San Francisco Bay Area to phase out natural gas furnaces and water heaters

BY SHARON UDASIN - 03/16/23 12:53 PM ET

San Francisco Bay air quality regulators have made a landmark move in a national squabble over natural gas-fueled appliances by approving a gradual phaseout of gas-powered water heaters and furnaces.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) voted on Wednesday to adopt new rules that seek to eliminate harmful nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from these appliances. The rules will ban the sale of NOx-emitting natural gas water heaters in 2027 and prohibit NOx-emitting furnaces in 2029 and large commercial water heaters in 2031.

NOx emissions from building appliances are on par with those generated by passenger vehicles in the Bay Area, according to BAAQMD. In addition to raising the risk of respiratory infections and asthma, NOx releases can also contribute to the formation of ozone and fine particulate matter, the agency noted.

Exposure to particulate pollution is linked to other respiratory conditions, neurological disease, heart attack, stroke, lung cancer and premature death, BAAQMD warned.

“The 1.8 million water heaters and furnaces in the Bay Area significantly impact our air quality, resulting in dozens of early deaths and a wide range of health impacts, particularly in communities of color,” Philip Fine, executive officer of the Air District, said in a statement.

The Air District regulates stationary sources of air pollution in nine Bay Area counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, southwestern Solano and southern Sonoma.

“This groundbreaking regulation will phase out the most polluting appliances in homes and businesses to protect Bay Area residents from the harmful air pollution they cause,” Fine added.

Notably, however, the rules will apply only to new appliances and do not include those used for cooking, such as gas stoves.

Gas stoves have sparked heated debate over the past few months, particularly after a member of the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission floated the idea of stricter regulations or even a possible ban on these appliances.

Following a flurry of opposition from Republicans nationwide, the Commission chair said he did not intend to ban gas stoves and that the agency had no proceedings to do so.

Nonetheless, the Commission said earlier this month that it was requesting information from the public about any hazards connected to gas stoves, as well as possible solutions to the issue.

Rather than instituting a prohibition on natural gas furnaces and water heaters across the board, the language in Wednesday’s BAAQMD announcement refers only to the elimination of “NOx-emitting natural gas furnaces and water heaters.”DeSantis says he prevented ‘Faucian dystopia’Nearly two-thirds of California is now drought-free

However, a separate fact sheet issued by the agency notes that “currently, the only zero-NOx appliances available are electric appliances.”

The new amendments will improve regional air quality and reduce exposure to particulate matter, while saving up to $890 million annually in pollution-related health impacts, according to BAAQMD.

“The new amendments will safeguard public health against the hazards of these pollutants and prevent an estimated 85 premature deaths, as well as dozens of new asthma cases, in the Bay Area each year,” a statement from the agency added.

Saddam’s rusting yacht now a picnic spot for Iraqi fishermen

16 MARCH 2023 - 

SEHAM ELORABY

A fisherman casts his net into the waters of Shatt al-Arab near the 'Al-Mansur' yacht, once belonging to former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, which has been lying on the water bed for years in the Shatt al-Arab waterway, in Basra, Iraq March 9, 2023. 

Picture: REUTERS/MOHAMMED ATY/IRAQ-ANNIVERSARY SADDAM-YACHT

Basra — Capsized in a river in southern Iraq, the rusting wreck of a yacht that belonged to Saddam Hussein serves as a stark reminder of his iron-fisted rule that ended with the US-led invasion two decades ago.

The 121m “al-Mansur”, a symbol of Saddam’s wealth and power when it was built in the 1980s, is today a destination for sightseers and fishermen who clamber aboard the wreck to picnic and drink tea.

“When it was owned by the former president, no-one could come close to it,” said fisherman Hussein Sabahi, who enjoys ending a long day on the river with a cup of tea aboard the wreck. “I can’t believe that this belonged to Saddam and now I’m the one moving around it,” he said.

Saddam issued orders for the yacht, which he never boarded, to leave its mooring at Umm Qasr to Basra for safekeeping a few weeks after the invasion got under way on March 20 2003. But it was targeted by US-led forces and later capsized in the Shatt al-Arab waterway as it fell into decay.

In the turmoil that followed Saddam’s downfall, the yacht was stripped bare and looted, with everything from its chandeliers and furniture to parts of its metal structure removed. One of three yachts owned by Saddam, the yacht could accommodate up to 200 guests and was equipped with a helipad.

US officials estimated in 2003 that Saddam and his family may have amassed up to $40bn in ill-gotten funds. Another of his yachts has been turned into a hotel in Basra.

Though Iraqis say the wreck should be preserved, successive governments have not allocated funds to recover it.

“This yacht is like a precious jewel, like a rare masterpiece you keep at home,” said Zahi Moussa, a naval captain who works at the Iraqi ministry of transport. “We feel sad that it looks like this.”

Reuters

Analysis-Macron wins Pyrrhic victory on pension bill, risks fuelling anger

MICHEL ROSE
Thu, Mar 16, 2023

French President Macron attends the National Roundtable on Diplomacy in Paris


By Michel Rose

PARIS (Reuters) - President Emmanuel Macron's move to shun the National Assembly and push through an unpopular pension system overhaul without a vote in the lower house may secure a reform he says is needed for France's finances. But it may end up a Pyrrhic victory.

