NORAD

Trudeau ordered U.S. fighter jet to shoot down object over northern Canada


By —Associated Press

Feb 11, 2023

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Saturday that on his order a U.S. fighter jet shot down an unidentified object that was flying high over the Yukon, acting a day after the U.S. took similar action over Alaska.

WATCH: U.S. shoots down object that crossed into airspace near Alaska

North American Aerospace Defense Command, the combined U.S.-Canada organization that provides shared defense of airspace over the two nations, said it had detected an object flying at a high altitude over northern Canada. It wasn’t immediately clear how high up it was flying or what it was.

Trudeau said he also spoke with President Joe Biden, who himself ordered the downing of an unidentified object over remote Alaska on Friday.

A spokesman, Maj. Olivier Gallant, said both Canadian and U.S. jets operating as part of NORAD had been deployed. The jets were scrambled and it was a U.S. jet that shot it down.

F-22 fighter jets have now downed three objects in the airspace above the U.S. and Canada over seven days, a stunning development in the skies that is raising questions on just what, exactly, is hovering overhead and who has sent them.

At least one of the objects downed was believed to be a spy balloon from China, but the other two have not yet been identified. Trudeau said that Canadian forces would recover the wreckage for study.

READ MORE: How spy balloons work, and what information they can gather

The down came a day after White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said an object roughly the size of a small car was shot down in remote Alaska. Officials couldn’t say if it contained any surveillance equipment, where it came from or what purpose it had.

Kirby said it was shot down because it was flying at about 40,000 feet (13,000 meters) and posed a “reasonable threat” to the safety of civilian flights, not because of any knowledge that it was engaged in surveillance.

According to U.S. Northern Command, recovery operations continued Saturday on sea ice near Deadhorse, Alaska.

In a statement, the Northern Command said there were no new details on what the object was. It said the Alaska Command and the Alaska National Guard, along with the FBI and local law enforcement, were conducting search and recovery.

“Arctic weather conditions, including wind chill, snow, and limited daylight, are a factor in this operation, and personnel will adjust recovery operations to maintain safety,” the statement said.

Last Saturday, U.S. officials shot down a large white balloon off the coast of South Carolina.

The balloon was part of a large surveillance program that China has been conducting for “several years,” the Pentagon has said. The U.S. has said Chinese balloons have flown over dozens of countries across five continents in recent years, and it learned more about the balloon program after closely monitoring the one shot down near South Carolina.

China responded that it reserved the right to “take further actions” and criticized the U.S. for “an obvious overreaction and a serious violation of international practice.”

The Navy continued survey and recovery activities on the ocean floor off South Carolina, and the Coast Guard was providing security. Additional debris was pulled out Friday, and additional operations will continue as weather permits, Northern Command said.

 

Statement on Today's Actions by North American Aerospace Defense Command

Feb. 11, 2023 |

Statement on today's actions by NORAD attributed to Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder:

"Following a call between the Prime Minister of Canada and the President of the United States, President Biden authorized U.S. fighter aircraft assigned to North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) to work with Canada to take down a high-altitude airborne object over northern Canada today. NORAD detected the object over Alaska late Friday evening. Two F-22 aircraft from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska monitored the object over U.S. airspace with the assistance of Alaska Air National Guard refueling aircraft, tracking it closely and taking time to characterize the nature of the object. Monitoring continued today as the object crossed into Canadian airspace, with Canadian CF-18 and CP-140 aircraft joining the formation to further assess the object. A U.S. F-22 shot down the object in Canadian territory using an AIM 9X missile following close coordination between U.S. and Canadian authorities, to include a call today between Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Minister of Defence Anita Anand. As Canadian authorities conduct recovery operations to help our countries learn more about the object, the Federal Bureau of Investigation will be working closely with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police."

What the heck! Third mystery object shot down over North America


A US Air Force F-22 brought down the latest aerial intruder over the Arctic. 

The New Daily@TheNewDailyAU Feb 12

US and Canadian specialists are combing the sea ice off northern Canada for the wreckage of a suspected balloon destroyed by a US fighter plane – the third such incident in two weeks.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted that the unidentified object was flying high over northern Canada when spotted by the NORAD defence network.

A NORAD spokesman, Major Olivier Gallant, said both Canadian and US warplanes operating as part of NORAD had been deployed.

On Twitter, Trudeau announced: “I ordered the take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace. @NORADCommand shot down the object over the Yukon. Canadian and U.S. aircraft were scrambled, and a US F-22 successfully fired at the object.”
Trudeau’s gratitude

In a second tweet, Trudeau said: “I spoke with President Biden this afternoon. Canadian Forces will now recover and analyze the wreckage of the object. Thank you to NORAD for keeping the watch over North America.”

A suspected Chinese spy balloon spent nearly a week flying through Canada and US airspace before it was shot down by US warplanes off South Carolina last Sunday.

The US military shot down a second object in Alaskan airspace on Friday, though authorities have not provided details on what it was.

US Navy crewmen retrieve the first downed balloon off the South Carolina coast. Photo: US Navy

According to US Northern Command, recovery operations continued on Saturday both near Deadhorse, Alaska, and off South Carolina.

In a statement, the Northern Command said there were no new details on what the object was that a US fighter jet shot down over Alaska.
Hunting the debris

It said the Alaska Command and the Alaska National Guard, along with the FBI and local law enforcement, were conducting search and recovery.

