Pandora Papers: Secret tax havens of world leaders, celebrities revealed

Issued on: 03/10/2021 -

Jordan's King Abdullah II was among world leaders named to have amassed wealth in secret offshore assets, according to leaked "Pandora Papers" documents published October 3, 2021. 

AFP - BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI

Text by: FRANCE 24

More than a dozen heads of state and government, including the King of Jordan and the Czech prime minister, have amassed millions in secret offshore assets, according to an investigation published Sunday by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

The so-called "Pandora Papers" investigation investigation, involving some 600 journalists from dozens of media, is based on the leak of some 11.9 million documents from 14 financial services companies around the world.

“This leak is really Panama Papers on steroids,” said ICIJ Director Gerard Rye in a video clip tweeted Sunday referring to the 2016 leak from a Panama law firm and corporate service provider. “These documents, for the very first time, are actually showing the US as a tax haven itself,” added Rye.

The "Pandora Papers" are the latest in a series of mass ICIJ leaks of financial documents that started with LuxLeaks in 2014, and was followed by the Panama Papers, the Paradise Papers and FinCen.

The leaked documents reveal that Jordan’s King Abdullah II created at least 30 offshore companies in countries or territories with advantageous taxation through which he bought 14 luxury properties in the US and UK for more than $106 million.

The BBC cited lawyers for King Abdullah saying all the properties were bought with personal wealth, and that it was common practice for high profile individuals to purchase properties via offshore companies for privacy and security reasons.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis placed $22 million in shell companies that were used to finance the purchase of Chateau Bigaud, a large property in Mougins, southern France, according to the documents.

The secret documents also expose offshore dealings of the presidents of Ukraine, Kenya and Ecuador, and former British prime minister, Tony Blair. The files also detail financial activities of Russian billionaires close to President Vladimir Putin in addition to more than 100 billionaires from the US, Turkey and other nations.

In total, the ICIJ found links between almost 1,000 companies in offshore havens and 336 high-level politicians and public officials, including country leaders, cabinet ministers, ambassadors and others.

More than two-thirds of the companies were set up in the British Virgin Islands.

In most countries, the ICIJ stresses, it is not illegal to have assets offshore or to use shell companies to do business across national borders.

Leaders who have campaigned against corruption

But such revelations are no less of an embarrassment for leaders who may have campaigned publicly against corruption, or advocated austerity measures at home.

Among the other revelations from the ICIJ investigation:
Family and associates of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev are alleged to have been secretly involved in property deals in Britain worth hundreds of millions.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and six family members are alleged to secretly own a network of offshore companies.
Members of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's inner circle, including cabinet ministers and their families, are said to secretly own companies and trusts holding millions of dollars.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is not directly named in the files, but he is linked via associates to secret assets in Monaco.

The documents behind the latest investigation are drawn from financial services companies in countries including the British Virgin Islands, Panama, Belize, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Switzerland.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Millions of leaked documents reveal the financial secrets of how world leaders, billionaires and celebrities use tax havens.

 Tony Blair, Ukraine's Zelenskyy and Shakira are among those named.



The ICIJ's Pandora Papers open up the box on 11.9 million leaked documents

The Pandora Papers investigation has revealed that 35 current and former world leaders — including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the king of Jordan and Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta — as well as powerful billionaires were affiliated with companies that use offshore tax havens.

Offshore accounts are often used to secretly manage and move large sums of money to hide a person's true wealth.

The investigation, carried out by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and a team of 150 news outlets — including DW's Turkish service — also found that more than 330 high-level politicians and public officials worldwide have ties to offshore accounts.

The millions of leaked documents examined by the biggest journalism partnership in history show the extent to which secretive offshore operations are entangled in global finance politics.

The finance ministers of Pakistan, the Netherlands and Brazil all have ties to offshore companies, as do former finance ministers of Malta and France — including ex-International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is one leading figure mentioned in the investigation

According to ICIJ, the Pandora Papers show that the power players who could help bring an end to the offshore system are instead benefiting from it — stashing assets in covert companies and trusts while their governments do little to slow a global stream of illicit money that enriches criminals and impoverishes nations.

Blair to Babis: Europe's elite uncovered

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has spoken out against tax avoidance for decades, but the leaks reveal he and his wife were able to own an $8.8 million (€7.6 million) building when they bought an offshore real estate company from the family of Bahrain's industry and tourism minister, Zayed bin Rashid al-Zayani.

By purchasing the company shares — and not the building directly — Blair and his wife Cherie were able to avoid having to pay property taxes totaling $400,000.

Both the Blairs and the al-Zayanis said they did not initially know about each other's involvement in the deal. Cherie Blair said her husband was not involved in the transaction. The company is now closed.

The Czech Republic's Prime Minister Andrej Babis had pledged to clamp down on corruption

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, a billionaire who rose to power in 2017 with the promise to crack down on corruption, is also named in the Pandora Papers.

The leaked records show that in 2009, Babis injected $22 million into a string of shell companies to buy a mansion with two swimming pools and a cinema on a hilltop village in the French Riviera, near Cannes. Investigace.cz found that the ownership of the shell companies and homes was not listed in the asset declarations he filed.

Babis did not respond to requests for comment.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy owned a stake in a shell company

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also owned a stake in a shell company registered in the British Virgin Islands. A month before his presidential election win in April 2019, the actor-turned-politician quietly sold off his Maltex Multicapital Corp shares as a beneficial owner — a person who has the power to influence stock transactions — to Serhiy Shefir, a close friend and business partner.

