Antarctic faces melting 'tipping point' as oceans warm: study

Agence France-Presse
June 25, 2024 

Arctic penguin (Shutterstock)

Scientists have discovered a new tipping point toward "runaway melting" of Antarctic ice sheets, caused by warm ocean water intruding between the ice and the land it sits on, according to a study published on Tuesday.

While this type of melting has been previously studied, models used by the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to project the impact of global warming on the Antarctic have yet to factor in this phenomenon.

They have also systematically underestimated ice loss seen thus far, said the study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

As ocean temperatures rise due to human-caused global warming, Antarctic ice sheets are melting, threatening a rise in global sea levels and putting coastal communities at risk.

"Increases in ocean temperature can lead to a tipping point being passed, beyond which ocean water intrudes in an unbounded manner beneath the ice sheet, via a process of runaway melting," the study said.

Antarctic ice sheets sit atop the bedrock and extend beyond the coast to float on the sea.

Previous studies have shown that warm seawater is seeping into the "grounding zone" -- where land and ice meet -- and further inland from under the floating ice.

As the water warms, even by a fraction, the intrusion accelerates from short distances of 100 metres (330 feet) to tens of kilometres (miles), melting ice along the way by heating it from below, explained the study's lead author Alexander Bradley.

"Every 10th of a degree (of warming) makes these kind of processes closer, these tipping points closer," said Bradley, a researcher with the British Antarctic Survey.

The risk to sea-level rise comes when the accelerated melting outpaces the formation of new ice on the continent.

Some areas of Antarctica are more vulnerable to this process than others due to the shape of the land mass, which has valleys and cavities where sea water can pool beneath the ice.

The Pine Island glacier, currently Antarctica's largest contributor to sea-level rise, is at high risk of melting due to the slope of the land that allows in more sea water, the study said.


Scientific models need to be updated to take into account the element of melt to better predict the risk of sea-level rise in the future and prepare for it, Bradley said.

"And it really just stresses the need for urgent climate action in order to prevent these tipping points from being passed," he added.

Judge says gay vets can sue DOD over ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ discharges

Matt Keeley, The New Civil Rights Movement
June 25, 2024 

Gay Pride Flag (Shutterstock)

A U.S. magistrate judge ruled that LGBTQ veterans discharged under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" can proceed in their suit against the Department of Defense.

The suit, filed by five veterans, alleges that they faced discrimination because they were given other-than-honorable discharges from the military. The vets are asking the DOD to remove all references to sexual orientation from their discharge paperwork and for the discharges to be converted to honorable.

The plaintiffs say that the process to correct discharge paperwork is "burdensome, opaque, expensive, and for many veterans virtually inaccessible." By having non-honorable discharges, LGBTQ vets are unable to reenlist. It's also difficult for them to prove military service, the plaintiffs say, and they are blocked from veteran services via the Department of Veterans Affairs.

READ MORE: ‘So. Tell Me. Are You Transgender?’ — After DADT: Transgender Life In The US Military

“Because of the circumstances and language of my discharge, which served as a painful reminder of the trauma I experienced, I was never able to proudly say that I served my country,” said Steven Egland, a U.S. Army veteran and one of the plaintiffs.

“Following my Other Than Honorable discharge from the U.S. Navy, which was accompanied by terrible harassment on my ship, I experienced homelessness and shame,” Lilly Steffanides, another plaintiff and U.S. Navy Veteran, said. “After many years, I reconnected with the veteran community and do my best to act as a leader and supporter for other LGBTQ+ veterans like me. I am joining this lawsuit because I want justice for my LGBTQ+ brothers and sisters, and I want my service to my country to be recognized as honorable.”

The DOD argued that the suit should be dismissed because the process for correcting records is neutral. Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero disagreed, saying that by not remedying this type of discharge, it "gives rise to a plausible inference of discriminatory intent," according to Bloomberg Law.

The DOD also argued that the plaintiffs' claims were untimely. Spero disagreed, ruling that the process of having to apply for their records to be corrected itself results in trauma, Bloomberg Law reported.

The suit says over 35,000 members of the U.S. military had been discharged for real or perceived homosexual behavior between 1980 and 2011, the year the homosexuality restriction was lifted. The original memorandum repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" said it was unnecessary to update the discharge paperwork for those thrown out of the military by the policy, according to Bloomberg Law.


In February 2024, the DOD said that it was working to upgrade LGBTQ vets' discharges to honorable, according to DAV.org.

U.S. surgeon general declares gun violence a 'public health crisis'

Agence France-Presse
June 25, 2024 

A memorial at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas where 19 children and two adults were shot dead by a former student in 2022 (Jordan Vonderhaar/AFP)

The U.S. surgeon general on Tuesday issued a landmark advisory declaring gun violence a "public health crisis" and calling for wide-ranging firearm controls that have historically met stiff political opposition.

The advisory by Vivek Murthy, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, is the first such major report on gun violence from a surgeon general, whose office has limited authority but plays a significant role in public health issues.

A similar report on tobacco in the 1960s is viewed as a key first step to altering the perception of the substance's danger, ultimately leading to new regulations and a steep decline in consumption.

"Firearm violence is an urgent public health crisis that has led to loss of life, unimaginable pain, and profound grief for far too many Americans," Murthy said in a statement announcing the advisory.

"We don't have to continue down this path, and we don't have to subject our children to the ongoing horror of firearm violence in America. All Americans deserve to live their lives free from firearm violence, as well as from the fear and devastation that it brings."

The report cites government and other data that shows the United States is an extreme outlier on deaths and injuries from guns, especially for children.

Firearms in recent years have become the leading cause of deaths for Americans aged 1-19, above motor vehicles, the report said.

In 2022, 48,204 people died as a result of firearms, including suicides.

