UAW Holds Off on Endorsing Biden in Bid to Secure Just EV Transition


"We need to get our members organized behind a pro-worker, pro-climate, and pro-democracy political program that can deliver for the working class," says a memo from the union's new president.


Ford workers build an electric F-150 Lightning at a factory in Dearborn, Michigan on September 8, 2022.
(Photo: Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images)

KENNY STANCIL
May 04, 2023

The United Auto Workers is withholding its endorsement of U.S. President Joe Biden in the early stages of the 2024 race in an attempt to extract concessions that would ensure the nascent transition to all-electric vehicles benefits labor as well as the environment.

"We need to get our members organized behind a pro-worker, pro-climate, and pro-democracy political program that can deliver for the working class," says a memo written by UAW president Shawn Fain and shared internally on Tuesday.

Fain, an electrician from Indiana, won a March runoff election to lead the Detroit-based union, defeating incumbent Ray Curry of the powerful Administration Caucus in a major upset. Fain's victory, one of several in which challengers from the insurgent Members United slate prevailed, gave reformers control of UAW's direction. The new president quickly promised a more confrontational approach, decrying "give-back unionism" and vowing to "put the members back in the driver's seat, regain the trust of the rank and file, and put the companies on notice."

A reinvigorated UAW is also putting Biden on notice by holding onto its coveted endorsement. With 400,000 active members and a heavy presence in the battleground state of Michigan, the union remains a significant political force. Its goal is to pressure Biden into improving federal policies related to electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing.

"The federal government is pouring billions into the electric vehicle transition, with no strings attached and no commitment to workers," Fain wrote in his new memo. "The EV transition is at serious risk of becoming a race to the bottom. We want to see national leadership have our back on this before we make any commitments."

As The New York Timesreported Wednesday:
In April, the Biden administration proposed the nation's most ambitious climate regulations yet, which would ensure that two-thirds of new passenger cars are all-electric by 2032—up from just 5.8% today. The rules, if enacted, could sharply lower planet-warming pollution from vehicle tailpipes, the nation's largest source of greenhouse emissions. But they come with costs for autoworkers, because it takes fewer than half the laborers to assemble an all-electric vehicle as it does to build a gasoline-powered car.

But it's not just potential job losses that are of concern to UAW leaders. They also want to see higher wages and better benefits for workers at EV facilities.

A 2021 report from the Economic Policy Institute made clear that the consequences of the EV transition for U.S. workers depend on how policymakers manage the shift. With "smart policy," lawmakers can turn the coming auto industry "upheaval" into an opportunity to create up to 150,000 "good jobs" by 2030, the analysis found. But if the move to EVs is not accompanied by policies to onshore manufacturing and improve job quality, then more than 75,000 jobs could be lost, it warned.

UAW made a similar point in a 2021 update to its EV white paper:
The growth of EVs must be an opportunity to re-invest in American manufacturing, with union workers making the vehicles of the future. But, to make sure this disruption does not leave American autoworkers behind, government subsidies and tax breaks for the transition to new technology must be paired with a commitment to locate these jobs in the United States at comparable wages and benefits to the jobs they replace. And we must ensure our laws level the playing field and give workers a voice on the job, which is why we are calling on Congress [to] strengthen our labor laws and pass the PRO Act. Protecting jobs and wages during this transition will only happen if workers have a seat at the table.

The Inflation Reduction Act passed by congressional Democrats and signed into law by Biden last August contains North American EV manufacturing incentives. Such provisions have been met with threats of trade challenges from Europe, however, leading progressive advocacy groups to urge governments on both sides of the Atlantic to start prioritizing decarbonization over corporate-friendly trade rules.

As CNBCreported Wednesday, Fain's memo lamented "the pay rate at a recently opened Ultium Cells LLC battery plant near Lordstown, Ohio—a joint venture between General Motors and LG Energy Solution—compared with that of traditional automotive assembly plants."

According to the outlet:
Ultium has said hourly workers currently make between $16 and $22 an hour with full benefits, incentives, and tuition assistance. That compares to traditional hourly UAW members that can make upward of $32 an hour at GM plants.

Joint venture battery facilities are viewed as crucial for the UAW to grow and add members, as automakers such as GM transition to EVs.

"The situation at Lordstown, and the current state of the EV transition, is unacceptable," Fain wrote. "We expect action from the people in power to make it right."

Fain and other UAW leaders met with White House officials last week to lay out the union's case for a just EV transition that simultaneously slashes life-threatening carbon dioxide pollution and enhances the well-being of workers involved in the process.

"We were very adamant that if the government is going to funnel billions in taxpayer money to these companies, the workers must be compensated with top wages and benefits," wrote Fain. "A 'just transition' has to include standards for our members and future workers."

UAW endorsed Biden in the 2020 race, citing his support for labor. But the union is in no rush to renew its blessing before it wins concessions for the workers behind the shift to EVs.

Noting that 150,000 autoworkers are organizing for a new contract with the "Big Three"—Ford, GM, and Stellantis (formerly Chrysler)—in September, Fain wrote that "we'll stand with whoever stands with our members in that fight."

"Right now, we're focused on making sure the EV transition does right by our members, our families, and our communities," Fain continued. "We'll be ready to talk politics once we secure a future for this industry and the workers who make it run."

Nevertheless, the union has no intention of backing former President Donald Trump—the leading candidate to win the Republican Party's 2024 nomination—given the GOP's long track record of greater hostility to organized labor.