A document from June 2019 shows that Shefir, a top presidential aide who survived an assassination attempt in September, retained his stake in Maltex Multicapital Corp after he joined Zelenskyy's administration.

Shefir and Zelenskyy did not respond to ICIJ partners' repeated requests for comment.
Kenyatta's conundrum

President Kenyatta, who hails from one of Kenya's best-known political dynasties, had campaigned on an anti-corruption platform and urged transparency in politics. But leaked records show that Kenyatta and his mother are beneficiaries of a secretive foundation in Panama.

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta has urged transparency but is implicated himself

Other family members, including three siblings, own five offshore companies with assets worth more than $30 million, according to the records.

Kenyatta and his family did not reply to ICIJ's requests for comment.

Arab royalty: Heavy lies the crown

The Pandora Papers uncover the true owners of more than 29,000 offshore companies. Some of these companies are used to hide incognito bank accounts, private jets, yachts, mansions, and artworks by the likes of Picasso and Banksy.

King Abdullah II of Jordan bought three beachfront mansions for a total of $68 million in Malibu through offshore companies amid the Arab Spring, when Jordanians filled the streets to protest against corruption and unemployment.

The king’s lawyers in a statement emphasized that the monarch did not misuse any public money. They categorically denied any improper ownership of property through offshore companies.

The secret documents have also unmasked Morocco's Princess Lalla Hasnaa as the owner of a shell company that bought an $11 million home in upscale London, near Kensington Palace. Hasnaa made the purchase using funds from the "Moroccan Royal Family," according to the leaked documents, which listed her occupation as "Princess." She did not respond to questions sent by ICIJ's media partner, Le Desk, to the Royal Palace.

Princess Lalla Hasnaa of Morocco owns a shell company

Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and emir of Dubai, was a shareholder of three companies registered in secrecy jurisdictions.

The emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, continues to use offshore companies to make investments, manage his wealth and safeguard it for his family's benefit. The Panama Papers had already revealed that his $300 million super-yacht was managed by offshore companies.

Pop and sports stars

Colombian singer Shakira and former cricket superstar Sachin Tendulkar from India are just some of the other names linked to offshore assets.

Shakira's lawyer said her offshore accounts were declared and that they did not provide any tax advantages.

Tendulkar's attorney said the cricket player's investment is legitimate and has been declared to tax authorities.

Pop singer Shakira is linked with offshore assets

Over 130 billionaires exposed

Populist Czech leader Babis isn't the only billionaire outed: More than 130 others from Turkey, Russia, India, the US, Mexico and other nations have ties to offshore accounts.

Turkish billionaire and construction tycoon Erman Ilicak had ties to two offshore companies — both of which were listed in the name of his mother in 2014. Both held assets from the family's construction conglomerate.

One of them, Covar Trading Ltd., earned $105.5 million in income from dividends during its first full year of operations, according to confidential financial statements. The money was stashed in a Swiss account.

It didn't stay long.

That same year, the statements show, the company paid almost the entire $105.5 million as a "donation" listed under "extraordinary expenses." The statements do not describe who or what received the money.

By the time of publication, Ilicak did not respond to ICIJ's requests for comment.

The Turkish mogul's company, Rönesans Holding, was responsible for building the much-talked-about 1,150-room presidential palace for his country's leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Erman Ilicak's company was responsible for building Turkey's new Presidential Palace

DW Turkish is the only Turkish-language news outlet that took part in the Pandora Papers investigation, as an ongoing crackdown on independent newsrooms and journalists in the country persists.

Why tax havens are problematic

Here's how offshore companies work: For prices starting at just a few hundred dollars, providers can help clients set up an offshore company whose real owners remain confidential.

Alternatively, for a fee of $2,000 to $25,000, they can set up a trust that, in some instances, allows its beneficiaries to control their money while being not legally responsible for their actions. A bit of paper-shuffling and "creativity" help shield assets from creditors, law enforcement, tax collectors and ex-spouses.

Owning offshore companies and conducting financial transactions through these tax havens are perfectly legal in many countries— but the practice has come under scrutiny.

People who use these companies say they are needed to operate their businesses. Critics, however, say tax havens and offshore operations must be monitored more closely to fight corruption, money laundering and global inequality.

According to Gabriel Zucman, an expert on tax havens and associate professor of economics at the University of Berkeley in California, the equivalent of 10% of the world's total GDP is held in tax havens globally.

Watch video 02:23 What are the Pandora Papers?

Lakshmi Kumar, policy director at Global Financial Integrity, told ICIJ and affiliated news outlets that when the rich hide money through tax evasion, it has a direct impact on the lives of people.

"It affects your child's access to education, access to health, and access to a home," she said. How much money funnels to tax havens — and where?

Because of the complex and secretive nature of the offshore system, it's not possible to know the exact amount of wealth that is linked to tax evasion and other crimes and how much has been reported to authorities.

The total amount of money funneled from countries with higher tax rates into tax havens with significantly lower tax rates is unknown. However, according to a 2020 study by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), at least $11.3 trillion is held "offshore."

Tax havens are often perceived as in the sunny Caribbean, yet the Pandora Papers show that the offshore system operates all around the globe in places like Singapore, the Netherlands, Ireland, Hong Kong — and even some states in the US.

How was the leak obtained and verified?

