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)
Monday, September 21, 2020
World's largest pilots' union TELLSasks U.S. to improve cockpit procedures for Boeing 737 MAX
By Eric M. Johnson, Allison Lampert and Tracy Rucinski
An inside view of the Icelandair Boeing 737 MAX training simulator in the TRU Flight Training Iceland in Reykjavik
By Eric M. Johnson, Allison Lampert and Tracy Rucinski
SEATTLE/MONTREAL/CHICAGO (Reuters) - The U.S. aviation regulator should require new cockpit procedures for Boeing Co's 737 MAX to help pilots disable an erroneous stall alert that could be a serious distraction during mid-flight emergencies, the world's largest pilot union said on Monday.
The proposal about an erroneous "stick shaker" alert is among recommendations the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) submitted during a 45-day public comment period for proposed 737 MAX design and operating changes laid out last month by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Monday was the deadline for comments.
The 737 MAX changes could pave the way for the FAA to lift a ban on the jet, potentially before year-end. The 737 MAX was grounded worldwide 18 months ago after crashes killed 346 people in Ethiopia and Indonesia.
In both crashes, pilots grappled with Boeing's flawed MCAS flight control system, which repeatedly forced down the jet's nose, and multiple audio and visual warnings that included the rapid and noisy rattling of their control column known as "stick shaker" and excess speed.
The proposals, which include recommendations for pilots during emergency situations, came during a U.S.-led gathering of regulators in the UK for a training review of the MAX.
While the FAA is in charge of certifying the MAX, other regulators like Transport Canada and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) could add different training requirements as part of their validation of the aircraft. ALPA proposed steps that would allow flight crews to identify and pull a circuit breaker to stop the stick shaker after they confirm an alert is erroneous, echoing an earlier recommendation by Transport Canada.
Among other comments, the National Transportation Safety Board has called the FAA's proposed changes "positive progress," while crash victims' families have said Boeing's changes to MCAS do not address the jet's underlying aerodynamic problem.
Meanwhile, Boeing whistleblower Curtis Ewbank has urged additional protections, while the British Airlines Pilots Association has called for Boeing to add a third "angle of attack" sensor to the jet.
(Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal and Tracy Rucinski in Chicago; Writing by Eric M. Johnson; Editing by David Gregorio and Tom Brown)
Madrid opera canceled after audience revolts over social distancing concerns IN DEFENSE OF PUBLIC HEALTH By Zamira Rahim and Renee Valdes
A live audience is always difficult to impress, perhaps even more so in the age of social distancing.
An opera in Madrid was halted on Sunday night after audience members protested over concerns that seating was too crowded in the venue.
The Teatro Real in Spain's capital city was forced to cancel the performance of Giuseppe Verdi's "Un ballo in maschera" after a group of spectators staged a protest during the performance, eventually ending the show and closing the venue for the night.
Police officers were called to the site on Sunday.
The venue said Monday that it "greatly regrets what happened" but attributed the upset to shifts in the city's health regulations.
In July, the theater hosted performances of another Verdi opera, "La Traviata," and spaced out audience members by sealing off some chairs and placing empty chairs between each pair of occupied seats, it said.
But it relaxed its seating policy after the city eased coronavirus restrictions, allowing some venues to host bigger audiences. On Sunday, the Teatro Real was at 65% capacity, still below city guidelines that allow such venues to fill up to 75% of normal capacity, it said. Audience members were allowed to freely choose their seats, though they wore masks during the performance.
The Teatro Real on Monday acknowledged in a statement that some spectators had felt unsafe in their seats, "even if the current health regulations were scrupulously complied with, verified by the police who traveled to the [Teatro Real] last night."
The statement added: "The Teatro Real wants to reiterate its commitment to the health safety of the public, artists and workers, in which it has been working with dedication, responsibility and great energy, since April, with its own Medical Committee and scrupulous monitoring of the regulations of the Government of Spain and the Community of Madrid."
It also said the venue would "adopt all the necessary measures to make the audience feel safer [and would] also [reinforce] its communication with the public."
Madrid has seen a recent spike in coronavirus cases, accounting for approximately a third of all new cases, according to data from the Spanish Health Ministry. On Monday, strict distancing rules were imposed anew in several areas of the city.
Spain has now recorded more than 30,000 deaths since the start of the outbreak, with more than 600,000 total cases.
Arctic sea ice at second-lowest level in satellite record: scientists
Satellite pictures show Arctic sea ice is at its second-lowest level since such records began and barely missed breaking the old mark.
"There's no going back at this point," said Mark Serreze of the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center.
"It's not going to come back up."
Although some melting might yet occur, the centre fixed Monday as the day when the overall level of all Arctic sea ice — crucial to northern ecosystems and southern weather patterns — stops shrinking and starts growing again.
Satellite images suggest the area at least 15 per cent covered by sea ice is now 3.7 million square kilometres.
That's at least 1.5 million square kilometres less than the 1981-2010 median. It's barely more than the all-time low in 42 years of satellite data, the 3.4 million square kilometres recorded in 2012.
All 14 of the lowest ice years on record have happened in the last 14 years, said Serreze.
Like 2012, this year's low depended on a lot of things happening at once, Serreze said. That included an Arctic heat wave on the Siberian side, which helped create unprecedented fires across the Russian tundra.
The melt cost the Arctic much of its remaining multi-year ice, meaning the ice is increasingly seasonal. The old coverage of thick ice that survives the summer will soon be a thing of the past, said Serreze.
"I don't think there's any escaping that. It's just too warm now."
This summer, Canada's last intact ice sheet — the Milne on Ellesmere Island — collapsed.
The implications are many, said David Barber, an Arctic systems scientist at the University of Manitoba.
"The ice controls the light and it controls the heat. We don't find anything that isn't affected."
Whole ecosystems that hang on the bottom of the ice are disappearing. Invasive species from small fish to killer whales are moving in from both east and west.