"It will take the collective commitment of our nation to turn the tide on firearm violence," Murthy said, calling for investments in research, community education programs, mental health support and tighter controls on buying guns.


The report also calls for mandating safe firearm storage, implementing universal background checks and banning assault weapons.

Biden and gun control activists have called for similar steps as the United States endures frequent mass shootings -- including in schools -- but reforms have been stymied for decades by opposition from the firearm lobby and Republican lawmakers.

Executive actions and state initiatives have been attacked in court as infringing on the constitutional right to own a firearm, enshrined in the Second Amendment.

Blueprint shows why only real barrier to global billionaire tax is 'political will'

Jake Johnson, 

Common Dreams
June 25, 2024 

British millionaire Phil White carries protest sign "Tax the rich" outside the World Economic Forum © Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP

Renowned economist Gabriel Zucman released a blueprint Tuesday showing the world's governments that a global minimum tax on billionaires would be both technically feasible and economically beneficial, leaving political will as the only major obstacle preventing transformative changes to an international tax structure long exploited by the ultra-rich.

Zucman, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley and a leading expert on tax evasion, estimated in the new analysis that a 2% minimum tax on the wealth of global billionaires would raise between $200 billion and $250 billion annually in revenue from roughly 3,000 individuals globally, resources that "could be invested to support sustained economic development through investments in education, health, public infrastructure, the energy transition, and climate change mitigation."

Billionaires in countries around the world—including France and the United States—pay lower effective income tax rates than those in the working class, often making use of holding companies and other complex maneuvers to dodge their obligations and stockpile massive fortunes. The world's billionaires collectively own $14.2 trillion in wealth, according toForbes data.

Zucman argued in his blueprint— commissioned by the government of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva—that structuring a new tax based on a specific percentage of billionaires' wealth would prevent ultra-rich individuals who report little to no taxable income from completely avoiding taxation. He also notes that the wealth of billionaires is easier to calculate than income flows, given that "at the top of the wealth distribution, the bulk of wealth consists of shares in companies."

"Fundamentally, this minimum tax should be seen not as a wealth tax, but as a tool to strengthen the income tax," Zucman wrote. "A billionaire who already pays the equivalent of 2% of their wealth in income tax (e.g., because that person realizes a significant amount of capital gains or earns a significant amount of dividend income directly) would have no extra tax to pay. Only billionaires who currently pay less than 2% of their wealth in tax would have to pay more."


Numerous potential challenges could arise should nations attempt to move forward with a minimum tax on billionaires, Zucman noted, including difficulties obtaining accurate estimates of rich individuals' fortunes—which are often hidden away in tax havens—and insufficient coordination between countries, as well as likely efforts by billionaires to evade the tax by shifting assets abroad.

But Zucman argues such obstacles can be overcome in the process of designing the minimum tax, which he described as the "most powerful tool to improve the effectiveness of the taxation of ultra-high-net-worth individuals because it ensures that no matter the avoidance strategies these taxpayers may use, the amount of tax effectively paid cannot fall below a certain amount."

"How to ensure an effective taxation of ultra-high-net-worth individuals if some jurisdictions decline to implement this standard? Two main policies could be implemented: first, measures to strengthen mechanisms to limit tax-driven international mobility; second, mechanisms to incentivize broad participation in the agreement," Zucman wrote. "Many countries have rules in place to limit tax-driven changes in residency of high-net-worth individuals, including exit taxes. Countries implementing the minimum tax standard could build on these rules and strengthen them."

The primary barrier to establishing a global tax on billionaires is not technical, Zucman argued, but political, particularly given the sway the ultra-rich have over economic policy.

"The goal of this blueprint is to offer a basis for political discussions—to start a conversation, not to end it," Zucman wrote. "It is for citizens to decide, through democratic deliberation and the vote, how taxation should be carried out. I hope this report will contribute to this democratic discussion."

"Thanks to recent progress in international tax cooperation, a common taxation standard for billionaires has become technically possible," he added. "Implementing it is a question of political will."

Recent statements by world leaders and survey data indicate that a global tax on billionaires is increasingly popular—even among millionaires. A YouGov poll released earlier this week found that 59% of U.S. millionaires would support a global tax on billionaires equal to 2% of their wealth, a proposal that U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has thus far opposed.

In April, the finance ministers of Brazil, Germany, South Africa, and Spain argued in a Guardianop-ed that a minimum tax on billionaires would "boost social justice and increase trust in the effectiveness of fiscal redistribution" while also generating "much-needed revenues for governments to invest in public goods such as health, education, the environment, and infrastructure—from which everybody benefits, including those at the top of the income pyramid."

"Fighting inequality requires political commitment—a commitment to the objectives of inclusive, fair, and effective international tax cooperation," the ministers wrote. "Surely, it needs to go hand-in-hand with much broader approaches that reduce not only wealth inequality but also social and carbon inequalities. The challenges that lie ahead are huge, but we stand ready to engage in concerted multilateral action to tackle them."

A REUTERS SPECIAL REPORT
Apple supplier Foxconn rejects married women from India iPhone jobs

Two unidentified women wearing backpacks stand outside a security office in January last year at the main entrance to Foxconn's factory in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, where workers assemble iPhones for Apple. 

REUTERS/Praveen Paramasivam

Foxconn, a major manufacturer of Apple devices, has been excluding female candidates from assembly jobs at its flagship Indian smartphone plant because they are married. Both companies’ codes of conduct state that workers shouldn't be discriminated against on the basis of marital status.

By PRAVEEN PARAMASIVAM, MUNSIF VENGATTIL and ADITYA KALRA
Filed June 25, 202
SRIPERUMBUDUR, India

The two women standing near the entrance to the iPhone factory in southern India were upset.

