French govt faces no-confidence votes over pensions fight

French President Emmanuel Macron’s government on Friday faced no-confidence motions in parliament and intensified protests after imposing a contentious pension reform without a vote in the lower house. — AFP pic

Saturday, 18 Mar 2023 

PARIS, March 18 — French President Emmanuel Macron’s government on Friday faced no-confidence motions in parliament and intensified protests after imposing a contentious pension reform without a vote in the lower house.

The situation presents Macron, who has only made occasional public comments on the matter, with one of his biggest challenges less than one year into his second and final mandate.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on Thursday invoked article 49.3 of the constitution to impose the pension overhaul by decree, sparking angry demonstrations nationwide that raged unabated yesterday.

French opposition lawmakers on Friday retaliated by filing motions of no-confidence in the government, hoping to repeal the deeply unpopular law, which will hike the retirement age from 62 to 64.

“The vote on this motion will allow us to get out on top of a deep political crisis,” said lawmaker Bertrand Pancher, whose motion was signed by independents and members of the broad left-wing NUPES coalition.

The far-right National Rally (RN) filed a second motion. It was expected to get less backing, but the party said it would also vote for the other motion.

They are likely to be debated in parliament on Monday afternoon, parliamentary sources told AFP.

Borne’s government is largely expected to survive any vote. The no-confidence motion would need backing from around half the contingent of the opposition right-wing Republicans, a scenario seen as highly improbable.

‘Won’t give up’

Across France, fresh protests erupted on Friday, the latest show of popular opposition to the bill since mid-January.

“We won’t give up,” said Philippe Melaine, a 49-year-old biology teacher. “There’s still hope that the reform can be revoked.”

In Paris, thousands of demonstrators gathered for a second night running at the historic Place de la Concorde across the river from parliament, where a large fire burned.

Groups of people threw bottles and fireworks at the security forces, who responded by firing tear gas to try to clear the square. Police said they made 12 arrests.

In the energy sector, CGT union representative Eric Sellini strikers would halt production at a large refinery by this weekend or Monday.

Strikers continued to deliver less fuel than normal from several other sites, he added.

Dozens of protesters flooded onto the train tracks at the main station in the southwestern city of Bordeaux, an AFP photographer said.

Unions have called for another day of mass strikes and protests for next Thursday, branding the government’s move “a complete denial of democracy”.

“Changing the government or prime minister will not put out this fire, only withdrawing the reform,” said the head of the moderate CFDT union, Laurent Berger.

‘Playing with fire’

Macron put the pensions reform, which also seeks to increase the number of years people have to work to receive a full pension, at the centre of his re-election campaign last year.

But the 45-year-old former banker lost his parliamentary majority in June after elections for the lower-house National Assembly.

Opposition lawmakers jeered and booed as Borne invoked the controversial article 49.3 to ram through the pensions law on Thursday, having failed to ensure a majority.

The influential Le Monde newspaper warned that Macron was “playing with fire”.

“If the country slides into a new bout of anger or locks itself into vengeful paralysis, the executive will only have itself to blame,” it said in an editorial.

Borne, whose own position is now on the line, has used the contested loophole to bypass a parliament vote 11 times since becoming prime minister last year.

RN figurehead Marine Le Pen, who leads its MPs in parliament, has described Thursday’s cabinet move as “a total failure for the government”.

‘Wreaking havoc’

Trains, schools, public services and ports have since January been disrupted by strikes against the proposed reform.

A rolling strike by municipal garbage collectors in Paris has left about 10,000 tonnes of trash piled up in the streets, according to the mayor’s office, attracting rats and putting off tourists.

Unions from national train operator SNCF Friday meanwhile urged workers to continue a rolling strike that has caused major disruption on the network.

Already on Thursday night, police used tear gas to clear demonstrators after a fire was lit at the Place de la Concorde, and similar scenes unfolded across France.

The ensuing unrest saw 310 people arrested around the country, including 258 in Paris, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.

“The opposition is legitimate, the protests are legitimate, but wreaking havoc is not,” he said.

According to polls, two-thirds of French people oppose the pensions overhaul. — AFP

Violent protests in France over raising of 

retirement age

Sylvie Corbet and Barbara Surk

Mar 18 2023

Angry protesters took to the streets in Paris and other cities for a second day on Friday (local time), trying to pressure lawmakers to bring down French President Emmanuel Macron's government and doom the unpopular retirement age increase he's trying to impose without a vote in the National Assembly.

A day after Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne invoked a special constitutional power to skirt a vote in the chaotic lower chamber, lawmakers on the right and left filed no-confidence motions to be voted on Monday.

