It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, October 09, 2021
WAGE THEFT
Australia's Woolworths settles 2019 class action over underpaying staff
People walk past a Woolworths supermarket in Sydney
Thu, October 7, 2021
(Reuters) -Australia's biggest grocery chain Woolworths Group Ltd said on Friday it has provisionally settled a class action lawsuit filed against it by a Canberra law firm in 2019 for underpaying supermarket workers. Adero Law filed the class action https://reut.rs/2YtOwN2 in November 2019 on behalf of Woolworths Supermarkets employees after the retailer disclosed it had underpaid https://reut.rs/3uROpab thousands of supermarket workers for years.
Woolworths is facing another civil proceeding by Australia's industrial relations watchdog, the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO). The FWO sued the grocery chain earlier this year for underpaying workers and is seeking repayment of the outstanding amounts, as well as penalties.
The retailer said on Friday the class action settlement is subject to court approval and the outcome of the FWO proceedings. Woolworths also said it would make an ex-gratia payment https://bit.ly/3AjZVfB of A$2,500 plus retirement benefits to its about 20,000 current and former salaried team store members, who worked with the retailer for at least six months between January 2010 and September 2013.
Adero Law did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while the FWO declined to comment.
(Reporting by Sameer Manekar and Tejaswi Marthi in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
'I am living in a nightmare everyday': What homeowners need to know as climate change threatens properties
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, USA TODAY Sat, October 9, 2021, Jessica Rose at her Haverstraw house with her children Madilyn, 7, Meadow, 15, and Masin, 8, Oct. 7, 2021. They have been living in motels since the house was deemed unsafe after flooding damage from the remnants of hurricane Ida.More
More than a month after Hurricane Ida flooded her basement, Jessica Rose and her three children are still homeless.
The 35-year-old mom from Haverstraw, New York, has been moving from motel to motel, looking for cheaper and cheaper deals -- and in the process, moving farther and farther away from her children’s school.
The morning after the storm, when the local fire department arrived to see whether they could help pump some of the water out of her basement, they found that the water levels were dangerously close to the electrical panel and posed a fire hazard. The town, 42 miles north of New York City, immediately declared the dwelling unsafe and sealed off the property.
Rose, who doesn’t have any kind of insurance, says she’s at the end of her rope.
“I have to pay out of pocket for everything,” she says. “I’ve run out of money. It's horrible”
She hasn’t yet heard from the Federal Emergency Management Agency on the assistance she might be eligible for.
Weather-related disasters, fueled by climate change, have increased fivefold in the past 50 years, according to a recent report by the World Meteorological Organization.
Since 1980, the U.S. has experienced 298 weather and climate disasters in which overall costs reached or exceeded $1 billion. The total cost of these events exceeds $1.975 trillion, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information, and the frequency and cost of those disasters has accelerated.
While standard homeowners’ policies cover a range of disasters, from tornadoes to lightning strikes to winter storm damage, they do not cover floods, earthquakes, maintenance damage and sewer backup, experts say. Jessica Rose of Haverstraw, New York, had to leave to house after it was deemed unsafe after Hurricane Ida.
“Earthquake and flood insurance are often overlooked types of policies that can leave families without any financial way to recover or rebuild,” says Leslie Chapman-Henderson, CEO of the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes, an advocacy group that works to strengthen homes from natural and human-made disasters. “In the worst cases, families lose their homes altogether, so buying an earthquake or flood policy is the most effective protection.”
When it comes to dealing with sudden, weather-related damage to their homes, even the most experienced professionals can find themselves out of their depth.
Tom Dolfay, CEO of Property Damage Appraisers, a company that assesses disaster-related damages for major insurance companies across the U.S., says he felt underprepared when the Texas winter storm this year caused massive damage to his home in Dallas.
Tom Dolfay, CEO of Property Damage Assessors
In February, Dolfay came home from work to find 2 inches of water in his driveway.
“We had had 20-degree weather for a while, so I thought my sprinkler system had burst,” Dolfay says.
As he walked into his house, he realized two tanks of water heaters had burst due to frozen pipes, a ceiling had collapsed – and he was standing in 6 inches of water.
“Even as a CEO of a company with all these resources, I was like, ‘Wow, what do I do?’'" he says. “I knew enough to stop the water. So I went outside and shut it off.”
His insurance agent asked him to contact the insurance hotline.
After going through a “litany of things” on the hotline, Dolfay felt he wasn’t getting anywhere. After “pushing” his insurance agent, Dolfay says he got the names of two restoration companies.
