Biden rule grants overtime pay to 4 million US workers

By Daniel Wiessner

April 23, 2024

April 23 (Reuters) - The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday unveiled a rule extending mandatory overtime pay to an estimated 4 million salaried workers, going even further than an Obama-era rule that was struck down in court.
The U.S. Department of Labor rule will require employers to pay overtime premiums to workers who earn a salary of less than $1,128 per week, or about $58,600 per year, when they work more than 40 hours in a week.

The current salary threshold of about $35,500 per year was set by the Trump administration in a 2020 rule that worker advocates and many Democrats have said did not go far enough.
The rule does not affect overtime requirements for workers who are paid hourly.
Julie Su, the acting secretary of labor and Biden's nominee to fill the post permanently, said in a statement that the rule ensures that workers either earn more money or are paid the same to work fewer hours.

“Too often, lower-paid salaried workers are doing the same job as their hourly counterparts but are spending more time away from their families for no additional pay," Su said.
Under the rule, the salary threshold will increase to $43,888 on July 1 and to $58,656 on Jan. 1, 2025. And starting in 2027, the threshold will automatically increase every three years to reflect changes in average earnings.

U.S. wage law requires employers to pay eligible workers one and one-half times their regular rate of pay when they work more than 40 hours in a week. Salaried workers who earn above the salary threshold may still be eligible for overtime pay if they do not primarily perform management-related duties.

Workers are generally automatically exempt if they earn a salary of more than $107,432. The new rule will raise that cutoff to about $151,000.

Several states, including California and New York, have salary thresholds for determining overtime eligibility that are higher than the current federal standard.
The Labor Department in 2016 doubled the salary threshold to about $47,000. A federal judge in Texas the following year said that ceiling was so high that it could sweep in some management workers who are exempt from overtime pay protections, and struck it down.

The new rule is likely to face legal challenges arguing that like the Obama administration rule, it violates federal wage law by applying to many lower-paid supervisors and professionals who typically would not be eligible for overtime.

Lawsuits could also claim that the Labor Department failed to justify the significant increase in the threshold just four years after the last adjustment.

Many major business groups had called on the department to put off any changes to overtime pay regulations, citing inflation, global supply chain disruptions and worker shortages that have raised companies' operating costs.

US Supreme Court examines firings of pro-union Starbucks workers

By Andrew Chung and John Kruzel

April 23, 2024

WASHINGTON, April 23 (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday appeared to agree with Starbucks (SBUX.O), opens new tab in the coffee chain's challenge to a judicial order requiring it to rehire seven employees at a Tennessee cafe who were fired as they pursued efforts to unionize.
The justices heard arguments in the company's appeal of a lower court's approval of an injunction sought by the U.S. National Labor Relations Board ordering the reinstatement of the workers. It is a case that could make it harder to bring a quick halt to labor practices challenged as unfair under federal law while the NLRB resolves complaints.

The case centers on the legal standard that federal courts must use to issue a preliminary injunction requested by the NLRB under the a federal law called the National Labor Relations Act. Such orders are intended as an interim tool to halt unfair labor practices while a case is proceeding before the board.
Under section 10(j) of the labor law, a court may grant an injunction if it is deemed "just and proper." Seattle-based Starbucks contends that if the lower courts had applied stricter criteria, similar to the standard used by some other courts and in non-labor legal disputes, the case would have come out differently, opens new tab.

Some justices appeared to agree that courts should have the primary role in determining a "likelihood of success" in the case before issuing an injunction.
Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch told Justice Department lawyer Austin Raynor, who was defending the injunction against Starbucks, that other federal agencies are subject to the stricter standard.
"In all sorts of alphabet soup agencies, we don't do this. District courts apply the 'likelihood of success' test as we normally conceive it. So why is this particular statutory regime different than so many others?" Gorsuch asked.

Raynor told the justices that the NLRB seeks this kind of injunction only in "the cream of the crop cases."
"The board receives 20,000 unfair labor charges every year. It issues 750 complaints. Last year, it authorized 14 petitions and filed seven. That's seven out of 20,000," Raynor said.
"This is an expert agency that has said, 'We think these are the most deserving of relief,'" Raynor added.
But conservative Chief Justice John Roberts said that "I don't know why the inference isn't the exact opposite." Roberts said these could be the cases that the board feels "are the most vulnerable."

