House Republicans refuse to join Democrats in denouncing white supremacy



Cheyanne M. Daniels
Thu, March 9, 2023 

More than two dozen Republicans on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee have refused to join Democrats in signing a letter denouncing white supremacy.

Earlier this week, ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) sent a letter to chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Kentucky.) urging Republicans to join him and his fellow democrats in denouncing “white nationalism and white supremacy in all its forms, including the ‘Great Replacement’ conspiracy theory.”

Though all 20 committee Democrats signed the letter, all 26 Republicans on the committee refused to sign. The letter comes after the committee’s recent hearing “On the Front Lines of the Border Crisis: A Hearing with Chief Patrol Agents.”

According to the letter, multiple Republican members “invoked dangerous and conspiratorial rhetoric echoing the racist and nativist tropes peddled by white supremacists and right-wing extremists,” during the hearing, including calling the number of migrants arriving to the country as an “invasion.”

It also said that some members accused the Biden-Harris administration of deliberately opening the border in order to change American culture. This rhetoric, Raskin wrote, is used by extremists who believe pro-immigration policies are actually part of a conspiracy theory to replace white Americans.

The “Great Replacement” theory has been used to justify terror acts such as the mass murders of Black Americans at a Tops Supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y., the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pa., and a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.

“This is not the first time that you and other House Republicans have been called on to publicly renounce and denounce the racist and xenophobic tenets of white supremacy,” Raskin wrote.

“As Chairman, you have another opportunity to take a public stand against the deliberate amplification of dangerous racist rhetoric that has had deadly consequences in this country,” he added.

In a statement to Newsweek, a spokesperson for Oversight Committee Republicans said the letter was meant to “distract” from the number of border crossings under the Biden administration, which have reached record levels.

“It’s shameful that Democrats are calling efforts to protect the American people from the worst border crisis in history racist,” the statement said. “Fiscal Year 2022 set records for apprehensions of illegal immigrants, migrant deaths, terrorist apprehensions, and drugs seized.”

“Democrats are trying to distract from President Biden’s border crisis and their failure to conduct oversight of it for two years,” it continued. “Americans expect Congress to conduct oversight of the southern border and Republicans are focused on delivering results.”

ZIONIST WAR CRIME

Satellite photos: Likely Israel strike damages Syria airport

A United Nations official separately has criticized the attack for hindering earthquake relief 


This satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows damage on the runway of Aleppo International Airport after a suspected Israeli strike there in Aleppo, Syria, Tuesday, March 7, 2023. A suspected Israeli airstrike targeting Aleppo International Airport again tore multiple craters on its runway, satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press showed Thursday, March 9, 2023. A United Nations official separately has criticized the attack for hindering earthquake relief for the hard-hit, war-torn nation. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

JON GAMBRELL
Thu, March 9, 2023

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A suspected Israeli airstrike targeting Aleppo International Airport in Syria again left multiple craters on its runway, satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press showed Thursday.

Separately, a U.N. official criticized the attack for hindering earthquake relief for the hard-hit, war-torn Syria.

The attack on Aleppo airport comes as Israel previously struck the airfield as part of an Israeli campaign to disrupt Iranian weapons transfers to the country. Those attacks have continued despite ongoing political turmoil in Israel and as Iran's nuclear program edges closer to enriching weapons-grade levels of uranium as negotiations over it have fallen apart.

The satellite photos, taken early Tuesday afternoon by Planet Labs PBC, show vehicles gathered on the airport's single asphalt runway around the damage. One spot, directly south of its passenger terminal, appeared to be a new, significant crater.


It appeared the strike also targeted three patched areas earlier struck in suspected Israeli attacks in September. The runway also was struck in late August at another spot, though that patch work appeared undamaged.

Aleppo's airport, like many others in Middle East nations, is a dual-use facility that include civilian and military sides. Iran has been key in arming and supporting President Bashar Assad in his country's long civil war.

The attack Tuesday shut the Aleppo airport, with Syria's Foreign Ministry describing it as a “double crime” as it targeted a civilian airport and a main channel for the flow of aid to areas hit by last month’s earthquake.

Since the Feb. 6, earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria and killed more than 50,000 people, including about 6,000 in Syria, scores of flights carrying aid from different countries have landed at the Aleppo airport.

Authorities say relief flights now have been diverted to airports in Damascus and Latakia.

Syria's state-run SANA news agency, citing the country's transportation minister, said Thursday the airport would reopen on Friday and be available for earthquake relief flights “around the clock.”

On Wednesday, a U.N. official overseeing relief efforts in Syria asked that “all feasible precautions" be taken "to spare civilians and civilian objects in the conduct of hostilities.”