Restoration companies assess the extent of the damage and determine the best course of action following significant damage from floods, fires, and other catastrophic events. They work with insurance companies and can assist in protecting the home from further damage.
“Had I not been in the industry, I would not have even considered pushing that guy,” he says. “I would have been at the mercy of the insurance companies.”
Dolfay also got two of his colleagues to help him.
One read his policy and determined that Dolfay’s insurance allowed for “replacement cost” as opposed to “actual cash value.”
Replacement cost pays for the full amount needed to replace an item, whereas actual cash value insurance estimates depreciation, or the loss of value over time, and only pays the difference.
A homeowner with actual cash value insurance who needs to replace floors, walls, windows, appliances, roof, or lighting following a major event, could end up spending a substantial amount of money trying to rebuild their house. The actual cash value option could work better for items such as fine jewelry and art that can gain value over time.
Another of Dolfay’s colleagues was able to assess his damage and give him an estimate of what it would cost to repair his home.
“Most people aren’t going to have that luxury,” he says.
Trash bags piled up outside the house of Jessica Rose of Haverstraw, New York. She had lo eave her home after Hurricane Ida as it was deemed unsafe.
His advice? Build connections with local restoration companies as soon as you buy a home so that when disaster strikes, you know whom to call. You might also get a better idea of what the repairs could actually cost if the insurance company tries to lowball you.
“Have an inventory of what’s in your house," he says. "Know the make, model and brand of your major appliances and valuable items. Take pictures of everything (before disaster strikes) when you are calm, cool and collected, and email them to yourself so you can access them from anywhere."
Chapman-Henderson, of FLASH, suggests contacting more than one company for quotes and paying attention to coverage limitations and special riders a homeowner may need to cover high-value items like jewelry or heirlooms.
“Ask about the coverage limits, deductibles, and exclusions for each disaster risk common in your area,” she says.
Last month, FLASH launched the Buyer's Guide to Resilient Homes, a free tool that provides a framework for homebuyers, homeowners and even renters to see how they can protect their homes against these types of perils.
It includes disaster-preparedness checklists for people to include in their home search process, including questions people can ask their realtor and things homeowners can do to make their homes disaster-resilient.
One such tip includes investing $500 into a simple sealing agent that can protect up to 95% of water entry during a hurricane.
"Research from the insurance industry tells us that an unsealed roof deck can allow as much as 750 gallons of water, or nine bathtubs, per minute to enter through unprotected deck seams," Chapman-Henderson says.
To save money, she also suggests looking for opportunities for discounts and credits tied to modern building codes, flood vents, hurricane shutters, security systems, smoke alarms, water leak detection systems, a hail- or wind-resistant roof, or other protective devices.
Rose, whose three children, ages 15, 8 and 7, have been holed up in a tiny motel room for than a month, are growing more frustrated by the day, she says.
"All their toys and winter clothes are ruined. I can’t make them home-cooked meals,” she says. “I don't know how I'm going to afford the next $500 for weekly rent. I have been spending so much money on gas trying to get the kids to school.”
Although she has some family in the area, no one has been able to help financially. Her mother, who lives in a small apartment in New Jersey, has lent a hand, taking care of the children when she can. Her mother-in-law is sick with emphysema. Jessica Rose at her Haverstraw house with her children Madilyn, 7, Masin, 8, and Meadow, 15, Oct. 7, 2021. They have been living in motels since the house was deemed unsafe after flooding damage from the remnants of hurricane Ida.More
Meanwhile, her husband has been behind bars for the past two months for a "minor offense," she says.
Out of desperation, her niece set up a GoFundMe page for the family with a goal of raising $50,000. So far, it has raised only $300.
If she could do everything all over again, the first thing she would do is get her home and flood insurance, she says.
“Everyday, I wake up wishing for some normalcy,” she says. “I’m regretting leaving everything to chance, and now I am living in a nightmare everyday.”
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is the housing and economy reporter for USA TODAY. Follow her on Twitter @SwapnaVenugopal
What CAPITALI$T Governments Got Wrong About The Global Energy Transition
Editor OilPrice.com Thu, October 7, 2021
The energy crisis in Europe exposed the complexity of a transition to green energy: it is not happening overnight, and it cannot be done successfully with the old tricks.
