Chile: Congress takes step toward abortion decriminalization

Via AP news wire
Tue., September 28, 2021,

Global Day Of Action Venezuela 

(Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

The lower house of Chile’s Congress took a step toward decriminalizing abortion in most cases Tuesday, voting to craft a law barring prosecution of women who get abortions in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.

The initiative, which is opposed by the government, still faces hurdles before it can become law. While lawmakers in the lower house voted 75-68 with two abstentions to debate it, details of a bill will have to be agreed upon before the matter then goes to the Senate

Currently, abortion is allowed in Chile only in cases of rape, medical conditions that endanger a woman’s life or instances when a fetus would not be able to survive.

The vote by legislators came the same day that women's groups in the region were staging demonstrations against abortion restrictions.

There are no statistics on how many clandestine abortions are performed per year in Chile. The Humanas Corporation, a women’s rights group, estimates there are between 60,000 and 70,000.

Decriminalization of abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy would protect women from seeking the procedure in possibly unsafe conditions, said Chilean lawmakers who support the measure.

“Condemning a woman for simply having an abortion is immoral,” opposition deputy Andrea Parra said.

Mónica Zalaquett, the minister of women’s affairs, said that “this government will always protect life, from its conception” and that “no woman in Chile is serving” jail time for having an abortion.

Chile holds general elections Nov. 21 and is also in the process of drafting a new constitution to replace the old military-era charter.

Many countries in heavy Catholic Latin America have restrictive abortion laws, though legalization efforts in some nations have gained momentum.

The project to decriminalize abortion in most cases languished in Chile’s Congress for several years and was only reactivated when a similar law was approved in Argentina in December 2020.

This month, Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled it is unconstitutional to punish abortion, unanimously annulling several provisions of a law from Coahuila — a state on the Texas border — that had made abortion a criminal act.

The decision in Mexico came soon after a Texas law took effect prohibiting abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity in the fetus.

Women across Latin America march in favor of abortion rights

Ana Isabel Martinez
Tue., September 28, 2021

Rally in support of legal and safe abortion during a march to mark 

the International Safe Abortion Day, in Bogota

By Ana Isabel Martinez

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Thousands of women demonstrated in several Latin American cities on Tuesday to commemorate the global day of action for access to safe and legal abortion, in a region where the procedure is fully permitted only in a handful of countries.

In Mexico City, women marched to the historic center under the gaze of police with shields and riot helmets. Authorities put up protective fences on some major buildings and monuments that in the past have been spray-painted during demonstrations.

"I still don't know if I want to be a mom, but I want to have the right to decide," read a sign held by a young woman with a green scarf around her neck.

Earlier this month Mexico's Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional to criminalize abortion and, shortly after, the government said that those jailed on accusations of having terminated their pregnancy would be released.

Hundreds of other women marched in other parts of Mexico, including in the cities of Cuernavaca and Veracruz.

Every year, thousands of women in Latin America die from unsafe abortions at a time when teenage pregnancies and sexual violence continue to increase in the region.

In Colombia, where abortion is allowed only in cases of rape, risks to the life of the mother, or birth defects, some 800 women marched towards the center of Bogota.

"Women are reminding states and societies that we're full citizens, not second-class, and that we have the right to abort, to voluntarily interrupt pregnancy, to decide about our bodies, about our lives, and about our maternity wards," said Ita Maria Diez, a leader of the Bogota demonstration.

A march was also held in Chile, where the lower house of Congress agreed to debate a bill to decriminalize abortion for up to 14 weeks after pregnancy.

STRICT LAWS

Scores of people in El Salvador waved green flags and marched through San Salvador en route to Congress to demand a loosening of the country's "strict" abortion laws.

Holding up banners saying "it's our right to decide" and "legal abortion, safe and free," the Salvadoran protesters sought to pressure legislators to ease one of the world's strictest abortion laws, which prohibit termination of pregnancy in cases of rape and even if the mother's life is at risk.

The proposals taken to the Salvadoran Congress have been named "Beatriz Reform," in honor of a young woman who in 2013 openly called for an abortion to save her life as she suffered from a chronic disease, which took her life four years later.

"We are asking for minimum measures to add to the Penal Code to guarantee the life and integrity of women," Morena Herrera, a prominent Salvadoran feminist, told journalists.

"It does not require constitutional reform. It can be done now and if it is true that there is independence of powers, the Legislative Assembly must respond," she added.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele earlier this month ruled out any amendments to the abortion laws as part of controversial constitutional changes his government is planning.

But several out of more than 20 Latin American nations still ban abortion outright, including El Salvador, which has sentenced some women to up to 40 years in prison.

(Reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez in Mexico City, additional reporting by Gerardo Arbaiza in San Salvador; Luis Jaime Acosta in Bogota, Fabian Cambero and Gabriela Donoso in Santiago, Editing by Drazen Jorgic and Sandra Maler)

JOE MANCHIN  REPUBLICAN

Economists say adding a child tax credit work requirement would harm the neediest kids

Alicia Adamczyk

 1 day ago

Key details of the expanded child tax credit (CTC) may change in the coming weeks as Congressional Democrats continue to debate their 2022 budget proposal, including whether or not the lowest income families will receive it.

© Provided by CNBC Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) on Capitol Hill

 on September 28, 2021 in Washington, DC.

This year, the CTC was increased from $2,000 per child to $3,000 or $3,600, depending on the age of the child, for many families. Half of it was made advanceable, and more families than ever qualify as President Joe Biden and the Democrats extended it to families earning little to no income.

