Study finds simple headlines attract more online news readers

by Michigan State University

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

The competition for online attention in today's news environment is fierce. High-quality news from credible sources must compete for attention with misinformation and a rapidly increasing amount of partisan content.

How can a news organization stand out as a reputable and trustworthy outlet while driving readers to its site?

The answer is simple: literally.

According to research from Michigan State University, news readers engage more with simple writing, suggesting journalists should write simply—clearly and without ambiguity—to attract attention online. The study was published in the journal Science Advances.

"Newsrooms want engagement, and citizens, in general, want to be informed. Simple writing provides both. It can help news outlets compete in the competitive online attention economy and makes news more approachable to online readers," said David Markowitz, associate professor of communication in the MSU College of Communication Arts and Sciences.

Markowitz and his colleagues on the study, Hillary Shulman, associate professor of communication at Ohio State University, and Todd Rogers, professor of public policy at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, evaluated over 30,000 field experiments assessing how headlines from the Washington Post and Upworthy impacted how often people clicked on stories. To do this, they developed a simplicity index, which evaluated headlines based on the following criteria:

• Common words, including simple nouns and verbs.
• Readability, reflecting the number of words per sentence and syllables per word.
• Analytic writing, which describes how much a text reflects a story. Texts that score high in analytic writing tend to be more formal and complex.
• Character count, or the raw number of characters per headline.

Data from these experiments found that people engage with and click on linguistically simple headlines more than linguistically complex headlines.

"Simplicity is often preferred linguistically because it feels better than complexity to most people," said Markowitz. "It can impact what people read, what people click on, and how they think about companies and institutions competing for our attention."

"The best way to increase demand for good, credible journalism is to realize that simpler is better," Shulman said.

The researchers also found that complex headlines had less stickiness than simple headlines: readers were less likely to recognize or remember them later, as demonstrated in online experiments.

"Small efforts aimed at increasing the simplicity or fluency of language can increase the attention of casual readers—and also make them more informed and educated about the news of the day," said Markowitz.

And getting the simplicity right can make a significant difference. For example, during the time of the study, the Washington Post had about 70 million unique visitors to its website—that is, readers who did not visit the site twice. If only 0.10% more readers click on a story because it has a simpler headline (2.1% versus 2%) and end up reading three articles on the Washington Post website, that would still equal a difference of more than 200,000 readers.

"This not only makes the news accessible to more people, but it can also help newsrooms with their bottom line. More visitors means ad buyers are more attracted to a publication, which helps a news organization's bottom line," said Markowitz.

More information: Hillary Shulman, Reading Dies in Complexity: Online News Consumers Prefer Simple Writing, Science Advances (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adn2555. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adn2555

Journal information: Science Advances 

Provided by Michigan State University New research shows how attention lapses are exploited by fake news sites

Gay Brit says Qatari cops lured him on Grindr before falsely arresting him for drugs

The man went to a date's apartment as cops claimed to have found meth in his possession.

By Greg Owen Wednesday, June 5, 2024


Manuel Guerrero Aviña, right, and his brother BenjaminPhoto: Amnesty International


A Mexican-British national living in the Middle Eastern country of Qatar has been convicted of drug possession after police lured him to a date’s apartment using a fake Grindr profile, his family says.

Manuel Guerrero Aviña, 44, was given a suspended six-month prison term and a fine at Al Sadd Criminal Court in the capital city of Doha on Wednesday.

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British/Mexican man arrested for being gay in Qatar is being denied HIV medications

He says police entrapped him and are now psychologically torturing him.

The former Qatar Airways employee is currently under a travel ban, which will continue if he decides to appeal. If he accepts the charges and pays the fine, he’ll be deported.

Qatari authorities detained the 44-year-old without charge in February 2024. Authorities held him for over six weeks, during which time he says he was denied food and water for 15 hours at a time and was abused based on his sexual orientation and his HIV-positive status.

During interrogations, Guerrero Aviña says he was threatened with whipping and forced to identify sexual partners in his phone address book. He was denied HIV medication for the duration of his detention, he said.

“Guerrero Aviña’s treatment in custody and his unfair trial was utterly horrific,” said Aya Majzoub, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.

“Instead of convicting people after unfair proceedings, Qatar’s authorities must urgently end the discrimination and persecution of people based on their sexual orientation and gender identities and repeal all laws that discriminate against LGBTI people,” Majzoub added.

Qatari authorities deny Guerrero Aviña was persecuted for being gay, and maintain that his detention and trial were based solely on drug possession on his person which was discovered by investigators at his apartment while he was detained at another location.

“Mr Aviña’s arrest and the subsequent investigation are related solely to the possession of illegal substances with the intent to supply,” a Qatari official told Amnesty International in March.

According to his case file, Qatari authorities informed Guerrero Aviña they had found traces of crystal methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia in their search of his apartment.

Guerrero Aviña denies using or possessing illegal drugs and maintains they were planted by law enforcement officials.

“This case has been a travesty of justice,” said James Lynch, co-director of Gulf-based human rights group FairSquare. “Following his conviction, the British government has a responsibility to make urgent representations to the Qatari government about the deeply unfair and discriminatory process their citizen has been subjected to. They must also press the Qatari authorities to stop the persecution of people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.”

Police in several Middle East countries routinely use fake dating app profiles to entrap and arrest LGBTQ+ people, according to Human Rights Watch.

