As Iraqi protesters rally, political deadlock leaves families without cash
By Amina Ismail




A supporter of Iraqi populist leader Moqtada al-Sadr attends the mass Friday prayer outside the parliament near the Green Zone, in Baghdad, Iraq August 19, 2022. 

REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani

Summary
Support for hundreds of thousands of families at stake
Political deadlock has lasted 10 months since election
Amid protests, some efforts at dialogue

BAGHDAD, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Sabreen Khalil lost her husband to COVID last year, leaving her to raise seven children alone, but Iraqi government funding to help her and hundreds of thousands of families in poverty is blocked by political stalemate.

With politicians deadlocked over forming a new government since an election in October, rival Shi'ite Muslim factions in Baghdad on Friday continued their weeks-long protests which have prevented parliament from meeting.

The standoff has raised fears of renewed unrest in a country where militias wield significant power and is already taking a toll on the most vulnerable.

"I am a woman and all of a sudden I had to take the responsibility of seven children alone...it broke my back," Khalil said, speaking of the impact of her husband's death.

Sitting on the floor in her one-bedroom brick house in the village of Saada on the outskirts of Baghdad, she said she cannot afford treatment for her chronic illness and that her children have to skip some meals as food prices soar.

Nine months after applying for a government pension, she has received nothing from the ministry of labour and social affairs. "Every time we go they tell us 'We are waiting for a budget'," she said.

An official at the ministry said Khalil qualifies for support but confirmed there is no funding to provide it. "Our hands are tied because there is no budget," the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.

Her family is one of about 370,000 families who qualify for the pension but are not receiving it because of the political deadlock, the official said.

ATTEMPT AT DIALOGUE

Iraq's 10-month standoff since the election is the longest stretch without a fully functioning government in the nearly two decades since Saddam Hussein was overthrown in a U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Rival Shi'ite groups want to see a new government formed, but disagree on the steps to achieve it.

Supporters of the powerful Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who fought U.S. occupation forces before emerging as the main opponent of Iran-backed Shi'ite militias and their political leaders, has demanded fresh elections.

Sadr was the biggest winner of last year's election but was unable to form a government along with Kurdish and Sunni Muslim Arab parties, excluding his Iran-backed Shi'ite rivals.

Those rivals, known collectively as the Coordination Framework, say an election can only take place after a government is formed to lead a transition period during which legislation including a new election law should be passed.

"There is consensus over dissolving parliament and holding early elections, the issue is with the mechanism," a source in the caretaker government said, adding that talks were ongoing.

On Wednesday, caretaker Prime Minister Mustafa Kadhimi met political leaders and called on Sadr's supporters to join a national dialogue. He also called on all sides to suspend any political escalation.

Sadr did not attend the meeting, and his supporters have shown little public enthusiasm for the initiative.

"These dialogues do not serve the interest of the country... They serve your interests and your parties' interests and to keep you in power," an imam told hundreds of Sadr's followers who gathered to protest outside parliament on Friday.

Some carried portraits of Sadr and his late father, also a prominent cleric, as well as Iraqi flags.

Dozens of supporters of the Coordination Framework also protested outside the heavily protected Green Zone.

Hamdi Malik, an associate fellow at the Washington Institute and a specialist on Iraq's Shi'ite militias, said that despite some efforts to bridge the differences there appeared to be little prospect of swift results.

"The division is so wide that I can't see any solution and the possibility of clashes is actually increasing," Malik said.

Parliament did pass an emergency bill in June allocating billions of dollars to buy wheat, rice and gas and to pay salaries, but other government business has stalled.

A prominent Iraqi rights activist said the political factions were all responsible for the deadlock and ordinary Iraqis were paying the price.

"Anger is rising up among the people. Economic conditions have worsened and unemployment is on the rise," said Hanaa Edwar. Leaders are "holding dialogues to redistribute the spoils amongst politicians", she said.

Khalil meanwhile is still waiting in Saada, which means "happiness" in Arabic, for the government to come to her aid. She said the political process was not working.

"They say it's wrong if we don't vote," she said. "But elections didn't change anything."