But as the party looks to extend the changes into the years to come, moderate Senator Joe Manchin, D-W.V., wants to reinstate a work requirement in order for families to receive the credit. This year, the credit was made fully refundable, meaning families that earned little or no income still qualify to receive it, which was not the case before.

"There's no work requirements whatsoever. There's no education requirements whatsoever for better skill sets," Manchin said on CNN earlier this month. "Don't you think, if we're going to help the children, that the people should make some effort?"
The CTC helps reduce child poverty

Adding a work requirement would preclude the lowest-income families who need the money the most, Jacob Goldin, an assistant professor at Stanford Law School who specializes in tax policy, tells CNBC Make It.

Before this year, the credit phased in with income, meaning the poorest families did not receive the full amount: Families needed to earn at least $2,500 to get anything, and then received a credit of 15 cents for each dollar earned above that.

Kicking that requirement is expected to help lift more than 4 million children out of poverty if made permanent, leading to a 40% reduction in child poverty.

More than 80% of that reduction in child poverty can be attributed to making the full credit available to families even if they have low or no income, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP).

Research has shown that providing the credit does not meaningfully affect employment. In fact, a separate paper found that increasing the CTC actually increases single mothers' labor force participation slightly, because they are able to pay family members to watch their children.

Other studies have found that reducing child poverty has positive ripple effects throughout low-income kids' lives: Not only are they healthier, but they do better in school and are more likely to be employed and earn more as adults.

"There's just very, very strong evidence that providing extra financial assistance to kids growing up in low-income households yields big benefits in their lives," says Goldin.

So far this year, families have used the advanced credit to pay for essentials for their children. The July payment coincided with a 3% drop in children experiencing food insufficiency. Families also used the money to buy school supplies and clothes, and pay utility bills, Census data showed.

Those are a few of the reasons why 450 economists signed a letter earlier this month urging to Congress to extend the CTC expansion as is.

With a 50-50 split Senate and Vice President Kamala Harris as the tiebreaker on contentious votes, Democrats need all of their Senators on board to pass legislation, including Manchin.

AUKUS

Former PM questions whether Australia can maintain US subs



Wed., September 29, 2021

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The former Australian prime minister who signed the now-cancelled French submarine deal questioned whether Australia could safely maintain a fleet powered by U.S. nuclear technology.

Malcolm Turnbull made the 90 billion Australian dollar ($66 billion) deal in 2016 with French majority state-owned Naval Group in 2016 to build 12 conventional diesel-electric submarines.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who replaced Turnbull in a power struggle within Australia’s conservative government in 2018, canceled the deal this month as part of an alliance with the United States and Britain that will deliver an Australian fleet of at least eight nuclear-powered submarines.

Morrison explained that the “game changer” was that next-generation nuclear-powered submarines will use reactors that do not need refueling during the 35-year life of the boat.

Turnbull told the National Press Club on Wednesday that he had been advised by the Australia's Defense Department as recently as 2018 that an Australian nuclear-powered fleet was not an option without local nuclear facilities.

Morrison’s advice that Australia could become the first country to operate a nuclear-powered fleet without a civil nuclear industry or nuclear expertise was “very different” to Defense Department advice three years ago, Turnbull said.

“It sounds too good to be true,” Turnbull said.

“Is it credible to have a hands-off, plug-and-play nuclear reactor filled with weapons-grade uranium and not inspect it for 35 years?” he asked.

Turnbull said a nuclear-powered fleet maintained by another country was not an option for Australia.

“If you can’t maintain your own ships, you are not in full control of them,” Turnbull said.

France has accused the United States and Australia of betrayal over the canceled contract and the replacement trilateral alliance negotiated in secret.

France briefly recalled its ambassador from Washington in protest but there is no word of when a French ambassador might return to Australia.

Turnbull, who describes himself as a personal friend of French President Emmanuel Macron, said Morrison should have discussed with the French Australia’s concerns that conventional submarines would not meet its evolving security needs.

“This is an appalling episode in Australia’s international affairs and the consequences of it will endure to our disadvantage for a very long time,” Turnbull said.

Former Prime Ministers Paul Keating and Kevin Rudd, who led the center-left Labor Party, have also been vocal critics of the nuclear deal.

Atomic energy is a fraught issue in Australia, which has a single reactor in Sydney that makes nuclear isotopes for medical use.

Nuclear power generation is banned and Australia refuses to export uranium to countries that would put it to military uses including nuclear propulsion.

Rod Mcguirk, The Associated Press

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Former lab director testified Theranos prioritized PR and funding over patient care


The testimony of a former Theranos lab director is set to continue Wednesday in the criminal trial of the failed blood-testing startup's founder and former CEO, Elizabeth Holmes.

 It will mark the third day that jurors will hear from the man who is now known to be the first source who spoke with the journalist who broke the Theranos story in 2015.

Elizabeth Holmes leaves the United States Federal Courthouse in San Jose, Calif., Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021. Her company Theranos failed in 2018, a few years after a series of explosive stories in The Wall Street Journal exposed serious flaws in its technology and spurred regulatory investigations that shut down the testing. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)

By Sara Ashley O'Brien, CNN Business  Tue. Sept. 28,2021

Adam Rosendorff, who joined Theranos in April 2013 after applying for a lab director job on LinkedIn, testified that he joined the company thinking it "was going to be the next Apple." But he departed in November 2014, even as the company's profile was rising, after growing uncomfortable with its apparent priorities.