In 2022, Amnesty International reported that security officials arbitrarily arrested, tortured, and otherwise ill-treated six people in Qatar for their sexual orientation. Six cases of severe and repeated beatings and five cases of sexual harassment in police custody were reported by Human Rights Watch between 2019 and 2022.

Lawsuit Claims Meta Censored Pro-Palestinian Content

Published Jun 05, 2024 
By Suzanne Blake
Reporter, Consumer & Social Trends


Anew lawsuit alleges that Meta purposefully hid pro-Palestinian content on its social media platforms.

A former Meta engineer accused the owner of Facebook and Instagram of censoring Palestinian Instagram posts in a lawsuit that also accuses the company of wrongful termination and discrimination.

Ferras Hamad, a Palestinian-American engineer who filed the suit, started working on Meta's machine learning team in 2021. But after being fired in February, Hamad said Meta deleted internal communications between workers about the deaths of their family members in Gaza.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on January 31 in Washington, D.C. Meta has been accused of censoring pro-Palestinian content in a new lawsuit.... More ANNA MONEYMAKER/GETTY IMAGES


Meta is also accused of starting investigations into the use of the Palestinian flag emoji by employees but did not do the same for Israeli or Ukrainian flags, the lawsuit alleges.

The Hamas militant group attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostages. Israel then launched its largest-ever airstrikes in Gaza, where more than 36,000 people have been killed, local health officials said.

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HR consultant Bryan Driscoll went as far as calling the action by Meta "reprehensible" but not shocking, given the company's track record on content moderation and bias, he said.

"The lawsuit alleges Meta fired a former engineer for raising concerns about the company suppressing pro-Palestinian content on Instagram," Driscoll told Newsweek. "If true, it has profound ramifications, both for Meta's credibility, which people don't seem to care about, and for broader issues of free speech and censorship in tech."


Driscoll said the suppression of any political content, especially related to the war in Gaza, highlights the power and responsibility tech giants wield over public discourse.

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"Meta will likely face significant pressure to respond transparently...and then people will forget," Driscoll said. "Meta will continue to resist content moderation of any meaningful impact. The company's primary focus is profit and maintaining market dominance. These legal battles are just bumps in the road for them."

Since the average social media user is unaware of the intricacies behind content moderation and how biases play into it, Meta is unlikely to be impacted in the long term. Still, Meta could face financial consequences and a short-term blow to its public image, Driscoll said.

"The perception of bias in content moderation can lead to a loss of user trust, but let's be honest, Facebook and Instagram diehards aren't going anywhere."

Meta previously launched an investigation in 2021 looking into the content it allows on its platforms related to Israel and the Palestinians.

"Meta seems to have been caught in censorship crossfire," Arun C. Kumar, the former chief data and marketing technology officer for Interpublic and the author of The Data Deluge: Making Marketing Work for Brands and People, told Newsweek.

"The key driver here is that Meta has designated Hamas as a terrorist organization. Therefore, all associated images and symbols of Hamas will be recognized as such by any algorithm. If a user shows a Palestinian flag on a post and Hamas has used Palestinian flags in its posts, then the algorithm will suppress the content. It's just the way AI works."

In Hamad's lawsuit, the company said it fired him based on breaking rules centered around working on content from creators an employee knows personally. But Hamad said he brought up the censorship of Palestinian content on Instagram, showing the company instances in which the pro-Palestinian posts were classified as pornographic.

The next month, Hamad received notice he was under investigation, and he submitted an internal discrimination complaint. Just days after, he was terminated.

The official reason was breaking a rule against employees working on issues with accounts of people they know in real life, but Hamad said he had no personal ties to the Palestinian photojournalist he brought up the censorship concerns over.

"The employee was dismissed for violating Meta's data access policies, which we make clear to employees will result in immediate termination." a Meta spokesperson told Newsweek.

Kumar said the widespread concerns over Meta's Palestinian content policy stems from how the company has flagged Hamas as terrorists.

"Meta is getting criticized for not suppressing Israeli or Ukrainian content," Kumar said. "An algorithm wouldn't ban them because they have not been associated or tagged with terrorist organizations. The question really is whether Meta should tag Israeli flags in the same way that it tags Palestinian flags."

Meta has withstood similar accusations. Roughly 200 employees wrote in a letter to company CEO Mark Zuckerberg about their concerns of censorship.


Update 6/5/24, 4:57 p.m. ET: This story was updated with comment from a Meta spokesperson.

Scientists Discover Antarctica's Lost River 34 Million Years Later

Published Jun 05, 2024 

By Jess Thomson
Science Reporter


Ariver similar in size to the Rio Grande once dominated West Antarctica, scientists have discovered, offering a rare glimpse of the continent's land that is today covered in ice.

The 900-mile-long waterway is thought to have flowed about 44 to 34 million years ago, shortly before the continent's immensely thick ice sheets began building up.


At that time, after dinosaurs and long before human life, Antarctica had a mild climate and was possibly home to giant penguins, noted study author Cornelia Spiegel, of Germany's University of Bremen. The discovery also implies that West Antarctica was above sea level at that time.

"We found that, before West Antarctica became covered by ice, it was dominated by a large river system, had a temperate climate (the water temperature at the surface of the river during summer was approximately 19°C), and a swampy environment," she told Newsweek via email.

"The river was presumably meandering through a vast coastal plain with boggy swampland along the river banks."