Conservative Justice Samuel Alito told Raynor, "I'm a little curious about your statistical argument."
Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson told Lisa Blatt, the lawyer arguing for Starbucks, that the agency has sought this type of injunction "in a very, very small number of cases."
"This is not sounding like a huge problem," Jackson said.
"Whether or not it's a huge problem, what petitioner (Starbucks) wants is just a level playing field, the normal injunctive factors that agencies and private parties should get," Blatt responded.

The company has argued that the judge who granted the injunction should have used a stringent four-factor test to weigh the bid for an injunction, as courts typically do in non-labor disputes. This test includes an assessment of whether the side seeking relief would suffer irreparable harm and is likely to succeed on the merits of the case.
About 400 Starbucks locations in the United States have unionized, opens new tab, involving more than 10,000 employees. Both sides at times have accused the other of unlawful or improper conduct.
Hundreds of complaints have been filed with the NLRB accusing Starbucks of unlawful labor practices such as firing union supporters, spying on workers and closing stores during labor campaigns. Starbucks has denied wrongdoing and said it respects the right of workers to choose whether to unionize.
In a break from the acrimony, both sides in February said they had agreed to create a "framework" to guide organizing and collective bargaining and potentially settle scores of pending legal disputes.
The case began in 2022, when the workers at the Poplar Avenue store in Memphis became among the first to unionize. Early in their efforts, they allowed a television news crew into the Starbucks cafe after hours to talk about the union campaign. Seven workers present that evening were fired, including several who belonged to the union organizing committee.
Despite the dismissals, employees there later voted to join Workers United.
The union filed unfair labor charges with the NLRB over the firings and other discipline by managers. The NLRB sought an injunction, alleging that Starbucks unlawfully fired the workers for supporting the union drive and to send a message to other workers.
U.S. District Judge Sheryl Lipman granted the injunction in 2022, reinstating the workers in order to address the "chilling effect" of the dismissals on the unionization effort while the NLRB resolves the case. The Cincinnati, Ohio-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the injunction in 2023.
The 6th Circuit rejected the company's argument that Lipman should have used a stringent four-factor test.
The Supreme Court's ruling is expected by the end of June.

Get weekly news and analysis on the U.S. elections and how it matters to the world with the newsletter On the Campaign Trail. Sign up here.


Reporting by Andrew Chung and John Kruzel in Washington; Additional reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany; Editing by Will Dunham

READ MORE


Starbucks takes on the federal labor agency before the US Supreme Court

Honda to build major EV plant in Canada: govt source

By AFP
April 22, 2024

Honda hopes to sell only zero-emission vehicles by 2040, with a goal of going carbon-neutral in its own operations by 2050 

- Copyright AFP TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA

Japanese auto giant Honda will open an electric vehicle plant in eastern Canada, a Canadian government source familiar with the multibillion-dollar project told AFP on Monday.

The federal government as well as the province of Ontario, where the plant will be built, will both provide some financial incentives for the deal, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official announcement is due Thursday, though Ontario premier Doug Ford hinted at the deal on Monday.

“This week, we’ve landed a new deal. It will be the largest deal in Canadian history. It’ll be double the size of Volkswagen,” he said, referring to a battery plant announced last year, for which the German automaker pledged Can$7 billion (US$5 billion) in investment.

Canada in recent years has been positioning itself as an attractive destination for electric vehicle investment, touting tax incentives, renewable energy access and its rare mineral deposits.

The Honda plant, to be built an hour outside Toronto, in Alliston, will also produce electric-vehicle batteries, joining existing Volkswagen and Stellantis battery plants.

In January, when news of the deal first bubbled up in the Japanese press, the Nikkei newspaper estimated it would be worth Can$14 billion — numbers backed up by Canadian officials recently.

In the federal budget announced last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government introduced a new business tax credit, granting companies a 10 percent rebate on construction costs for new buildings used in key segments of the electric vehicle supply chain.

Canada’s strategy follows that of the neighboring United States, whose Inflation Reduction Act has provided a host of incentives for green industry.

Honda hopes to sell only zero-emission vehicles by 2040, with a goal of going carbon-neutral in its own operations by 2050.

