K-pop star tells South Korea lawmakers of workplace bullying

Agence France-Presse
October 15, 2024 

K-pop star Hanni testified that she overheard a manager of another idol group linked to her parent agency instructing members of another girl group to spurn her (KIM Min-Hee/AFP

A member of chart-topping K-pop group NewJeans tearfully testified to South Korean lawmakers Tuesday as part of an enquiry into workplace harassment, amid a boardroom drama over her super producer.

In recent years, South Korea's K-pop industry has become a global juggernaut powered by the success of groups like BTS, but domestically it is known for imposing strict standards and controls on fledgling stars.

Rising K-pop idols are expected to adhere to their powerful agency's behavior and appearance guidelines, with many stars describing receiving extreme backlash from fans over perceived mistakes in their personal lives, for example dating.

Hanni, 20, who is Vietnamese-Australian, testified that she overheard a manager of another idol group linked to her parent agency instructing members of another girl group to spurn her.

"I saw a manager along with three members from another group and said hello... When the manager saw me, she told the members to 'ignore her as if you didn't see her,'" she told lawmakers.

"I could not understand why I had to go through this."

The alleged event took place amid a dispute between NewJeans' producer and mastermind, Min Hee-jin, and HYBE, the South Korean agency that manages BTS, after HYBE filed a legal complaint against Min for breach of trust in business.

Min, who headed the HYBE subsidiary ADOR which manages NewJeans, was replaced as ADOR's president in August amid the boardroom conflict.

During the livestream in which Hanni had raised the harassment claim, all NewJeans' members demanded that Min be reinstated as ADOR's CEO.

Multiple court cases on the issue are ongoing.

- Unfair treatment -

Hanni acknowledged that the ongoing dispute between the parent company and Min was related to the bullying she had experienced.


"It couldn't have been unrelated. But they didn't need to bring that issue into the workplace," she said.

"I felt I couldn't just sit idly by while such behaviour continued to repeat," she added, noting NewJeans members had been subjected to other unfair treatment by HYBE, such as discrediting their performance in Japan.

ADOR CEO Kim Ju-young, who succeeded Min, told lawmakers that while she personally believed Hanni's account, no CCTV evidence was available to support it.


Hanni's testimony was given to South Korean lawmakers who serve on the parliamentary committee overseeing workplace conditions and safety, which is not an investigative body.

ADOR's Min, who joined the industry in the early 2000s, is widely regarded as one of the most successful producers in the K-pop scene, having worked with stars such as Girls' Generation, EXO and SHINee, among others.

NewJeans, produced by Min, is among HYBE's most successful K-pop groups, alongside BTS, which is currently on a hiatus as some members perform South Korea's mandatory military service.


BTS member J Hope is scheduled to finish his military service this Thursday.

"I am grateful for the attention people have shown to this issue. I hope my fellow colleagues and (K-pop) trainees won't have to experience such concerns," Hanni said tearfully in her closing remarks.

EMOTIONAL PLAGUE

'Lethal syndrome': Epidemiologist says MAGA 'disease' causes Trump followers' violence

Matthew Chapman

RAW STORY
October 15, 2024 

Supporters of Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. president Donald Trump raise MAGA hats, on the day Trump returns for a rally at the site of the July assassination attempt against him, in Butler, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 5, 2024. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Former President Donald Trump's movement should be considered a contagious disease with a primary symptom of violence, an epidemiologist argued Tuesday.

Dr. Gary Slutkin, who says his work abroad gave him 15 years' experience dealing with dictatorships, compared Trump's MAGA movement to a pathological phenomenon in conversation with Salon's Chauncey DeVega.

"In these countries, you can’t speak or act freely and don’t want to live there," Slutkin said. "Life is fear. People fear the government, their neighbors and even their family and friends. Businesses and the press can be taken away. People become suddenly imprisoned or disappear."

Slutkin argued the same kind of "epidemic" fear and hate that keeps people in line under such regimes has built the MAGA movement.

"I understand MAGA as an epidemic disease, infecting many through what I call 'brain flaws,'" he said. "There are brain pathways for copying and following others — in the cortex, dopamine system, and pain centers, to motivate conformity and violence ... Violence is a disease, and specifically, a contagious disease. The disease spreads through these brain processes."

In essence, Slutkin believes Trump's movement "is a dangerous and lethal syndrome of what I describe as 'Authoritarian Violence Disorder.'"