By using special constitutional powers instead of risking lawmakers rejecting the reform, Macron has given ammunition to the opposition and to trade union leaders who cast the reform as undemocratic.

It could also play into the far right's hands.

"It's a democratic coup," far-right leader Marine Le Pen told reporters after a chaotic session in parliament, where Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne was booed as she announced that the government would invoke article 49.3 of the constitution allowing it to pass the legislation without a vote.

Despite a series of costly sweeteners, the government concluded it had failed to garner enough votes from conservative lawmakers in the lower house to ensure passage for its plan to raise the minimum retirement age to 64 from 62.

Once known as a high-stakes political gambler, Macron chose to play it safe.

He was too concerned about the broader financial implications to risk jeopardising a reform meant to reassure investors and ratings agencies about French debt sustainability, a government source said.

However, weeks of heated debates in parliament and street protests drawing over 1 million people risked leaving a toxic legacy that could boost far-right populists, analysts said.

"This reform has all the ingredients to boost votes for parties on the radical right," said Bruno Palier, a political scientist at French university Sciences-Po.

Palier said bearing the brunt of the reform would be the lower middle-class, a segment of the population that already felt like it was the loser of globalisation, as it did in Britain before Brexit and in the United States before Donald Trump's election.

"This resentment is not going to disappear, it's going to morph into something different, it'll just wait for voting ballots to manifest itself again," he added.

Past leaders who have meddled with the retirement age have done so to their cost, Palier said, pointing to Nicolas Sarkozy's failure to win re-election in 2012 after he pushed the retirement age to 62 from 60 in 2010.

LE PEN AMBUSH

To be sure, claims of authoritarianism by the pension bill's critics are far-fetched.

Article 49.3 of the constitution, which Macron invoked to pass the reform, has been used by governments of the left, right and centre in the past. Former Socialist prime minister Michel Rocard resorted to the special powers it entails 28 times in the 1980s and 1990s.

However, from the outset Macron's government failed to make the case for reform.

Ministers initially sold the changes as necessary to save the pension system from collapse. They then explained that the changes were a "left-wing reform".

Political observers say Le Pen played her hand well.

She is well-placed to benefit from the way the debate unfolded, political sources and disillusioned voters have told Reuters, with Macron being barred from running for a third term in 2027 and no clear successor in sight.

"Mrs Le Pen is ready for the ambush," Laurent Berger, the head of the moderate CFDT union said on Thursday, hours before the vote. "The resentment, the social debt that's building, is going to be exploited by the populists and the far-right. It's scary," he said.

Le Pen has repeatedly stated her opposition to the reform but has instructed her colleagues in parliament to refrain from using obstructionist tactics like those of the radical left bloc, in line with her long-term goal of winning respectability.

At one point in the debates she even asked her lawmakers to stand and applaud the minister in charge of defending the reform, who had been called a "murderer" by one left-wing lawmaker.

A government source told Reuters Le Pen had appeared the respectable opponent in parliament as the left sought to block the bill with thousands of amendments and the centre-right bickered over whether to support the legislation.

"She even managed to look like the arbiter of debates, which is incredible," the source said.

Macron will want to turn the page quickly, with government officials already preparing more socially minded reforms.

But the end of debates in parliament may do little to quell anger on the streets. An Odoxa poll showed 62% of the French think protests should continue even once the bill is adopted.

Within moments of the government bypassing parliament, an impromptu demonstration took place on Paris' Place de la Concorde opposite the National Assembly.

The symbolism was powerful: It was there where Louis XVI was guillotined 230 years ago.

(Reporting by Michel Rose; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

France's Macron bypasses National Assembly to raise retirement age to 64

Thousands of protesters demonstrate on Place de la Concorde square, facing the French Parliament, on Thursday after French President Emmanuel Macron pushed through a controversial increase in the country's retirement age from 62 to 64 by using a procedure that allowed him to bypass a National Assembly vote. Photo by Yoan Valat/EPA-EFE

March 16 (UPI) -- French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday pushed through a controversial increase in the country's retirement age from 62 to 64 by using a procedure that allowed him to bypass a National Assembly vote.

Macron used Article 49.3 of the Constitution. The move opens him up to a possible no-confidence vote by opposition lawmakers, though, that is unlikely to happen. Macron's party and its allies hold a slight majority in the assembly.

Macron's move is likely to further inflame the bill's opponents, who have demonstrated for about two months against the measure, sparking strikes in public transportation and garbage pickup. He defended the move, saying France's pension system was in danger because of a growing number of retirees living longer and outpacing new workers, who fund the system, entering the workforce.

Macron and his Renaissance Party had said that, according to figures from France's Pensions Advisory Council, the projected deficit annually over the next 10 years would have been $10.73 billion annually through 2032.

Those stark numbers were not enough to convince unions and other opponents, who pushed back against one provision that said workers had to contribute to the pension for 43 years to be fully eligible.

"By resorting to [Article] 49.3 the government demonstrates that it does not have a majority to approve the two-year postponement of the legal retirement age," Laurent Berger, secretary general of the CFDT union.

"The political compromise failed. Workers must be listened to when it is their work being acted upon," Berger said.