At the elegant Place de Concorde, a festive protest by several thousand, with chants, dancing and a huge bonfire, degenerated into a scene echoing the night before. Riot police charged and threw tear gas to empty the huge square across from the National Assembly after troublemakers climbed scaffolding on a renovation site, arming themselves with wood. They lobbed fireworks and paving stones at police in a standoff.

On Thursday night, security forces charged and used water cannons to evacuate the area, and small groups then set street fires in chic neighbourhoods nearby. French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin told radio station RTL that 310 people were arrested overnight, most of them in Paris.


READ MORE:
* Neither protests nor rubbish piles stop French bill that will raise retirement age
* Why France is arguing about work, and the right to be lazy
* French election: Macron in pole position, Le Pen racing hard
* Macron leads French presidential race, despite barely campaigning

DANIEL COLE/AP
Protesters march during a demonstration in Marseille, southern France,
on March 16, 2023.

Mostly small, scattered protests were held in cities around France, from a march in Bordeaux to a rally in Toulouse. Port officers in Calais temporarily stopped ferries from crossing the English Channel to Dover. Some university campuses in Paris were blocked and protesters occupied a high-traffic ring road around the French capital.

Paris garbage collectors extended their strike for a 12th day, with piles of foul-smelling rubbish growing daily in the French capital. Striking sanitation workers continued to block Europe’s largest incineration site and two other sites that treat Paris garbage.

Some yellow vest activists, who mounted formidable protests against Macron’s economic policies during his first term, were among those who relayed Friday's Paris protest on social media. Police say that “radicalised yellow vests” are among troublemakers at protest marches.

Trade unions organising the opposition urged demonstrators to remain peaceful during more strikes and marches in the days ahead. They have called on people to leave schools, factories, refineries and other workplaces to force Macron to abandon his plan to make the French to work two more years, until 64, before receiving a full pension.

LEWIS JOLY/AP
Rubbish, which is left on the roadside as Paris rubbish collectors strike,
is set on fire by protesters after a demonstration near Concorde square, in Paris.

Macron took a calculated risk ordering Borne to invoke a special constitutional power that she had used 10 times before without triggering such an outpouring of anger.

If the no-confidence votes fail, the bill becomes law. If a majority agrees, it would spell the end of the retirement reform plan and force the government to resign, although Macron could always reappoint Borne to name the new Cabinet.

“We are not going to stop,” CGT union representative Régis Vieceli told The Associated Press on Friday. He said overwhelming the streets with discontent and refusing to continue working is “the only way that we will get them to back down.”

Macron has made the proposed pension changes the key priority of his second term, arguing that reform is needed to make the French economy more competitive and to keep the pension system from diving into deficit. France, like many richer nations, faces lower birth rates and longer life expectancy.

DANIEL COLE/AP
People run from tear gas fired by French riot police during a
demonstration in Marseille, southern France.

Macron's conservative allies in the Senate passed the bill, but frantic counts of lower-house lawmakers Thursday showed a slight risk it would fall short of a majority, so Macron decided to invoke the constitution's Article 49-3 to bypass a vote.

Getting a no-confidence motion to pass will be challenging – none have succeeded since 1962, and Macron’s centrist alliance still has the most seats in the National Assembly. A minority of conservatives could stray from the Republicans party line, but it remains to be seen whether they're willing to bring down Macron's government.

Associated Press reporters Elaine Ganley, Alex Turnbull and Nicolas Garriga contributed to this report.

Heathrow strike threatens 'severe delays and disruption' for Easter

London airport says it has contingency plans in place to keep the travel hub running


More than 1,400 security workers at Heathrow, the UK’s biggest airport, will strike from March 31 through April 9, which is Easter Sunday. PA

Simon Rushton
Mar 17, 2023

Security staff at London's Heathrow Airport have voted to strike for 10 days in a walkout that will occur during the busy Easter bank holiday period.

The strike involves security guards employed at Terminal Five, which is used exclusively by British Airways, and campus security guards who are responsible for checking all cargo that enters the airport.

The Unite union warned the airport would “experience severe delays and disruption” around Easter.
READ MORE
Anti-Macron protests as French leader 'plays with fire' over pensions

More than 1,400 security workers at Heathrow, the UK’s biggest airport, will strike from March 31 through April 9, which is Easter Sunday.

It is the latest flare-up after months of strikes over pay across a number of sectors, including health care, railways and education, as the cost-of-living crisis leads inflation past 10 per cent.

“Workers at Heathrow Airport are on poverty wages while the chief executive and senior managers enjoy huge salaries,” said Unite general secretary Sharon Graham.

