Trump fans are ready for political violence. Why are the backers of endless war so shocked?

Norman Solomon

SALON
Mon, August 28, 2023 

January 6 Capitol Riot Trump Supporters Brent Stirton/Getty Images

Ever since Donald Trump became a former president, news outlets and commentators have cited polls showing that many Republicans believe violence might be needed to save the country. As Trump's legal woes increase, so does mainstream media alarm about the specter of violent response. But we've heard virtually nothing about the connections between two decades of nonstop U.S. warfare overseas and attitudes favoring political violence at home.

For more than 20 years, a bipartisan approach in Congress and the Oval Office has made sure that the United States uses enormous and lethal violence abroad. Stripped of the usual noble rhetoric, that approach amounts to "might makes right," an easy conceit when the U.S. military is by far the most powerful in the world. Reinforced in the name of a "war on terror," this self-righteous posturing has made perpetual war seem normal.

When Trump loyalists attacked the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, a disproportionate number of those who led and participated in the assault were military veterans. By then, two decades of ongoing U.S. warfare had fueled the presumption that using deadly force is justified when all else fails.

War is all about inflicting sufficient violence to achieve goals. That was the basic method of the pro-Trump mob that attacked the Capitol in a desperate attempt to prevent Joe Biden from becoming president.

Those who laid siege to the Capitol two and half years ago were responding to what they understood as an order from Trump, their commander in chief. Many of the assault's leaders drew on their military training and knowhow to pull off the successful breach of security on Capitol Hill.

"It was like a war zone," some House and Senate members have recalled, using identical words to describe and deplore what they saw that day. But Congress actually likes — and lavishly subsidizes — real war zones. Hefty majorities of Democrats and Republicans keep approving huge appropriations to create faraway war zones or make them more deadly.

As a result — along with several million deaths inside attacked countries as well as terrible injuries to bodies and minds — the still-continuing "war on terror" has meant large numbers of violence-traumatized veterans. "Between 1.9 and 3 million service members have served in post-9/11 war operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and over half of them have deployed more than once," the Costs of War project at Brown University reports. "Many times that number of Americans have borne the costs of war as spouses, parents, children, and friends cope with their loved ones' absence, mourn their deaths, or greet the changed person who often returns."

All along the way, the U.S. media and political establishment has glorified the ostensibly heroic exploits of the Pentagon's forces as they've implemented vast violence. War-making is routinely equated with ultimate patriotism.

The war machine does not have an automatic "off" switch when soldiers return home. Military drills can morph into political maneuvers. And some key takeaways from the rigidly authoritarian structure of the military are well-suited for MAGA forces.

"With thresholds of acceptability declining in domestic political life, the Trump frenzy came more and more to resemble the mentalities of warfare," I write in my new book "War Made Invisible." And "the insurrectionists, exhibiting loyalty to the man at the top of the command structure, escalated to violence when all else had failed. ... Trump was drawing on a deeply militaristic cultural mentality, fueled by nearly 20 years of nonstop war at that point; the 'training' of his militant and dangerous supporters was most importantly about mindsets."

The classic military strategist Carl von Clausewitz wrote two centuries ago that "war is nothing but a continuation of politics with the admixture of other means." Now some of Trump's true believers are eager to adapt the violent precepts of perpetual war to American politics.

Chinese Paper Demands British Museum Return ‘Stolen’ Artifacts

Bloomberg News
Mon, August 28, 2023 

(Bloomberg) -- Chinese state media has urged the UK’s most famous museum to return items “stolen” in past centuries, potentially widening a rift between the Asian nation and the West.

“We formally request the British Museum to return all Chinese cultural relics acquired through improper channels to China free of charge, and to refrain from adopting a resistant, protracted and perfunctory attitude,” the Global Times said in an editorial Monday.

The newspaper said the museum had 23,000 Chinese items, and gave as examples a painting from the Tang dynasty and bronze vessels dating to the dawn of the Asian nation’s civilization.

“Most Chinese collections were certainly looted or stolen by Britain when it created and later took advantage of China’s crisis, or even directly robbed China,” the nationalist-leaning newspaper said, referring to 19th century upheaval in the Asian nation. The Global Times added that it backed other countries who sought the return of artifacts.

See: UK’s Cleverly Prepares to Visit China in Last Week of August

The editorial comes just before an expected visit by UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly to Beijing in a bid to repair ties hurt by the Communist Party’s crackdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy opposition and other issues.

It is unclear whether the Chinese artifacts would be raised at Cleverly’s talks with Chinese officials, though a British law enacted in 1963 bars the institution from repatriating objects.

The British Museum is holding a summer exhibit called China’s Hidden Century, which covers a period of the Qing dynasty from 1796 to 1912. One of the items on display is the original Treaty of Nanjing, which ended the First Opium War and ceded Hong Kong to Britain.

