NORTHERN IRELAND

Sinn Féin in bid to recall Stormont Assembly next week ahead of public sector strike

The recall motion will require the backing of 30 MLAs to succeed.
 

A BID IS under way to have the Stormont Assembly recalled next week.

Sinn Féin is attempting to bring the recall on Wednesday – the day before trade unions are planning one of the largest public sector strikes Northern Ireland has seen in recent history.

Thursday is also the deadline for Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Chris Heaton-Harris to call fresh Assembly elections if devolved government in Northern Ireland has not been restored.

The Assembly has been effectively collapsed for almost two years. The DUP is refusing to participate until unionist concerns around post-Brexit trading arrangements are addressed.

Sinn Féin’s Stormont leader Michelle O’Neill said her party has initiated an Assembly recall to restore the Executive and “urgently deliver a fair pay deal for public sector workers”.

The recall motion will require the backing of 30 MLAs to succeed.

It urges that the Assembly meets urgently to elect a Speaker and Deputy Speakers, appoint ministers and back a motion which endorses fair pay settlements for public sector workers.

It also calls for the DUP to “respect the democratic outcome of the May 2022 Assembly election” in which Sinn Fein made history by becoming the first nationalist or republican party to top the Stormont poll and entitling it to nominate the first nationalist or republican First Minister.

Finally it emphasises the “pressing need to urgently reinstate the Executive to tackle the unprecedented challenges confronting citizens and our public services, particularly the immediate matter of public sector pay”.

The DUP has insisted it will not end its blockade until it secures legislative assurances from the Government on Northern Ireland’s trading position within the UK.

Heaton-Harris has said his talks with the DUP over the Windsor Framework have concluded, although leader Jeffrey Donaldson has insisted engagement is continuing.

Heaton-Harris has invited the main Stormont parties to take part in bilateral talks at Hillsborough Castle on Monday about the Stormont stalemate.

O’Neill also pressed the DUP today to make a decision on re-entering the Assembly.

“It is decision time for the DUP,” she said.

“There can be no more delays or excuses. Our public sector workers play a pivotal role right across our society, working in our hospitals, schools, on trains and buses, and within the civil service.

“The DUP cannot continue to leave workers and families in the lurch any longer.”

Earlier DUP MP Gavin Robinson insisted there is no legal basis for joint authority rule in Northern Ireland if devolved government is not restored.

Robinson was reacting after Conservative MP and chair of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee Robert Buckland said any alternative to the DUP agreeing a deal to restore the Stormont Executive would likely mean the “involvement of the Irish government”.

The DUP deputy leader accused Buckland of making “hollow threats”.

Thursday is also the deadline for Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Chris Heaton-Harris to call fresh Assembly elections if devolved government in Northern Ireland has not been restored. Alamy Stock Photo

During an appearance on the BBC’s The View programme, Buckland said that a return to direct rule for Northern Ireland would mean “triggering certain aspects of the Good Friday Agreement” and “involvement of the Irish government, ultimately”.

When asked if “old-style direct rule of the past” was off the table, he responded: “I think so.”

Robinson responded: “Sir Robert Buckland seems to be confused. It’s not often he is wrong, but on this he is.

“The Republic of Ireland has no legal basis for governing Northern Ireland. Such a step would be a further breach of the Belfast and successor agreements.”

He added: “It is the arrangements flowing from the Northern Ireland Protocol alone that are stopping the formation of an Executive.

“We are focused on getting this right and restoring the balance. We will not be distracted by Sir Robert’s confused viewpoint.

“Rather than issue hollow threats about some version of joint authority, Sir Robert and his colleagues would be better to focus on restoring Northern Ireland’s place within the UK internal market.

“Replacing the protocol with arrangements that unionists, as well as nationalists, can support will provide a solid foundation for the restoration of devolution on a cross-community basis.”

Previous talks between Heaton-Harris and the main Stormont parties over a £3.3 billion (€3.8 billion) financial package to accompany the return of devolution broke up at Hillsborough Castle in December without any agreement to restore the Assembly and Executive.

The package would include money to make an outstanding pay award to public sector workers.

With their pay demands still unmet, unions are planning a major strike across Northern Ireland on 18 January.

Buckland denied that the UK Government was using the strikes in Northern Ireland as a means to pressure the DUP into a deal.

He said: “I think on one level it’s maybe a cynical view about how the UK government would view the valued contribution that public service workers make in Northern Ireland.