Parvathi and Janaki, sisters in their 20s, had come to the plant, run by major Apple supplier Foxconn, for interviews in March 2023 after seeing job ads on WhatsApp. But they had been turned away at the main gate by a security officer who stopped them and asked: “Are you married?”

“We didn’t get the jobs as we both are married,” Parvathi later said in an interview at her village shanty. “Even the auto-rickshaw driver who took us from the bus stand to the Foxconn facility told us they wouldn't take married women,” she added. “We thought we would still give it a shot.”

A Reuters investigation has found that Foxconn has systematically excluded married women from jobs at its main India iPhone assembly plant, on the grounds they have more family responsibilities than their unmarried counterparts. S. Paul, a former human-resources executive at Foxconn India, said the company’s executives verbally convey the recruitment rules to its Indian hiring agencies, which Foxconn tasks with scouting for candidates, bringing them in for interviews and employing them.

Foxconn typically doesn’t hire married women because of “cultural issues” and societal pressures, said Paul, who said he left the company in August 2023 for a better-paying role at a consulting firm. The company’s view was that there were “many issues post-marriage,” Paul added. Among them: Women “have babies after marriage.”

“Risk factors increase when you hire married women,” he said.

Paul’s account was corroborated by 17 employees from more than a dozen Foxconn hiring agencies in India, and four current and former Foxconn human-resources executives. Twelve of these sources spoke on condition of anonymity.

The agents and the Foxconn HR sources cited family duties, pregnancy and higher absenteeism as reasons why Foxconn did not hire married women at the plant, located at Sriperumbudur, near the city of Chennai. Many of these people also said jewelry worn by married Hindu women could interfere with production.

The ban isn’t absolute. Three former Foxconn HR executives told Reuters that the Taiwan-headquartered manufacturer relaxes the practice of not hiring married women during high-production periods when it sometimes faces labor shortages. In some cases, hiring agencies help female candidates conceal their marital status to secure jobs, Reuters found.

In response to questions from Reuters, Apple and Foxconn acknowledged lapses in hiring practices in 2022 and said they had worked to address the issues. All the discriminatory practices documented by Reuters at the Sriperumbudur plant, however, took place in 2023 and 2024. The companies didn't address those instances. They also didn’t specify whether any of the lapses in 2022 related to the hiring of married women.

Job aspirants talk with a hiring agent outside the Foxconn iPhone plant in Sriperumbudur, in Tamil Nadu state, in April. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has advocated for the removal of barriers that restrict women’s access to economic opportunities. 

REUTERS/Palani Kumar


“Risk factors increase when you hire married women.”S. Paul, former Foxconn HR executive, describing the company’s stance

While Indian law doesn’t bar companies from discriminating in hiring based on marital status, Apple’s and Foxconn’s policies prohibit such practice in their supply chains.

Apple told Reuters it upholds the “highest supply chain standards in the industry,” and noted that Foxconn employs some married women in India.

“When concerns about hiring practices were first raised in 2022 we immediately took action and worked with our supplier to conduct monthly audits to identify issues and ensure that our high standards are upheld,” Apple said in a statement. “All of our suppliers in India hire married women, including Foxconn.”

In a statement, Foxconn said it “vigorously refutes allegations of employment discrimination based on marital status, gender, religion or any other form.”

The exposure of the factory’s hiring practices turns a new spotlight on one of the highest-profile foreign investments in India.

Apple, one of the world’s most valuable companies, is positioning India as an alternative manufacturing base to China amid geopolitical tensions between Beijing and Washington. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for its part, sees Foxconn’s iPhone factory and Apple’s broader supply chain in India as helping the world’s most populous country move up the economic value chain.

Apple, Foxconn and other big companies also play a key role in another imperative of Modi’s: the removal of societal impediments that prevent many Indian women from getting jobs.

While Foxconn employs thousands of women in India, discrimination on the basis of marital status risks undercutting Modi’s aims.

Modi’s administration has tried to overhaul labor laws to make hiring and firing easier and prevent gender-based discrimination in recruitment. Still, those measures are yet to be implemented and would not specifically address discrimination on the basis of marital status.

The hiring curbs at the iPhone plant also show the challenge for both Apple and Foxconn in upholding their stated global standards of inclusion while expanding their supply chains in this fast-growing but largely conservative country.

Between January 2023 and May 2024, Reuters made more than 20 trips to Sriperumbudur and spoke to dozens of jobseekers about the hiring process. Reporters also reviewed a candidate information pamphlet, dozens of job ads and records of WhatsApp discussions in which four of Foxconn’s third-party recruiters stated to prospective candidates that only unmarried women were eligible for assembly jobs. The ads make no mention of the hiring of men.

For some Indian women, a job building iPhones is a ticket out of extreme poverty. The Foxconn positions offer food and accommodation and a monthly paycheck of about $200, roughly in line with India’s per capita GDP. Such jobs are the kind of opportunities offered by multinational companies that the government has encouraged to help lift living standards.

Women board a Foxconn factory bus near the village of Molachur in April. REUTERS/Palani Kumar

Foxconn buses carry workers near the entrance to the Sriperumbudur factory. Assembly jobs at the iPhone plant pay around $200 a month. 

REUTERS/Palani Kumar


Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, outsources its hiring of assembly-line workers to third-party vendors, who must be registered with the Tamil Nadu state government as official Foxconn service providers. The hiring agents scout for and screen the candidates, who ultimately are interviewed and selected by Foxconn. These same vendors directly employ the workers and manage the payroll, getting paid about $10 to $15 a month per employee, three hiring agents said.

Apple and Foxconn each require their suppliers to adhere to their respective codes of conduct.

Foxconn’s code states it is committed to a workforce free of “unlawful discrimination,” and that the company and its suppliers should not discriminate over marital status, gender and other factors in hiring. Apple’s code for suppliers states that they and their subsidiaries, as well as any subcontractors, should not discriminate against any worker based on age, gender, marital status and other matters.

