted to a long list of lies.

“The numerous fabrications and inconsistencies associated with Congressman-Elect Santos are nothing short of stunning,” said Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly, a Republican.”The residents of Nassau County and other parts of the third district must have an honest and accountable representative in Congress,” she said. “No one is above the law and if a crime was committed in this county, we will prosecute it.”

Santos’ campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

He was scheduled to be sworn in next Tuesday, when the U.S. House reconvenes. If he assumes office, he could have face investigations by the House Committee on Ethics and the Justice Department.

The New York attorney general’s office has already said it is looking into some of the issues that have come to light.

The Republican has admitted to lying about having Jewish ancestry, a Wall Street pedigree and a college degree, but he has yet to address other lingering questions — including the source of what appears to be a quickly amassed fortune despite recent financial problems, including evictions and owing thousands in back rent.

Some fellow Republicans had called for Congress and law enforcement to launch inquiries.

Fellow Long Island Republican, Rep.-elect Nick Lalota said he was troubled by the revelations.

“I believe a full investigation by the House Ethics Committee and, if necessary, law enforcement, is required,” Lalota said Tuesday.

A spokesperson for the Nassau County DA’s office, Brendan Brosh, said Wednesday: “We are looking into the matter.” The scope of the investigation was not immediately clear.

Other Republicans castigated Santos for his dishonesty but stopped short of asking him to step aside.

“Congressman-Elect George Santos has broken the public trust by making serious misstatements regarding his background, experience and education, among other issues,” said Joseph G. Cairo, chair of the Nassau County Republican Committee, which lies within the 3rd Congressional District.

Cairo said he “expected more than just a blanket apology,” adding that “the damage that his lies have caused to many people, especially those who have been impacted by the Holocaust, are profound.”

Fellow Long Island Republican, Rep.-elect Nick Lalota said he was troubled by the revelations.

“I believe a full investigation by the House Ethics Committee and, if necessary, law enforcement, is required,” Lalota said Tuesday.

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Nassau County DA’s office, Brendan Brosh, said: “We are looking into the matter.”

Questions intensified after The New York Times examined the narrative Santos, 34, presented to voters during his successful campaign for a congressional district that straddles the north shore suburbs of Long Island and a sliver of Queens.

The Times uncovered records in Brazil that show Santos was the subject of a criminal investigation there in 2008 over allegations that he used stolen checks to buy items at an clothing shop in the city of Niteroi. At the time, Santos would have been 19. The Times quoted local prosecutors as saying the case was dormant because Santos had never appeared in court.

Santos continued to deny that he was being sought by authorities in South America.

Democrats pounced, calling Santos a serial fabulist and demanded he voluntarily not take office.

In an interview with the New York Post earlier this week, Santos apologized for his fabrications but downplayed them as “sins” over embellishing his resume, adding that “we do stupid things in life.”

He admitted to lying about working for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, as well as having earned a degree in finance and economics from Baruch College in New York.

Beyond his resume, Santos invented a life story that has also come under question, including claims that his grandparents “fled Jewish persecution in Ukraine, settled in Belgium, and again fled persecution during WWII.”

During his campaign, he referred to himself as “a proud American Jew.”

He backtracked on that claim, saying he never intended to claim Jewish heritage, which would have likely raised his appeal among his district’s significant ranks of Jewish voters.

“I am Catholic,” he told the Post. “Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background I said I was ‘Jew-ish.’”

In a statement Tuesday, the Republican Jewish Coalition repudiated Santos.

“He deceived us and misrepresented his heritage. In public comments and to us personally he previously claimed to be Jewish,” the coalition said. “He will not be welcome at any future RJC event.”

Santos lost his first race for Congress in 2020 but successfully ran again this year.

In its opposition research on Santos, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised several red flags about the Republican’s record — but also accepted some of his assertions, including his educational record, as fact. The 87-page dossier sought to tie him to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and his support for baseless claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election. The report also sought to depict him as a far-right candidate. But buried within its report, the DCCC had raised issues about his shaky financial standing and multiple evictions that left him thousands of dollars in debt.

Federal campaign records show that he loaned his campaign more than $700,000, but the source of that money has yet to be explained.

“George Santos is delusional if he thinks voters will trust him after he’s been exposed for lie after lie and continues to withhold key information,” DCCC spokesperson Nebeyatt Betre said.

While his Democratic opponent, Robert Zimmerman, also tried to raise Santos’ misrepresentations during his losing campaign, it did not gain much traction.

Zimmerman had said that Santos was unfit for office and has called for him to step aside so a special election can be held.