A second Trump term "would be a disaster," Fain added. "But our members need to see an alternative that delivers real results."
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As White House Unveils Plan, A Fresh Call to Halt 'Runaway Corporate AI'


"President Biden should call for, and Congress should legislate, a moratorium on the deployment of new generative AI technologies," Public Citizen's Robert Weissman argued.

A growing number of experts are calling for a pause on advanced AI development and deployment.
(Photo: Monsitj/Getty Images)

BRETT WILKINS
May 04, 2023

As the White House on Thursday unveiled a plan meant to promote "responsible American innovation in artificial intelligence," a leading U.S. consumer advocate added his voice to the growing number of experts calling for a moratorium on the development and deployment of advanced AI technology.

"Today's announcement from the White House is a useful step forward, but much more is needed to address the threats of runaway corporate AI," Robert Weissman, president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said in a statement.

"But we also need more aggressive measures," Weissman asserted. "President Biden should call for, and Congress should legislate, a moratorium on the deployment of new generative AI technologies, to remain in effect until there is a robust regulatory framework in place to address generative AI's enormous risks."



The White House says its AI plan builds on steps the Biden administration has taken "to promote responsible innovation."

"These include the landmark Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights and related executive actions announced last fall, as well as the AI Risk Management Framework and a roadmap for standing up a National AI Research Resource released earlier this year," the administration said.

The White House plan includes $140 million in National Science Foundation funding for seven new national AI research institutes—there are already 25 such facilities—that "catalyze collaborative efforts across institutions of higher education, federal agencies, industry, and others to pursue transformative AI advances that are ethical, trustworthy, responsible, and serve the public good."

The new plan also includes "an independent commitment from leading AI developers, including Anthropic, Google, Hugging Face, Microsoft, NVIDIA, OpenAI, and Stability AI, to participate in a public evaluation of AI systems."

Representatives of some of those companies including Google, Microsoft, Anthropic, and OpenAI—creator of the popular ChatGPT chatbot—met with Vice President Kamala Harris and other administration officials at the White House on Thursday. According toThe New York Times, President Joe Biden "briefly" dropped in on the meeting.



"AI is one of today's most powerful technologies, with the potential to improve people's lives and tackle some of society's biggest challenges. At the same time, AI has the potential to dramatically increase threats to safety and security, infringe civil rights and privacy, and erode public trust and faith in democracy," Harris said in a statement.

"The private sector has an ethical, moral, and legal responsibility to ensure the safety and security of their products," she added.



Thursday's White House meeting and plan come amid mounting concerns over the potential dangers posed by artificial intelligence on a range of issues, including military applications, life-and-death healthcare decisions, and impacts on the labor force.

In late March, tech leaders and researchers led an open letter signed by more than 27,000 experts, scholars, and others urging "all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4."

Noting that AI developers are "locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one—not even their creators—can understand, predict, or reliably control," the letter asks:

Should we let machines flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth? Should we automate away all the jobs, including the fulfilling ones? Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete, and replace us? Should we risk loss of control of our civilization?

"Such decisions must not be delegated to unelected tech leaders," the signers asserted. "Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable."

Last month, Public Citizen argued that "until meaningful government safeguards are in place to protect the public from the harms of generative AI, we need a pause."

"These systems demonstrate capabilities in question answering, and the generation of text, image, and code unimagined a decade ago, and they outperform the state of the art on many benchmarks, old and new," the group said in a report. "However, they are prone to hallucination, routinely biased, and can be tricked into serving nefarious aims, highlighting the complicated ethical challenges associated with their deployment."

According to the annual AI Index Report published last month by the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, nearly three-quarters of researchers believe artificial intelligence "could soon lead to revolutionary social change," while 36% worry that AI decisions "could cause nuclear-level catastrophe."

151 Groups Blast Biden Admin for Backing 'Destructive' Mountain Valley Pipeline

"This project is not inevitable, and is completely counter to the overwhelming evidence that we must stop creating new fossil fuel infrastructure immediately."

Empty pipeline segments are shown on the property of Maury Johnson, a local farmer and landowner challenging the Mountain Valley Pipeline, on August 26, 2022 in Greenville, West Virginia.
(Photo: Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)

JESSICA CORBETT
May 04, 2023

A coalition of climate groups this week called out the Biden administration's support for the partially completed Mountain Valley Pipeline, highlighting how its ongoing construction and potential operation threaten "the well-being of people, endangered species, streams, rivers, farms, national forests, and the planet."

The letter, led by Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights (POWHR) and 7 Directions of Service and backed by 149 other organizations, is in response to U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm writing to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last month to reiterate the administration's position on the contested 303-mile fracked gas pipeline across Virginia and West Virginia.

"We are incredibly disappointed with your recent actions to promote the destructive and unneeded Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP)," the climate coalition wrote to Granholm, noting that her letter to FERC coincided with President Joe Biden signing an executive order to implement "environmental justice policy across the federal government."

"You should be supporting environmental justice as the bedrock of every new policy and piece of infrastructure, advocating for climate reparations, and aggressively promoting distributed, decentralized renewable energy and energy democracy."

After condemning the administration's endorsement of the pipeline and recent approvals of the Willow oil and Alaska liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects as "hypocritical betrayals," given Biden's campaign trail pledges, the coalition laid out how the MVP impacts "livelihoods, drinking water sources, property values, and important cultural resources," pointing to Indigenous cultural sites as well as communities of "low-income, elderly, and medically underserved populations" dependent on private wells.

