Survey: Factors in the workplace that increase staff turnover  

By  Dr. Tim Sandle

Digital Journal.
January 14, 2024

Employees of the magazine have agreed to a pay cut to finance a special Ukraine team made up of Ukrainian journalists in Germany and in the Ukraine reporting about the conflict - Copyright AFP

There are many factors to consider when it comes to staff turnover – but while some may be inevitable, such as retirement, a change in career, or even moving away, others can be controlled. This time of year leads many employers to become concerned about their workers quitting and finding a new job.

Employee wellbeing firm Loopin have highlighted six of the major factors in the workplace that could lead to a high staff turnover, from lack of opportunities and purpose, to overworked employees, all of which contribute to huge employee turnover costs.  They have shared these trends with Digital Journal.

Little opportunity for growth  

Not providing any opportunities for employees to progress can cause them to feel stuck in their roles and feel as though their hard work and commitment aren’t recognised. A different company that can offer a role of higher authority will eventually become more appealing after plenty of time in the same role – not only for income but to further demonstrate their skills.  

Offering promotions for existing employees rather than hiring externally is one way to provide opportunities for growth. Communication is key in this instance to ensure that staff have clarity on how they need to perform in order for this to be possible, for example, a checklist of targets over a realistic time frame – this way, both you and the employees can assess how close they are to the next step. Alternatively, providing relevant training courses for staff allows them to educate themselves and stay up to date with the sector, thus being an excellent opportunity for growth.  

Lack of feedback  

Offering feedback to employees is a small implementation that can go far – not only does it show recognition, but it’s also a huge factor that can help them succeed.  Regular 1-1s are an excellent opportunity to provide feedback, as it gives employees the chance to address any areas they are particularly struggling in. 

As an employer, the purpose is not to provide top-down performance feedback, assess the company’s performance, or evaluate the status of certain projects. Instead, the employee needs to take centre stage. You should ask questions to discover more about their goals and ambitions, as well as any concerns or pain points.

Micromanagement  

Micromanagement can have huge implications that can drive employees away. Not only does it limit creativity, but it also implies that you don’t trust employees to make the right decisions on their own. Micromanagement can also lead to burnout, which not only affects productivity and company success, but the employee will likely consider joining a company that offers a more supportive approach to management.

It is wise to avoid micromanagement. Although it can be daunting to let go of projects, delegating to your team members will allow employees to feel valued, trusted and therefore, confident to complete the task. Seeing your employees complete these tasks will help you to see their skills first-hand and allow for timely feedback. Managing expectations instead of tasks is essential to zone out of the micromanagement phase and offer more freedom to employees. Therefore, ensure that before the task is given to a team member, you have made clear your thoughts and goals on the task at hand. This enhances communication between yourself and the employee and allows them to have clear structure before you trust them with the task.

Lack of flexible working  

Flexible working options offer a practical solution for employees. It can help those using unreliable public transport, those who need to take their children to school, or those with pets, to name a few. Implementing flexible working options where employees can be more autonomous and set their own schedules offers a healthier work-life balance; without it, employees may turn to a different company that does provide this benefit.  

To incorporate flexible working into the organisation, you can start by selecting the core working hours in which every employee must be present – but outside of this, employees can decide when they start and finish. On top of this, switching to a hybrid workplace where employees split their time between the workplace and working remotely can increase productivity and allows them to use their time more efficiently – not to mention, it’s an attractive factor to job-seekers.  

Overworking employees  

Of course, there may be times when employees will have additional responsibilities. Particularly whilst many companies are making significant redundancies, resulting in employees having a bigger workload. However, managers must monitor the workload of all employees and find ways to protect them from burnout and stress caused by unavoidable workloads. Without doing so, staff are more likely to search for another role that offers a better work-life balance. On the other hand, employees must have enough work and understand their contribution to the make-up of the organisation’s overall mission, vision, and success. 

This is another area where regular 1-1s are particularly useful. You can use this time to ask questions to your employee about how they are finding the workload and alter it based on their answers. Additionally, a preventative employee wellbeing strategy is key to understand how employees are feeling. It’s crucial to offer early support to employees who are feeling stressed, burnt out, or disengaged, which could be related to their workload.  

Feeling undervalued and unappreciated

Free lunches and table football are great, but they barely scratch the surface when it comes to creating a culture where employees feel appreciated, cared for, and understood. If employees feel their work is not valued and their contributions go unnoticed, they are likely to lack motivation and may consider leaving their current role for a job that is more rewarding and enjoyable. 

A spokesperson from Loopin explains to Digital Journal: “It’s vital that employers consider the reasons for high employee turnover, particularly if they are due to factors that can be prevented in the future. This requires spotting signs at the earliest opportunity and having a true understanding of employee concerns. High staff turnover not only affects the efficiency of a business, but also comes at a huge cost to businesses too. It’s essential to understand the reasons why past employees have left to prepare for the foreseeable and secure future business success.”   