Map of West Antarctica shows the subglacial topography of the study area, including the likely path the river once followed. Abbreviations: AP, Antarctic Peninsula; AT, Adare Trough; EWM, Ellsworth-Whitmore Mountains; MBL, Marie Byrd Land; MMR,... More AAAS


An international team of scientists discovered this river after analyzing samples from the sandstone rock beneath the Amundsen Sea Embayment, where the West Antarctic Ice Sheet meets the ocean. In this rock, which dates back to the Eocene—a geological period that lasted from about 56 million to 34 million years ago—they found evidence of sediments that originated in the Transantarctic Mountains, implying that they had been washed all the way there by an ancient river.

The researchers also found traces of organic chemicals associated with freshwater bacteria, further supporting the presence of a large river delta in the region. It stretched between the Transantarctic Mountains and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, and drained into the Amundsen Sea, according to the paper in the journal Science Advances.

"Our study also shows that West Antarctica was mostly above sea level (today, most of the rocks beneath the ice are situated below sea level), but was at the same time pretty flat. Because of that missing topography, West Antarctica presumably remained free of large glaciers, whereas the mountainous areas of East Antarctica started to freeze over circa 34 million years ago," Spiegel said.

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Stock image of Antarctica. Scientists may have discovered evidence of an ancient river that once crossed the frozen continent. ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES PLUS

The researchers hope that the discovery of this river will help them better understand the history of Antarctica's geography, and how it became the frozen continent it is today.


"Major Antarctic glaciation initiated at the Eocene-Oligocene transition [when the planet is known to have undergone a period of intense cooling] 34 million years ago, marking one of the most pronounced climate transitions of Phanerozoic times [from 538.8 million years ago to the present]," the researchers wrote.

They added that the reconstruction of Antarctica's conditions before this transition "provides important boundary conditions for understanding the subsequent cooling and onset of glaciation with major consequences for ice sheet modeling."

Newfoundland Extreme Fog Causes Flight Chaos

SEVEN DAYS OF DELAYS

Published Jun 05, 2024 
By Kritika Gogte


Extremely foggy conditions and heavy rain in Newfoundland have caused flight delays, cancellations and diversions at St. John's Airport.

Over a dozen flights have been cancelled since Friday due to poor visibility. Newsweek has contacted the airport for further updates on the situation.

The airport has invested $40 million in enhanced landing systems to minimize disruptions to air travel in foggy weather.

A satellite image showing Newfoundland on Wednesday morning WINDY.COM

The systems were installed in 2016 and tested successfully. However, CBC reported that despite the airport's announcement of successful landings on Twitter, most flights later that day were still either cancelled or delayed.



Per Euro Control's information website Skybrary, an Instrument Landing System (ILS) is defined as a precision runway approach aid based on two radio beams which together provide pilots with both vertical and horizontal guidance during an approach to land.

Airport officials have confirmed that the system works well and has helped hundreds of extra flights land in time, but it requires airlines to have technical training to use it. WestJet and AirCanada have both confirmed that their planes are ready and technically compatible with the technology, while Porter and Flair airlines have stated that they are operating at a lower level of technology due to a "required change in pilot training and maintenance items onboard".

"We have had a lot more low visibility operations than typical," Scott Mercer, who helps run infrastructure at the airport, told CTV National News. "It's all weather driven, there's nothing from the infrastructure point of view right now that's causing less flights."

The bad weather and low visibility conditions, however, have not deterred tourists visiting the province.

Meteorologists expect the conditions to last until Friday. The Weather Channel's predictions show wind and a 60 percent chance of rain showers continuing tonight and most of tomorrow morning, along with 2mm to 4mm of fog in onshore winds and cloudy conditions. Later tonight, after the wind becomes lighter, rainy conditions might continue but the fog might dissipate by early noon tomorrow.

The looming U.S. ban or sale of TikTok is putting free speech, livelihoods at risk

 

Congress passed a law to potentially ban a platform that is a source of income for many--Some TikTok users are questioning how to balance the right to free speech and national security concerns.

GOOD RIDDANCE

Canadian serial killer Robert Pickton, who brought victims to pig farm, is dead after prison assault

 1 June 2024 

 

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This frame grab from an undated Global Television broadcast shows pig farmer Robert William Pickton inside a barn on his pig farm in Port Coquitlam, Canada. Photo: AFP / Global Television

Canadian serial killer Robert Pickton, who took female victims to his pig farm during a crime spree near Vancouver in the late 1990s and early 2000s, has died after being assaulted in prison, authorities said Friday. He was 74.

The Correctional Service of Canada said in a statement that Pickton, an inmate of Port-Cartier Institution in the province of Quebec, died in hospital following injuries in the 19 May assault involving another inmate. He was one of Canada's most notorious serial killers and his case made international headlines.

A 51-year-old inmate was in custody for the assault on Pickton, police spokesman Hugues Beaulieu said earlier this month.

Robert "Willie" Pickton was convicted of six counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2007, with the maximum parole ineligibility period of 25 years, after being charged with the murders of 26 women.

Police began searching the Pickton farm in the Vancouver suburb of Port Coquitlam more than 22 years ago in what would be a years-long investigation into the disappearances of dozens of women from Vancouver's seediest streets, sex workers and users of drugs abandoned on the margins of society.