“It is the airport's workers who are fundamental to its success and they deserve a fair pay increase.

“Our members are simply unable to make ends meet due to the low wages paid by Heathrow. They are being forced to take strike action due to need not greed.

“Unite has a laser-like focus on prioritising the jobs, pay and conditions of its members and Heathrow needs to be in no doubt that the workers at the airport will receive the union's unstinting support.”

The union said the airport's offer of a 10 per cent pay increase did not make up for years of pay freezes and cuts.

Heathrow said it had contingency plans in place to keep the airport running.

“Passengers can be reassured that we have contingency plans which will keep the airport open and operational despite unnecessary threats of strike action by Unite,” an representative said.

“We have proposed an inflation-beating 10 per cent increase in pay which the public will recognise is fair and a majority of our colleagues have told Unite is not worth striking over. We urge Unite to come back to the table to discuss implementing it.

“Threatening to ruin people's hard-earned holidays with strike action will not improve the deal. We want to do the right thing by our people and our passengers; each day only delays this pay rise reaching Unite members' pockets.”

Earlier this week in the UK, train drivers, junior doctors, teachers, civil servants and London Underground workers walked out as part of continuing protests over pay.


On Thursday, unions representing more than 1,000 passport office workers said they would go on strike for five weeks before the summer travel season.

Nurses have suspended further planned strikes after a revised pay offer from managers.

Updated: March 17, 2023, 3:16 p.m.














 

A CANADIAN ON THE PICKET LINE

Democratic Senators Mull Legislation Conditioning US Aid to Israel
by Andrew Bernard
MARCH 17, 2023 

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) speaks after the senate voted on a resolution ending US military support for the war in Yemen on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, December 13, 2018. Photo: REUTERS/Joshua Roberts.

US Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) on Thursday said that he believes the US should condition aid to Israel based on the country’s support for a two-state solution.

“I worry that we are at a moment in which we are watching a future Palestinian state be obliterated by the pace of settlements, by the legalization of outposts,” Murphy said in an interview with CNN’s Becky Anderson. “And I think the United States needs to draw a harder line with this government. If we’re going to continue to be in the business of supporting the Israeli government, they have to be in the continued business of a future Palestinian state. And that does not seem to be the policy of this government right now. So whether it’s conditionality of aid to Israel, whether it’s conditionality of visits to the United States, we have got to send a message that this assault on the two–state solution, in particular, is very bad for the US-Israel relationship in the long run.”

In December, the US provided some $3.3 billion in security assistance to Israel and an additional $500 million for cooperative missile defense programs like Iron Dome. Israel is the largest regular recipient of annual US aid, and under the 2016 memorandum of understanding between the two countries, Israel will continue to receive $3.8 billion from the US each year until 2028.

While that money is spent by Israel largely on buying US-made arms, including the F-35, and on defensive systems like Iron Dome, making that aid conditional on Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians has become a rallying cry of the progressive wing of the Democratic party.

Speaking in 2019 during the Democratic presidential primaries, then-candidate Joe Biden said it would be “absolutely outrageous” and a “gigantic mistake” to condition US aid to Israel on policy choices regarding the Palestinians. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), however, said during the race that “everything is on the table” if Israel appeared to be retreating from the two-state solution, while Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) made it his position that military aid to Israel should be conditioned on Israeli humanitarian assistance to Gaza.

Sanders, however, said on Face the Nation on Feb. 19, that he was now considering introducing legislation conditioning US aid on Israel’s Palestinian policies.

“I am very worried about what Netanyahu is doing and some of his allies in government and what may happen to the Palestinian people,” Sanders said. “And let me tell you something, I haven’t said this publicly, but I think the United States gives billions of dollars in aid to Israel, and I think we’ve got to put some strings attached to that and say you cannot run a racist government. You cannot turn your back on a two-state solution. You cannot demean the Palestinian people there. You just can’t do it and then come to America and ask for money.”

Sanders added that he was “embarrassed” by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and also accused AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups of trying to destroy the American progressive movement by supporting pro-Israel candidates in Democratic primaries.

Democratic primaries have become a key battleground for campaign spending by pro-Israel groups like AIPAC and Democratic Majority for Israel as they try to shore up Democratic support for Israel in Congress against the party’s increasingly hostile left flank.

The proposals to condition aid come amid a period of heightened tension between the Biden administration and the Netanyahu-led Israeli government. Israeli media report that Netanyahu has instructed his ministers not to visit Washington until he has received an invitation to visit the White House. US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides said in an interview in February that Israel should “pump the brakes” on its judicial reform package, prompting Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli to say that Nides should “mind [his] own business.”