“Arctic weather conditions, including wind chill, snow, and limited daylight, are a factor in this operation, and personnel will adjust recovery operations to maintain safety,” the statement said.

“Recovery activities are occurring on sea ice.”

It added that the Navy continued survey and recovery activities on the ocean floor off South Carolina, and the Coast Guard was providing security.

Additional debris was pulled out on Friday, and additional operations would continue as weather permits, the statement said.

-AAP

 

Blazing Green Lasers Spotted Over Hawaii; Japan Blames Chinese Satellite For The ‘The Matrix Code’


ByAshish Dangwal

February 11, 2023

On January 28, a camera from a telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii’s tallest peak, photographed what seemed to be a curtain of blazing green lasers floating across the island’s night sky.

Japanese astronomers believe a Chinese weather satellite was responsible for beaming down green laser flashes.

The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan first shared a video of a string of lights that resembled the green code from The Matrix on January 28.

Initially, the organization’s researchers said that the topographic laser caused the light show on NASA’s ICESAT-2 satellite, which is employed to monitor sea ice and forests.

However, NOAJ updated its YouTube description, stating that NASA’s satellite was not the source of the lasers over Hawaii. The updated video identified a Chinese Daqi-1/AEMS satellite launched a year ago as “the most likely candidate.”

The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation stated in a news release from 2021 that the Daqi-1/AEMS satellite is used to detect nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and ozone in addition to carbon dioxide.

Dr. Anthony J. Martino, a NASA scientist working on ICESat-2 ATLAS, was quoted in the video description as indicating that the light show was not caused by their instrument but by others.

His colleagues, Dr. Alvaro Ivanoff et al., ran simulations of the satellite trajectories carrying instruments of a similar nature and identified the Chinese Daqi-1/AEMS satellite’s ACDL instrument as the most likely option.

“We really appreciate their efforts in the identification of the light. We are sorry about our confusion related to this event and its potential impact on the ICESat-2 team,” the update stated.

Another eerie sight was seen in the night sky over Hawaii earlier in January. According to the media reports, the launch of a new Space X satellite was the origin of a mysterious blue light in the form of a vortex hovering among the stars.

This innocuous update gained attention online after two airships were shot out of the sky by F-22s in the past week. According to Pentagon authorities, one of the items was a balloon used by China to spy on the US. Officials in China asserted that it was a weather balloon.

The Biden administration said it was built to intercept communication on the ground as it traveled from Montana to the east coast at 60,000 feet over US airspace.

On January 10, an F-22 downed an unidentified airship flying 40,000 feet above Alaska. Its origin and function are unknown. According to US officials, the object might be dangerous for commercial planes.
Chinese Daqi-1 Satellite

Similar to ICESat-2, the Chinese Daqi-1 satellite was launched in April last year to study the atmosphere. That indicates that it is orbiting the planet to keep an eye on atmosphere pollution and the level of carbon in the atmosphere.

To accomplish this, Daqi-1 is equipped with five instruments: the ACDL—Aerosol and Carbon Dioxide Detection Lidar.

The term “Lidar” stands for laser imaging, detection, and ranging, and it functions somewhat similarly to sonar. However, it uses laser beams to map the area rather than sound waves.

And it is thought that these lasers illuminated the sky over Hawaii at the end of January. With regard to ACDL, it is capable of launching dual-wavelength lasers at particular wavelengths to find distinct compounds in the Earth’s atmosphere.

The amount of time it takes for these laser beams to bounce back reveals details about the atmosphere and Earth below. For instance, by generating two alternating lasers in the 1572 nanometer wavelength range, ACDL can determine how much Co2 is in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Japanese astronomers said the green laser lights spotted over Hawaii in January were likely from a Chinese weather satellite. Photo: YouTube

The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, which produced Daqi-1, stated in a news release from March 2021 that Daqi-1 “Daqi-1 can monitor fine particle pollution like PM2.5, pollutant gasses including nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and ozone, as well as carbon dioxide concentration.”

In the future, China will launch a number of Daqi satellites that will be used to track atmospheric pollution, support environmental authorities with remote sensing data, and aid scientific investigations into global climate change.

Daqi-1 will be coupled to other satellites, such as Daqi-2, to monitor greenhouse gases and aid China in reducing carbon emissions.

 

From Deforestation to Restoration: Policy Plots Path to Amazon Recovery

 

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s new president, took office and promised to halt deforestation and to restore degraded land but plans to regenerate deforested areas remain unclear.

February 11, 2023 by Mongabay Leave a Comment

By André Schröder

• Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s new president, took office and promised to halt deforestation and to restore degraded land but plans to regenerate deforested areas remain unclear.
• The Science Panel for the Amazon at the COP27 climate summit provided the scientific basis to guide debates and decisions around the large-scale recovery of deforested and degraded areas.
• The most significant opportunity for large-scale and low-cost restoration is concentrated in public forests, protected areas and Indigenous lands that have suffered recent degradation.
• For areas with high levels of degradation, especially on private lands, productive restoration models capable of providing sustainable economic development are the main bet.

At his inauguration on Jan. 1 as Brazil’s new president, Inácio Lula da Silva reiterated a promise to reach zero deforestation and to recover degraded land. He’d already made the same commitment in a speech at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt in November — an event that the outgoing president, Jair Bolsonaro, notably missed.