The remains or DNA of 33 women were found on the farm. Pickton once bragged to an undercover police officer that he killed a total of 49 women.

During his trial, prosecution witness Andrew Bellwood said Pickton told him how he strangled his victims and fed their remains to his pigs. Health officials once issued a tainted meat advisory to neighbours who might have bought pork from Pickton's farm, concerned the meat might have contained human remains.

Cynthia Cardinal, whose sister Georgina Papin was murdered by Pickton, said Pickton's death means she can finally move on from her sister's murder.

"This is gonna bring healing for, I won't say all families, I'll just say most of the families," she said. "I'm like - wow, finally. I can actually move on and heal and I can put this behind me."

Vancouver police were criticised for not taking the cases seriously because many of the missing were sex workers or users of drugs.

Canada's correctional service said it was conducting an investigation into the attack on Pickton.

"The investigation will examine all of the facts and circumstances surrounding the assault, including whether policies and protocols were followed," the service said in the statement. "We are mindful that this offender's case has had a devastating impact on communities in British Columbia and across the country, including Indigenous peoples, victims and their families. Our thoughts are with them."

Pickton's confirmed victims were six: Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Brenda Ann Wolfe, Papin and Marnie Frey.

"Earlier today, I was made aware of the death of an inmate at Port-Cartier Institution," Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said in a statement. "At this time, my thoughts are with the families of the victims of this individual's heinous crimes."

At the time of Pickton's sentencing, British Columbia Supreme Court Justice James Williams said it was a "rare case that properly warrants the maximum period of parole ineligibility available to the court."

- AP

Killer Heat’s Shadow: India’s Labourers on the Frontlines, Face Boiling Temperatures


Country:
INDIA

Authors:
Shagun Kapil
GRANTEE

Joel Michael
GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

Project
No Escape From Heat for India’s Vulnerable Workers

READ MORE ABOUT THIS PROJECT


From L-R, Construction worker Rohit Kumar Paswan, boiler plant worker Bhim Singh 

and tailor Kajalben all face extreme, intense heat at work.

 Images by Joel Michael/CSE. India, 2024.

In part one of this series, DTE investigates how the new normal of extreme heat is impacting informal workers and workplaces lacking climate control mechanisms

Rohit Kumar Paswan’s daily job involves securing himself to a harness and ascending scaffolding on the 10th floor of a building under construction, with the mercury soaring to around 47 degrees Celsius.

Bhim Singh works inside a boiler plant that operates a textile unit.

Kajalben spends a significant portion of her day within her cramped house, operating a sewing machine to stitch clothes for her customers.

All three work in different occupations, in distinct workspaces — the first is directly exposed to the sun during his working hours, the second works within a factory and the third from the comfort of her own home. However, a common factor binds them in their workplaces: Extreme, intense heat is unavoidable for all three.

Video courtesy of Down To Earth. India, 2024.

Down To Earth’s (DTE) Shagun and Joel Michael travelled to brick kilns, construction sites, factories, small-scale units and homes serving as workplaces for thousands of informal workers in Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Gujarat to understand how a rapidly warming planet has made work extremely challenging, testing people’s tolerance limits.

Around 82 per cent of India’s workforce is engaged in the informal sector and nearly 90 per cent is informally employed.

This new series by DTE will report on how heat is affecting labourers and workplaces that lack climate control mechanisms like cooling or air conditioning, or where these systems cannot be implemented due to the nature of the work. The reports will also examine the health impacts heat has on the most vulnerable populations, along with possible prevention measures that industries can explore.

In the first part of the series, DTE reports on outdoor workers who build our cities but are directly exposed to the scorching heat.

“MY BODY FEELS like it is trapped in a heat island, soaked in sweat. I would choose any other job over this if given the choice,” 34-year-old Biresh Kumar described his daily job, which entails working directly under the sun’s rays for four hours (from 8 am to 1 pm) and then for another two hours after a break (1-3 pm).

Kumar works at a brick kiln in Bhopani village in the Faridabad district in Haryana, part of the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR). He prepares clay from soil and crafts raw bricks in the open, under the sun. These bricks must be sundried before firing in the kiln.

Brick kiln worker Biresh Kumar. Image by Joel Michael/CSE. India, 2024.

DTE first met him in mid-April and recorded the area’s surface temperature using a ‘particle counter’ instrument, which measures air temperature, relative humidity and wet bulb (WB) temperature, among other factors. The temperature reading of the area where he works was 38.4°C.

WB is the lowest temperature to which air can be cooled by evaporating water at a constant pressure.

Workers in brick kilns are subjected to both extreme ambient temperatures and intense radiant heat from the kilns where the bricks are fired. “A person cannot walk for more than an hour in the sun and here our work entails continuously working under it. My job requires me to squat for most hours while making the bricks, which leads to knee pain and reduced blood circulation to the lower limbs,” he said.

This is Kumar’s first year working at a brick kiln. A native of Hathras district in the neighbouring UP, he owned a juice shop in Rajasthan’s Sri Ganganagar town until 2020, when he had to close it down during the COVID-19-induced lockdown.

The shop was rented. As Kumar was unable to afford the monthly rent in the pandemic, he and his family of five (wife and three children) had to relocate to their hometown in UP, with no savings and no source of income.

There, he encountered the contractor of the brick kiln, who offered him a non-institutional loan in exchange for his labour. The family accepted the advance and arrived in Faridabad in February 2024 to commence work at the kiln.