Honda expected to announce multi-billion dollar deal to assemble EVs in Ontario: sources

Indigenous fashion center stage in Mexico presidential election


By AFP
April 22, 2024

Mexican presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum is seen wearing traditional Indigenous clothing at her campaign launch - Copyright AFP CARL DE SOUZA
Sofia Miselem

After years of fighting for greater recognition, Mexico’s Indigenous weavers have seen their creations thrust into the spotlight by the two women leading the country’s presidential race.

The brightly colored, elaborately embroidered garments handcrafted by generations of artisans have long enchanted visitors to Mexico — including international designers whose use of the motifs have sparked accusations of plagiarism.

Now an aficionado of the Indigenous designs is almost certain to become Mexico’s first woman president, although the prominence of the traditional garments on the campaign trail has generated mixed feelings among their creators.

“It’s important that they don’t just wear them as a costume or to attract attention,” said Trinidad Gonzalez, 55, a weaver in the community of El Mejay in Hidalgo state in central Mexico.

Opposition candidate Xochitl Galvez, an outspoken businesswoman and senator of Indigenous origin, has worn the traditional garments since entering politics more than two decades ago.

Claudia Sheinbaum, the former Mexico City mayor who is representing the ruling party and is leading the election race, has also worn Indigenous designs during her campaign, including at its launch.

“It’s very positive that Mexican textiles are center stage in the political arena,” said anthropologist Marta Turok.

But according to Andres Vidal, a doctor in social anthropology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the choice of clothing is also part of the “electoral game.”

– From racism to prestige –

Martina Cruz — Gonzalez’s mother — is 83 years old, but she still weaves using techniques passed down through generations.

She is happy to see traditional clothing worn by the presidential candidates, especially Galvez, who also hails from Hidalgo.

“I like it a lot,” Cruz said, while weaving a garment that can take up to eight months to make and is sold for the equivalent of $1,000.

The painter Frida Kahlo was the first internationally prominent Mexican personality to wear Indigenous clothing, said Turok, an expert in popular art.

In politics, the pioneer was Maria Esther Zuno, wife of Luis Echeverria, who was president from 1970 to 1976.

“Mexican politics is a reflection of society,” Turok said.

At one time, politicians “were ashamed” to wear Indigenous clothing, a reluctance that mirrored the wider problem of “discrimination and racism,” she recalled.

But gradually Indigenous designs gained popularity and prestige. Now they can be worth thousands of dollars.

– Cultural appropriation? –

As a senator, Galvez promoted the adoption of the Day of the Huipil, held on March 7 in recognition of the traditional embroidered blouse.

“Never haggle over the price of a huipil with an Indigenous woman,” the politician said in one of her videos, in which she showed her traditional blouses, some made of silk that according to Turok would cost up to $5,000.

Sheinbaum, the granddaughter of Bulgarian and Lithuanian Jewish migrants, also has a collection of Indigenous clothing given to her on tour, according to a source from her campaign.

While several major foreign clothing brands have been accused by Mexico of cultural appropriation for their Indigenous-inspired designs, Turok said she did not view the candidates’ use of the huipil in the same way.

“Improper cultural appropriation is taking a textile to another country to reproduce it,” she said.

“If we’re going to start saying who can and can’t wear them, it’s going to be a never-ending story,” Turok added.

Vidal sees the use of Indigenous clothing as a way for politicians to connect with voters.

“One way to reach them is by creating symbiosis through the use of a certain type of clothing,” he said.

The election fashion parade has brought new customers into Alfonso Giron’s store in Mexico City.

“They say, ‘Hey, I’m looking for the garment I saw the candidate wearing on television,'” he said.

But in reality, every huipil is unique, Giron added.

AI makes rich people richer


By Dr. Tim Sandle

DIGITAL JOURNAL
April 22, 2024

Meta in November launched a 'pay or consent' system -- a model that has faced several challenges - Copyright AFP/File ETIENNE LAURENT

Tech giants including Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Jensen Huang have played major roles in the AI revolution, using their resources to create technologies that have completely changed how we work and live. From machine learning and self-driving cars to generative AI.

While innovative, these technologies have brought hundreds of billions of dollars of profit to tech moguls and the companies behind them.