"I felt pressured to vouch for tests that I did not have confidence in. I came to believe that the company believed more about PR and fundraising than about patient care," he testified Friday, speaking to preparations ahead of the launch with Walgreens, which has been central to the prosecution's case so far. "The platform was not allowing me to function effectively as a lab director."

After leaving the company, Rosendorff testified Tuesday, he spoke to a lawyer and then spoke off the record with Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou. When asked by assistant US Attorney John Bostic why he decided to speak to Carreyrou, Rosendorff said, "even months after I left the company, I felt obligated from a moral and ethical perspective to alert the public. I didn't quite know how I should do that, but when this opportunity presented itself, I took advantage of it."

Carreyrou's investigative reporting uncovered significant flaws in the company's technology and capabilities that contradicted claims made by Holmes and Theranos. His work prompted broader scrutiny into the company, which led to its eventual demise.

After the court room revelation, Carreyrou tweeted: "Adam was my first and most important source. Without him, I wouldn't have been able to break the Theranos story. Hats off to his courage and integrity. He's one of the real heroes of this story."

Rosendorff's significance as a witness is evidenced by how long he's been on the stand. He was questioned for roughly five hours by Bostic on Friday and again for nearly two hours Tuesday before Lance Wade, an attorney for Holmes, began his cross examination, which is set to continue Wednesday in the San Jose federal courtroom where the trial is underway.

Attorneys for Holmes have previously argued that the accuracy and reliability of the company's tests were not her responsibility, but rather the legal responsibility fell to those running the lab -- a fact that appeared to have worried Rosendorff while at Theranos. He testified to Bostic that prior to leaving, he asked to have his name taken off the clinical lab as its director so that "in the eyes of the state and the federal government, I would not be the person responsible for the laboratory."

Wade pulled on this thread of responsibility throughout his questioning, asking Rosendorff whether Holmes was qualified for various lab positions (she was not) in an effort to distance her from the lab's inner workings to jurors. Wade also asked Rosendorff to confirm his obligations as lab director and to confirm that he knew he could lose his ability to serve as a lab director if he did not follow those obligations.

"Yes, I endeavored earnestly to fulfill the laboratory director obligations. I faced constraints and pushback from management," Rosendorff said.


Unreliable results before a Walgreens launch

Rosendorff, who left his lab director job at the University of Pittsburgh Children's Hospital to work at Theranos, said he became lab director in the middle of 2013 after applying for his California medical license, and that a co-lab director, Mark Pandori, was hired in early 2014. (Pandori is also listed among the government's possible witnesses.) Rosendorff said he reported into Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani — Theranos' then-chief operating officer who was also Holmes' boyfriend. Rosendorff testified that Holmes was above Balwani in the executive ranks.

Balwani and Holmes are both facing a dozen counts of federal fraud and conspiracy charges over allegations they knowingly misled investors, patients, and doctors about the capabilities of Theranos' proprietary blood testing technology. Balwani and Holmes have both pleaded not guilty and face up to 20 years in prison. They're being tried separately, with Balwani's trial set to begin early next year.

Rosendorff was questioned by Wade about whether Holmes or Balwani ever told him to report an inaccurate test result, to which he indicated they had not. But, Rosendorff said at times his direction that certain tests to be run on FDA-approved devices rather than Theranos' technology were ignored.

Rosendorff, during Friday's testimony, called the events leading up to the commercial launch of Theranos' testing with Walgreens "extremely rushed and hurried."

He said Holmes and Balwani set the schedule for validating tests ahead of the commercial rollout — not him. Just days before the launch, Rosendorff sent an email to Holmes and Theranos vice president Daniel Young, which Rosendorff testified was an attempt at "raising the alarm bells" about tests he didn't feel were ready for launch, as well as said he was raising "concerns about staffing and training." According to the email, he had asked for "a few more weeks" to sort through some of the concerns, which would mean delaying the launch.

Rosendorff said he addressed the email to Holmes and had a conversation with her in her office, where she had "papers stuck on to the window with a number on it, which indicated the number of days until launch."

"I told her that the potassium was unreliable, the sodium was unreliable, the glucose was unreliable, [and] explained why," Rosendorff testified. (Theranos promised patients the ability to test for conditions like cancer and diabetes with just a few drops of blood.)

"She was very nervous. She was not her usual composed self. She was trembling a bit, her knee was tapping, her voice was breaking up. She was clearly upset," he continued. He said she responded that they could use conventional FDA-approved devices rather than Theranos' devices as needed.

Nine days before the launch, none of Theranos' tests that it had intended to launch had been validated for patient care, according to an email from a research and development scientist that was presented during Rosendorff's testimony Friday. (When pressed by Wade on this launch, Rosendorff clarified that it was a soft launch open to friends and family, not the general public.)


"I wanted to protect myself"

Rosendorff, despite being lab director, was also notably left off some emails that discussed concerning Theranos test results. He testified that he felt he "absolutely" should have been included on them; Holmes and Balwani, however, were looped in on the emails. Echoing testimonies from earlier former Theranos employees, Rosendorff also said he was troubled by the lack of protocol for deleting certain data points to pass quality control as well as the high rates of failure when it came to quality control of tests.