Energy systems, markets, and grids globally need fundamental changes to legislation, regulation, and oversight in order to accommodate 100-percent zero-emission sources. And even in that case, power systems need flexibility and backups in order to avert similar crises down the road as many parts of the world commit to net-zero emissions by 2050 or 2060.
The current crisis in the UK is a cautionary tale about how not to rush to green energy, Rochelle Toplensky of The Wall Street Journal notes.
Net-zero electricity systems need an entirely new set of rules in all areas of the energy systems and power markets, as well as enough flexibility to offset environmental factors such as low wind speeds, which happened in the UK last month.
The UK has cut its reliance on coal dramatically over the past decade.
But its power systems are not yet as resilient to a major transition to low-carbon energy sources as to prevent concerns about its power supply, the Journal’s Toplensky argues.
The current energy crisis in the UK, the rest of Europe, and in major energy importers in Asia is a warning to policymakers that the transition cannot be rushed before new rules are set in place and backup battery storage is built en masse to support soaring new solar and wind capacity.
Boosting power grid resilience, building battery storage, and widespread use of the much-touted green hydrogen will require trillions of U.S. dollars of investment, government support, and much greater coordination and cooperation among industry and policymakers at the national and international level.
Everyone knew that the energy transition would not be cheap. The ongoing energy crisis shows that no one can put the cart before the horse in the transition - backups and flexibility are vital for any successful energy system.
UK Power Crisis Shows Challenges To Green Transition
Even the UK, which has pledged to phase out coal-fired power generation by October 2024, had to fire up an old coal plant last month in order to meet its electricity demand.
The country which kick-started the Industrial Revolution with coal saw the share of the fuel drop to a record-low in 2020 - coal generated just 1.8 percent of electricity, down from 28.2 percent in 2010, as per government data. Renewable generation, on the other hand, hit a record 43.1 percent in 2020, outpacing annual fossil fuel generation for the first time.
During many days in recent years, wind power generated the largest share of Britain’s electricity, surpassing natural gas. This is a commendable move toward clean energy but does not change the fact that wind power generation depends on…the speed of the wind. On those unfortunate days when the wind doesn’t blow, as it happened on most days in September, natural gas is used more in power generation, driving up gas and power prices and also increasing coal generation because of the sky-high prices of natural gas.
Although households face higher energy bills, they are protected to some extent because of the so-called Energy Price Cap in the UK. But it is this price cap - when power providers are unable to pass the full extent of surging costs onto consumers - that has already led to nine UK providers going out of business. Just last week, three suppliers said they were ceasing trade, and the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets, Ofgem, had to choose new suppliers to take over the failed businesses.
The UK likely needs new regulations on how its domestic power market operates, which should take into account the net-zero commitment and increased green energy share in electricity generation, analysts say.
The European Union is also looking at potential changes to the way wholesale electricity markets operate, European Energy Commissioner, Kadri Simson, said this week. Demonization Of Fossil Fuels Cuts Backup Options
The two oil price crashes in the past five years, as well as the increasingly louder calls for shunning investment in fossil fuels, have led to chronic underinvestment in new supplies of oil, gas, and coal, especially in developed economies aspiring to reach net-zero by 2050.
These days, however, those developed economies are scrambling for fossil fuel supplies to ensure they will keep the lights on. The surging price of coal and natural gas is leaving many energy-intensive businesses in Europe vulnerable to the price shock because the energy transition hasn’t reached the point where anything other than gas can efficiently power fertilizer or steel production.
However, investment from the fossil fuel industry has declined in recent years. Moreover, Wall Street investors have been shunning traditional energy because of poor returns, Jeff Currie, global head of commodities research at Goldman Sachs, told Bloomberg in an interview earlier this week.
“The new economy is over-invested and the old economy is starved,” he said. “Gas, coal, oil, metals, mining – you pick – the old economy, it is severely underinvested,” Currie noted.
Major Challenges Ahead To Avoid “A Disorderly Mess”
Since the world continues to need a lot of fossil fuels despite the green push, supply shortages and price spikes are in the cards in the future, too.
“[I]t is important to recognise that the transition is, as its derivation suggests, a process of moving from one state to another, and if it is to be successful must involve the managed decline of the existing energy system as well as its transformation towards a future state,” James Henderson and Anupama Sen of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES) wrote in a paper last month.