“The impact of this closure impedes humanitarian access and could have drastic humanitarian consequences for millions of people who have been affected by the earthquake,” El-Mostafa Benlamlih said. “Even more so, it could have adverse effects on the wider vulnerable population in need of humanitarian assistance.”

The office of Israel's prime minister declined to comment Thursday when reached by the AP.

For the first time since the massive earthquake, Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Amir Abdollahian during a visit to Syria on Thursday condemned “repeated Israeli attacks on Syrian territory.”

He also praised Arab countries for their recent efforts to restore ties with Damascus, especially since the quake disaster.

Iran, which has supported Assad throughout Syria's civil war, was among the first to send aid after the earthquake. Assistance has also arrived from countries that oppose Assad — including Iran’s regional rival Saudi Arabia.

The U.N. envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, called on Wednesday for a return to U.N.-facilitated talks between the Syrian government and opposition to reach a political resolution to the conflict,.

Abdollahian also on Thursday welcomed a meeting due next week in Moscow of Syrian, Turkish, Russian and Iranian officials. The meeting is not under U.N. auspices.

___

Associated Press writer Samar Kassaballi in Damascus, Syria, contributed to this report.

___

Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.

US, UN worry about quake aid after air strike on Aleppo airport


Aleppo International Airport

Wed, March 8, 2023 
By Daphne Psaledakis and Michelle Nichols

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States said on Wednesday it would be concerned if there is a prolonged disruption to humanitarian aid deliveries in Syria after the Aleppo airport was knocked out of service by an air strike that Syrian state media blamed on Israel.

The airport was being used to deliver aid to victims of last month's earthquake that killed thousands. Syria's Ministry of Transport had diverted all flights with earthquake aid to Damascus or Latakia, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that, while he could not "speak to attribution" for Tuesday's air strike, Washington would worry about any lengthy halt to the flow of humanitarian aid.

The closure of the airport could have "severe humanitarian implications for people in Aleppo - one of worst earthquake-impacted governorates in the country - and could also affect the wider vulnerable population who need humanitarian assistance," Deputy U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said on Wednesday.

He said all U.N. Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) flights from Aleppo had been suspended, adding that those flights transport aid workers and life-saving supplies and must resume without delay.

"We call on all parties to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law, including by taking all feasible precautions to spare civilians and civilian objects in the conduct of hostilities," Haq said.

The Israeli military declined to comment on the Syrian state media accusation that it was behind the air strike.

Israel has for years been carrying out attacks against what it has described as Iran-linked targets in Syria, where Tehran's influence has grown since it began supporting President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war that began in 2011.

Foreign donors including the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Algeria have flown aid into Aleppo airport since the Feb. 6 earthquake, Syrian state media has reported.

(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis; writing by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Grant McCool)

GM offers buyouts to most salaried employees, in a bleak warning for white-collar workers


Nora Naughton
Thu, March 9, 2023 

General Motors CEO Mary Barra.Nic Antaya / Stringer / Getty Images

GM employees have until March 24 to accept buyout offers.


Salaried employees with at least five years of experience qualify for the buyouts.


The move is part of a plan to cut $2 billion in costs by the end of next year.

General Motors is implementing a sweeping buyout program that covers a majority of its salaried workforce as the car company continues to cut costs to fund an electric future.

Any salaried GM employee with at least five years of experience or executive with at least two years of experience at the car company qualifies for the voluntary buyout program, sent to employees in a letter Thursday.

The buyout program is part of GM's plan to "accelerate attrition and achieve $2 billion in cost savings by the end of 2024," spokesperson Maria Raynal said in an emailed statement.

Packages vary by job title and tenure. All US salaried employees with at least five years of experience are eligible for one month of pay for every year of service up to 12 months, as well as a pro-rated performance bonus and outplacement services, the spokesperson said.

Eligible employees have until March 24 to accept the buyout offer, and once approved will leave the company by June 30.

"By permanently bringing down structured costs, we can improve vehicle profitability and remain nimble in an increasingly competitive market," Raynal said.

GM last rationalized its workforce in 2019, slashing about 15% of its North American salaried employees at the same time the company initiated plans to close several factories. Earlier this year, some experts wondered if GM and other car companies would outrun a larger trend of layoffs hitting the tech sector due to these actions.

But as EV rollouts at the company stall, according to a report this week from The Wall Street Journal, it appears more downsizing is necessary.

Other car companies have announced job cuts this year, including Rivian and Ford. But GM's is the largest so far, impacting a majority of its 81,000 white-collar workers around the world.

GM offers salaried employee buyouts, will take up to $1.5 billion charge



Thu, March 9, 2023 
By David Shepardson and Nathan Gomes

(Reuters) -General Motors Co on Thursday said it was offering buyouts for most of its salaried employees and expects to take a pre-tax charge of up to $1.5 billion to cover the costs.