Additional reporting by Maher Nazih in Baghdad; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Nick Macfie

Fires around major river torch wetlands, human health in Argentina
By Miguel Lo Bianco and Claudia Martini



Trucks drive by the route 174 amid the smoke produced by the fire that continues to consume trees and pastures in a wetland near the city of Victoria, Entre Rios, Argentina August 18, 2022. REUTERS/Marcelo Manera 

ROSARIO, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Grassland fires near a key South American river delta pose grave dangers to nearby wetland ecosystems and human health, according to environmental leaders, just a year after the water level of the once mighty Parana River dropped to a decades low.

The wildfires around the major riverside port of Rosario, crucial to transporting Argentina's massive grains harvest, have triggered alarm bells among ordinary residents as well as activists already concerned with prolonged drought worsened by this year's scarce rainfall and underscoring the consequences of a warmer, drier climate.

"The combined effect just makes it worse," said Enrique Viale, one of Argentina's leading environmental lawyers.

The Parana River, South America's second-longest waterway after the Amazon, saw its water level last year shrivel to its shallowest since 1944, according to official data, due to several drought cycles plus less rainfall in upstream Brazil. Its level remains very low.

A billowing haze caused by the wildfires, many set by farmers prepping the land for new crops, reached Buenos Aires, about 190 miles (300 km) south of Rosario, earlier in the week. The soot in the air provoked the ire of residents, with popular weather apps issuing forecasts that simply called for "smoke."

Earlier this month, thousands took to the streets of Rosario to protest the fires, demanding enforcement of laws that forbid them.

"Plant life around the river delta is terribly damaged," said Roberto Rojas, the local director of emergency services.

He noted that some 28,000 hectares had already been torched prior the most recent fires, while total land lost to the flames has reached as high as 500,000 hectares in recent years.

"With the climate like it is, so much wind and no rain, we can only wait to see how this story ends," added Rojas.

Reporting by Miguel Lo Bianco and Claudia Martini; Writing by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Richard Chang

Fear for future after mass die-off of fish in Poland's Oder river

By Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska
and Kuba Stezycki




WIDUCHOWA, Poland, Aug 20 (Reuters) - As thousands of dead fish neared the banks of the Oder River in the village of Widuchowa in western Poland on Aug. 11, local people realised an ecological disaster that started in late July in the country's south-west was heading towards the Baltic Sea.

As Widuchowa's residents searched for tools to remove the lifeless bodies from the the river, the government began crisis response that many scientists say came too late.

"It's been the hardest five days of my life," said Pawel Wrobel, the mayor of Widuchowa, which is around 400 kilometres (250 miles) from the town where dead fish had first been spotted. "I'd never imagined experiencing such a catastrophe, it is something you see in disaster movies."

With the help of the local community, he gathered dozens of pitchforks, used to lift potatoes, to remove dead fish from the river, which marks part of the Polish-German border.

"We don't know how to do it and what tools to use, we learn from our mistakes," Wrobel said.

On Aug. 12, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki fired the head of Poland's national water management authority and the head of the general environmental inspectorate, saying that their institutions should have reacted earlier. read more

Despite numerous tests of fish and water samples conducted by Polish and foreign laboratories, and a 1-million-zloty ($211,775) reward for information on the source of contamination, it is still unclear what poisoned the Oder, Poland's second largest river.

"We are focused on, on the one hand, stopping what is happening, and on the other hand, finding the reason for this situation," said climate ministry spokesman Aleksander Brzozka.

Researchers in Germany and Poland's climate ministry have pointed to a large overgrowth of toxic algae as a possible cause for the mass die-off. read more

"The most likely hypothesis is that it was a combination of various natural factors," said Brzozka.

'SOMETHING IS WRONG'

Local people told Reuters that firefighters and territorial defence forces deployed by the government to remove tonnes of dead fish were not prepared for what awaited them in the river.

The stench around the waters was so bad that most of them vomited during their work, according to residents of the village.

Local businesses have also been hit.

When Piotr Bugaj, a passionate angler and owner of boats, a slip and rooms to rent on the Oder heard what was coming, he knew that it was time to put his business on hold.