Macron’s pension plan advances despite strikes across France

By SYLVIE CORBET and ELAINE GANLEY

today

1 of 21
Protesters kicks a teargas canister as he clashes with police during a demonstration in Nantes, western France, Wednesday, March 15, 2023. Opponents of French President Emmanuel Macron's pension plan are staging a new round of strikes and protests as a joint committee of senators and lower-house lawmakers examines the contested bill. (AP Photo/Jeremias Gonzalez)

PARIS (AP) — Thousands of people angered over President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the retirement age joined a national strike on Wednesday as a committee of lawmakers advanced the proposal.

It remains to be seen whether Macron can command a parliamentary majority for his plan to raise the age from 62 to 64 so that workers can pay more money into the system. If not, he could risk imposing the unpopular changes unilaterally.

The plan also would deny a full pension to anyone who retires at 64 without having worked for 43 years — short of that, they’d have to wait until 67.

Macron has promoted the changes as central to his vision for making the French economy more competitive. Unions remained combative late Wednesday, calling on lawmakers to vote against the plan and denouncing the government’s legal shortcuts to move the bill forward as a dangerous “denial of democracy.”

Economic challenges have prompted widespread unrest across Western Europe. In Britain on Wednesday, teachers, junior doctors and public transport staff were striking for higher wages to match rising prices. And Spain’s left-wing government joined with labor unions to announce a “historic” deal to save its pension system by raising social security costs for higher wage earners.

Spain’s solution is exactly what French unions would like, but Macron has refused to raise taxes, saying it would make the country’s economy less competitive. Something must be done, the president has argued, to sustain France’s current levels of pension payments with the retiree population expected to grow from 16 to 21 million by 2050.

In Paris, loud music and huge union balloons kicked off the 8th nationwide round of protests. An array of banners set the tone: “They say capitalism. We say fight,” read one. Others said “Paris enraged,” or “If rights aren’t defended, they’ll be trampled.”

“If we don’t speak up now then all our rights that the French have fought for will be lost.” said Nicolas Durand, a 33-year-old actor. “Macron is out of touch, and in bed with the rich. It’s easy for the people in government to say work harder, but their lives have been easy.”

Rubbish piles on Paris streets as strikes continue

VIDEO
Thousands of tons of garbage are piling up on the sidewalks of Paris and other French cities on Wednesday amid a continuing strike against President Emmanuel Macron's pension reform. (March 15)(AP video/Alexander Turnbull)

Ten days into a sanitation workers’ strike, Paris was awash in piles of rancid rubbish, which police ordered cleared out along the march route after troublemakers used garbage to start fires or throw trash at police in recent demonstrations.

A heavy security force accompanied the march through the Left Bank and disbursed a group of black-clad troublemakers that attacked two real estate offices, smashing their windows with fence panels. A total of 22 people were detained, Paris police said.

Security forces responded to violence with tear gas in other cities, including Nantes in western France and Lyon in the southeast.

The committee of seven senators and seven National Assembly lawmakers agreed on the final text Wednesday in a closed-door meeting, and a conservative Senate majority is expected to approve it as early as Thursday.

IT'S PARIS, IT'S POP ART IN THE STREETS   

The situation at the National Assembly is much more complicated.

Macron’s centrist alliance lost its majority in legislative elections last year, forcing the government to count on conservatives’ votes to pass the bill. Leftists and far-right lawmakers are strongly opposed and conservatives are divided, making the outcome unpredictable.

Macron “wishes” to have a vote proceed at the National Assembly, his office said following an evening strategy session with Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and ministers in charge of the bill at the Elysee presidential palace. Yet no firm decision was made and government talks were to continue Thursday morning.

Approval in the National Assembly Thursday would give the plan more legitimacy, but rather than face the risk of rejection, Macron could instead use his special constitutional power to force the bill through parliament without a vote.

French government spokesperson Olivier Véran said Wednesday that the bill will continue its way through the legislative process, respecting “all the rules that are provided by our Constitution.”

Republicans party lawmaker Aurelien Pradié — who opposes the reforms — said Wednesday that if this special power is used, he would lodge a challenge to the constitutional council, a higher French legal body.

Train drivers, school teachers, dock workers, oil refinery workers and others joined garbage collectors in walking off their jobs on Wednesday, maneuvering past thousands of tons of garbage piling up on the sidewalks of Paris and other French cities.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin asked Paris City Hall to force some of the garbage workers to return to work, calling it a public health issue.

The Paris mayor, Socialist Anne Hidalgo, said she supports the strike. Government spokesperson Véran warned that if she doesn’t comply, the Interior Ministry is ready to act instead.

Public transport, meanwhile has been disrupted: About 40% of high-speed trains and half the regional trains have been canceled. The Paris Metro has slowed, and France’s aviation authority warned of delays, saying 20% of the flights at Paris-Orly airport have been canceled.

Paris police said 37,000 participated in the French capital, 11,000 less than Saturday, even as polls show widespread opposition to the pension bill. The leading CGT union said 450,000 participated in Paris and 1.7 million across all of France.

“It will be those who work the hardest who will get a bad deal. It’s always like that,” said Magali Brutel, a 41-year-old nurse. “Very rich people could pay more in taxes — that’s a good solution to pay for an aging population. Why are we effectively taxing the oldest and the poorest?”

___

Associated Press contributors include Alex Turnbull, Nico Garriga and Thomas Adamson in Paris.