The announcement comes as layoffs by U.S. companies in the past two months touch their highest since 2009, with the tech sector accounting for more than a third of the over 180,000 job cuts announced.

The largest U.S. automaker in January disclosed a $2 billion cost cut target, including reducing employment through attrition.

Under the terms of the staff reduction plan, all U.S. salaried employees with at least five years of service and all global executives with at least two years of service will be offered lump sum payments and other compensation to exit the company, GM said.

GM CEO Mary Barra said in a memo to employees seen by Reuters that the automaker was outlining the "biggest opportunities to reduce our structural cost" including reducing "vehicle complexity and expanding the use of shared subsystems between existing internal combustion engine and future electric vehicle programs."

She also cited decreasing discretionary spending and "reducing salaried staff through attrition, primarily in the United States."

"By permanently bringing down structured costs, we can improve vehicle profitability and remain nimble in an increasingly competitive market," Barra wrote. "Now more than ever, we need to have a mindset of taking cost in everything we do. It needs to be built into our culture."

GM expects to take the bulk of the charge in the first half of 2023.

GM, whose shares fell 4.3%, had 58,000 salaried employees at the end of 2022.

Eligible employees interested in the voluntary program must sign up by March 24 and those agreeing will leave GM by June 30. Barra added "taking this step now will help avoid the potential for involuntary actions."

The buyouts are separate from job cuts the company made last month.

A GM executive in February said the company was cutting hundreds of executive-level and salaried jobs. Peer Ford Motor Co said it planned to eliminate 3,800 product development and administration jobs in Europe in the next three years.

(Reporting by Nathan Gomes in Bengaluru, Joseph White in Detroit and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Arun Koyyur, Anil D'Silva and Mark Porter)

GM offers buyouts to salaried workers, cites economic concerns

It's a move designed to thwart future layoffs, GM says

BYRON HURD
Mar 9th 2023 

General Motors is offering buyouts to salaried workers in an effort to accelerate the cost-cutting efforts announced in its 2022 earnings report. The company has not announced how many employees it wants to shed. Its immediate intent is to eliminate $2 billion in operating costs from its balance sheet as it works toward its intended goal of transitioning from internal-combustion to EVs by 2035, according to AP reports.

"As part of our plan to accelerate attrition and achieve $2 billion in cost savings by the end of 2024, General Motors is announcing a Voluntary Separation Program for all U.S. salaried employees with at least five years of service and all global executives with at least two years of service," GM spokesperson Maria Raynal told Autoblog in an emailed statement. "This voluntary program offers eligible employees an opportunity to make a career change or retire earlier. We are offering three packages based on level and service to the company. Employees are strongly encouraged to consider the program."

"By permanently bringing down structured costs, we can improve vehicle profitability and remain nimble in an increasingly competitive market," Raynal said.

GM extended the offer to U.S. salaried employees and some global executives. U.S. workers with at least five years' tenure were offered a month's pay for each year of service (capped at one year) along with interim health coverage and a partial payout of bonuses due for 2022. Global executives with at least two years of service were offered their base salary, applicable incentives and interim health coverage. All employees who were offered a buyout are eligible for outplacement services.

The deadline for employees to accept the package is March 24 and those who take the buyout will have to exit the company by the end of the second quarter (June 30).

In a call with reporters that followed its January earnings announcement, GM Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson said the company's position was strong enough that it expected to avoid layoffs. Instead, the company would rely on limiting hiring and fill only strategically important roles as they become vacant through natural attrition, which has evidently proved insufficient thus far.

Uh-Oh: ‘Zombie’ Viruses Hidden in Permafrost Now Revived


Tim Newcomb
Thu, March 9, 2023 

Ed Reschke - Getty Images

A French scientist is searching Siberian permafrost for “zombie viruses” and testing their abilities.


Viruses and chemical waste currently locked in permafrost could pose danger to humans if thaw releases them.


There’s also the potential for finding lost flowers and animals as permafrost recedes.

The Arctic tundra’s permafrost layer of soil has frozen long-lost animals and species of flowers. It has also preserved viruses for nearly 50,000 years. French scientist Jan-Michel Claverie is studying the world of viruses frozen in time has found “zombie viruses” that could be revived—and become infectious again—under the right conditions.

Claverie revived his first ancient virus in 2014, making it infectious again for the first time in tens of thousands of years. Don’t worry, the experiment posed no danger to humans—Claverie selected a virus only able to invade single-celled amoebas.


And he hasn’t stopped since. He and his team have continued to take frozen amoeba-infecting viruses from the permafrost soil layer and bring them back to an infectious stage. The most ancient of these viruses, based on carbon dating, was 48,500 years old.

This work highlights a serious issue the world will face if the arctic permafrost—which not only preserves the viruses by keeping them cold, but by protecting them from the destructive effects of oxygen and light—continues to dissipate. And considering the arctic is currently warming up to four times as fast as the rest of the world, it’s not a possibility that can be easily dismissed.