Biologists have recently estimated that polar bears along south Hudson Bay will have trouble raising cubs by the end of the decade, due to the loss of their frozen hunting platform.
Less ice cover means bigger storm surges. Erosion on Arctic coastlines has more than doubled in the last few decades.
It also means the remaining ice has more room to drift, which leads to choking jams in places that don't normally experience them.
"Some people locally will go, 'Hold it. There's all kinds of ice out here,'" Barber said. "That's because it's so much more mobile."
Many scientists also believe sea ice matters to southern weather.
Published research suggests the strength of the jet stream — a high-atmosphere river of air that influences continental weather patterns — depends on the temperature difference between the Arctic and mid-latitudes. Less ice and a warmer Arctic Ocean means a weaker jet stream.
Any effects of melting sea ice are likely to increase. Open ocean absorbs more sunlight than water covered by reflective ice, so heavy melt years create a feedback loop.
"That (open water) is absorbing all that heat and you have to get rid of it in the fall before you can start to form ice," Barber said. "Which means you'll have a thinner ice cover."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 21, 2020
Bob Weber, The Canadian Press
100-foot waves possible offshore as Hurricane Teddy nears East Coast
Digital Writers
Once a major Category 3 hurricane, Teddy is slowly losing strength as it nears the Atlantic provinces, on a track over cooler waters. People in the region shouldn't be complacent, however: although the storm will possibly be post-tropical by the time it actually reaches land, it will still pack a serious punch, with strong winds, very high seas and torrential downpours all in the hopper, beginning Tuesday morning before the storm's actual arrival. Read below for more details.
Hurricane Teddy continues to weaken, with further decreasing in strength expected, but still boasted winds of 155 km/h as of Monday morning, keeping it just over the Category 2 threshold still.
Teddy shifted to a northerly track Sunday night and the centre will trek east of Bermuda early Monday morning before it begins its approach towards Atlantic Canada. A tropical storm warning is currently in effect for Bermuda.
By late Monday, Teddy is expected to be picked up by a deep upper-level trough that will allow for a brief intensification. Teddy will undergo a transition to post-tropical status as it approaches Atlantic Canada, impacting the region likely as a strong post-tropical cyclone.
While it is expected to track through eastern Nova Scotia by late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning, rain and wind impacts could begin pushing into the province Tuesday morning.
Large swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions, extending several hundreds of kilometres from the centre of the storm. Significant wave heights and storm surge is expected to continue into Wednesday for coastal sections of Atlantic provinces.
The Weather Network meteorologist Tyler Hamilton says that towering waves over 30 metres (100 feet) are possible on Tuesday morning as Teddy approaches. Hamilton says that these waves would be roughly the height of the 7th storey on an apartment and will occur within a couple hundred kilometres south of the Scotian Shelf.
An extremely large wind field associated with Teddy is likely to spread moderate to strong winds onshore. The strongest, and potentially damaging wind gusts, are expected to impact coastal Nova Scotia and Newfoundland through Wednesday.
As Hurricane Teddy moves into Canadian waters, there is a reasonable chance of hurricane-force winds near and south of the track, mainly over southern Atlantic Canada forecast waters. Tropical storm-force winds are likely farther north into the Gulf of St. Lawrence and southern coastal Newfoundland.
The heaviest rainfall amounts are likely north-northwest of the track of the storm, impacting areas such as eastern Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. The effects of Teddy are expected to continue into late Wednesday for Newfoundland.
The last landfalling tropical system in Atlantic Canada was last year's Dorian, which made landfall in Nova Scotia as a Category 1-equivalent extratropical storm on September 7th, and later on made a second landfall in Newfoundland.
As the situation has the potential to be impactful, continue to check back for updates as we keep an eye on Teddy's movements.
Hurricane Teddy to bear down on Canada after brushing Bermuda
The powerful Hurricane Teddy is forecast to hit Atlantic Canada later this week. Image courtesy of NOAA
Sept. 21 (UPI) -- Less than one week after feeling the full force of Hurricane Paulette, residents of Bermuda were preparing for a strike from powerful Hurricane Teddy, which unlike Paulette, may take a path that could eventually bring impacts to Atlantic Canada and perhaps the northeastern United States.
Paulette brought a wind gust of 117 mph to Bermuda and an island-wide power outage when it passed directly overhead Sunday night into early Monday. More than 20,000 customers were without power following Paulette's approach.
After passing to the east of Bermuda through Monday, powerful Hurricane Teddy will set its sights on Atlantic Canada for the middle of the week.
Teddy first developed in the central Atlantic on Saturday, Sept. 12. On Friday night, Teddy strengthened into a Category 4 major hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Laura is the only other Atlantic storm to achieve major hurricane status so far this season.
As of 5 p.m. AST Monday, the storm was about 175 miles east-northeast of Bermuda, packing maximum sustained winds of 90 mph, making it a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. It was traveling north at 24 mph.
The government of Bermuda issued a tropical storm warning for the island nation while the Canadian Hurricane Center extended the tropical storm watch east from Canso to Main-a-Dieu, Nova Scotia.
"Little change in strength is expected during the next day or so," the NHC advisory said. "Gradual weakening is forecast to being mid-week, but the cyclone is expected to remain a large and powerful hurricane Tuesday, then become a strong post-tropical cyclone when it nears Nova Scotia by Wednesday morning.
Teddy is currently forecast to be more intense than Paulette as it makes its closest approach to Bermuda.
The impacts, however, will depend on how close the center of the storm passes to the islands. The closer the center of the storm, the greater the impacts will be.
AccuWeather's current Eye Path takes Teddy just east of the islands. This would spare Bermuda from the worst conditions Teddy has to offer. Should the track shift west, the core of strongest wind and heaviest rain could impact the islands.
However, even a glancing blow by Teddy can still have significant impact on the islands due to the hurricane's current large size.
After passing Bermuda, Teddy is expected to continue to meander on a generally northern track, which would cause the hurricane to approach Atlantic Canada or northern New England around Tuesday afternoon.
