Friday, November 19, 2021


Hamilton wears rainbow helmet in Qatar practice

Issued on: 19/11/2021 - 


Lewis Hamilton takes part in practice ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix 
ANDREJ ISAKOVIC AFP

Doha (AFP) – Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton wore a rainbow-coloured helmet during Friday's practice sessions at the Qatar Grand Prix after saying Formula One was "duty bound" to raise awareness over human rights and equality in the country.

The tiny Gulf state is hosting its first F1 race this weekend and has signed a 10-year contract from 2023. Qatar's motorsport chief recently said drivers would be free to "speak their minds" on controversial issues such as human rights.

Hamilton's helmet sported pride rainbow colours designating support for LGBTQ+ rights and displayed the words "We Stand Together" on the back.

The Mercedes star spoke out Thursday about equal rights and increasing scrutiny on some of the countries the sport visited.

"I do feel that there are issues in these places that we are going to, as there are around the world, but of course (this) seems to be deemed as one of the worst in this part of the world," he said.


"I do think as these sports go to these places they are duty bound to raise awareness for these issues and these places need scrutiny and need the media to speak about these things. Equal rights is a serious issue.

"However I am aware that in this place they are trying to make steps and it can't change overnight."

USA
Study: Amid closure threats, rural ERs save lives at rates similar to urban hospitals



Despite limited resources, rural hospital emergency rooms provide care similar in quality to their urban counterparts, a new study has found. Photo by paulbr75/Pixabay

Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Patients treated at rural emergency rooms have health outcomes similar to people who receive care at urban facilities, a study published Friday by JAMA Network Open found.

This is despite many of these hospitals being underfunded and operating under the threat of closure, the researchers said.

Although rural hospitals see far fewer patients than their urban counterparts, those covered by Medicare and treated in ERs in either type of region had about a 4% risk for death after suffering an emergency health condition, such as a heart attack or stroke, the data showed.

However, about 6% of patients treated in rural ERs were transferred to other hospitals, compared to 2% of those who initially receive care in urban facilities, according to the researchers.

"Our results should be reassuring to rural communities, rural clinicians and rural health policymakers [because], as a whole, it appears rural emergency departments function well in the care of patients," study co-author Dr. Margaret Greenwood-Ericksen told UPI in an email.

"We initially expected to see a more significant difference in mortality, [but] the findings indicate that [emergency departments] are doing well for the patients they serve," said Greenwood-Ericksen, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

An analysis published in 2020 by the journal Health Affairs found that death rates are higher in rural regions of the United States than in more urban areas due at least partially to limited access to quality healthcare in less populated parts of the country.

RELATED  Most in rural areas 'comfortable' with telehealth during pandemic, study finds

With primary care and specialty clinics often a farther away, hospitals and emergency rooms "are ... critical points of access for care for rural communities," according to Greenwood-Ericksen.

However, rural facilities "are frequently not resourced like peer institutions in metropolitan areas," she said.

Since 2010, more than 100 rural hospitals in the United States have closed, and nearly 200 have been shuttered since 2005, a report from the Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill found.

RELATED Study: Death rates from chronic conditions, 'deaths of despair' rising in rural U.S.

In 2020 alone, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly 20 rural hospitals closed or stopped providing inpatient care, according to the Sheps center.

As a result, millions of people in the United States have or are at risk losing valuable healthcare access within their home communities -- care that can save lives, Greenwood-Ericksen said.

For this study, Greenwood-Ericksen and her colleagues analyzed more than 470,000 patient outcomes from Medicare beneficiaries treated at rural and urban emergency rooms between 2011 and 2015.

Although mortality rates were similar for patients with life-threatening illnesses, such as heart attack or stroke, treated at rural and urbans ERs, rates were higher at rural ERs for conditions more related to symptoms such as chest pain and vomiting.

Patients treated at rural ERs for chest pain, for example, were 54% more likely to die within 30 days than those cared for at urban facilities.