“We view these amoeba-infecting viruses as surrogates for all other possible viruses that might be in the permafrost,” Claverie tells CNN. “Our reasoning is that if the amoeba viruses are still alive, there is no reason why the other viruses will not be still alive, and capable of infecting their own hosts.”

In all, Claverie has revived seven families of viruses, and there’s evidence that viruses and bacteria able to infect humans also reside in the permafrost.

“If there is a virus hidden in the permafrost that we have not been in contact with for thousands of years, it might be that our immune defense is not sufficient,” Birgitta Evengård, professor emerita at Umea University’s Department of Clinical Microbiology in Sweden, tells CNN. “It is correct to have respect for the situation and be proactive and not just reactive.”

The dangers of these viruses are unknown, and there’s no real way of guessing just how a thawed virus or bacteria would fare upon release from deep freeze. “It’s not really an experiment,” Kimberley Miner, a climate scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory tells CNN, “that I think any of us want to run.”

With one-fifth of the Northern Hemisphere covered by permafrost, viruses aren’t the only concern if the rate of thaw continues. Scientists know that manmade problems, whether chemicals or even radioactive waste, could get liberated in a thaw as the climate changes.

“There’s a lot going on with the permafrost that is of concern,” Miner says, “and [it] really shows why it’s super important that we keep as much of the permafrost frozen as possible.”

Scientists revived a 'zombie' virus frozen for 48,500 years in ice. They learned it could still infect other cells.

Some experts believe climate change may increase the emergence of new animal-to-human transmitted diseases like COVID-19


Chris Panella,Morgan McFall-Johnsen
Thu, March 9, 2023 

A man walks through a tunnel formed from crystals of permafrost outside the village of Tomtor.

Maxim Shemetov/REUTERS

Scientists revived a 48,500-year-old 'zombie' virus from permafrost and found it was still infectious.


The virus was tested on amoebae but could indicate more dangerous viruses are lurking in permafrost.


Some scientists are concerned that climate change thawing permafrost could reawaken ancient viruses.

From a horror movie plot to real life: Scientists have revived ancient "zombie" viruses from permafrost and discovered they could still infect living single-celled amoebae. The chances of these viruses infecting animals or humans are unclear, but the researchers say permafrost viruses should be considered a public health threat.

Permafrost is a layer of soil that remains completely frozen year-round — at least it used to, before human activities started raising global temperatures. It covers 15% of land in the Northern Hemisphere.

Because of climate change, though, permafrost is thawing rapidly, unearthing a host of ancient relics from viruses and bacteria to wooly mammoths and an impeccably preserved cave bear.

A carcass of an Ice Age cave bear found on Great Lyakhovsky Island, in northern Russia, unearthed by thawing permafrost.North-Eastern Federal University via AP

According to CNN, French professor Jean-Michel Claverie found strains of the 48,000-year-old frozen virus from a few permafrost sites in Siberia. The oldest strain, which dated back 48,500 years, came from a sample of soil from an underground lake, while the youngest samples were 27,000 years old. One of the young samples was discovered in the carcass of a wooly mammoth.

Some scientists fear that as climate change warms the Arctic, thawing permafrost could release ancient viruses that haven't been in contact with living things for thousands of years. As such, plants, animals, and humans might have no immunity to them.

"You must remember our immune defense has been developed in close contact with microbiological surroundings," Birgitta Evengård, professor emerita at Umea University's Department of Clinical Microbiology in Sweden, told CNN.

"If there is a virus hidden in the permafrost that we have not been in contact with for thousands of years, it might be that our immune defense is not sufficient," she added. "It is correct to have respect for the situation and be proactive and not just reactive. And the way to fight fear is to have knowledge."
How 'zombie' viruses could infect hosts once they emerge

This isn't the first time Claverie has revived ancient viruses, or "zombie viruses" as he calls them. He's been publishing research on this topic since 2014 and says that beyond his work, very few researchers are taking these viruses seriously.

"This wrongly suggests that such occurrences are rare and that 'zombie viruses' are not a public health threat," Claverie and his colleagues report in their latest paper published February 18 in the journal Viruses.

In that study, Claverie and his team were able to revive several new strains of "zombie" viruses and found that each one could still infect cultured amoebas — a feat, Claverie said, that should be regarded as both a scientific curiosity and a concerning public health threat.

Erosion, caused by thawing permafrost and the disappearance of sea ice which formed a protective barrier, threatens houses from the Yupik Eskimo village of Quinhagak in Alaska.

Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images

"We view these amoeba-infecting viruses as surrogates for all other possible viruses that might be in permafrost," he told CNN. "We see the traces of many, many, many other viruses. So we know they are there. We don't know for sure that they are still alive. But our reasoning is that if the amoeba viruses are still alive, there is no reason why the other viruses will not be still alive, and capable of infecting their own hosts."