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists obtained the trove of 11.9 million confidential files and led a team of more than 600 journalists from 150 news outlets that spent two years sifting through them, tracking down sources, and digging into court files and other public records from dozens of countries.

The leaked records come from 14 offshore services firms from around the world that set up shell companies and other offshore nooks for clients often seeking to keep their financial activities in the shadows.

The Pandora Papers are published five years after the landmark Panama Papers investigation, which took the world by storm in 2016. The revelations spawned police raids, lawmakers passed dozens of new laws across dozens of countries and led to the downfall of several top politicians — including the prime ministers of Iceland and Pakistan.

The ICIJ and media partners contributed to this report. The text was edited by DW's Stephanie Burnett.

The 33-year-old woman who left Taipei to become a shaman

No longer forced to assimilate, Taiwan’s Indigenous people are reconnecting with their culture.

Four pulingaw in Tjuvecekadan take part in a blessing ceremony

 [Joshua Wang/Al Jazeera]
By Erin Hale
1 Oct 2021

Pingtung county, Taiwan – On a hot weekend in late August, two women slowly lay out shaved pig’s bone and mulberry leaves on a living room table in preparation for a seasonal blessing for the house’s occupants.

Harvest festival has come to a close, and the pair – from the Indigenous Paiwan – have had a busy weekend visiting houses near the last stop on Taiwan’s western rail line.

While now inhabited by a mix of ethnicities, the mountains and plains of central Pingtung county were once controlled by the Paiwan, one of Taiwan’s 16 recognised Indigenous groups.

Many managed to remain in the mountains until they were relocated by the government in the 1960s, but while their new villages now have Chinese names, everyone knows how they correspond to their original mountain hamlets and which neighbours come from once competing tribes or buluo.

It is here in southernmost Taiwan that the two women, Paping Tjamalja and Kereker Recevungan, serve the communities as pulingaw, a position similar to a shaman or spirit medium that allows them to communicate with the spirits of nature and their Paiwan ancestors, their vuvu.

While they recite spells and songs for individual blessings, pulingaw are important figures in the traditional Paiwan hierarchy and are present at major events like festivals, births, deaths, naming ceremonies and weddings.

Kereker Recevungan, a 33-year-old Paiwan, decided to return home to become a shaman after a car accident [Supplied]

The handful of pulingaw left in this part of southern Taiwan are mostly elderly, but Kereker is just 33.

She has taken the unusual path of training as the area’s youngest pulingaw after spending more than a decade away in Taipei. Teaching at the local school on the side, she now spends most of her free time learning from other pulingaw.

“I have to remember lyrics to songs, I have to remember rituals and their meanings. Some words in the songs are very difficult and I have to ask my mother and my father, but even they don’t know the meaning (sometimes) so I have to ask my aunt,” who is another pulingaw, Kereker said.

“I think it’s more difficult for me to know the meaning of the rituals because I have lived in the city for so many years so I am not familiar with the culture,” she admits.

Kereker’s career path took a major shift following a car accident in 2018, when she began to consult with her aunt and participated in some traditional ceremonies to treat her lingering health problems.

It was around this time that she says she was visited by zagu, the spirits of ancestors that appear as small black balls around potential pulingaw. When she lost her job a year later, she knew it was time to go home.
Assimilation abandoned

Passing down Paiwan culture and even taking pride in it has not always been easy.

Assimilation into Chinese culture has been part of the authorities’ policy towards Indigenous people starting from the Japanese colonial era and into the Republic of China martial law period.

Christianity, which arrived in Taiwan 400 years ago and permeated deep into Indigenous culture, has at times portrayed traditional religion as close to devil worship.

At a gathering of three pulingaw a day earlier at the house of Selep Curimudjuq, a local chief of the Tjuvecekadan village community in Qijia, an elder pulingaw recalled how she was forced to wear a sign around her neck when she spoke Paiwan in school.

Kereker prepares for a blessing [Joshua Wang/Al Jazeera]

The Laiyi Indigenous Museum nearby has exhibits on hand tattoos, a custom outlawed by the Japanese and later the Republic of China government, which mandated cultural assimilation.

Since Taiwan’s democratic transition in the 1990s, however, the government has helped lead a national resurgence in Taiwan’s Indigenous culture from rewriting school textbooks to funding museums and heritage sites.

Indigenous studies is now a major academic discipline and five years ago, following the election of President Tsai Ing-wen, the government established the Presidential Office Indigenous Historical Justice and Transitional Justice Committee.

In contemporary Taiwan, however, much of the problem is demographic.

Many of the younger generations of Indigenous people now live in the cities where it is easier for them to lose touch with their cultural roots.

“If young urban Indigenous people are actually interested in cultural issues, their identity will be (based) around their village, but when they go back to their village it’s difficult for them to get along with their childhood friends because they have not really talked to each other for many years. So when they will go back, they will have their own group,” said Dremedreman Curimudjuq, a PhD student at National Cheng Kung University who is also in line to become a hereditary chief like her mother, Selep Curimudjuq.

Time to connect

Kereker, the pulingaw-in-training, says she had a similar experience of alienation throughout her time in Taipei.

“Paiwan people say that all things have a spirit, that is, everything has a soul. Then we must maintain a very respectful heart and be good to the mountains, to the river and to the land,” she said.

“But I have lived in Taipei for too long, and in such a high-pressure environment without a connection with nature for a long time, it is easy for us to forget who we are.”

Like Kereker, many young Indigenous people have left for the cities [Supplied]

Understanding that not every urban Paiwan may want to live in rural areas, holidays like harvest festival and family events have become important times to return home and reconnect.