“Policymakers have set countries on this essential road, and technology is the key to accelerating the process, but many complex questions remain to be resolved if the world is to avoid the transition becoming a disorderly mess,” they say.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
California restricts gagging for employee complaints Tech Giants like Google have been accused of too readily using non-disclosure agreements when staffers complain about troubling corporate behavior (AFP/Emmanuel DUNAND, Loic VENANCE)
Julie JAMMOT Fri, October 8, 2021
A new law that will allow victims of workplace harassment or discrimination to speak freely, instead of being gagged by confidentiality clauses, has been signed into effect in California.
The "Silenced No More" act could have huge ramifications for global tech companies headquartered in the state -- which critics say too readily resort to Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) when faced with claims of troubling behavior from their staff.
Typically NDAs are imposed by companies as part of a financial settlement with an employee who has faced discrimination because of their race, gender or sexual orientation, for example.
Advocates say they allow the firm to address the complaint without airing their dirty laundry in public -- something no organization likes to do.
But commentators say it can allow bosses to cover things up, and to protect those responsible for the harassment.
"Too often, NDAs can be used to silence somebody," says Lauren Topelsohn, a lawyer who specializes in employment law.
"It buys silence ... and silence allows a perpetrator to commit the act again."
The law, signed on Thursday by Governor Gavin Newsom, bans any NDA that prevents employees from speaking out about illegal acts committed in the workplace.
Primarily this means those relating to complaints that involve discrimination or harassment because of skin color, religion, disability, sex, gender identity, age or sexual orientation, among other protected criteria.
"Workers in California deserve better than being forced into agreements that protect perpetrators and continue to harm survivors and others around them in the workplace," said Connie Leyva, who authored the bill. - 'Shining a light' -
Those pushing the new law have the California-headquartered tech giants particularly in their sights.
Companies like Apple and Google, they say, too readily resort to NDAs to hide inconvenient truths and pay off complainants -- not least because they have the financial muscle do so.
"NDAs are a common weapon in the industry," one Google employee told AFP.
A member of the Alphabet Workers Union, the guild formed at the beginning of the year by employees of Google's parent company, he sees the legislation as a "big step forward."
"The things that need to change, only change when we shine a light on them."
This law would "remove the ability for companies to use NDAs to cover up their bad HR processes," said the worker, who requested anonymity for fear of the impact speaking out could have on his career.
He cited the case of Emi Nietfeld, an engineer who worked at Google from 2015 to 2019, and recounted in The New York Times how human resources did not support her after she reported a gender harassment issue.
- Business decision -
Sexual harassment or discrimination scandals have multiplied in recent years in Silicon Valley, in the wake of the #MeToo movement.
In November 2018, from Singapore to California, thousands of Google employees observed a work stoppage to protest the company's handling of sexual harassment.
In late July, about 200 people spoke out against a culture of sexist and toxic harassment at US video game publisher Activision Blizzard.
The California law comes on the heels of a similar law passed three years ago, also authored by Leyva, regarding sexual assault and harassment.
While greater transparency can be helpful, says Topelsohn, the lawyer, it's important not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Sometimes, she says, an NDA is merited.
"The claim, or the lawsuit, might be frivolous. And rather than participate in a lengthy and expensive litigation, the employer might make a business decision to settle it," she said.
"The NDA would allow them to maintain the secrecy of that kind of settlement and discourage other frivolous claims."
They can sometimes be in the employee's interest as well, she says.
"If they sue their employer, it can be very difficult to get a job afterward," she said.
"Employers don't really want to hire people in that position. It's a strike against you, unfortunately. So this protects victims."
juj/hg/dw
'Potato Eaters' exhibit shows Vincent van Gogh planned to take another stab at masterpiece
Vincent van Gogh considered his 1885 painting "The Potato Eaters" to be one of his best works. Image courtesy of the Van Gogh Museum
Oct. 7 (UPI) -- A new exhibition examining Vincent van Gogh's The Potato Eaters painting includes rarely seen studies indicating the artist later toyed with the idea of creating a new version of the then-maligned artwork.
The exhibition, "The Potato Eaters. Mistake or Masterpiece?" opens Friday at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. It includes the 1885 painting in question -- one of only a few artworks the Post-Impressionist painter considered among his best -- as well as dozens of other paintings, sketches and letters to tell the story of the piece.
While van Gogh thought the painting was a "masterwork" and hoped to break into the Parisian art market with it, public reception was critical.
The painting features a family of five peasants eating a meal around a sparsely lit table. Van Gogh used a dark palette to depict the hunched, morose figures. Unlike other artists of the time, the museum said, van Gogh didn't wish to romanticize the life of peasants.