That conflicted attitude towards Israel now increasingly extends to the Democratic party electorate. The polling organization Gallup on Thursday found that for the first time Democrats are more sympathetic to Palestinians than Israelis.

“It’s clear that the presidential and Congressional wings of the party remain strongly pro-Israel even as we all struggle with some specific policies of the current Israeli government,” DMFI President Mark Mellman told The Algemeiner. “But it’s no secret that support for Israel is fraying among some key constituencies.”

Senators Sanders and Murphy did not immediately respond to The Algemeiner’s request for comment.

Far-right Israeli minister finds enemy in JDC, the mainstream American Jewish aid group

BY PHILISSA CRAMER MARCH 17, 2023 

An employee of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, right, hands out an aid package to a Jewish woman in Kharkiv, Ukraine during the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020. 

(Courtesy of JDC)

(JTA) — An American Jewish group that has provided aid to Jewish communities in crisis for more than a century has become the target of one of Israel’s newly empowered far-right ministers.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, who serves as national security minister, said on Wednesday that he was shutting down a program dedicated to reducing violence in Arab Israeli towns. His reason: The program is operated by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, which he called a “leftist organization.”

“JDC is a nonpolitical organization and has been so since our founding in 1914,” Michael Geller, a spokesperson for JDC, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Ben-Gvir’s characterization baffled many across the Jewish communal world who know the JDC as a nonpartisan group with an extensive track record of providing humanitarian aid to Jews in distress.

To them, Ben-Gvir’s criticism of the group is the latest sign that the rupture of political norms in Israel extends beyond the judicial reforms advanced by the government, which have drawn unprecedented protests.

“To call the JDC a left-wing organization is a joke. It is not political in any way,” said Amnon Be’eri-Sulitzeanu, co-CEO of the Abraham Initiatives, a nonprofit that works toward an “equal and shared society” for Jewish and Arab Israelis.

Be’eri-Sulitzeanu, who is Jewish, said he anticipated changes by the right-wing government, which was inaugurated in December. But he was surprised by Ben-Gvir’s announcement.

“I could expect revisiting collaboration with organizations that are branded as civil rights or human rights or Israeli-Palestinian organizations,” he added. “But the JDC — it’s very strange.”

Founded in 1914 by the American Jewish banker Jacob Schiff to aid Jews living in Palestine, the “Joint” has distributed billions of dollars in assistance across 70 countries — including, over the last year, to 43,000 Ukrainian Jews amid the war there. It played a central role in aiding Holocaust survivors following World War II, as well as in the resettlement of Jews from the former Soviet Union.

Among its biggest sources of support are Jewish federations, the nonpartisan umbrella charities found in nearly every major North American Jewish community.

“JDC is an apolitical organization that has worked with every government since the establishment of the State of Israel, providing critical services to the elderly, youth-at-risk, people with disabilities and other underserved populations across all sectors, including Haredim and Arab-Israelis,” the Jewish Federations of North America said in a statement. “JDC’s activities are a living and breathing example of the Jewish values of tikkun olam and tzedakah that guide Jewish Federations’ work every day,” Hebrew phrases that connote the Jewish imperative to repair the world, as well as charity.

JDC staff packing matzahs and haggadahs for online seders in Odessa, Ukraine, April 7, 2022. (JDC)

In Israel, the group funds and operates efforts to help needy populations — including immigrants, the elderly, people with disabilities and people living in poverty. Those efforts often involve working with the government, which in 2007 gave the JDC Israel’s most prestigious prize for its work. This year, according to a spokesman, the group is spending $129 million on Israel initiatives.

The JDC’s government-funded programs include the anti-violence effort that Ben-Gvir is targeting. It was made possible last year due to nearly $1 billion in funding to curb crime in Arab communities by the previous governing coalition, which was centrist. The allocation followed lobbying by Arab and civil society organizations, including the Abraham Initiatives, which is now monitoring how the money is being used as well as its impact.

Arab citizens of Israel make up 84% of crime victims despite comprising just 20% of the population, according to government data released last year that showed a sharp rise in the proportion of Arab Israelis who had experienced violent crime.

Many in Arab communities have called for heightened law enforcement and have charged Israeli police with making inadequate efforts to keep their communities safe. This week, commenting on the shooting death of an Arab Israeli woman, Arab Israeli opposition lawmaker Ahmad Tibi accused Ben-Gvir of being “occupied with other matters,” such as clashes with the attorney general and police officials in Tel Aviv. “Maybe the time has come for senior officials to demonstrate responsibility when it comes to crime organizations and weapons running rampant,” Tibi said.