The ruling Communist Party frequently references that period as an example of foreign powers “humiliating” China. The party tries to gain legitimacy in the eyes of its people now by pledging that it will never let a repeat occur on its watch and will counter any effort by the West, especially the US, to undercut China’s development.

The Global Times editorial was the top trending item on China’s Weibo social media platform on Monday, and opinion was divided on the newspaper’s stance. Some internet users accused it of trying to distract the public from the nation’s flagging economy.

“The public know that the economy is on a downward trend and you are working hard to evoke a sense of cohesion for our nation,” wrote one user named Niu Mingyu whose post got 10,000 likes. “But populism is not a good thing.”

Another person suggested that the public was getting fatigued by another conflict with a foreign nation following China’s vehement denunciation of Japan for releasing treated wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean.

“The timing is quite awkward,” wrote Wang Weichen. “The public was focused on condemning Japan, and now another front is being opened on the West. Netizens are feeling very tired.”

Bloomberg Businessweek

As wildfires multiply, a new era of air pollution

Issam AHMED
Wed, August 23, 2023 

Heavy smog covers the skylines of the boroughs of Brooklyn and Manhattan in New York on June 7, 2023 (Ed JONES)

From Quebec to British Columbia to Hawaii, North America is facing an extraordinary wildfire season -- and regions both near and far have found themselves increasingly blighted by smoke exposure.

Here's what you should know about air pollution from these blazes.

- What we know -

One of the defining aspects of smoke from wildfires is "particulate matter" -- toxins that, in their numbers, can make smoke visible.

Particulate matter of 2.5 micron diameter, PM2.5, is "particularly dangerous for human health and emitted in really large quantities," Rebecca Hornbrook, an atmospheric chemist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, who flies in planes through smoke for her research, told AFP.

"Typically if you are downwind of a wildfire, that's the thing that's causing the majority of the darkening of the sky and the lack of visibility," she said, such as the shrouded skies seen in New York as a result of fires hundreds of miles away in Quebec earlier this year.

PM2.5 penetrates deep inside the lungs and potentially even the bloodstream.

The average American had already been exposed to 450 micrograms of smoke per cubic meter by early July, worse that the entirety of the years from 2006-2022, economist Marshall Burke at Stanford posted on X recently, citing calculations made by the university's Environmental Change and Human Outcomes Lab.

Also of concern are invisible substances known as volatile organic compounds such as butane and benzene. These cause eye and throat irritation, while some are known carcinogens.

When VOCs mix with nitrogen oxides -- which are produced by wildfires but also are abundant in urban areas from burning fossil fuels -- they help form ozone which can exacerbate coughing, asthma, sore throat and difficulty breathing.

- What we don't know -

Automobile ownership exploded after World War II, and in the decades since scientists have gained insights on how it impacts humans -- from the onset of asthma in childhood to increased risk of heart attacks and even dementia later on in life.

That breadth of knowledge is lacking for wildfire smoke, explained Christopher Carlsten, director of the Air Pollution Exposure Laboratory at the University of British Columbia.

Based on the two dozen studies published "there seems to be a greater proportion of respiratory versus cardiovascular effects of smoke as compared to traffic pollution," he told AFP.

The reason might be that nitric oxides are more prominent in traffic pollution.

Carlsten's lab has begun conducting human experiments with wood smoke to gain more clarity.

Medical interventions exist, said Carlsten, who is also a physician, including inhaled steroids, non-steroid inflammatories, and air filters -- but research is urgently needed to know how best to use them.

- Will it spur action? -

The warming planet also impacts our psychological wellbeing in myriad ways, Joshua Wortzel, chair of the American Psychiatric Association's committee on climate change in mental health, told AFP.

One response is distress, "anger, grief, anxiety, in the face of the natural disasters they expect to come," with these rates far higher in younger people than older.

Another is mental "acclimatization," a byproduct of evolution that helps us cope with new stressors, but if we're not careful can inure us to dangers, much like the proverbial frog in boiling water.

For Hornbrook, who is based in Colorado, what eastern North America experienced in 2023 is what the western side of the continent has already been dealing with for many years -- and the global picture is only set to worsen given humanity's appetite for burning fossil fuels.

While historic pollution regulations helped rein in emissions from cars and industry, climate action will be needed to tackle the wildfire scourge, she said.

"It gets frustrating knowing that we've been ringing the warning bell for years and years, and we're now seeing what we've been warning about," she said, but added there was still hope. "Maybe now people are actually starting to notice and we'll see some change."

ia/st

Climate skeptics misrepresent footage of Northwest Territories fire suppression effort

Gwen Roley / AFP Canada
Wed, August 23, 2023

A video of a helicopter releasing flames over a forest spread across social media accompanied by claims that the intense wildfires in Canada's Northwest Territories were set intentionally to increase concerns about climate change. This is false; the video depicts a planned ignition, which a local fire official said is a common technique used to manage the spread of flames.