According to data presented by AltIndex.com (and provided to Digital Journal), the world’s eight richest AI billionaires have increased their wealth by $390 billion in the last year.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Net Worth Surged by $112 billion in a year, Jeff Bezos and Jensen Huang Follow with $80 billion and $56 billion gains.

Although the world’s richest AI billionaires already had an impressive net worth, the AI renaissance, which started last year, helped them grow their wealth even more. Since the beginning of 2023, all these technology titans have added tens of billions of dollars to their fortunes, but none is close to Zuckerberg.

His company uses AI algorithms to optimize personalized content, user engagement and advertising, and has also heavily invested in virtual reality experiences in the Metaverse. According to Forbes’ real-time billionaire list, Zuckerberg’s wealth soared by $112.6 billion year-over-year, the biggest increase among top AI billionaires. Facebook shares skyrocketed by 125% in this period, pushing its CEO’s fortune to $177 billion.

Jeff Bezos follows Zuckerberg with an $80 billion net worth increase in the past year. Although Amazon’s owner made his name in e-commerce, Bezos is also a huge name in the AI field. Amazon Web Services, a massive part of his empire, offers a wide range of AI tools and services, helping businesses integrate AI into their operations. However, Bezos diversified his AI influence by investing in AI startup Perplexity, which aims to challenge Google’s dominance in the search engine space. Last year, Bezos was worth $114 billion; now, his net worth is $194 billion.

Statistics show that the CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, has seen the third-largest net worth growth among the top AI billionaires, adding almost $56 billion to his fortune in the last year. His company has become a huge name in the AI field, with its graphic processing units used in everything from large data operations to self-driving cars. Nvidia’s stock value has soared by more than $1.8 trillion since January 2023, helping its CEO’s wealth to hit $77 billion.

Google co-founders and major investors in AI company DeepMind, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, have both added around $34 billion to their wealth in the past year, just like Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. Bill Gates, also a huge name in the AI field, is now worth $128 billion, $24 billion more than a year ago.

PRISON NATION U$A

Texas inmates are being ‘cooked to death’ in extreme heat, complaint alleges

Pooja Salhotra, The Texas TribuneWilliam Melhado, The Texas Tribune
April 23, 2024

Prison - Dan Henson:Shutterstock.com

"Texas inmates are being ‘cooked to death’ in extreme heat, complaint alleges" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

April signals the beginning of blistering heat for much of Texas. And while the summer heat is uncomfortable for many, it can be deadly for the people incarcerated in Texas’ prison system where temperatures regularly reach triple digits.

With another sweltering summer likely ahead, prison rights advocates on Monday filed a complaint against Texas Department of Criminal Justice executive director Bryan Collier, arguing that the lack of air conditioning in the majority of Texas prisons amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

The filing came from four nonprofit organizations who are joining a lawsuit originally filed last August by Bernie Tiede, an inmate who suffered a medical crisis after being housed in a Huntsville cell that reached temperatures exceeding 110 degrees. Tiede, a well-known offender whose 1996 murder of a wealthy widow inspired the film “Bernie,” was moved to an air-conditioned cell following a court order but he’s not guaranteed to stay there this year.

Monday’s filing expands the plaintiffs to include every inmate incarcerated in uncooled Texas prisons, which have led to the deaths of dozens of Texas inmates and cost the state millions of dollars as it fights wrongful death and civil rights lawsuits.

The plaintiffs ask that an Austin federal judge declare the state’s prison policy unconstitutional and require that prisons be kept under 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Texas jails are already required to keep facilities cooler than 85 degrees, and federal prisons in Texas have a 76 degree maximum.

Between June and August last year, the average temperature was 85.3 degrees — the second hottest on record behind 2011. And this year does not look to be much cooler. The most recent winter season ranked warmest on record for the contiguous U.S., according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Scientists have found that climate change has resulted in more severe and longer lasting heat waves. In the last decade, Texas has experienced over 1,000 days of record-breaking heat, compared to a normal decade.

In the hot summer months, those concrete and metal cells can reach over 130 degrees, formerly incarcerated Texans said during a Monday press conference. Legal representatives hope to prove those conditions are unconstitutional.