MVP construction has involved over 500 violations of permit conditions, laws, and regulations, the letter emphasizes, and almost 75% of the route "slices through 'moderate-high' or 'high' landslide risk terrain."

The pipeline developer's website states that "MVP's total project work is nearly 94% complete, which includes 55.8% of the right-of-way fully restored." While proponents of the project often cite the former figure, letter signatories are drawing attention to the latter—and that completion would require complex construction involving "incredibly complex and fragile" water crossings.



"The MVP, its greedy political backers, and some journalists continue to claim that the project is nearly complete despite the company's own repeated reports that it is just over half complete with some of the hardest construction yet to come, including hundreds of stream crossings," POWHR managing director Russell Chisholm told Common Dreams.

"This disinformation is not only an insult to frontline communities monitoring and enduring the unfinished pipeline's construction, but it furthers the risk of another planet-killing fossil fuel pipeline built during a climate crisis... on a planet that we all live on," Chisholm added. "Shame on all people in power who tout this falsehood."

Released as climate scientists continue to stress the need for a swift global transition to renewable energy, the letter argues that "this project is not inevitable, and is completely counter to the overwhelming evidence that we must stop creating new fossil fuel infrastructure immediately."

Taking aim at claims in the energy secretary's letter, the coalition wrote:
Asking the commission to proceed "expeditiously" with any further action on the project and misstating the project's relation to "national security" while providing no evidence undermines the administration's commitment to advancing environmental justice. An economy tied to fossil fuels during a climate crisis is unpredictable and makes us vulnerable to foreign governments and the greed of corporate CEOs. This country's energy independence can only come from a swift and just renewable energy transition. This will help protect us from foreign supply chain disruptions and conflicts, as well as deliver lower costs to consumers. The MVP will not assist our allies in Europe, and nor is it needed in the Southeast as you claim. No matter where MVP's gas is intended to be delivered, sacrificing communities to free up gas to export overseas for corporate profit is not "national security." Building this project prolongs fracked gas buildout, accelerates LNG infrastructure buildout and export, and sacrifices communities, all of which are counter to the just future we deserve.

Your letter contains open appeals for dangerous distractions that will prop up the fossil fuel industry for decades to come. The dangerous distractions of carbon capture and hydrogen propagate the untrue belief that we can continue wholesale destruction of the earth, continue creating sacrifice zones, release millions of tons of greenhouse gasses from fossil fuel projects, and continue massive corporate capture of regulatory agencies while embarking on a just transition off of fossil fuels. Instead, you should be supporting environmental justice as the bedrock of every new policy and piece of infrastructure, advocating for climate reparations, and aggressively promoting distributed, decentralized renewable energy and energy democracy.

"Your letter states that MVP is part of the clean energy transition. In reality, MVP would exacerbate the very climate crisis that is causing an increasing number of extreme weather events," the organizations continued, referencing expert estimates that its "lifecycle would be comparable to the operation of 26 to 37 new coal-fired power plants."
"We request that you immediately rescind your letter of support for the project," the coalition concluded, "and that you meet with directly impacted communities as soon as possible who live on the route of the project, so you can gain an increased understanding of the destruction and danger that you are promoting."

The groups' letter comes as U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)—whose personal fortune and political campaigns are tied to fossil fuels—renews his push for a "dirty deal" on energy permitting reforms, despite three defeats last year. On Tuesday he introduced the Building American Energy Security Act, which calls for the completion of the MVP.



In a backroom deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) last summer, Manchin agreed to vote for the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) if Democrats—who then controlled both chambers of Congress—subquently pushed through his permitting measure. Progressive lawmakers and grassroots opposition have so far blocked such efforts, but the House is now narrowly held by Republicans willing to serve Big Oil, and Manchin expressed confidence this week that he can advance a bipartisan bill.

Despite Manchin's recent votes to gut some of Biden's climate and environmental policies, the White House is backing his bill. "We supported it last year, we'll support it this year," John Podesta, who directs IRA implementation for the president, toldReutersTuesday. "It's a high priority for us to try to find a path forward on bipartisan, permanent reform."

Meanwhile, "dirty deal" critics remain committed to killing it. According to Chisholm, "Sen. Manchin is desperate to complete the Mountain Valley Pipeline through federal shortcuts that circumvent normal regulatory and judicial processes because he knows our movement is growing stronger every day and we will stop the unnecessary, unwanted climate nightmare that is the MVP."
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To End 'Disgrace' of Poverty Wages, Sanders Bill Would Hike Federal Minimum to $17

MAKE IT A LIVING WAGE $20


"The overwhelming majority of Americans support raising the minimum wage to a living wage."

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks during a news conference with labor leaders and service workers on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on May 4, 2023.
(Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

JAKE JOHNSON
May 04, 2023

Decrying the "national disgrace" of poverty wages in the world's richest country, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday introduced legislation that would raise the federal minimum wage to $17 an hour over a period of five years.

Sanders (I-Vt.), the chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, lamented that Congress hasn't raised the federal minimum wage in more than a decade, leaving tens of millions of workers with what the senator described as "starvation wages."

"Now is the time to raise the minimum wage," Sanders (I-Vt.) said at a Capitol Hill press conference alongside union leaders and service workers. "Let's be clear: This is not a radical idea. The overwhelming majority of Americans support raising the minimum wage to a living wage."

"It is not acceptable today that nearly 35 million American workers earn less than $17 an hour," the senator added.