Adecco chief says AI will create new jobs

AFP
January 13, 2024

Humanoid AI robot Ameca, by Engineered Arts, attended the UN artificial intelligence summit in Geneva. — AFP Emma McIntyre

Nathalie OLOF-ORS

Artificial intelligence raises serious concerns for jobs but it will also create new positions, the head of Adecco, the world’s biggest temporary staffing agency, told AFP.

From meteorologists to lawyers and screenwriters, generative AI capable of creating content — such as the chatbot ChatGPT — could change the contours of many professions.

But it will also create new positions, according to Denis Machuel, the chief executive of Zurich-based Adecco.

– How will AI disrupt the world of work? –

Machuel: “It’s probably the largest disruption and revolution that we’ve seen in decades. It’s going to be massive. And let’s be clear, no one really knows or can really anticipate with a precise view what’s going to happen in the next five years.

“All this productivity enhancement helps people do more but also destroys some of the jobs people are doing. There is definitely an element of jobs being created and jobs that are being destroyed. We’ve seen that with the internet, with digitalisation.

“What we’ve seen in the past tells us that there is more or less a balance between the two.

“Technology brings a lot of better understanding of interaction between people and markets but it also brings complexity. And that complexity requires more people to deal with it.

“GenAI will bring productivity on one side but it will also bring more proof-points, more data, more ways of looking at relationships, products and services. And for all these, we need people.”

– Are some jobs more at risk than others? –

Machuel: “It’s probably a bit too early to precisely describe jobs that are fundamentally at risk. Because we have to look at the tasks behind them.

“If you only compute information, gather information and synthesise it, then your job is at risk, be it a job in finance, in legal, in business, because… it is what GenAI does.

“Probably white-collar workers will be more impacted than blue-collar workers — at least in the short term.

“Within the white collar space, the things that are linked to massive information management will be more disrupted than the skills that are linked to relationship building, to strategic thinking or problem-solving.

“However, we know that there are limits.

“Take the example of a lawyer or of a paralegal: computing an immense number of legal decisions can be done by GenAI.

“However, the deep and subtle understanding of a complex legal situation and problem-solving skills that are needed to put things together is still very human-related.

“Usually, the sort of mundane tasks that can be automated are not the most exciting for people to do. So if you can automate that, it gives you more time to concentrate on the nicer things.”

– How is AI used at Adecco? –

“We’ve signed a partnership with Microsoft to create a career platform that will advise companies and workers on their path, supporting their reflection on the type of skills and jobs they could go for.

“Opening horizons on things people didn’t necessarily imagine but could be achievable for them.

“There are quite a few workers whose skills are transferable.

“The good news about GenAI is that there is a positive explosion of possibilities of upskilling and re-skilling through these tools.

“We’ve created a curriculum vitae maker with an AI-powered tool that helps people generate their own CV.

“On the daily tasks of our recruiters, I was mentioning this chatbot that interacts with thousands of candidates very quickly.

“It gives the possibility for our recruiters to spend more time in the human relationship, and not in a database search.

“That means a recruiter can spend more time with people than doing the mundane tasks.”

IMF chief says AI holds risks, ‘tremendous opportunity’ for global economy


AFP
January 14, 2024

International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva tells AFP in an interview that artificial intelligence poses job security risks but potentially major opportunities to boost productivity around the world - 

Daniel AVIS

Artificial intelligence poses risks to job security around the world but also offers a “tremendous opportunity” to boost flagging productivity levels and fuel global growth, the IMF chief told AFP.

AI will affect 60 percent of jobs in advanced economies, the International Monetary Fund’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, said in an interview in Washington, shortly before departing for the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

With AI expected to have less effect in developing countries, around “40 percent of jobs globally are likely to be impacted,” she said, citing a new IMF report.

“And the more you have higher skilled jobs, the higher the impact,” she added.

However, the IMF report published Sunday evening notes that only half of the jobs impacted by AI will be negatively affected; the rest may actually benefit from enhanced productivity gains due to AI.

“Your job may disappear altogether -– not good –- or artificial intelligence may enhance your job, so you actually will be more productive and your income level may go up,” Georgieva said.



– Uneven effects –



The IMF report predicted that, while labor markets in emerging markets and developing economies will see a smaller initial impact from AI, they are also less likely to benefit from the enhanced productivity that will arise through its integration in the workplace.

“We must focus on helping low income countries in particular to move faster to be able to catch the opportunities that artificial intelligence will present,” Georgieva told AFP.

“So artificial intelligence, yes, a little scary. But it is also a tremendous opportunity for everyone,” she said.

The IMF is due to publish updated economic forecasts later this month which will show the global economy is broadly on track to meet its previous forecasts, she said.

It is “poised for a soft landing,” she said, adding that “monetary policy is doing a good job, inflation is going down, but the job is not quite done.”