“What is truly infuriating is the failure to acknowledge that everyone in the system —all 130,000 prisoners— are at direct risk of being impacted by something that has a simple solution that has been around since the 1930s, and that is air conditioning,” attorney Jeff Edwards told reporters. Edwards was the lead attorney in a 2014 prison rights case that cited the nearly two dozen Texas prison inmates who died from heat stroke over the previous two decades. That case culminated in a settlement, where TDCJ agreed to install air conditioning at the Wallace Pack Unit near College Station.

About two thirds of the inmates housed across TDCJ’s facilities live in areas without air conditioning. Advocates and inmates’ families have long fought to cool prisons in a state where summer temperatures routinely exceed triple digits and pose dangerous conditions to inmates and correctional officers.

Although the state has not reported a heat-related death since 2012, researchers and inmates’ families dispute those statistics. A 2022 study found that 14 prison deaths per year were associated with heat. Last year, a Texas Tribune analysis found that at least 41 people had died in uncooled prisons during the state’s record-breaking heat wave.

Health problems that have been linked to excessive heat include renal diseases, cardiovascular mortality, respiratory illnesses and suicides, Julie Skarha, a epidemiology researcher at Brown University who authored the 2022 study, told reporters on Monday.


Skarha said while death certificates may not list heat strokes — a condition when the body can no longer control its temperature— as the official cause of death, her research indicates that many prisoners have died from heat-related causes.

“Heat deaths haven’t magically stopped,” the lawsuit states. “TDCJ has simply stopped reporting or admitting them after the multiple wrongful death lawsuits and national news coverage.”

TDCJ spokesperson Amanda Hernandez declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying the agency does not comment on pending litigation. But she emphasized that the department has been adding more air conditioning units since 2018.


“Each year we’ve been working to add cool beds, and we’ll continue to do so,” she said.

She also pointed to the departments’ “enhanced heating protocols” which are activated from April to October and include providing ice water to inmates and allowing them to purchase fans and cooling towels from the commissary.

Lawyers argue that these mitigation tactics are insufficient to combat the state’s sweltering temperatures. To survive the heat, incarcerated people report having to flood their toilets or sinks and lie down in the water on the cell floor to try to cool their bodies, the lawsuit states.


“This isn’t an unpredictable event,” said attorney Erica Grossman, who is one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs. “It gets hot every summer, and much like every other building in Texas —including buildings that have animals — we cool the building.”

TDCJ staff who work in the facilities are similarly impacted by the heat, said Michele Deitch, a senior lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin's School of Law and LBJ School. The excessive heat invades all aspects of life in prisons: Staff must do physical work in heavy uniforms in the heat; the heat results in more violence among those incarcerated; and it leads to more use of force against prisoners, she said.

The TDCJ states on their heat mitigation protocols that staff are “encouraged to increase their water intake” during the hot summer month and are allowed to wear cooling towels and dri-fit compression shirts.


New research Skarha has conducted found that the number of assaults that occur in prisons without air conditioning increased as much as five times during summer months compared to that number in climate-controlled facilities.

Prison rights advocates say the state could easily fund air conditioning units across its prisons but has simply been unwilling to do so. During the last legislative session —when the state recorded a record surplus— the House proposed spending $545 million to install air-conditioning in most of the prison facilities lacking it. But the final budget did not include any money dedicated to air conditioning.

The House also passed a bill requiring prisons to be kept between 65 and 85 degrees, which is required already in jails and most federal facilities. But the bill failed in the more conservative Senate.

“We have the resources. We just seem to not have the compassion to do it,” Rep. Carl Sherman, D-DeSoto, said during the press conference. Sherman was one of the authors of the bill that would have regulated prison temperatures.

The Legislature did allocate approximately $85 million for “additional deferred maintenance projects,” in Texas prisons, and TDCJ is using that money to pay for air conditioning units. Hernandez estimated that those dollars will provide air conditioning for an estimated 10,000 inmates.

Disclosure: University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2024/04/22/texas-prisons-heat-deaths/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org

He hippo in Japan zoo turns out to be a she

Agence France-Presse
April 23, 2024 

This undated handout image released to AFP by Osaka's Tennoji Zoo shows "Gen-chan", a 12-year-old hippopotamus who was thought to be male but tests showed was female (Handout)

Betrayed by its DNA and unmanly toilet habits, a hippopotamus in Japan thought for seven years to be a he is in fact a she, the zoo where the wallowing giant lives said Tuesday.