Similarly, those who arrived at a rural ER with nausea and vomiting or abdominal pain were about 70% more likely to die within 30 days than those treated at urban hospitals

In addition, about 25% of patients treated in rural ERs were eventually admitted to the hospital compared with nearly 40% of patients at urban ERs, the researchers said.

The similarities in patient outcomes between rural and urban ERs highlight the importance of access to critical care for treating life-threatening conditions, particularly as many of these facilities are at risk losing funding and resources, according to the researchers.

"As [these facilities] provide lifesaving services to their communities, their closure may result in a rise in rural patient mortality," Greenwood-Ericksen said.
Rolls-Royce claims 3 world records with electric plane that flew 387 mph

Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Rolls-Royce said on Friday that it's claiming three new world records, including one for fastest all-electric vehicle in the world -- an aircraft that it said flew close to 400 mph.

The company said its electric "Spirit of Innovation" plane reached the record speed during a recent run.

Rolls-Royce, which is a different entity from Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, said that three sets of record data were submitted to be recognized by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale.

Rolls-Royce said the "Spirit of Innovation" holds records for aircraft hitting a top speed of 345 mph over nearly two miles, reaching 330 mph over three miles and climbing 9,800 feet in 202 seconds.


The aircraft was created in conjunction with powertrain supplier YASA and Electroflight in the Accelerating the Electrification of Flight project.

Fifty-percent of the project was funded by the Aerospace Technology Institute along with the British government's Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and Innovate U.K.

The aircraft took its inaugural flight in September.
HEXED 
Chemical in human body odor triggers aggression in women, but not men
MEN DON'T NEED MORE AGGRESSION TRIGGERS

A chemical in human body odor triggers aggression in women, but is calming for men, which researchers say may be a function of evolution. Photo by moritz320/Pixabay



Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Sniffing a chemical in human body odor blocks aggression in men but triggers it in women, an analysis published Friday by the journal Science Advances found.

The chemical in question, called hexadecanal, or HEX, is also emitted by infants when under stress, the researchers said.


This may be why the odor it produces leads to more aggressive behavior in women, as it taps into the maternal instinct to protect their offspring, according to the researchers.

At the same time, the HEX scent may also suppress male aggression by design, as it could put the child at risk.

The findings suggest that sex-specific differences in the human olfactory system result in divergent reactions to these "social odors," the researchers said.

"Impulsive aggression is a major factor in the human condition, yet how exactly aggression is triggered or blocked in the human brain remains unclear," wrote the researchers, from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.

However, "we observed that sniffing a body volatile, namely, HEX, significantly decreased aggression in men yet significantly increased aggression in women," they said.

For this study, the researchers recruited 127 participants for a double-blind test in which half were exposed to HEX in unmarked specimen jars.

Study participants took part in a computer game used to measure aggressive behavior, in which each player competes against another "player" -- in reality, a game algorithm -- designed to provoke them.

In a later phase of the game, the participants get to unleash their aggravation by blasting their opponents with a loud noise, and the volume of the blast is recorded as a measure of aggression.

The noise blast data indicated that HEX significantly lowered aggression in men but significantly increased it in women, researchers said.

In addition, whole-brain analyses using magnetic resonance imaging and other scanning technologies revealed that HEX increased activity in the left angular gyrus of the brain, the region involved in perceiving social cues, in both men and women.

In men, however, smelling HEX increased connectivity between the angular gyrus and a brain network involved in social appraisal and aggression, but decreased this connectivity in women.

Although a study published in 2020 indicated that humans emit body odors related to aggression, it has not been known how human aggressive behavior may be affected by social chemical signals, the researchers said.

"HEX may exert its effects by modulating functional connectivity between the brain substrates of social appraisal and the brain substrates of aggressive execution," the researchers wrote.

"This places chemosignaling at the mechanistic heart of human aggression and poses but one added example to the rapidly growing body of evidence implicating social chemosignaling as a major, albeit mostly subconscious, power in human behavior," they said.