"If Teddy takes a northerly track, areas from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland would be the most likely to see impacts. Teddy may still be a hurricane at this time with impacts including potentially damaging wind gusts, heavy rainfall and pounding surf," Miller explained. RELATED Tropical Depression 22 forms in the Gulf of Mexico
On this track, 2-4 inches of rain would be widespread across Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Locally heavier rainfall could fall where the center of the storm tracks.
If Teddy makes landfall as a Category 1 or 2 hurricane, widespread wind damage and power outages would result.
Dorian tracked across Atlantic Canada in early September of 2019 and brought widespread wind damage to Atlantic Canada. Teddy has the potential to bring similar results should it remain on its current forecast track.
Residents should begin to make appropriate preparations as this appears to be the most likely scenario.
Another scenario would have Teddy track farther to the east and miss Atlantic Canada on the storm's trek into the North Atlantic.
These appear to be the two most likely scenarios.
"There remains the chance that Teddy is pulled more to the northwest and could impact northern New England before curving across Atlantic Canada and into the North Atlantic," Miller said.
This could bring strong winds, heavy rain and coastal flooding to much of the New England coastline.
A hurricane has never hit Maine from any direction other than from the southwest, according to AccuWeather Senior Weather Editor Jesse Ferrell.
"Only eight hurricanes have hit Maine on record with only three of those since 1950," Ferrell said. "Bob in 1991 was the most recent and only the Unnamed 1869 hurricane, Bob and Gerda from 1969 were Category 2 when they hit with the remaining storms being Category 1 strength."
Regardless of the final track and impacts from Teddy, even if the hurricane remains out to sea, forecasters warn that rough surf and dangerous rip currents are possible along the New England and mid-Atlantic coasts this weekend and early next week.
Small craft should avoid venturing too far offshore as monstrous waves could develop from and propagate toward the coast from the large hurricane.
An online troll who called Fauci a 'mask nazi' and said that US public health leaders should be executed for a 'massive fraud' actually worked at his agency
Dr. Anthony Fauci attends Trump-Bel Edwards coronavirus response meeting at the White House in Washington Reuters
William B. Crews, a press officer at NIAID, has been reportedly moonlighting as an anonymous blogger at RedState, making outlandish claims about Dr. Anthony Fauci, according to a Daily Beast report.
Crews promoted COVID-19 misinformation and undermining Fauci, calling him a "mask Nazi" and part of a "massive fraud."
He also reportedly called infectious disease experts like Fauci "fascists" who should be sent to "the gallows and gibbet their tarred bodies in chains until they fall apart.”
It's unclear if these blog posts were written on government time, but the Daily Beast confirmed Crews' identity via "public records, social media postings, and internal records from the National Institutes of Health, NIAID’s parent agency."
Crews will be stepping down from his position at the agency, the Daily Beast later reported on Monday.
A previously anonymous online troll who spread coronavirus misinformation and referred to Dr. Anthony Fauci as a "mask Nazi" was outed on Monday as an employee at Fauci's own agency, according to a new report from the Daily Beast.
William B. Crews' LinkedIn profile listed him as a press officer at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 2007, following a 15-year stint as a US Army infantry officer. But, the Daily Beast reported, he's been reportedly moonlighting as an anonymous blogger at RedState, making outlandish claims about Fauci, the country's leading infectious disease expert.
"When the smoke clears on this Wuhan virus tragedy ... one thing will become blindingly obvious: the nation and the Trump administration were failed at every turn by the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci," Crews wrote under his pseudonym, streiff, for RedState in mid-July.
In addition to pushing COVID-19 conspiracy theories, Crews called Fauci a "mask nazi" in another blog post.
"I think we're at the point where it is safe to say that the entire Wuhan virus scare was nothing more or less than a massive fraud perpetrated upon the American people by 'experts' who were determined to fundamentally change the way the country lives and is organized and governed," Crews wrote on RedState in June. He also referred to medical experts as "fascists," who should be sent to "the gallows and gibbet their tarred bodies in chains until they fall apart."
It is unclear if Crews was blogging while on the clock for his government agency. Daily Beast reporter Lachlan Markay wrote that he was able to confirm Crews' identity by going through "public records, social media postings, and internal records from the National Institutes of Health, NIAID's parent agency."
Later on Monday, an NIAID spokeswoman told the Daily Beast that Crews will be leaving the agency.
"NIAID first learned of this matter this morning, and Mr. Crews has informed us of his intention to retire," Kathy Stover, an agency spokeswoman, wrote in a statement to the publication. "We have no further comments on this as it is a personnel matter." —Noah Shachtman (@NoahShachtman) September 21, 2020
Tweets from streiff's account line up with Crews' self-reported military experience in Germany and include multiple references to his work at NIH. —streiff (@streiffredstate) November 9, 2019
The Daily Beast obtained internal emails from the parent agency showing that Crews shared internal information on COVID-19 with other RedState writers, even prefacing a memo with "from office email."
The news outlet also found articles from Crews' pseudonym on RedState that criticized Fauci during the Ebola outbreak.
Crews' contributions to the site go back to 2004. Just in 2020, he posted more than 400 pieces on RedState, sometimes up to five in a single day, according to the Daily Beast.
Crews and RedState did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
NASA requests white papers to help choose Artemis science operations Shane McGlaun - Sep 20, 2020,
One of the biggest missions NASA is working on today is getting prepared for the Artemis mission that will return humans to the moon. NASA recently requested science white papers to help the agency design a framework for the Artemis mission’s science operations. One of the proposals suggests astronauts on the mission should bring back samples of lunar ice and samples of lunar regolith.
By bringing lunar ice back to earth, scientists may be able to figure out where the moon’s water came from. Scientists speculated that ice might exist on the moon since the days of the Space Race in the 60s and 70s. As for where the ice came from, scientists believe it could have been deposited by comets or produced by interactions between hydrogen and oxygen-rich rocks.