Hacker claims to be selling Twitter data stolen from 400 million users

By José Adorno
Published Dec 27th, 2022

Image: Davide Bonaldo/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images


A hacker claims to have collected over 400 million unique users’ data with a now-fixed API vulnerability on Twitter in 2021. As reported by Bleeping Computer, the threat actor named “Ryushi” on the Breached hacking forum is asking $200,00 for an exclusive sale.

They have already warned Elon Musk’s Twitter as “they should purchase the data before it leads to a large fine under Europe’s GDPR privacy law.”

“Twitter or Elon Musk if you are reading this you are already risking a GDPR fine over 5.4m breach imaging the fine of 400m users breach source,” wrote Ryushi in a forum post. “Your best option to avoid paying $276 million USD in GDPR breach fines like Facebook did (due to 533m users being scraped) is to buy this data exclusively.”

In the post, the hacker explains how this data can be used for phishing attacks and other scams. Ryushi says they were able to collect public and private Twitter data, such as users’ email addresses, names, usernames, follower count, creation date, and phone numbers. While most of this data can be found online, phone numbers and email addresses are private information.

Ryushy acquired data from 37 celebrities, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Donald Trump JR, Mark Cuba, Kevin O’Leary, and Piers Morgan, Bleeping Computer reports. The hacker told the publication that they are “attempting to sell the Twitter data exclusively to a single person/Twitter for $200,000 and will then delete the data. If an exclusive purchase is not made, they will sell copies to multiple people for $60,000 per sale.”

Background

The hacker has told the publication they have gathered this data by exploiting a vulnerability previously associated with a 5.4 million user data breach and fixed in January 2022. Bleeping Computer was able to verify two of the leaked Twitter profiles. Hudson Rock, an analyst of a thread intelligence company, said the leaked samples “appear legitimate” although he couldn’t “fully verify that there are indeed 400,000,000 users in the database.”

The hacker said they had tried to contact Twitter but didn’t receive an answer. If Twitter doesn’t buy this data, it will likely bring another issue to Elon Musk’s company – even if this time, he didn’t cause this.

Greece: New quake on island near Athens puzzles experts

Emergency services have been placed on alert on an island near Athens following a new earthquake that caused no injuries or severe damage but puzzled scientists

ByThe Associated Press
December 28, 2022, 9:10 AM


Store shakes as earthquake strikes Greek island
Security footage recorded the moment a powerful earthquake struck the island of Crete.

ATHENS, Greece -- Emergency services were placed on alert on an island near Athens following a new earthquake Wednesday that caused no injuries or severe damage but puzzled scientists.

The magnitude-4.9 quake occurred inland, near the western coast of the island of Evia, and follows an uncommon pattern of seismic activity in the area.

Felt in Athens some 70 kilometers (45 miles) to the south, Wednesday’s quake occurred after two temblors in late November on the south of the island, of magnitude 5.0 and 4.8, that had been described unusual by seismologists.

Seismic experts held an emergency meeting with the government’s civil protection authority, which urged residents in affected areas to avoid spending the night in quake-damaged homes and to be vigilant for falling debris if the quakes continue.

The mayor of a small town near the epicenter of Wednesday's quake said windows were shattered and minor damage to homes and businesses was reported.

 

2022 warmest year on record for the UK, says Met Office

28 Dec 2022 3 minute read

People on the beach at Barry Island. Picture by Ben Birchall / PA Wire

2022 will be the warmest year on record for the UK, the Met Office has said.

The average temperature for the year is on track to beat the previous all-time high of 9.88C set in 2014, provisional data shows.

The exact figure will be confirmed in the new year.

A sequence of heatwaves starting in June led to the UK experiencing its fourth warmest summer on record, while temperatures broke the 40C mark for the first time, hitting a new record of 40.3C on July 19 at Coningsby in Lincolnshire.

The hot spell in July saw the Met Office issue its first ever red warning for extreme heat.

Wales saw a new daily maximum temperature of 37.1C at Hawarden, Flintshire, while Scotland also hit a new high of 34.8C.

The previous Welsh record of 35.5 Celsius was also recorded in Hawarden, in August 1990.

The Met Office also issued a four-day amber warning for extreme temperatures in much of south and east Wales in August but temperatures failed to meet July’s record high.

Noteworthy

Dr Mark McCarthy, head of the Met Office National Climate Information Centre, said: “2022 is going to be the warmest year on record for the UK.

“While many will remember the summer’s extreme heat, what has been noteworthy this year has been the relatively consistent heat through the year, with every month except December being warmer than average.

“The warm year is in line with the genuine impacts we expect as a result of human-induced climate change.

“Although it doesn’t mean every year will be the warmest on record, climate change continues to increase the chances of increasingly warm years over the coming decades.”