Dams may help against climate change, but harm fish, freshwater ecosystems

Conservation groups are pushing for four dams on Maine's Kennebec River, including the Lockwood Dam in Waterville, to be removed to make way for spawning salmon and other migratory fish.
 Photo by J.Monkman/NRCM

BANGOR, Maine, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- The debate over what hydroelectric dams contribute to the environment -- either as useful tools in the fight against climate change or an impediment to migratory fish and freshwater ecosystem health -- is heating up in Maine as officials decide the future of one power-generating embankment.

The proposed relicensing of a major dam on Maine's Kennebec River has officials and fishers, among others, once again wrestling with difficult questions about the environment and the future of the region's natural resources.

To remain in good legal standing, Brookfield Renewable Partners needs new state and federal licenses for its Shawmut Dam in Farfield.

Earlier this year, the company withdrew its relicensing applications with Maine's Department of Environmental Protection and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission after state regulators warned Brookfield that its water quality certificate was going to be denied.

According to Maine regulators, the dam, as it is being operated, is not sufficiently salmon friendly.

Federal protections for the iconic fish, which first was listed as endangered in 2000, stipulate that 96% of salmon that approach each dam on the lower Kennebec must pass safely upstream within 48 hours, but state regulators told Brookfield they'll accept no less than a 99% success rate.

With the Shawmut Dam's licenses in jeopardy, conservationists and environmental groups have seized the opportunity to push for the removal of four dams on the Lower Kennebec River, which they claim are keeping Atlantic salmon from reaching spawning grounds farther upstream.

"If they do get it relicensed, that means that you have to wait another 30, 40, 50 years before trying to take the dams out again, and by then it might be too late," Greg LaBonte, an avid fly fisher and founder of Maine Fly Guys, told UPI.

LaBonte, who said he typically is a strong supporter of all types of fish conservation efforts, remains unconvinced by the dam removal plans, but appreciates the urgency of advocacy groups like Trout Unlimited and the Atlantic Salmon Federation.

"It's now or wait half a century, and I get that," he said. "It's a tough call."


The Atlantic salmon, which spends most of its life in the ocean but returns to spawn in freshwater rivers, was listed as endangered in 2000. Photo courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Small salmon migrations

Atlantic salmon once were plentiful in all of Maine's major rivers, from the Saco to the St. Croix, returning by the thousands each year to spawn.

From 1912 to 1990, the first Atlantic Salmon caught in Maine's Penobscot River each season was delivered to the president of the United States.

The Penobscot still welcomes a few hundred returning salmon each year, but elsewhere on Maine's waterways, salmon runs rarely exceed a half-dozen fish. Most of those that return are not wild fish, but instead hatchery raised fish released into Maine rivers as juveniles, or smolts.

Environmental groups insist those numbers would be higher if not for the human-built barriers that prevent the natural movement of water, nutrients and fish.

It's not just the height of the dams that thwart salmon, which typically are powerful swimmers and adept leapers. Its also the nature of the water that accumulates above and below.

"The impoundments are really bad, too, because they're often filled with invasive species and are difficult to navigate because they don't have any obvious flows or riffles to guide the fish upstream," Landis Hudson, executive director of the nonprofit Maine Rivers, told UPI.

Impoundments also are one of the reasons why Hudson doesn't think Brookfield's dams, which generate hydroelectricity, should be viewed as a green energy solution. Impoundments on the Kennebec, which flows into the rapidly warming Gulf of Maine, elevate water temperatures.

"Main stem dams like we see on the Kennebec speed up the negative ecological impacts of climate change," Hudson said.

Some dams, including the Lockwood Dam in Waterville, are equipped with fish ladders that allow fish to bypass the dam, but finding the narrow passages isn't always easy.

Last spring, several fish had to be rescued after they became stranded in pools below the dam. Researchers suspect many spawning fish languish for weeks searching for a detour.

"If these fertile female salmon are hanging out below Lockwood so long that by the time they move past it, they are about to keel over, how can we expect these fish to recover, ladder or not?" Hudson asked rhetorically.

Ambivalence toward removal

As of November, only 15 salmon made it to Lockwood Dam's fish ladder, according to the Maine Department of Natural Resources.