'Moment of truth' as Macron's contested pension reform heads to final votes


01:47

A demonstrator holds a sign with an image of French President Emmanuel Macron at a protest against the government's pension reform plan in Paris, France, March 11, 2023. © Benoit Tessier, Reuters

Text by: NEWS WIRES

Issued on: 16/03/2023 

A proposed reform of France's pension system, which has sparked massive protests and strikes since the start of the year, is to be put to a vote in parliament on Thursday in a decisive moment for President Emmanuel Macron.

The Senate and lower house National Assembly are set to hold ballots on the legislation to raise the retirement age to 64, with Macron's minority government dependent on the opposition Republicans (LR) party for support.

After months of negotiations, "everyone wants a moment of truth", a senior figure in Macron's Renaissance party told AFP on condition of anonymity. He conceded that there was a risk that "we might lose".

Support appears almost certain in the upper house Senate, but a majority will be more difficult to find in the fractured Assembly, and the ultimate winning or losing margin could come down to a handful of votes.


01:30

"In my group, as well as in the ruling party, there are some MPs who do not want to vote for this reform," the top-ranking Republicans party lawmaker in the Assembly, Olivier Marleix, conceded on Wednesday evening.

The government has argued that raising the retirement age, scrapping privileges for some public sector workers and toughening criteria for a full pension are needed to prevent major deficits building up.

Trade unions have led resistance to the plans since the start of the year, organising some of the biggest demonstrations in decades, which peaked last Tuesday when an estimated 1.28 million people hit the streets.

They say the reform will penalise low-income people in manual jobs who tend to start their careers early, forcing them to work longer than graduates who are less affected by the changes.
Garbage piles

A rolling strike by municipal garbage collectors in Paris over the last week has seen an estimated 7,000 tonnes of uncollected trash pile up in the streets, attracting rats and dismaying tourists.

>> Rubbish piles up in streets of Paris as France’s pension battle enters final stretch

The strike affecting around half of the city's districts has been extended until March 20, with private refuse company Derichebourg carrying out emergency collections in some of the worst-affected areas.

But Derichebourg said Wednesday it would stop intervening after threats from strikers "to block the entrances and exits to our site if we continued collections for health reasons, which are legal and contractual", company executive Thomas Derichebourg told AFP.

Although Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has urged Paris city authorities to order workers back to work on health grounds, Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo has refused, writing on Wednesday that the protests were "fair".

Elsewhere, workers from the CFE-CGC trade union in the south of France claimed Wednesday that they had cut the electricity supply to a presidential island retreat in the Mediterranean used by Macron for his summer holidays.

Trains, schools, public services and ports have been affected by strikes over the last six weeks.

Opinion polls show that two-thirds of French people oppose the pension reform and support the protest movement.

Minority government

If Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne fails to find a workable majority in the parliament on Thursday, she could use a power contained in article 49.3 of the constitution, enabling her to ram the legislation through without a vote.

Analysts say forcing it through in this way by decree would deprive her and Macron of democratic legitimacy, however, and would expose the government to a confidence vote, which it might lose.

"We don't want the 49.3," government spokesman Olivier Veran said on Sunday. "We want there to be a positive vote for this bill."

Macron met Borne and senior ministers for last-ditch talks on Wednesday evening to discuss strategy ahead of a vote that could be a turning point for his second term in office.

If the reform is voted in, one question will be whether the unions and demonstrators continue their protests and strikes, or whether the movement fizzles out -- something seen in previous standoffs with the unions.

"It's a last cry from the working population to say that we don't want retirement at 64," the head of the CFDT union, Laurent Berger, told reporters as he joined a march during nationwide protests on Wednesday.

The political implications of voting through a reform opposed by most of the population are also uncertain for Macron and the country at large.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen and hard-left populist Jean-Luc Melenchon are hoping to capitalise on Macron's unpopularity, having lost out to the former investment banker in last year's presidential election.

(AFP)

Macron faces 'moment of truth' as French pension reform goes to vote

Issued on: 16/03/2023 

Macron wants to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 under a flagship reform of his second term © Sameer Al-Doumy / AFP

Paris (AFP) – A proposed reform of France's pension system, which has sparked massive protests and strikes since the start of the year, is to be put to a vote in parliament on Thursday in a decisive moment for President Emmanuel Macron.

The Senate and lower house National Assembly are set to hold ballots on the legislation to raise the retirement age to 64, with Macron's minority government dependent on the opposition Republicans (LR) party for support.

After months of negotiations, "everyone wants a moment of truth", a senior figure in Macron's Renaissance party told AFP on condition of anonymity. He conceded that there was a risk that "we might lose".

Support appears almost certain in the upper house Senate, but a majority will be more difficult to find in the fractured Assembly, and the ultimate winning or losing margin could come down to a handful of votes.

"In my group, as well as in the ruling party, there are some MPs who do not want to vote for this reform," the top-ranking Republicans party lawmaker in the Assembly, Olivier Marleix, conceded on Wednesday evening.

The government has argued that raising the retirement age, scrapping privileges for some public sector workers and toughening criteria for a full pension are needed to prevent major deficits building up.

The proposed changes have sparked sometimes violent protests © JEFF PACHOUD / AFP

Trade unions have led resistance to the plans since the start of the year, organising some of the biggest demonstrations in decades, which peaked last Tuesday when an estimated 1.28 million people hit the streets.

They say the reform will penalise low-income people in manual jobs who tend to start their careers early, forcing them to work longer than graduates who are less affected by the changes.