The plans to restore state control over the rainforest to curb deforestation and other criminal activity after four years of Bolsonaro’s policies are already in place. But projects to restore forests and degraded farmlands remain sketchy.

Some attempts to provide greater detail emerged from the Science Panel for the Amazon (SPA)  at COP27, which presented the policy brief “Transforming the Amazon through ‘Arcs of Restoration.’” The report provides the scientific basis to guide debates and decisions around the large-scale recovery of deforested and degraded areas of the Amazon Rainforest. Reversing the current destruction is crucial to climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation, and the social well-being of local populations, but the effort depends on multiple factors, starting with halting deforestation.

“There’s a great opportunity for restoration because of a great need,” Jos Barlow, a professor of conservation science at Lancaster University in the U.K. and one of the report’s authors, told Mongabay by phone. “This policy brief helps reduce the risks of the effort failing, of the proposed actions not generating the expected benefits.

Approximately 17% of the Amazon has already been deforested. Another 17% is in various stages of degradation from selective logging, fire, forest fragmentation, bad land use, and other disturbances. According to experts, restoration efforts can work in these degraded areas, where primary forest is still present in the landscape.

“We have different degradation scenarios in the Amazon, and we need to know how to act in each of the spaces,” Joice Ferreira, a researcher at the western Amazonian branch of Embrapa, Brazil’s agricultural research agency, told Mongabay by phone. Ferreira was also a co-author of the policy brief.

An obvious first step

The worst of the degradation is concentrated in the region known as the Arc of Deforestation, along the eastern and southern edges of the Brazilian Amazon, where rates of forest loss have been the highest in recent decades. This part of the rainforest suffers from land grabs, illegal logging, mining in protected areas, and other crimes that drive a boom-and-bust economy. This climate of criminality has been bolstered by Bolsonaro’s environmental policies, which emboldened those destroying the rainforest and led, among other disasters, to the intentional burning of large areas on the “day of the fire.”

Given the current scenario, experts say the first step to fixing the problem is to restore the rule of law in the Brazilian Amazon, by strengthening environmental protection and rooting out criminal elements to prevent new areas from being deforested and degraded.

“It doesn’t make sense to invest in an area for restoration while degradation occurs next door,” Pedro Brancalion, a professor of forest sciences at the University of São Paulo, another co-author of the report, told Mongabay by phone. “It is essential to isolate fire, prevent cattle access, and control other illegal processes.”

Other governance actions are also considered essential, such as allocating staff and funding to implement laws and policies on restoration plans. These include the new Forest Code and the National Plan for Native Vegetation Recovery. The policy brief also calls for resolving conflicts over land tenure and articulating rigorous commitments between those who produce commodities in the Amazon and the countries that import those commodities — especially beef and soy, the main drivers of agriculture-led deforestation in the Amazon.

Danielle Celentano, an environmental consultant who studies restoration, said policies must be created at the local rather than federal level, given that the Amazon is diverse and requires specific restoration solutions in different locations. “The approach for small farms of poor producers is not the same as for large farms,” she told Mongabay by phone. “We have to create local leadership capable of making these articulations and taking decisions.”

Restoration in action

Large-scale forest restoration in the Brazilian Amazon isn’t commonplace yet, and will require strategic planning based on up-to-date data to work out. “Today, we have an extremely undesirable universe of incomplete information that hinders more intelligent planning,” Rita Mesquita, a researcher and graduate program coordinator at National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA), told Mongabay by phone.

Restoration projects must also strike a balance between climate solutions and biodiversity conservation, two efforts that don’t always track with each other, she said. Reforestation for carbon capture, for example, is typically focused on planting as many trees as possible, without any consideration for creating an actual habitat for wildlife. These initiatives also need to consider models that can benefit the people living in the areas to be restored, Mesquita added.

Plans are most effective when implemented at the landscape or watershed level, the researchers said, with an immediate effect on the protection of biodiversity and water resources. But areas where advanced degradation is already feeding back into a vicious cycle of climate impacts can’t be ignored either, as in the southern portion of the Amazonas state and the southeast of Pará state.

“Choices need to be made because the scenario is very complex,” Mesquita said. “I think this debate still needs to be started to clarify the maximum possible benefit from the restoration actions.”

Experts agree on one point: the most significant opportunity for large-scale and low-cost restoration is concentrated in public forests, protected areas, and Indigenous lands that have suffered recent degradation. These areas have healthy primary forests around them and can regenerate without human intervention.

“Before all, you must look at areas where the forest can recover naturally, where there are good seed sources and lands that are not yet tired from misuse,” Barlow said.

Where the degree of degradation is more severe, it’s possible to accelerate natural regeneration with timely interventions, such as planting specific seedlings, controlling vines and other unwanted plants, and preventing fires.

“The assisted restoration is an important model because we want the benefits of recovery on a human time scale,” Brancalion said. “We already have a set of actions to accelerate the natural process.”

To restore a forest from seedlings and recover its carbon-capturing capacity to 80% of its pre-degraded state takes 20 years, he said. “Already in the second or third year, we have good recovery of the soil, the vegetation cover, the movement of fauna.”

The challenge of large-scale restoration intensifies when the goal involves severely degraded lands, as suggested by Lula, where the rainforest landscape is broken up by vast clearings — lands burned or abandoned after years of improper use. Recovering this fragmented ecosystem is difficult, slow and expensive, but a growing number of solutions are emerging.