“So we are in this trickiest place of not easing too fast or too slow,” she said.

The global economy could use an AI-related productivity boost, as the IMF predicts it will continue growing at historically muted levels over the medium term.

“God, how much we need it,” Georgieva said. “Unless we figure out a way to unlock productivity, we as the world are not for a great story.”



– ‘Tough’ year ahead –



Georgieva said 2024 is likely to be “a very tough year” for fiscal policy worldwide, as countries look to tackle debt burdens accumulated during the Covid-19 pandemic, and rebuild depleted buffers.

Billions of people are also due to go to the polls this year, putting additional pressure on governments to either raise spending or cut taxes to win popular support.

“About 80 countries are going to have elections, and we know what happens with pressure on spending during election cycles,” she added.

The concern at the IMF, Georgieva said, is that governments around the world spend big this year and undermine the hard-won progress they have made in the fight against high inflation.

“If monetary policy tightens and fiscal policy expands, going against the objective of bringing inflation down, we might be for a longer ride,” she added.



– Concentrating on the job –



Georgieva, whose five-year term at the IMF’s helm is set to end this year, refused to be drawn on whether she intends to run for a second stint leading the international financial institution.

“I have a job to do right now and my concentration is on doing that job,” she said.

“It has been a tremendous privilege to be the head of the IMF during a very turbulent time, and I can tell you I’m quite proud of how the institution coped,” she continued.

“But let me do what is in front of me right now.”

World’s richest five men double fortune since 2020: Oxfam


AFP

January 14, 2024


Unequal distribution of global wealth - Copyright AFP Olivia BUGAULT, Anibal MAIZ CACERES

The world’s wealthiest five men have more than doubled their fortune since 2020, the charity Oxfam said on Monday, as it called on nations to resist the ultra-rich’s influence over tax policy.

A report from the charity, published as the global elite hobnob at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, said their wealth rose from $405 billion in 2020 to $869 billion last year.

Yet since 2020, nearly five billion people worldwide have grown poorer, Oxfam said.

Billionaires are today $3.3 billion richer than they were in 2020, despite many crises devastating the world’s economy since this decade began, including the Covid pandemic.

Oxfam’s yearly report on inequality worldwide is traditionally released just before the forum opens on Monday in the Swiss Alpine resort.

The charity raised concerns over increasing global inequality, with the richest individuals and companies amassing greater wealth thanks to surging stock prices, but also significantly more power.

“Corporate power is used to drive inequality: by squeezing workers and enriching wealthy shareholders, dodging taxes, and privatising the state,” Oxfam said.

It also accused corporations of driving “inequality by undertaking a sustained and highly effective war on taxation”, with far-reaching consequences.

Oxfam said states handed power over to monopolies, allowing corporations to influence the wages people are paid, food prices and which medicines individuals can access.

“Around the world, members of the private sector have relentlessly pushed for lower rates, more loopholes, less transparency, and other measures aimed at enabling companies to contribute as little as possible to public coffers,” Oxfam added.

The charity said thanks to intensive lobbying over tax policymaking, corporations have been able to pay lower corporate taxes, thereby depriving governments of money that could be used to financially support the poorest in society.

Corporate taxes have significantly dropped in OECD countries from 48 percent in 1980 to 23.1 percent in 2022, Oxfam noted.

To address the imbalance, Oxfam called for a wealth tax on the world’s millionaires and billionaires that it says could bring in $1.8 trillion dollars each year.

The charity also called to cap CEO pay and break up private monopolies.

Israelis dance, sing, pray for Gaza hostages on 100th day of war

AFP
January 14, 2024

People gathered in Tel Aviv to mark the 100th day after an unprecedented attack by Hamas fighters on Israel that triggered war with the Palestinian militant movement - Copyright AFP GIL COHEN-MAGEN

Anne-Sophie Labadie with Joseph Boyle in Jerusalem

On a cold and rainy Sunday in Tel Aviv, hundreds of Israelis joined events to mark 100 days since Hamas militants attacked Israel, sparking a retaliation that has since taken tens of thousands of Palestinian lives.

The crowd’s focus was on the hostages taken by Hamas fighters on October 7, of whom 132 remain in Gaza, according to Israeli officials, though 25 are thought to be dead.

“One hundred days and they are still abandoned there, 100 days and there is no sign of their return,” said Amit Zach, a graphic designer who joined the crowds in Tel Aviv.

The campaign to get the hostages back has been spearheaded by families of the captives and has helped keep their plight at the centre of the domestic debate.

Israeli politicians say it is one of their war aims in Gaza, along with destroying Hamas and ensuring an attack on the scale of October 7 can never happen again.

But some of those gathered in Tel Aviv were unimpressed.

“I don’t think we imagined a situation where we would be here on the 100th day,” said Gili Dvash Yeshurun.

She said there was no longer any “concept of security” between citizens and the government.