Garbage piles

A rolling strike by municipal garbage collectors in Paris over the last week has seen an estimated 7,000 tonnes of uncollected trash pile up in the streets, attracting rats and dismaying tourists.

The strike affecting around half of the city's districts has been extended until March 20, with private refuse company Derichebourg carrying out emergency collections in some of the worst-affected areas.

Rubbish has piled up in Paris over the last week due to a strike by garbage collectors 

© Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP

But Derichebourg said Wednesday it would stop intervening after threats from strikers "to block the entrances and exits to our site if we continued collections for health reasons, which are legal and contractual", company executive Thomas Derichebourg told AFP.

Although Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has urged Paris city authorities to order workers back to work on health grounds, Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo has refused, writing on Wednesday that the protests were "fair".

Elsewhere, workers from the CFE-CGC trade union in the south of France claimed Wednesday that they had cut the electricity supply to a presidential island retreat in the Mediterranean used by Macron for his summer holidays.

Trains, schools, public services and ports have been affected by strikes over the last six weeks.

Opinion polls show that two-thirds of French people oppose the pension reform and support the protest movement.

Minority government

If Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne fails to find a workable majority in the parliament on Thursday, she could use a power contained in article 49.3 of the constitution, enabling her to ram the legislation through without a vote.

Analysts say forcing it through in this way by decree would deprive her and Macron of democratic legitimacy, however, and would expose the government to a confidence vote, which it might lose.

"We don't want the 49.3," government spokesman Olivier Veran said on Sunday. "We want there to be a positive vote for this bill."

Macron met Borne and senior ministers for last-ditch talks on Wednesday evening to discuss strategy ahead of a vote that could be a turning point for his second term in office.

If the reform is voted in, one question will be whether the unions and demonstrators continue their protests and strikes, or whether the movement fizzles out -- something seen in previous standoffs with the unions.

"It's a last cry from the working population to say that we don't want retirement at 64," the head of the CFDT union, Laurent Berger, told reporters as he joined a march during nationwide protests on Wednesday.

The political implications of voting through a reform opposed by most of the population are also uncertain for Macron and the country at large.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen and hard-left populist Jean-Luc Melenchon are hoping to capitalise on Macron's unpopularity, having lost out to the former investment banker in last year's presidential election.

burs-adp/pvh/smw

© 2023 AFP

French pension reform 'is a very traditional right-wing conservative reform'

Issued on: 16/03/2023 - 

05:27
Video by:  Tom Burges WATSON

A proposed reform of France's pension system, which has sparked massive protests and strikes since the start of the year, is to be put to a vote in parliament on Thursday in a decisive moment for President Emmanuel Macron. For more on the French pension reform showdown, FRANCE 24 is joined by Dr. Renaud Foucart, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Economics at Lancaster University Management School. Dr. Foucart expects the legislation to pass, as it has the support of the conservative opposition Republicans (LR) party: "In the end, the content of the reform is a very traditional right-wing conservative reform"

ETHICAL PORN, CANADIAN EH

Pornhub owner MindGeek sold to Canada's Ethical Capital

Thu, March 16, 2023 at 2:25 PM MDT·1 min read

March 16 (Reuters) - Canadian private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners (ECP) on Thursday said it had acquired Pornhub owner MindGeek, which has been mired in controversy over recent years.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Luxembourg-based MindGeek has been a centerpiece in the adult entertainment industry since the advent of video streaming, but concerns over the company's business model triggered the departure of its top management last year.

Pornhub, MindGeek's flagship site, was also cut off by Visa and Mastercard's payment networks in 2020 following investigations that identified unlawful content on the platform.

MindGeek has since said that Mastercard reinstated access to its subscription sites, but both the payments firms suspended ties with the company's advertisement arm TrafficJunky after a lawsuit raised questions over whether they could be facilitating child pornography.

"We are engaged with the team at MindGeek and with stakeholders, including content creators, advocates, law enforcement, civil society partners and policy makers to inform our efforts and strengthen MindGeek's secure platforms, going beyond legal and regulatory obligations," said Solomon Friedman, ECP's founding partner.

(Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)

UK
Passport Office workers to strike for five weeks in escalation of pay row

By PA News Agency

Passport Office workers are to strike for five weeks in an escalation of a dispute over jobs, pay and conditions.

More than 1,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union working in Passport Offices in England, Scotland and Wales will take part in the action from April 3 to May 5.

Those working in Durham, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, Newport, Peterborough and Southport will walk out from April 3 to May 5 while those in Belfast will strike from April 7 to May 5.

It's a national scandal and a stain on this government’s reputation that so many of its own workforce are living in poverty

Mark Serwotka, PCS union

The union said the action was a “significant escalation” of its long-running dispute, warning it was likely to have a “significant impact” on the delivery of passports as the summer approaches.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “This escalation of our action has come about because, in sharp contrast with other parts of the public sector, ministers have failed to hold any meaningful talks with us, despite two massive strikes and sustained, targeted action lasting six months.

“Their approach is further evidence they’re treating their own workforce worse than anyone else. They’ve had six months to resolve this dispute but for six months have refused to improve their 2% imposed pay rise, and failed to address our members’ other issues of concern.

“They seem to think if they ignore our members, they’ll go away. But how can our members ignore the cost-of-living crisis when 40,000 civil servants are using foodbanks and 45,000 of them are claiming the benefits they administer themselves?