Under this interpretation, Trump is a "massive superspreader" using "streams of lies" to reprogram people's brains into a pathological state, causing them to "abandon their own decision-making and obey," the epidemiologist argued.

An Election Day victory for Vice President Kamala Harris could help contain the disease and allow the nation to heal, Slutkin argued — but the disease could worsen should Trump win.

"There will be more state violence, violence from private militia groups and other violence including mass deportations and promised detention or concentration camps," he argued.

 

New phase in safety work on Chernobyl's original shelter

Monday, 14 October 2024

The next phase of the project has begun to study which parts of the shelter built rapidly around Chernobyl's unit 4 after the 1986 accident need immediate dismantling and which bits need stabilisation.

The original shelter is now within the New Safe Confinement (Image: CHNPP)

The project, funded through the International Chernobyl Cooperation Account, aims to determine the scope of early deconstruction work for unstable Shelter structures and provide an initial cost estimate and enable the beginning of design work for the next stage, which includes the dismantling of the unstable Shelter structures.

The original shelter over the destroyed unit 4 at Chernobyl was constructed in a matter of just months, and the international Shelter Implementation Plan in the 1990s had three phases - firstly to stabilise it and secondly to build a larger secure construction to enclose it - the New Safe Confinement which was completed in 2017 to pave the way for the dismantling and decommissioning stage.

The Shelter Object - also known as the 'sarcophagus' - still contains the molten core of the reactor and an estimated 200 tonnes of highly radioactive material. The stability of the structure has developed into one of the major risk factors at the site. A project to shore up the structure was completed in mid-2008, but at that time the maximum life of the stabilised structures was determined as the end of 2023.

The licence for the storage of radioactive waste within the shelter was extended last year from 2023 to 2029, with a 2025 deadline for the development of a new design for the dismantling of "unstable structures with an unacceptably high probability of collapse", and a 31 October 2029 deadline for completion of the dismantling.

According to World Nuclear Association, the hermetically-sealed New Safe Confinement allows "engineers to remotely dismantle the 1986 structure that has shielded the remains of the reactor from the weather since the weeks after the accident. It will enable the eventual removal of the fuel-containing materials in the bottom of the reactor building and accommodate their characterisation, compaction, and packing for disposal. This task represents the most important step in eliminating nuclear hazard at the site - and the real start of dismantling".

The New Safe Confinement (NSC) is the largest moveable land-based structure built - with a span of 257 metres, a length of 162 metres, a height of 108 metres and a total weight of 36,000 tonnes equipped - and with a lifetime of 100 years, it has been designed to allow for the eventual dismantling of the ageing makeshift shelter from 1986 and the management of radioactive waste. It has also been designed to withstand temperatures ranging from -43°C to +45°C, a class-three tornado, and an earthquake with a magnitude of 6 on the Richter scale.

The International Chernobyl Cooperation Account was established in November 2020 by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development at the Ukrainian government's request to support a comprehensive plan for Chernobyl.

UTEM-Engineering LLC has been selected as the consultant. The work also includes "revising the criteria and requirements for the NSC infrastructure to support the dismantling of unstable structures in the Shelter. This also involves developing all necessary technical specifications, including for lifting equipment, systems for processing contaminated dismantled structures, their further transportation, engineering and control systems for" the second stage of the project and "additional radiation monitoring equipment, radiation-protected personnel transfer boxes, and other related documentation".

 

Pickering units' operation assured as OPG plans for refurb

Monday, 14 October 2024

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has approved Ontario Power Generation's request to continue operating Pickering units 5-8 to the end of 2026, ensuring the units can continue in operation until they are taken offline for refurbishment. Unit 1 ceased commercial operations on 30 September and unit 4 will close by the end of this year.

Submissions from Ontario Power Generation (OPG), Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) staff and 54 intervenors during a public hearing in Pickering in June 2024 were considered by CNSC before authorising the units to operate until 31 December 2026, up to a maximum of 305,000 equivalent full power hours (EFPH). OPG was previously authorised to operate the units until 31 December this year, up to a maximum of 295,000 EFPH. The amended licence includes a new condition requiring OPG to implement and maintain an enhanced fitness-for-service programme, the CNSC said.