He asked his guests from the Czech Republic to leave the water and cancelled all future reservations from clients, who flock to Widuchowa from around Europe for its wilderness and diverse population of large fish such as catfish and pike-perch.

"If it's possible with such a tragedy, I would really like to learn that only what was on the surface died out and not more. But for the moment, no one has checked what is currently at the river bottom," he said.

The government has promised support for those affected by the crisis.

Piotr Piznal, a local activist, has dedicated his life to photographing wildlife around the Oder. For the past week he has been documenting the disaster.

"It is hard because in fact, the world we've observed and photographed with my friend for the past few years is disappearing," he says. "I think that after what has happened in the Oder it will take years to rebuild the ecosystem... It will all have to be reborn to function the way it has until now."

Meanwhile, among Widuchowa's residents fear and uncertainly prevail.

"The dead fish have warned us that something is wrong," said Sylwia Palasz-Wrobel, wife of Widuchowa's mayor, standing next to her husband at the foul Oder shore. "When the fish are gone, who will inform us next time when a disaster happens? We would like to know who is responsible for this."

 ($1 = 4.7220 zlotys)

Reporting by Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska and Kuba Stezycki, Editing by Alan Charlish and Alex Richardson

Montenegrin Parliament passes motion of censure against the government

Daniel Stewart - Yesterday 


© Provided by News 360Extraordinary session in which the Parliament votes on the motion of censure of the Government of Dritan Abazovic, Montenegro. - PARLAMENTO DE MONTENEGRO

At the session, out of 81 seats, 51 deputies were present, of which 50 voted in favor, and only one congressman voted against, as reported by the country's public broadcasting company RTCG.

The motion against Abazovic's government was presented by the Socialists of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS). They have announced tonight that negotiations for the formation of a new government may begin this Saturday.

Podgorica signed in early August a pact with the Serbian Orthodox Church, despite the opposition of the DPS, to regulate relations between the two institutions. Opponents announced the motion of censure for having made the agreement of for concealing the time when it was made.

The Prime Minister has indicated that this move is irresponsible if the opposition does not have a plan to constitute a new cabinet. "I hope that we will quickly constitute a new government and get a new mandate (...). If that does not happen, it is irresponsibility and the citizenry must know that it has pushed them into instability," Abazovic has criticized.

Thus, he added that he wants to "believe that (the opposition) has a continuation of the plan". "This is just one of the political battles," he said.

Abazovic has also defended himself in his post by pointing out that no one could have done more in 100 days. "Maybe in a year or four, but not in 100 days," he has assured, before remarking the results in the fight against crime and corruption.

"I am proud of everything we have done in 100 days. We will be remembered as the government that lasted the shortest time. We will do everything possible to ensure that the government that will be formed after the elections will bring Montenegro into the EU," the pro-European politician reiterated.

Disqualified for disabilities, railroad workers fight back

By JOSH FUNK

August 18, 2022

1 of 8

Terrence Hersey stands for a portrait at his home Friday, June 17, 2022, in South Holland, Ill. Hersey underwent extensive rehabilitation for a stroke in 2015, before his doctors eventually cleared him to return to work in 2016. But Union Pacific decided without ever having a doctor examine him that the stroke made him unfit to work for the railroad. Union Pacific has already lost three lawsuits over the way it dismisses employees with health conditions because of safety concerns, and the prospect of hundreds more similar lawsuits, including Hersey's case, looms over the railroad. 

(AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)


OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — After Terrence Hersey had a stroke on the way home from his railroad job in 2015, he underwent months of therapy to learn how to put words together in sentences and learn to walk again. He had to relearn how to get in and out of a car and how to dress himself before his doctors eventually cleared him to return to work with no restrictions.

That recommendation wasn’t good enough for Union Pacific. The railroad decided after reviewing Hersey’s records — but without a doctor’s examination — that he was unfit for his job overseeing inspections of stationary railcars in Chicago because of the risk he would become incapacitated.

“I had a doctor that cleared me, and then Union Pacific did not give me any kind of physical or anything. I felt tossed to the side,” said Hersey.