Experts say the priority for severely degraded land is landscape healing: reconnecting fragments of forest to restore vegetation cover and ecological processes. This work can be done by creating seedling islands (known as nucleation), seeding large areas, or combining both techniques. One innovative example was carried out on a former cattle ranch in Cotriguaçu municipality, in Mato Grosso state, in the heart of the Arc of Deforestation, where an ecological corridor for wildlife was created after 20 years.

However, Brancalion said the best bet to restore areas that are highly degraded, especially on private lands, is productive restoration that can provide sustainable economic development for local populations and break the boom-and-bust economic model associated with burning and deforestation.

“We think of the restoration as an activity, a new land use. It is an illusion to think that we will achieve ambitious goals without a profitable model that makes the producer give up the destructive processes of today,” Brancalion said. “We have to think with landowners about restoration models that meet environmental objectives and are also productive.”

Agroforestry future?

Agroforestry is growing increasingly popular as one of the main models for restoring forests while allowing income generation. The Alliance for the Restoration in the Amazon, a coalition of Brazilian and international institutions working to promote forest recovery, identified 1,643 such projects in 2022, almost all small-scale. Although agroforestry doesn’t result in the complete recovery of the forest, these initiatives offer environmental benefits, especially with the restoration of vegetation cover and the sustainable use of soil and water.

“Agroforestry systems don’t solve major biodiversity or carbon issues, but there is still an improvement,” Barlow said. “To address large-scale restoration, we must think about all the existing systems.”

The main advantage of agroforestry is the focus on human welfare, by ensuring food security, employment, and income for families who live in degraded and poor areas of the Amazon. “The restoration agenda has the chance to create a new paradigm, but it needs to focus on people,” said Celentano, the environmental consultant. “It is necessary to address the social aspect of the Amazon so that the restoration models do not become a new vector of social conflicts.”

Agroforestry systems offer tremendous flexibility when it comes to the crops and other products that users can benefit from. Low-impact timber extraction, açaí berries, medicinal plants, corn, coffee, cocoa, pumpkins, and beans are just some examples already being produced in various parts of the Amazon. By employing a diverse model, farmers become more resilient to economic crises and price fluctuations, which reduces the chance they will return to activities associated with fire and deforestation.

Judson Ferreira Valentim, who coordinates Embrapa’s Amazon program that offers a kit of solutions for rural producers in the region, said the success of agroforestry systems depends on public policies. Besides technical support, landowners need to access credit and the markets through cooperatives and associations. “The producers need help to leave the culture of fire aside to adopt these new systems,” he said.

The Science Panel for the Amazon cites Brazil’s National School Feeding Program, which buys large quantities of agroforestry products and contributes to strengthening that supply chain, as an excellent example of an incentive policy. The SPA policy brief also highlights the importance of empowering local communities, women, and youth, considered vital elements for driving change.

One potential risk with agroforestry systems is when income gets so attractive that the project loses its restoration focus. To avoid that, it’s necessary to assess the quality of the restoration, experts say. A new publication offers recommendations for monitoring this through a series of ecological and socioeconomic indicators of restoration: measuring the contribution to mitigating climate change, conserving biodiversity, and generating quality of life, work and income.

“Agroforestry systems have a huge potential for restoring degraded areas associated with sustainable development,” said Celentano, editor of the publication. “It’s necessary to find models that take both objectives into account, without distorting the proposal to an overly commercial bias, with few products.”

Mesquita, from INPA, said it’s crucial to establish restoration goals in the Amazon. “Successful restoration is much longer than I have seen in some modeling studies,” she said. “To think that restoration is a simple path is an optimistic message that we should not be giving.”

Amid the debates about forest restoration in the Amazon, the new administration has hinted it also plans to convert some degraded lands, especially abandoned pastures, into agricultural areas. The proposal would allow an increase in Brazil’s food production without further deforestation.

Carlos Favaro, Lula’s new agriculture minister, said the government will open credit lines to recover degraded areas and promote good agricultural practices. “The idea is that in 20 years we can double the productive area and take the pressure off deforestation.”

—

This post was previously published on news.mongabay.com and under a Creative Commons license CC BY-ND 4.

 

Nobel Prize Winner Stiglitz Wants 70% Tax on Top Incomes

 

Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz is concerned about increasing social inequality in the world. The gap between rich and poor is widening.

February 11, 2023 by Scoop.me Leave a Comment

By Kontrast.at

Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz is concerned about increasing social inequality in the world. The gap between rich and poor is widening. To reverse the trend, he calls for the super-rich to pay a higher income tax and a wealth levy. He says introducing a special global tax rate of 70 percent for top earners “would clearly make sense.”

“People at the top might then work a little less if you tax them more. But on the other hand, our society benefits from a more egalitarian society with greater cohesion,” the former World Bank chief economist explained in Oxfam’s “Equals” podcast, summarized by the British newspaper The Guardian.

Current top tax rates are much lower than what Stiglitz has in mind. A few examples

• In the U.S., the top tax rate is 37 percent for incomes above $539,901.
• The top tax rate in the U.K. is 45 percent on annual incomes above 150,000 pounds.
• In Austria, the rate is 55 percent, but only for annual incomes above one million euros.
• In Germany, the top tax rate is paid from an annual income of around 278,000 euros—it is 45 percent.