Sitting on a cot at some distance is Kumar’s co-worker, Somveer (he only provided his first name). For two days, Somveer was experiencing body aches, weakness and fever, forcing him to miss work and consequently forfeit his wage. He was unsure of the exact cause of his condition but suggested it could be due to heat exhaustion.

Neeraj Kaushik, the medical officer in charge of the Government Hospital (Community Health Centre) in Faridabad's Kheri Kalan, which is accessible to Somveer and Kumar, said he noticed an increase in the number of brick kiln workers presenting to the hospital with complaints of dehydration and fainting episodes.

“We see more such patients in the months of May and June. Sometimes they are severely dehydrated, have dry lips and are extremely weak, so we have to instantly administer rehydration fluids. For those with co-morbid conditions like diabetes, it becomes an emergency situation when their vitals are disoriented and then it takes a lot of time to revive them,” he said, pointing out that the patients were mostly people working in brick kilns, construction sites and agricultural farms.
India in grip of heatwave


On May 24, when DTE revisited two brick kilns (including the one where Kumar and Somveer work), the device recorded a temperature of 43°C at the site, with a relative humidity of 38.5 per cent and a WB temperature, which indicates both temperature and humidity, of 30°C.

India’s northern, northwestern and central regions are in the grip of a relentless heatwave, with temperatures even surpassing 50°C in some areas of Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi on May 28. India Meteorological Department (IMD) defines a heatwave threshold as when the maximum temperature reaches 40°C in the plains, 30°C in hilly areas and 37°C in coastal areas, with a departure from the normal maximum temperature of at least 4.5°C.

The IMD, in its forecast, stated that there is a “very high likelihood of developing heat illness and heatstroke in all age groups.” According to media reports, there have been 11 deaths due to suspected heatstroke in the state of Rajasthan and two in Gujarat.
How hot is too hot to work?


The recommendations by National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in the United States permit continuous work at heavy intensities in hot environments up to 34°C and 30 per cent relative humidity.

The year 2024 has witnessed every month breaking global heat records since the pre-industrial era. It commenced with Earth experiencing its warmest January since records began in 1850, followed by the hottest March and now May 2024 is poised to become the 12th month to continue the streak of record-breaking temperatures.

Climate change and the El Nino phenomenon have significantly contributed to this record-shattering heat surge across Asia, including India, as analysed by an international team of 13 leading climate scientists from the World Weather Attribution group in a global study on May 15, 2024.

While intense heat driven by climate change remains relentless worldwide, individuals engaged in heavy physical labour are particularly at risk as their work exposes them to greater heat stress.

In addition to brick kiln workers, outdoor labourers also include agricultural workers performing heavy physical labour in heat, construction workers, gig workers, autorickshaw drivers, street vendors, among others, who are more exposed due to the nature of their work and challenging economic conditions.

“My first visit to a brick kiln was as a child, 20 years ago, with my father (who worked at one of them). I used to play around then. Even then, work lasted from morning to evening, but there was less heat. There is a big difference between then and now,” said Kumar.

Similarly, Somveer has been working in various brick kilns for six years, but in the last two to three years, he claimed, the heat has tested his body’s tolerance level. “This work used to feel normal just two years ago,” he said.

Both make around 2,500 bricks a day on average and receive Rs 520 ($6.26) per 1,000 bricks. However, the number of bricks they produce decreases as temperatures peak.

India is projected to lose 5.8 per cent of working hours in 2030, a productivity loss equivalent to 34 million full-time jobs, due to global warming, the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated in its 2019 report. As a result, this will lead to a loss of income and livelihood for informal workers, who are most vulnerable to extreme and intense heat.

A brick kiln in Bhopani village, Haryana. Image by Joel Michael. India, 2024.

According to World Bank estimates, nearly 75 per cent of India’s workforce, or 380 million people, depend on heat-exposed labour.

A study conducted in brick kilns in Chennai in 2013 and 2014, published in 2019, found that occupational heat exposure in the kilns during the summer months sometimes exceeded international standard limits for safe work.

Kumar and Somveer are just two of the nearly 440 million people employed in India’s unorganised sector, as per the Economic Survey 2021-22. But they both exemplify how work has not only been disrupted by excessive heat but now feels almost like an intolerable punishment.

Brick manufacturing is a highly labour-intensive industry. Large numbers of workers are employed at each stage, including moulding bricks, transporting sundried and baked bricks to the kiln, adding fuel to the kiln and removing bricks once they have cooled to transport them further.

In May, the work of moulding and transporting bricks at the brick kiln sites was moved to night-time. However, night-time temperatures have also increased substantially, along with humidity. Additionally, mosquito bites increase at night. The IMD, in its May 24, 2024 forecast, cautioned that warm night conditions could also intensify in different parts of northern India.

The workers in charge of firing the kiln and ensuring that the bricks are adequately burned, on the other hand, are not permitted to change their schedules because this is a 24-hour job. Kilns in Delhi-NCR start up on March 1 and only shut down when the monsoon arrives in mid-June.

Those working in the third stage (fuelling the kilns) are constantly exposed to sunlight and additional heat from the furnaces inside the kiln. The chambers that feed the fuel (husk in this case) and burn the bricks at temperatures ranging from 1,100°C to 1,200°C produce scorching heat. Temperatures in the area where bricks are baked rise significantly when compared to other areas on the site.