Met Office temperature records for the UK begin in 1884 and show the top 10 years with the highest annual temperature have all occurred this century.

After 2022 and 2014, the next warmest years are 2006, 2020 and 2011, followed by 2007, 2017, 2003, 2018 and 2004.

Separate data held by the Met Office shows 2022 will also be the warmest year on record for central England, based on a 364-year temperature series dating back to 1659.

The year has seen other climate milestones in the UK, including:

– the highest ever maximum temperature on New Year’s Day, with 16.3C recorded at St James’s Park in London;

– the UK’s 10th driest summer, with Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex all on course to see one of their 10th driest years on record;

– the coldest first two weeks of December since 2010, with temperatures dropping as low as -17.3C at Braemar in the Scottish Highlands.

The figures come amid warnings that 2022’s “litany” of weather extremes, including storms and record-breaking heat, is set to become the new norm.

Keith Jones, climate change adviser at the National Trust, said the year provided a “stark illustration of the sort of difficulties many of our species will face if we don’t do more to mitigate rising temperatures and help nature’s survival”, with habitats scorched by wildfires and natterjack toads, butterflies, birds and bats hit by drought.

“Weather experts predict that the future will see more torrential downpours, along with very dry and hot summers, with 2022 setting a benchmark for what a ‘typical’ year for weather could be like,” he added.

‘The NHS will not be able to cope’: Thousands of junior doctors planning to walk away from UK

A third of the 4,500 junior doctors in England surveyed said they were planning to work in another country in the next year.

 by Jack Peat
2022-12-28 


Thousands of junior doctors are planning to walk away from their NHS jobs, a new poll suggests.

A survey revealed that 40 per cent of junior doctors plan to leave the health service as soon as they can find another role.

Pay and poor working conditions were the main reasons cited for wanting to leave, according to the British Medical Association (BMA) poll.

The BMA warned that the NHS “would not be able to cope” without two fifths of its junior doctor workforce.

Meanwhile, a third (33 per cent) of the 4,500 junior doctors in England surveyed said they were planning to work in another country in the next year.

Australia and New Zealand were the top destinations for those planning to emigrate.

It comes ahead of an industrial action ballot of junior doctors in England, which will open on Monday 9 January.

Some 45,000 junior doctors will be balloted in the row over pay.



The BMA said that pay for junior doctors has fallen by more than a quarter

in real terms since 2008/09.

BMA chair of council, Professor Phil Banfield, said: “The situation is severe.

“A third of junior doctors are planning to work in another country. Four in ten say that as soon as they can find another job, they will leave the NHS.

“The health service will simply not be able to cope.

“For decades the NHS was the envy of the world. But without our doctors’ expertise, the country will get sicker.

“We will not accept impoverished healthcare for our nation, or acquiesce to those looking to slash pay and drive down living standards for NHS staff.

“In 2023 we will stand together with patients, an organised workforce ready to act.”

Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chair of the BMA junior doctors committee, said: “These figures are hugely concerning.

“If our government doesn’t act now, it doesn’t take a genius to see where this will lead: an exodus of junior doctors to foreign countries, with the ones who stay in the NHS facing an ever-increasing workload – until they feel they have no option but to leave too or get burnt out.

“If the government wants ‘move to Australia’ to stay off the New Year’s resolution lists of junior doctors this year, it is going to have to start by reversing the 26 per cent real terms pay cut they have endured since 2008 – or at the very least start speaking with us and stop ignoring our repeated calls to address our pay.”

Several foreign NGOs stop work in Afghanistan after Taliban ban on women staff

Published: 25 Dec 2022 - 


An Afghan woman sits in a parked taxi along the roadside in Kandahar on December 25, 2022. (Photo by Naveed Tanveer / AFP)

Kabul: Several foreign aid groups announced on Sunday they were suspending their operations in Afghanistan after the country's Taliban rulers ordered all NGOs to stop women staff from working.

Their announcement prompted warnings from international officials and from NGOs that humanitarian aid would be hard hit.

"We cannot effectively reach children, women and men in desperate need in Afghanistan without our female staff," said Save the Children, the Norwegian Refugee Council and CARE in a joint statement.

"Whilst we gain clarity on this announcement, we are suspending our programmes, demanding that men and women can equally continue our lifesaving assistance in Afghanistan."

The International Rescue Committee, which provides emergency response in health, education and other areas and employs 3,000 women across Afghanistan, also said it was suspending services.

"For IRC, our ability to deliver services rely on female staff at all levels of our organization," the New York-based group said in a statement. "If we are not allowed to employ women, we are not able to deliver to those in need."

The ban is the latest blow against women's rights in Afghanistan since the Taliban reclaimed power last year.