Rosendorff said that he directed the company to cease testing for hCG, the hormone commonly used to detect whether a woman is pregnant, on its proprietary blood testing machine due to inconsistent results and instead use a third-party device. (The first patient witness to take the stand was a woman who took this test; it indicated she may be miscarrying when her pregnancy was fine.) Rosendorff testified that the company didn't follow his directive.

Like former Theranos scientist Surekha Gangakhedkar, who said she printed out documents pertaining to her work, Rosendorff testified that he began forwarding emails "with issues of concern" to his Gmail account. "I wasn't confident that Theranos would preserve these emails in the event of a [Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services] or government investigation. I wanted to protect myself." (Like Gangakhedkar, Rosendorff had signed a non-disclosure agreement but felt the risk of violating that was outweighed by self-protection in the case of an investigation.)

SEE THEY CAN PAY MORE TAXES

USA
88% of Affluent Households Donated in 2020, New Study Says

DONATIONS ARE A TAX BREAK

Wed., September 29, 2021

In a year beset with a global pandemic and other crises, the vast majority of wealthy households — 88% — gave to charity in 2020, according to a study from Bank of America and the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.

“There was a high level of commitment to charitable giving that was maintained during these very difficult times,” says Una Osili, associate dean for research and international programs at the Lilly School. “Affluent households remained generous and consistent in their giving.”

The study is based on a survey of 1,626 households with a net worth of $1 million or more, excluding the value of their primary home, or an annual household income of $200,000 or more. The median income of survey participants was $350,000, and the median wealth level was $2 million.

Most affluent donors responded to the pandemic with unrestricted gifts that allowed organizations to spend the money on whatever leaders thought was most important. Roughly three-quarters reported that their contributions to health-related nonprofits and higher education were unrestricted, and more than 83% said they gave unrestricted donations to arts and culture groups.

Philanthropy advisers have been working for years to get rich donors to see the logic of giving more unrestricted gifts, says Dianne Chipps Bailey, who as managing director of Bank of America’s Philanthropic Solutions division advises both wealthy donors and nonprofits. She thinks the crises of 2020 helped donors better grasp the importance of giving unrestricted donations and releasing restrictions on previous gifts.

“The pandemic exposed the uncertainty in our world in a very dramatic way and showed that giving unrestricted gifts can really empower nonprofit leaders to direct that money to what is most needed,” Bailey says.

Nearly 75% of affluent donors said they did not expect the pandemic to change their giving behavior. A little more than 5% said their future giving would be “less restrictive,” and almost 20% reported it would be more directed to specific issues.

In 2020, 57% of affluent households gave to nonprofits that provide for basic needs, and nearly 47% gave to religious organizations. Roughly one-third reported giving to health groups, and 36% gave to education.

One issue that gained significance among rich households in 2020 was social and racial justice. Nearly 9% of wealthy households said social and racial justice is important to them; in 2017, that figure was 5.8%. Roughly 11% of respondents said they gave to Black causes or organizations in 2020 compared with 6.5% in 2017.

Nearly 25% of rich households reported giving to social and racial-justice causes last year, and 19% said they wanted to become more knowledgeable about supporting such groups. Osili says researchers will need to track the data over time but that she hopes those numbers signal that philanthropy can play a meaningful role in building a more equitable world.

“Given the commitment in this area that we see from foundations and corporations, having individual donors at the table will help sustain it and make sure it doesn’t just disappear after a certain time,” Osili says.

The pandemic has caused many affluent donors to slow down and open their eyes to the “world of hurt” that racial and social injustices have caused, says Danielle Oristian York, executive director at 21/64 and an expert on multigenerational and next-generation philanthropy.

She says many wealthy people are now figuring out how to take what they have learned and use their wealth to start helping solve more of those problems. Her organization hosted a workshop to help affluent people put wealth and privilege to work for good.

“It’s an issue that many people struggle with now more than ever, and it isn’t a navel-gazing sort of experience of ‘poor me, I’m a wealthy person,’” Oristian York says. “It’s really about how do people understand their privilege and do something with it? How do you think about it and connect it to purpose?”

More wealthy donors shifted from organization-based giving to issues-based giving last year, meaning they were more likely to give to a charity that works on a cause they care about than give to a charity simply because they have supported it in the past.

Forty-five percent reported that they gave last year because of their affinity to an organization or because they had given to it year after year. That’s down from 54% in 2017. What’s more, 55% of rich donors age 40 or younger were significantly more likely to say that issues drove their giving decisions, compared with 40% of wealthy donors over age 40. Meanwhile, 48% of the older donors said nonprofit organizations drove their giving decisions, compared with 34% of the younger ones.

“For younger or next-gen donors, they start with issues they’re most interested in and then they give to organizations working in those areas rather than giving to the same organizations over and over again,” Osili says. “What that means for organizations is when they connect with donors, it has to be more about understanding what issues are most important to that donor and then tailoring the engagement around that.”

Thanks to the internet, information about giving and nonprofits is more readily available to donors than it was 20 years ago, Oristian York says. Donors today can learn more and then use their own sensibilities and values to evaluate nonprofits’ work, whereas in the past they had to rely on organizations to provide that information, she says.

“Good decisions are informed by our values, not necessarily what’s popular or what somebody else is doing, so young people who are in the thick of figuring out who they are, they are developing what we call their philanthropic identity,” Oristian York says. “If they are beginning to sit at funding tables with family members, values are a way to come together and figure out how to align rather than to sit separately with issues.”