"Climate change caught on camera," says the caption of a video posted August 21, 2023 to Twitter, which recently rebranded as "X."

The video shows a helicopter carrying a suspended canister dropping flames on a forested landscape -- with text over the clip saying the footage is from the Northwest Territories in Canada. The post received more than 19,400 likes and was shared more than 12,000 times.

The video jumped to Facebook and Instagram where it was amplified by former Welsh football player David Cotterill.

"The 'Global Boiling' speech a few weeks back was the catalyst and the signal for the Deep State to kick off their Psyop-Climate Change Hoax," said the text of another Facebook post, referencing comments made by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the end of July (archived here).

Screenshot of a Facebook post, taken August 23, 2023

After an early and intense start to wildfire season in Canada, the west of the country is facing another devastating wave of forest fires which have caused the evacuations of tens of thousands of people in British Columbia and the Northwest Territories (NWT).

But as with claims AFP debunked about fires in British Columbia and the Yukon, the video from the NWT shows officials legitimately fighting forest fires.
Origin of the video

Reverse image and keyword searches show the helicopter video is part of a montage of footage (archived here) released by the NWT government, showing the firefighting effort near Ingraham Trail, a highway in the territory.

Mike Westwick, a fire information officer for the territorial government, said the video depicts a technique to burn off vegetation and take away fuel from approaching flames. He said prescribed fire is a common way of managing the spread of a wildfire.

"The goal is to limit that fire's growth to the south, which is towards the Ingraham Trail, which is one of our largest unincorporated populated areas in the territory," Westwick said. "There are hundreds of residences down there, so obviously a priority in managing this fire is to protect those places."

This action, also known as a backburn, was conducted while weather conditions were less humid, with winds that would not push the fire toward the areas crews were attempting to protect.

According to the most recent update from the NWT government (archived here), the fire is being held and it is not likely the Ingraham Trail will be touched by the blazes.

Screenshot of an Instagram post, taken August 23, 2023


Screenshot of the Government of the Northwest Territories' video as it appears on the CBC News website, taken August 23, 2023

Westwick said the NWT government released the video in an effort to share information about how wildfires are fought.

"I think that there's always value in actually showing people what's being done to manage fires -- to be open and transparent about the tactics that we're using," he said. "It's better to show something and explain something to folks than it is to keep it in the dark."
Climate change impacts wildfires

In Canada, 2023 has been an unprecedented year for wildfires, with more than 15.3 million hectares burned as of August 22, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (archived here), already doubling of the previous 1989 record.

Since the start of the season, social media users have invoked false or misleading claims about the blazes' origins to deny the existence of climate change and its effect on the increase in wildfires.

Scientists and government officials have linked the extreme fire season to windy, dry and hot conditions, exacerbated by climate change.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in its most recent report (archived here) that human activities have "unequivocally" caused global warming.

Screenshot of a post on X, taken August 23, 2023

Westwick said the combination of rising temperatures and falling humidity, with an environment that is built up with vegetation which flames can use as fuel after previous zero-fire forest management policy, has contributed to the incendiary situation in Canada this year.

"You give the fire more to work with, more to burn, it's going to have more routes to get to places you don't want it to go."

He said prescribed burns, like the one seen in the video of the helicopter, clear out the fuel for imminent wildfires by getting rid of built-up vegetation.

Find more of AFP's reporting on misinformation in Canada here.

AI has a giant carbon footprint. Can the technology also fight climate change?

Aliza Chasan
Updated Sun, August 27, 2023 at 1:31 PM MDT·8 min read

As the use of artificial intelligence grows and societies ponder how to use the powerful tool to improve our lives, increase productivity and tackle our most pressing challenges, few have considered its effects on the environment.

While some have highlighted the technology's potential to help tackle environmental challenges, others point out that we must first understand AI's own carbon footprint.

Proponents of technological advances like cryptocurrency were quick to celebrate its potential to reduce carbon emissions, only to be refuted by wasteful practices like Bitcoin mining due to their enormous energy demands.

But experts largely see AI as a positive development, with the United Nations Environment Program lauding it as a tool that could improve our understanding of our environmental impact and the effects of climate change.

AI can be used to sift through large amounts of data, like satellite images researchers use to monitor climate change, said Sasha Luccioni, who works analyzing AI models for sustainability. With the help of AI, scientists can better model climate patterns, identify trends and make predictions so they can have a clearer understanding of climate change and effective mitigation strategies.

Other potential applications include using artificial intelligence to conserve water, fight wildfires and even identify and recover recyclables.