The first clear evidence of water ice on the moon was discovered in the 1990s by the Lunar Prospector spacecraft. That spacecraft launched in 1998 and spent over a year and a half mapping the moon’s surface. It detected high concentrations of hydrogen in the regolith near the polar regions with a depth of about 3.3 feet during its mission.
The Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 that orbited the moon in 2008 and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2009 confirmed the presence, particularly in the permanently shadowed craters on the moon’s south pole. A later mission called the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite inspected the southern Cabeus crater and found water concentrations up to approximately five percent by weight.
The spacecraft also found an abundance of other volatiles, including hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, and ammonia. The hope is that there is enough water ice on the moon to sustain a human colony and crewed missions by providing drinkable water and the ability to produce rocket fuel locally.
YES HE DID Donald Trump Asks Women Attending His Rally If Their Husbands Approved
President Donald Trump held a campaign rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina on Saturday, where he spoke about a range of topics, from military weaponry to the recently deceased Supreme Court Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg. As video posted to YouTube by NBC revealed, he suggested that he was planning to nominate a woman. Around the same time, he also asked the female attendees if their husbands approved of their decision to attend his events.
Trump appeared to recognize several of the women in the audience before he pretended to hold a poll over whether he should nominate a male or a female to replace Ginsburg, who died on Friday from complications due to metastatic pancreatic cancer.
“Ok let’s do a poll. Oh, there they are. How many of these have you come to?” he said. “What is this, number what? Like, 90? I see ’em all over the place, they’re great. I hope your husbands are okay with it. Are they okay?”
He posited a question to the audience about which gender they would prefer.
“Would you rather have a woman on the Supreme Court?… Or would you rather have a man on the Supreme Court?”
The crowd cheered louder for the option of having a woman.
He added that he was strongly considering a female to replace Ginsburg because “I actually like women much more than men,” as The Inquisitr previously reported.
Trump had kind things to say about the late judge while speaking to the crowd. He told them that he believed she was inspiring to many and noted that the country was facing a great loss.
Mike Pompeo Attacks Pope Francis & The ‘Moral Authority’ Of The Vatican Amidst Potential Deal With China
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has hit out at Pope Francis following the news that diplomats from the Holy See are meeting later this month with members of the Chinese Communist Party to renew a two-year-old agreement between China and the Vatican.
Though the Middle Kingdom nominally adheres to the principle of religious freedom, it is officially an atheist state and has routinely been accused of cracking down on faith-based organizations.
“Two years ago, the Holy See reached an agreement with the Chinese Communist Party, hoping to help China’s Catholics. Yet the CCP’s abuse of the faithful has only gotten worse. The Vatican endangers its moral authority, should it renew the deal,” Pompeo wrote in a tweet.
In a longer statement published on First Things, Pompeo also criticized the Holy See’s decision to “legitimize” Chinese priests and bishops who were simultaneously involved with the CCP, claiming that they had “unclear” loyalties.
Pompeo cited the plight of Father Paul Zhang Guangjun, who was tortured and has since disappeared after refusing to join the CCP-run Patriotic Catholic Association. Similarly, Bishop James Su Zhimin was arrested in 1997 and last seen in 2003.
The secretary of state also explained the link between religious freedom and protesters in Hong Kong, naming Martin Lee and Jimmy Lai in particular.
Pompeo noted that it is not just Catholics who have suffered under China’s restrictions on religious freedom. He added that credible reports detailed that the minority Uighur Muslim population in the Xinjiang province has been subjected to forced sterilizations, forced abortions, labor camps, and reeducation programs.
Franco Origlia / Getty Images
As was similarly reported by The Inquisitr, several sources claimed that the Asian nation had started a new program that offered rewards to those who reported home churches in their communities. Bounties on the underground churches have reportedly tallied as high as $14,000.
Pompeo continued his missive with the hope that the Pope would reconsider making an alliance with China, bringing up Catholicism’s power in helping end communism in Eastern Europe and fascism in South America in the 20th century.
Pompeo ended his statement by citing both the leader’s own words as well as the Gospel’s.
“Pope Francis said in 2013 that ‘Christians must respond to evil with good, taking the Cross upon themselves as Jesus did.’ History teaches us that totalitarian regimes can only survive in darkness and silence, their crimes and brutality unnoticed and unremarked,” he wrote.
“I pray that… the Holy See will heed Jesus’s words in the Gospel of John, ‘The truth will set you free,'” he concluded.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) launched a new research and develop laboratory on Monday that features blockchain technology among its focus areas.
CIA Labs' webpage said the labs will research "distributed ledger/blockchain-enabled technologies" alongside other tech stacks: wireless telecommunications, quantum computing, artificial intelligence and data analytics, to name a few.
Officers who develop tech inventions in the lab will be permitted to patent, disclose and partially profit from their work, according to MIT Technology Review.
MIT's reporting notes the labs will give CIA a useful incentive to woo tech talent that might otherwise turn to Silicon Valley's giants.
That the CIA, one of the U.S. intelligence community's two code-breaking hubs, would take an interest in researching a technology secured by cryptography should come as no surprise to observers.
The Block first reported CIA Labs' blockchain focus.
The SAFE TO WORK Act: Not So Safe For American Employees Tom Spiggle Senior Contributor FENG YU - STOCK.ADOBE.COM
Congress has been struggling to pass another coronavirus relief bill. One of the sticking points is the Republican Party’s desire to restrict the number of coronavirus lawsuits against businesses, individuals and other entities. This is due to the belief that without such legal protection, a wave of frivolous lawsuits will threaten the economy and the continued existence of businesses, churches, health care providers and schools.
To prevent this, Senators Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and John Cornyn (R-TX) introduced the Safeguarding America’s Frontline Employees To Offer Work Opportunities Required to Kickstart the Economy Act, also known as the SAFE TO WORK Act.
What Does the SAFE TO WORK Act Do?