Other initiatives have aimed to tackle the violence in ways that go beyond policing. The program that Ben-Gvir said he is shutting down is one of them. Called Stop the Bleeding, it involves multiple government ministries as well as local community groups and education efforts and has operated in seven cities with large Arab populations, including a Bedouin town and Lod, a city with significant Arab organized crime networks that also has a large Jewish population.

Be’eri-Sulitzeanu said the program was already starting to bear fruit and had contributed to a slowdown in a multi-year rise in murders. Canceling the program, he said, reflects the current government’s general approach to tackling Israel’s problems.

“It’s not about collaboration. It’s not about hearing the concerns and pain and hopes and needs of the Arab community,” he said. “It’s about doing everything unilaterally, and really without a lot of care for the lives of those people. I think that’s what we are watching.”

MK Ahmad Tibi attends a meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, Dec. 6, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

A year ago, around the time when the previous government awarded the Stop the Bleeding contract to the JDC, Bezalel Smotrich, a key Ben-Gvir ally who was then an opposition lawmaker and now serves alongside Ben-Gvir as finance minister, proposed that Israel create a “command center” of “all of the relevant entities” that provide humanitarian assistance to Ukrainian Jewish refugees. Included on his list, alongside the Israeli Foreign Ministry and Red Cross: the JDC.

The JDC is not the first mainstream group to be targeted by far-right members of Israel’s new right-wing government, whose signature legislative effort aims to sap the power and independence of the country’s judiciary. That legislation has given rise to a sweeping protest movement and to grave warnings about Israel’s future from a broad range of public figures — including elder statesmen, foreign governments and religious leaders.

Avi Maoz, the leader of the anti-LGBTQ Noam Party who briefly held a leadership role in Israel’s Education Ministry, compiled a list of American and British groups that he believes are trying to impose their liberal values on Israeli schoolchildren. “We must protect our people and our state from the infiltration of the alien bodies that arrive from foreign countries, foreign bodies, foreign foundations,” Maoz once said. Maoz has since resigned from that role, saying that he did not think he was being sufficiently empowered to fulfill his goals by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

But Be’eri-Sulitzeanu said he remains concerned about civil-society programs, especially those falling under the purview of far-right ministers including Ben-Gvir or those funded by American Jews, whom some on the right perceive as universally liberal.

People who are paying attention to local governance in Israel expect further tensions around initiatives that do not match Ben-Gvir’s attitudes about harsh policing. Ben-Gvir wants officers to have the right to shoot Arabs who throw stones, has called for a crackdown on anti-government protesters and is increasingly clashing with police officials who believe his orders could jeopardize public safety. Multiple former police commissioners have called for his dismissal.

“Ben-Gvir has his own political agenda and he has his own ax to grind, and at the moment, I think he’s not keen on developing services of the Arab population, either in security or juvenile delinquency or education,” said Amos Avgar, who worked for the JDC in Israel, Russia and the United States for 30 years until 2010, including as chief programming officer.

Avgar emphasized that the JDC has always studiously avoided political activity. “If there’s one thing that the JDC is not, it is not political,” he said. “It always shied [away] from anything that had the smell of politics and never dealt with any project by political agenda.”

It’s unclear how quickly Ben-Gvir’s announcement, made during a government meeting and first reported by Israel’s public broadcaster, will ultimately translate into changes. Geller, the JDC spokesman, said the organization had learned about the criticism only from the media, not from Ben-Gvir’s office. Later, amid an outcry, Ben-Gvir’s office said the funding decision had followed a review of contracts that revealed missing documentation from the JDC, a charge that the JDC denied.

Amnon-Sulitzeanu said he didn’t have high hopes for the program’s future.

“I think the first [characterization] is unfortunately going to be the correct one — that he is actually intending to stop it, which is very unfortunate because it is among the more serious programs that are willing to deal with this catastrophe,” he said. “And it shows again that the current minister is not so much interested in saving lives of Arab citizens.”

SCHOOLS ARE COMMUNITY CENTRES

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signs free school meals bill into law

Minnesota is the third state in the nation to require schools to serve free lunch and breakfast to all students, regardless of income. 

By Eder Campuzano Star Tribune

 

MARCH 17, 2023 — 6:26PM

ELIZABETH FLORES, STAR TRIBUNE

Gov. Tim Walz was greeted by Webster Elementary students in Minneapolis before signing a bill Friday that guarantees free school meals for every student in Minnesota’s public and charter schools.

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School meals will become free for every Minnesota public and charter school student. Gov. Tim Walz signed a bill Friday that makes the change, while surrounded by children who got a firsthand lesson in how legislation becomes law.