In its statement, Foxconn said, “We enhanced our management process for hiring agencies in India in 2022 and identified four agencies that were posting ads that did not meet our standards,” without naming the agencies. “We took corrective action with those agencies and more than 20 job ads were removed.”

Further, Foxconn said that in its latest round of hiring, almost 25% of the women it hired were married, without specifying the number or where they were employed.

Modi’s office, and India’s federal ministries of labor, commerce and information technology, did not respond to requests for comment about Foxconn not hiring married women on its assembly lines. Tamil Nadu officials, including the chief minister’s office and the state ministries of industry and labor, also did not respond to questions.

Reuters could not establish when the practice of not hiring married women for assembly line work began. Thanga Rasu, a recruiter at Go Staffing, a hiring vendor for Foxconn, said in November 2023 that he had attended meetings with Foxconn officials for around a year and the “unmarried rule” had been in place during that period.

Assembly lines entirely or predominantly staffed by women have emerged in some industries in India. That’s in line with Modi’s efforts to boost female labor-force participation – which official data shows is around 37%, compared with almost 80% for men.

Scooter maker Ola Electric is an example of another company with a focus on hiring women. Bhavish Aggarwal, the founder, said on X in May that Ola runs one of the largest "women only automotive plants," where almost 5,000 work, with a plan to "grow to tens of thousands in the coming years.” Ola declined to comment about its hiring practices.

‘Betterment of society’

Despite the country’s economic boom, many women in India remain confined to household chores and childcare. Since taking office in 2014, Modi has put women at the center of his government’s plans to increase incomes.

“When women prosper, the world prospers,” Modi said in an address to a ministerial conference on women’s empowerment last August. “We must work to remove the barriers that restrict their access to markets, global value chains and affordable finance.”

Apple CEO Tim Cook gestures during the inauguration of India's first Apple retail store in Mumbai in April last year. The South Asian country is increasingly important to Apple, which is moving some production beyond China.

 REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas

Apple and Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, are central to those goals. When Apple CEO Tim Cook visited India last year, Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said he discussed “job creation especially for women” with the executive. Vaishnaw’s then-deputy, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, has also lauded Apple’s ecosystem for generating more than 150,000 jobs in the past three years.

Apple, in turn, has bet on India as its next growth frontier and a pillar of its efforts to shift production beyond China. India will account for about 9% to 14% of iPhone production globally this year, compared with 86% to 91% in China, according to Taiwan-based Isaiah Research. Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst at TF International Securities, has predicted India’s share could reach and even exceed 20% this year. Apple did not address a Reuters query about these estimates.

India is also important to Foxconn, which last year exported devices worth $5 billion from the country, according to commercially available customs data. Led by chairman Young Liu, Foxconn in recent years has expanded in India, where it makes iPhones and products for other smartphone brands, including China’s Xiaomi, and plans to move into AirPods and chipmaking.

In January, Modi’s government awarded Liu India’s third-highest civilian honor. “Let’s do our part for manufacturing in India and for the betterment of society,” Liu said on receiving the award.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets Foxconn Chairman Young Liu during SemiconIndia, an annual semiconductor conference, in the city of Gandhinagar in July last year. During intense production periods, Foxconn relaxes its practice of not hiring married women on its assembly lines to mitigate labor shortages, three former Foxconn HR executives said. 

REUTERS/Amit Dave

Most iPhones made in India are produced at the Sriperumbudur plant, about 25 miles west of Chennai. The factory began producing the Apple devices in 2019. It now employs thousands of women on its assembly lines.

In a forum hosted by the Center for Emerging Markets at Northeastern University in 2022, Josh Foulger, then a top Foxconn executive in India, said the company was “completely aligned with” the Indian government’s plans to boost manufacturing. He described how Foxconn opted to hire a workforce in India that overwhelmingly comprised women.

“For me it was a no-brainer,” Foulger said, crediting his mother, a former school teacher, with giving him the idea. “We tried it and it was a fantastic success.”

Foulger said women migrated from around India to work for Foxconn, attracted by its provision of safe accommodation. He added that Foxconn also hires men – “amazing guys who program all the robots” – as technicians and engineers.

Foulger, who left Foxconn earlier this year, declined to comment about the manufacturer’s hiring methods.

Josh Foulger, then a senior executive at Foxconn India, has said it was a “no-brainer” for the company to hire an overwhelmingly female workforce in the country. He said he got the idea from his mother, a former school teacher. 

REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee

Many of the people who spoke to Reuters also attributed Foxconn’s hiring practices to what they said were the company’s concerns that married Hindu women wear metal toe rings known in southern India as metti and necklaces called thaali to signify the bond of marriage.

These customary ornaments could interfere with the manufacturing process, and married women won’t typically remove them, according to five of the hiring vendors and three current and former HR executives. Electrostatic discharge could occur when metals come into contact with phone components, potentially damaging them, one current and one former Foxconn HR executive said.

Additionally, three current and former engineers for Foxconn and an affiliate company, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly, said women were screened for metals on entering and leaving the assembly lines, and that the prohibition on ornaments helped security officers prevent any theft of components.

Reuters could not independently ascertain whether ornaments affected the manufacturing process.

In its statement, Foxconn said “married women are welcome to wear traditional metal ornaments while working in our facilities,” without elaborating.

Suhasini Rao, a Bengaluru-based lawyer specializing in Indian labor regulations, said it would be reasonable for a business to require a person to remove ornaments for safety or quality-control reasons as a condition of employment, provided that was conveyed clearly.

Discrimination solely on the basis of marital status, while not prohibited in the private sector under Indian law, “may interfere with an individual’s fundamental right to freedom of trade and occupation and might be struck down by the courts, if challenged,” Rao said.