The 12-year-old came to Osaka Tennoji Zoo in 2017 from the Africam Safari animal park in Mexico, where officials attested on customs documents that the then five-year-old was male.

But zookeepers long scratched their heads, a spokeswoman told AFP.

In particular, Gen-chan did not display the typical male hippo behavior of splattering feces around while defecating -- with a propeller-like tail motion -- in order to mark territory.

Nor did it make courtship calls to females and zookeepers were unable to visually identify any male genitalia, a dangerous task in such a large and potentially aggressive beast.

"Therefore, we requested a DNA test at an external institution, and the result showed it was female," the zoo said in a statement posted last week.

"We will keep doing our best to provide comfortable environment to Gen-chan, so everyone, please come and see," it said.

Melania Trump takes part in campaign event that barely drowns out hotel lobby muzak

Travis Gettys

 April 23, 2024 

Melania Trump (a katz / Shutterstock.com)

Melania Trump returned to the political scene with a low-key solo appearance for Log Cabin Republicans at Mar-a-Lago.

The former first lady had previously joined her husband earlier this month at a high-dollar fundraiser in Palm Beach, but she stepped out without him Saturday at the headliner for the LGBTQ conservative group and was greeted with polite but subdued applause, reported The Daily Beast.

“Melania is a very private figure, and her public appearances never disappoint,” said Sophia Hutchins, a Trump 2024 surrogate and convention delegate.

She was joined by Donald Trump attorney Alina Habba, campaign senior adviser Lynne Patton and Caitlyn Jenner, and she was introduced by Ric Grenell, the former U.S. ambassador to Germany and briefly the acting director of national intelligence.

“I’ve been around Melania for over a decade, socially, and obviously since her husband entered politics,” said Hutchins, who is also Jenner's manager. “She’s always had that mystique about her. But whenever she gets into a room with people… she is electric, and we saw that on Saturday night.”

“She was truly electric,” Hutchins added. “Happy, energetic and, I think, quite frankly, thrilled to be there with a group of people there to support her.”

A source familiar with the planning told The Daily Beast that only about 60 people were present, including staff, and women made up more than half the crowd, who were notably subdued in video clips from the event.

"Throughout the entire clip," The Beast reported. "The crowd is so quiet that you can hear some version of hotel lobby muzak."

Melania Trump announces push to woo gay conservatives during Mar-a-Lago fundraiser, organizer says

Her husband got relatively little support from the LGBTQ+ community in 2020.

BySoo Rin Kim and Lalee Ibssa
April 22, 2024,

Donald Trump raking in a record amount of money at exclusive campaign fundraiser
Organizers said that the GOP fundraiser at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago club raked in $50 million.

Former first lady Melania Trump at a fundraiser on Saturday announced a major voter outreach initiative to garner conservative gay and lesbian support for former President Donald Trump’s 2024 bid -- in an effort to boost his standing with a group that, more broadly, voted against him in 2020 -- organizers of the fundraiser told ABC News.

After having mostly stayed away from her husband’s campaign trail this cycle, Melania Trump made a rare appearance at a political event Saturday night, speaking as a guest of honor at the fundraiser at the Trumps' Mar-a-Lago Club for Log Cabin Republicans, the largest conservative LGBTQ+ organization in the United States.

Addressing conservative LGBTQ+ supporters at the sold-out fundraiser, Melania Trump said money raised that night -- more than $1 million, according to organizers -- would go toward an effort to deploy resources to key swing states in educating voters about conservative LGBTQ+ causes and delivering pro-Trump messages among gay and lesbian communities, said Bill White, one of the co-hosts and a longtime friend of Donald Trump.

MORE: Melania Trump makes rare appearance on 2024 campaign trail

Former First Lady Melania Trump speaks at a fundraiser for pro-conservative LGBT organization 
Andrea Hanks

Richard Grenell, a former U.S. ambassador to Germany and former acting director of national intelligence under Trump, becoming the first openly gay person to hold a Cabinet-level position in the U.S., will be spearheading the new Log Cabin Republicans initiative with help from White, a former president of the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, and White’s husband, Bryan Eure, a senior vice president at insurance brokerage firm Willis Towers Watson.