In short, the SAFE TO WORK Act (STWA) makes it much harder for plaintiffs to sue someone else for injuries relating to a coronavirus infection. For the most part, the STWA doesn’t provide immunity in the casual sense. Rather, it makes it far harder for a plaintiff to bring and succeed in his or her lawsuit.
Specifically, the STWA applies to “coronavirus exposure actions.” These are civil lawsuits relating to injuries that are the result of a coronavirus exposure when patronizing or visiting a business, service or school.
These legal liability protections will only apply when the alleged exposure took place on or after December 1, 2019, and before the date of October 1, 2024 or the coronavirus is no longer considered a public health threat.
If there is a conflict between a state, federal or tribal law and the STWA, the STWA will override the other law. However, there are some exceptions, such as:
Worker’s compensation laws The law provides greater legal protections for defendants than the STWA
The STWA will also not apply to lawsuits concerning intentional discrimination “on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex (including pregnancy), disability, genetic information, or age.”
How Does the SAFE TO WORK Act Affect a Plaintiff’s Case?
If a prospective plaintiff wants to bring suit for personal injuries caused by the coronavirus, there are several issues they will need to consider.
First, they only have one year to bring suit. Most states have a statute of limitations for personal injuries that’s at least two years. In some states, it’s as high as four years.
Second, the burden of proof is significantly higher. In a typical personal injury case, the plaintiff can succeed if they can prove that the defendant more likely than not caused the alleged injuries. This is referred to as the “preponderance of the evidence” standard.
Under the STWA, the burden of proof is “clear and convincing evidence.” This requires the plaintiff to show that it is highly probable (or substantially more likely) that the defendant caused the plaintiff’s injuries as opposed to the injuries being caused by someone or something else.
Third, the plaintiff cannot win his or her case by showing negligence. Negligence refers to a defendant not acting reasonably under the circumstances. Instead, the plaintiff must show that the defendant acted intentionally or engaged in gross negligence.
Gross negligence is the reckless disregard for the safety in others. We can use an example to illustrate the difference between gross negligence and “regular” negligence.
Regular negligence is like a doctor administering medication and failing to properly notice the patient’s allergic reaction and take appropriate action. Gross negligence would be the doctor administering a medication that the patient is allergic to, but not realizing they are making a mistake because they are drunk on alcohol.
Fourth, the plaintiff has to do more when preparing his or her complaint. The STWA requires the plaintiff to:
Identify all locations visited and individuals they came into contact with during the two weeks before coronavirus symptoms first appeared. Give the factual basis of why the plaintiff believes the defendant is responsible for giving them the coronavirus and not another person or place visited in the last 14 days.
Provide a statement outlining the nature and amount of claimed damages and the basis for that amount.
Attach an affidavit from a doctor or other medical professional, as well as provide medical records that support the plaintiff’s assertion that they were injured from coronavirus exposure.
Fifth, the plaintiff must bring suit in federal court. Federal courts tend to be more pro-defendant than state courts when it comes to personal injury litigation.
Sixth, there is no joint and several liability, unless the defendant acted intentionally to injure the plaintiff or committed fraud. Without joint and several liability, each defendant only has to pay its portion of damages that corresponds to its portion of wrongful conduct.
Seventh, the plaintiff’s potential damages are significantly limited. The plaintiff can recover economic compensatory damages if the defendant acted with gross negligence. If the defendant acted intentionally, only then can the plaintiff recover noneconomic compensatory damages.
Punitive damages are only available if the defendant acted willfully and may not exceed the compensatory damage award.
Any damages recovered will be reduced by any other form of compensation the plaintiff receives, such as insurance.
Eighth, the STWA allows defendants to sue the plaintiff or the plaintiff’s attorney if either sends a “meritless” demand letter to the defendant asking to settle the case. If successful, the defendant can recover compensatory damages, punitive damages and attorney’s fees and legal costs. The STWA also allows the U.S. Attorney General to sue any individual or organization that “is engaged in a pattern or practice” of sending demand letters. If successful, the Attorney General can obtain up to $50,000 per letter sent.
In summary, the STWA will make it almost impossible for a plaintiff to bring a successful coronavirus personal injury lawsuit. And in cases when it’s not impossible, the amount of recoverable damages will probably be so low, it won’t be worth the cost and risk of a countersuit.
How Does the SAFE TO WORK Act Affect Employment Cases?
There’s some good news and bad news when it comes to the STWA and employees suing their employers.
The bad news is that the STWA can affect some employment litigation cases. If a representative for the employee sues for wrongful death or the employee claims they were injured due to unsafe working conditions, the plaintiff will be severely hindered by the STWA.
For instance, imagine a manager forces employees to come to work, even if the employees are showing signs of a coronavirus infection. The plaintiff complies with this order and gets infected.
The plaintiff believes they became infected at work, but in the last two weeks, they also went shopping at a local grocery store and picked their kids up from pre-school. Based on these facts, it will be extremely difficult for the plaintiff to prove by clear and convincing evidence that the infection came from the workplace and not the grocery store or the child’s pre-school.
Then there’s the fact that because potential recoveries are dramatically lowered, there is the raised pleading standard and potential legal liability for bringing “meritless” lawsuits. Concerning this latter hurdle, even if the plaintiff felt it was worth this risk to sue, they may not find an attorney who is willing to take the case.
The bad news doesn’t stop there. There’s a special provision in the STWA that states in any action relating to coronavirus exposure and brought under a “covered Federal employment law,” employers are not subject to enforcement proceedings or legal liability. Covered Federal employment law includes:
The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act Title TII of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
Now for the good news. The STWA is unlikely to pass in its current form. Like most laws that pass Congress, a bit of negotiation is to be expected. The STWA is likely going to be modified assuming it becomes law. The only question is how much modification it will receive.
While the existence of liability protection appears to be non-negotiable for Republicans, exactly how the protection will apply is something that Democrats and Republicans may be able to compromise on.
There’s also the possibility that the STWA may never pass. If Joe Biden becomes president or Democrats take the majority in the Senate, it’s very possible that the STWA will not become law, even heavily watered down.