Only four European Countries have a wealth tax: Spain, Norway, Switzerland, and Belgium.

Joseph Stiglitz: Getting rich is a question of chance—not performance

Stiglitz explained in the podcast that such a new, higher top tax would lead to more redistribution—but at the same time one must also tax wealth fairly. Because that way, the richest people in the world would make a fair contribution, whose wealth has been accumulated over generations. According to Stiglitz, a global wealth tax would have an even greater impact in combating social inequality.

“We should tax wealth more heavily, because a lot of the wealth is now inherited. For example, the young Walmart’s inherited their wealth“, Stiglitz cited as an example.

“One of my friends describes it as winning the sperm lottery. You got the ‘right’ parents. I think we have to realize that most billionaires got a lot of their wealth just by luck.“

The Nobel Prize winner considers U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren’s proposals for a 2 percent tax on wealth of more than $50 million and a 3 percent tax on wealth of more than $1 billion “very reasonable.” He believes that would “really do a lot to raise revenue that could be used to alleviate some problems our country faces.“

The crisis has made rich even richer

According to Stiglitz, the Corona pandemic has exacerbated social inequality around the world to an “astonishing” degree and “both exposed and exacerbated global inequalities.“

“AT A TIME WHEN SO MANY PEOPLE’S LIVES HAVE BEEN SO DIFFICULT, WHEN THEY HAVE LOST THEIR JOBS, WHEN FOOD PRICES HAVE RISEN AND OIL PRICES HAVE RISEN, IT IS SHOCKING HOW MANY PEOPLE AND RICH COMPANIES HAVE MADE OFF LIKE BANDITS,” STIGLITZ CRITICIZED.

Oxfam study: For the first time in 25 years, extreme wealth and extreme poverty are growing simultaneously

A recent Oxfam study showed that nearly two-thirds of the wealth accumulated since the pandemic began has gone to the richest 1 percent. The charity found that the best-off will have amassed $26 billion in new assets by the end of 2021. That’s 63 percent of all new wealth, with the rest going to the remaining 99 percent of people.

As a result, for the first time in 25 years, the rise in extreme wealth has been accompanied by an increase in extreme poverty.

The charity said that a tax of up to 5 percent on multimillionaires and billionaires could raise $1.7 trillion a year for the world. That, in turn, would be enough to lift 2 billion people out of poverty and end world hunger.

“WHILE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE DON’T KNOW HOW TO PAY FOR FOOD AND ENERGY, THE CRISES OF OUR TIME ARE BRINGING GIGANTIC INCREASES IN WEALTH FOR BILLIONAIRES AND BILLIONAIRES’ WIVES,” SAID OXFAM SPOKESMAN MANUEL SCHMITT.

200 super-rich call for global wealth taxes

More than 200 members of the super-rich elite have written to governments around the world in the run-up to the World Economic Forum in Davos calling on them to “tax us, the super-rich, now” to tackle the crisis of inequality. “Patriotic Millionaires”, “Tax me Now” and “Millionaires for Humanity” were behind the campaign.

Among the signatories are Disney heirs Abigail and Tim Disney and “Hulk” actor Mark Ruffalo. Marlene Engelhorn from Austria also participated in the protest—she delivered the letter on site.

—

Previously Published on scoop.me with Creative Commons License.

ONTARIO

Workers striking over lackluster wages from Patry


Fri, February 10, 2023 

xA group of about 15 workers represented by Labourers International Union of North America (LiUNA) Local 183 are striking over what they say are unfair wage packages being paid by Jay Patry Enterprises.

The workers are part of a project set to build a 230 unit apartment building at 2274 Princess Street, just west of Sydenham Road.

For the striking members the issue is simple: they haven't had a raise under Patry since 2019 and the developer is said to be paying markedly less than his competitors for similar or identical work.

Jason Ottey, Director of Government Relations and Communications for LiUna Local 183, says the union has been trying to negotiate a new collective agreement with Patry for years, but that he refuses to meaningfully enter discussions.

"Coming to a negotiation and then proposing a ridiculous offer and not meaningfully trying to bargain to reach a settlement is never going to produce a favourable outcome," Ottey said.

"What we're asking is for Patry to bring the wages of his employees up to that of his competitors."

Ottey says agreements between the union and two other developers, IN8 and Homestead Land Holdings, are paying near parity to one another while wages and benefits under Patry have fallen far behind.

He says that pay differential only continues to become exacerbated as the two sides fail to renew a collective agreement, leading the union to feel that a strike is the best and only recourse.

Ottey says Patry is enjoying extra profits by not re-negotiating, but it comes at the expense of LiUNA's members.

"This differential that Patry is enjoying quite frankly," Ottey said.

"It's obviously harming our members who in today's high cost of living environment deserve to have an increase and deserve to be paid what other people who are performing the work in a similar area are being paid."

Workers have been picketing in front of the job site's entrance, next to the Jiffy Lube on Princess Street.

Ottey said while labour disputes aren't uncommon, from his understanding the union's relationship with Patry has been a frustrating one for quite a long time.

"Local 183 has a long history of representing workers in the residential construction market... we're used to negotiating very complex agreements with longstanding agreements that we have with our contractors," Ottey said.

"I do know there's a certain level of frustration in his unwillingness to meaningfully sit down and negotiate a collective agreement that is fair and equitable to our members on site."