“It’s a national scandal and a stain on this government’s reputation that so many of its own workforce are living in poverty.”

Credit Suisse sued by US shareholders over finances, controls

Thu, March 16, 2023 
By Jonathan Stempel

March 16 (Reuters) -

U.S. shareholders of Credit Suisse Group AG sued the Swiss bank on Thursday, claiming that the bank defrauded them by concealing problems with its finances.

The proposed class action accuses Credit Suisse of deceiving investors by failing to disclose that it was suffering from "significant" customer outflows, and that it had material weaknesses in its internal controls over financial reporting.

Shareholders led by Braden Turner said that as the truth became known, and Credit Suisse's largest shareholder said it would not put more money into the bank, investors fled, causing losses as Credit Suisse's stock price sank to a record low.

The lawsuit appears to be the first by U.S. investors over recent problems at Credit Suisse, which regained some market confidence on Thursday after securing a lifeline to borrow up to $54 billion from Switzerland's central bank.

Credit Suisse declined to comment on the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Camden, New Jersey. Chief Executive Ulrich Koerner and Chair Axel Lehmann are among the other defendants.

Turner, the named plaintiff, sued on behalf of holders of Credit Suisse's American depositary shares from March 10, 2022, to March 15, 2023.

The law firm representing Turner was also first to file shareholder lawsuits against Silicon Valley Bank parent SVB Financial Group and Signature Bank. Regulators seized both of those banks within the last week.

Credit Suisse's largest shareholder is Saudi National Bank. The Saudi bank's chairman said in a TV interview on Wednesday that

regulatory issues were the main reason

it would not add to its 9.9% Credit Suisse stake.

The case is Turner v Credit Suisse Group AG et al, U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey, No. 23-01476. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York Editing by Chris Reese and Leslie Adler)

Paid time off is not part of workers' 'salary,' U.S. court rules​

March 15 (Reuters) - Paid time off that workers accumulate is not a part of their salary under U.S. wage law, meaning employers can take away paid leave when salaried workers do not meet productivity quotas, a federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday.

A three-judge panel of the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that Bayada Home Health Care Inc did not violate federal wage law by docking salaried employees' paid time off, or PTO, when they did not work required weekly hours.

The case marked the first time that a U.S. appeals court was asked whether paid time off counts as part of an employee's salary. The question is important because salaried workers can become eligible for overtime pay if employers make deductions from their wages.

The 3rd Circuit panel said that while a salary is a fixed amount of compensation paid out at regular intervals, paid time off is a fringe benefit that has no effect on a worker's wages and can be paid irregularly, such as when an employee leaves a company.

New Jersey-based Bayada operates in 23 states and has about 28,000 employees. The company's lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nor did lawyers for the plaintiffs.

A group of Bayada employees, including nurses, physical therapists and social workers, sued the company in Scranton, Pennsylvania federal court in 2016.

They said that because Bayada deducted PTO when employees did not reach a weekly productivity quota, they were paid based on how much they worked and were not salaried employees exempt from overtime pay under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

Wednesday's ruling affirmed a federal judge's 2021 decision that granted summary judgment to Bayada.

The 3rd Circuit panel included Circuit Judges Michael Chagares and Anthony Scirica.

The case is Higgins v. Bayada Home Health Care Inc, 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 21-3286.

For the plaintiffs: Teresa Becvar of Stephan Zouras

For Bayada: Thomas Collins of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney

ABRAHAMIC RELIGONS THAT IS
Most Americans view mainline religious groups favorably, survey says

By Matt Bernardini

A new report from Pew Research says that most Americans view large religious groups favorably. Photo by Africa Studio/Shutterstock

March 15 (UPI) -- Americans hold a favorable view of some of the country's largest religious groups but have a negative view of Muslims, according to a new poll by Pew Research.

Thirty-five percent of poll respondents said that they had a somewhat or very favorable view of Jews, while just 6% said they had an unfavorable view. Fifty-eight percent of people said they had neither.

Protestants also had a net favorability rating of 20 points, and Catholics had a net favorability rating of 16 points. However, these groups are also largely represented as Pew notes.

"The patterns are affected in part by the size of the groups asked about, since people tend to rate their own religious group positively," the Pew report said. "This means that the largest groups -- such as Catholics and evangelical Christians -- get a lot of favorable ratings just from their own members."

However, just 17 percent of Americans have a favorable view of Muslims, compared with 22 percent of Americans who have an unfavorable view. Only Mormons were rated more unfavorably, with a net unfavorability rating of 10 points.

Americans also have an unfavorable view of atheists, even though more people today say they know atheists.

"In 2019, 65% of Americans reported that they knew an atheist; in the new survey, 71% say the same," Pew said

Overall Pew found that, knowing someone who is from a particular group, leads people to have a more positive view of that group as a whole.

"Across the board, those who know someone from a religious group (but are not members of that group themselves) are more likely than those who do not know someone in the group to offer an opinion of the group -- and usually to express more positive feelings," Pew said.

PROTESTANTS AND CATHOLICS ARE NOT SEPARATE RELIGONS BUT SECTS OF THE SAME RELIGION; CHRISTIANITY

Americans like Jews, Catholics and mainline Protestants. Evangelicals, not so much.