Among the letters displayed in the exhibit are letters from van Gogh's friend, fellow artist Anthon van Rappard, who offered a scathing opinion of The Potato Eaters:
"Why may that man on the right not have a knee or a belly or lungs? Or are they in his back? And why must his arm be a meter too short? And why must he lack half of his nose?" van Rappard wrote.
"Come on! Art is too important, it seems to me, to be treated so cavalierly."
The artist sent a letter to his mother and brother, Theo van Gogh, asking them to send him drawings for inspiration to make another painting of The Potato Eaters.
"I'm thinking of redoing the painting of the peasants eating supper, lamplight effect," he wrote, according to The Guardian. "That canvas must be completely dark now, perhaps I could redo it entirely from memory.
He never got a chance to repaint the scene, having died by suicide in July 1890.
The museum is displaying the later sketches for what may be the first time.
The exhibit will be on display at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam through Jan. 16.
Vincent van Gogh completed another sketch of the dinner scene in 1890 with the hopes of creating a new painting. Image courtesy of the Van Gogh Museum
Though van Gogh considered "The Potato Eaters" to be one of his masterpieces, critical reception was less enthusiastic. Image courtesy of the Van Gogh Museum
Vincent van Gogh included a sketch of one of the women in "The Potato Eaters" in a letter to his brother, Theo van Gogh. Image courtesy of the Van Gogh Museum
Haiti condemns Trump's 'racist' comments toward migrants
Issued on: 09/10/2021
Haitian migrants queue in Tijuana, Mexico on October 6, 2021 Guillermo Arias AFP/File
Port-au-Prince (AFP)
Haiti has denounced what it said were "racist" remarks from former US president Donald Trump that migrants from the island nation entering the United States would put Americans at risk of contracting AIDS.
"So we have hundreds of thousands of people flowing in from Haiti. Haiti has a tremendous AIDS problem," Trump said in a Thursday interview on Fox News.
"Many of those people will probably have AIDS, and they're coming into our country and we don't do anything about it, we let everybody come in," he said. "It's like a death wish for our country."
THIS IS A RIGHT WING TROPE FROM THE 80'S WHEN AIDS FIRST WAS REPORTED IN HAITIAN AND OTHER IMMIGRANT COMMUNITIES IN NYC
AS WELL AS THE GAY COMMUNITY
According to World Bank data, HIV prevalence in Haiti has been steadily declining for the past 15 years, and is now estimated at a rate of 1.9 percent among Haitians aged 15 to 49.
The Haitian embassy in Washington condemned the "racist and baseless statement about Haitian migrants, in particular, and the Haitian population, in general, of Donald J Trump."
"These vile comments aim only to sow hatred and discord against immigrants," the embassy said in a statement Friday.
The mid-September arrival of more than 30,000 migrants, mostly Haitians, who camped out for days under a bridge on the border between Mexico and Texas, has brought US President Joe Biden's administration under fire from Republicans.
They accuse the president of having caused the surge by relaxing the hardline migration policies implemented by predecessor Trump.
Over the course of less than three weeks, more than 7,500 Haitian migrants -- 20 percent of them children -- have been deported by US migration services, which have chartered 70 planes to the capital Port-au-Prince and to Cap-Haitien, the island's second-largest city.
After Trump's comments, the Haitian embassy said that "civilized people... should not remain indifferent to this umpteenth denigration of the Haitian people by former President Trump."
During a private meeting in January 2018, Trump had referred to Haiti and several African nations as "shithole countries."
Oct. 7 (UPI) -- Democrats on the Senate judiciary committee released a report on Thursday that reveals more details about how former President Donald Trump tried to use the Justice Department and other government officials to invalidate the 2020 presidential election.
The panel's Democratic majority highlighted a number of Trump's actions in the report, including efforts to get Justice Department officials to declare the election "corrupt" in a fierce bid to stay in the White House.
Trump's efforts did not succeed, but Thursday's report notes that his attempts provoked a near revolt in the department among officials who pushed back against the former president's false claims of fraud.
"In attempting to enlist [the Justice Department] for personal, political purposes in an effort to maintain his hold on the White House, Trump grossly abused the power of the presidency," the near 400-page report states.
"He also arguably violated the criminal provisions of the Hatch Act, which prevents any person -- including the president -- from commanding federal government employees to engage in political activity."
The assessment notes that Trump sought to replace then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen with Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Clark, a loyalist to the president. Trump sought to have Clark push claims of widespread voter fraud.