Hunting is also one of the most popular ways for male Indigenous people across Taiwan to maintain rituals, while some schools may offer Indigenous language classes to young students.

Separately, central Paiwan people have received international attention for their award-winning choir at Taiwu Elementary School. Founded by the Paiwan actor and musician Camake Valaule, who appeared in the Netflix-streaming miniseries Seqalu: Formosa 1867 before he passed away in August, the group has recorded and performed Paiwan-language songs overseas.

As the second largest Indigenous group in Taiwan, Paiwan are only one part of the puzzle of cultural preservation.

Some Indigenous ethnic groups are facing linguistic extinction and in others, numbers have dwindled to just a few hundred remaining descendants.

Taiwan’s government has made a serious effort to step in, as the Tsai administration is keen on setting its history and culture apart from China, but on the ground this varies from community to community and culture to culture, said Daniel Davies, a PhD candidate at the National Sun Yat-sen University who studies Paiwan culture.

Paiwan community members wear traditional dress for a wedding in Pintung

 [Joshua Wang/Al Jazeera]

“Localism is a big thing. The way that each community has managed to preserve parts of traditional culture kind of depends on the strength of institutions within that community. In Qijia you could say the religious aspect of ritual and families and pulingaw have been strong and for some, that’s been a part of the culture where people can gather around,” he said.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

FOREIGN WORKERS

UAE: At least 3 workers died building Dubai Expo

Dubai's Expo has released figures on construction-related casualties for the first time — amid criticism of the Gulf state's workers' rights record.



The Dubai Expo opened on Friday, but concerns remain about its safety record for those who worked on the site

At least three workers died and 72 were seriously hurt while building Dubai's Expo 2020 site over a six-year construction period, officials said in a statement on Saturday.

The release of the figures came amid ongoing criticism from rights groups and the European Parliament about conditions for laborers, often from South Asia, at the site.

It is the first time that Dubai's Expo has released figures on construction-related casualties.

The $7 billion (€6 billion) world fair was delayed for a year due to the pandemic but opened on Friday. It is hoping to draw millions of visitors to the site on the outskirts of the major city in the United Arab Emirates.
Dubai Expo defends its safety record

Dubai's Expo defended its record, saying that the frequency of accidents was lower than Britain's.

The accident frequency rate, a calculation used to measure incidents over a set amount of time worked, was 0.03, compared to 0.07 in the construction industry in Britain as recorded by the UK Health and Safety Executive, the statement said.

It said that more than 200,000 workers constructed the site and collectively worked around 247 million hours.

"We have established world-class policies, standards and processes that protect and support the health, safety, and wellbeing of everyone involved in Expo 2020 Dubai," the statement said.

The statement did not explain the circumstances under which the workers died or were injured.

Conflicting numbers

Inconsistent numbers were provided about worker deaths on Saturday, news agency AP reported.

Initially, Dubai's Expo 2020 spokesperson Sconaid McGeachin said that five workers had died. Later, this number was revised down to three.

In a later statement, Expo apologized for the "inaccuracy" in the figures.
Expo boycott amid UAE's migrant safety record

In a resolution last month, the European Parliament urged member states not to take part in Expo. It cited "inhumane practices" against foreign workers and "systematic persecution" of human rights defenders.

Ahead of Expo, businesses and construction companies were "coercing workers into signing untranslated documents, confiscating their passports, exposing them to extreme working hours in unsafe weather conditions and providing them with unsanitary housing," the parliament's resolution said.

Rights groups have long criticized the country for such practices. Laborers in the UAE are barred from unionization and have few protections, leaving them open to exploitation.

The UAE rejected the non-binding resolution as "factually incorrect."

McGeachin acknowledged that authorities were aware of cases involving contractors "withholding passports," engaging in suspect "recruitment practices" and violating workplace safety codes.

She added that organizers had taken steps to clamp down on such cases, without elaborating on what these steps were.

France opted out of the boycott, denying it was part of the resolution.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian visited the Expo on Saturday, saying its relationship with the UAE was "a strategic one."

Dubai Expo 2020 offers conflicting figures on worker deaths

Sat., October 2, 2021



DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Dubai’s Expo 2020 on Saturday offered conflicting figures for how many workers had been killed on site during construction of the massive world's fair, first saying five and then later three.

In a later statement, Expo apologized and described the initial figure as a “mistake." Authorities had refused for months to publicly provide any figures for construction-related casualties in the run-up to the $7 billion fair rising from the desert outside Dubai, designed the burnish the city's reputation abroad and draw millions of visitors.

The inconsistent statements came as the event and the United Arab Emirates as a whole long has faced criticism from human rights activists over poor treatment of the low-paid migrant laborers from Africa, Asia and the Middle East who keep the country's economy humming.

When pressed to provide a number for worker deaths at a news conference Saturday morning, Expo spokesperson Sconaid McGeachin said without hesitation that “we have had five fatalities now," adding, "you know, that is obviously a tragedy that anybody would die.”

But just after 5 p.m. Saturday and hours after an Associated Press report quoted McGeachin, Expo put out a statement that said: “Unfortunately, there have been three work-related fatalities (and) 72 serious injuries to date.” Just after 7 p.m., Expo issued another statement apologizing for “the inaccuracy.”