Video courtesy of Down To Earth. India, 2024.

At one of the two kilns visited by DTE on May 24, a group of seven dedicated ‘firemen’ continuously fed fuel into each chamber. DTE recorded a temperature of 48°C and a WB temperature of 30.3°C at 3.30 pm. There was a temperature difference of 2°C just 200 metres away, where it was around 46°C.

How hot does it feel to the workers? “Crossing 50°C,” said Rajendra Kumar, who works with six others in two shifts from 1 pm-7 pm and 1 am-7 am, for Rs 600 ($7.22) per day. Out of these 12 hours, a total of six hours are spent near the chamber. Of these six hours, three are during the daytime. This means that for at least three hours of their day shift, the group is exposed to extreme temperatures continuously.

Most men stay away from their families. “Yahan aayenge gharwale? Marna hai kya? (Why will they come here? Do they want to die?),” said Rajendra rhetorically.

India is the second-largest brick producer in the world, with the sector producing 233 billion bricks each year and employing about 23 million people, who are at risk of extreme heat exposure. The brick industry is growing, with the demand for bricks increasing due to rapid urbanisation and the growing number of construction projects in the country.
Infrastructure boom and heat conundrum


Madhu Mandal wonders if he will ever find a workplace where he can escape the heat. It is around 1 pm on a blazing hot day in the national capital, Delhi. Mandal and his wife work as masons at a construction site along one of the stretches of the Dwarka Expressway.

Construction work is progressing rapidly on the eight-lane expressway, which is being developed as a residential and commercial hub and has seen a massive transformation over the last 10 years, with high-rises, gated communities and retail hubs dotting the 29-kilometre highway. The Mandals, natives of Katihar district in Bihar, are working on one such high-rise.

The brick kiln sector supports the rapidly expanding construction industry, which is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of six per cent from 2024 to 2033, fuelled by the government’s infrastructure push and rapid urbanisation.

Construction workers like Mandal are the backbone of this economic activity in India. The sector is the second largest employer in India, next only to agriculture, employing nearly 74 million workers, according to the National Sample Survey Office 2016-17.

Construction work in Ahmedabad. Image by Joel Michael/CSE. India, 2024.

Scientists have said that heatwaves are not only here to stay but will intensify in the coming years. In a country where approximately 50 per cent of gross domestic product or GDP is contributed by workers who work in heat-exposed conditions, are there enough safety measures?

Mostly, no. For example, Paswan, a construction worker in Ahmedabad city in the state of Gujarat, has been requesting his manager to install a green net on the top floor of an under-construction shopping mall where he works, but to no avail.

He has to work in a scaffolding operation, which involves standing for long hours at a height. When he takes a break, he looks for a place with some shade. “But for that, we have to go downstairs, which is a challenge. We have been telling the managers to arrange for a green net somewhere on the top floor where we work,” he said.

Temperature readings at different sites at an outdoor workplace showed that in a shaded area, the temperature gets reduced by a good 3-4°C, compared to the open area. Thus a simple solution like putting up a green net, making a shaded area that will block direct sunlight, or having more green spaces just near where the workers spend their time working, will allow them to cool down their bodies and have a proper rest during their breaks.
Illustration by Yogendra Anand. Interactive design by Ritika Bohra.


A recent study by the Delhi-based think tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) showed that enhancing green spaces can cool down temperatures by as much as 5°C and up to a distance of more than 250 metres. When DTEmet Paswan in mid-May, the temperature was 46.7°C, with a WB temperature of 31.2°C.

“I start work at 8 am and just after 10 am, I start feeling the heat. After 10 am, I feel like taking a break every 20-30 minutes,” said 22-year-old Paswan.

However, his job involves clipping himself to a harness and treading the scaffold, so he cannot take breaks often. “There are moments in the day when the body just wants to stop and rest,” he said.

According to a study by National Institute of Occupational Health-Indian Council of Medical Research in Ahmedabad with 29 young male construction workers, heat exposure at the construction workplace during the summer months was very high, with WB globe temperatures reaching 33°C. This exceeds the international standard limit values for moderate level work activities in a hot environment, which are set at 30°C.

Among all the hazards exacerbated by climate change, heat is undoubtedly a major disaster that will become more intense. Disaster risk must be considered during a country’s development, said Abhiyant Tiwari, lead, health and climate resilience at Natural Resources Defense Council India.

“At the rate we are urbanising, almost 70 per cent of infrastructure is yet to be built for the future and it has to factor in the rate of warming we are facing across the world, particularly in the Global South. If we do not consider that, we will fail drastically,” said Tiwari, who was part of the development and implementation of the first heat action plan of South Asia in 2013.

This calls for India to seriously include the ‘heat factor’ in its work policies. Are the workers that build and run our cities at the centre of climate change? Are governments, companies and civil society considering heat in their workplaces and seeking real-life adaptation solutions? The second part of the series will explore these questions.

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UN official highlights how better preparation has shrunk disaster deaths despite worsening climate



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 A polling official enjoys a cooling spray of water under intense heat at a distribution venue for Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and other election material on the eve of the fifth phase of polling in the six-week-long national election in Lucknow, India, Sunday, May 19, 2024. A top United Nations official says even though climate change makes disasters such as cyclones, floods and droughts more intense, more frequent and striking more places, fewer people are dying from those catastrophes globally. Thats because of better warning, planning and resilience.