The official signing at Webster Elementary in northeast Minneapolis — where pepperoni pizza and turkey salami sandwiches were on the lunch menu — marked a step toward the governor's proposal to "make Minnesota the best state in the country to raise a child."

"We will feed our children," Walz said.

Until now, Minnesota law required parents to apply for free meals through a federal reimbursement program based on their income. Starting this year, districts could also automatically add a student to the benefit rolls if their family qualified for Medicaid.

But Walz and other backers of providing universal free meals said those forms created unnecessary barriers.

"This just makes sense," Walz said. "This is the assurance that no one falls through the cracks because a busy parent didn't fill out a form."

Minnesota is the third state in the nation to require schools to offer all students free breakfast and lunch, regardless of their family income, behind California and Maine. In Colorado, a similar law allows schools to opt in to a state-funded free meals program.

The Minnesota program, which takes effect Monday, is expected to cost about $200 million per year, according to state projections. The legislation garnered bipartisan support in the Legislature, but some Republicans balked at the expense and argued that the benefit should include income limits to target the help toward needy families.

In a Senate floor speech earlier this week that's since gone viral, Sen. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, said he has "yet to meet a person in Minnesota who is hungry."

Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan took aim at those remarks Friday when she opened up about the food insecurity her family experienced when she was growing up. Her family received food stamps and Flanagan's mother would sometimes refrain from eating dinner and tell her children it was because she wasn't hungry.

"It wasn't until I was an adult and I was a parent that I realized she was lying to protect me from the reality of our food insecurity," Flanagan said.

Advocacy group Hunger Solutions estimates that 1 in 6 Minnesota students experience food insecurity, about a quarter of them living in a household that doesn't qualify for free meals

Willie Lumpkins, whose father was hit particularly hard by the increase in food and gas prices over the past year, said ensuring students have access to free meals is a step toward helping them succeed in the classroom.

"It's really stressful," he said of going hungry at school. "You're always angry. Yu're drowning in anxiety. It shouldn't be that way at all."

Some lawmakers, including some Republicans, argue that providing free meals for schoolchildren relieves the financial burden on families.

Sen. Heather Gustafson, DFL-Vadnais Heights, estimates that a family of four living in White Bear Lake would save about $1,900 per school year if their children ate two meals at school. She sponsored the bill in the Senate and called it a "lunchbox tax cut," at the signing ceremony.

Rep. Sydney Jordan, DFL-Minneapolis, who sponsored the bill in the House, said the legislation helps families who earn too much to qualify for federally funded free meals but still struggle to put food on the table.

"This is a bill that's going to make Minnesota a better place for everyone," she said.

Eder Campuzano covers statewide education for the Star Tribune.

White House says union membership among federal employees rose by 80,000 in one year

BY JULIA SHAPERO - 03/17/23 

Annabelle Gordon
Union workers in support of the Good Jobs for Good Airports Act attend a press conference outside the Capitol in Washington, D.C., with House and Senate Democrats on Thursday, March 9, 2023.

The White House said on Friday that union membership among federal employees increased by about 80,000 workers in the past year, amid the administration’s push on workers’ rights.

The Biden administration’s task force on worker organizing and empowerment, led by Vice President Harris, also touted a 53 percent increase in petitions for union representation and an increase of 273,000 in union membership overall.

Support for unions has also increased, reaching its highest rating since 1965. A 2022 Gallup poll found that 71 percent of Americans approve of labor unions, a number that has been steadily increasing over the years after a low of 48 percent in 2009.

The White House task force, which was created “to reduce barriers to worker organizing and position the federal government as a model employer,” has sought to ensure that federal grant money is tied to quality job standards, inform employees with “Know Your Rights” campaigns and remove limitations on organizing on federal property, according to a press release.

Biden, who vowed during his 2020 campaign to be “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen,” has earned much praise from union leaders throughout his presidency. However, a rail dispute late last year has cast a shadow over his legacy on the issue.

The president signed a resolution from Congress in December that imposed an agreement between rail companies and workers to prevent a rail strike. The deal, opposed by four of the 12 rail unions, did not include sought-after sick leave provisions.

US States Cannot Block Hazardous Waste From Ohio Derailment -EPA

By David Shepardson
03/17/23 

General view of the site of the derailment of a train carrying hazardous waste, in East Palestine, Ohio, U.S., March 2, 2023. REUTERS

U.S. states cannot block shipments of hazardous waste from a Feb. 3 Ohio train derailment to licensed disposal sites, the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Friday.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan's warning came after Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt said earlier this week he had blocked a shipment of hazardous waste from the derailment to a facility in his state.