“The reality is this facing all of us – all of us as elected politicians have responsibilities to face up to.

“Sometimes we have to make decisions that we don’t particularly like, we don’t live in a perfect world.

“The DUP are part of this imperfect world. There isn’t a perfect solution for them.

“But there is a solution and a solution that can deliver for their constituents, many of whom are public sector workers, in a way that I think would redound to their credit.

“That’s why I think now is the time for leadership, for courage if you like – an overused word sometimes, but one that might apply in this case – to allow the Executive to be formed as quickly as possible.”

 Photo of a 'no entry' sign at Parliament Buildings at Stormont, Belfast. Alamy Stock Photo

Archaeologists Discover Ancient Cities Hidden in the Ecuadorian Amazon

Laser imaging has revealed an extensive network of settlements and roads that challenge historical understandings of the area


Sonja Anderson
SMITHSONIAN
Daily CorrespondentJanuary 12, 2024 

The area was surveyed using lidar technology, which revealed a large-scale network of roads and platforms. Antoine Dorison, Stéphen Rostain


Using laser scanning technology, researchers have found traces of 2,500-year-old cities in the Amazon rainforest. Complete with a complex network of farmland and roads, the discovery is the oldest and largest of its kind in the region.

Located in Ecuador’s Upano Valley, the dense system of pre-Hispanic structures lies in the eastern foothills of the Andes mountains, according to a study published yesterday in the journal Science. Over 20 years of research preempted the find, but it wasn’t until the Ecuadorian government employed lidar—a remote sensing technology that surveys a landscape using lasers—that the ancient urban centers came to light.

“I have explored the site many times, but lidar gave me another view of the land,” archaeologist Stéphen Rostain, lead author of the study and director of research at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), tells Live Science’s Jennifer Nalewicki. “On foot, you have trees in the way, and it’s difficult to see what's actually hidden there.”

Rostain knew from his many ground expeditions that laser imaging would reveal new structures, but he hadn’t predicted the scale of the results, reports Science News’ Amanda Heidt. Covering roughly 300 square kilometers (more than 100 square miles), images from the lidar survey revealed a landscape full of organized human activities: These included more than 6,000 rectangular earthen platforms, as well as agricultural terraces and drainage systems

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Researchers found rectangular platforms along the bed of the Upano River in Ecuador. Stéphen Rostain

The researchers say these structures formed at least 15 distinct settlements, which were connected by a system of wide, straight roads. Co-author Antoine Dorison, an archaeologist at the CNRS, says this society’s complexity is especially evident in this web of streets, which were carefully constructed to cross at right angles rather than follow the landscape.

“The road network is very sophisticated,” he tells BBC News’ Georgina Rannard. “It extends over a vast distance; everything is connected.”

Per a statement from the researchers, the sprawling complex was likely occupied by people from the Kilamope and Upano cultures from about 500 B.C.E. until 300 to 600 C.E. The residents were probably focused on agriculture, growing corn and sweet potatoes.

“It’s a gold rush scenario, especially for the Americas and the Amazon,” as Christopher Fisher, an archaeologist at Colorado State University who has scanned sites in the Americas but was not involved in this research, tells Science News. “Scientists are demonstrating conclusively that there were a lot more people in these areas, and that they significantly modified the landscape. … This is a paradigm shift in our thinking about how extensively people occupied these areas.”

Previously, scientists assumed that ancient South Americans “lived nomadically or in tiny settlements in the Amazon,” writes BBC News, but researchers estimate the newly discovered cities housed a population “in the 10,000s if not 100,000s.”

In recent years, lidar has been a vital tool for discovering traces of ancient Amazonian cities. Aerial laser sensing bypasses the forest’s density—which complicates and lengthens mapping by expedition—to create more accurate maps in a fraction of the time. As Fisher told Smithsonian magazine’s Brian Handwerk in 2022, the technology has proved “transformative for archaeology.” It’s helped uncover pre-Hispanic settlements in the forests of Bolivia, Brazil and Belize.

At the beginning of his career, Rostain was discouraged from doing research in the Amazon, because most scientists assumed that no ancient groups of this scale had lived in the rainforest, he tells BBC News. He did it anyway and is now “quite happy to have made such a big discovery.”

That discovery is now “another vivid example of the underestimation of Amazonia's twofold heritage: environmental but also cultural, and therefore Indigenous,” write the researchers in the study. “We believe that it is crucial to thoroughly revise our preconceptions of the Amazonian world.”