Finally, the STWA, even in its current form, will not affect the majority of lawsuits brought by employees against their employers. Most of these employment cases deal with legal issues not involving coronavirus exposure or personal injuries. Disputes over discrimination, wrongful termination, retaliation and work leave are far more common.
The Bottom Line
Not all labor cases involving the coronavirus will involve an employer acting illegally or otherwise being unfair to the employee. There will be cases where it may seem like an employer is retaliating or discriminating against the employee, but the employer’s actions have a reasonable basis. For example, the employer needs to downsize as a result of the coronavirus dramatically lowering revenue.
But the STWA, as currently drafted, goes well beyond protecting defendants in these situations. Instead, it would effectively stop the vast majority of coronavirus personal injury lawsuits, even the cases brought in good faith with what would normally be sufficient evidence to prove the plaintiff’s case.
Tom Spiggle I’m an employment lawyer who writes about your workplace rights. After clerking for a judge and working as a federal prosecutor, I wanted to spend more quality time with my kids so in 2009 I started the Spiggle Law Firm.
After 14 years of exploration, the Galileo spacecraft intentionally fell into Jupiter and disintegrated in the planet's dense atmosphere. Galileo launched in 1989 from the payload bay of the space shuttle Atlantis and arrived at Jupiter in 1995.
It was the first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter and the first to send a probe into its atmosphere. It discovered evidence of saltwater below the surfaces of three of Jupiter's moons – Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. It was purposely put on a collision course with Jupiter because it was running out of fuel, and NASA wanted to make sure that it wouldn't impact any of Jupiter's moons that could harbor life in their subsurface oceans.
HSBC allowed fraudsters to transfer millions of dollars around the world even after it had learned of their scam, leaked secret files show.
Britain's biggest bank moved the money through its US business to HSBC accounts in Hong Kong in 2013 and 2014.
Its role in the $80m (£62m) fraud is detailed in a leak of documents - banks' "suspicious activity reports" - that have been called the FinCEN Files.
HSBC says it has always met its legal duties on reporting such activity.
The files show the investment scam started soon after the bank was fined $1.9bn (£1.4bn) in the US over money laundering. It had promised to clamp down on these sorts of practices.
The scam was a Ponzi scheme - a notorious type of investment racket that pays existing stakeholders with money collected from new members.
Lawyers for duped investors say the bank should have acted sooner to close the fraudsters' accounts.
The documents leak includes a series of other revelations - such as the suggestion one of the biggest banks in the US may have helped a notorious mobster to move more than $1bn.
What are the FinCEN Files?
The FinCEN Files are a leak of 2,657 documents, at the heart of which are 2,100 suspicious activity reports, or SARs.
SARs are not evidence of wrongdoing - banks send them to the authorities if they suspect customers could be up to no good.
By law, they have to know who their clients are - it's not enough to file SARs and keep taking dirty money from clients while expecting enforcers to deal with the problem. If they have evidence of criminal activity, they should stop moving the cash.
The leak shows how money was laundered through some of the world's biggest banks and how criminals used anonymous British companies to hide their money.
Media captionWhat are Suspicious Activity Reports?
The SARs were leaked to the Buzzfeed website and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). Panorama led the research for the BBC as part of a global probe. The ICIJ led the reporting of the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers leaks - secret files detailing the offshore activities of the wealthy and the famous.
Fergus Shiel, from the consortium, said the FinCEN Files are an "insight into what banks know about the vast flows of dirty money across the globe… [The] system that is meant to regulate the flows of tainted money is broken".
The leaked SARs had been submitted to the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN between 2000 and 2017 and cover transactions worth about $2 trillion.
FinCEN said the leak could impact US national security, risk investigations, and threaten the safety of those who file the reports.
But last week it announced proposals to overhaul its anti-money laundering programmes.
The UK also unveiled plans to reform its register of company information to clamp down on fraud and money laundering.
Image copyrightFACEBOOKImage captionMing Xu claimed he was running a global bank
The investment scam that HSBC was warned about was called WCM777. It was started by Chinese national Ming Xu. Little is known about how he came to be living in the US, although he claims to have studied for an MA in California.
Basing himself in the Los Angeles area, Xu - or "Dr Phil" as he styled himself - acted as a pastor at evangelical churches.
Xu said he was operating a global investment bank, World Capital Market, that would pay out 100% profit in a 100 days. In reality, he was running the WCM777 Ponzi scheme.
Through travelling seminars, Facebook and webinars on YouTube, it raised $80m selling supposed investment opportunities in cloud computing.
Image captionSome of the Facebook posts used to market the WCM Pozi scheme
Thousands of people from the East Asian and Latino communities were taken in. The fraudsters used Christian imagery and targeted poor communities in the US, Colombia and Peru. There were also victims in other countries, including the UK.
But the impact were not just financial. The scheme led to the death of investor Reynaldo Pacheco, who was found under water on a wine estate in Napa, California, in April 2014. Police say he had been bludgeoned with rocks.
Image copyrightHANDOUTImage captionMurder victim Reynaldo Pacheco, who invested in the Ponzi scheme
He signed up to the scheme and was expected to recruit other investors. The promise was everyone would get rich.
A woman Mr Pacheco, 44, introduced lost about $3,000. That led to the killing by men hired to kidnap him.
"He literally was trying to… make people's lives better, and he himself was scammed, and conned, and he unfortunately paid for it with his life," said Sgt Chris Pacheco (no relation), one of the officers who investigated the killing.
Reynaldo, he said, "was murdered for being a victim in a Ponzi scheme".
By then, regulators in California had already told HSBC it was investigating WCM777 - and alerted its residents to the fraud. This happened in September 2013
And California, along with Colorado and Massachusetts, took action against WCM for selling unregistered investments.
HSBC did spot suspicious transactions going through its systems. But it was not until April 2014, after US financial regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges, that the WCM777 accounts at HSBC in Hong Kong were shut.
By that time there was nearly nothing left in them.