It's those modest numbers that inspire LaBonte's ambivalence toward the dam removal plans.

Like others, he worries that the dam's removal would imperil Sappi North America, a paper mill in Skowhegan that relies on water withdrawal from the impoundment behind Shawmut.

If the dam were removed, Brookfield claims the mill would have to curtail operations, putting the livelihoods of several hundred Mainers in jeopardy.

"I could live with that if there was a guarantee that when you take the dams out, the anadromous fish were going to really bounce back," LaBonte said. But he's skeptical.

Salmon aren't the only species dams are impeding, however. They're just the most iconic.

"People rally around salmon for the same reasons they rally around a polar bear or moose," LaBonte said. "These are species that people get intrigue from for no other reason than being curious or romantic about the animal."

That's important for groups that may cultivate a more sophisticated appreciation for ecological health, but that rely on casual nature lovers for funding.

"When you're trying to fundraise or get social backing, it's hard to get that when you're talking about things that aren't well understood or covered in the media," LaBonte said. "If they were to say river herring or shad, people aren't going to get as excited about that because they don't have any relationship with those species."

Much more than salmon


Those less romantic species are where the benefits of dam removal shine through -- and evidence can be found just a few dozen miles downstream from Lockwood Dam.

"The Lower Kennebec and its tributaries, including the Sebasticook River, is probably one of the largest success stories for migratory fish on the Atlantic seaboard, with the return of a run of both alewives and shad -- previously stopped by the Edwards Dam in August that came out in 1999 -- in the millions," Jeff Reardon, Maine Brook Trout Project director at Trout Unlimited and a veteran of dam removal projects, told UPI.

In addition to alewives and shad, eels and herring all now return to the Kennebec in great numbers each year. The recovery quickly garnered the attention of riparian predators.

"The Sebasticook now hosts one of the largest concentrations of eagles on the East Coast," Reardon said. "Every tree on the river bank has one or more eagles in it for miles and miles."

Most of Maine's rivers are quite nutrient poor, so the influx of biomass and nutrients from the ocean are a boon for not just eagles, but also for ospreys, ducks and more.

With the removal of the four dams, beginning with Lockwood, Reardon and others estimate that success will spread upstream.

LaBonte said it might also allow pike, an invasive species and voracious predator, to travel farther upstream and access the salmon nurseries in the Sandy River.

But Reardon, whose organization occasionally supports dams and other barriers to stem the movement of invasive species, says pike prefer slower water -- the found above and below dams.

With the dams gone, fewer stretches of the Kennebec where pike can proliferate will exist. Besides, Reardon said, pike already are present in lakes connected to the Sandy River and Upper Kennebec.

"The explosion of pike that we've seen elsewhere, we wouldn't expect to see in this situation," Reardon said.

A plethora of problems


Reardon and Hudson acknowledged that all dam removal efforts warrant problem solving, whether it's mitigating invasive species, updating wastewater management systems or accommodating businesses that rely on impoundments.

"There have been several other large, complicated dam removal projects in Maine, and each of those projects involved changes to infrastructure that were complicated and in some cases expensive, but people did come together to figure out how to fix them," Hudson said.

Reardon said he has been involved directly in efforts to design and build new water intake infrastructure for mills affected by dam removals.

"That's a problem that's solvable, it's just a question of engineering," he said.

The threat of losing even a modest economic engine in Central Maine moved the state's governor, Democrat Janet Mills, to publicly guarantee the protection of the Sappi mill. Mills has floated the idea of a "nature-like fishway," a newer technology more conducive to fish migration than traditional ladders.

LaBonte also suspects a compromise somewhere short of total dam removal is the most logical solution. He said it also might be time to abandon the dreams of salmon returning to the Kennebec in great numbers.

LaBonte cites a former mentor, Rory Saunders, Downeast Coastal Salmon Recovery Coordinator with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who said, "Salmon aren't dying from any one cause. They're dying from a death by a thousand cuts."