Nearly 80% of wealthy households’ charitable giving in 2020 came directly from their personal assets and income. About 20% reported giving through charitable trusts, donor-advised funds, family foundations, or other giving vehicles, and some increased their use of those vehicles over previous years.

The most popular giving vehicle among respondents was a will with specific charitable provisions. Almost 17% of respondents said they had one, and 8% said they gave through a qualified charitable distribution from an Individual Retirement Account, the second most popular giving vehicle.

Giving through an IRA is efficient — and it’s only going to grow in popularity because of the tax benefit it provides, Bailey says. She says IRAs and other giving vehicles are “where the real wealth is and where the real opportunity for transformational giving lies,” so nonprofits should keep that in mind when seeking gifts from major donors.

___

This article was provided to The Associated Press by the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Maria Di Mento is a senior reporter at the Chronicle. Email: maria.dimento@philanthropy.com. The AP and the Chronicle receive support from the Lilly Endowment for coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits. The AP and the Chronicle are solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

Maria Di Mento Of The Chronicle Of Philanthropy, The Associated Press

Encourage wealthy and well-connected to use their influence to tackle climate change - study

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

A paper published today in the journal Nature Energy identifies five ways that people of high socioeconomic status have a disproportionate impact on global greenhouse gas emissions - and therefore an outsized responsibility to facilitate progress in climate change mitigation.

In their roles as consumers, investors, role models, organisational participants, and citizens, people in this group can help shape the choices available to themselves and others, providing options that either exacerbate or mitigate climate change.

Most research into how we can reduce our climate impact has focused on changing the consumer behaviour of the masses - recycling and switching off lights at home, for example. The authors say that the focus must shift to finding ways of motivating people of high socioeconomic status to change many kinds of behaviours, because what they do can have a much greater impact on carbon emissions.

The study defines high socioeconomic status as a person’s position in the structure of society, including not only their wealth and income, but also their ‘social resources’, which include social class, occupation, and social network. It encompasses a much broader spectrum of people than just the super-rich, including everyone with an annual income of US $109,000 and above.

“High socioeconomic status people aren’t just those with more money, but those with stronger social networks. Their connections can enable them to influence behaviours and policies to help mitigate climate change – and we need to find ways to encourage them to do this,” said Dr Kristian Nielsen, a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Psychology, first author of the paper.

He added: “By saying it’s only the super-rich that need to change their behaviour, we ignore the power that others have to help tackle climate change though their influence.”

The climate impact of air travel is now well known, but over 50% of greenhouse gas emissions from flying are caused by just 1% of the world’s population. The study highlights the need to change social norms associated with frequent flying - usually by people of high socio-economic status - but also to look beyond their role as consumers.

“People of higher socioeconomic status could also act as role models, making more climate-friendly choices that influence others – for example driving electric cars or eating a vegan diet. You don’t need a massive income to be a role model, you just need to be well-connected,” said Nielsen.

Investments also provide an opportunity for those of higher socioeconomic status to mitigate climate change. Although attention has focused on shifting the investment of large pension funds away from fossil fuel companies, the researchers say that the investment portfolios of individuals - particularly those with immense wealth - can also have a very significant influence.

In addition, high socioeconomic status individuals - whether owners or employees - can help to mitigate climate change through their organisations, for example by changing suppliers, business culture and investments.  

And as citizens, people of high socioeconomic status have the networks to help them organise social movements, and better access politicians and decision-makers. Their financial resources also help: making donations helps smooth the path to advancing social change.

“Our study focused on people of high socioeconomic status because they have generated many of the problems of fossil fuel dependence and associated climate change, which affect the rest of humanity. And they are also well positioned to do something about it,” said Nielsen.

He added: “When certain people change their behaviour for the good of the climate it can have spill-over effects that go way beyond the effects of the average person, and lead to systemic change.”

This research was funded by the Carlsberg Foundation.

---

JOURNAL

Nature Energy

DOI

10.1038/s41560-021-00900-y 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Meta-analysis

ARTICLE TITLE

‘High socioeconomic status people are key to locking in or rapidly reducing energy-driven greenhouse gas emissions

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

30-Sep-2021

Former Pepsi CEO: We need to address the U.S. child care cost crisis

DOES PEPSI PROVIDE PAID FOR CHILDCARE FOR IT'S EMPLOYEES

Brian Sozzi
·Anchor, Editor-at-Large
Wed., September 29, 2021

VIDEO INTERVIEW  Former Pepsi CEO: We need to address the U.S. child care cost crisis (yahoo.com)

Now that Indra Nooyi has finally had a couple minutes to come up for air after an intense climb up the corporate ladder that led to her leading the storied snacks and beverage giant PepsiCo as chairman and CEO for 12 years (and retiring in 2019), Nooyi is reiterating one of the biggest problems a society still gripped by a health pandemic faces moving forward.

The cost of child care is out of control (and has been long before the pandemic), and is pushing many women out of the workforce as they try to balance the dual challenges of home schooling and working from home.

"Organized child care is going to bring more of the people who left the workforce back to the workforce, and they all tend to be predominantly women. And the biggest crisis we have today is the cost of care is too high when it's available, most of the time it's not available. And even when it is, the quality of the care is not good enough," Nooyi told Yahoo Finance, following the release of her new memoir "My Life in Full."

Added Nooyi, "We have to address this on an urgent basis because we have an acute labor shortage. And a lot of that labor shortage is not shortage of people, it's a shortage of people who can come to work because they don't have an alternative."