The current research on frozen viruses like Claverie's 'zombie' virus is helping scientists understand more about how these ancient viruses function and whether, or not, they could potentially infect animals or humans.
Ancient bacteria like anthrax may already be thawing back to life

It's not just viruses. Ancient bacteria, too, could be released and reactivated for the first time in up to two million years as permafrost thaws.

That's what happened, scientists think, when outbreaks of the bacterial infection anthrax appeared in humans and reindeer in Siberia in 2016.

That may be a "more immediate public health concern," according to Calverie's paper.

POSTMODERN ROBBER BARON
Elon Musk Is Planning a 'Utopian' Company Town Called Snailbrook

Nikki Main
Thu, March 9, 2023 

Elon Musk is reportedly planning his own Utopian town

Tesla, Twitter, SpaceX, and Boring Company CEO Elon Musk is adding one more title to his resume: town owner. The multi-billionaire is reportedly working on building his own “utopia” in Texas and plans to name it Snailbrook.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Musk plans to build the town outside of Austin near his Boring and SpaceX facilities which are currently under construction, according to the outlet. Facebook photos revealed the area already has a collection of modular homes, a pool, an outdoor sports area, and a gym, and already has signs posted that read: “Welcome, snailbrook, tx, est. 2021.”

According to the Journal, Musk’s plans include building a place for his employees to live and charging them roughly $800 per month for one and two-bedroom homes, with the caveat that they would have 30 days to vacate the premises if they were laid off or quit. Although the plans are still in the works, it seems like a good time to ask: Is this even a good idea?

Companies have been lapping up towns for decades, creating a place where they could establish a monopoly of power in an area for their wide-ranging companies and make a profit from their employees. The idea, in essence, sounds good—work for an employer and you get to live in the town with access to all the amenities for a discounted price. But what happens when things go south?

Company towns have a long history of creating so-called utopias for their workers but also created towns that were akin to a prison camps where employers are the landlord and the shopkeep and everything else one could need. Many towns were built by coal companies and the workers often lived in poverty and abuse.

The majority of the company towns were built on the labor and skill set of the workers without adequately paying them or providing normal living standards. According to The Smithsonian, when the coal, steel, and textile industries were booming in the early 19th Century, companies built the towns to require their workers to live in basic housing and sent the kids to company-owned schools where the students were only taught information from the boss’s perspective.

The workers also didn’t receive adequate compensation and were paid in scrip rather than regular money. Scrip was a currency that workers could only use at the company store which often drastically increased its prices by about 20% more than other establishments outside the compound.

While these town models are thought to exist in the past, they are still around today. With Elon Musk showing himself to be a right-wing task master who reportedly fires employees on a whim, loathes safety regulations, fosters discriminatory workplaces, and generally seems to believe laws don’t apply to him, do we really want him running his own town? He already started his own school for his kids, do you think he’s above trying to pay employees with a ScripCoin token?

Elon Musk is reportedly building his own town in Texas

Chris Morris
Thu, March 9, 2023 

Elon Musk has reportedly bought thousands of acres of land about 35 miles outside of Austin and plans to build his own town there for employees to live and work.

The Wall Street Journal reports Musk has described the city as a “sort of Texas utopia along the Colorado River.” By creating the town, Musk would be able to set some of the city’s regulations. Last year, at an all-hands meeting of Boring employees, president Steve Davis reportedly talked about holding an election for mayor of the city.

The proposed municipality is said to be adjacent to the Boring and SpaceX facilities that are currently under construction, and to already include some modular homes and signs hang from poles reading “welcome, snailbrook, tx, est. 2021”

Snailbrook is the name of Boring’s mascot.

Musk reportedly wants to offer rental houses to workers that are well below the local market value. One ad allegedly put the price of a two- or three-bedroom home at $800, compared to $2,200 a month in nearby Bastrop, Texas. There are also plans for a Montessori school in the municipality

Texas law requires an area to have at least 201 residents before it can incorporate. Plans, which the Journal shows in its story, call for the construction of 110 more homes in the area where Snailbrook is located.

Over the past three years, entities tied to Musk have bought at least 3,500 acres in the general Austin area. The Journal says some reports indicate Musk controls as much as 6,000 acres.

Musk first came to Texas two years ago, abandoning California and calling it the land of “overregulation, overlitigation, overtaxation.” Last month, though, Tesla announced plans to expand its California presence, moving its engineering headquarters to the state.

Should Musk be building his own city, he won’t be the only Texas billionaire to own a town. In 2021, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban purchased the entire town of Mustang, Texas for an undisclosed amount.