Sanders pledged to push his legislation "as quickly and as hard" as possible in the Senate, where the bill faces long odds given likely opposition from several members of the chamber's Democratic caucus and every Republican. The Senate HELP Committee will hold a mark-up hearing for the new legislation on June 14, Sanders announced Thursday.

The full text of the bill is not yet available.

Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), said during Thursday's press conference that "we are going to be watching any congressperson—senator or in the House—that dares to say that they are not going to vote yes for Senator Sanders' bill."

"They need to be held accountable at the ballot box," said Henry.



More than a decade has passed since Congress last raised the federal minimum wage, and efforts in recent years to enact a $15-an-hour wage floor nationally have fallen short amid opposition from the GOP, corporate-friendly Democrats, and the business lobby.

While some lawmakers are sure to balk at the idea of more than doubling the federal minimum wage, a working paper released this week showed that counties that have enacted large minimum wage increases have seen higher employment, higher earnings for workers, and lower inequality.

"Nobody in this country can survive on $7.25 an hour," Sanders said Thursday. "Maybe some of my colleagues in Congress might want to live for a month on seven-and-a-quarter an hour and see what that's like."

As Congress has failed to act, many states, cities, and counties across the U.S. have raised their minimum wages substantially, with progress continuing this year. According to a recent report by the National Employment Law Project, a record 86 U.S. jurisdictions are set to raise their minimum wages in 2023.

But 15 states have their minimum wages set at the federal floor of $7.25 an hour, according to the Economic Policy Institute's Minimum Wage Tracker, and five other states have no minimum wage laws—meaning the federal minimum applies.

"As it becomes more and more expensive to get by in America, $15 is no longer an adequate goal. We need to go higher to reflect what it actually costs to live in America."

In an analysis earlier this year, EPI estimated that "a worker in one of the 20 states with a $7.25 minimum wage is 46% more likely to make less than $15 an hour than a worker in the other 30 states or District of Columbia with higher minimum wages."

"There is no part of this country where even a single adult without children can achieve an adequate standard of living with a wage of less than $15 an hour," EPI noted. "With the lack of congressional action, the federal minimum wage has lost more than a third of its value since its inflation-adjusted high point of 1968."

Sanders said Thursday that with living costs rising across the country, a $15 minimum wage would still be insufficient—a point that supporters of the new legislation echoed.

"As it becomes more and more expensive to get by in America, $15 is no longer an adequate goal," Stephen Prince, vice chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, said in a statement. "We need to go higher to reflect what it actually costs to live in America. Sanders is right to revise his minimum wage push to $17 an hour to save workers across the country from further suffocation."

"On a larger scale, raising the minimum wage would give millions of people more money to buy more products and services from businesses around the country, which is good for our bottom lines," said Prince. "From a business standpoint, 60% of the country living paycheck to paycheck is unsustainable and precarious. Sanders' $17 minimum wage will change this reality and I’m all for it."

Brazilian President Lula da Silva Calls For Freedom For Julian Assange

'The press, which defends freedom of the press, does nothing to free this citizen.'

First Lady of Brazil, Rosângela Lula da Silva “Janja” and Brazilian President Lula da Silva (R) leave Downing Street after meeting British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on May 05, 2023 in London, England. Lula was in town for the coronation of King Charles III.
(Photo by Hollie Adams/Getty Images)

COMMON DREAMS STAFF
May 07, 2023

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva has called for freedom for Julian Assange and denounced the lack of concerted efforts to free the journalist.

Lula spoke to a group of reporters in London Saturday while in town to attend the coronation of King Charles III.

Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, has spent four years in Britain’s Belmarsh Prison while fighting extradition to the United States.

“It is an embarrassment that a journalist who denounced trickery by one state against another is arrested, condemned to die in jail and we do nothing to free him. It’s a crazy thing,” Lula told reporters. “We talk about freedom of expression; the guy is in prison because he denounced wrongdoing. And the press doesn’t do anything in defense of this journalist. I can’t understand it.”

“I think there must be a movement of world press in his defense. Not in regard to his person, but to defend the right to denounce,” Lula told the reporters. “The guy didn’t denounce anything vulgar. He denounced that a state was spying on others, and that became a crime against the journalist. The press, which defends freedom of the press, does nothing to free this citizen. It’s sad, but it’s true.”

Also, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday he too was frustrated over the continued detention of Julian Assange: "enough is enough."

"I know it's frustrating, I share the frustration," Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. from London for the coronation of King Charles III.

"I can't do more than make very clear what my position is, and the U.S. administration is certainly very aware of what the Australian government's position is. There is nothing to be served by his ongoing incarceration."

"Enough is enough, this needs to be brought to a conclusion, it needs to be worked through," said Albanese.

Assange has battled for years to avoid being sent to the U.S., where the journalist faces 17 charges of espionage because of WikiLeaks’ publication of a trove of classified documents in 2010.

US prosecutors allege he published 700,000 secret classified documents which exposed the United States government and its wrongdoings in Iraq and Afghanistan. Wikileaks received the documents from Chelsea Manning.

Albanese said Australians cannot understand why the US would free the source who leaked the documents, Chelsea Manning, while Assange still faces life in prison.

President Joe Biden has been accused of hypocrisy for demanding the release of journalists around the world, while he actively seeks the extradition of Assange to face American espionage charges.

Assange faces a sentence of up to 175 years in a maximum security prison if extradited to the United States.