What do the suspicious activity reports show?
HSBC filed its first SAR about the scam on 29 October 2013 relating to more than $6m sent to the fraudsters' accounts in Hong Kong.
Bank officials said there was "no apparent economic, business, or lawful purpose" for the transactions - and noted allegations of "Ponzi scheme activities".
A second SAR in February 2014 identified $15.4m in suspicious transactions, and a "Potential Ponzi scheme".
A third report in March related to a company associated with WCM777 and nearly $9.2m, and noted the regulatory moves by US states and an investigation ordered by Colombia's president.
What did HSBC do?
The WCM777 scheme emerged months after HSBC avoided a US criminal prosecution over money laundering by Mexican drug barons. It did so by agreeing to improve procedures.
Analysis by the ICIJ shows that between 2011 and 2017 HSBC identified suspicious transactions moving through accounts in Hong Kong of more than $1.5bn - about $900m linked to overall criminal activity.
But the reports failed to include key facts about customers, including the ultimate beneficial owners of accounts and where the money came from.
Banks are not allowed to talk about suspicious activity reports.
HSBC said: "Starting in 2012, HSBC embarked on a multi-year journey to overhaul its ability to combat financial crime across more than 60 jurisdictions… HSBC is a much safer institution than it was in 2012."
The bank added the US authorities had determined that it "met all of its obligations under the [agreement struck with US prosecutors]".
Xu was eventually arrested by the Chinese authorities in 2017 and jailed for three years over the scam.
Speaking to the ICIJ from China, Xu said HSBC had not contacted him about his business. He denied WCM777 was a Ponzi scheme, saying it was wrongly targeted by the SEC and his aim had been to build a religious community in California on more than 400 acres of land.
What is a Ponzi scheme?
A Ponzi scheme - named after early 20th Century conman Charles Ponzi - does not generate profits from the cash it raises. Instead investors are paid a return from money coming in from other new investors.
More and more investors are needed to cover these payments. Meanwhile, the owners of the scheme move money into their own accounts.
A Ponzi scheme will collapse if it cannot find enough new investors.
What else did the leak find?
The FinCEN Files also show how multinational bank JP Morgan may have helped a man known as the Russian mafia's boss of bosses to move more than a $1bn through the financial system.
Semion Mogilevich has been accused of crimes including gun running, drug trafficking and murder.
Image copyrightFBI
Banks have measures in place to stop profits from crime going through the financial system but a SAR filed by JP Morgan in 2015 after the account was closed, reveals how its London office may have moved some of the cash.
It details how JP Morgan, provided banking services to a secretive offshore company called ABSI Enterprises between 2002 and 2013, even though the firm's ownership was not clear from the bank's records.
Over one five-year period, JP Morgan sent and received wire transfers totalling $1.02bn, the bank said.
The SAR noted ABSI's parent company "might be associated with Semion Mogilevich - an individual who was on the FBI's top 10 most wanted list".
In a statement, JP Morgan said: "We follow all laws and regulations in support of the government's work to combat financial crimes. We devote thousands of people and hundreds of millions of dollars to this important work."
The FinCEN Files is a leak of secret documents which reveal how major banks have allowed criminals to move dirty money around the world. They also show how the UK is often the weak link in the financial system and how London is awash with Russian cash.
The files were obtained by BuzzFeed News which shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and 400 journalists around the world. Panorama has led research for the BBC.
FinCEN Files: full coverage; follow reaction on Twitter using #FinCENFiles; in the BBC News app, follow the tag "FinCEN Files; Watch Panorama on the BBC iPlayer (UK viewers only).
The 11 most important things in the leaked FinCEN files, which exposed $2 trillion in suspicious transactions and are roiling the world of finance
A Deutsche Bank branch in Frankfurt, Germany. Frank Rumpenhorst/picture alliance via Getty Images
Leaked documents from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network were shared with news outlets. They showed that big banks had for years engaged with dirty money with little oversight. Banks named in the documents included JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, Barclays, and Deutsche Bank. Here are some of the biggest takeaways from the scandal. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Thousands of leaked documents shared with journalists have shown how some of the world's biggest banks for years facilitated the movement of dirty money.
FinCEN is in charge of compiling "suspicious-activity reports" sent to it by banks that suspect financial wrongdoing by their clients. SARs do not constitute evidence of wrongdoing but are a way to alert regulators and law enforcement.
The documents are shared with law-enforcement and financial-intelligence groups around the world. The agency does not require banks to stop dealing with clients who prompted SARs.
The BuzzFeed News and ICIJ said the documents showed that banks including JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, and Deutsche Bank engaged with and facilitated the movement of criminal money even after raising suspicions.
The files detailed movements and transactions over almost two decades, from 1999 into 2017.
European bank shares — already under pressure from a resurgence of the coronavirus — have tumbled since the report was published.
Barclays shares were last down 5.4% on London's FTSE 100 index, at their lowest since late April, while Deutsche Bank shares were down nearly 9% in Frankfurt, at their weakest since late May. The leaked documents represented 0.02% of total SARs
Reporters saw more than 2,100 leaked SARs — but this is just the tip of the iceberg.
According to the ICIJ, more than 12 million SARs were filed with FinCEN from 2011 to 2017, meaning those in the leak represented about 0.02% of the total.
HSBC moved money for the WCM777 Ponzi scheme that victimized thousands
The files show that HSBC allowed fraudsters involved with WCM777, an $80 million Ponzi scheme, to move money around the world, the BBC reported.
In 2013 and 2014, the bank moved fraudsters' money from the US to Hong Kong, despite having promised to clamp down on money laundering, the outlet reported.
In 2012, after a US Senate investigation, the bank was fined a record $1.9 billion for its role in channeling cash for what the investigators called "drug kingpins and rogue nations," the BBC reported at the time.
But the following year, fraudsters working with WCM777 were able to move more than $15 million through HSBC, despite warnings that it was a scam, the leaked documents show.
At the time of the notice, WCM777 was barred from conducting business in three states.