 

NASA finally opens capsule to potentially hazardous asteroid 'Bennu' that may contain seeds of life

News

By Ben Turner

 published about 14 hours ago

Two tight fasteners kept the majority of the Bennu asteroid sample from scientists since it returned to Earth in September. Now they've finally prised it open.

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx curation engineer, Neftali Hernandez, fixes one of the tools made to remove the two final fasteners to the capsule. (Image credit: NASA)

After months of prying and jimmying, NASA scientists have at last opened the canister containing material scraped from the "potentially hazardous" asteroid Bennu, the agency announced on Thursday (Jan. 11). 

The sample — roughly 8.8 ounces (250 grams) of rocky space rubble collected by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft — is thought to contain some of the earliest precursors to life and is the first chunk of a space rock ever grabbed by a NASA mission. 

NASA had already collected 2.5 ounces (70 g) of the sample from the canister's lid, but two stuck fasteners stopped scientists from reaching the material inside. After creating new tools to remove the stubborn clasps, NASA engineers finally unsealed the container on Wednesday (Jan. 10).

Related: NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission almost bit the dust — then Queen guitarist Brian May stepped in

"Our engineers and scientists have worked tirelessly behind the scenes for months to not only process the more than 70 grams of material we were able to access previously, but also design, develop, and test new tools that allowed us to move past this hurdle," Eileen Stansbery, chief of NASA's ARES (Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science) division said in a statement. "The innovation and dedication of this team has been remarkable. We are all excited to see the remaining treasure OSIRIS-REx holds."

NASA scientists first retrieved the canister on Sept. 24 after it hurtled back to Earth aboard the OSIRIS-REx capsule at speeds of up to 27,000 miles per hour (43,000 kilometers per hour). After a seven-year, 4 billion-mile (6.4 billion kilometer) round trip, the capsule deployed its parachute and safely landed in the Utah desert before being transported to Johnson Space Center in Houston. 

The hold-up on retrieving the capsule's precious cargo was caused by two out of its total of 35 fasteners getting stuck. To prevent contamination NASA had to preapprove any tools used to open the narrow container. The solution came in the form of two clamp-like tools made from surgical steel; these were first tested in a rehearsal lab to prove they could safely remove the clasps. 

Now that the box has been opened, NASA says it will follow a "few additional disassembly steps" before it can photograph, extract, weigh and process the remaining sample. Small pieces scraped from the lid have already been sent around the world for analysis, and will soon be followed by the contents found inside.

An artist's illustration of OSIRIS-REx above the asteroid Bennu's surface. (Image credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center via AP)

Bennu is a potentially hazardous asteroid that has a 1-in-2,700 chance of striking Earth in the year 2182 — the highest odds of any known space object. But the scientists are more interested in what's trapped inside the space rock: the possible extraterrestrial precursors of life on Earth.

"This is the biggest carbon-rich asteroid sample ever returned to Earth," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at a news conference upon the sample's return. "Carbon and water molecules are exactly the elements we wanted to find. They're crucial elements in the formation of our own planet, and they're going to help us determine the origins of elements that could have led to life."

Earth's water is older than the planet itself and was probably brought here by asteroid and comet impacts. But water likely wasn't the only material asteroids brought to Earth; the building blocks of life likely hitched a ride on a space rock, too. Bennu is a B-type asteroid, which means it contains high amounts of carbon and, potentially, many of the primordial molecules present when life emerged on Earth.

Two images taken by NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft show the sampling arm touch the surface of asteroid Bennu. (Image credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona)

Some of these building blocks — including uracil, one of the nucleobases for RNA — were recently found on the asteroid Ryugu by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hayabusa2 spacecraft, which returned to Earth with its rock sample in 2020. OSIRIS-REx mission scientists are hoping to find other such biological precursors inside the Bennu sample.

OSIRIS-REx mission scientists spent nearly two years searching for a landing site on Bennu's craggy surface before the spacecraft touched down to collect the sample. Upon making contact with the asteroid, OSIRIS-REx fired a burst of nitrogen from its Touch-and-Go Sample-Acquisition Mechanism to both stick the landing and prevent the craft from sinking through the asteroid.

The blast sent rocks and dust careening around the craft, and some of that rocky debris landed in a canister aboard OSIRIS-REx. A follow-up blast of OSIRIS-REx's thrusters later lifted it from Bennu, and the spacecraft completed a number of flyovers before leaving the asteroid for Earth in May 2021.