 

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'Mad Panic' Near Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant Leads IAEA to Sound Alarm

The situation is 'becoming increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous'


International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi said Saturday “We must act now to prevent the threat of a severe nuclear accident and its associated consequences for the population and the environment."
(Photo by Thomas Kronsteiner/Getty Images)

COMMON DREAMS STAFF
May 07, 2023

The situation Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has taken a turn for the worse as Russia has begun evacuating 18 settlements in the Zaporizhzhia region, including Enerhodar.

The BBC has cited as Ukrainian official as saying this has sparked a "mad panic" - and traffic jams have been observed as thousands of people pack up and head out of the city.

The exiled mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, wrote on Telegram that shops in the evacuated areas had run out of goods and medicine. He also said hospitals were discharging patients into the street amid fears that electricity and water supplies could be suspended.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA ) experts still at the plant site are continuing to hear shelling on a regular basis, including Friday night. Ukrainian authorities on Sunday said that a 72-year-old woman was killed and three others were wounded when Russian forces fired more than 30 shells at Nikopol, a Ukrainian-held town neighboring the nuclear plant.

The situation is “becoming increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous,” the head of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog said Saturday.

International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement :



“The general situation in the area near the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant is becoming increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous."

"I’m extremely concerned about the very real nuclear safety and security risks facing the plant."

"We must act now to prevent the threat of a severe nuclear accident and its associated consequences for the population and the environment. This major nuclear facility must be protected."

"I will continue to press for a commitment by all sides to achieve this vital objective, and the IAEA will continue to do everything it can to help ensure nuclear safety and security at the plant,” he said.



The expected Ukrainian spring counter-offensive is viewed as likely to take in the Zaporizhzhia region, around 80% of which is controlled by Russian forces.

Ukraine war: Situation around Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant ‘potentially dangerous’, says IAEA

Updated: 07 May 2023

A Russian serviceman in an area of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in territory under Russian military control, southeastern Ukraine. (AP file photo)

Rafael Grossi, director general of IAEA, calls for measures to ensure the safe operation of Europe's largest nuclear plant as evacuations were under way in the nearby town of Enerhodar

The head of the U.N.'s nuclear power watchdog warned on Saturday that the situation around the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear station has become "potentially dangerous" as Moscow-installed officials began evacuating people from nearby areas.

Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), called for measures to ensure the safe operation of Europe's largest nuclear plant as evacuations were under way in the nearby town of Enerhodar.

"The general situation in the area near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is becoming increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous," Grossi said on the agency's website.

"I'm extremely concerned about the very real nuclear safety and security risks facing the plant. We must act now to prevent the threat of a severe nuclear accident and its associated consequences for the population and the environment."

Grossi said that while the operating staff of the plant remain at the site, the conditions for the personnel and their families are "increasingly tense."

The Russian-installed governor of the Moscow-controlled part of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region said on Friday that he had ordered the evacuation of villages close to the front line as shelling had intensified in the area in recent days.

A widely expected Ukrainian spring counter-offensive against Russian forces is viewed as likely to take in the Zaporizhzhia region, around 80% of which is held by Moscow.

The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said on Sunday that the residents are being evacuated in the direction of Berdiansk and Prymorsk on the coast of the Sea of Azov.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the reports.

Russian forces seized the Zaporizhzhia plant days after President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of his neighbour in February 2022. Exchanges of fire have frequently occurred near the facility, with each side blaming the other.

Grossi last visited the Zaporizhzhia station, Europe's largest nuclear power installation, in March, as part of efforts to speak to both sides to secure an agreement on safeguards to ensure the plant's safe operation.

He has repeatedly warned of the dangers of military operations around the plant.

The plant is located in the part of that region under Russian control, with many of the staff operating it living in Enerhodar on the south bank of the Dnipro River.

Arab League readmits Syria as relations with Assad normalise

2023/05/07


By Aidan Lewis and Sarah El Safty

CAIRO (Reuters) -The Arab League readmitted Syria after more than a decade of suspension on Sunday, consolidating a regional push to normalise ties with President Bashar al-Assad.

The decision said Syria could resume its participation in Arab League meetings immediately, while calling for a resolution of the crisis resulting from Syria's civil war, including the flight of refugees to neighbouring countries and drug smuggling across the region.

While Arab states including the United Arab Emirates have pushed for Syria and Assad's rehabilitation, others, including Qatar, have remained opposed to full normalisation without a political solution to the Syrian conflict.

Some have been keen to set conditions for Syria's return, with Jordan's foreign minister saying last week that the Arab League's reacceptance of Syria, which remains under Western sanctions, would only be the start of "a very long and difficult and challenging process".

"The reinstatement of Syria does not mean normalisation of relations between Arab countries and Syria," Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit told a press conference in Cairo on Sunday. "This is a sovereign decision for each country to make."

A Jordanian official said Syria would need to show it was serious about reaching a political solution, since this would be a pre-condition to lobbying for any lifting of Western sanctions, a crucial step for funding reconstruction.

CAPTAGON

Sunday's decision said Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt and the Arab League's Secretary General would form a ministerial group to liaise with the Syrian government and seek solutions to the crisis through recipocral steps.

Practical measures included continuing efforts to facilitate the delivery of aid in Syria, according to a copy of the decision seen by Reuters.

Syria's readmission follows a Jordanian initiative laying out a roadmap for ending Syria's conflict that includes addressing the issues of refugees, missing detainees, drug smuggling and Iranian militias in Syria.