The harmful effects on the female workforce due to the pandemic are starting to worsen, as detailed in a new study called "Women in the Workplace" by McKinsey & Company.

One in three women told McKinsey they have considered downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce this year. Early on in the pandemic, one in four were considering such a change. Moreover, four in 10 women have considered leaving their employer or switching jobs.

"The pandemic continues to take a toll on employees, and especially women. Women are even more burned out than they were a year ago, and burnout is escalating much faster among women than men," the report says.

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 12: Indra Nooyi, Pepsico speaks on stage during Watermark Conference For Women 2020 at San Jose Convention Center on February 12, 2020 in San Jose, California.

 Photo by Marla Aufmuth/Getty Images for Watermark Conference for Women

One may look at Nooyi's impressive career on paper and think she doesn't truly know about the need for better child care in the country. But that couldn't be further from the truth.

Nooyi is one of the most distinguished corporate leaders of the past 25 years. But the road to reach the peak of her corporate career — chairman and CEO of PepsiCo — wasn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination.

In her new memoir, Nooyi recalls her childhood growing up in Madras, India (now Chennai). While Nooyi was always encouraged by her parents to seek out higher education, learning and to pursue her dreams, the social norm in India was the man of the household earns and the woman attends to family and home.

Nooyi chose a different path, however, in large part because of her own inner drive to succeed.

In 1978, Nooyi was admitted to Yale School of Management (which she attended via scholarship and school loans) and moved to the U.S. with only $450 to her name and no family in the country. It’s there where Nooyi’s strategic mind was shaped, leading her to become a sought-after candidate from several leading organizations. Yale is also where she met her husband of 42 years, Raj Nooyi.

Her early career had a focus on corporate strategy, including stints at Booz Allen, Boston Consulting Group, Motorola and ABB. Nooyi became a first-time mother to Preetha in 1984, and explains in the memoir the challenges of juggling work and motherhood in those early days. Most days Nooyi barely slept, working until 2 a.m., if not longer.
After Pepsi, Nooyi to continue 'progressing women in the workplace'

Nooyi is quick to say she is thankful for the support structure of friends of family, which allowed her to continue to charge hard in her work.

"I come back and say, yes, I was lucky. I had multigenerational family's support and neighbors and friends. I mean, I cultivated all of them. They just didn't fall on me, I cultivated all of them. And whatever stresses and strains go with multigenerational living, I was OK with it. It's just something we had to cope with. I think in today's world, we have to create those family structures either through community networks or through organized care support structures," says Nooyi.

Nooyi’s second daughter Tara was born in December 1992. By March 30, 1994, Nooyi was entering PepsiCo’s Purchase, N.Y., headquarters for her first day on the job as a strategy leader. She recalls there not being one female CEO leading a Fortune 500 company at the time.

The rising star wasted no time making a big impact. It was her detailed, strategy work that led to the decision to spin off PepsiCo’s restaurant operations in 1997 that consisted of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. Today, that spin-off is known as the publicly traded Yum! Brands.

Nooyi wasn’t done shaping the modern day PepsiCo, not by a long shot.

In 1998, she led the spin-off of PepsiCo’s bottling group (and then bought it back as CEO in 2009). She also led the $3.3 billion purchase of Tropicana the same year.

In 2001, Nooyi found herself the lead negotiator in PepsiCo’s $13.4 billion acquisition of Quaker Foods (which included the real prize in the deal, Gatorade). By 2001, her dedication found her leading PepsiCo financials as CFO and having a major voice in other matters as a board member.

Nooyi went on to be named as president and CEO on October 1, 2006. Through her 12 years as CEO, Nooyi pushed PepsiCo deeper into healthier snacks and sought to introduce drinks with lower (or no) sugar counts. The company’s sales and profits rose steadily. PepsiCo's total shareholder return under Nooyi tallied 149% compared to 128% for the S&P 500. Along the way, she also successfully fended off two activist investor attacks (by the late Ralph Whitworth and more recently, Nelson Peltz).

Today, Nooyi tells Yahoo Finance she misses the people of PepsiCo but not necessarily the always intense job of CEO. She says taking another CEO job or role in government (the latter in which has long been rumored) is not in her plans.

"I think I'm just enjoying all the different things I'm doing. I've got this moonshot I want to take on, which is to bring together all the people who are working on the support of young families — not just females— support of young family builders, and progressing women in the workplace," says Nooyi. "And I'd rather work with them to move this agenda forward because so many women and young family builders ask me this question about how do we do it, how do we advance? And I think it's time that people like us who are in seats of power and who can now convene and talk about these issues and move academic research into action, we ought to do that. So that's what I want to do the next few years. And I'm going to have a purposeful and fulfilling time doing that."

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. 

Climate activist Nakate seeks immediate action in Glasgow

Wed., September 29, 2021,



MILAN (AP) — Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate said Wednesday that youth delegates meeting in Milan want to see immediate action from leaders at the U.N. climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland — not cheap, last-ditch grasps at supporting polluting fuels before getting down to business.

Nakate is among 400 activists invited to Italy’s financial capital for a three-day Youth4Climate meeting that will draft a document for the 26th Climate Change Conference of the Parties, which opens on Oct. 31.

“If leaders and governments are going to talk about net zeroes or cutting emissions, halving emissions by 2030 or 2040 or 2050, that means it has to start now,″ Nakate told The Associated Press.