Expo said that its 200,000 laborers who built the vast fairgrounds from scratch worked over 240 million hours. Over the past year, authorities had not offered any overall statistics previously on worker fatalities, injuries or coronavirus infections despite repeated requests from the AP and other journalists.

The admission comes after the European Parliament urged nations not to take part in Expo, citing the UAE's “inhumane practices against foreign workers” that it said worsened during the pandemic. Ahead of Expo, businesses and construction companies are “coercing workers into signing untranslated documents, confiscating their passports, exposing them to extreme working hours in unsafe weather conditions and providing them with unsanitary housing,” the resolution last month said.

McGeachin also acknowledged that authorities were aware of cases involving contractors “withholding passports," engaging in suspect “recruitment practices" and violating workplace safety codes.

“We have taken steps to ensure those have been addressed and very much intervened in cases on that,” she said, without elaborating.

Laborers in the UAE are barred from unionization and have few protections, often working long hours for little pay and living in substandard conditions. Most foreign workers, hoping to earn more than they would at home, come to the UAE and other oil-rich Arab states through recruitment agencies, part of a sponsorship system that ties their residency status to their jobs and lends their employers outsized power.

Dubai's searing early autumn heat proved hazardous even for those visiting the site on its opening day Friday, with some tourists fainting in the 40 degree Celsius (104 degree Fahrenheit) humid weather.

On the fairgrounds Saturday to mark France's National Day at Expo, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told a news conference that his government was “not part” of the European Parliament resolution urging the boycott of Dubai's world's fair.

“Our relation with the United Arab Emirates is a strategic one, it's very close,” Le Drian said when asked about concerns over labor abuses on site. “If we need to say something to the United Arab Emirates' government we do so behind closed doors."

There was no Emirati official present at the press conference.

Isabel Debre, The Associated Press

New landmark recognizes Chinese contributions to Yosemite

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — A century-old building originally used as a laundry by Chinese workers at Yosemite's iconic Wawona Hotel has been restored and turned into a visitor's attraction, recognizing Chinese Americans' contributions to the early history of the national park.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Officials unveiled a new sign Friday marking the Chinese Laundry Building in Yosemite Valley, the Fresno Bee reports. New exhibits inside tell the story of Chinese workers who helped build Tioga Road and Wawona Road, critical infrastructure that made tourism to the park possible.

The building — later used as a storage facility — is part of a cluster of structures that will make up the new Yosemite History Center, which will tell the histories of immigrants who made the park what it is today, said Park Ranger Adam Ramsey.

"Chinese people have been a big part of communities throughout the Sierra Nevada for a really long time, and it’s about time that we started sharing that history here in Yosemite,” Ramsey said.

According to research conducted by Park Ranger Yenyen Chan, in 1883 Chinese workers helped build the 56-mile (90-kilometer) Tioga Road in just 130 days. The stunning route across the Sierra Nevada reaches 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) in elevation and serves as one of the park's main roads.

Chinese workers were also employed in Yosemite as cooks, laundry workers and gardeners.

Many first came to California during the Gold Rush, bringing with them skills learned in China about construction, engineering, agriculture, medicine and textiles that made a significant impact in America’s early success, Chan said.

She said Yosemite’s Chinese history and their contributions were erased from memory because of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act passed by Congress to prevent any more Chinese from entering this country in search of work. The law blocked Chinese immigration for 60 years in this country.

Members of the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California, who supported the building's renovation, said they were gratified to see Yosemite include the Chinese in the park's origin story.

“Something like this really resonates with a lot of people in my generation,” said Eugene Moy, a past president of the society. "We’ve been here since the 1870s, so to be able to see this has deep meaning, because a lot of us, oftentimes, are relegated to the margins. We aren’t always perceived as being full-fledged Americans when the reality is that people have been here for three, four, five generations, for 150 years.”

Associated Press, The Associated Press

Alaska allows hospitals to ration care amid COVID spike

Sat., October 2, 2021


ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) —

Alaska on Saturday activated emergency crisis protocols that allow 20 medical facilities to ration care if needed as the state recorded the nation’s worst COVID-19 diagnosis rates in recent days, straining the state’s limited health care system.

The declaration covers three facilities that had already announced emergency protocols, including the state’s largest hospital, Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage. The state's declaration also includes the other two hospitals in Anchorage and facilities across the nation’s largest but sparsely populated state.

“Today’s action recognizes that Alaska has an interconnected and interdependent health care system, requiring the need for activation of the state’s decision-making framework. That framework includes a progression of conventional, contingency and crisis standards,” the state health department said in a statement announcing the activation.

“I want to stress that our health care facilities in Alaska remain open and able to care for patients. Alaskans who need medical care should not delay seeking it, even during these difficult times,” said Adam Crum, the state’s health commissioner.

Factors that led the state to activate the crisis of care standards include scarce medical resources at some facilities, limited staff and difficulty transferring patients because of limited bed availability. Other factors include limited renal replacement therapy and oxygen supplies.

According to data collected by Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, one in every 84 people in Alaska was diagnosed with COVID-19 from Sept. 22 to Sept. 29. The next highest rate was one in every 164 people in West Virginia.

Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, which was covered by the state’s announcement, on Friday activated its own policy because of a shortage of beds, staff and monoclonal antibody treatments, along with the inability to transfer patients.

“The move to Crisis Standards of Care is not something we take lightly,” Fairbanks Chief Medical Officer Dr. Angelique Ramirez said in a statement. “This is in response to a very serious surge of COVID in our community.”