 (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh, File)

BY SETH BORENSTEIN
 June 1, 2024Share

As climate change makes disasters such as cyclones, floods and droughts more intense, more frequent and striking more places, fewer people are dying from those catastrophes globally because of better warning, planning and resilience, a top United Nations official said.

The world hasn’t really noticed how the type of storms that once killed tens or hundreds of thousands of people now only claim handfuls of lives, new United Nations Assistant Secretary-General Kamal Kishore, who heads the UN’s office for disaster risk reduction told The Associated Press. But he said much more needs to be done to keep these disasters from pushing people into abject poverty.

“Fewer people are dying of disasters and if you look at that as a proportion of total population, it’s even fewer,” Kishore said in his first interview since taking office in mid-May. “We often take for granted the progress that we’ve made.”
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“Twenty years ago there was no tsunami early warning system except for one small part of the world. Now the whole world is covered by a tsunami warning system” after the 2004 tsunami that killed about 230,000 people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand, Kishore said.

AP interview: Divisions among the world’s powerful nations are undermining UN efforts to end crises

People are getting better warnings about tropical cyclones — also called hurricanes and typhoons — so now the chances of dying in a tropical cyclone in a place like the Philippines are about one-third of what they were 20 years ago, Kishore said.

As the former disaster chief for India, Kishore points to how his country has cut deaths thanks to better warnings and community preparedness such as hospitals being ready for a surge in births during a cyclone. In 1999, a supercyclone hit eastern India, killing almost 10,000 people. Then a nearly similar sized storm hit in 2013, but killed only a few dozen people. Last year, on Kishore’s watch, Cyclone Biparjoy killed fewer than 10 people

The same goes for flood deaths, Kishore said.

The data backs up Kishore, said disaster epidemiologist Debarati Guha-Sapir of the Catholic University of Louvain in Brussels, who created a global disaster database. Her database — which she acknowledges has missing pieces — shows that global deaths per storm event has dropped from about a ten-year average of 24 in 2008 to ten-year average of about 8 in 2021. Flood deaths per event have gone from ten-year averages of nearly 72 to about 31, her data indicates.

While there are fewer deaths globally from disasters, there are still pockets in the poorest of countries, especially in Africa, where deaths are worsening or at least staying the same, Guha-Sapir said. It’s much like public health’s efforts to eradicate measles, success in most places, but areas that can least cope are not improving, she said.

India and Bangladesh are poster nations for better dealing with disasters and preventing deaths, especially in cyclones, Guha-Sapir said. In 1970, a cyclone killed more than 300,000 people in Bangladesh in one of the 20th century’s greatest natural disasters and now “Bangladesh has done fantastic work in disaster risk reduction for years and years and years,” she said.

Pointing out wins is important, Guha-Sapir said: “Gloom and doom will never get us anywhere.”

While countries such as India and Bangladesh have created warning systems, strengthened buildings such as hospitals and know what to do to prepare for and then react to disasters, a lot of it is also just because these countries are getting richer and better educated and so they can handle disasters better and protect themselves, Guha-Sapir said. Poorer countries and people can’t.

“Fewer people are dying, but that’s not because climate change is not happening,’' Kishore said ”That is despite the climate change. And that is because we have invested in resilience, invested in early warning systems.’'

Kishore said climate change is making his job tougher, yet he said doesn’t feel like Sisyphus, the mythical man pushing a giant boulder up a hill.

“You are getting more intense hazards, more frequently and (in) new geographies,” Kishore said, saying places, like Brazil that used to not worry too much about floods now are getting devastated. The same goes for extreme heat, which he said used to be an issue for only certain countries, but now has gone global, pointing to nearly 60,000 heat wave deaths in Europe in 2022.

India, where temperatures have been flirting with 122 degrees (50 degrees Celsius), has reduced heat deaths with specific regional plans, Kishore said.

“However with the new extreme temperatures we are seeing, every country needs to double its efforts to save lives,” he said. And that means looking at the built environment of cities, he added.

Cutting deaths is only part of the battle to reduce risk, Kishore said.

“We are doing a better job of saving lives but not of livelihoods,” Kishore said.

While fewer people are dying “you look at people who are losing their houses, people who are losing their businesses, a small farmer that is running a poultry farm,” Kishore said. When they get flooded or hit by a storm, they may survive but they’ve got nothing, no seeds, no fishing boats.

“On that we’re not doing as well as we should,” Kishore said. “We cannot accept that losses will occur. Of course they will occur, but they could be minimized by an order of magnitude.”
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Read more of AP’s climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment
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Follow Seth Borenstein on X at @borenbears
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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

SETH BORENSTEIN
Borenstein is an Associated Press science writer, covering climate change, disasters, physics and other science topics. He is based in Washington, D.C.