”It doesn’t mean, if we are going to do it by 2030, between now and 2030 let’s open a coal power plant, you know, let’s frack some gas, or let us construct an oil pipeline. That is not the real climate action that we want,'' she said. “”If you are to go net zero by 2030, it has to start now.''

Although the activists have traveled to Milan from 180 countries, Nakate said many have the feeling that their suggestions for the closing document that will be published Thursday are not welcome. She said the dynamic was “concerning.”

“It really feels like everything has been decided for us,'' Nakate, a 24-year-old with a degree in business administration. Swedish activist Greta Thunberg similarly accused the organizers on Tuesday of bringing in “cherry-picked” delegates and pretending to listen.

But she said young people were speaking up, and had created their own working group on fossil fuels.

"Hopefully it's something they can accept,'' she said.

Nakate gave an emotional opening speech to the gathering on Tuesday, calling out leaders for failing to meet financial pledges and describing the devastating impact of climate change at home in Uganda. While she said she was overwhelmed by the support she has received after her speech, she rejected the media's tendency to dub leaders of the movement.

“It's how people portray the climate movement,'' Nakate said. "It is not just one face or two faces. It's communities. It is people who are organizing in different countries. I think that is the true face of the climate movement. The people who are standing up for the planet and a better future.”

In 2020, Nakate was cropped out of an Associated Press photo at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The AP apologized and acknowledged mistakes in how it initially responded.

Pope Francis on Wednesday praised young environmental activists for challenging global leaders to make good on promises to curb emissions and insisted that political leaders make wise decisions to promote “a culture of responsible sharing.”

Francis thanked the activists for their “dreams and good projects” and encouraged them to form an educational alliance to help “rebuild the fabric” of humanity through care for the planet.

“This vision is capable of challenging the adult world, for it reveals that you are prepared not only for action, but also for patient listening, constructive dialogue and mutual understanding,” he said.

Francis has made care for “our common home" of the Earth a hallmark of his papacy and devoted an entire encyclical to the issue in 2015. The Scottish bishops conference has said it expects Francis to attend the Glasgow climate summit, though the Vatican hasn’t yet confirmed his presence.

“It is time to take wise decisions so that we can make use of the many experiences gained in recent years, in order to make possible a culture of care, a culture of responsible sharing,” Francis said in the message.

___

Follow all AP stories on climate change at https://apnews.com/hub/Climate-change

Charlene Pele, The Associated Press

KENNEY WASTES OUR TAX $$$

Alberta energy 'war room' launches Times Square ad, expert questions campaign

Tue., September 28, 2021,

Alberta's energy 'war room' has started an ad campaign that includes billboards in Times Square in New York City. (Submitted by the Canadian Energy Centre - image credit)

Alberta's Canadian Energy Centre has launched an ad campaign in Times Square to promote the country's oil and gas industry in the United States.

The initiative from the province's so-called energy "war room" is spending $240,000 to push Canada's sector as the solution to "cleaner energy and lower gas prices," according to its website.

The centre operates as a private corporation, created by the United Conservative Party government, to promote Alberta energy. It has been beleaguered with branding and messaging problems since its launch.

"We're right here next door. And we're cleaner. We're closer and we're committed to net zero. So turn your eyes our way," CEO Tom Olsen told CBC News.

"We think we should meet the demand for energy that the United States needs over and above what they produce domestically. And frankly, for the rest of the world."

The video billboards in New York City feature maple leaves pouring from a gas pump nozzle with the caption "Choose Friendly Oil." About 96 per cent of Canada's oil and gas exports go to the U.S., according to Natural Resources Canada.

And the centre is asking Americans to write to the Joe Biden administration urging the U.S. government to lean on cleaner Canadian energy instead of requesting more production from Russia and OPEC countries like Saudi Arabia — as surging U.S. gas prices recently reached a seven-year high.

UCP'S WAR ROOM FOUND THE  CHARITY IN ALBERTA GETTING THE MOST AMERICAN FUNDING FOR THE ENVIRONMENT WAS DUCKS UNLIMITED      

DON BRAID, CALGARY HERALD

But one expert says it's disingenuous to call the Canadian industry clean.

"You can read their statement of saying oilsands have gotten cleaner, but the oilsands barrels themselves relative to a global average are still pretty emissions intensive. So there's not really a good way to reconcile what they're saying at Times Square with what we know from the data," said Andrew Leach, an energy and environmental economist at the University of Alberta.

"All of our data says that the average Canadian barrel is getting more emissions intensive."

Canada's emissions have increased by more than 21 per cent between 1990 and 2019, largely driven by oil and gas extraction, according to the federal government. While GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions per barrel from the oilsands have fallen 36 per cent since 2000, Alberta's emissions of carbon dioxide equivalent increased by 61 per cent between 1990 and 2019.

"I would pit Canada's industry against Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Russia any day of the week," Olsen said.

Leach says that assertion ignores global comparisons.

"It's pretty hard to argue that the average Canadian barrel has gotten cleaner over time. Even though some of the oilsands barrels, in general, have gotten a little bit better, just by the fact that they're becoming more and more of our overall picture, our overall picture is getting worse."

A money-maker and a net zero pledge

The country's five biggest oilsands producers have vowed to combine forces, money and technology to reduce emissions in one of the most carbon-intensive jurisdictions in the world. The alliance includes Canadian Natural Resources, Cenovus Energy, Imperial Oil, MEG Energy and Suncor Energy, which together operate 90 per cent of the country's oilsands production.