Now that the sample has arrived, scientists around the world will begin analyzing it for clues about how our solar system, and the life on our planet, came to be.

Citi to slash 20,000 jobs by 2026 after £1.4bn loss

By JOHN-PAUL FORD ROJAS

12 January 2024

Citigroup has announced plans to cut 20,000 jobs over the next two years under a turnaround plan led by the Wall Street giant's British chief executive Jane Fraser.

Fraser pledged that 2024 would be a 'turning point' after the lender reported a £1.4billion loss for the fourth quarter that she admitted was 'very disappointing'.

The loss was caused by a series of one-off charges including an industry-wide contribution to cover the cost of the collapse of two lenders last year. It was also hobbled by costs relating to Russia and Argentina and restructuring.

Full year profits were down by 38 per cent to £7.2billion.

Fraser has already made clear that change was coming, last autumn announcing that Citi would strip out a layer of management as she seeks to boost profits and share price. She told staff in September they should 'get off the train' if they were not committed to the shake-up.

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Turnaround plan: The 20,000 job cuts announced will take out a big chunk of Citigroup's 239,000-strong workforce

The 20,000 job cuts announced yesterday will take out a big chunk of its 239,000-strong workforce. A further reduction of 40,000 will come as it spins off Mexican bank Banamex, leaving 180,000.

A spokesman said it would not provide a breakdown of how many of Citi's 16,000 UK employees would be affected.

Chief financial officer Mark Mason yesterday admitted the job cuts were 'tough on morale' but that they would not prevent revenue growth. Shares rose 1.2 per cent, or 0.6p, to 53.2p.

It came as Wall Street rival JP Morgan said its quarterly profits fell by 15 per cent to £7.3billion but full year profits rose 32 per cent to £38.9billion.

At Davos 2024, Leaders Must Invest In Future Of Youth

Michael Sheldrick
Contributor
Global Citizen
Contributor GroupF
Jan 12, 2024


The World Economic Forum (WEF) occurs in Davos yearly, but 2024 already feels different. Rapid global economic changes, conflicts, unprecedented heatwaves, growing apathy towards democratic principles, and the continuous evolution of technology are impacting humanity at a blistering pace, hitting the poorest the hardest.

As world leaders and business executives convene next week to address these pressing issues, advocates and policy entrepreneurs will be out in force to ensure discussions along the Davos Promenade focus on immediate actions leaders should take in 2024. One of the most critical areas to focus their attention on is urgently driving investments, particularly for youth, to establish the groundwork for a prosperous, common future.

25% of the world's population is under 14, especially in Africa, where the median age is 19. This population group is the one that is most vulnerable to today’s challenges and is impacted most by decisions and actions for which it isn’t responsible.

With the appropriate level of investment, this cohort can thrive. Africa, home to 1.2 billion people, is estimated to constitute a quarter of the world's population by 2050. Nigeria is poised to surpass China as the second most populous country globally, following India, by 2100. Moreover, 70 percent of sub-Saharan Africa's population is under 30, positioning the continent with the potential to become one of the world's largest consumer markets. Africa is a continent on the move.

This population's energy, excitement, and untapped potential were vividly showcased at the inaugural Move Afrika: Rwanda event, which marked the launch of the first pan-African touring concert circuit headlined by international artists. The debut show in Rwanda alone employed over 1000 Rwandans and engaged 75 percent of the local crew and production staff. The event placed a particular emphasis on creating opportunities for skill development and international event training. As expressed by Kweku Mandela, the event set "a marker in the sand around live touring events and showcasing the creative economy on the African continent." It serves as a model that other industries could emulate.

However, not investing in the continent poses profound risks in several ways. Firstly, if the current trajectory persists, Africa is set to have 23 out of the 28 countries with the highest share of extreme poverty in their population by 2030. Secondly, the challenge of rebuilding trust—highlighted as this year’s WEF theme—arises at a time when the relationship between African nations and the West is already at a new low. This decline follows years of broken promises on climate financing, vaccine hoarding by the West during the COVID-19 pandemic, and an ongoing perception of double standards and hypocrisy.

To advance, rebuild trust, and forge a common future, world leaders can commence in 2024 by prioritizing three critical investments in the future aspirations of the world’s youth:

1.Access to Healthcare

Approving two new vaccines against malaria marked a significant turning point last year in the battle against malaria - a disease that is responsible for claiming the lives of over 1000 children per day.