The Hamas attack resulted in about 1,140 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

The fighters also abducted around 250 people from southern Israeli communities and a trance music festival, though dozens were freed in a swap with Palestinian prisoners in late November.



– ‘In tunnels, in basements’ –



Israel has since bombarded Gaza by land, sea and air, killing at least 23,968 people in the Palestinian territory, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Music events throughout the day drew crowds who danced, chanted and joined arms, often under umbrellas.

Early on Sunday, trance DJ Artifex, who had played at the rave party where dozens were abducted and 364 killed according to official figures, played a set to hundreds as a tribute to those victims.

Elsewhere, men wearing skullcaps and prayer shawls read from scriptures while standing in the rain.

The day of events also included a cycle ride around Tel Aviv’s velodrome where scores of amateur cyclists gathered to do laps while the names and faces of hostages flashed up on giant screens.

“We are not the government. We are not the army. The only thing we can do is tell the world the tragedy these people are living,” 72-year-old yoga teacher Alisa Duron told AFP at the velodrome as she prepared to set off.

“We as a country need to be strong together.”

Israel’s trade union federation, Histadrut, said hundreds of thousands of workers around the country laid down their tools at midday in a 100-minute stoppage to mark the 100th day of captivity.

“Until the last minute, I hoped that a miracle would happen and we wouldn’t need to stand here today,” said Histadrut chairman Arnon Bar-David at a rally in Tel Aviv.

But he went on to say it was necessary to “remind the whole world” that the hostages were still held “in Gaza, in tunnels, in basements”.

On Saturday, families of hostages had unveiled a replica of the tunnels in Gaza where their loved ones are believed to be held.

The mock-up of a Hamas tunnel was installed outside Tel Aviv Museum of Art, with a dimly lit passage, dirt on the ground and the sounds of gunfire and shelling playing constantly.

Israel supporters gather in European capitals, 100 days on from attack


AFP
January 14, 2024

Flag-waving Israel supporters gather for the demonstration in Trafalgar Square, central London - Copyright Ritzau Scanpix/AFP 

Bo Amstrup

On foot and pedal bike, thousands of Israel supporters gathered in London, Paris and Berlin on Sunday to call for the release of hostages held by Hamas for 100 days.

Several thousand turned London landmark Trafalgar Square into a sea of Israeli flags and yellow balloons, symbolising the 132 hostages who remain captive after being kidnapped on October 7.

The attack by Hamas militants triggered Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza that has left thousands dead.

Some supporters held placards reading “stand with Israel” and “never again is now” while guest speakers on stage led the crowd in chants of “bring them home”.

The event was marked by a heavy police presence and tight security, with all attendees undergoing bag checks and frisking.

“I’m here to support Israel, to support our community and our people,” retiree Arthur Goldberg, from north London, told AFP.

“You have to have empathy with an ordinary Gazan citizen, they are going through a nightmare. However, there are 150 hostages that are being detained,” added the 56-year-old.

“There are consequences to how government’s behave, and they voted for that government.”

The Hamas attack resulted in about 1,140 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

The fighters also abducted around 250 people from southern Israeli communities and a trance music festival, though dozens were released in a swap with Palestinian prisoners in late November.

Israel has since bombarded Gaza, killing at least 23,968 people in the Palestinian territory, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas health ministry.



– ‘Rock and hard place’ –



Ursula Conlong, 59, travelled six hours from North Wales for the event.

“I support Israel. The people that support Israel in England, we know each other, there’s a network,” said the former volunteer teacher.

“Israel is stuck between a rock and a hard place.

“What’s interesting about this event is how we are scrutinised coming in… but the other marches around the world, pro-Palestinian, there isn’t this security. Israel supporters aren’t trying to kill Palestinian supporters,” she added.

Several hundred people also marched through the streets of Berlin on Sunday, waving Israeli flags to demand the “immediate” release of the hostages.

Marchers carried signs reading “100 days in hell” and “bring the hostages home now”.

Others held up placards criticising the Israeli government for “betraying the hostages” and calling for “an immediate ceasefire”.

And in Paris, a series of events took place at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

“The French nation is determined that… all the hostages of the terrorist attacks of October 7 should be freed,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday.

Earlier in London, around 250 cyclists completed a 4.5 mile (7.2km) ride inside Regents Park to draw attention to those still detained.

“I’m hoping to remind the world of the existence of the hostages, still unfortunately living where they are living in Gaza under the conditions they are living in, which is inhumane,” said accountant David Landau, 57.

“The Pakistanis have thrown the Afghans back into Afghanistan and the Chinese are doing what they are doing to the Uighur Muslims, but apparently the world is focussed on one thing and one thing alone, which is hypocrisy and anti-Semitism,” he added.

Elon Musk’s X tells watchdog it has shed 1,000 ‘safety’ staff

AFP
January 11, 2024



X, formerly known as Twitter, has seen 1,213 "trusty and safety" specialists leave the company since Elon Musk purchased it in October 2022 

Elon Musk’s X has shed more than 1,000 staff globally from teams responsible for stopping abusive content online, according to new figures released Thursday by Australia’s online watchdog.