A new Pew Research poll finds that only 18% of nonevangelical Americans had favorable opinions of evangelicals; 32% had somewhat unfavorable views.

Image by David Peterson/Pixabay/Creative Commons

March 15, 2023

By 

Yonat Shimron

(RNS) — What do most Americans think of faiths not their own?

Not much.

That’s according to a new Pew Research survey that asked 10,588 Americans if they had positive or negative feelings toward other faiths. Between 40% and 60% answered “neither favorable nor unfavorable” or “don’t know enough to say.”

“It may speak to people not liking to rate entire groups of people,” said Patricia Tevington, the lead researcher. ”Maybe there’s some fear of stereotyping.”

But some religious groups ranked higher in Americans’ estimations. Jews, for example, scored fairly positively: 35% of Americans expressed a very or somewhat favorable attitude toward Jews, with only 6% expressing an unfavorable attitude. Catholics, too, got good marks (34% favorable vs. 18% unfavorable), as did mainline or ecumenical Protestants (30% favorable vs. 10% unfavorable).

“More Americans view Jews, mainline Protestants and Catholics favorably rather than unfavorably” Graphic courtesy of Pew Research Center

Atheists and Muslims scored overall negative views. At the bottom of the list? Latter-day Saints, or Mormons. Only 15% of Americans had a favorable opinion of Mormons, while 25% said they had unfavorable views of them.

As for evangelicals, Americans were divided: 28% had favorable opinions of evangelicals while 27% had negative opinions (44% felt they didn’t know enough to say). But as the study points out, there’s a big difference between the way evangelicals are rated by all Americans (including roughly 20% of U.S. adults who describe themselves as evangelicals) and the way they are rated by Americans who are not evangelicals.

That’s because most religious groups rate themselves highly, including 60% of evangelicals who have favorable opinions of themselves. But when evangelicals were excluded from the question, only 18% of Americans had favorable opinions of this group; 32% had somewhat unfavorable views (49% didn’t register an opinion).

By contrast, mainline or ecumenical Protestants are viewed far more positively than negatively (only 11% of nonmainline Protestants viewed this religious group unfavorably).

“Outside of self-described ‘born-again or evangelical’ Protestants, views of evangelical Christians are more negative than positive in the U.S.” Graphic courtesy of Pew Research Center

Political partisanship may explain why evangelicals are viewed negatively by non evangelicals. The overwhelming majority of evangelicals identify with the Republican Party and this bloc is usually highly correlated with the so-called religious right.

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RELATED: Five charts that explain the desperate turn to MAGA among conservative white Christians

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Democrats and Democratic leaners, the survey found, view evangelicals much more negatively — nearly half (47%) had an unfavorable view of evangelicals. Only 14% of nonevangelical Republicans had unfavorable views of evangelicals, by comparison.

Evangelicals aside, Americans’ views of other faiths may be influenced by whether they personally know people of other faiths, the study concludes. Some 88% of Americans know someone who is Catholic, for example. But few personally know a Muslim or a Mormon, which may account for why they view these groups negatively. (The balance of nonevangelical opinions toward evangelicals is the exception; it was negative regardless of people’s personal familiarity.)

The survey found that an increasing number of Americans personally know an atheist. In 2019, 65% of Americans reported they knew an atheist. By 2022, it was 71%. That may account for why Americans view atheists has moderated somewhat and why Muslims and Mormons are viewed less favorably.

“There’s a big distinction on whether or not you know someone of that religious group,” Tevington said. “That tends to increase favorability.”

The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.5 percentage points.

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RELATED: 3 big numbers that tell the story of secularization in America

Remembering Chaim Topol — and how ‘Fiddler’ reflected American Judaism

The inside story of ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ reveals some deep truths about American Judaism.

Chaim Topol playing Tevye in the film adaptation of "Fiddler on the Roof." Photo courtesy of MGM/Everett Collection

March 14, 2023

By 

Jeffrey Salkin

(RNS) — Ask any rabbi, and they will tell you that inadvertently omitting someone from a list of people who have died is a bad faux pas.

That is what happened at the Academy Awards “in memoriam section.” They neglected to list the Israeli actor Chaim Topol, who died this past week at the age of 87 and who was best known for playing Tevye in the film adaptation of “Fiddler on the Roof,” for which he had received Academy Award nominations.

(Topol was not alone on the list of those who did not make the post-mortem red carpet walk. Paul Sorvino was also omitted, much to the anger of his daughter, actress Mira Sorvino, as was Anne Heche.)

Which got me thinking about “Fiddler on the Roof.” (Check out this important book about “Fiddler,” as well as this documentary movie).

There is no question about it: “Fiddler” is perhaps the most famous piece of American Jewish culture. The show is so popular that since the day the show opened — Sept. 22, 1964 — it has been performed every day, somewhere in the world.

I have been replaying “Fiddler” in my mind. I have also been thinking about something quirky: the changes that were made in the show during production.

Those changes reflect how American Jews struggled with, and adapted, their Judaism.

Walk with me through several musical numbers that were left out of the final show, or changed ever so slightly, and you will see what I mean.

The opening number you never heard: “We’ve Never Missed a Sabbath Yet.” 

The opening song was to have been about the preparation for Shabbat: “Who can relax when there’s so much to be done / Keeping one eye on the soup and the other on the sun?”