"There are a lot of really cool applications of AI in different sectors of climate change — everything from optimizing electricity grids to tracking biodiversity," Luccioni said.

But some experts are looking at the carbon footprint of AI itself. For them, companies hoping to deploy AI should be transparent about its environmental impact and how they are addressing it.

What is AI's carbon footprint and why is it worrying some environmental advocates?

AI's overall carbon footprint is difficult to measure, but it starts with the computers it uses. The raw materials needed to create computer hardware are mined and "that can be really labor intensive and also environmentally expensive," Shaolei Ren, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, Riverside, said.

Once developers have the hardware they need, training an AI model can consume a lot of energy. AI companies don't tend to share how much energy is used, but researchers have taken guesses based on the data available to them. One non-peer-reviewed study, led by Ren and other experts, estimates that training GPT-3, which powers a language model of ChatGPT, could potentially have consumed 700,000 liters of freshwater. The water used to prevent data centers from overheating is usually evaporated, which means it can't be reused.

Water cooling pump and pipes at a data center in the Lower Manhattan area of New York. / Credit: STAN HONDA/AFP via Getty Images

There's also the carbon emissions. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst found the training process for a single AI model can emit more than 626,000 pounds of carbon dioxide. That's about the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions as 62.6 gasoline-powered passenger vehicles driven for a year. Carbon dioxide makes up the vast majority of greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to climate change by trapping heat in the atmosphere.

After consulting these independent estimates, CBS News asked AI language models about the technology's carbon footprint.

Bard, created by Google, said it was difficult to estimate accurately. ChatGPT, created by OpenAI, stressed that as an AI language model, it doesn't have a direct carbon footprint, but with an estimated 100 million monthly active users, there's a footprint connected to the electricity and computing resources needed to run the servers hosting and powering the model. (OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment for this story.)

Microsoft, which has invested billions of dollars into OpenAI, declined to share estimates for the carbon footprint involved in developing AI tools.

"AI will be a powerful tool for advancing sustainability solutions, but we need a plentiful clean energy supply globally to power this new technology, which has increased consumption demands," a Microsoft spokesperson said. "Microsoft is investing in research to measure the energy use and carbon impact of AI while working on ways to make large systems more efficient, in both training and application."

Can AI tools be designed in an environmentally-conscious way?

Training, deploying and running AI can be energy intensive, so companies should carefully consider the potential consequences while building the systems, said Junhong Chen, professor of molecular engineering at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and lead water strategist at Argonne National Laboratory.

"When we design these types of systems, we have to be mindful of the potential negative consequences and try to minimize it from the beginning by design," Chen said.

Research from Google shows that water-cooled data centers emit roughly 10% lower carbon emissions than air-cooled data centers. According to the Energy Department, data centers are one of the most energy-intensive types of building in the U.S., consuming 10 to 50 times the energy per floor space of typical commercial office buildings. They collectively account for about 2% of the total U.S. electricity use.

When new sites are picked for Google data centers —largely decided based on proximity to users— the company will look into reclaimed and nonpotable water resources in the area, Ben Townsend, Google's head of data center sustainability, said.

"Data centers are very similar to your personal computer. They require space, they require energy and they require cooling," Townsend said.

There's also a balance to strike when it comes to energy grids, Ram Rajagopal, who leads the Stanford Sustainable Systems Lab, said. With the goals of decarbonization and resiliency in mind, AI can be used in the electricity system to reduce costs, scale up deployments and determine optimal plans for lowering the amount of greenhouse gas emissions, Rajagopal said.

Still, as AI use becomes more common, the data centers currently handling AI tasks may not be up to snuff.

"As this starts to scale up, you create a bottleneck in terms of the data centers and then you have to expand data centers, so the power consumption expands," Rajagopal said.

How can AI help?

Scientists are already using AI in many helpful ways. AI models can help researchers find ways to recycle and reuse water by identifying contaminants in water and figuring out the best ways to extract them, according to Chen, the professor of molecular engineering. It can also potentially be used to determine ways to reclaim those contaminants for other uses, he added.

In one recent project, Google, American Airlines and Breakthrough Energy teamed up and used AI to piece together and sift through satellite imagery, weather and flight path data. The AI was used to develop maps to forecast contrails — the thin, white lines sometimes seen behind airplanes. The research can help pilots optimize flight routes so they can cut down on contrails, which account for roughly 35% of the aviation sector's global warming impact.

AI has been used to discover ways to minimize contrails behind planes, cutting down on aviation industry emissions. / Credit: FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images

Artificial intelligence can also be applied to battery research to optimize lithium batteries, which are used by most electric vehicles, experts say.