Australia’s eSafety Commission said these “deep cuts” and the reinstatement of thousands of banned accounts had created a “perfect storm” for the spread of harmful content.

The regulator has in recent months zeroed in on X — formerly known as Twitter — previously saying Musk’s takeover coincided with a spike in “toxicity and hate” on the platform.

Using Australia’s groundbreaking Online Safety Act, the eSafety Commission has obtained a detailed breakdown of software engineers, content moderators and other safety staff working at X.

Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, a former Twitter employee, said it was the first time these figures had been made public.

They showed 1,213 specialist “trust and safety staff”, including contractors, had left X since it was acquired by Musk in October 2022.

This included 80 percent of the software engineers focussed on “trust and safety issues”, said Inman Grant.

“To take 80 percent of these specialist engineers away, it would be like Volvo — known for its safety standards — eradicating all of their designers or engineers,” she told AFP.

“You’ve got a perfect storm. You’re drastically decreasing your defences, and you’re introducing repeat offenders back onto the platform.”

Australia has spearheaded the global push to regulate social media, forcing tech companies to outline how they are tackling issues such as hate speech and child sexual abuse.

But attempts to exercise these powers have occasionally been met with indifference.

In October last year, the eSafety Commission slapped X with an Aus$610,500 (US$388,000) fine, saying it had failed to show how it was cracking down on child pornography.

But X ignored the deadline to pay the fine, before launching ongoing legal action to have it overturned.

X did not reply to AFP’s request for comment, instead sending an automated response that read “busy now, please check back later”.

EU legal opinion deals blow to Google on 2.4-bn-euro fine

AFP
January 11, 2024

Image: — © AFP

Daniel ARONSSOHN

Google suffered a legal blow at the European Court of Justice on Thursday when the body’s adviser recommended that a 2.4-billion-euro ($2.6-billion) fine levied on it for anti-competitive practices be upheld.

Although such opinions are not binding, they do carry weight and are often followed by EU judges in their rulings.

In this case, the opinion will feed into a legal battle Google has been waging to overturn the fine the European Commission hit it with in 2017.

The commission determined that Google abused its dominant position by favouring its own Google Shopping service in results from its ubiquitous search engine.

Google, owned by US tech titan Alphabet, was forced to change how it displays search results.

At the time the fine was a record. But it was overtaken in 2018 by a 4.3-billion-euro penalty Brussels levied on Google for putting restrictions on Android smartphones to boost its internet search business.


Google has so far borne the brunt of the European Commission’s antitrust scrutiny, racking up a total of eight billion euros in fines – Copyright AFP Richard A. Brooks

Google lost a first round in its challenge over the Google Shopping case when the lower EU General Court in 2021 found against it and upheld the commission’s penalty.

However, that court did dismiss part of the commission’s case by saying it had not proven that there were anti-competitive effects in the search engine market.

Google then mounted an appeal to the higher EU Court of Justice to try to get the lower court’s decision set aside.

In her opinion, Advocate General Juliane Kokott recommended the Court of Justice’s judges “dismiss the appeal and thus confirm the fine imposed on Google”.

The adviser said Google’s favouritism for its own service over rivals’ constituted “an independent form of abuse” if it gained a competitive advantage, even a potential one.

– Google awaits ruling –

The lower court and the commission “rightly noted” that Google leveraged its dominant position to give “unequal treatment” to competitors, she said.

Google told AFP it would review the legal opinion and await the final ruling by the Luxembourg-based court, which is not expected for months.

“Irrespective of the appeal, we continue to invest in our remedy, which has been working successfully for several years, and will continue to work constructively with the European Commission,” a spokesperson said.

The European Commission has hit several US Big Tech companies with fines in recent years as it seeks to regulate online services and better protect European consumers and firms.

Last year the EU brought in laws, the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act, that crack down on illegal online content and impose tough new curbs on internet giants.

Google has so far borne the brunt of the European Commission’s antitrust scrutiny, racking up a total of eight billion euros in fines.

It is currently the target of another probe by Brussels, launched in 2021, to see whether it abused its position to favour its online display advertising technology, including on YouTube.

Depending on the outcome, that could result in another massive fine and a requirement that Google change its practices.

Alphabet brought in $76.7 billion in revenue in the third quarter of last year, most of it from online advertising, making $19.7 billion in profit.

In 2022, the tech giant had annual revenue of $282.8 billion.

Volcano erupts on outskirts of fishing village Grindavik


AFP
January 13, 2024

Handout photo of Grindavik volcanic eruption from the Icelandic Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management - Copyright AFP Ariel Suárez

Jeremie RICHARD

A volcano erupted just north of the Icelandic fishing village of Grindavik early on Sunday, just hours after local residents were evacuated, authorities said.