The report says that on Jan. 3, Rosen, his deputy Richard Donoghue and others met with Trump in the Oval Office to dissuade him from the idea, threatening to resign if it moved forward. White House counsel Pat Cipollone and his deputy also threatened to resign if Trump insisted on the plot.
Clark told Rosen in an earlier meeting that Trump had already decided to make him the next U.S. attorney general, and he wanted Rosen to stay on as a deputy, which led to the confrontational meeting with Trump, the report says.
Donoghue told Trump that his actions would lead to a mass resignation that would include assistant attorneys general throughout the department along with other department officials.
One point of contention noted by the report was a letter that Clark and Trump wanted to send to Georgia elections officials that complained of voting "irregularities" and pushed for the state legislature get involved.
Clark wanted to send the same letter to all states where Trump-loyal Republicans were challenging the results.
Cipollone called the letter a "murder-suicide pact" and promised that he'd resign as well.
The report also details a plan by Trump to pressure the department into filing a complaint with the U.S. Supreme Court on the chance that it could overturn the election results.
Numerous legal challenges and recounts followed the election last fall and none of them produced any indication of widespread voter fraud. Some, in fact, only widened then-Democratic candidate Joe Biden's margin of victory.
The judiciary committee's Republican members issued a report of their own, which downplays Trump's actions to throw out Biden's electoral victory.
The Republicans' report said Trump never went through with his plans and showed in the end that he acted within the laws of the executive branch.
"The available facts and evidence show that President Trump listened to his senior DOJ and White House advisers at every step of the fact pattern presented by this investigation and that he did not weaponize DOJ for his personal or campaign purposes," they wrote.
"The president's concerns centered on what he perceived as an attack on the electoral system and his firm belief that the American people had been wronged by election fraud that undermined the sanctity of the 2020 election. With these concerns in hand, President Trump's approach to DOJ was to ensure that it was aware of election fraud allegations and that, with knowledge of those allegations, they were actually doing their job to investigate them."
Meet the invasive species trying to get in your home this fall
Cheryl Santa Maria
·
Meet the invasive species trying to get in your home this fall
It's fall, and that means migration. Birds are headed south. Chipmunks and squirrels are out in full force, gathering nuts for the winter. As temperatures drop, insects are looking for warm places, like your home, to hunker down.
Some of these bugs - like spiders and centipedes - likely won't come as a surprise. But others may look new to you.
Take, for example, the brown marmorated stink bug. Measuring about 2 cm in length and about the same width, with a flat, brown abdomen, it is native to Asia, and it's here in North America because it was accidentally introduced to the U.S. in 1998.
"They were first detected in Ontario in 2010," Cynthia Scott-Dupree, Ph.D., a professor of sustainable pest management at the University of Guelph, tells The Weather Network.
"It has since become established in Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia."
While we're focusing on this particular invasive stink bug species, it should be noted there are a number of native stink bugs present in Ontario. "Some are pests, like the brown marmorated stink bug, and others are what we call beneficial," Dr. Scott-Dupree says.
The beneficial stink bugs work like a natural biological control, hunting and consuming pest insects. The pest insects, on the other hand, can cause significant damage to crops. More on that later.
Stink bugs aren't toxic, but they are armed with a defense mechanism that isn't too hard to figure out, given their name.
When disturbed they release a foul-smelling chemical, but you typically won't pick it up unless there's a group of them.
You'll likely see brown marmorated stink bugs congregating on brick surfaces on warm, autumn days, attempting to absorb some of the heat. They're also looking for a way to get inside.
If they do find their way indoors, here's the good news: They aren't likely to cause any structural damage, and they don't bite, nor do they sting. But when you zoom out, on a nationwide scale, they come with their fair share of problems.
Stinkbug - Canva Pro
Marmorated brown stink bugs up close. GIF created by Cheryl Santa Maria. Image courtesy: Canva Pro.
DAMAGE TO AGRICULTURE
The marmorated brown stink bug feeds on about 170 species of plants, namely agricultural crops, posing a risk to farmers. In 2010, they decimated apple crops in the Mid-Atlantic United States, resulting in $37 million (U.S.) in damages.
"Their numbers are increasing," Dr. Scott-Dupree says. "So far, in Canada, the damage has not been [significant]."
"So far," is the takeaway here, though. Right now, marmorated brown stink bugs are reproducing at a rate of about two generations per year. But if the weather continues to get warmer and the seasons get longer, there is potential for a third generation, which means population numbers will steadily increase in the fall.