The move came the same day the state reported 1,044 new cases, 108 of them in the Fairbanks area. The hospital says 35% of its patients on Saturday were being treated for COVID-19.

Since March 2020, there have been 110,850 total COVID-19 cases in Alaska, which has a population of about 731,000. More than 24,000 new cases were reported in September as the delta variant drove a spike in cases in Alaska, which has never had a statewide mask mandate.

The state health department said in all, 2,432 people have been hospitalized, and 557 Alaska residents have died.

Statewide, 60% of eligible residents are fully vaccinated. The Fairbanks North Star Borough is the third worst region for vaccination rates in Alaska, with just under 52% of eligible residents vaccinated.

Ramirez said the decision to move to crisis standards was because of many factors, including community spread caused by the low vaccination rates and a high number of patients waiting to be admitted.

“This impacts all patient care, those with broken bones, traumas, heart attacks, strokes, COVID, anyone needing medical care,” Ramirez said. “The care we are able to provide is highly fluid and can change day by day and even hour by hour depending on the availability of resources within our system and stateside.”

Heidi Hedberg, director of the state Division of Public Health, encouraged all residents to wear masks and get vaccinated.

“Every action you take helps prevent COVID-19 from spreading and protects you, your family, other Alaskans and our health care system. No one wants to use crisis standards of care guidelines,” she said.

Mark Thiessen, The Associated Press

Poland: police confiscate journalist's computer equipment

Sun., October 3, 2021

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Police confiscated the computer equipment of a journalist working for a leading newspaper in Poland which has carried out investigations of the country's right-wing government.

The seizure of the equipment of Piotr Bakselerowicz, a reporter for the liberal Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper, took place on Saturday in Zielona Gora, a city in western Poland 450 kilometers (280 miles) from Warsaw. The raid and seizure of the equipment was done on orders from police in Warsaw.

Roman Imielski, the paper's deputy editor, said the police incursion took place without a warrant and “strikes against the fundamental right to journalistic secrecy in a democracy.”

He said in an article published on the paper's website Saturday that the editors have “no doubts” that the police raid is “to intimidate the journalists” of the newspaper, citing other moves by the ruling authorities against independent media.

Warsaw police said the reporter wasn't specifically targeted. It said that offensive messages containing threats had been sent to Polish lawmakers, who reported the threats to the police. The messages were then traced to an IP address that led to that of a “little-known local journalist.”

Bakselerowicz denied having sent any threatening emails.

“I have never threatened anyone. To me, it is a provocation or an attempt at revenge for writing inconvenient articles,” Bakselerowicz said.

Meanwhile, the editors of the newspaper vowed to use all legal means to protect its journalists “from harassment by the authoritarian authorities.”

"We declare that we will not bow to repression and will not allow ourselves to be intimidated. Criticizing all power and exposing its abuses is our civic and democratic duty. Even when the abuse of power affects our journalists and ourselves," they said.

The ruling party has also sought recently to pass a law that would strip the U.S. company Discovery Inc. of its ownership of TVN, a Polish television network.

TVN believes that the main aim is its evening news program Fakty, which offers critical coverage of the authorities and is watched by millions daily.

Vanessa Gera, The Associated Press

A BOT GOT YOUR JOB
Aurora, FedEx team up on driverless tech to address trucker shortage

Ihsaan Fanusie
Sun., October 3, 2021,

Autonomous vehicle company Aurora recently launched a partnership with FedEx (FDX) to test the use of self-driving trucks to ship goods between Dallas and Houston.

The project features an operator in the truck to oversee the system in its initial stage, though Aurora plans to launch a driverless version of the experiment within the next two years.The trucks will travel a route measuring almost 500-miles to help FedEx deliver packages across the state of Texas.

Aurora looks to help ease the shortage of drivers in the trucking industry using new autonomous vehicle technology. “We think that the value of the automation of the Aurora driver is really profound,” said Aurora CEO Chris Urmson in a recent interview with Yahoo Finance Live. That in the US, "We have a dramatic shortage of drivers today… And so for our partners being able to provide a driver to complement the human drivers that they have out there to support that [would be valuable].”

Autonomous vehicles, he said, wouldn’t be limited by hours of service regulations, “so you can effectively shrink the country and make it easier for goods to move around and deliver those goods to consumers and manufacturing systems, or manufacturing companies quicker.”

Earlier this year, Aurora announced plans to go public via a SPAC deal. The startup was acquired by Reinvent Technology Partners Y, a special purpose acquisition company founded by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Zynga founder Mark Pincus, and managing partner Michael Thompson.

“We started our SPAC process with the idea of trying to build it as a high quality, IPO-like process and just happened to use the SPAC vehicle to do that,” Urmson said. “For us, it was really about becoming part of the public markets, allowing others to engage and come along this journey with us.”

A Federal Express truck makes its way down a freeway in San Diego, California August 22, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake 

The ambitious project is the brainchild of three different industries, Urmson said. “What we've done is we put together three industry leaders.” Aurora is responsible for the building of the driver software, while Paccar and Peterbilt are responsible for producing the truck. FedEx has partnered with the company to provide a market for driverless vehicles, which are legal in Texas.

“FedEx [is] the preeminent shipper and we're working together to introduce automation to the line haul operations and support FedEx and growing their business,” Urmson said. “We're working towards launching a driverless operation at the end of ‘23.