The city had been for sale since 2017, originally with an asking price of $4 million. It eventually dropped to $2 million, but still couldn’t find a buyer. Mustang is located about an hour south of Dallas in Navarro County, right off of Interstate 45. At 77 acres, though, it’s nothing close to what Musk reportedly has in mind.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Biden’s World Bank pick wins backing of Nobel laureates, leaders



Julia Mueller
Thu, March 9, 2023 

President Biden’s pick to lead the World Bank, former Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga, is getting public backing from a group of Nobel Prize winners and civil society leaders.

More than 50 signatories on a letter shared by the Partnership for Central America say Banga is “the right person to lead the World Bank at this critical moment,” lauding his commitment to climate change and “deep appreciation for the global south.”

“A truly global citizen, Ajay has extensive experience living and working in developing economies. Importantly, as a leader with deep appreciation for the global south, he intuitively understands that economic growth can only be sustained if people and nature thrive together, not apart,” the letter reads.

“He understands that the World Bank must serve as a force multiplier by setting the right agenda and then catalyzing action across governments, the private sector, multilateral development banks, civil society, and philanthropies.”

Among the signatories who say they “look forward” to Banga being selected by the World Bank’s board of directors are the CEOs of Mercy Corps, CARE USA, Girl Rising and Habitat for Humanity.

Joseph Stiglitz and Michael Spence, recipients of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, and Muhammad Yunus, who received the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, also signed on.

Biden nominated Banga, a U.S. citizen who was raised in India, last month.

“Raised in India, Ajay has a unique perspective on the opportunities and challenges facing developing countries and how the World Bank can deliver on its ambitious agenda to reduce poverty and expand prosperity,” Biden said.

Banga would replace David Malpass, who led the World Bank during the Trump administration and stepped down this week after pressure from Democrats.

Malpass came under fire for comments criticized as implying climate change denial. In nominating Banga, Biden stressed that his new nominee “has critical experience mobilizing public-private resources to tackle the most urgent challenges of our time, including climate change.”

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head

Intel’s Troubles Run So Deep Even Bulls Are Wary

Jeran Wittenstein and Ian King
Thu, March 9, 2023 

(Bloomberg) -- With the most sell ratings in the Nasdaq 100 Stock Index, Intel Corp. is running ever lower on fans. Things have gotten so bad that even analysts brave enough to recommend buying are striking a cautious tone.

One of those, Srini Pajjuri at Raymond James, reasons that the chip designer’s “many problems” are unlikely to get much worse in the near term.

“We believe that the 2023 bar is low enough and expect the company to benefit from cyclical tailwinds and aggressive cost cuts,” Pajjuri wrote in a note last week, resuming coverage with an outperform recommendation.

Another advocate, Gus Richard at Northland Securities, is sticking to his outperform rating, even after saying that buying the stock in the wake of January’s ugly earnings report would likely make investors “physically ill.”

The root of Intel’s woes stems from ceding its leadership position in the crucial area of manufacturing technology to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Samsung Electronics Co. Those companies provide outsourced production to Intel’s competitors such as Advanced Micro Devices Inc., allowing rivals to field better products and grab market share.

Of the 45 analysts tracked by Bloomberg who cover Intel, just nine have a buy equivalent rating on the stock. That’s after the shares slumped 45% in the past 12 months, putting the Santa Clara, California-based company on the verge of falling below $100 billion in market value for the first time in a decade.

With 11 sell ratings, Intel is in a league of its own in the Nasdaq 100, where more than 95% of recommendations are buy or hold. Tesla Inc. and Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., the companies with the second-highest number of sell ratings in the gauge, have just six each.

Rarer still is a company of Intel’s size that has more sell ratings than buys. Only two other Nasdaq 100 members — Cognizant and Fastenal Co. — are in this position, and their market values are less than a third as big.

Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger is spending heavily on new plants and products to try to reassert Intel’s dominance, a plan that’s costing billions in increased spending as his company’s revenue and cash flow shrink. The consequences of that strategy were made evident last month when Intel slashed its dividend by 66% to the lowest level in 16 years.

Those analysts standing by the company are telling investors they’ll need to be patient and wait for new products built with better production techniques to come to the rescue. No one is predicting a near-term upswing.

For Daniel Morgan, senior portfolio manager at Synovus Trust Co., the current loathing of Intel is reminiscent of the aftermath of the dotcom bubble in 2002 that proved to be a nadir for the stock.

“We’re not going to abandon the stock,” said Morgan, whose firm holds more than 400,000 Intel shares. “We’re going to see if over time they can get through this tough space. Eventually you find a bottom when it gets so oversold and everyone gets too negative on it.”

WORKERS CAPITAL
New York City’s Pension-Fund System Plagued by Inefficiencies



Martin Z. Braun
Thu, March 9, 2023 

(Bloomberg) -- New York City’s pension fund system for retired city workers is plagued by ballooning costs stemming from redundancies.