"They like to attack apple crops when they're just about ready for harvest," Dr. Scott-Dupree says.
"So, if we're getting higher numbers of them as we head into fall, then there's a bigger potential impact these insects could have in the agricultural sector."
Efforts to control stink bugs are ongoing, but you can make your home less appealing to them by:
Cleaning and vacuuming regularly.
Removing crumbs from counters and the floor.
Storing food in air-tight containers.
Sealing cracks and openings in windows, doors, and walls.
Fixing leaky faucets and cracks in your plumbing.
Removing moisture with a de-humidifier.
OUTSIDE THEY LIVE UNDER ROCKS, SIDEWALKS ETC. THEY HAVE TRAVELED WEST
Bayeux exhibition celebrates war photographer Manoocher Deghati
Issued on: 09/10/2021 -
A Manoocher Deghati photo taken at Evin prison in Iran in 1982, before every woman in the image was executed by the Revolutionary Guards.
The 28th annual Bayeux War Correspondents' Awards get underway in Normandy this weekend, honouring journalists who have put their life on the line to tell important stories from war zones. This year’s president of the jury is Franco-Iranian photojournalist Manoocher Deghati, whose 45-year career is being celebrated with an exhibition in Bayeux. FRANCE 24 spoke to him about his work.
Ahead of the Bayeux Awards this weekend, 25 of Deghati’s photos are on display around this ancient city in northern France – focusing on the plight of women and children caught up in the horror of war.
“I wasn’t setting out to take pictures of those who wage war, but rather to photograph the people who pay for war with their lives,” Deghati said. “It’s women and children in particular who bear the heaviest toll in war.”
Despite the dangers inherent in going to warzones, Deghati never stopped taking photos, determined to show the world what was happening in any given conflict and to ensure that this reality was never forgotten: “Society needs this,” he said. “We can’t live without journalists who tell us the truth, the real story that can change the course of history.”
Unnamed Myanmar photographer wins Bayeux war reporting prize
Issued on: 09/10/2021 -
The Bayeux awards honour coverage of wars in different categories
Sameer Al-DOUMY AFP 1 min Listen to the article ADVERTISING
Bayeux (France) (AFP)
The prestigious Bayeux War Correspondents' Awards on Saturday honoured work by a range of international journalists including several veteran reporters and -- for the first time -- an unnamed Myanmar photographer.
The jury agreed unanimously to award the photography prize to the Myanmar candidate, its chairman Franco-Iranian correspondent Manoocher Deghati told AFP.
The jury wanted to highlight "the conditions in which very young photographers are working" in Myanmar, said Deghati, who himself had to flee Iran in 1985 after receiving death threats.
The photographer's work along with several other Myanmar photographers, was on show at Bayeux, the northern French city hosting the prize.
In the written press category, Wolfgang Bauer won for his coverage of the Taliban for Zeit Magazin. It is the second time he has been honoured, having won in 2016 for his work in Nigeria.
Bosnians Damir Sagolj and Danis Tanovic won in the long-form television as well as the video category for their report for Al Jazeera on the plight of thousands of migrants in northern Bosnia Herzegovina.
Margaux Benn was honoured in the radio category for her report for Europe 1 on the villages littered with landmines in the area.
Orla Guerin and Goktay Koraltan won the television award for their report for BBC television on the snipers in Yemen targeting children. This report also won the special prize awarded by a jury of high school students.
The young reporter's award went to Thomas D'Istria for his report for Le Monde newspaper from Belarus, for which he spent a year undercover.
The public jury prize went to Abu Mustafa Ibraheem for his coverage for Reuters of the conflict in Gaza.
The winners, who are chosen by a jury of around 40 French and British journalists, receive prizes of between 3,000 and 7,000 euros each.
Delhi warns of looming power 'crisis' as coal shortages bite
Delhi's Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal warned of a looming power crisis as coal reserves run low NARINDER NANU AFP
Issued on: 09/10/2021 -
New Delhi (AFP)
New Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal warned of a looming power crisis in the Indian capital, saying on Saturday that some of the major coal-fired stations supplying the city barely have a day's stock left.
Several states in eastern and southern India have been hit by supply shortages, with utility providers resorting to unscheduled power cuts.
The shortage in India, the world's second-largest coal-consuming country, follows widespread power outages in China that have shut factories and badly hit production and global supply chains.
"Delhi could face a power crisis," Kejriwal said, adding the megacity has been struggling with energy supplies for the past three months.