This is Iceland’s fifth volcanic eruption in almost three years. The most recent occurred on December 18 in the same region, southwest of the capital Reykjavik.

The eruption began at 8:00 am (0800 GMT), the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said.

Airline flights were not affected.

Live images broadcast by Icelandic media showed jets of glowing orange lava spewing up in the sunrise.

“A crack has opened up on both sides of the dykes that have begun to be built north of Grindavik,” the Met Office wrote.

“From measurements from the Icelandic coastguard helicopter, the (lava’s) perimeter is now about 450 metres (yards) from the northernmost houses in the town,” it said.

Seismic activity had intensified overnight and the town’s few remaining residents were evacuated around 3:00 am, public broadcaster RUV reported.

Most of the 4,000 residents of Grindavik had been evacuated as a precaution on November 11 after scientists said a tunnel of magma was shifting beneath them.

A series of small earthquakes — sometimes hundreds per day — created large cracks in roads, home and buildings.

Shortly after the December 18 eruption, residents were allowed to return for brief periods.

They were authorised to regain their homes permanently on December 23 but only a few dozen chose to do so.

– Geothermal power plant –

Late on Saturday, authorities ordered an emergency evacuation to be completed by Monday due to growing seismic activity and its impact on the large cracks already present in the town.

On Wednesday a 51-year-old Icelandic workman who was repairing a crack in a residential garden disappeared when the ground suddenly gave way beneath him.

He fell more than 30 metres. The intensive search to find him was called off on Friday because the area was too dangerous.

Authorities accelerated the evacuation order overnight when seismic activity intensified.

“What matters is where the lava flows. It is now very important to monitor it,” IMO volcanologist Kristin Jonsdottir told RUV.

Officials are keeping a close eye on the area’s Svartsengi geothermal plant, which provides electricity and water to the 30,000 residents of the Reykjanes peninsula.

Workmen have been building a wall to protect the facility since November.

Until March 2021, the Reykjanes peninsula had not experienced an eruption for eight centuries.

Fresh eruptions occurred in August 2022, and July and December 2023, leading volcanologists to say it was probably the start of a new era of activity in the region.

Four days after the December 18 eruption, authorities said volcanic activity had stopped but they could not declare the eruption over because there was still a possibility of underground lava flow.

Iceland is home to 33 active volcano systems, the highest number in Europe.

Situated in the North Atlantic, it straddles the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a crack in the ocean floor separating the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates.

Guatemala’s Arevalo to take office despite efforts to block him


AFP
January 13, 2024

Arevalo has repeatedly denounced a 'slow-motion coup d'etat' against him 

- Copyright AFP/File Johan ORDONEZ

Bernardo Arevalo is due to be sworn in on Sunday as Guatemala’s president after warding off months of judicial machinations to block him from office after his vow to clamp down on deep-rooted corruption.

The 65-year-old lawmaker, ex-diplomat and sociologist pulled off a major upset when he swept from obscurity to win elections last August, firing up voters weary of graft in one of Latin America’s poorest nations.

He has faced a constant barrage of attempts to impede him from taking office — at the hands of graft-accused prosecutors closely aligned with the country’s political and economic ruling class.

Arevalo has repeatedly denounced a “slow-motion coup d’etat.”

Backed by the United States, European Union, Latin American countries and international organizations including the United Nations, Arevalo is due to replace Alejandro Giammattei.

Under Giammattei, several prosecutors fighting graft have been arrested or forced into exile. Rights groups also accused him of cracking down on critical journalists.

He was also accused of propping up attorney general Consuelo Porras, heading the campaign against the newcomer alongside senior prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche and Judge Fredy Orellana.

All three are listed as corrupt and undemocratic by the US Justice Department.

Prosecutors have tried to overturn the election results, strip Arevalo of immunity from prosecution, and his Semilla (Seed) party has had its registration suspended on fraud allegations widely seen as trumped up.

– ‘Uncle Bernie’ –

Guatemala is ranked 30th out of 180 countries by Transparency International, which lists nations from most to least corrupt.

It is also one of Latin America’s most unequal countries, a reality that has, along with high rates of violent crime, compelled hundreds of thousands to risk the perilous migrant journey to the United States in hopes of a better life.

Arevalo is the son of reformist Juan Jose Arevalo, who in 1945 became Guatemala’s first democratically elected president after decades of dictatorship.

He was trailing far behind in opinion polls before the election, but fired up the youth, who dubbed him “Uncle Bernie” and spread his messages and press conferences on TikTok.

He also won the backing of the country’s historically marginalized Indigenous population, which led sustained protests against the prosecutors’ attempts to block Arevalo from office.

– ‘Rebuilding democracy’ –

The chess-playing, jazz-loving polyglot is facing a tricky task ruling Guatemala.