The cost to administer benefits to about 340,000 retirees and beneficiaries, has grown by more than 40% to about $270 million since 2018, according to an analysis of the funds’ financial reports by Bloomberg. A member of the city audit committee brought attention to the funds’ spending and inefficiencies at a recent meeting.

There’s five retirement funds — one for teachers, non-teaching staff, police officers, firefighters and civil servants — and each have separate offices, staff and computer systems. And two of those funds are in the middle of multimillion-dollar technology upgrades.

New York pays employees out of one payroll system, but “as soon as they retire, we need five different systems to figure out how to pay them their pension benefit,” said Bud Larson, a former senior city budget official who recommends streamlining operations, at a Jan. 23 city audit committee meeting. Created in 2009, the committee reviews financial statements and approves the city’s hiring of auditors and actuaries.

In 2018, the city’s Independent Budget Office estimated that consolidating the five pensions into three, could save $20 million in the first year, and then $41 million two years later. The police and firefighter funds, which have similar retirement plans, could merge into one system, IBO said in a report. And employees covered by the fund for school employees, like crossing guards and cafeteria workers, could be transferred to the civil servants’ or teachers’ pension.

Last month, New York City Comptroller’s Brad Lander called on the state’s Department of Financial Services to review the pension fund for schools’ non-teaching staff, where spending has grown about 170% in five years. New York City’s Board of Education Retirement System’s $35 million budget exceeds the budget of the police pension, which has almost twice the membership. Thomas Sheppard, co-chair of BERS, didn’t immediately respond to an email request for comment, while co-chair Donald Nesbit hung up the phone on a Bloomberg reporter.

Last year, the city contributed $9.6 billion to the funds, which have about $250 billion in assets. Employees contributed about $2.5 billion, according to the funds’ financial statements.

The five funds, independent entities created by state law, have more than 1,100 employees who work out of their own offices. The teachers’ pension, for instance, spends $8.6 million a year to rent space in a lower Manhattan tower that’s owned by Alabama’s retirement system. The police fund leases offices for $6.7 million in the Woolworth Building, a national landmark designed by Cass Gilbert.

While administration is a big contributor to costs, investment management remains the primary expense for pensions. Investment expenses rose to $1.5 billion for the year ending June 30, Those fees are deducted from pension contributions and earnings.

More than a decade ago, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, the majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP, and then Comptroller John Liu proposed consolidating the investment management of the five pensions into a single independent investment board. Managing money internally would save the city $1 billion a year, they said. That proposal was pulled because some unions wouldn’t be represented on the new board and individual pensions wanted to maintain control over investment decisions.

Mayor Eric Adams has championed efficiencies and promised to reduce bureaucratic bloat, but like previous administrations has to win over each pension’s board to kick off any overhaul. Although the mayor and comptroller are members of the pension boards, power resides with trustees representing politically formidable public employee unions.

Elected officials “aren’t too interested in upsetting the apple cart,” said Larson, who as of Feb. 16 is no longer a member of the audit committee. “Unions like the fact they get to control something.”

So rather than pursue a consolidation of pensions, which would require a change in state law, the funds could take gradual steps to spur efficiency, like centralizing tech operations, Larson added.

Deb Stewart, a spokesperson for the $80 billion civil servants pension, the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, or NYCERS, declined to comment about any potential consolidation of tech or staff. The fund has already embarked on a $230 million upgrade of its 1980s-era mainframe computer system, spending about $40 million so far.

Meanwhile, the $49 billion police pension is overhauling its software, which it estimated in 2018 would cost between $57 million and $76 million over six years. Nicole Giambarrese, general counsel at the New York City Police Pension Fund, declined to comment.

In an email, Lander said his office carefully reviews all five pensions’ budgets, particularly on tech projects.

All expenses undergo extensive layers of review, according to Jonah Allon, a spokesperson for Adams. “In our capacity as trustees of the funds, we heavily scrutinize every purchase,” Allon said.

Egypt withdraws from UN grain treaty prompting sadness and concern

A farmer tends wheat at a field in the El-Menoufia governorate, north of Cairo

Thu, March 9, 2023 
By Aidan Lewis and Sarah El Safty

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt, one of the world's largest wheat importers, has given notice it will withdraw at the end of June from a decades-old U.N. grains treaty, causing consternation among some other signatories to the convention.

Egypt's departure from the multinational Grains Trade Convention (GTC), which promotes market transparency to further trade cooperation, follows a period of turmoil in grains markets linked to the war in Ukraine and concerns about global food security.

Egypt signed the GTC, the only international treaty covering trade in grains, at its inception in 1995, and has been a member of the council that governs it since 1949. In February it submitted a request to withdraw with effect from June 30, 2023.