"I am personally keeping a close watch over the situation. We are trying our best to avoid it," Kejriwal said on Twitter.
Kejriwal urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to immediately resolve the crisis, saying any major interruption would affect hospitals and disrupt vaccinations against the coronavirus for Delhi's 20 million people.
India's coal-fired power stations had an average of four days' stock at the end of September, the lowest in years.
More than half the plants are on alert for outages and the government is mulling bringing idled power stations back into operation.
Coal accounts for nearly 70 percent of India's electricity generation and around three-quarters of the fossil fuel is mined domestically.
As Asia's third-largest economy rebounds following a coronavirus wave, monsoon rains have flooded coal mines and disrupted transport networks, leading to a sharp rise in prices for coal buyers, including power stations.
International coal prices have also soared.
State-run giant Coal India, which produces most of the country's supply, has said it is on a "war footing" to ensure adequate deliveries.
India's long festival season, currently underway, has also added to the surge in demand for power.
India staring at power crisis with coal stocks down to days
In this Oct. 23, 2019, file photo, laborers eat lunch at a coal loading site in the village of Godhar in Jharia, a remote corner of eastern Jharkhand state, India. An energy crisis is looming over India as coal stockpiles grow perilously low, adding to challenges for a recovery in Asia's third largest economy from the pandemic. Supplies at the majority of coal-fired power plants in India have dwindled to just days worth of stock.
(AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi, file)
By KRUTIKA PATHI
yesterday
NEW DELHI (AP) — An energy crisis is looming over India as coal supplies grow perilously low, adding to challenges for a recovery in Asia’s third largest economy after it was wracked by the pandemic.
Supplies across the majority of coal-fired power plants in India have dwindled to just days worth of stock.
Federal Power Minister R. K. Singh told the Indian Express newspaper this week that he was bracing for a “trying five to six months.”
“I can’t say I am secure … With less than three days of stock, you can’t be secure,” Singh said.
The shortages have stoked fears of potential black-outs in parts of India, where 70% of power is generated from coal. Experts say the crunch could upset renewed efforts to ramp up manufacturing.
Power cuts and shortages over the years have subsided in big cities, but are fairly common in some smaller towns.
Out of India’s 135 coal plants, 108 were facing critically low stocks, with 28 of them down to just one day’s worth of supply, according to power ministry data released on Wednesday, the most recently available.
On average, coal supplies at power plants had fallen to about four days worth of stock as of the weekend, the ministry said in a statement. That’s a sharp plunge from 13 days in August.
Power consumption in August jumped by nearly 20% from the same month in 2019, before the pandemic struck, the power ministry said.
“Nobody expected economic growth to revive like this and for energy demand to shoot up so quickly,” said Vibhuti Garg, an energy economist at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
The shortfalls in supply were worsened by flooding of mines and other disruptions from unusually heavy rains, Garg said.
India mostly relies on domestically mined coal. With global coal prices at an all-time high, increasing imports is not an option, experts said.
The government has asked state-run Coal India Ltd. to increase production.
In this Oct. 23, 2019, file photo, a laborer keeps watch as coal is unloaded from a truck in the village of Rajapur in Jharia, a remote corner of eastern Jharkhand state, India. An energy crisis is looming over India as coal stockpiles grow perilously low, adding to challenges for a recovery in Asia's third largest economy from the pandemic. Supplies at the majority of coal-fired power plants in India have dwindled to just days worth of stock. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi, file)
Coal prices in Indonesia, one of India’s suppliers, swelled to nearly $162 per ton this month from $86.68 in April, boosted by surging demand in China, where recent power cuts have forced factories to shut down and left some households in the dark.
“With the current prices, it is difficult for India to rely on external sources for coal as it’s about two or three times more than what we pay domestically right now,” said Swati DSouza, research lead at National Foundation for India.
With monsoon rains receding, coal deliveries have picked up and are likely to rise further, according to the power ministry. An official team is monitoring the situation and following up with Coal India Ltd. and the railways to improve supplies, the ministry said.
But the crisis has highlighted India’s need to develop more renewable energy resources given that demand is likely to keep increasing.
It should serve as a “turning point for India,” where there is ample renewable energy potential to help offset such disruptions, said Sunil Dahiya, an analyst at the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
“The situation shouldn’t be used to push for more coal -- that is not the crisis. The solution going forward is to move away from coal and other fossil fuels,” he said.
—
AP science writer Victoria Milko contributed from Jakarta, Indonesia.