OPG's Pickering Nuclear Generating Station comprises two reactor facilities with a total of eight Candu reactor units. Units 5-8 - sometimes referred to as Pickering B - began operating between 1983 and 1986. Units 1 and 4 - part of the four-unit Pickering A plant which began operations in the early 1970s and was laid up in 1997 - underwent refurbishment before returning to service in the 2003 (unit 4) and 2005 (unit 1).

Pickering unit 1 was taken offline and out of service on 30 September as planned, and will now be dewatered and placed in safe storage. Unit 4 will be taken out of service at the end of December, as OPG continues to plan for the refurbishment of units 5-8.

The CNSC's decision will help meet Ontario’s rising need for electricity, particularly as the province's other nuclear stations undergo refurbishment, OPG said.

"This is another great milestone for Pickering Nuclear and all our station staff, who have worked hard to help Pickering achieve some of its best performance in its history in recent years," OPG Chief Nuclear Officer Steve Gregoris said.

Plans to refurbish units 5-8 were formalised at the start of this year, when the provincial government announced its support for the project. OPG's timeline envisages putting the entire station into a "layup state" in 2026 so that refurbishment activities can begin. All four refurbished reactors will be back in service by the mid-2030s.

OPG is currently refurbishing four Candu units at its Darlington site, aiming to complete the project in 2026, and is also planning to build up to four BWRX-300 small modular reactors (SMRs) at its Darlington New Nuclear project.

At least 20 killed in armed attack on miners in Pakistan

Staff Writer | October 11, 2024 |

Authorities have launched a manhunt for the perpetrators of the attack. (Reference US Army photo by Pfc. Joshua Kruger | Flickr Commons.)

At least 20 miners were killed, and seven others injured, after unidentified gunmen attacked a coal mine in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan, according to police reports quoted by local media.


The attack took place in the mineral-rich Duki district of Balochistan, a region that borders both Afghanistan and Iran.

The attackers stormed the miners’ accommodations late Thursday night, rounded up the workers, and opened fire, police official Hamayun Khan Nasir said, according to The Express Tribune. They also fired rockets and grenades, damaging mining equipment before fleeing the scene.

The assault has sparked widespread condemnation, with authorities launching a manhunt for the perpetrators.

So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which is the deadliest in weeks.

The violence comes just days before a major security summit in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, and as the country hosts a Saudi delegation interested in mining investments.

It also coincides with the signing of $2 billion worth of agreements between Saudi and Pakistani businessmen for investments in various sectors, including mining.

Balochistan, rich in oil and minerals, has long been a hotbed of separatists. These groups accuse the federal government of exploiting the province’s resources without benefiting local communities.

Several of their attacks have been directed at migrant workers, many of whom are employed by smaller, privately run mines.

Noel Tata takes the reins at powerful charity arm of India’s Tata group

Reuters | October 11, 2024 | 

Ratan Tata in 2011. (Image: Wmgwarwick | Wikimedia Commons.)

The half-brother of Ratan Tata was appointed on Friday as the head of the powerful and influential philanthropic arm of India’s Tata group, giving him indirect control of the $165 billion conglomerate.


Tata Trusts said Noel Tata, 67, will be its new chairman after the death this week of Ratan Tata, one of India’s best-known corporate titans. The decision followed “many old-timers” in the group wanting him to lead the venture, said one Tata executive.


The parent company, Tata Sons, oversees 30 firms across consumer goods, hotels, automobiles and airlines and has become a global juggernaut over the years, with brands such as Jaguar Land Rover and Tetley Tea in its stable.

It owns Tata Consultancy Services, Taj Hotels and Air India, and counts Starbucks and Airbus as partners in India.

Tata Trusts has a 66% ownership of Tata Sons, giving it power over big investment, philanthropic and strategic decisions by the conglomerate, company executives say.

Noel Tata, who is half-French, was already among the many trustees of the philanthropic arm, and also vice chairman of Tata Steel and chairman of Tata’s popular retail fashion brand Trent.

“Noel is well versed with how Tata businesses are run. In retail, many people thought how will Tata compete with the big retailers. Noel has shown it,” said Sanjay Singh, a former Tata Sons executive who retired in 2019.

“He has kept a low profile so the outer world doesn’t know him well, but he is quintessential Tata.”

The trust earns dividends from Tata Sons but has no direct say over its operations. However, it appoints a third of the directors to Tata Sons who have veto power over board decisions.

The chairman of Tata Trusts “is powerful enough to decide board and key personnel” appointments at Tata Sons, a second senior company executive said.