But, in 1964, American Jews were not yet comfortable talking about “Shabbat” or “Shabbos”; it was the “Sabbath.” American Judaism was about assimilation. Let’s not highlight our differences.

Instead, let’s just sing about “tradition,” and the challenges and changes to those traditions. 

As lyricist Sheldon Harnick explained:

What is this show about? It’s about this changing of the way of life, of a people, in these Eastern European communities, these little towns, these shtetls, and (director Jerome) Robbins got very excited by that. He said if that’s the case, then you have to write a number about traditions, because we’re going to see those traditions change. Every scene or every other scene will be about whether a tradition changes or whether a tradition remains the same. …

That is what happened. The new opening number became “Tradition.” It is a great song, with Eastern European Jewish scales. It is probably the most universal song in the entire canon of Broadway music, with numerous covers.

But, when it comes to a specific, religious tradition, American Jews — and American Judaism, and perhaps even the world — were robbed.

We could have had a song about observing Shabbat. We got one, of course — the beautiful, haunting “Sabbath Prayer,” which we sang at Jewish summer camp and which is still, in my opinion, the most beautiful song in the show.

But we could have had a song about what really makes Shabbat different and, therefore, holy — a word that many American Jews were reticent to use back then, and are still somewhat tongue-tied about.

They changed the lyrics of “If I Were a Rich Man” (here is Topol‘s iconic version).

Tevye’s soliloquy about his fantasies of wealth originate in the original Sholem Aleichem version, in Yiddish — Ven ikh bin Rothschild.

Tevye imagines he is the quintessential wealthy Jew — Rothschild.

If I were Rothschild, guess what I would do. First of all, I would pass a law that a wife must always have a three-ruble piece on her so that she wouldn’t have to start nagging me when the good Thursday comes and there is nothing in the house for the Sabbath. In the second place I would take my Sabbath gabardine out of pawn — or, better still, my wife’s squirrel-skin coat. Let her stop whining that she’s cold. Then I would buy the whole house outright, from foundation to chimney, all three rooms, with the alcove and the pantry, the cellar and the attic. …

In the Broadway and film version of “If I Were a Rich Man,” the benefits of Tevye’s wealth are clear. He builds a huge mansion — with a third staircase “just for show.” He lavishes his wife, Golde, with luxuries. He imagines a great seat in synagogue. He “wouldn’t have to work hard;” he would have the time to study the holy books. In a sardonic moment, he imagines that when he is wealthy, people would come to him for advice: “When you’re rich, they think you really know.”

In other words, Tevye’s wealth (with certain exceptions, i.e., the piety) turned him into an upper-middle class American Jew.

But, it did not have to be that way. Some years ago, I heard a recording of an older Yiddish version of what would become “If I Were A Rich Man.” In that version, Tevye imagined that when he becomes rich, he would be able to give charity to the poor.

What happened to that version? Why did it wind up on the cutting room floor like Shabbat in the song that could have been the opening number?

The fate of the final song — “When Messiah Comes.”

Another song that most people have never heard — and it is a fascinating story:

Here is the song, as Herschel Bernardi sang it:

When Messiah comes he will say to us,
“I apologize that I took so long.”
“But I had a little trouble finding you, over here a few, over there a few…..
You were hard to re-unite
But, everything is going to be alright.”

Up in heaven there how I wrung my hands
when they exiled you from the Promised Land.
Into Babylon you went like cast aways,
On the first of many, many moving days
What a day …. and what a blow!
How terrible I felt you’ll never know.

Since that day many men said to us, “get thee out,”
Kings they were, gone they are,
We’re still here. …

When Messiah comes and his reign begins
Truth and justice then shall appear on Earth.
But if this reward we would be worthy of
We must keep our covenant with God above.
So be patient and devout, and
Gather up your things and get thee out!

This song was cut from the show before it made its Broadway debut. It was deemed to be too long, too slow and perhaps too ironic. When the people of Anatevka are experiencing tragedy, it dares imagine a world in which the Messiah is coming.

Years ago, I heard the song simply didn’t preview well — among Jews.

Why? It was that whole assimilation thing again. In the 1960s, American Jews were not yet comfortable talking about Shabbat (as in the “lost” opening number); tzedakah (as in the changes in “If I Were a Rich Man”) — and now, the Messiah, and/or about messianic hopes and dreams of redemption. At that time, most Jews would have thought the idea of “Messiah” to be exclusively Christian.

So, rather than a song in a major key about the hope of restoration — a song that echoed God’s call to Abraham, “Get thee out … ” — we got a song in a minor key that reinforced the sad narratives of Jewish history, about being refugees — “Anatevka.”

All these things go through my mind as I remember Topol, and as I think of “Fiddler on the Roof.”

But one last thing that haunts and inspires me — a fact about “Fiddler” that most people do not know.

Jerome Robbins made sure every single character in the show — every villager, every Russian, everyone — had a name.

I have been thinking about that, and about the tortured, complicated legacy of Jerome Robbins — a conflicted Jew, a conflicted gay man, a man who named names during the McCarthy hearings, which earned him the lasting contempt of the first Tevye, Zero Mostel.

Robbins’ insistence that every character would have a name, no matter how small a part and how seemingly irrelevant a role, bears witness to his belief in the dignity of all people.

It was a dignity that was often in short supply in the shtetl, as Jews faced their enemies. 

We need a little bit more of that dignity today.