"Dams are just one part of the problem. Salmon have many, many more, mostly out in the ocean," LaBonte said. "If you took just a small portion of the salmon recovery funding and used it for habitat restoration for striped bass and brook trout, we might be better off."
20,000 nurses, mental health workers join 'sympathy strike' in SF Bay Area


San Francisco, Calif., is seen beyond the Golden Gate Bridge on March 16, 2020. 
File Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Nurses and mental health employees by the thousands are expected to participate in a sympathy strike in the San Francisco Bay Area on Friday to support protesting engineers at Kaiser Permanente facilities.

About 20,000 members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers at medical centers in San Jose, Fremont and Oakland are expected to join engineers with a rally at Kaiser headquarters in Oakland.

"Nurses know the devastating impact that short-staffing has on our community's health and well-being," CNA President Cathy Kennedy, a registered nurse at Kaiser in Roseville, said according to the San Jose Mercury News.

"We also know that in order to provide the safe patient care our communities need and deserve, we must be able to count on our coworkers and they must be able to count on us. So we are standing with the Kaiser engineers in their righteous fight for a safe and just workplace."

RELATED Kaiser strikes deal with pharmacists union to avert labor strike

Engineers, who saw their contract expire on Sept. 17, had been striking for wages comparable to other engineers in Northern California. The striking Local 39 IUOE represents about 600 operating engineers with Kaiser.

"All of those engineers, their [hourly] wages are all within about a nickel of each other and Kaiser has us better than $1 out the first year, better than $3 out the second year and $6 out the third year," Walter Thiel, a striking stationary engineer, told KCRA-TV.

Kaiser has called the wage demands "unreasonable" and beyond what other unions have asked for.

"Unfortunately, after many hours bargaining on Tuesday and Wednesday, there is no movement in negotiations with Local 39," Kaiser said, according to KCRA-TV. "The union insists it receives much more -- in some cases nearly two times more -- than other union agreements covering Kaiser Permanente employees."
ICC Suspends Investigation Of Philippines 'War On Drugs'


By AFP News
11/19/21 

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte Needs 'Psychiatric' Exam, Says U.N. Human Rights Chief


The International Criminal Court has suspended its investigation into suspected rights abuses committed under Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's "war on drugs" following a request from Manila.

The Hague-based court in September authorised a probe of the campaign that has left thousands of people dead, saying it resembled an illegitimate and systematic attack on civilians.

Duterte was elected in 2016 on a campaign promise to get rid of the Philippines' drug problem, openly ordering police to kill drug suspects if officers' lives were in danger.

At least 6,181 people have died in more than 200,000 anti-drug operations conducted since July 2016, according to the latest official data released by the Philippines.

ICC prosecutors in court papers estimate the figure to be between 12,000 and 30,000 dead.

According to court documents, Philippine ambassador Eduardo Malaya requested a deferral.

"The prosecution has temporarily suspended its investigative activities while it assesses the scope and effect of the deferral request," ICC prosecutor Karim Khan wrote in a court notification dated November 18.

He said the prosecution would request additional information from the Philippines.

Duterte pulled Manila out of the ICC in 2019 after it launched a preliminary probe, but the court says it has jurisdiction over crimes committed while the Philippines was still a member.

President Rodrigo Duterte was elected on a campaign promise to get rid of the Philippines' drug problem
 Photo: POOL via AFP / LISA MARIE DAVID

After long refusing to admit the court had any power to intervene and refusing to cooperate, Duterte backtracked in October to say he would prepare his defence.

Despite its request to the ICC, Manila said it maintained that the court had no jurisdiction.

"We reiterate that it is the position of the Philippine government that the International Criminal Court has no jurisdiction over it," Duterte's spokesman Karlo Nograles said in a statement Saturday.

"In any event, we welcome the judiciousness of the new ICC prosecutor, who has deemed it fit to give the matter a fresh look and we trust that the matter will be resolved in favour of the exoneration of our government and the recognition of the vibrancy of our justice system," he said.