The Ponzi scheme targeted poor communities in various nations and victimized thousands of Asian and Latino immigrants, according to the BBC and BuzzFeed News.
HSBC told the BBC it has always followed its legal duty in reporting such activities.
Banks processed millions for the family of a Kazakh politician wanted by Interpol
The documents showed that JPMorgan Chase, along with Bank of America, Citibank, American Express, and others processed millions in transactions linked to a Kazakh politician wanted by Interpol, BuzzFeed News reported.
The family of Viktor Khrapunov, a former mayor of Almaty, Kazakhstan, used JPMorgan Chase to handle millions of dollars in transactions, even after Interpol issued a so-called red notice, the outlet said.
At the time of the transactions, Khrapunov and his wife stood accused of money laundering, fraud, and the creation of an organized crime group, according to Newsweek.
They were convicted in absentia, having fled to Switzerland. They described the charges as politically motivated, BuzzFeed News reported.
Arkady Rotenberg, a Putin associate, may have used Barclays to launder money and evade sanctions
The documents suggested that a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin's may have used the UK-based Barclays Bank to avoid sanctions and launder money, the BBC reported.
Arkady Rotenberg, a childhood friend of Putin's, is among several associates who were put under European Union and US sanctions following Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, the BBC reported. The sanctions were meant to restrict Rotenberg from conducting business with Western banks.
But companies controlled by Rotenberg appeared in numerous SARs in the leak, according to the BBC.
From 2012 to 2016, a company named Advantage Alliance moved about $77 million through HSBC; the US Senate has said there is strong evidence that the company is owned by Rotenberg. A Senate investigation found that the company was making secretive art purchases using its Barclays account to evade the sanctions, the BBC reported.
Barclays closed Advantage Alliance's account in 2016, but leaked SARs showed that the bank continued to deal with numerous other companies thought to be owned by Rotenberg until 2017, the BBC reported.
US prosecutors have alleged that Gunes General Trading, based in Dubai, was used to funnel Iranian state money via the United Arab Emirates and evade international sanctions, according to the BBC.
In 2011 and 2012, the documents showed, the UAE's central banking system processed $142 million in transactions for the company, despite them being labeled as suspicious, the BBC said.
A New York branch of Standard Chartered Bank noted hundreds of suspicious transactions from the company and flagged them to the UAE's central bank but did not mention an Iran connection, the BBC reported.
While the UAE's central bank said it alerted law enforcement and closed the accounts, Gunes General Trading used other state-owned banks to funnel another $108 million in transactions until September 2012, the BBC reported.
In 2016, the US said the company was involved in a major sanctions-evasion scheme. It has wound up within the past two years, the BBC reported.
The Central Bank of the UAE did not respond to the BBC's request for comment.
Read the full report here. A major donor to the UK's ruling Conservative Party was linked to the Kremlin
The husband of a major donor to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party has received money from a Putin-linked millionaire who is under US sanctions, the leaked documents showed.
The files showed that Vladimir Chernukhin, the husband of Lubov Chernukhin — who has given almost $2.2 million to the Conservative Party — was given $7.8 million by an offshore company that could be traced back to a Russian politician and oligarch named Suleyman Kerimov.
Kerimov was one of several oligarchs named in a 2018 report by the US Treasury Department discussing "malign" Russian activity. The Treasury report said he was accused of laundering money and leaving taxes unpaid in Europe.
Lubov Chernukhin has spent time in the company of three prime ministers — and she once paid $205,000 to play tennis with Johnson, according to the BBC. North Korea laundered money using a string of shell companies and US banks
The leaked documents suggested that despite international sanctions blocking North Korea's access to the global financial system, it has laundered more than $174.8 million, NBC News reported.
The documents show that transactions flagged as suspicious from about 2008 to 2017 were cleared through US banks including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of New York Mellon, NBC News said.
North Korean wire transfers flagged in the SARs were often facilitated by Chinese and shell companies, NBC News reported.
Experts told NBC News that the transactions showed all the hallmarks of money laundering.
Read the full report here. Banks flagged Paul Manafort's activity as suspicious years before he was arrested
Bank transactions linked to Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump's former strategist who was convicted of fraud in 2018, were flagged as suspicious six years earlier, in 2012, the ICIJ reported.
More than $50 million in payments to Manafort processed by JPMorgan Chase over 10 years attracted SARs, according to the ICIJ.
The report said the bank processed $6.9 million in transactions after Manafort resigned from Trump's campaign.
Manafort is serving a seven-year sentence for tax fraud, bank fraud, and failure to report foreign bank accounts. Deutsche Bank managers knew more than they claimed about an infamous trading scandal
2017's mirror-trading scandal — a $10 billion money-laundering scheme involving crime bosses, drug cartels, and terrorist networks — saw Deutsche Bank pay a fine and blame middle managers in its Moscow offices.
But the leaked SARs showed that awareness of the issues at the heart of the scandal went far higher in the company, BuzzFeed News reported.
According to BuzzFeed News, warnings of serious failings at the company were sent to the bank's chair and its supervisory board.
Bank of America was so concerned that it submitted a SAR about Deutsche Bank's dealings — and then its managers were asked to leave Deutsche Bank's building when they attempted to discuss the matter in London, BuzzFeed News reported.
Christian Sewing, now Deutsche Bank's CEO, ran the audit office overseeing the bank's Moscow dealings, but he gave the office the all-clear, BuzzFeed News reported.
Deutsche Bank told BuzzFeed News that Sewing was not personally involved in the Moscow audit.
Read the full story here. Financial regulators catch only a small fraction of the activity behind dirty money
The FinCEN leak includes 2,100 SARs, but they're a fraction of what's out there.
Banks often don't know or don't follow up on their inquiries about the ultimate owners of the accounts they process, the ICIJ reported.
David Lewis, executive secretary of an anti-money-laundering group called the Financial Action Task Force, told the ICIJ that compliance was more often about going through the motions than taking real action.