While Tata Sons is not compelled to seek advice or guidance from the philanthropic arm, it’s an “unsaid understanding” that there is consultation between leadership on both sides, the first executive added.

Noel’s journey

The Tata group was set up in 1868 by Ratan’s great grandfather, Jamsetji Tata.

A few years later, Jamsetji started charity work that has since expanded to sectors such as healthcare and sports, through many of the trusts in the philanthropic arm.

Ratan Tata started working at the family firm in 1962 and became the chairman of Tata Sons in 1991, taking the group to new heights while gaining a reputation as an extremely shy, soft-spoken executive with sharp business acumen.

Noel Tata is a graduate of Sussex University who has been associated with the group for more than 40 years. He serves on the board of various Tata companies.

As a previous managing director of Tata International, Noel grew the turnover of the trading arm to more than $3 billion from $500 million, a Tata Group website said.

The Tatas belong to the tiny Parsi community, which has included some of India’s biggest business names, top nuclear scientists, world-class musicians and senior military officers.

Parsis follow the Zoroastrian faith, an ancient pre-Islamic religion of Iran. Some of its tenets, such as charity and doing good to others, have long been woven into the Tata heritage and business ethos.

Much of the dividend paid out by Tata Sons gets funneled into charitable trusts involved in philanthropic work.

Although the trusts’ influence over the group is not often on display, the starkest such example was in 2016, when Ratan Tata had a falling out with Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry that led to the latter’s ouster.

Mistry, another Parsi billionaire whose family owns a stake of about 18% in Tata Sons, died in a car accident in 2022.

One of his former advisers told Reuters this week that the Tata Trusts “without a doubt” exert unparalleled power over Tata Sons’ functions, adding that they “work behind a veil.”

Noel is an Irish citizen married to Mistry’s sister.

(By Aditya Kalra, Aditi Shah, Krishn Kaushik and Tanvi Mehta; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Frances Kerry)

Orano boosts uranium mining and enrichment capacities as market tightens

Bloomberg News | October 11, 2024 |

External view of the Somair plant. Credit: Orano

France’s Orano SA is boosting uranium mining and processing capacity as supplies of the nuclear fuel tighten on stronger demand and moves to reduce the world’s reliance on Russia.


The state-controlled company is investing to prolong the life of mines in Canada and Kazakhstan, while exploring adjacent and remoter areas in those countries, chief executive officer Nicolas Maes told reporters Thursday. Orano is also developing new projects in Mongolia and Uzbekistan, while remaining “in monitoring mode” for potential acquisitions, he said.

“We have interest in diversifying our projects as there are some tensions in the East and in Africa,” Maes said at the company’s uranium enrichment plant in central France. “Questions over where uranium will come from in the next decade are pulling prices higher.”

Uranium has soared over the past three years as investors piled into the commodity and governments from China to Europe plan more nuclear power plants, partly to curb carbon emissions. At the same time, production issues in Kazakhstan and a military coup in Niger have impacted uranium output.

In Niger, where the military junta revoked one of Orano’s mining permits earlier this year, the company’s other uranium mine will produce just 40% of its capacity this year, Maes said. That production can’t be exported out of the landlocked African nation due to persisting geopolitical issues, he added.

The cost of enriching uranium — a key step to transform the radioactive metal into fuel — has also jumped since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as some western utilities seek to replace Kremlin-controlled Rosatom for their processing requirements.

To help fill that gap, Orano broke ground on the expansion of its French enrichment facility this year. It expects to boost its global market share of enrichment services to 16% from 12%, when the project is completed by the end of the decade, the CEO said.

Rosatom is the world’s largest enricher of uranium, with 43% of total production capacity, according to Orano. That’s followed by Urenco Ltd., a UK-Dutch-German group with a 31% share, and China National Nuclear Corp. with 13%.

Earlier this year, President Joe Biden signed a ban on imports of enriched uranium from Russia, which provides about a quarter of the reactor fuel in the US. The country has just one commercial enrichment facility in New Mexico, owned by Urenco.

Orano may seek to further displace Russian supplies by building an enrichment plant in the US if it secures Federal government support, regulatory approval, and enough customer commitments, Maes said. The multi-billion-dollar facility could be built in Tennessee, Orano has said.

(By Francois de Beaupuy)

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Israeli mining magnate Steinmetz awaits Greek court ruling on arrest warrant

Reuters | October 14, 2024 | 

Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz has been at the centre of an international investigation into alleged bribery to win mining rights in Guinea.