In his letter requesting a deferral, ambassador Malaya said the Philippine government was investigating the alleged crimes against humanity committed during the drug war.

He said the Philippine government "has undertaken, and continues to undertake, thorough investigations of all reported deaths during anti-narcotic operations in the country".

Human Rights Watch dismissed the claim that the Philippines' existing domestic mechanisms afford citizens justice as "absurd" and an attempt to stave off the ICC probe.

"Only 52 out of thousands of killings are in early stages of investigation. Despite many clear-cut cases of murder, no charges have even been filed," the rights group's Asia director Brad Adams tweeted Saturday.

"The reality is that impunity is the norm under President Duterte, which is why the ICC needs to investigate. Let's hope the ICC sees through the ruse that it is."
Censors, Legal Hurdles Stifle China's #MeToo Movement


By Jing Xuan TENG and Beiyi SEOW
11/19/21

China's #MeToo movement has stumbled in the face of swift internet censors, a patriarchal society and a legal system that places a heavy burden on the claimant.

Explosive claims this month by tennis star Peng Shuai that a former top Communist Party politician had sexually assaulted her marked the first time allegations have hit the top layer of government.

But her accusations were swiftly scrubbed from the Chinese internet, and she has not been seen publicly since.

Others have faced the same fate, with an increasingly austere Beijing cracking down on any form of grassroots social movement.


The global #MeToo movement reached China in 2018 when a wave of women published allegations of sexual harassment against university professors.

Threatened by the prospect of an uncontrolled mass movement, authorities quickly began blocking social media hashtags and keywords.

A court this year dismissed the case of Zhou Xiaoxuan (left), who accused a state TV host of groping her Photo: AFP / GREG BAKER

The phrase #MeToo is still blocked.

Prominent feminists face regular police harassment and detention -- including activist Sophia Huang Xueqin, arrested in September for "inciting subversion of state power", according to Reporters Without Borders.

Although leader Xi Jinping has declared women are "an important force driving social development and progress", there are barely any women in key government roles in China.

Political leadership is a man's world, with only one woman in the Communist Party's elite 25-member Politburo.


Xi has also been aggressively pushing a conservative narrative of women as mothers and wives.


A plain-clothes policeman takes away a sign which reads "We Stand Together" from a supporter of Zhou Xiaoxuan outside court 
Photo: AFP / GREG BAKER

New legislation clarifying the concept of sexual harassment passed last year in China, but accusers still face major obstacles.

"You have to constantly prove you're honest... and that you're not using this issue to hype yourself," a woman who had made an allegation of sexual misconduct told AFP, asking to remain unidentified as she feared retaliation.

But for the accused, "it's actually very simple", she said.

"He can just deny it and does not need to prove his innocence."

The cases that see the light of day are often shot down by courts -- and a large majority of cases brought under sexual harassment charges are the accused pressing back with defamation charges.

Wang Qi, a World Wildlife Fund employee who alleged online that her boss had forcibly kissed and repeatedly harassed her, was hit with a retaliatory defamation lawsuit from him in 2018.

Peng Shuai alleged that a former top Communist Party politician sexually assaulted her 
Photo: AFP / Greg WOOD

She was ordered to apologise by a court which concluded she had insufficient proof and had "spread falsehoods" about him.

And a Beijing court this year dismissed the case of Zhou Xiaoxuan, who accused state TV host Zhu Jun of groping her when she was an intern.

The court said Zhou had provided insufficient evidence.

Zhu in turn sued Zhou for defamation.

Courts require accusers to show evidence far stronger than that provided by the accused, often turning away witnesses close to the accusers including friends and colleagues, according to research from Yale Law School in May.

This discourages "employers and survivors from disciplining alleged harassers or speaking out, because they know they might be sued and be made to carry a heavy burden of proof", the researchers wrote.

Other women who come forward with stories of harassment and assault are subjected to personal attacks.

Prominent journalist Zhang Wen was accused of rape by an anonymous letter-writer in 2018, prompting other women to come forward with harassment allegations.

Zhang hit back online at his accusers in an effort to discredit them in comments that were freely allowed to circulate.