Several companies, such as AMP Robotics and MachineX, have developed AI tools to identify and recover recyclables with AI-guided robots. AMP Robotics has more than 300 AI systems deployed globally, a spokesperson said.

The robots can, on average, pick up recycled materials up to two times as fast and with more consistency than humans. According to the company, AMP Robotics technology has helped avoid nearly 1.8 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, an impact equivalent to removing close to 375,000 cars from the road, by optimizing recycling efforts.

Scientists in California are using AI to fight wildfires. AI connected to cameras can identify wildfires and detect smoke before they spread more widely. Cal Fire Battalion Chief David Krussow told CBS Sacramento the information on wildfire prediction is a "game changer."

At the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, scientists are using AI to improve climate, weather and other earth system models.

The United Nations Environment Program uses AI to help analyze and predict the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, along with changes in glacier mass and sea level rise. They hope to use the tool as a type of "mission control" for the planet, David Jensen, a coordinator with the team, has said. One U.N. tool, the International Methane Emissions Observatory, or IMEO, uses AI to monitor and mitigate methane emissions, a potent greenhouse gas which affects the earth's temperature.

"Reducing the energy sector's methane emissions is one of the quickest, most feasible, and cost-effective ways to limit the impacts of climate warming, and reliable data-driven action will play a big role in achieving these reductions," Jensen said in a U.N. post.

But despite the promise, companies and even AI language models recognize the technology's limitations and the uncertainty around its environmental impact.

"As an AI, my purpose is to assist users like you in accessing information and knowledge about various topics, including those related to the environment, so that you can make informed decisions and take actions that align with your values and goals for a better and sustainable world," ChatGPT wrote in response to a question by CBS News.

Kate Brandt, Google's chief sustainability officer, said it was difficult to predict the future growth of energy use and emissions associated with AI.

Bard, the AI language model, told CBS News it cares about the environment and is committed to using its "knowledge and skills to help address environmental challenges and protect our planet."

"Ultimately, the environmental impact of AI models like me will depend on how they are used," Bard said. "If we use AI to solve environmental problems, then we can have a positive impact on the planet. However, if we use AI to create new environmental problems, then we will have a negative impact."

Ancient priest's remains are a first-of-a-kind find for Peru team

Carlos MANDUJANO
Sun, August 27, 2023

An archaeologist at the 3,000-year-old tomb discovered in August 2023 in Pacopampa, Peru (Handout)

A group of Japanese and Peruvian archaeologists have discovered the 3,000-year-old tomb of a priest alongside ceramic offerings in northern Peru.

"We have recently discovered the tomb of a 3,000-year-old figure at the Pacopampa archaeological site," in the Cajamarca region, 900 kilometers (560 miles) north of Lima, archaeologist Juan Pablo Villanueva told AFP on Saturday.

"He is one of the first priests in the Andes to have a series of offerings," the researcher said, adding that "the funerary context is intact."

The body, its lower extremities partially flexed, was oriented from south to north. On the western side of the tomb were small spherical ceramic bowls, a carved bone spatula and other offerings.

Two seals were also found, one with designs of an anthropomorphic face and the other with that of a jaguar.

The body and the offerings were covered by at least six layers of ash and earth. The tomb is circular, three meters in diameter and one meter deep (10 feet by 3.3 feet).

- Powerful leaders -

"The find is extremely important because he is one of the first priests to begin to control the temples in the country's northern Andes," Japanese archaeologist Yuji Seki, who has been working at the site for 18 years, told AFP.

Researchers estimate that the priest lived around 1,000 BC.

Seki said the find helped demonstrate that even that long ago, "powerful leaders had appeared in the Andes."

In September 2022, the same group of archaeologists had discovered the tomb, more than 3,000 years old, of a man they called the "Priest of the Pututos," along with musical instruments made of seashells.

Pututos or pututus are conch-like shells that the inhabitants of ancient Peru could use to make trumpet-like sounds.

The Pacopampa site, at an altitude of 2,500 meters (8,200 feet), includes nine monumental ceremonial buildings of carved and polished stone.

Other burials found in the same site include those of the "Lady of Pacopampa," found in 2009, and of two "Jaguar Serpent priests," discovered in 2015.

They are estimated to date from around 700 to 600 years BC.

Archaeologists from the National Museum of Ethnology in Japan and from Peru's National University of San Marcos participate in the work in Pacopampa.

cm-ljc/mdl/bbk

Hourly workers at GM joint venture to get a wage increase starting Monday

Jamie L. LaReau, Detroit Free Press
Sun, August 27, 2023 

About 1,100 workers at General Motors' joint-venture battery plant in northeast Ohio will get a raise starting Monday.