This initiative is expected to be one of Melania Trump’s top priorities, White said, and she is set to support it with “upcoming activities" -- which would mark a notable contrast given how little Melania Trump has campaigned on behalf of her husband in either 2016 or 2020. (The Trump campaign did not provide more details about possible events for conservative gay and lesbian voters.)

“They hear us, they see us, and they love us,” White said of the Trumps' message to Log Cabin Republicans on Saturday night.

The announcement of Melania Trump's involvement with the Log Cabin Republicans initiative comes after months of her staying away from the public spotlight as her husband's third presidential bid heats up. She has, however, maintained some of her own initiatives -- speaking at a naturalization ceremony for new U.S. citizens in December; some charity work like with a local foster care organization in 2021; and launching a line of digital collectibles, a line of Christmas ornaments and, more recently, a Mother's Day-themed necklace for $245.

The last two times she was seen publicly on the trail were at a major Palm Beach, Florida, fundraiser for Donald Trump and Republicans earlier this month, where organizers said they raised more than $50 million; and last month at a Palm Beach polling location where the former president voted in the Florida Republican primary.

White told ABC News the initiative for gay Republicans is expected to involve “digital footprints in all of the key swing states,” as well as “extensive research and development into who we need to be communicating with and how we will communicate with them” -- an effort to persuade the gay and lesbian community in America that “Donald Trump is the best choice for all of us.”

Polling shows that he has notably lagged with those voters in the past. Rival Joe Biden won self-identified members of the LGBTQ+ community over Trump, 64-27%, exit polls showed. But that was a slight improvement for Trump compared with 2016, when he got only 14%.

While the former president differentiated himself from some other leading conservatives in embracing gay people, his anti-trans positions have drawn broader outcry from the LGBTQ+ community.


Former U.S. ambassador to Germany and acting director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell 

White claimed the pro-Trump voices within the LGBTQ+ community have grown exponentially since Donald Trump’s first presidential bid, noting efforts by national-level pro-Trump LGBTQ+ coalitions.

“We are gay Republicans and we are voting for Trump,” he said. “He is the best and only choice in this election for our health, prosperity, safety and security."

Parts of Melania Trump’s speech at the fundraiser Saturday night will be put out in Log Cabin Republicans’ digital ads, White said.

“We are so grateful to Mrs. Trump for her strategic leadership and making this initiative one of her top priorities for the 2024 presidential campaign and for the successful election of her husband,” he said.

MORE: Trump's Palm Beach fundraiser, joined by Melania Trump, rakes in $50 million, organizers say


Former president of the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum Bill White, former U.S. ambassador to Ge..
Andrea Hanks

Ahead of the fundraiser on Saturday morning, Grenell, another gay conservative ally, on X threw support behind Donald Trump as “the best candidate for our safety, security and prosperity.”

"He sees you as 100% equal - it's up to you to be responsible, hardworking and successful,” he continued. “Anyone telling you that you are oppressed in America or that you need special side agreements because you're gay is only seeking to control you."

Over the years, both Melania and Donald Trump have maintained a close relationship with Log Cabin Republicans. In 2021, Melania Trump headlined their annual gala at Mar-a-Lago and received the group's Spirit of Lincoln award for her role in "helping children reach their full potential" and "championing a more inclusive Republican Party."

In 2022, Donald Trump headlined Log Cabin Republicans' Spirit of Lincoln gala held at Mar-a-Lago, where he told the audience, "We are fighting for the gay community, and we are fighting and fighting hard."

Asia hit hardest by climate and weather disasters last year, says UN

Agence France-Presse
April 23, 2024 

A man with his camel wade across a flooded street after heavy monsoon rains in Pushkar, in India's Rajasthan state on July 10, 2023. © Himanshu Sharma, AFP


Asia was the world's most disaster-hit region from climate and weather hazards in 2023, the United Nations said Tuesday, with floods and storms the chief cause of casualties and economic losses.

Global temperatures hit record highs last year, and the UN's weather and climate agency said Asia was warming at a particularly rapid pace.

The World Meteorological Organization said the impact of heatwaves in Asia was becoming more severe, with melting glaciers threatening the region's future water security.

The WMO said Asia was warming faster than the global average, with temperatures last year nearly two degrees Celsius above the 1961 to 1990 average.