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FILE - Residents rest in a gymnasium converted into a makeshift shelter for people whose homes were flooded by heavy rains, in Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. A top United Nations official says even though climate change makes disasters such as cyclones, floods and droughts more intense, more frequent and striking more places, fewer people are dying from those catastrophes globally. Thats because of better warning, planning and resilience. (AP Photo/Carlos Macedo, File)


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FILE - Workers fix a pole to restore electricity following heavy winds and incessant rains after landfall of cyclone Biparjoy at Mandvi in Kutch district of Western Indian state of Gujarat, Friday, June 16, 2023. A top United Nations official says even though climate change makes disasters such as cyclones, floods and droughts more intense, more frequent and striking more places, fewer people are dying from those catastrophes globally. Thats because of better warning, planning and resilience. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki, File)


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FILE - Residents ride past the Gremio Arena surrounded by flood waters from heavy rains, in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Thursday, May 9, 2024. A top United Nations official says even though climate change makes disasters such as cyclones, floods and droughts more intense, more frequent and striking more places, fewer people are dying from those catastrophes globally. Thats because of better warning, planning and resilience. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)


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FILE - People evacuated from a village near Jakhau board a bus to travel to a shelter in Kutch district, India, Wednesday, June 14, 2023. A top United Nations official says even though climate change makes disasters such as cyclones, floods and droughts more intense, more frequent and striking more places, fewer people are dying from those catastrophes globally. Thats because of better warning, planning and resilience. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki, File)


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FILE - An abandoned canoe sits on the cracked ground amid a drought at the Sau reservoir, north of Barcelona, Spain, Monday, Jan. 22, 2024. A top United Nations official says even though climate change makes disasters such as cyclones, floods and droughts more intense, more frequent and striking more places, fewer people are dying from those catastrophes globally. Thats because of better warning, planning and resilience. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)


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FILE - A Brazilian soldier carries a dog after rescuing it from a flooded area after heavy rain in Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Thursday, May 9, 2024. A top United Nations official says even though climate change makes disasters such as cyclones, floods and droughts more intense, more frequent and striking more places, fewer people are dying from those catastrophes globally. Thats because of better warning, planning and resilience. (AP Photo/Carlos Macedo, File)

 

Ticketmaster confirms hack which could affect 560 million users

A BAD WEEK WITH DOJ INVESTIGATION TOO

The ShinyHunters group claimed responsibility for stealing data from Tickmaster users across the globe

Live Nation Entertainment and Ticketmaster logos (Photo: Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

By Kyriakos Petrakos

June 1, 2024 

Ticketmaster owner Live Nation confirmed that “unauthorised activity” took place on its database after a group of hackers claimed they had stolen the personal details of 560 million customers.

Previously, the ShinyHunters group claimed responsibility for stealing data from Ticketmaster users across the globe, including their names, addresses, phone numbers and partial credit card details such as cardholder names, the last four digits of the cards and expiration dates.

Reports on Thursday suggested that the group had demanded a $500,000 (£400,000) ransom payment to prevent the data from being sold to third parties.

Live Nation has now appeared to confirm this in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, in which it said that on 27 May “a criminal threat actor offered what it alleged to be Company user data for sale via the dark web,” adding that it was investigating the data breach.

In its filing, Live Nation said it was working to “mitigate risk” to customers and that it was taking steps to notify users about the unauthorised access to their personal data.

Live Nation has not confirmed the number of customers affected.

The Australian government said it is working with Ticketmaster to address the situation while the FBI has also offered to assist, according to a spokesperson for the US Embassy in Canberra who spoke to Agence France-Presse.

A spokesperson for the FBI told the BBC that it “has no comment on this matter.”

In its filing, Live Nation said: “As of the date of this filing, the incident has not had, and we do not believe it is reasonably likely to have, a material impact on our overall business operations or on our financial condition or results of operations.

“We continue to evaluate the risks and our remediation efforts are ongoing.”

A spokesperson for the Australia Home Affairs Department said in a statement to CBS News: “The Australian Government is aware of a cyber incident impacting Ticketmaster.

“The National Office of Cyber Security is engaging with Ticketmaster to understand the incident.”

Ticketmaster, which is one of the largest online ticket sales platform in the world, has not yet confirmed whether it fell victim to a data breach.

If the breach is confirmed, it could be the largest ever in terms of numbers and the extent of the data stolen.

While cyber security experts are warning that the claims may be false, authorities in Australia, which is where the breach was first reported, have confirmed they are investigating the potential hack.

An advert posted on the newly relaunched hacking forum BreachForums includes some sample data allegedly obtained in the breach.

ShinyHunters has been linked to a series of high-profile data breaches which resulted in millions of dollars in losses to the companies that were targeted.

The group sold a genuine database of information stolen from 70 million customers of the US telecoms firm AT&T in 2021.

In September 2023, the group also breached the data of 200,000 Pizza Hut customers in Australia.

The latest alleged breach coincides with the relaunch of BreachForums, a site on the dark web where hackers buy and sell stolen material along with information that enables breaches to be carried out.

The FBI clamped down on the forum in March 2023 and arrested its administrator Conor Brian Fitzpatrick.

While the FBI operation led to the forum’s closure, tech media reports suggest that the dark web site has now reappeared.

Large stolen databases are often first shared on the forums, but posts can also include false claims about alleged breaches.

Security researcher Kevin Beaumont told the BBC: “If Ticketmaster has had a breach of this scale it is important they inform customers but it is important to also consider that sometimes criminal hackers make false or inflated claims about data breaches – so people should not be overly concerned until a breach is confirmed.”

This is not the first time Ticketmaster has been drawn into cyber security issues.

In 2020, the company admitted it hacked into one of its competitors and agreed to pay a $10m fine.

In November, Ticketmaster was allegedly targeted by a cyber attack which led to problems selling tickets for Taylor Swift’s Eras tour.

i has sent a further request for comment to Live Nation and Ticketmaster.