On Sunday afternoon, the UAW and Ultium Cells LLC confirmed that the union-represented workforce at the plant near Lordstown, Ohio, ratified an interim wage increase by an acceptance vote of 97.6%. The agreement, reached late last week, gives an immediate pay increase averaging 25% to all current Ultium Cells hourly employees. That means for someone at starting wage of $16.50 an hour, it is now increased to a little more than $20 an hour.

In addition to the hourly rate boost, all eligible employees will receive back pay for every hour worked since Dec. 23, when the workforce chose to unionize. Any current employee who has worked since that date can get $3,000 to $7,000 in back pay based on hours worked.

"There is still a lot of work ahead in the bargaining process, including a wage package which will not only be life changing for the hourly workforce, but transform our work from ‘just a job’ to a career," Josh Ayers, chairman of UAW Local 1112, which represents the hourly workers at the plant, said in a statement. "Ultium Cells can and should be a highly desirable place to work."

Ultium Cells is the joint venture owned by GM and battery maker LG Energy Solution. It makes battery cells for the EV batteries GM uses in its new EVs powered by the Ultium propulsion system. That includes the GMC Hummer EV, Cadillac Lyriq, Chevrolet Silverado EV and Chevrolet Blazer EV, which started shipping to dealers late last month.

The hourly workforce at Ultium Cells voted to unionize the plant near Lordstown, Ohio, in December after the union and the company spent months at odds over the organizing process.

Ultium Ohio Plant Director Kareem Maine said the vote to ratify the interim wage increase reinforces that Ultium and the union are making progress toward a comprehensive agreement, "which will lead to a meaningful contract for our team members. This interim wage increase is a positive first step in the right direction.”

The UAW International said in a statement the interim wage increase passed by a vote of 895 to 22. It added that negotiations for a complete first contract will continue.

“UAW members at Ultium are proving that we can raise standards at the electric vehicle facilities coming on line across America,” said UAW President Shawn Fain in a statement. “This agreement is an important step forward, but it’s only the first step. We will keep fighting at Ultium and all EV plants to win the same strong pay and safety standards that generations of autoworkers have won at GM, Ford and Stellantis.”


Fain has been critical of joint ventures, which he sees as a strategy whereby a company can circumvent the union's negotiated wages and benefits in its national contract by starting a new business — the joint venture — with a new workforce.

Utlium Cell's wages and working conditions have been contentious during negotiations. The bargaining team traveled to Washington, D.C., earlier this summer to talk to policymakers "about issues such as exposure to chemicals that are not yet regulated by OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) and how employees are getting sick and passing out," Fain said during a Facebook Live presentation earlier this summer.

He has advocated pulling that workforce into the national agreement the union has with GM, Ford and Stellantis so that hourly workers at Ultium Cells get similar pay and benefits. A spokesman for the UAW said Fain's position has not changed in that he continues to seek agreements with battery makers that are on par with the national agreement in terms of pay, safety and other benefits.

UAW President Shawn Fain gives a Facebook Live update on the strike authorization vote on August 25, 2023 from UAW Local 862, which represents the hourly workforce at Ford's Louisville Assembly Plant in Kentucky.

On Friday, during a Facebook Live presentation, Fain again said, "To Ultium and Genera Motors, this wage increase is just a start. These battery plant workers deserve the same wages and benefits that all our members have fought for...they deserve nothing less."

Separately, the UAW is renegotiating its national contract that covers some 150,000 UAW members across the Detroit Three. The current contract expires at 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 14.

Industry experts have said any lucrative agreement at this Ultium plant likely signals that Ultium's two other plants — one being built in Spring Hill, Tennessee, and the other in Lansing — will likely also vote yes for union representation. All three Ultium plants will be near GM assembly plants, which are already union-represented. GM will build a fourth battery plant in New Carlisle, which is about 15 miles west of South Bend, Indiana, with partner Samsung SDI, due to open in 2026.

More: UAW members practice picketing: As deadline nears, autoworkers are 'ready to strike'

More: UAW says authorization for strike against Detroit 3 overwhelmingly approved: What's next


This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Hourly workers at GM joint venture get a wage increase starting Monday

KURDISTAN WILL BE FREE

Clashes between US-allied Arab and Kurdish fighters in east Syria kill 3 and raise tensions

BASSEM MROUE
Mon, August 28, 2023 

This is a locator map for Syria with its capital, Damascus. (AP Photo) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)


BEIRUT (AP) — Clashes broke out Monday between two U.S.-backed groups in eastern Syria, leaving three gunmen dead and raising tensions in the region where hundreds of American troops are deployed, opposition activists said.

The clashes raise concerns of more divisions between U.S.-backed Kurdish and Arab fighters in eastern Syria that borders Iraq and where the Islamic State group once enjoyed wide presence. U.S.-backed fighters play a major role in targeting sleeper cells of the Islamic State group that still carry out deadly attacks.