There is legal precedent on the subject of firing married women on the grounds of absenteeism.

Married Hindu women typically wear jewelry like this necklace, known in southern India as thaali. Hiring vendors for Foxconn said that the metal ornaments could interfere with the iPhone manufacturing process and so were a reason not to employ married women on the company’s assembly lines. REUTERS/Priyanshu Singh
Married Hindu women also wear jewelry like this toe ring, known as metti. REUTERS/Priyanshu Singh

In 1965, India’s Supreme Court struck down a pharmaceutical company’s practice of terminating the employment of women in its packing and labeling department when they got married.

The company, Messrs International Franchises, had argued that it required consistent attendance that “cannot be expected from married women,” and that there was “greater absenteeism among married women.”

The four judges determined there was “nothing to show that married women would necessarily be more likely to be absent than unmarried women,” and “there is no good and convincing reason why such a rule should continue.” Reuters was unable to determine if the company is still operating.


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Foxconn has faced scrutiny over the years for its culture and work environment, most notably in China, where it runs the world's biggest iPhone factory in Zhengzhou with 200,000 workers.

A spate of suicides by Foxconn employees in China more than a decade ago prompted questions from their families and labor rights groups about work conditions. Foxconn largely attributed the deaths to workers’ personal problems, and set up counseling hotlines.

In India, protests broke out at the Sriperumbudur plant in December 2021, leading to a brief production halt, after more than 250 workers suffered food poisoning.

That episode led Apple to dispatch independent auditors to assess conditions in workers’ facilities. Both Apple and Foxconn said they found some dormitories and dining rooms did not meet required standards, and Apple briefly put the plant on probation. Two days before the plant partially resumed operations in January 2022, Apple said that it would continue to monitor conditions at workers’ dorms and dining facilities.

Married ‘not allowed’

In addition to the sisters, Parvathi and Janaki, Reuters spoke to five other women who said they were rejected by Foxconn’s hiring vendors on the grounds that they were married.

Priya Darshini received the news in a WhatsApp group chat, which a recruiter from SS Enterprises, one of the hiring agencies, had created to scout for candidates.

Darshini posed questions to the group in August 2023, according to a transcript reviewed by Reuters: “I have a baby. Are there child care facilities? Could I bring my baby? Age is 2. Salary?”

The recruiter, T. Balu, sent a curt reply: Married “not allowed.”

Asked about his response, Balu told Reuters that Foxconn does not hire married women, who wear ornaments, because it wants to ensure a metal-free zone.

Darshini, who is in her late 20s, told Reuters she is seeking help from friends and family to find a job that would allow her to care for her child.

Paul, the former HR executive, said Foxconn management advises its hiring vendors not to mention marital and age criteria in their job ads.

But in some instances, vendors did not heed that advice.

“Job vacancy for Only Female … iPhone Manufacturing … Age: 19 to 30 Unmarried,” said an ad posted by a recruiter at Proodle, a hiring agency for Foxconn, in a publicly accessible WhatsApp group in February 2024.

A YouTube ad for Foxconn jobs posted by recruiter Cumans Manpower in July last year sought “unmarried only” female candidates aged 18 to 28.

A job ad posted on YouTube (left) by recruiter Cumans in July 2023 and an information pamphlet distributed by a Groveman recruiter outside the Foxconn factory in March last year sought applications from unmarried women only. Both hiring agencies are among the third-party vendors used by Foxconn. 

Credit: Screenshot of Cumans ad via YouTube

A recruiter with SS Enterprises also posted a Facebook ad in September 2023 that specified the same requirements and contained a link to a Foxconn job application. The ad became inaccessible in late May after Reuters sent questions to SS Enterprises for this story.

When Reuters visited Sriperumbudur in March 2023, a recruiter was standing outside the Foxconn plant and wearing a badge of the hiring agency Groveman Global. She handed a job pamphlet to a Reuters reporter. It advertised mobile-phone manufacturing roles, which the recruiter, who identified herself only as Kaviya, said were Foxconn assembly positions.

The pamphlet stated the jobs were for “unmarried women” aged 18 to 32, with a monthly salary of about $163 for those who live in company hostels and $220 for those who don’t. Foxconn doesn’t hire married women, Kaviya told Reuters, without elaborating.

None of the hiring agencies identified by Reuters responded to questions about the job ads and employment practices at the Foxconn plant.

Proodle, Cumans, Groveman and SS Enterprises are among the agencies registered by Foxconn as contractors with the Tamil Nadu government for providing assembly line helpers, according to copies of contractor licenses Reuters obtained from the state government under India’s Right to Information Act.

Suppliers that violate Apple’s code of conduct can face probation, suspension and even lose their entire business with Apple. The company said in its 2024 supply chain report that since 2009, it has removed 25 manufacturing supplier facilities and 231 material processors for failure to meet its standards.

In China, at least six online job ads reviewed by Reuters show workers engaged in iPhone assembly at Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant can earn $400 to $800 a month, more than double the wages in India. The Chinese ads do not mention marital status or gender, saying anyone aged 18 to 48 can apply.

Concealing status

In Sriperumbudur, a road junction a little over a mile from the Foxconn plant is a hotspot for recruiters to meet candidates. Many jobseekers travel with their families from far-flung villages; if hired they are expected to start immediately.

If a married woman somehow makes it inside for an interview during the typical hiring season, Foxconn officials remain on the lookout for telltale metal ornaments, according to one current and one former Foxconn HR executive. Those wearing the ornaments are then turned away with the explanation that there had been a miscommunication or that recruitment had been paused, the people said.

But there are ways to bypass the system.