 (Image from Beny Steinmetz’s website)

Israeli mining magnate Beny Steinmetz has been freed from custody in Greece but banned from travelling outside the country as he awaits a court ruling on a Romanian-issued arrest warrant, police and legal sources said Monday.


Steinmetz was detained by Greek police on Sunday evening, hours after arriving on a private aircraft at Athens International Airport, police sources said.


A European arrest warrant has been issued against him on behalf of Romania on accusations related to participation in a criminal organization, a police official said on condition of anonymity.

On Monday, the 68-year-old appeared before a prosecutor who decided that he should be freed on bail, with restrictions including a travel ban, as he awaits a judicial panel’s decision on his arrest and extradition.

In 2022, a Greek court which examined his case based on a Romanian-issued arrest warrant against him, had ruled against his extradition.

Steinmetz’s legal advisors have dismissed the Romanian authorities’ accusations as “unfounded” and called the extradition requests by Romania “abusive”, arguing that he has the right to travel freely.

His lawyer in Greece, Stavros Togias, said that Greek judicial authorities have ruled irrevocably against his extradition to Romania.

“It is unprecedented for the rule of law in Greece, or any other respected country, for such an administrative act to overturn a decision of the Greek judiciary, which had definitively and irrevocably ruled against his extradition to Romania, recognizing his right to travel freely,” Togias said in a statement, commenting on his arrest.

In November 2023, Cyprus’ Court of Appeal ruled against Steinmetz’s extradition to Romania, overturning a lower court ruling. A court in Italy has also rejected a similar extradition request by Romania against Steinmetz.

(By Yannis Souliotis and Renee Maltezou; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Christina Fincher)

FOSSIL FOOLS

Philippines’ top coal producer plans $5 billion mine expansion

Bloomberg News | October 14, 2024 | 

Miners in an underground coal mine. AI- generated Stock image.

Semirara Mining and Power Corp., the Philippines’ largest coal producer, said it’s looking to spend 291.4 billion pesos ($5.07 billion) to expand its mines.


The company has proposed to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources a five-year spending plan that includes capital expenditures, production costs, and operating expense, it told the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday, confirming news reports.

Semirara’s expansion plan comes as the Philippines continues to rely on coal for its power needs even as it has mapped out plans to boost the share of renewables in its energy mix. Nations around the world are advancing the phaseout of coal-fired power capacity while banks have pledged to stop funding coal projects to curb the impact of climate change.

Semirara has mining operations in the province of Antique in central Philippines. Its coal revenue fell by 20% to 23.9 billion pesos in the first half as prices fell. The company exports coal to China, South Korea and Brunei.

(By Cliff Venzon)

 

Dongfang Unveils Record-Smashing 26 MW Offshore Wind Turbine

Courtesy Dongfang

Published Oct 14, 2024 12:59 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

China Rolls Out World’s First 26MW Offshore Wind Turbine

China has taken production of super-sized wind turbines a giant step further with a new 26-megawatt turbine. In a statement over the weekend, China’s Dongfang Electric Corporation (DEC) announced the rollout of the mega-turbine from the production line in Fuzhou. This giant turbine sets a new record for the world’s largest wind turbine by capacity and size, surpassing Dongfang’s previous world record of 18 MW by 31 percent. Just four months ago, Dongfang installed the 18 MW turbine at a coastal test base in Shantou, Guangdong province.

The new 26 MW model is suitable for medium to high wind speed areas, with speeds above eight meters per second (m/s). The turbine boasts a blade wheel diameter of more than 310 meters, with a swept area equivalent to 10.5 standard football fields. The turbine’s hub center is 185 meters high, which is almost the height of a 63-story residential building.

At an average wind speed of 10 meters per second, the turbine can produce 100 GWh of clean electricity annually. This is sufficient to meet the annual electricity needs of 55,000 households, reducing more than 80,000 tons of CO2 emissions, according to Dongfang.

The energy research firm Rystad has termed the shift in sizes of wind turbines as a “growth spurt”, with the average size rising from 3MW in 2010 to the current 26 MW. This shift is likely to be sustained as future wind farms are likely to install larger turbines. Rystad estimates that turbines larger than eight megawatts accounted for just three percent of global installations between 2010 and 2021. However, this percentage is forecast to surge to 53 percent by 2030.