STATEHOOD OR INDEPENDENCE
Puerto Ricans fume as outages threaten health, work, school

Sun., October 3, 2021


SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Not a single hurricane has hit Puerto Rico this year, but hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. territory feel like they’re living in the aftermath of a major storm: Students do homework by the light of dying cellphones, people who depend on insulin or respiratory therapies struggle to find power sources and the elderly are fleeing sweltering homes amid record high temperatures.

Power outages across the island have surged in recent weeks, with some lasting several days. Officials have blamed everything from seaweed to mechanical failures as the government calls the situation a “crass failure” that urgently needs to be fixed.

The daily outages are snarling traffic, frying costly appliances, forcing doctors to cancel appointments, causing restaurants, shopping malls and schools to temporarily close and even prompting one university to suspend classes and another to declare a moratorium on exams.

“This is hell,” said Iris Santiago, a 48-year-old with chronic health conditions who often joins her elderly neighbors outside when their apartment building goes dark and the humid heat soars into the 90s Fahrenheit.

“Like any Puerto Rican, I live in a constant state of anxiety because the power goes out every day,” she said. “Not everyone has family they can run to and go into a home with a generator.”

Santiago recently endured three days without power and had to throw out the eggs, chicken and milk that spoiled in her refrigerator. She said power surges also caused hundreds of dollars of damage to her air conditioner and refrigerator.
NATIONALIZE IT
Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority, which is responsible for the generation of electricity, and Luma, a private company that handles transmission and distribution of power, have blamed mechanical failures at various plants involving components such as boilers and condensers. In one recent incident, seaweed clogged filters and a narrow pipe.

Luma also has implemented selective blackouts in recent weeks that have affected a majority of its 1.5 million clients, saying demand is exceeding supply.

Luma took over transmission and distribution in June. Puerto Rico’s governor said the company had pledged to reduce power interruptions by 30% and the length of outages by 40%.

The island’s Electric Power Authority has long struggled with mismanagement, corruption and, more recently, bankruptcy.

In September 2016, a fire at a power plant sparked an island-wide blackout. A year later, Hurricane Maria hit as a Category 4 storm, shredding the aging power grid and leaving some customers up to a year without power.

Emergency repairs were done, but reconstruction work to strengthen the grid has yet to start.

“We’re on the verge of a collapse,” said Juan Alicea, a former executive director of the authority.

He said three main factors are to blame: Officials halted maintenance of generation units under the erroneous belief they would soon be replaced. Scores of experienced employees have retired. And investment to replace aging infrastructure has dwindled.

Puerto Rico’s power generation units are on average 45 years old, twice those of the U.S. mainland,.

Luma has said it expects to spend $3.85 billion to revamp the transmission and distribution system and company CEO Wayne Stensby said Luma has made significant progress in stabilizing it. He noted that crews have restarted four substations, some of which had been out of operation since Hurricane Maria.

Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi blamed the outages on management failures at the Electric Power Authority and called the repeated failures “untenable.”

Pierluisi himself has faced calls to resign — hundreds gathered to protest near the governor's mansion on Friday — and many are demanding that the government cancel Luma's contract.

The president of the power authority’s governing board resigned last week and a new executive director, Josué Colón, was appointed, promising to visit all generation units to pinpoint the problem.

“I recognize the critical condition that they’re in,” he said. “We’re not going to stop until the problem is corrected.”

Some people have taken to banging pots at night in frustration in addition to organizing protests.

Among those planning to join is Carmen Cabrer, a 53-year-old asthmatic and diabetic. She has been unable to use her nebulizer and recently had to throw out insulin for lack of refrigeration. The heat forces her to open her windows and breathe in pollution that aggravates her asthma. She cooks and washes clothes at irregular hours, fearing the power will go out again.

“This has turned into abuse,” she said of the outages. “I’m constantly tense.”

The outages are especially aggravating because power bills have been rising and the pandemic has forced many people to work or study from home.

Barbra Maysonet, a 30-year-old call center operator who works from home, said she sometimes loses an entire shift and doesn’t get paid for lack of power. She’s hesitant to work at the office because she doesn't want to expose her mother and grandmother to COVID-19.

“It really puts a dent in my paycheck,” she said. “I have to rethink things. ... I’m going to have to risk my health just to be able to pay the rest of the bills.”

Like other Puerto Ricans, Maysonet has modified her diet, turning to canned goods, snacks and crackers that won't spoil in a power outage.

“Just when I’m about to cook something, the power goes out. Then it’s, ‘I guess I’m having another bowl of cereal,’” she said.

Those who can afford it buy generators or invest in solar panels, but budgets are tight for many on an island mired in a deep economic crisis and a government that is effectively bankrupt.

Even attempts to rely on alternate sources of energy often are frustrated.

Manuel Casellas, an attorney who recently served as president of his 84-unit condominium complex, said the owners agreed to buy a generator more than a year ago at a cost of $100,000. However, they first need a power company official to connect the generator to the grid. He has made four appointments, and said officials canceled them all at the last minute without explanation.

“This has created great annoyance,” he said. “This is a building with many elderly people.”

Casellas himself has at times been unable to work at home or the office because of power outages at both. If he can't meet with clients, he doesn't get paid. Like others, he is considering leaving Puerto Rico.

“Every time the power goes out here it pushes your post-traumatic stress button,” he said, referring to the harrowing experiences many went through after Hurricane Maria, with an estimated 2,975 people dying in the aftermath. “You can’t live without electricity.”