To start with, he inherits an attorney general who “attacked and criminalized” him and “threatened democracy to a degree we had not thought possible,” said Edie Cux of Citizen Action, a local version of Transparency International.

“They will have the president ambushed. At the slightest misstep they will want to lift his immunity… and remove him,” added her colleague Manfrendo Marroquin.

Arevalo himself has acknowledged there would be “difficulties, since these political-criminal elites, at least for a time, will continue to be entrenched in some branches of the State.”

The new president would also have to deal with a deeply fragmented Congress.

“He will have to address their concerns. But you cannot expect him to come with a magic wand. His most important and urgent task is rebuilding democracy,” former Human Rights Commissioner Jordan Rodas told AFP.

Syrian farmers abandon the land for steadier jobs


By AFP
January 13, 2024

Syrian farmer Omar Abdel-Fattah was forced to abandon agriculture to make ends meet - Copyright AFP Delil SOULEIMAN

Delil Souleiman

After years of war, drought and economic crisis, Omar Abdel-Fattah was forced to rent out his farmland in northeast Syria, preferring a more stable job to provide for his family.

“It breaks my heart to see someone else working my land,” said Abdel-Fattah, 50, who grew wheat, cotton and vegetables in Jaabar al-Saghir, in Syria’s Raqa province, for three decades.

He said he had to abandon agriculture to make ends meet and provide an education for his eight children because he can “no longer keep up with the costs of farming”, including irrigation.

Agriculture was once a pillar of northeast Syria’s economy.

The region was the country’s breadbasket before 2011, when the government repressed peaceful protests, triggering a conflict that has killed more than 500,000 people and displaced millions.

Now the effects of climate change — particularly rising temperatures and drought — along with spiralling costs are dealing a heavy blow to agricultural production and the families that depend on it to survive.

Abdel-Fattah found a job at a water pumping station run by the area’s semi-autonomous Kurdish administration.

It pays around $70 a month, so he also runs a small shop on the side selling hardware and other items to get by.

Some of his relatives have also rented out their land, while others have left Syria because of the dire financial situation there, Abdel-Fattah said.

He urged the Kurdish administration and international agricultural organisations to provide “support and loans” for farmers in the area.

“This is the only solution to save agriculture, help farmers and encourage them to return to their fields again,” he said.


– Farming a ‘loss’ –

Across vast swathes of Raqa province, empty farmland sits beside cultivated fields where farmers and workers harvest crops, including potatoes and corn.

Syria has endured more than 12 years of civil war, and Raqa was the centre of the Islamic State group’s brutal “caliphate” in Syria until their ouster from the city in 2017.

In the town of Qahtaniyah, Jassem al-Rashed, 55, said agriculture was his only income for 30 years but now it has become a “loss”.

His children initially helped him on the land, but now he looks after the crops alone.

“Two of my children work in the livestock trade, and two others left for Europe, while three others joined the traffic police and security forces,” he said.

“Farming is no longer right for them, after the recent years of drought,” he added.

In November, the World Weather Attribution group said that human-caused climate change had raised temperatures, making drought about 25 times more likely in Syria and neighbouring Iraq.

Suhair Zakkout is the spokesperson in Damascus for the International Committee of the Red Cross.

She has previously told AFP that “Syria’s agricultural production has fallen by approximately 50 percent over the last 10 years” because of war and climate change.

In the far northeastern corner of the country, former farmer Faruk Mohammed, 40, gazed at his uncultivated land at Tal Hamis in Hasakeh province.

Now a teacher employed by the Kurdish administration, he said he had changed job “to earn a living — nothing more, nothing less”.


– ‘Dangerous factors’ –


He too expressed the hope that local authorities would help farmers and work to “save what’s left of the agricultural land”.

“Years of drought have hurt farmers, as well as the rise in fuel prices,” he said.

More than a decade of war has shattered Syria’s economy, and long daily blackouts mean people have to rely on generators for power amid regular fuel shortages.

Farmers told AFP they struggled to pay for seeds and fertiliser, with some turning to solar panels to help power water pumps.

Leila Sarukhan, an official with the Kurdish administration, acknowledged that factors including drought and rising costs had led to a decline in agriculture.

“Climate change is impacting rainfall, while desertification expands in northeast Syria,” she told AFP, adding: “These are dangerous factors for farming.”

Back in Raqa province, farmer Adnan Ibrahim said his children had left agriculture behind and joined the Kurdish security services instead “to earn a steady salary”.

He pointed to farming equipment sitting idle near the house, and lamented the impact of climate change as well as rising prices.

But the 56-year-old also said the ever-present spectre of conflict influenced his children’s decision.

“We are afraid of cultivating our land,” he said.

“War could break out at any time and warplanes could bomb our lands. So having a steady job is better.”

FUSION FUN SCI-FI-TEK 70YRS IN DEVELOPMENT

Russia completes tests on first wall panels for ITER

11 January 2024

Manufacturing and testing of prototype first wall panels for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) fusion machine has been successfully completed, says St Petersburg-based JSC NIIEFA - part of the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom.