Several requests for comment from Jay Patry Enterprises have gone unanswered.

Owen Fullerton, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, YGK News

UK

RMT union rejects ‘final offers’ from Network Rail and train operating companies

ALAN JONES AND SAM BLEWETT, PA

10 February 2023, 

The biggest rail workers’ union has rejected what the Transport Secretary has described as the “best and final offers” aimed at resolving the long-running disputes over pay, jobs and conditions.

Mark Harper described the move by the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) to reject the proposals from Network Rail and the train operating companies as “a kick in the teeth for passengers”.

He said it is clear “no realistic offer” will be accepted by the union as hopes faded that the dispute will be resolved any time soon.

Mick Lynch, the RMT’s general secretary, said they had to reject the “dreadful offers” after a consultation of his members and vowed to keep up industrial action for “as long as it takes”.



The RMT said its executive decided to reject both offers on the basis that they do not meet members’ expectations on pay, job security or working conditions.

The union said it was seeking an “unconditional” pay offer, a job security agreement and no detrimental changes being imposed on members’ terms, conditions and working practices.

The union said it believes Network Rail’s plans for maintenance were unsafe, unhealthy for staff and unworkable. Network Rail rejects the union’s claims.

But Mr Harper said: “The RMT’s rejection of these best and final offers is a kick in the teeth for passengers across the country and their own members, who having been ordered to take strike action are now being blocked from having a say on their own future.

“It is now clear that no realistic offer is ever going to be good enough for the RMT leadership.”

The RMT said it will now seek further meetings with Network Rail and the Rail Delivery Group to try to achieve a negotiated settlement.

Mr Lynch said: “We have carried out an in-depth consultation of our 40,000 members and the message we have received loud and clear is to reject these dreadful offers.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said it was ‘now time for the employers and the Government to listen to railway workers’ (Kirsty O’Connor/PA)

“Our members cannot accept the ripping up of their terms and conditions or to have safety standards on the railway put into jeopardy under the guise of so-called modernisation.

“If our union did accept these offers, we would see a severe reduction in scheduled maintenance tasks, making the railways less safe, the closure of all ticket offices and thousands of jobs stripped out of the industry when the railways need more investment, not less.

“Our industrial campaign will continue for as long as it takes to get a negotiated settlement that meets our members’ reasonable expectations on jobs, pay and working conditions.”

Both Network Rail and the Rail Delivery Group have offered a pay deal worth 9% over two years.

The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) said its members will vote on the same offer it has received from the Rail Delivery Group.

A TSSA spokesman said: “Members involved in this long-running dispute will now have the chance to vote on whether what the train companies have come up with is enough to address their demands.

“What is on the table now is a result of careful negotiations and the commitment of our members in their determination to demonstrate our collective industrial strength.”

A Rail Delivery Group spokesman said: “Our passengers and many hard-working RMT members will be deeply dismayed that the union leadership has opted to reject our fair proposals without putting out a vote to their full membership in a democratic referendum.

“Having listened to the union’s concerns during recent negotiations, we went back to the table with substantial changes to give colleagues a minimum pay increase of at least 9% over two years – rising to over 13% for the lowest paid – which they will now miss out on without even having had an opportunity to have their say. We removed driver-only operation and gave an improved job security offer.

“The railway’s financial crisis is not going away. We remain willing to engage, but the RMT leadership must now accept the urgent need to make the railway fit for the future for both our people, and the communities the railway serves.”

Tim Shoveller, Network Rail chief negotiator, said: “The RMT’s leadership is condemning its members to a further round of fruitless, pointless and costly strikes, for passengers, for employees and for the economy.

“We have made multiple concessions, compromises and offers, while the RMT has shifted on nothing.

“It’s time for a second referendum on our new, revised offer and time to end this and work together to rebuild our railway.”

NEW COLD WAR/RED DRAGON

The vast scale of Beijing’s high-tech balloon programme

11 February 2023

Sailors recover the spy balloon (Photo: Alamy)

There will no doubt be some tense moments in the boardrooms of western technology companies over the coming days after the revelation that the Chinese spy balloon shot down after traversing the United States had western-made components with English-language writing on them. The finding was reportedly contained in intelligence briefings to US lawmakers and will almost certainly lead to still greater scrutiny of the sale to China of advanced ‘dual-use’ technology.

China’s continuing claims that the balloon was an innocent weather balloon blown off-course are looking increasingly absurd

Investigators are continuing their efforts to recover the wreckage of the balloon and its payload of surveillance kit from shallow waters off the South Carolina coast but have already concluded that the craft was part of a fleet operated by the Chinese military with sensors capable of sniffing for electronic communications. The targets likely included data transmitted in and around US bases as well as between those bases and US satellites. Officials said the balloon’s surveillance equipment alone was the size of a regional jet, with solar panels capable of powering ‘multiple active intelligence collecting sensors’, with the data sent in real time to Chinese satellites orbiting above.

President Biden has faced fierce criticism for allowing the balloon to cross the US before shooting it down, but it is now clear that one reason – apart from the fear of damage from falling debris – was to observe the 60-meter-tall balloon in action. Officials provided high resolution images from U-2 spy planes that monitored the balloon. They also insisted that other countermeasures had been taken to prevent the balloon from harvesting data.