Jordan is both a destination and a main transit route to the oil-rich Gulf countries for captagon, a highly-addictive amphetamine produced in Syria.

Syria's membership of the Arab League was suspended in 2011 after the crackdown on street protests against Assad that led to the civil war. Several Gulf states including Saudi Arabia began backing rebel groups fighting to oust Assad from power.

Assad later regained control over much of Syria with the help of his main allies Iran and Russia, but the war cost hundreds of thousands of lives and led millions to flee the country. Syria remains splintered with its economy in ruins.

Recently, Arab states have been trying to reach consensus on whether to invite Assad to an Arab League summit on May 19 in Riyadh to discuss the pace and conditions for normalising ties.

Responding to a question over whether Assad could participate, Aboul Gheit told reporters: "If he wishes, because Syria, starting from this evening, is a full member of the Arab League."

"When the invitation is sent by the host country, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and if he wishes to participate, he will participate," he added.

Saudi Arabia long resisted restoring relations with Assad but said after its recent rapprochement with Iran - Syria's key regional ally - that a new approach was needed with Damascus.

Washington, which terms Assad's Syria a "rogue" state, has urged Arab states to get something in return for engaging with Assad.

(Additional reporting by Hatem Maher and Nayera Abdallah in Cairo and Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman Editing by Mike Harrison, Frances Kerry and Angus MacSwan)









© Reuters

Arab League Votes to Readmit Syria, Ending a Nearly 12-Year Suspension

The country is poised for a triumphant return this month at the league’s next summit — perhaps represented by President Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian leader accused of committing war crimes against his own people.

Foreign ministers of the Arab League meeting on Sunday in Cairo

.Credit...Khaled Elfiqi/EPA, via Shutterstock

By Vivian Yee

Reporting from Cairo

The New York Times
May 7, 2023

Arab nations agreed on Sunday to allow Syria to rejoin the Arab League, taking a crucial step toward ending the country’s international ostracism more than a decade after it was suspended from the group over its use of ruthless force against its own people.

When Syria’s neighbors and peers ejected it from the 22-member league in November 2011, months after its Arab Spring uprising began, the move was seen as a key condemnation of a government that had bombed, gassed and tortured protesters and others in a conflict that metastasized into a long civil war.

Now, the region is normalizing relations, increasingly convinced that Arab countries are gaining little from isolating Syria, as the United States has urged them to. Refusing to deal with Syria means ignoring the reality that its government has all but won the war, proponents of engagement argue.

That leaves Syria poised for a triumphant return this month in Saudi Arabia at the Arab League’s next summit — perhaps represented by President Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian leader accused of committing war crimes against his own people over the past decade. Syria’s rehabilitation could unlock billions of dollars in reconstruction projects and other investments for its tottering economy, further propping up Mr. al-Assad

The circumstances that led to Syria’s suspension have not changed; if anything, the bloodshed has only grown during the civil war that has consumed the country for the past 12 years, leaving Mr. al-Assad in power at home but a pariah nearly everywhere else.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have died since the fighting broke out, and more than 14 million have fled their homes for other parts of Syria, neighboring countries or beyond, according to United Nations estimates.

“Today, Arab states have put their own cynical realpolitik and diplomatic agendas above basic humanity,” said Laila Kiki, the executive director of the Syria Campaign, a nonprofit organization that supports Syrian civil society groups.

“By choosing to restore the Syrian regime’s membership of the Arab League, member states have cruelly betrayed tens of thousands of victims of the regime’s war crimes and granted Assad a green light to continue committing horrific crimes with impunity.”

A photograph released by the Iranian presidential office showing Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, center right, and Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, center left, this month in Damascus, Syria.

Credit.../EPA, via Shutterstock

Revulsion at Mr. al-Assad’s actions, along with pressure from the United States, had left most of Syria’s Arab neighbors reluctant to engage with the government over the past decade. A few had openly supported the opposition fighting to topple Mr. al-Assad, and some remain loath to embrace him.

But the regional calculus has shifted. With the Syrian government in Damascus having retaken most of the country from opposition forces, it has been obvious for years that Mr. al-Assad is here to stay.

Deadly Quake in Turkey and Syria

A 7.8-magnitude earthquake on Feb. 6, with its epicenter in Gaziantep, Turkey, has become one of the deadliest natural disasters of the century.Families of the Missing: In the aftermath of the tragedy, with many victims still unaccounted for, the Turkish authorities turned to fingerprints, DNA tests and photographs to link unidentified bodies with their next of kin.

In Antakya: About 3,100 buildings collapsed in the city, killing more than 20,000 people. The damage is so profound that 80 percent of the structures still standing may need to be demolished.

Builders Under Scrutiny: The deadly quake has raised painful questions over who is to blame for shoddy construction and whether better building standards could have saved lives.

Needless Deaths: Middle-class landowners in Turkey got wealthy off a construction system rife with patronage. Our investigation reveals just how fatally shaky that system was.

Neighboring countries including Lebanon and Jordan have been eager to work with Syria on sending refugees who fled there back home, while others hope to cooperate on efforts to stop the trade of Captagon, an illegal, addictive drug that the Syrian government has produced and sold as sanctions have bitten and its economy has cratered.

The leading Middle Eastern power brokers, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, were also looking for a new approach to dealing with Iran, which wields deep influence in Syria after sending fighters and other aid to help Mr. al-Assad cling to power. Deciding that regional isolation had only driven Syria into the arms of Iran, the Gulf monarchies now hope to peel Mr. al-Assad away from Tehran by engaging with him.