Monday’s clashes came a day after the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces detained the commander a formerly allied group and several other members of his faction after they were invited to a meeting in the northeastern city of Hassakeh on Sunday.

The SDF did not confirm the detention of Ahmad Khbeil, better known as Abu Khawla. He heads the Deir el-Zour Military Council, which was allied with the SDF in its yearslong battle against the Islamic State group in Syria. SDF officials did not immediately respond to questions by The Associated Press about the arrest.

Rami Abdurrahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said that the SDF was concerned that Khbeil was opening links with the Syrian government as well as Turkey, whose troops have carried out several incursions targeting Kurdish fighters in north Syria since 2016.

Khbeil's arrest could increase tension between Kurds and Arabs because most of his supporters who were also detained belong to a powerful tribe in eastern Syria. In July, a clash between the two sides left at least one Arab fighter dead.

On Monday, several opposition activists reported clashes between the sides in villages in Deir el-Zour. The Observatory and Omar Abu Layla, a Europe-based activist who follows events in the region, said three members of the Deir el-Zour Military Council were killed. Other activists said that angry Arab tribesmen cut roads in the province in protest against the SDF.

The Observatory also reported that members of the Kurdish police force known as Asayesh stormed the offices of Baz news network, an activist collective, and detained five citizen journalists including the head of the network. The Observatory said the network is funded by Khbeil.

Baz news network said in a statement that Kurdish fighters detained its journalists, confiscated equipment and took control of its offices.

On any given day, there are at least 900 U.S. forces in eastern Syria, along with an undisclosed number of contractors. They partner with the SDF to work on preventing a comeback by the Islamic State group.

____

Associated Press writer Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report.

Iran says Iraq has agreed to disarm and relocate Kurdistan militants

Reuters
Mon, August 28, 2023 

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran and Iraq have reached an agreement that "armed terrorist groups" in Iraq's Kurdistan region will be disarmed and relocated next month, Iran's foreign ministry said on Monday.

“An agreement has been struck between Iran and Iraq, in which Iraq has committed to disarm armed separatists and terrorist groups present in its territory, close their bases, and relocate them to other locations before the 19th of September,” ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said at a weekly briefing.

The spokesperson did not specify where militants would be relocated. There was no immediate comment from Iraq.

Iran has long accused Iraq's autonomous northern Kurdish region of harbouring terrorist groups involved in attacks against the Islamic Republic, with the Revolutionary Guards repeatedly targeting their bases.

Last September, Iran's Revolutionary Guards fired missiles and drones at militant targets at Iraq's Kurdish region, killing 13 people, according to local authorities.

Iraq's foreign ministry had condemned the attacks. Iran's elite military and security force had said it would continue targeting what it called terrorists in the region.

(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Tehran and Baghdad reach a deal to disarm and relocate Iranian dissident groups based in north Iraq

QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
Updated Mon, August 28, 2023 


This is a locator map for Iraq with its capital, Baghdad. (AP Photo) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)


BAGHDAD (AP) — Iran and Iraq have reached an agreement to disarm members of Iranian Kurdish dissident groups based in northern Iraq and relocate their members from their current bases, officials from the two countries said Monday.

Nasser Kanaani, the spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said in a news briefing Monday that the Iraqi government had agreed “to disarm the armed terrorist groups stationed in Iraq’s territory by September 19, and then, evacuate and transfer them from their military bases to camps designated by the Iraqi government.”

He added that the deadline would not be extended and that while relations between the two countries are “entirely friendly and warm ... the presence of terrorists in the northern region of Iraq is an unpleasant stain on mutual ties.”

Iran has periodically launched strikes targeting members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Iran, or KDPI, and other Iranian Kurdish dissident groups based in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region near the border with Iran.

An Iraqi government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, confirmed the agreement was signed between the two countries and said the central government in Baghdad is “working as quickly as possible” to relocate the groups with the approval of authorities from the Kurdish regional government in Irbil and Sulaimaniyah.

He declined to give the exact location to which the disarmed militants would be moved, but said it will be within the Iraqi Kurdish region. He said they “will have a camp to live in and will be without arms.”

Different Iranian dissident groups in Iraq are aligned with each of the two main Iraqi Kurdish parties - the Kurdistan Democractic Party, with its seat of power in Irbil, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, whose stronghold is in Suleimaniyah - and are at odds with each other as well as with Iran.

“Previously Sulaimaniyah would accuse Irbil of working with these groups, and Erbil would accuse Sulaimaniyah of working with them, but as a central government we agreed to relocate them,” the Iraqi official said. “We are trying as hard as possible for this to take place on Sept. 19.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani came to power last year via a coalition of Iranian-backed parties and is seen as close to Iran, although he has also attempted to build ties with the United States and Turkey.