Less than a week ago, the hardline Islamists also barred women from attending universities, prompting global outrage and protests in some Afghan cities.

The economy ministry, which issued the ban on Saturday, threatened to suspend the operating licences of aid organisations that failed to stop women from working.

The ministry said it had received "serious complaints" that women working in NGOs were not observing a proper Islamic dress code, a charge also used by authorities to justify banning university education.

Karen Decker, the US charge d'affaires to Afghanistan, warned that the Taliban's decision would lead to starvation.

"As a representative of the largest donor of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, I feel I have the right to an explanation on how the Taliban intend to prevent women and children from starving, when women are no longer allowed to distribute assistance to other women and children," Decker tweeted Sunday in multiple languages.

The UN chief's deputy special representative for Afghanistan, Ramiz Alakbarov, told AFP that the ban will impede aid delivery to millions of people and also have a devastating impact on the country's dilapidated economy.

"It will be very difficult to continue and deliver humanitarian assistance in an independent and fair way because women's participation is very important," Alakbarov said, adding that the UN will seek to get the ban reversed.

Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Sunday also called for a "clear reaction from the international community".

And the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation called the ban "self-defeating and disserving the interests of Afghan people," and called on the Taliban to reverse its decision.

At a meeting of humanitarian officials on Sunday, there was no decision over whether all NGOs would suspend operations, according to Alakbarov, who added that more discussions would be held.

He acknowledged that the ban would impact the UN's operations as it distributes aid through a vast network of NGOs. It would also further pummel the country's economy already in a tailspin since the withdrawal of foreign forces in August last year.

"All assistance which is being provided to Afghanistan in this period is very critical, both for the nutritional security and to the job security of the people," he said.

Afghanistan's economic crisis has worsened since the Taliban seized power, which led to Washington freezing billions of dollars of assets and foreign donors cutting aid.

Dozens of organisations work across remote areas of Afghanistan and many employ women who rely on their income to feed their families, according to Alakbarov.

Such is the case for Shabana, 24, who told AFP she was the only earning member in her family.

"If I lose my job, my family of 15 members will die of hunger," said Shabana, who has worked for a foreign NGO for decades and gave only one name.

"While the world is celebrating the arrival of the new year, Afghanistan has become a hell for women."

The government struck a defiant note Sunday in the face of international criticism.

Responding to the comment by the US charge d'affaires, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted: "We do not allow anyone to talk rubbish or make threats regarding the decisions of our leaders under the title of humanitarian aid."

It remained unclear whether the directive impacted foreign staff at NGOs.

The international community has made respecting women's rights a sticking point in negotiations with the Taliban government for its recognition and the restoration of aid.

In addition to the ban on women attending universities, there is already an existing secondary school ban for girls.

Women have also been pushed out of many government jobs, prevented from travelling without a male relative and ordered to cover up outside of the home, ideally with a burqa, and not allowed into parks.

CRIMINAL CRYPTO CAPITALI$M

US Judge steps down from SBF case

By: Benson Toti
on Dec 24, 2022

US District Judge Ronnie Abrams’s husband is a partner at a law firm that advised FTX in 2021.
Abram recused herself from Bankman-Fried's prosecution to avoid any conflict of interest or potential of it.

Sam Bankman-Fried was released on a $250 million bail after his extradition from the Bahamas.

The latest crypto news is that the judge assigned to the case against former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has recused herself from the case.

According to court documents, US District Judge Ronnie Abrams had stepped down “to avoid any possible case of conflict of interest, or the appearance of one.”

Are you looking for fast-news, hot-tips and market analysis? Sign-up for the Invezz newsletter, today.

Recusing herself, Abrams noted the decision relates to the fact that her husband Greg Andres is a partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, a law firm that previously advised FTX. The law firm also represented parties likely to be adverse to the crypto exchange and Bankman-Fried in other proceedings, Abrams noted.


“My husband has had no involvement in any of these representations. These matters are confidential and their substance is unknown to the court. Nonetheless, to avoid any possible conflict, or the appearance of one, the court hereby recuses itself from this action.”

The FTX saga

Bankman-Fried is out on a $250 million bail following his extradition to the United States.

It’s been a few dramatic days too – with former FTX and Alameda Research executives Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison reportedly collaborating with federal prosecutors after pleading guilty to multiple charges. The two have also been charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Former Alameda CEO Ellison also told the court earlier this week that Bankman-Fried’s company did divert and misuse customer funds. According to her, she and SBF agreed to hide from investors, lenders and customers the fact that Alameda could borrow billions of dollars from FTX.

The exchange imploded in late October, along with over $10 billion secretly sent to Alameda.