Without his job, his car was repossessed. He lost his house. He had worked on the railroad for more than 20 years, and finding a job that paid as well as Union Pacific was hard for the 50-year-old Hersey, who now drives a school bus. For his current job, he’s had no problem passing an annual medical test to retain his commercial driver’s license.

“I was a 20-year man and had worked my way up to being a supervisor and had some management opportunities that I could have reached out for. Now I’m making half the money I could make. It’s just like my whole world went upside down,” he said.

Hersey is among hundreds of Union Pacific employees who are fighting back with federal lawsuits after losing their jobs because of health issues. Although they make up only a small percentage of the railroad’s more than 30,000 employees, their cases could prove costly to Union Pacific and could hinder the companies’ efforts to fill scores of open jobs at a time when all of the nation’s railroads are dealing with worker shortages.

Former Union Pacific workers have filed at least 15 other federal lawsuits, and more than 200 other complaints are pending with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that are likely to turn into lawsuits. Seven other cases have been settled.

The lawsuits were originally going to be part of a class-action case filed by former employees, but a federal appeals court decided in 2020 that the complaints had to be pursued individually. The first few cases have now been tried and verdicts over $1 million have been issued in all three.

A spokeswoman for the EEOC said it can’t comment on whether it is investigating allegations against Union Pacific. However, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs, Jim Kaster, said the EEOC has ongoing investigations of the railroad’s practices.

“What makes this case so egregious is the planning from the top down,” said Kaster, who helped handle the class-action case. “It is one thing for a rogue manager in a company to discriminate on the basis of disability. This case is different because this company targeted people with disabilities and disqualified them from working without even examining them and many times without even talking to them.”

By the railroad’s own count, UP said in arguments in the original class-action lawsuit that some 7,700 employees had to undergo what is called a “fitness-for-duty” review between 2014 and 2018. It’s not clear how many of those people were forced out by unworkable restrictions, but lawyers for the plaintiffs estimate nearly 2,000 people faced restrictions that kept them off the job for at least two years if not indefinitely.

Union Pacific policies say that anyone with more than a slight chance of “sudden incapacitation” shouldn’t work for the railroad because it’s dangerous. The railroad has vigorously defended its policy, arguing its strict rules are designed to protect its workers and the public from injury risks or environmental damage if someone suffers a health emergency that causes a derailment or other accident.

Union Pacific spokeswoman Robynn Tysver said the railroad strives to maintain an inclusive workplace, but “the Americans with Disabilities Act does not diminish Union Pacific’s commitment and obligation to maintain a safe work environment.”

“Union Pacific medical personnel who have a thorough understanding of a railroad’s unique operational requirements assess employees’ medical condition to determine if it prevents them from safely performing their essential job duties in accordance with our medical standards and obligations under the ADA,” Tysver said. “In addition, Union Pacific often engages third-party medical consultants to assist with medical reviews.”

Yet former workers claim Union Pacific is ignored their doctors’ advice and making their own determinations, often when doctors have said an employee is cleared to work.

The cases leave Union Pacific potentially facing more than $350 million in damages plus sizeable legal fees, and government regulators could impose additional penalties if they fault the railroad. That may not do much to dent the bottom line for a company that reported a $1.84 billion profit in its most-recent quarter, but the lawsuits could add to unrest among its current workers. UP workers are already upset that they haven’t had a raise since 2019 and that the railroad tightened its attendance policy, making it harder to take time off.

Federal law caps most damages in these disability cases besides lost wages at $300,000, but lawyers for the plaintiffs say the giant judgments, including a $44 million decision they won last year in Wisconsin, send a strong message that Union Pacific’s policy is flawed even if the penalty is reduced. In the Wisconsin case, a conductor with impaired hearing was forced out despite years of successful employment because he couldn’t pass a hearing test while wearing the company’s newly required hearing protection. The railroad wouldn’t consider alternative protective gear.