"The report's conclusions are sobering," WMO chief Celeste Saulo said in a statement.

"Many countries in the region experienced their hottest year on record in 2023, along with a barrage of extreme conditions, from droughts and heatwaves to floods and storms.

"Climate change exacerbated the frequency and severity of such events, profoundly impacting societies, economies, and, most importantly, human lives and the environment that we live in."

The State of the Climate in Asia 2023 report highlighted the accelerating rate of key climate change indicators such as surface temperature, glacier retreat and sea level rise, saying they would have serious repercussions for societies, economies and ecosystems in the region.

"Asia remained the world's most disaster-hit region from weather, climate and water-related hazards in 2023," the WMO said.

Heat, melting and floods

The annual mean near-surface temperature over Asia in 2023 was the second highest on record, at 0.91 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average, and 1.87 C above the 1961-1990 average.

Particularly high average temperatures were recorded from western Siberia to central Asia, and from eastern China to Japan, the report said, with Japan having its hottest summer on record.


As for precipitation, it was below normal in the Himalayas and in the Hindu Kush mountain range in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Meanwhile southwest China suffered from a drought, with below-normal precipitation levels in nearly every month of the year.

The High-Mountain Asia region, centered on the Tibetan Plateau, contains the largest volume of ice outside of the polar regions.

Over the last several decades, most of these glaciers have been retreating, and at an accelerating rate, the WMO said, with 20 out of 22 monitored glaciers in the region showing continued mass loss last year.

The report said 2023 sea-surface temperatures in the northwest Pacific Ocean were the highest on record.

'Urgency' for action

Last year, 79 disasters associated with water-related weather hazards were reported in Asia. Of those, more than 80 percent were floods and storms, with more than 2,000 deaths and nine million people directly affected.

"Floods were the leading cause of death in reported events in 2023 by a substantial margin," the WMO said, noting the continuing high level of vulnerability of Asia to natural hazard events.

Hong Kong recorded 158.1 millimeters of rainfall in one hour on September 7 – the highest since records began in 1884, as a result of a typhoon.

The WMO said there was an urgent need for national weather services across the region to improve tailored information to officials working on reducing disaster risks.

"It is imperative that our actions and strategies mirror the urgency of these times," said Saulo.

"Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the evolving climate is not merely an option, but a fundamental necessity."


(AFP)

Belgian whose body brews alcohol beats drink-driving rap

Agence France-Presse
April 22, 2024 

A Belgian man proved that he has auto-brewery syndrome (ABS), which causes carbohydrates in his stomach to be fermented, increasing ethanol levels in his blood and resulting in signs of intoxication © Adem ALTAN / AFP

A Belgian man with a very rare metabolic condition that causes his body to produce alcohol had a drink-driving charge against him dismissed in court on Monday.

The 40-year-old proved that he has auto-brewery syndrome (ABS), which causes carbohydrates in his stomach to be fermented, increasing ethanol levels in his blood and resulting in signs of intoxication.

His lawyer, Anse Ghesquiere, confirmed the unusual case to AFP after Belgian media reported on it.

She said scientists believe that the number of ABS cases in the world is under-estimated. Currently, only some 20 people globally have been officially diagnosed with the condition.

She stressed that her client -- whose identity was not given -- gave evidence of his ABS after tests run by three doctors.

The court recognised that factors unforeseen by law applied to the man's case and acquitted him of the charge.

He ended up in court after police in April 2022 pulled his vehicle over and registered him giving a breathalyzer reading of 0.91 milligrammes of alcohol per litre, and again a month later when his breath contained 0.71 milligrammes.

The legal limit in Belgium is 0.22 milligrammes per litre of air exhaled, which corresponds to a blood alcohol level of 0.5 grammes per liter.

Previously, in 2019, the man had received a fine and a driving license suspension despite protesting that he had not drunk any alcohol.

He was apparently unaware of his syndrome before his latest run-in with police.

Ghesquiere said she and her client were awaiting formal notification of the acquittal. She noted that the prosecution service had a month to lodge an appeal if it wished to do so.

The man meanwhile was following a carbohydrate-light diet to avoid his stomach producing more alcohol.


At his initial court appearance in March, the prosecutor requested he avoid any alcoholic beverages, the Belgian state television channel VRT reported.

© 2024 AFP