They were heavy drinkers who dated many men, he wrote, adding that his original accuser "had changed boyfriends multiple times at university".

But Beijing has allowed allegations to swirl when it suits them.

A female employee at e-commerce giant Alibaba alleged this summer that she had been sexually assaulted on a work trip by her manager and a client, in a case that drew widespread coverage and commentary across Chinese media.

The company was coming under intense pressure from state regulators at the time, and Alibaba fired the manager and vowed to crack down on "ugly" company culture.

Once the furore died down, however, police eventually dropped the case, saying the manager's act of "forced indecency" was not a crime.

And Canadian-Chinese pop star Kris Wu faced a rare arrest in August after a 19-year-old woman accused him online of rape -- coinciding with an official crackdown on celebrity excess.

Equally, fallen Communist Party officials expelled for corruption are frequently accused of sexual misconduct -- but it will "only be revealed after their downfalls due to political struggles, as part of the facts of their crimes," veteran Chinese feminist Lu Pin wrote in a recent essay on Peng Shuai.

"Meanwhile the women are used as evidence of their bad reputation."
Protests Cast Spotlight On Chinese Factories In Serbia


By Miodrag SOVILJ
11/19/21 

When Dung Nguyen left Vietnam to work abroad, the 37-year-old said he'd been assured he would be employed by a German company in Serbia, only to have his passport taken away upon arrival at a Chinese-run factory where conditions were dire.

The situation at the factory and the alleged deception used to lure employees has made headlines in Serbia after Nguyen and hundreds of other Vietnamese went on strike this week.

The strike that started on Wednesday was a rare show of defiance by labourers at a Chinese-backed enterprise in the country.

Beijing has invested billions in Serbia and neighbouring Balkan countries in recent years, hoping to expand its economic footprint in central Europe.


Serbia has been quick to cash in on China's interest, as it seeks to court a range of investors amid the ongoing tug of war between the East and West over influence in the Balkans.

But Belgrade has repeatedly been accused of giving Chinese-owned companies a free hand in how they run their operations.

Vietnamese workers went on strike this week over conditions at a Chinese-run factory in Serbia
 Photo: AFP / OLIVER BUNIC

Critics from civil society, human rights groups and in the media say the government has turned a blind eye to environmental concerns and potential human rights violations.

The Vietnamese workers were employed to build a factory for the Chinese tyre company Linglong in the small northern city of Zrenjanin, considered a centrepiece of Beijing-backed investment in Serbia.

But according to Nguyen, the living and work conditions were untenable and not what he had been promised when he was recruited for the job.

"We are living as if we were in jail... all our passports were kept by the Chinese when we arrived at the airport," Nguyen told AFP in a video message sent from inside the living quarters.

"I cannot talk more as I am afraid my saying would impact others," he added.

Even before the strike, private security guards were posted near the workers' dormitories next to the factory site and journalists including from AFP were prevented from entering the premises.

The strike was a rare show of defiance by labourers at a Chinese-backed enterprise in Serbia
 Photo: AFP / OLIVER BUNIC

Human rights organisations A11 and ASTRA published a joint report earlier this week demanding "urgent action" from Serbian authorities.

"A large number of established facts indicate the possibility that workers are victims of human trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation," it said.

According to the report, the Vietnamese workers had not been provided with heating, electricity or hot water and the facilities lacked adequate infrastructure and sewerage.

"The conditions were nowhere near suitable for housing human beings," Danilo Curcic, a human rights lawyer from A11 said during an interview with local broadcaster N1 TV.

"I don't think it's an overstatement to say that some people do not keep animals in those conditions."

Construction workers at the Zrenjanin factory had already staged two strikes within the last six months, according to A11, sparked by unpaid salaries and a lack of food.

Beijing has invested billions in Serbia and neighbouring Balkan countries in recent years, aiming to expand its economic footprint in central Europe 
Photo: AFP / OLIVER BUNIC

A short documentary aired by N1 this month also showed workers living in cramped conditions inside a makeshift dormitory at the site.