After she and her sister were turned away at the factory gate, Parvathi told Reuters that their recruiter, whose name she did not know, told them they should have removed their ornaments to conceal their marital status and gain entry.

Five recruitment agency officials also said candidates can conceal their marital status to secure jobs if their Indian government-issued ID card, known as Aadhaar, still reflects them as unmarried.


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M. Malathi, a Cumans recruiter, said candidates who had not updated their marital status on Aadhaar and were willing to remove ornaments “could be helped by manpower agencies, and Cumans does help.”

Reuters spoke to a married woman from a town near Chennai, who said she used that strategy to work at Foxconn for a year, undetected, before quitting for personal reasons in 2023.

“It helped that I didn’t wear metal ornaments to work,” said the woman. Reuters is withholding her name so as not to harm her future prospects.

“You don't need many educational qualifications. I liked it there. I want to go back when the opportunity comes.”

Auto-rickshaws pass by billboards promoting Apple’s iPhone X devices in Mumbai. Most iPhones made in India are produced at Foxconn’s Sriperumbudur plant.

 REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas


Additional reporting by Jatindra Dash in Bhubaneswar, India, Sethuraman N R in Bengaluru, and Shanghai Newsroom


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Edited by David Crawshaw

Will ex-gang leader held in Tupac Shakur killing get house arrest with $750K bail? Judge to decide


 Rapper Tupac Shakur attends a voter registration event in South Central Los Angeles, Aug. 15, 1996. A Nevada judge is being asked to decide Tuesday, June 25, 2024, if a former Los Angeles-area gang leader will be freed from jail to house arrest ahead of his murder trial in the 1996 killing of hip-hop music legend Tupac Shakur.

 (AP Photo/Frank Wiese, File)

 Duane “Keffe D” Davis, who is accused of orchestrating the 1996 slaying of hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur, is led into the courtroom during a status hearing at the Regional Justice Center, April 23, 2024, in Las Vegas. A Nevada judge is being asked to decide Tuesday, June 25, if former Los Angeles-area gang leader Davis will be freed from jail to house arrest ahead of his murder trial in the 1996 killing of hip-hop music legend Tupac Shakur.

 (Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, File)

BY KEN RITTER
 June 24, 2024

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Nevada judge is being asked to decide Tuesday if a former Los Angeles-area gang leader will be freed from jail to house arrest ahead of his murder trial in the 1996 killing of hip-hop music legend Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis, now 61, has sought to be released since shortly after his arrest last September made him the only person ever charged with a crime in a killing that for 27 years has drawn intense interest and speculation.

Prosecutors allege the gunfire that killed Shakur stemmed from competition between East Coast members of a Bloods gang sect and West Coast groups of a Crips sect, including Davis, for dominance in a musical genre known at the time as “gangsta rap.”

Davis’ defense attorney, Carl Arnold, declined by telephone Monday to speak ahead of a hearing before Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny in Las Vegas.

The judge has said Davis — a self-described former leader of a Crips gang sect in the Los Angeles suburb of Compton, California — can be freed on $750,000 bond if he can demonstrate that funds used to secure his release were obtained legally.

Representatives at Crum & Forster Insurance and North River Insurance Co., the Morristown, New Jersey-based backer of the bond identified in the court filing, have not responded to telephone messages from The Associated Press.

Davis told Kierny in court in February that backers were “hesitant to come in here and help me out on the bail because of the media and the circus that’s going on.”

Kierny’s decision in January to set a bail amount came after prosecutors and Davis’ defense lawyers traded allegations about whether the word “green light” recorded by authorities monitoring an October jailhouse telephone conversation between Davis and his son was evidence of threats to witnesses in the case, or showed danger faced by Davis’ family members.

Davis has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. His trial is scheduled Nov. 4. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison. Public defenders who represented Davis before he hired Arnold said in December he wasn’t getting proper medical care in jail following a bout with colon cancer that they said was in remission.

According to police, prosecutors and Davis’ own accounts, he is the only person still alive among four people who were in a white Cadillac from which shots were fired in September 1996, mortally wounding Shakur and grazing rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight at an intersection just off the Las Vegas Strip. Knight, now 59, is serving 28 years in a California prison for using a vehicle to kill a Los Angeles-area man in 2015.

Davis’ nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, who was in the back seat of the Cadillac, denied involvement in Shakur’s death and died in a May 1998 shooting in Compton. The other back seat passenger, DeAndre “Big Dre” or “Freaky” Smith, died in 2004. The driver, Terrence “Bubble Up” Brown, died in a 2015 shooting in Compton.

Davis has publicly described himself as the orchestrator of the shooting, but not the gunman. A renewed push by Las Vegas police to solve the case led to a search warrant and raid last July at his home in Henderson.

Prosecutors say they have strong evidence to convict Davis of murder based his own accounts during multiple police and media interviews since 2008 — and in a 2019 memoir of his life leading a Compton street gang.

In his book, Davis wrote he was promised immunity to tell authorities in Los Angeles what he knew about the fatal shootings of Shakur and rival rapper Christopher Wallace six months later in Los Angeles. Wallace was known as The Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls.

Arnold maintains that Davis told stories so he could make money, and that police and prosecutors in Nevada lack key evidence including the gun, the Cadillac and proof that Davis was in Las Vegas at the time of the shooting.

ACLU files lawsuit against Louisiana's Ten Commandments law


Civil rights groups on Monday filed a lawsuit against Louisiana's House Bill 71, which mandates that all public schools display the Ten Commandments. 

File Photo by Michael Kleinfeld/UPI | License Photo

June 24 (UPI) -- Civil liberties groups are suing Louisiana over its controversial rule mandating the Ten Commandments be displayed in public schools, arguing it is unconstitutional.