The cases all argue that Union Pacific discriminates against people with disabilities because of the way it disqualifies employees after they report certain health conditions, even if they have little bearing on whether an employee can safely do their job. Since 2014, the Omaha, Nebraska-based railroad has required workers to report anytime they develop a heart condition, have a seizure or develop diabetes that needs to be treated with insulin. Union Pacific also routinely imposes restrictions on employees who fail a color vision test it designed and refuses to employ someone with a prosthetic limb regardless of how capable they might be.

When an employee or their supervisor reports a health condition, Union Pacific puts them on leave and demands they submit medical records that railroad doctors review to determine their suitability for work. The plaintiffs say the railroad usually makes its decision without doctors examining employees, and Union Pacific ignores the recommendations of doctors who are treating individuals and have cleared them to return to work.

An occupational medicine doctor who works with the plaintiffs, Kevin Trangle, said he doesn’t think UP’s policy is sound because it’s “more restrictive than necessary, and would tend to cause workers to be unnecessarily prevented from working.”

Rolando Vasquez said in one of the lawsuits he lost his job after he had a motorcycle accident because doctors put him on anti-seizure medication as a precaution. In response, the railroad imposed a series of restrictions that made it impossible for him to work as an electronic technician inspector in Del Rio, Texas, even though he’d never actually had a seizure.

In another case, a diesel electrician said he was treated as if he had a condition that causes seizures after he fainted once because he was dehydrated while battling an illness. The railroad ruled that Joseph Carrillo shouldn’t be allowed to operate any company vehicles, work around moving trains or hold any job that involved “critical decision making,” so his managers in El Paso agreed he could no longer repair locomotives.

J.J. Stover lost his job as a track inspector in Kearney, Nebraska, after having a dizzy spell at work because his doctors labeled the 2016 incident a mini stroke, or transient ischemic attack, even though he said all the tests they performed on him while he was hospitalized for more than three days came back negative and he hasn’t experienced any more dizziness.

Stover’s doctors said he could return to work just a couple weeks later. Shortly after that, the Army Reserves took his doctors’ word and sent him to Poland for several weeks of training, but Union Pacific spent nine months reviewing his records before deciding he shouldn’t be allowed to drive a railroad truck or work around the tracks.

“It’s just hard to understand,” Stover said.

Another one of the workers’ attorneys, Nick Thompson, said Union Pacific doesn’t seem to consider any mitigating details, and it applies the same restrictions to every worker that has a condition regardless of whether that person drives a train or digs a ditch to install a signal for the railroad.

“They treat every condition like it’s the worst version of that. If you pass out — regardless of the cause — they treat it for determining risk of future events as though it is an unmedicated seizure condition. That just doesn’t make any sense,” Thompson said.

Fewer Americans file for jobless benefits last week
By MATT OTT

August 18, 2022

A hiring sign is displayed at a restaurant in Schaumburg, Ill., Friday, April 1, 2022. More Americans applied for jobless benefits last week, reported Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022, as the number of unemployed continues to rise modestly, though the labor market remains one of the strongest parts of the U.S. economy. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Slightly fewer Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week as the labor market continues to stand out as one of the strongest segments of the U.S. economy.

Applications for jobless aid for the week ending August 13 fell by 2,000 to 250,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Last week’s number, which raised some eyebrows, was revised down by 10,000.

The four-week average for claims, which evens out some of the week-to-week volatility, fell by 2,750 to 246,750.

The number of Americans collecting traditional unemployment benefits increased by 7,000 the week that ended August 6, to 1.43 million. That’s the most since early April.

Unemployment applications generally reflect layoffs and are often seen as an early indicator of where the job market is headed.

Hiring in the United States in 2022 has been remarkably resilient in the face of rising interest rates and weak economic growth.

The Labor Department reported earlier this month that U.S. employers added 528,000 jobs in July, more than double what forecasters had expected. The unemployment rate dipped to 3.5%, tying a 50-year low reached just before coronavirus pandemic slammed the U.S. economy in early 2020.

The United States recovered with unexpected strength from 2020′s COVID-19 recession, leaving businesses scrambling to find enough workers.

That’s not to say the U.S. economy doesn’t face challenges. Consumer prices have been surging, rising 8.5% in July from a year earlier — down slightly from June’s 40-year high 9.1%. To combat inflation, the Federal Reserve has raised its benchmark short-term interest rate four times this year.