Officials insist they were monitoring the balloon’s progress well before it crossed into US airspace and was spotted loitering over Montana, home to the Malmstrom Air Force Base, which has more than 100 silos containing nuclear-tipped Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles.


On Friday Joe Biden ordered the military to shoot down another ‘high altitude object’ near Alaska, although the White House did not confirm whether this was another Chinese spy balloon. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the object ‘posed a reasonable threat to the safety of the civilian flight.’ US officials say at least five Chinese spy balloons have previously crossed US territory – two during the Biden administration, and three while Donald Trump was in the White House. But they have sought to portray the intrusions as part of a global intelligence effort by the People’s Liberation Army air force – with the Chinese spy balloons intruding on the sovereignty of more than 40 countries on five continents. In an effort to gain maximum diplomatic leverage, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman this week briefed dozens of Washington-based diplomats, and US embassies have been sent information to be shared with allies.

Spy balloons are no longer the clunky vehicles of yesteryear and information is starting to emerge about the vast scale of China’s research efforts into what it terms high-altitude ‘lighter-than-air vehicles’. Officials say the programme is operated out of multiple sites in China. Satellite images published by the military-focused website ‘The War Zone’ show large hanger-like facilities in the country’s far western Xinjiang province, said to be part of the secret programme. Chinese academic papers describe the testing of a ‘stratosphere airship’, and a team at China’s National University of Defense Technology is studying advances in balloons. China has also boasted that high altitude balloons can be used as a platform to launch rockets and drones. As long ago as 2018, the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported that a high-altitude balloon had launched test hypersonic missiles. Video footage posted at the time showing a missile-touting balloon similar to the one over the US has now been deleted. A 2020 article in the People’s Liberation Army Daily described near space as ‘a new battleground in modern warfare.’

China’s continuing claims that the balloon was an innocent weather balloon blown off-course – ‘The unintended, unexpected entry of the unmanned Chinese civilian airship into US airspace,’ as foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning put it this week – are looking increasingly absurd. Ning also fell back on a bit of whataboutism, saying, ‘US aircraft and warships frequently conduct close-in reconnaissance around China, which seriously threatens China’s national security and undermines regional peace and stability.’ But there is a world of difference between missions in international air space or waters close to China and the balloon’s flagrant violation of sovereignty.

The fallout from the spy balloon may only just be beginning. Investigators from multiple US intelligence agencies will pore over the debris from the balloon, and as further details of its surveillance payload emerge over coming days, Washington will no doubt relish Beijing’s embarrassment. There will be close scrutiny of the Chinese companies and institutes that have contributed technology and know-how to the balloon programme. It will shed further light on China’s policy of military-civil fusion, under which civilian or commercial tech must be made available to the military. Further sanctions and possibly criminal charges are no doubt being readied by the US justice department. The links between western tech companies and China will come under further scrutiny, tech restrictions further strengthened.

The balloon affair is a gift to those in Washington who have simply lost patience with the scale and breadth of Chinese intelligence gathering – its attempts to hoover up data and technical knowhow by every means possible, characterised by FBI director Christopher Wray as, ‘the biggest long-term threat to our economic and national security’. It is remarkable to think that just two weeks ago, with secretary of state Antony Blinken set to visit Beijing and meet Xi Jinping, there was some talk of a reset in relations, with China pressing for some relief from sanctions that are restricting its access to advanced western technology. That was always wishful thinking. Now those hopes have rapidly deflated along with the spy balloon, and Xi only has himself to blame.




Ian Williams is a former foreign correspondent for Channel 4 News and NBC, and author of The Fire of the Dragon: China’s New Cold War (Birlinn).

Protesters clash at Tate Britain over drag queen reading to children

Arrest made over suspected racial abuse of police officer as Aida H Dee hosts Drag Queen Story Time

Liam James
THE INDEPENDENT

A person has been arrested after protesters clashed over a drag queen storytelling event at the Tate Britain.

The gallery in central London was hosting Drag Queen Story Hour UK on Saturday, with tales told by author Aida H Dee, who the gallery’s website describes as “the first drag artist in Europe to read stories to children in a nursery”.

Around 30 far-right protesters are understood to have gathered on Millbank by the white nationalist organisation Patriotic Alternative in opposition to the event. Some held signs that read: “No drag for kids!” and “Leave our kids alone!”

Right-wing protesters clash with counter protesters outside the Tate Britain
(Shutterstock)

A similar number of counter-protesters from the antifascist group Stand Up To Racism were also outside the gallery in support of the storytelling. Signs from the second group read: “Don’t let the far right divide us” and “Trans rights now”.

The two groups clashed with pictures from the scene showing physical altercations between opposing protesters.

The Metropolitan Police said a person was arrested on suspicion of making a racially aggravated comment towards a police officer amid the chaos. No injuries have been reported and officers remain at the scene, the force said

.
A far-right protester amid clashes on Millbank
(Shutterstock)

Aida H Dee said the day had been “proper emotional”, adding that five protesters had gained entry to the Tate and “caused a disruption” in parts of the building, but they did not affect the readings.

Aida tweeted: “5 haters made it into the Tate. They caused a disruption. BUT not to Drag Story Hour UK ... They made a fuss elsewhere in the building, not where the show was!! SHOW 2 went swimmingly!!!”