The derailment of the Norfolk Southern operated train in East Palestine, Ohio, has shone a spotlight on railroad safety as residents worry about the health impacts of living near the toxic material.

Regan told reporters he sent letters to all states warning "any attempts to impede interstate shipments of hazardous waste threatens the integrity of the system." He said the Oklahoma site has a permit to receive the waste.

The EPA said there are typically 97,000 shipments of hazardous waste in the U.S. per month and two-thirds may cross state lines.

Regan said he would hold Norfolk Southern accountable and demanded it enforce its contracts to dispose of contaminated materials from the site.

"EPA will take all actions to ensure the safe hazardous waste handing continues across this country," he told reporters. "We expect Norfolk Southern to execute and implements its contracts and hold contractees accountable for receipt of this waste."

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine praised the EPA statement for making clear states must accept shipments.

Both Regan and DeWine said there was nothing unusual about the material from the East Palestine derailment.

"It's kind of crazy because what we're sending from here is no worse than stuff they are taking every other day," DeWine told reporters. "In fact, they are taking a lot worst stuff than we're sending them."

Regan said to date the railroad has excavated nearly half of contaminated soil from the tracks and transported 6.8 million gallons of liquid waste and 5,400 tons of solid waste. Regan estimated it would take another three months to complete the site cleanup.

"EPA ordered Norfolk Southern to clean up the mess it made -- and no one should impede or prevent this cleanup as we return East Palestine to the beautiful community residents know it to be," he said.

Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw has said the railroad is fully committed to cleaning the site and will testify next week before the Senate Commerce Committee, his second appearance this month before senators.

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On Tuesday, the state of Ohio sued Norfolk Southern over the derailment that released over a million gallons of hazardous materials and pollutants.

F-16 Fighting Falcon vs. A-10 Thunderbolt II. What’s Better for Ukraine? Talking Tactics

UNITED24

Mar 17, 2023

Ukraine`s air force has publicly declared that the “best Ukrainian pilots have been selected and are prepared to start training in any country ready to receive them.” It was a bold statement, but Ukraine’s air force urgently needs an upgrade, and fighter jets have become a hot topic of discussion. But why are they so important? Watch Talking Tactics to find out.

 

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Deloitte Hit By Record China Fine, Suspension Over Huarong

Huarong had several internal and risk control failures and distorted its accounting which Deloitte missed, according to the statement.

Bloomberg News
17 Mar 2023

Motorists along a near empty road in the central business district in Beijing, China. Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- China suspended the operations of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd.’s Beijing office for three months and imposed an unprecedented fine over lapses in its auditing work of bad-debt manager China Huarong Asset Management Co.

After several on-site inspections, personnel interviews, a review of paperwork and a hearing, the Ministry of Finance found that Deloitte had “serious audit deficiencies” in its work with Huarong between 2014 and 2019, according to a statement. The firm was fined 212 million yuan ($30.8 million), or more than 25 times the combined fines the ministry meted to accounting firms during inspections last year.

The accounting firm failed to properly look into the status of Huarong’s underlying assets, ignored compliance approvals on major investments and failed to apply a sense of skepticism in its audit work on Huarong, the ministry said. Huarong had several internal and risk control failures and distorted its accounting which Deloitte missed, according to the statement.

The local unit, Deloitte Hua Yong, said in a statement Friday that there’s no suggestion by the ministry that its Beijing branch or any of its people have done anything unethical. “We have cooperated fully with the MOF throughout its inspection,” it added. “We respect and accept the MOF’s penalty decision. We regret that, in this matter, the MOF considers certain aspects of our work fell below the required auditing standards.”

Huarong roiled Asian credit markets in 2021 as it failed to release its annual report on time, eventually revealing a massive loss for 2020. It later received a $6.6 billion government-orchestrated bailout.

The suspension and fine come as Chinese authorities, including the Ministry of Finance, have urged state-owned firms to stop using the four biggest international accounting firms as recently as January, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg last month. China is seeking to rein in the influence of the US-linked global audit firms and ensure the nation’s data security, as well as to bolster the local accounting industry, the people said.

In its statement, Deloitte Hua Yong also said it has received no information from Huarong that there is any intention to make any prior period restatement to the company’s historic consolidated financial statements. “No changes to the relevant audit reports have been found to be necessary,” it said.

This is the second large fine Deloitte’s China operations has received in the past year. In September, the affiliate agreed to pay the $20 million over US Securities and Exchange Commission allegations it broke auditing rules. The SEC said that in audits for 2016 to 2018, employees at the affiliate asked clients to select their own samples of financial statements for review and create documents showing the auditor had tested the statements when there wasn’t evidence it had.