(Image: Rosatom)

The last stage of the multi-year process - from exploratory experiments on small mock-ups to manufacturing and acceptance tests on a full-scale prototype of a highly loaded panel of the first wall of the vacuum chamber of ITER - was measuring the geometric parameters of the prototype after tests.

For the ITER project, which is under construction in Cadarache in southern France, Russia's responsibilities include manufacturing 179 of the most energy intensive (up to 5 MW per square metre) panels of the first wall, which is 40% of the total area of ​​the reactor wall.

Rustam Enikeev, deputy director general for thermonuclear and magnetic technologies at JSC NIIEFA, said: "The next step will be to obtain permission to begin mass production, this will require the preparation and approval of a large volume of documents."

ITER is a major international project to build a tokamak fusion device designed to prove the feasibility of fusion as a large-scale and carbon-free source of energy. The goal of ITER is to operate at 500 MW (for at least 400 seconds continuously) with 50 MW of plasma heating power input. It appears that an additional 300 MW of electricity input may be required in operation. No electricity will be generated at ITER.

Thirty-three nations are currently collaborating to build ITER - the European Union is contributing almost half of the cost of its construction, while the other six members (China, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the USA) are contributing equally to the rest. Construction began in 2010. The UK was also involved but in the wake of its departure from the EU it announced in September it was leaving Euroatom. Existing contracts are being honoured but ITER says the UK will not be part of new contracts. Switzerland is currently considered to be a "non-participating third country" as its negotiations with Euratom on an association agreement continues.

According to the ITER website, the first wall panels "are the detachable, front-facing elements of the blanket that are designed to withstand the heat flux from the plasma. These highly technological components are made of beryllium tiles bonded with a copper alloy and 316L (N) stainless steel".

Rosatom says that each panel consists of 40 so-called fingers and the overall dimensions of one panel are 2 metres by 1.5 metres by 0.5 metres, with a weight of about 800 kg. They can be in different shapes, with scientists at JSC NIIEFA developing about 40 design options. It added that NIIEFA specialists "gained unique experience and competencies in the development of the design of plasm-facing components" and the experience would benefit "future national projects in the field of development and creation of plasma-facing components for controlled thermonuclear fusion installations".

Russian record for pulse duration in a tokamak

Meanwhile scientists at the Kurchatov Institute have achieved a discharge with a plasma current of 260 kiloamperes (kA) lasting more than two seconds, a new duration record for tokamaks in Russia.

The institute said that temperatures in the plasma in the T-15MD tokamak hit 40 million degrees Celsius during the experiment, which took place on 15 December.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News

Eight truck convoy delivers giant German SANS to Argentina's Neutron Beam Laboratory

12 January 2024

The small-angle neutron scattering instrument (SANS) is 33 metres long when assembled and has been donated by the German Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin institute following the closure of the BER-II reactor in 2019. It will be reassembled and come into operation when Argentina's RA-10 multipurpose research reactor begins operating.

(Image: CNEA)

The instrument is used to analyse structures between 0.5 and 400 nanometers (a nanometre is one billionth of a metre) allowing materials science studies, polymers, soft matter, electrochemistry, magnetic systems and biological samples, among others, at the nanoscale.

Karina Pierpauli,  executive director of the Argentine Neutron Beam Laboratory, called the arrival a "milestone" and a result of "scientific-technological cooperation between Argentina and Germany" over recent years.

According to Argentina's National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA), the instrument has a collimation and detection system that can provide various experimental configurations and the detection tube, which operates in high vacuum,  is 16 metres long and 1.5 metres in diameter.

CNEA said that Argentina was selected from a number of countries who applied to host the instrument at the end of its life-cycle at BER-II, and will give it new life using the neutron beams that the RA-10 reactor, scheduled for 2025, will produce.

The instrument was carefully taken apart in Germany during 2021 and 2022, with each step documented so it can be reassembled in the beam laboratory being built next to RA-10 at the Ezeiza Atomic Centre in Argentina. Cold assembly is due to be carried out this year.

The size of the equipment meant that eight containers were used to transport it by ship from Hamburg before it was transported by a fleet of lorries to its new home. A ninth container with irradiated components, has specialised transport and is due to arrive next month.

In July, CNEA said the RA-10 - a 30 MWt open-pool research reactor - was about 80% completed, with expectations it would be operating in 2025 and would replace the RA-3 reactor on the same site. This 10 MWt pool-type reactor began operations in 1967. The RA-10 will be used for the production of medical radioisotopes and CNEA said the Argentine Neutron Beam Laboratory was "aimed at exploiting the neutron beams that originate in the reactor core for science and technology ...  in addition, there will be a materials testing laboratory to study their behaviour under irradiation. This includes fuel element rods and plates, but also structural materials intended for fourth-generation nuclear reactors."