An early sign of where things were heading came when the Emirates normalized relations with Damascus in 2018. But the slow-burn movement to restore diplomatic and economic relations with Mr. al-Assad gathered momentum in recent months, after a major earthquake in February killed more than 8,000 people in northern Syria, opening the door for Arab countries to reach out.

Syrians in Atarib protesting a lack of international aid in February, after the earthquake.

Credit...Emily Garthwaite for The New York Times

Soon, planeloads of aid from Syria’s Arab brethren were landing in quake-affected areas, and Egypt dispatched its foreign minister to meet with Mr. al-Assad in Damascus. By mid-April, Tunisia had re-established diplomatic relations with Syria and Saudi Arabia had welcomed Syria’s foreign minister to Jeddah to discuss restoring ties.

After years of deep freeze, the Saudi-Syrian relationship has moved quickly in recent months as Saudi Arabia, wielding its regional clout, pushed other Arab countries toward normalization, as well. It appeared to be the main player fast-tracking Syria’s rehabilitation ahead of the Arab League summit in Jeddah on May 19, though Oman and the U.A.E. had been advocating the same for years, diplomats said.

The Arab rush to welcome Damascus back into the fold happened despite public objections from the United States, which imposed strong sanctions on Syria after its civil war began and has shown no inclination to lift them, still hoping to isolate Syria over its government’s brutality. But American efforts at easing Mr. al-Assad out and replacing him with an inclusive, democratic government have gone nowhere, leaving American officials on the sidelines.

On Twitter on Friday, two days before the Arab League meeting, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken reiterated that the United States continued to oppose normalization with Syria. A peaceful political transition that would eventually replace Mr. al-Assad through elections was “the only viable solution to ending the conflict,” he said.

Realizing they cannot stop Arab allies from restoring ties, U.S. officials have urged them to try to exact a price from Mr. al-Assad in exchange, whether it is guaranteeing the safe return of Syrian refugees, cracking down on the Captagon trade or reducing Iran’s military presence in Syria. The Arab League’s assistant secretary general, Hossam Zaki, said on Sunday that the league had formed a committee to discuss such conditions.

But renewed membership in the group, at least, was a done deal.

A poster of Mr. al-Assad on a destroyed shopping mall in Homs, Syria, in 2014.

Credit...Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

“Having Syria out of the league wasn’t useful, either to Syria or to the Arabs,” Bassam Abu Abdallah, a Damascus-based political analyst, said on Sunday, describing the decision as “very positive.”

American efforts to drive Mr. al-Assad from power had failed, he said, adding, “The U.S. political elite should abandon the mentality of regime change.”

Many of the countries in the Arab League have not yet formally re-established diplomatic relations with Syria and could still put further conditions on doing so. They include Egypt, a traditional Arab heavyweight that remains more hesitant about embracing Mr. al-Assad than its Gulf allies.

But readmitting Syria to the Arab League is a powerful statement, setting the stage for individual members to restore ties.

Even if some members were steaming ahead on their own, “normalization isn’t complete until they come to this building,” Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the Arab League’s secretary general, said in a recent interview.

Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon, and Vivian Nereim from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

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Feb. 16, 2023

Vivian Yee is the Cairo bureau chief, covering politics, society and culture in the Middle East and North Africa. She was previously based in Beirut, Lebanon, and in New York, where she wrote about New York City, New York politics and immigration. @VivianHYee

Peanut butter is a liquid – the physics of this and other unexpected fluids

The Conversation
May 5, 2023,

Girl spreads peanut butter on bread (Shutterstock)

Those Transportation Security Administration requirements are drilled into every frequent flyer’s head: You can carry on liquids that are only less than 3.4 ounces (100 milliliters) in volume each.

But when the TSA recently confiscated a jar of Jif under this rule, peanut butter lovers were up in arms. Some skeptics of security may suspect hungry officers just wanted to make their own PB&Js. TSA, however, contends that peanut butter is a liquid – and a full-size jar of Jif is over the 3.4-ounce limit.

Just like Americans’ favorite legume-based sandwich ingredient, the story – and the outrage it inspired – began to spread. However, I’m a mechanical engineer who studies fluid flows, and the TSA action made sense to me. By the scientific definition, peanut butter is indeed a liquid.
First consider fluids

To define a liquid, we must first define a fluid. Any material that flows continuously when a shearing force is applied is a fluid. Think of a shearing force as a cutting action through a substance that causes it to flow continuously. For example, moving your arm causes the surrounding air to change shape – or deform, to use the physics term – and flow out of the way. The same thing happens to water when your arm takes a swim stroke.

There are many kinds of fluids. Some act very predictably and move smoothly, as air or water do. These are called Newtonian fluids, named after Sir Isaac Newton. Scientifically, a Newtonian fluid is one in which the shear force varies in direct proportion with the stress it puts on the material, known as the shearing strain. For a Newtonian fluid, the resistance to fluid flow – that is, its viscosity – is constant at a given temperature.



Shearing forces push a material in opposite directions, producing shearing strain. Designing Buildings

Other types of fluids do not move quite as smoothly and easily. For some, like peanut butter, a minimum shearing or cutting force may be needed to get it flowing, and it may vary nonlinearly with shearing strain. Imagine you’re stirring a jar of peanut butter. If you stir really fast, with more shearing force, the PB gets runnier, while if you stir slowly the PB remains stiff. These types of fluids are called non-Newtonian fluids. Peanut butter may stick more than flow – maybe you could consider this movement more chunky-style.