Deloitte China didn’t admit or deny the SEC’s allegations and said in a statement that it self-reported “deficient procedures” and that the SEC acknowledged the firm’s cooperation and remedial efforts.

Deloitte’s China clients include state-owned giants such as Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. and China United Network Communications Ltd. The firm has more than 20,000 professionals across 30 Chinese cities, which provide audit & assurance, consulting, financial advisory, risk advisory, business advisory and tax services, according to its website.

The Big Four firms earned a combined revenue of 20.6 billion yuan from all Chinese clients in 2021, according to Finance Ministry data. Deloitte’s revenue in China amounted to 4.2 billion yuan.

Huarong was one of four asset management companies created following the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s to buy bad loans from China’s banks and provide a safeguard. But the company and its peers later expanded beyond their original mandates, creating a maze of subsidiaries to engage in other financial businesses and borrow billions from the bond market.

Huarong and seven of its subsidiaries were also fined 100,000 yuan each, according to the statement.

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.

China announces Xi’s Russia visit day after minister’s rare phone call to Kyiv

BySutirtho Patranobis
Mar 17, 2023 

The announcement of the visit comes a day after China’s foreign minister, Qin Gang, called for peace talks during a phone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba.

BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Russia from March 20 to 22, the Chinese foreign ministry and the Kremlin announced on Friday, a month after Beijing floated a 12-point peace plan in an attempt to end the conflict triggered by Moscow’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

This photo shows Russian President Vladimir Putin, and China's President Xi Jinping. 

China says Xi will visit Russia from March 22 (AP File)

The announcement of the visit comes a day after China’s foreign minister, Qin Gang, called for peace talks during a phone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba.

Beijing has so far refused to describe Moscow’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine as an invasion and instead blamed the US and NATO for provoking Moscow.

“Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to Russia from March 20 to 22 at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying announced on Friday.

In Moscow, the news agency Associated Press quoted a statement issued by the Kremlin which announced that Xi and Putin would discuss “issues of further development of comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction between Russia and China,” and exchange views “in the context of deepening Russian-Chinese cooperation in the international arena”. The report described Xi’s visit as an apparent show of support for President Putin.

China is concerned about the escalation of the war in Ukraine and the situation spiralling out of control, Qin told Kuleba on Thursday evening amid speculation that Xi is also likely to soon speak with Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“We hope that Russia and Ukraine will keep hope for dialogue and negotiation, and will not close the door to a political solution, no matter how difficult and challenging it is. China will continue to play a constructive role for a ceasefire to stop the war, ease the crisis and restore peace,” Qin said.

News agency AFP said Xi last visited Russia in 2019, while Putin attended the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Beijing last year. The two leaders also met at a regional security gathering in Uzbekistan in September.

Zero tolerance: EU Commission targets Amazon, Spotify, Apple for violating content law

‘There are a few online platforms that have not respected’ Digital Services Act obligations, Thierry Breton says.

Amazon, Apple and Spotify are not respecting the EU’s content moderation law, the Digital Services Act | Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images

BY CLOTHILDE GOUJARD
MARCH 17, 2023 

The European Commission will “go after” companies including Amazon, Apple and Spotify for not respecting the EU’s content moderation law, the Digital Services Act, the EU’s internal market chief Thierry Breton said Friday.

“I regret to say that there are a few online platforms that have not respected their obligations and have either failed to provide user numbers altogether or simply stated that they do not meet the designation thresholds,” Breton said at a Commission conference.

“We will not tolerate delaying tactics when it comes to enforcing the DSA; we will take action and go after the companies which have not complied,” he added.

Amazon, Apple, Spotify, Booking.com, eBay, OnlyFans, AliExpress and Pinterest are among the online platforms that haven't disclosed details about how many Europeans use their services under a February deadline set by the Digital Services Act.

The law, adopted in 2022, aims to get platforms to step up their content moderation, including cracking down on illegal material such as photos of child sexual abuse and videos promoting terrorism.

Breton confirmed that the European Commission, which will oversee platforms and search engines with more than 45 million users in the EU, would proceed with the formal designation of very large online platforms “in the coming weeks.” Nearly 20 companies such as Facebook, TikTok, Twitter and Google have already been declared to fall within this category.

Breton had already told Spotify CEO Daniel Ek of “the importance of complying with all requirements” under the DSA, including publishing the exact number of users in the EU, in a video call on March 16, according to a readout.

“The world is watching us — we have a huge responsibility to prove that our European rules work not only in theory but also in practice, bringing tangible results to our citizens,” said Breton.