A spokesman for Sudani, Hisham al-Rikabi, said in a statement that the prime minister “has spoken on more than one occasion about the government’s refusal for the Iraqi land to be ... a launching pad for targeting neighboring countries.”

In addition to disarming the militant groups and removing their bases, he said, the agreement with Iran promises that Iraq will deploy border guards to prevent the “infiltration of militants” across the border and will hand over wanted suspects to Iran “after the issuance of arrest warrants in accordance with the law.”

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Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Salar Salim in Irbil, Iraq, contributed to this report.

U.N. schools in Gaza begin school year uncertain if they will stay open

Sun, August 27, 2023 


By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - Gaza's students began their new school term on Sunday, but it is unclear if they will be able to complete the year uninterrupted due to a funding crisis at the United Nations' Palestinian refugee agency.

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) runs 288 schools in the Palestinian territory, among 700 across parts of the Middle East region that it funds alongside 140 medical clinics.

But it is short of nearly $200 million needed to pay for staff salaries and keep the services running until the end of 2023.

“We haven’t secured all the funding we need to ensure that our schools can remain operational until the end of this year, so we are working on securing the funds needed to keep schools in Gaza open,” said Thomas White, Gaza director of UNRWA's affairs.

White said some donor countries would hold discussion about funding for UNRWA in September.

"In the event we don’t get the funding, it is 298,000 students who might not be going to school. In Gaza, it is 1.2 million people who may not have access to health care," White told Reuters during a visit to one U.N.-run school in Gaza City.

In addition to the $200 million to support its operational budget in the wider region, UNRWA also needs $75 million for food aid in Gaza.

Around two thirds of Gaza's 2.3 million population are refugees, mainly the descendants of those who fled or had been forced to flee their hometowns and villages around the 1948 war which saw the birth of the state of Israel.

The UNRWA schools educate a little under half of Gaza's young people, with around 300,000 students at government-run schools and others at privately owned schools.

In Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, Palestinian refugee Sami Abu Mallouh, 47, said his family of 12 depended on UNRWA for education, medical treatment and food aid.

"Without UNRWA we are worth nothing," Mallouh said.

(Reporting and Writing by Nidal Almughrabi; Editing by Alison Williams)

Niger journalist: I lie awake at night fearing they will arrest me

BBC reporter - Niamey, Niger
Sat, August 26, 2023 at 

Day-to-day life continues in the markets of the capital Niamey despite the blockade


My country Niger is never normally "front page news" but that all changed on 26 July.

Rumours started to circulate that there had been a coup at the presidential palace. I immediately got to work, tapping up contacts, trying to establish the facts.

I didn't have to wait long - that same night the head of the presidential guard announced that President Mohamed Bazoum was under "house arrest". The democratically elected president had been overthrown. Two days later, Gen Abdourahmane Tchiani proclaimed himself the new leader.

For the next two weeks, I barely slept. Everyone across the BBC wanted to talk to me but communication was difficult.

Before long, the atmosphere began to change on the street. "You're either with us or against us" was the line from the military junta and their supporters.

As the BBC reported all the twists and turns, including the reaction of the regional Ecowas bloc as well as Western countries, the mood soured. I was doing my job, striving to report fairly and objectively on developments.

But some of our audience in Niger were only interested in hearing information which chimed with their viewpoint. Pro-Russia, pro-Tchiani, anti-French - these labels hide more than they explain but I was suddenly in the spotlight.

There's a strong police presence in the capital

I started being trolled heavily on social media and then came abusive phone calls. The military junta threatened to throw out all "foreign" media. It was too risky for me to go down the street in the capital Niamey and report on any of the pro-Tchiani demonstrations.

As doing my job has become more difficult, so has life in general. I now spend most of my day without electricity as Nigeria has cut its supply. It's a daily battle to charge my laptop and mobile phone which more often than not fails. I know these sound like "first world problems" but if I can't do my job, how will people know what is happening?

Food is also becoming more difficult to find due to the Ecowas economic blockade. People are hurting and it's understandable they are looking for someone to blame. We're also running out of money - vital in this cash economy where everyone lives day to day. The limit for a withdrawal is now 50,000 CFA (about $83; £64). It may seem a large sum but prices have rocketed.

Pro-coup supporters are vocal on the streets of Niamey

When I do my shopping, I keep a low profile. The joy and laughter I used to see and hear on the streets has disappeared. Everyone talks about the coup but only one side is allowed to "lead" the debate.

Anyone who openly opposes the coup risks being beaten up or having their house ransacked. I fear I could be arrested at any moment by the military junta. This thought keeps me awake at night but I have taken some precautions.

I lock the door behind me when I'm home and won't open it to anyone. It's a shadow of the life I used to lead but I want to keep telling the story of my country to the world.