Peanut butter is actually a great example of a non-Newtonian fluid because it doesn’t flow as easily as air or water but will flow if sufficient force is applied, such as when a knife spreads it on bread. How easily it flows will also depend on temperature – you may have experienced peanut butter drips after slathering it on warm toast.

Strange fluids are all around us

Our everyday lives – but not our airplane carry-ons – are filled with substances that are unexpected fluids. In general, if it can flow, it’s a fluid. And it will eventually take the shape of its container.

Some surprising fluids are peanut butter’s kitchen neighbors, like whipped cream, mayonnaise and cookie batter. You’ll find others in the bathroom, like toothpaste. The natural world is home to other strange fluids, like lava, mudslides, avalanches and quicksand.

Gravel can be considered fluidlike. The individual particles are solids, but a collection of gravel particles can be poured and fill a container – its what’s called a granular fluid, because it has fluidlike properties. The same can be said for cereal poured out of a box or sugar into a bowl.


The body of a fully relaxed squirrel counts as a fluid, flowing to fill its container. 

Ted Heindel, CC BY-ND

Traffic floes on a busy highway, and people flow out of a crowded sporting venue.

You could even consider a cat lying in the sun to be a fluid when it has flattened out and fills its containerlike skin. Sleepy, relaxed dogs, squirrels and even zonked-out babies can meet the definition of a fluid.

Liquids are one type of fluid

Now, you might be objecting: But, the TSA didn’t call peanut butter a fluid, they said it’s a liquid!

Fluids are divided into two general categories: gases and liquids. Both gases and liquids can be deformed and poured into containers and will take the shape of their container. But gases can be compressed, while liquids cannot, at least not easily.

Peanut butter can be poured into its container and then it deforms, or takes the shape of that container. And every 5-year-old knows that peanut butter does not compress. When they squish their PB&J or peanut butter crackers together, the peanut butter does not smoosh into a smaller volume. No – it squirts out the sides and onto their hands.

So, the verdict on peanut butter: delicious liquid.

If you plan to make a PB&J sandwich midflight, count on bringing less than 3.4 ounces of liquid peanut butter. And the same goes for its liquid cousin, jelly.

Ted Heindel, University Professor, Bergles Professor of Thermal Science, and Director of the Center for Multiphase Flow Research and Education, Iowa State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Migrating birds set to risk their lives flying over Chicago, most dangerous city for migratory birds in North America

2023/05/06

Annette Prince holds a dead indigo bunting along Wacker Drive on May 11, 2022, in Chicago. - Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune/TNS

CHICAGO — Migratory bird movement is in full swing, and experts are urging Chicagoans to turn off their lights at night to help protect the birds over the next few days from fatal window collisions.

Thousands of birds carpeted the sky last night, according to Annette Prince, director and president of Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, a nonprofit dedicated to the respite and protection of migratory birds through daily rescue efforts, when on Thursday Chicago experienced a drastic shift in wind patterns moving up from the south, prompting waves of birds to pass through downtown looking for green space to settle.

Chicago is located on the Mississippi flyway, and birds pass through the city on their journey north toward Canada in search of a good place to nest and breed for the summer.

On her way to work this morning, Prince found a little bird in the street, stunned.

“He couldn’t even move, he just sat there blinking and hurt,” she said. “It would have been just a matter of seconds before a car came and ran him over.”

Birds fly at night to protect themselves from predators. They navigate using the moon and stars, but artificial light from city buildings can skew their flight and make them crash into glass.

This morning, the CBCM hotline was swamped with calls from people around the city. Prince said after a night like Thursday, it’s not uncommon for people to look out onto rooftops from their downtown offices and find them littered with dead and dying birds.

During key migration months — spring and fall — CBCM leads volunteer groups ranging between eight and 20 people to walk around skyscrapers and scoop up fallen flyers. They take the injured ones to the Willowbrook Wildlife Center in Glen Ellyn for rehabilitation and care, and take thousands of dead birds each year to the Field Museum, where they are added to the collection for documentation and research.

Using weather surveillance radar techniques, real-time bird migration numbers can be found online at BirdCast. Researchers from the Field Museum are now also going out across Illinois to conduct a spring species count from the ground.

CBCM volunteer groups collect up to 7,000 birds each year, about a quarter of which are injured, said Prince.

“And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. That’s just what we’ve found, and what people report to us,” she said.

A study published in June found that bird collision mortality could be reduced by about 60% if artificial light was cut in half. This would have global implications, as birds are a critical part of controlling insects, distributing seeds, and pollinating plants.

“These birds are doing a really hazardous thing, and we make it even more hazardous by putting buildings along the lakefront,” said John Bates, curator of the division of birds at the Field Museum.

Chicago has been ranked as the most dangerous city for migratory birds in North America by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

In July 2021, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Bird Safe Buildings Act, requiring bird-safety building features to be implemented in construction and renovation of state-owned buildings in Illinois.

But Prince said she has heard bird strikes are increasing in the West Loop, as skyscrapers, stores and restaurants bring more glass to downtown Chicago. Thrushes, orioles, woodpeckers, yellow-bellied sapsuckers and herons are among the species of birds she and her volunteers pick up on any given morning.

“The glass confuses them — because it’s clear and they think they can fly into it, or they think it’s a tree and it’s really the reflection of a tree,” said Prince.

Prince said sometimes she finds birds that weigh as little as two pennies. They’re spectacular, she said. Bright orange, yellow and red.