Antifascists (pictured) were warned far-right can be ‘dangerous’
(Shutterstock)

The drag queen had been staging three story-telling sessions on Saturday, at 11am, noon and 2pm. Aida, whose real name is Sab Samuel, has been on a tour called Drag Queen Story Hour UK – which has been protested at several venues.

Previously, a spokesperson for the Tate said: “We do not programme artists in order to promote particular points of view, nor to reconcile differing points of view.

“Our galleries offer a broad programme and visitors have the freedom to choose which aspects of it they engage with.”

WE NEVER HAD DRAG QUEEN STORY HOUR

Violence Outside British Hotel for Asylum Seekers Leads to 15 Arrests

February 11, 2023

People look at a fire outside a hotel providing refuge to asylum seekers following a protest in Knowsley near Liverpool, Britain February 10, 2023 in this still image obtained from a social media video.
LONDON —

British police said Saturday that 15 people, including a 13-year-old child, had been arrested after a protest by crowds outside a hotel housing asylum seekers turned violent, causing injuries and a police van being set on fire.

Offenders threw missiles including lit fireworks at police officers following an initially peaceful protest and counter-protest Friday evening in Knowsley near Liverpool in northwest England, police said.

Knowsley Council said the protests occurred outside the Suites Hotel, which has been providing refuge to asylum seekers since January last year under a British government contract.

One officer and two members of the public received slight injuries, police said, adding that a total of 13 men and two women had been arrested.

"A number of individuals who turned up at the Suites Hotel last night were intent on using a planned protest to carry out violent and despicable behavior," Merseyside Police Chief Constable Serena Kennedy said.

Some individuals turned up armed with hammers and fireworks to "cause as much trouble as they could," she added.

Rumors and misinformation had circulated on social media ahead of Friday's violence following an incident on February 6 in Knowsley in which a man made inappropriate advances toward a teenage girl, Kennedy said.

"We know that those involved in the violent activity last night used this as an excuse to commit violence and intimidate members of the public," she said, adding an investigation into the incident involving the teenage girl was ongoing.

As the number of migrants crossing the English Channel to reach Britain rises, the government has been using hotels across the country as temporary accommodation while it processes their applications for asylum.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made cracking down on illegal migration one of his government's top priorities and is planning new legislation to address the issue.

Migrants arriving on small boats have become a major political issue, particularly in working-class areas in the north and central England, where they are blamed for making it harder for people to find work and stretching public services.

Police said they would enforce a dispersal order in the area around the Suites Hotel for two days and extra officers will carry out high visibility policing to prevent further incidents.

New pension protests hit France, unions threaten 'standstill'


Stéphanie LEROUGE
Sat, February 11, 2023 


Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in France on Saturday in a fourth day of action against President Emmanuel Macron's pension reform, with unions warning they would ramp up strikes if the plan is not dropped.

Unlike on the three previous protest days there was no call for a day of nationwide strikes, although air traffic controllers at Paris' second airport staged a surprise walkout that left half of flights cancelled.

Macron and his government face a double battle to raise the pension age from 62 to 64, overcoming resistance on the streets as well as pushing the legislation through parliament.

The CGT union said 500,000 people protested in Paris alone, and over 2.5 million nationwide.

The interior ministry, which generally gives much lower numbers, said there were 963,000 protesters nationwide and 93,000 in Paris.

The figures were somewhat higher than on the last day of action on February 7 but possibly also short of the mammoth weekend turnout some had hoped for.

There were protests in other French cities up and down the country, with images on television showing police using water cannons in the western city of Rennes.

Protesters in the French capital took the traditional protest route from Republique Square to Nation Square, behind a banner saying: "No to working longer!"

There were tensions when a car and a bin were overturned and set on fire, prompting shield-wielding police and the fire brigade to intervene.

- 'Bring to a standstill' -

The march was led by the leaders of France's eight main unions, keeping up a tight unity that the government has so far been unable to break.

The unions said in a joint statement that they would call for a national strike that would "bring France to a standstill" on March 7 if the government "remained deaf to the popular mobilisation".

Another day of protests and strikes is planned on February 16. The date of March 7 marks when the text of the bill is due in France's upper house, the Senate.

The leader of the hardline CGT, Philippe Martinez, said "the ball is in the court of the president and the government to determine if the movement intensifies and hardens or if they take into account the current mobilisation."

Laurent Berger, the head of the CFDT union, a more moderate group the government hoped would take a different line, said the timetable would give time for the government if it wants to react.

Air traffic controllers at Paris Orly airport meanwhile staged an unannounced strike that resulted in the cancellation of 50 percent of flights from Paris' number two hub in the afternoon.

And in a move that risks severe consequences, unions representing workers on the Paris RATP public transport system called for a rolling strike from March 7.

"Despite the rejection by a very large majority of the population, the government remains intent on its brutal, unfair and unjustified reform," they said.

Speaking in Brussels last week, Macron urged unions to show a "spirit of responsibility" and "not block the life of the rest of the country".

Macron's ruling party also faces a challenge to push the legislation through parliament where it lost its overall majority in elections last year.

It needs support from the right-wing opposition to avoid recourse to a potentially explosive constitutional measure that would allow the legislation to be rammed through without a vote.

"I have doubts about Macron, his ability to move, to listen to the people," said Alfonso Gimeno, a pensioner, who came to Paris to demonstrate with his three children aged 9, 13 and 15.

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