Gov. Jeff Landry signed House Bill 71 into law last week, requiring the Ten Commandments to be displaced in large, easily readable font inside all public elementary and high schools as well as state-funded universities by the start of 2025.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which had vowed to sue the state over H.B. 71, on Monday filed a lawsuit along with its Louisiana branch on behalf of a multi-faith group of nine families with children in the state's public schools.

In the lawsuit, they allege the rule violates longstanding U.S. Supreme Court precedent concerning the separation of church and state as well as the parents' First Amendment right to direct their children's religious education and upbringing.

"Permanently posting the Ten Commandments in every Louisiana public-school classroom -- rendering them unavoidable -- unconstitutionally pressures students into religious observance, veneration and adoption of the state's favored religious scripture," the lawsuit states.

It continues that displaying the Ten Commandments communicates to students who do not follow that specific doctrine "the harmful and religiously divisive message" that they "do not belong in their own school community and should refrain from expressing any faith practices or beliefs that are not aligned with the state's religious preferences."

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit -- who allege that Louisiana's main interest in passing the law was to impose religious beliefs on public school children -- include a Unitarian Universalist minister, a Presbyterian reverend, nonreligious parents, a Jewish parent and an atheist.

They are asking the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana to declare H.B. 71 is in violation of the First Amendment and prevent the Ten Commandments from being displayed in schools.

"This law sends a contrary message of religious intolerance that one denomination or faith system is officially preferable to others, and that those who don't adhere to it are lesser in worth and status," plaintiff Rev. Jeff Sims said in a statement.

"As a pastor and father, I cannot, in good conscience, sit by silently while our political representatives usurp God's authority for themselves and trample our fundamental religious-freedom rights."

Similar laws have been proposed in conservative states, such as Texas, where Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick late last week vowed to pass such a bill.

In 1980, a similar law in Kentucky was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled it violated the First Amendment of the Constitution as the Ten Commandments is not secular.

Container ship Dali, crew leave Baltimore for first time since bridge collapse


Salvors with the Unified Command prepare the section of the Francis Scott Key Bridge sitting on the port side bow of the M/V Dali for controlled demolition, and precision cutting, on May 13. The ship left the Port of Baltimore on Monday. 

File Photo by Christopher Rosario/U.S. Army Corps of Engineers/UPI | License Photo

June 24 (UPI) -- The Dali container ship left Baltimore for the first time Monday since it crashed into the iconic Francis Scott Key bridge in March.

With the help of four tugboats along with its own power, the Dali left the port's Seagirt Marine Terminal before 8:30 a.m. EDT. It will eventually end up in Norfolk, Va., where it will unload its remaining cargo and undergo extensive repairs.

Traffic was stopped on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge as the ship approached at 11 a.m.

After arriving in Virginia eight crew members from the Dali were finally set to leave the United States after attorneys from the City of Baltimore squabbled with attorneys representing the crew in last-minute deal-making.

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City attorneys continued to express concern about the eight crew members who were scheduled to leave would be available to them if they left the United States. It was thought that a deal was reached in the middle of last week before the additional legal wrangling.

In last week's agreement crew members who still need to be deposed will be interrogated in London or another agreed-upon location. The filed court document said that the Justice Department had already interviewed those crew members planning to leave and the department did not object to their departure.

The ship, as long as three football fields, lost power before it slammed into a pillar of the bridge on March 26, sending most of its span tumbling into the river below and killing several workers who were doing maintenance on it.

It had remained in Baltimore along with its crew since then as legal details were ironed out.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators have completed in-person interviews of the vessel's crew.

On Monday, the NTSB published an investigative update for its ongoing investigation of the incident. Onboard examination of engineering systems and testing of electrical systems has been completed.

Documentation of the damage to the vessel structure continues.

The update does not contain analysis and has no probable cause stated.

In the preliminary report released in May,​ electrical breakers HR1 and LR1 unexpectedly opened when the vessel was three ship lengths from the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing the first blackout to all shipboard lighting and most equipment. NTSB investigators noted an interruption in the control circuit for HR1's undervoltage release.

​​NTSB investigators then removed an electrical component from the control circuit for HR1's undervoltage release. Two portions of control wiring associated with the terminal block were also removed.

"We continue to examine the removed components at the NTSB Materials Laboratory," the update says. "We will continue to evaluate the design and operation of the vessel's electrical power distribution system, and investigate all aspects of the accident to determine the probable cause and identify potential safety recommendations"

Having kidney transplant while awake a "pretty cool experience"

By Dennis Thompson, HealhDay News


Surgeons at Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive Transplant Center carry out the kidney transplant procedure as John Nicolas lies awake. 

Photo courtesy of Northwestern Medicine

John Nicolas was deep into kidney transplant surgery when he decided to ask his doctors if they'd started yet.

"At one point during surgery, I recall asking, 'Should I be expecting the spinal anesthesia to kick in?'" Nicolas, 28, recalled in a news release.

"They had already been doing a lot of work and I had been completely oblivious to that fact. Truly, no sensation whatsoever."

Nicolas lives in Chicago resident and is the first person at his hospital, Northwestern Medicine, to receive a kidney transplant while awake.

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Instead of using the normal general anesthesia, doctors used a single spinal anesthesia injection to numb Nicolas while allowing him to remain alert.

This new option could make transplantation available to patients whose health makes them a high risk for general anesthesia, doctors say.

It also could substantially decrease the length of a transplant patient's hospital stay.

Nicolas walked out of the hospital the day after his successful surgery, which occurred May 24. Typically, kidney transplant patients spend two to three days in the hospital, doctors said.

"Inside the operating room, it was an incredible experience being able to show a patient what their new kidney looked like before placing it inside the body," Dr. Satish Nadig, a transplant surgeon and director of the Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive Transplant Center, said in a news release.