Higher borrowing costs have taken a toll. The economy contracted in the first half of the year — one measure suggesting the onset of a recession. But the strength of the job market has been inconsistent with an economic downturn.

US Federal study: New climate law to slice carbon pollution 40%

By SETH BORENSTEIN

August 18, 2022

FILE - Cargo vessels are anchored offshore near oil platforms, before heading into the Los Angeles-Long Beach port on Oct. 5, 2021. The first official federal calculations of the new spending package that President Biden signed show it will slice America's carbon pollution by more than 1 billion tons by the end of the decade. The new law’s provisions that call for oil and gas leasing on federal land and water “may lead to some increase” in carbon pollution, the federal analysis said. (AP Photo/Eugene Garcia, File)


Clean energy incentives in the new spending package signed this week by President Joe Biden will trim America’s emissions of heat-trapping gases by about 1.1 billion tons (1 billion metric tons) by 2030, a new Department of Energy analysis shows.

The first official federal calculations, shared with The Associated Press before its release Thursday, say that between the bill just signed and last year’s infrastructure spending law, the U.S. by the end of the decade will be producing about 1.26 billion tons (1.15 billion metric tons) less carbon pollution than it would have without the laws. That saving is equivalent to about the annual greenhouse gas emissions of every home in the United States.

The Energy Department analysis finds that with the new law by 2030, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions should be about 40% lower than 2005 levels, which is still not at the U.S. announced target of cutting carbon pollution between 50% and 52% by the end of the decade. But that 40% reduction is similar to earlier calculations by the independent research firm Rhodium Group, which figured cuts would be 31% to 44% and the scientists at Climate Action Tracker, which said the drop would be 26% to 42%.

Most of the projected emissions reductions in the nearly $375 billion spending package would come in promoting “clean energy,” mostly solar and wind power and electric vehicles, the federal analysis said. More than half of the overall projected emission drops would come in how the nation generates electricity, the analysis said. About 10% of the savings in emissions come from agriculture and land conservation.

The new law’s provisions that call for oil and gas leasing on federal land and water “may lead to some increase” in carbon pollution, the federal analysis said, but the other provisions to spur cleaner energy cut 35 tons of greenhouse gas for every new ton of pollution from the increased oil and gas drilling.

Outside experts, such as Bill Hare of Climate Action Tracker, say the new law is a big step for the United States, but it’s still not enough considering that America is the biggest historic carbon polluter, had done little for decades and lags behind Europe.

“At this point anything going in that direction you count as a win, right? I mean after so long a time of total inaction and knowing how difficult politically it is to get the country moving in a direction like this due to politics and economics and all the other things involved with this issue,” National Center for Atmospheric Research climate scientist Gerald Meehl, who wasn’t part of the analysis, said about what the new law will do. “You can argue that’s not nearly enough, but I think once you start seeing motion, you hope that then we can build on that and kind of keep the ball rolling.”

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Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

A look at the world’s skinniest skyscraper: Steinway Tower

By KIANA DOYLE

August 18, 2022

Four residential skyscrapers tower over the skyline south of Central Park in the Manhattan borough of New York City on Friday, Feb. 26, 2021. From left, Central Park Tower, One57, Steinway Tower and the MoMA Expansion Tower. One skyscraper stands out from the rest in the Manhattan skyline. It's not the tallest, but it is the skinniest — the world's skinniest, in fact. The 84-story residential Steinway Tower, designed by New York architecture firm SHoP Architects, has the title of “most slender skyscraper in the world” thanks to its logic-defying ratio of width to height: 23 1/2-to-1. 

(AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — One skyscraper stands out from the rest in the Manhattan skyline. It’s not the tallest, but it is the skinniest — the world’s skinniest, in fact.

The 84-story residential Steinway Tower, designed by New York architecture firm SHoP Architects, has the title of “most slender skyscraper in the world” thanks to its logic-defying ratio of width to height: 1-to-23 1/2.