Dánica Coto, The Associated Press

Opinion: Burnaby doesn't have labour shortage - it has a surplus of crappy jobs

Many workers are fed up with being abused

a day ago By: Chris Campbell

BURNABY NOW


Last week I wrote a story about how fashion giant Aritzia was looking to fill jobs at its New Westminster distribution centre for the fall-winter season.

The way it went about it said a lot about the current state of the labour market. Aritzia is offering far above minimum wage ($21 an hour), free daily coffee and meals served on site, plus such things as showers and bike storage for cyclists.

They called it “best-in-class perks.”

The message was clear to young workers – we’re trying to go above and beyond to lure you.

That’s because so many employers in Burnaby and beyond are struggling to find workers.

A report released Wednesday provides additional evidence, with more than 60 per cent of Canadian businesses saying that widespread “labour shortages” are limiting their growth.

The report, produced by the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), combines the findings of two surveys — one that polled 1,251 Canadian entrepreneurs in May 2021 and a survey of 3,000 Canadian employees conducted in June 2021. Its findings suggest 49 per cent of business owners have had to delay or have been unable to deliver orders to clients due to a lack of labour.

It also says many small- and medium-sized business owners report job vacancies sitting empty for three or four months at a time, with 61 per cent saying they've had to increase their own hours or their employees' work hours as a result.

“It’s very serious, because it’s slowing down the growth of many businesses in Canada, and as a result is going to slow down the growth of the economy,” said Pierre Cléroux, BDC’s chief economist.

OK, that is obviously true, but should it really be called a “labour shortage” or should it be called a “surplus of crappy jobs that people don’t want”?

Right now we’re seeing a reckoning with many service industry jobs that are known for poor pay, long hours, unreliable shifts and, perhaps most importantly, terrible working conditions. Trying to blame the situation on government pandemic benefits it too simplistic. For many servers that I have spoken with, the pandemic was just the last straw that had them reassessing what they wanted to do with their lives.

I mean it doesn’t take Gordon Ramsey to tell you that many people who work in kitchens and out on the floor are tired of being treated poorly by abusive managers.

Many people are fed up with getting yelled at by managers and customers. From what I’ve been told, the abuse from customers is even worse than before the pandemic.

So, now you have more people being more selective about where they’re going to work. Hopefully this leads to more companies setting new standards for how workers are treated (like consistent shifts).

The numbers don’t lie. Change is needed.

Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.

US lawyer who sued Chevron sentenced to 6 months in contempt case

Steven Donziger has spent more than two decades battling oil giant over pollution in the Ecuadorian rainforest.

Steven Donziger, who faced criminal contempt charges stemming from his decades-long legal battle with Chevron Corp, embraces his son Matthew after receiving a six-month prison sentence 

[Shannon Stapleton/Reuters]
1 Oct 2021

Disbarred American lawyer Steven Donziger, who spent more than two decades battling Chevron Corp over pollution in the Ecuadorian rainforest, has been sentenced to six months in prison on contempt charges.

United States District Judge Loretta Preska sentenced Donziger on Friday after finding him guilty in May of “willfully” defying court orders, including by refusing to turn over his computer and other electronic devices.

KEEP READING

US lawyer who sued Chevron over Ecuador pollution faces charges

US judge rejects $9bn ruling against Chevron

The charges stem from a lawsuit brought against Donziger by the oil giant.

“It seems that only the proverbial two-by-four between the eyes will instil in him any respect for the law,” Preska said.

Donziger’s lawyers and Chevron did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters news agency.

His sentencing is the latest twist in a legal saga stemming from his representation of villagers in Ecuador’s Lago Agrio region who sought to hold Chevron liable for water and soil contamination by Texaco between 1964 and 1992. Chevron acquired Texaco in 2000

.

People from Ecuador protest against Chevron in 2013 as a US court considered whether to hold the company liable for a $9.5bn judgement against it [File: Carlo Allegri/Reuters]

Donziger won a $9.5bn judgement against Chevron in an Ecuadorian court in 2011.

But in 2014, a US court rejected the multibillion-dollar judgement, ruling that it had been fraudulently obtained through bribes and corruption.

Reporting from outside the New York City court on Friday, Al Jazeera correspondent Kristen Saloomey said Donzinger and his team tried to place the case “in the greater context of his efforts to bring justice for people in Ecuador”.

But the judge agreed with prosecutors, who had argued Donziger consciously disobeyed court orders to turn over his devices and documents.

Lawyers for Donziger had in May painted a different picture, saying the court had initially been unclear about what it wanted him to hand over.

“The reason I’m locked up is because we were successful,” Donziger told Al Jazeera in an interview before his sentencing.

“I, with other lawyers, helped Indigenous peoples in Ecuador win a historic $9.5bn pollution judgement against Chevron for the deliberate dumping of billions of gallons of cancer-causing waste into the Amazon,” Donziger said.

“That’s an historical fact. That case has been affirmed on appeal by 28 appellate judges, including the highest courts of Ecuador and Canada for enforcement purposes. So why am I the one being locked up? I helped hold them accountable.”

Donziger, who has been held in home confinement for two years, plans to appeal Friday’s decision, Reuters reported.

A panel of human rights experts commissioned by the United Nations said on September 30 that Donziger’s home detention violated international civil rights law and recommended that he be released.

Claire Finkelstein, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the founder and academic director of the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law, said charging and sentencing a lawyer for a criminal contempt violation is “rather rare”.

“In this case, the judge felt there was an element of willfulness involved, and that explains the results,” Finkelstein told Al Jazeera.