"This came without prior information. Several delegations within the IGC are surprised and sad about the decision," Arnaud Petit, executive director of the International Grains Council, which administers the treaty, told Reuters.

Several members would ask Egypt to reconsider its decision, he added.

Egypt's foreign ministry told Reuters in a statement that the decision was made after an assessment by the ministries of supply and trade concluded Egypt's membership in the council delivered "no added value".

Other signatories to the GTC include major grain importers and exporters such as the United States and the European Union.

Two sources familiar with the matter, who asked to remain anonymous, told Reuters that Egypt owed the IGC membership fees. The foreign ministry did not respond to a question about fees.

Traders told Reuters they did not expect an impact on the grains market, but one diplomatic source said that symbolically, Egypt's departure from a multinational organisation could be seen as concerning.

The war in Ukraine disrupted Egypt's wheat purchases last year and the government held talks with countries including India as it tried to diversify from Black Sea supplies.

Despite those efforts, Egypt relied on competitive Russian imports to boost its reserves through traditional tenders, some funded by the World Bank, as well as non-traditional direct offers.

The economic impact of the war also exacerbated a foreign currency shortage in Egypt, leading to a slowdown in imports, a backlog of goods in ports, and a $3 billion financial support package from the IMF.

In January, Egypt's government instructed ministries to curb non-essential spending until the end of the fiscal year.

(Reporting by Sarah El Safty and Aidan Lewis; Additional reporting by Nigel Hunt and Nafisa El Tahir; editing by Barbara Lewis)

I'm an Amazon employee who's worked remotely since 2021. Now that we're returning to the office soon, I worry I'll lose the productivity and work-life balance I perfected during the pandemic.

Sarah Jackson
Thu, March 9, 2023

An Amazon program manager who has never set foot in the office says she dreads the enforcement of Andy Jassy's return-to-office mandate come May.

Amazon will require that employees return to the office at least three days a week starting in May.


One employee who has worked remotely worries what will happen if her military family has to move somewhere without an office site.


"The biggest issue employees have with this is we want to understand how the decision was made, but we're not getting any answers," she said.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with an Amazon program manager and military spouse who has worked remotely since joining the company. Insider has verified their employment, but isn't naming them in order to protect their career. This essay has been edited for length and clarity.

My husband has been active duty for 20-plus years. He's gone on multiple deployments, which meant moving every two years, so it was hard for me to keep my jobs. Every time we moved, I was starting over — always at the bottom again.

Raising my daughter while my husband was deployed, I was always lectured that I needed a backup plan whenever I had to call out because my daughter got sick. In one job interview, I was told, "Oh, you're a military spouse, you're going to be gone soon; we need somebody permanent."

Eventually, I found work in federal contracting, but I got out in anticipation of my husband looking to possibly retire. My work there couldn't be done remotely, so if my husband retired, I wouldn't have been able to take it with me.

At the time, Amazon was remote due to COVID, and I'd also heard that the company worked with military spouses when they had a change in duty station.

I joined Amazon in 2021, and they've let me work fully remotely as a military spouse; I haven't gone into the office once.

With Andy Jassy's return-to-office announcement, I'm concerned what it will mean for me. Will I be able to get an exception? My family will probably have to move this summer, and I don't know what will happen if we have to move somewhere that doesn't have an Amazon corporate site. My managers are supportive, but they don't know what this will look like yet. Amazon touts itself as being military-friendly, but when they roll out these policies, are they really thinking through how a blanket policy like this could affect us?

My particular team is all spread out, so my return to an office feels kind of pointless. If we're working well the way that we're doing it now, why change that?

I'm also more productive working from home — there's more noise and distraction in the office versus when I'm at home and can focus solely work.

I can flex my schedule for doctor's appointments or if a global partner I'm working with needs something. Working in the office will make these things more challenging.

Employees are wondering whether there will be enough room for everyone since Amazon hired a lot during the pandemic. Are people going to be assigned desks? I don't want to fight over desk space 3 days a week.

Amazon prides itself on being data-driven, so when you make a policy like this without numbers backing it up, it goes against our leadership principles. People are speculating that they're doing this because they want employees to quit without having to fire them, or because of tax breaks.

We want to understand how the decision was made, but we're not getting any answers. Leadership hasn't come out with any policies or procedures beyond the announcement.

I don't feel like there was any empathy or forethought of how this affects their entire workforce. We just went through two rounds of job cuts, so employee morale is down from the layoffs. People are already on edge, and now they're adding this, too. It's like, what else will they throw at us? I think there's been a loss of trust.

To say in 2021 that "there is no one-size-fits-all approach for how every team works best," and then to turn around and give us exactly that is a huge misdirection.

I love my job. I'm calling this return-to-office plan a speed bump, and I hope leadership will do the right thing to accommodate everyone, but it's going to be a waiting game to see how everything is rolled out.