“Any time it’s 1-to-10 or more that’s considered a slender building; 1-to-15 or more is considered exotic and really difficult to do,” SHoP Architects founding principal Gregg Pasquarelli said. “The most slender buildings in the world are mostly in Hong Kong, and they’re around 17- or 18-to-1.”

The 60 apartments in the tower range in cost from $18 million to $66 million per unit, and offer 360-degree views of the city. It’s located just south of Central Park, along a stretch of Manhattan’s 57th Street known as “Billionaires’ Row.”

At 1,428 feet (435 meters), the building is the second-tallest residential tower in the Western Hemisphere, second to the nearby Central Park Tower at 1,550 feet (470 meters). For comparison, the world’s tallest tower is Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, which stands at 2,717 feet (828 meters).

Steinway Tower is so skinny at the top that whenever the wind ramps up, the luxury homes on the upper floors sway around by a few feet.

“Every skyscraper has to move,” Pasquarelli said. “If it’s too stiff, it’s actually more dangerous — it has to have flexibility in it.”

To prevent the tower from swaying too far, the architects created a counterbalance with tuned steel plates. And while the exterior has the de rigueur reflective glass, it also includes a textured terracotta and bronze facade that creates wind turbulence to slow the acceleration of the building, Pasquarelli said. About 200 rock anchors descend at most 100 feet (30 meters) into the underlying bedrock to provide a deep foundation.

Steinway Tower has a long history as the former location of Steinway Hall, constructed in 1924. JDS Development Group and Property Markets Group bought the building in 2013, and now they’re looking to the future.

“What I’m hoping is that 50 years from now, you’ve only known New York with 111 West 57th St.,” Pasquarelli said. “I hope it holds a special place in all future New Yorkers’ hearts.” ___

AP contributor Aron Ranen contributed to this report.

WHO: World coronavirus cases fall 24%; deaths rise in Asia
August 18, 2022

Residents wearing face masks wait in line to get their routine COVID-19 throat swabs at a coronavirus testing site in Beijing, Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)


LONDON (AP) — New coronavirus cases reported globally dropped nearly a quarter in the last week while deaths fell 6% but were still higher in parts of Asia, according to a report Thursday on the pandemic by the World Health Organization.

The U.N. health agency said there were 5.4 million new COVID-19 cases reported last week, a decline of 24% from the previous week. Infections fell everywhere in the world, including by nearly 40% in Africa and Europe and by a third in the Middle East. COVID deaths rose in the Western Pacific and Southeast Asia by 31% and 12% respectively, but fell or remained stable everywhere else.

At a press briefing Wednesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said reported coronavirus deaths over the past month have surged 35%, and noted there had been 15,000 deaths in the past week.

“15,000 deaths a week is completely unacceptable, when we have all the tools to prevent infections and save lives,” Tedros said. He said the number of virus sequences shared every week has plummeted 90%, making it extremely difficult for scientists to monitor how COVID-19 might be mutating.

“But none of us is helpless,” Tedros said. “Please get vaccinated if you are not, and if you need a booster, get one.”

On Thursday, WHO’s vaccine advisory group recommended for the first time that people most vulnerable to COVID-19, including older people, those with underlying health conditions and health workers, get a second booster shot. Numerous other health agencies and countries made the same recommendation months ago.

The expert group also said it had evaluated data from the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for younger people and said children and teenagers were in the lowest priority group for vaccination, since they are far less likely to get severe disease.

Joachim Hombach, who sits on WHO’s vaccine expert group, said it was also uncertain whether the experts would endorse widespread boosters for the general population or new combination vaccines that target the omicron variant.

“We need to see what the data will tell us and we need to see actually (what) will be the advantage of these vaccines that comprise an (omicron) strain,” he said.

Dr. Alejandro Cravioto, the expert group’s chair, said that unless vaccines were proven to stop transmission, their widespread use would be “a waste of the vaccine and a waste of time.”

Earlier this week, British authorities authorized an updated version of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine that targets omicron and the U.K. government announced it would be offered to people over 50 beginning next month.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic

Kemp’s ridley sea turtle nests 1st in 75 years in Louisiana

By JANET McCONNAUGHEYAugust 18, 2022


1 of 4

This undated photo provided by the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority in August 2022 shows a newly hatched Kemp's ridley sea turtle making its way out to the Gulf of Mexico from Louisiana's Chandeleur Islands. The world’s smallest and most endangered sea turtle is nesting in barrier islands east of New Orleans, La., for the first time in 75 years, officials said Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2022. 

(Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority via AP)


NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The world’s smallest and most endangered sea turtles have hatched in Louisiana’s wilds for the first known time in more than 75 years, officials said Wednesday.

“Louisiana was largely written off as a nesting spot for sea turtles decades ago, but this determination demonstrates why barrier island restoration is so important,” Chip Kline, chairman of the Louisiana Coastal Restoration and Protection Authority, said in a news release.

Crews monitoring the Chandeleur Islands — a chain 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of New Orleans — to help design a restoration project found tracks of females going to and from nests and of hatchlings leaving a nest.

The first tracks were found by a crew surveying birds “before the sea turtle nesting season really kicked off,” said Matthew Weigel, coastal resources scientist manager for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

After that crew brought back a photo of a sea turtle “crawl,” the two agencies began weekly flights over the island to look for more. Weigel said he and Todd Baker of the restoration agency were walking between two that they’d sighted from the plane on July 29 when they stumbled on hatchling tracks on the beach.

“There was some high-fiving going on,” he said. They followed those tracks back to a nest they hadn’t known about. There, they found two tiny, newly emerged turtles, which they followed back to the beach.

Weigel said aerial surveys found 52 sets of tracks, some of which experts identified as Kemp’s ridley, others as loggerhead sea turtles. Some were “false crawls” where no nest was made.

“The endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle has returned to nest on the Chandeleur Islands, highlighting the need to protect this sensitive habitat so it can continue to be home to ocean and coastal wildlife in the future,” said Beth Lowell, vice president for the United States of the environmental nonprofit Oceana.

The Louisiana agencies said threatened loggerhead sea turtles also are nesting on the Chandeleurs, which are part of the nation’s second-oldest national wildlife refuge, called Breton National Wildlife Refuge.

Loggerhead nests found in 2015 on Grand Isle — roughly 70 miles (112 kilometers) southwest of the Chandeleurs — were the first confirmed sea turtle nests in Louisiana in more than 30 years, according to the statement.

All six sea turtle species found in U.S. waters are protected under the Endangered Species Act. Tens of thousands of Kemp’s ridleys, which grow to about 2 feet (0.6 meter) long, once nested in Mexico, but in the 1980s a low of only about 250 did so, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Wednesday’s announcement came less than two weeks after officials reported the first sea turtle nest since 2018 on Mississippi’s mainland.

That location in Pass Christian Harbor is roughly 40 miles (64 kilometers) northwest of the Chandeleurs, the easternmost part of Louisiana. The chain has been eaten away by erosion, tropical storms including Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the BP oil spill in 2010.

The two agencies have been closely monitoring the islands since May as part of work to restore the islands using oil spill money.

The discovery of nesting sea turtles will help ensure sea turtle nesting habitat is preserved and improved, officials said.

Most Kemp’s ridley nests are along the western Gulf of Mexico, 95% of them in the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico, according to NOAA. “Occasional nesting has been documented in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Alabama,” according to its website about the species.

Juvenile Kemp’s ridleys feed in Louisiana’s estuaries. Many species of sea turtles gather around the Chandeleur Islands, feeding in and around the state’s only marine seagrass meadows, the news release said.

“It is well known that the Chandeleur Islands provide key habitats for a host of important species; however, with the recent discovery of a successful Kemp’s ridley sea turtle hatching, the islands’ value to the region has been elevated,” Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Jack Montoucet said.

Additional nests may be discovered on the Chandeleur Islands as monitoring continues and hatchlings emerge, the news release said. The nesting season peaks in June and July, and eggs take 50 to 60 days to hatch, it said.

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A previous version of this story published on Aug. 17, 2022 incorrectly reported that 52 sets of tracks were identified as Kemp’s ridley sea turtles. It is being republished to correct that some were identified as Kemp’s ridley and some as loggerhead sea turtles.