Meanwhile, Canada's second largest pension plan, Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, has announced it will divest from oil and gas, shedding $3.9 billion in production assets by the end of 2022.

Energy accounted for more than 10 per cent of Canada's nominal GDP in 2019, according to Natural Resources Canada. Oil, natural gas and petroleum products remain Canada's top export by value, at more than $112.6 billion in 2019, per industry statistics.

Canada has committed to reaching net zero emissions by 2050. The recently re-elected Liberal Party ran on a pledge to kill federal subsidies for the oil and gas sector by 2023.

The ad campaign is running two billboards in Times Square for a month, another along New York's Grand Central Parkway for two weeks and three outside the sports arena in Washington, D.C., for two weeks. The energy centre will measure success through website hits, media stories and the number of advocacy letters sent, Olsen said, but he did not provide a specific target number.

"The audience for these ads isn't in Times Square. The audience for these ads is in Edmonton and Calgary," Leach said.

The war room operates with a $12-million budget, reduced from $30 million during the COVID-19 pandemic.

RCMP costs hammering small towns in Alberta

Tue., September 28, 2021, 

The town of Rimbey didn’t have to pay for RCMP services until 2020 and now the cost to have RCMP in the community will result in the equivalent of a 10-per-cent property-tax increase annually, starting in a few years.

With a population of 2,567 — under the 5,000 population limit which excludes them from having to pay for RCMP services — the community has received their policing funds from the province and the federal government.

But in 2020 that all changed, and suddenly the town had to pay around $85,000 in the first year, which will increase to $100,000 next year, and by the end of the five-year plan the town will have to pay $200,000 per year for their policing costs.

Mayor Rick Pankiw said the changes to the policing funding model are deeply impacting small towns like his and the downloading of the costs onto these small communities is causing huge financial burdens for governments that can’t run a deficit.

“I was dumbfounded, to be quite honest with you,” Pankiw said, adding he had no real say in the matter and is just being handed a bill to pay for the service.

In Rimbey, to raise $23,000 in property taxes, the town has to increase its property taxes by one per cent and come up with the $200,000 needed in year five, which could result in a 10-per-cent property-tax increase for that year just to pay for policing.

Rimbey is not alone in facing increased RCMP expenses.

“It's the small municipalities under 5,000 who are getting absolutely hammered with RCMP costs for the next five years,” Pankiw said.

This year, after five years of negotiations, the federal government and RCMP reached a deal which would see the salaries of the police force, which has one of the lowest pay scales across the country, be raised. The deal included retroactive pay increases for the staff.

But the cost of the RCMP, which is the force which polices the province outside of major urban communities, is split between the federal, provincial, and municipal governments, leaving municipal governments footing a large bill from a deal they didn’t make.

The Alberta Urban Municipalities Association is estimating municipalities will pay a cumulative $80 million in retroactive pay, while larger municipalities will pay a total of $60 million, as the maximum salary for a constable is going up from $86,000 to $106,000.

Barry Morishita, mayor of Brooks and former president of AUMA, said the retroactive pay would cost Brooks $700,000 in one-time back pay, which is the equivalent of a tax increase of five-and-a-half per cent.

“Now we've got plans to deal with that we should be we should be OK to deal with that, but it's still money that would be used elsewhere ... and I know obviously the more members you have, the more money, it is,” Morishita said.

In recent years, many municipalities have seen cuts to the grants they use in place of taxes the provincial government pays in lieu of property taxes on their buildings; a larger share of provincial fine revenue removed; increasing regulation costs for wastewater services; downloaded costs of forensic lab work; and most recently a cut to provincial support for disposing of hazardous waste in communities.

Dr. Enid Slack of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, who is an expert in municipal finance, said as new services are needed, governments must start rethinking who is providing those services to their residents. One of the ways this has been achieved in the past is a service swap, where municipalities and other orders of government decide who should be delivering what services to the public.

Things such as climate change, pandemics, immigration resettlement, housing, and income inequality have started to pile onto the expenditure side of the budget for municipalities, but there is no change in how they can collect revenue to pay for these services.

"You have to rethink what should municipalities be doing and should be they be paying for all these services on a property tax," said Slack.

"The nature of what they're doing is changing the nature of revenues has stayed the same," Slack said.

Jennifer Henderson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, St. Albert Gazette

NUKE USA

NextEra Seeks Approval to Run Another Nuclear Plant for 80 Years

Will Wade
Wed., September 29, 2021, 10:35 a.m.·1 min read

(Bloomberg) -- NextEra Energy Inc. is seeking permission to run its St. Lucie nuclear plant in Florida until it’s 80 years old, joining other U.S. power providers in a push to preserve the country’s biggest source of clean energy.

The company is asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to extend the licenses for the plant’s two reactors for another 20 years, according to a notice Wednesday. Unit 1 was initially licensed in 1976 and has permission to operate through 2036, and Unit 2 was approved in 1983 and can operate through 2043.

If approved, St. Lucie will be one of a growing number of U.S. nuclear plants set to run for eight decades, the oldest fleet in the world. As more states impose clean-energy mandates, carbon-free nuclear power is going to be a key part of the battle against climate change. Reactors supply about 20% of U.S. electricity and more than half of its clean power.

NextEra already has approval to operate its Turkey Point plant in Florida for 80 years. Dominion Energy Inc. and Exelon Corp. also plan to run some of their reactors until they reach that age, while Duke Energy Corp. in June said it expects to seek permission to do the same for its entire fleet of 11 reactors.