"It is unacceptable that an aspiring EU member state seems to tolerate this on its territory and remains silent on cases of potential forced labour in Europe," Viola von Cramon, a member of the European Parliament for Germany, told AFP.

Linglong said that the Vietnamese workers were not officially employed by the company and had been hired by a Chinese subcontractor.

"Linglong's only obligation to its contractors is to pay them compensation for the work performed under the contract," the company said in a statement.

It added it was planning meetings with subcontractors to "inform them about the values the company upholds" and demanded the workers were transferred to "better accommodation".

It did not respond to an AFP request for further clarification.

Vietnam's foreign ministry said officials had received no reports of "violence and harassment" at the factory but said it was monitoring the situation.

In a 2019 case that cast a disturbing light on unscrupulous trafficking networks, 39 Vietnamese migrants were found dead in a refrigerated truck in Britain after it had crossed the Channel from Europe.

Serbian leaders have batted away accusations of malfeasance at Linglong.

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic suggested the incident might have been a conspiracy targeting Chinese investment in the country, after confirming that the Vietnamese workers were being moved to more appropriate accommodation.

President Aleksandar Vucic has vastly expanded ties with Beijing since coming to power and says the two countries enjoy a "steel friendship".

Serbia was one of the first countries in Europe to receive coronavirus vaccines from China, while Vucic kissed the Chinese flag last year after receiving medical supplies sent by Beijing early on in the pandemic.

Following this week's headlines, the Serbian leader doubled down, saying Chinese investments would continue to be a top priority.

"What do you want, to destroy an investment worth $900 million?" Vucic said Friday.

"If the Vietnamese need to be helped, we will help. But we will not chase the investors away."
Tesla’s Fremont Factory ‘Resembles A Frat House’ Harassment Lawsuit Claims


By Maggie Valenti
11/19/21 

A woman has accused Tesla of contributing to an environment where sexual harassment was “rampant” at its factory in Fremont, California, in a new lawsuit.

In an interview with The Washington Post, worker Jessica Barraza accused the company of allowing the situation to unfold.

The lawsuit states the Tesla factory “resembles a . . . frat house.” Barraza is reportedly on doctor-ordered medical leave for post-traumatic stress and anxiety.

Tesla hired Barraza as a production associate in 2018. In the lawsuit, she claims male colleagues subjected her to harassment, which included catcalling and inappropriate physical touching, and that superiors knew about and took part in the toxic environment. A human resources complaint did nothing to protect her.

Specifics listed in the complaint include male workers who remarked on Barraza’s “coke bottle” figure, “fat a--” or “onion booty.”

The complaint also states that male workers would “brush up against Ms. Barraza’s backside (including with their groins) or unnecessarily touch her under the pretext of working together in close quarters.”

Barraza’s complaint was filed in California Superior Court, but Tesla CEO and SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk is not named in the suit. Though Musk is not named, Barraza cited a tweet he wrote in The Washington Post interview that contributed to the toxic culture.

“Am thinking of starting new university: Texas Institute of Technology & Science,” Musk wrote. The acronym would be TITS (a reference to women’s breasts). “It will have epic merch, universally admired,” Musk continued.

“That doesn’t set a good example for the factory — it almost gives it like an … ‘he’s tweeting about it, it has to be OK,’ ” Barraza told The Washington Post. “It’s not fair to myself, to my family, to other women who are working there.”

This is not the first time the Fremont factory has been the site of harassment. In October, Tesla was ordered by a judge to pay $137 million to a former contractor who was subjected to racial harassment.


In 2017, former Tesla engineer AJ Vandermeyden sued Tesla, alleging women were denied promotions and paid less than their male counterparts, then faced retaliation after reaching out to human resources. Tesla fired Vandermeyden months after her claims went public.

“Tesla is responsible for the systemic sexual harassment occurring in its factory,” Barraza’s attorney, David A. Lowe, told The Verge. “We are bringing this case to put a stop to the harassment against Ms. Barraza and her colleagues.”