"The other exciting element is that the patient was able to be discharged home in less than 24 hours, basically making this an outpatient procedure," Nadig added in a Northwestern news release.

"Our hope is that awake kidney transplantation can decrease some of the risks of general anesthesia while also shortening a patient's hospital stay."

Nicolas' surgical team performed his kidney transplant in less than two hours, using a type of anesthesia similar to that employed during a cesarean section.

"Doing anesthesia for the awake kidney transplant was easier than a C-section," Dr. Vicente Garcia Tomas, chief of regional anesthesiology and acute pain medication at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, said in a news release.

"For John's case, we placed a single-spinal anesthesia shot in the operating room with a little bit of sedation for comfort. It was incredibly simple and uneventful, but allowed John to be awake for the procedure, improving the patient experience."

Nicolas didn't have any health risks that would have prohibited general anesthesia, nor did he have any phobia about it.

In fact, his age and limited risk factors made him an ideal candidate to participate in a medical first, and Nicolas leapt at the opportunity.

"It was a pretty cool experience to know what was happening in real time and be aware of the magnitude of what they were doing," Nicholas said.

"I had been given some sedation for my own comfort, but I was still aware of what they were doing, especially when they called out my name and told me about certain milestones they had reached," Nicolas added.

Nicolas began having kidney problems at age 16. His kidney function declined, and testing showed inflammation in his kidneys was damaging them, although the root cause was never found.

He was able to avoid dialysis through medication until recently, when his kidneys failed further and it became clear he would need a kidney transplant.

Nicolas' mom originally planned to be his donor, but that fell through following a breast cancer diagnosis.

Next he turned to a group of friends he's known since elementary school, growing up in the Indianapolis suburb of Zionsville.

His best friend now lives in Alexandria, Va., and works for a public health agency. Pat Wise, 29, remembers getting the text.

"I was in my kitchen cooking dinner and John sent a message that read, 'my doctor says it's time for me to start looking for kidney donors.' I stared at my phone and without hesitating, filled out the form that night," Wise said. "John is a good friend. He needed a kidney, and I had an extra one. I had to at least explore the potential of being his donor."

Wise was declared a match and traveled to Chicago, where surgeons removed one of his kidneys and transplanted it into Nicolas.

"I have been blessed with a friend group that has stayed together from such a young age," Nicholas said. "We always called ourselves 'ride or die' friends, and this example shows that we have each other's backs. It meant the world to me. It's truly been life-changing."

To keep his kidneys healthy, Nicholas had to limit his salt intake. Now he's looking forward to enjoying more pizza and having the energy to ride his bicycle around Chicago.

"He is an extremely compliant patient who was in tune with his body and willing to push the envelope," said Dr. Vinayak Rohan, a transplant surgeon at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. "He had the upmost faith in us, and we had the upmost faith in him."

Northwestern Medicine plans to make this sort of surgery available to patients who can't have general anesthesia or might otherwise benefit from it.

"It really opens up a whole new door and is another tool in our toolbelt for the field of transplantation," Nadig said.

More information

The National Institutes of Health has more on kidney transplants.

Copyright © 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.




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Study: Medication abortion without ultrasound safe

By Dennis Thompson, HealhDay News

Mifepristone is used in a regimen together with misoprostol to end a pregnancy less than 70 days in duration.

 Adobe Stock/HealthDay

Women don't need an ultrasound to have a safe medication abortion, a new study says.

Women who received abortion pills by mail without getting an ultrasound first did just as well as those who were examined and given the drugs in person, researchers found.

"This study adds to a growing and robust body of evidence demonstrating the effectiveness and safety of medication abortion with telehealth and mailing medications," said lead researcher Lauren Ralph, an associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of California-San Francisco.

"Patient history-based models of medication abortion care without ultrasound and via telehealth offer a safe, effective and urgently needed way to overcome logistical and geographic obstacles to accessing abortion today," Ralph added in a UCSF news release.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines that permit remote prescribing and delivery of medication abortion recently survived a Supreme Court challenge, but researchers said the availability of abortion pills remains under attack.

The Supreme Court upheld the guidelines in a narrow ruling, based on the plaintiffs not having the standing to sue.

In addition, a growing number of states have enacted abortion bans or severe restrictions after the court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, making medication abortion many women's only option.

Medication abortion now accounts for about two-thirds of all abortions in the United States, researchers said in background notes. It's approved for use in women up to 10 weeks of pregnancy.

For the new study, researchers tracked the experience of 585 women who underwent medication abortions between May 2021 and March 2023. The women were treated by clinics in Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Virginia and Washington.

One group of 288 women were screened via telehealth and mailed the abortion pills without undergoing an ultrasound.

A second group of 119 also were screened using telehealth but got their medication in person. A third group of 238 underwent ultrasound in a clinic and then picked up their medication in person.

About 95% of the participants had a complete abortion without having to repeat the regimen, results show.

Further, the telehealth patients did as well as those who received in-person care. Serious adverse events were rare in all groups.

The results show patients can report enough information about their medical history to assess how far along they are in pregnancy without an ultrasound, Ralph said.

"These models of care that rely on no-test telehealth screening and mailing medications are as effective as in-person care with ultrasound and should be offered to all pregnant people," Ralph said. 

The new study was published June 24 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

This is the latest in a series of studies on medication abortion produced by UCSF's Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health program.

In February, researchers there showed that medication abortion can be delivered safely and effectively through telehealth. Another study in May found that dispensing abortion pills through the mail works as well as requiring patients to pick them up in person.

"The science is clear that telehealth evaluation and pharmacy dispensing of abortion pills is safe and effective," said ANSIRH Director Dr. Daniel Grossman, a UCSF professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences and senior author of the latest study.  "Any attempt to restrict it is not based on science."

More information

Planned Parenthood has more about the abortion pill.

Copyright © 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.