The upcoming 12 months are critical for securing funding to advance large-scale distribution of these and other vaccines and bolster local manufacturing capacity in Africa to reinforce the continent’s public health security.

This urgency is heightened by the evolving threat of malaria due to climate change, putting more children worldwide at risk.

According to Gavi, the vaccine alliance, it costs a minimum of $16 to deliver a malaria vaccine. We have to reach 180 million children alone across Africa. 2024 must be the start of the end of malaria, alongside other efforts to reduce child deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases.
2.Skills & Education:

Young people need to be equipped with jobs and skills to take advantage of investments in industries like the creative arts, clean energy, and information technology.

However, conflict and other crises have resulted in more and more children bearing the brunt and missing out on education. That is why Education Cannot Wait, for instance, is seeking nearly $700 million to ensure the continuation of education for at least 20 million children currently without. This funding will help children learn across 19 countries in Africa alone.
3.Green Jobs:

In 2023, the world agreed to transition away from fossil fuels for the first time. 2024 is the year to begin to put this into practice - we have to reduce emissions by 7% annually through 2030 to avoid catastrophic climate change. Yet governments increased subsidies for fossil fuels to more than $1 trillion in 2022.

In 2024, redirecting these funds towards generating jobs for young people across Africa via clean energy projects and sustainable agriculture is crucial, ensuring that the world's most youthful population reaps the benefits of this significant industrial transition.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out some of my other work here.

Michael SheldrickFollow

I am a co-founder of Global Citizen and author of Ideas to Impact: A Playbook for Influencing and Implementing Change in a Divided World. (April 9th).... Read More

 

"Pusher" Jeep May Have Caused Deadly Ro/Ro Fire in Newark

Burned-out Jeep Wrangler fitted with steel push bumper, Deck 10, Grande Costa D'Avoria (Courtesy AFT / USCG)

PUBLISHED JAN 10, 2024 4:44 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

In a Coast Guard hearing on last year's deadly ro/ro fire at Port Newark, three longshoremen said that their employer used everyday light trucks to push broken cars up the ramps of ro/ro vessels - and that these adapted "pusher vehicles" may not have been maintained on a calendar schedule. The fire aboard the Grande Costa D'Avoria may have started when one of the pusher vehicles - an older Jeep Wrangler fitted with a steel bumper - caught fire during a loading operation. 

The ILA longshore duty mechanic on the day of the fire told the panel that there was an informal repair schedule for the pusher vehicles. "We don't have preventive maintenance, we just check fluids, we don't change fluids. It only happens when it goes into the shop for repairs [when something fails]," said Piotr Zyla, who performed basic repairs on the vehicles on the dock for the longshore team. 

The Jeep that caught fire had been used in the manner of a towtruck to move cars on board ro/ros, and worked alongside a fleet of several Ford Rangers (the smallest model of Ford pickup). On the day of the fire, longshoreman Gavin Puchinsky was behind the wheel of the Jeep. He told the panel that the Jeep would often be operated with the accelerator pressed all the way to the floor in order to push a heavier broken vehicle up the steep internal ramps of a ro/ro's cargo decks. Though it was the team's most powerful pusher vehicle, the Jeep would sometimes struggle on a ramp, and he might have to back down and get a running start to make it all the way up, he said. The speed of operation would depend upon the weight of the broken vehicle being moved. 

In questioning Wednesday, Puchinsky said that the pusher trucks were not the kind of vehicles he would expect to see on a public road. "Some of them were missing mirrors, the Jeep was missing the back windshield, dirty inside, no plates on the vehicle," he told the panel.

The Jeep was running as well as ever until seconds before the fire, when it made a "clunk" as he was maneuvering inside the ro/ro's car decks, Puchinsky said. A few moments later, a fellow longshoreman shouted at him to get out of the vehicle because it was on fire. Flames appeared to be coming from under the hood, Puchinsky said, and were coming in the passenger window. 

Puchinsky said that he grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher and attempted to put out the blaze, without success. As the fire grew, he and his colleagues escaped from the vessel.  

A local firefighting team responded to the scene and boarded the ship in an attempt to combat the growing blaze. They were forced to retreat by the intensity of the fire, and two were killed during this maneuver. Two Newark Fire captains were also injured in the response and were treated at a local hospital; both recovered from their injuries.