Pandemic review panel concludes COVID-19 was preventable

https://wus-streaming-video-msn-com.akamaized.net/190e5524-9186-4f7a-b6e1-c84e97f21fcb/7b676dff-7d59-4dff-bafc-45e5c251_2250.mp4
Duration: 06:22

In an exclusive interview, former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark tells Power & Politics the COVID-19 could have been prevented had world leaders and the WHO acted faster to contain the spread of the virus.

CBC.COM

Elon Musk's U-turn on bitcoin hits Tesla and other crypto-linked stocks as hundreds of billions get wiped off the digital assets market
snagarajan@businessinsider.com (Shalini Nagarajan) 4 hrs ago

 Tesla CEO, Elon Musk. Joe Skipper/Reuters

Elon Musk's turnaround on bitcoin sent Tesla and other crypto-linked stocks lower on Thursday.

Crypto mining stocks like Riot Blockchain and Marathon Digital fell 13%.

The entire cryptocurrency market lost as much as $365 billion in value at one point on Thursday.

Stocks linked to cryptocurrencies slumped on Thursday after Elon Musk's sudden change of mind on bitcoin sent the popular digital asset 15% lower.

Tesla suspended vehicle purchases through bitcoin and will instead explore other digital currencies that are less energy-intensive, Musk announced Wednesday.

The entire cryptocurrency market shed around $365 billion to about $2.06 trillion as bitcoin, Ethereum's ether and Ripple's XRP fell sharply. The market recovered some losses later in the day as the value of combined digital assets rose to about $2.24 trillion.

Tesla's realization that bitcoin could be increasingly environmentally-damaging sent its shares 2.7% lower in Thursday's pre-market trading.

© @elonmusk/Twitter @elonmusk/Twitter

Major cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, which just went public last month, fell 5%. MicroStrategy, which holds around 90,000 bitcoins, plunged 10%, while Jack Dorsey's payments firm Square fell 2%.

Crypto-mining stocks were badly hurt too. Riot Blockchain and Marathon Digital Holdings fell 13%, while BitDigital fell 6%

.

Bitcoin mining is hugely energy intensive, requiring vast amounts of computing power. Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters

"All of a sudden, he's not so keen due to environmental concerns," Nigel Green, chief executive of investment firm deVere Group, said, and questioned why Musk didn't do more homework before Tesla invested $1.5 billion in bitcoin.

"Musk likes being known as a contrarian. He likes to go against the crowd in a high-profile way. Is his waning interest in bitcoin at a time when huge amounts of institutional investment from major Wall Street banks is pouring in, part of this?" Green said.

Musk's move to accept bitcoin payments for Tesla was one of the most legitimate catalysts for the cryptocurrency's rally this year. He recently tweeted a poll asking followers whether his EV-maker should accept payment in dogecoin. Although he has been a vocal advocate of cryptocurrencies, he has warned investors to be cautious.

"In any event, the more Musk and others mainstream Doge and other crypto, the more it will appreciate and the less crypto traders will want to use it as a means of payment, as opposed to a store of value," Eric Berman, senior legal editor of US Finance at Thomson Reuters Practical Law, said. "Financially, it would be like paying for goods and services with gold or oil - though slightly less cumbersome."
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CRA's new audits on large corporations dropped significantly in years leading up to COVID-19 pandemic

OTTAWA – The number of audits launched by Canada Revenue Agency on large corporations dropped by over 30 per cent in the four years preceding the pandemic, much to the surprise of the NDP and tax experts.

CRA PUT THAT TIME AND EFFORT INTO TRACKING DOWN WAITERESSES FOR CHEATING ON REPORTING THEIR TIPS

“I’m disappointed,” said Toby Sanger of advocacy group Canadians for Tax Fairness. “We’ve been told for years and years that they’re focusing more in this area, but we haven’t seen all that much to show for it yet.”

According to documents tabled at the House of Commons at the NDP’s request, the number of new audits opened yearly by the CRA on large corporations dropped by nearly two thousand between 2016-2017 (6,281) and 2019-2020 (4,257).

The data also show that the number of large company audits that led to a tax reassessment worth more than $0 — in other words, audits that led to CRA claiming unpaid taxes — dropped very sharply from 5,127 to 2,059 during the same period.

In a statement, the agency said it was refocusing its audit targets from quantity to quality by focusing on the “big fish” and the suspected worst offenders, which generally takes longer but brings in more unpaid tax dollars in the end.

“We are performing fewer audits, but the audits that we are doing are producing greater results,” CRA spokesperson Etienne Biram said in a statement. The agency was not able to provide a breakdown of the average tax claim per audit over the years by deadline.

© Provided by National Post Data submitted by the CRA showed that of 30,000 audits on large companies launched since late 2015, only 18 were turned over to the CRA’s criminal investigations division.

CRA claiming $4.4B from Canadian companies and individuals suspected of tax evasion

The CRA is watching you: Auditors scouring social media for unreported income from influencers

But the new data shocked MP Matthew Green as well as tax experts consulted by the National Post, who did not expect to see the number of large company audits drop so significantly.

“I feel like the CRA has recognized that the bigger the fish they go after, the more resources these companies have to fight back. And it feels like they’ve just given up on fighting that fight when they can instead go after small business owners,” Green said in an interview.

In its most recent tax gap study, in which the CRA assessed how much tax revenue wasn’t declared to the government in a single year, the agency found that Canadian corporations were by far the largest contributors to the gap in 2014, with up to $11.4 billion in unpaid taxes.

Of that amount, big companies were the largest portion, having avoided paying between $6.7 billion and $7.9 billion.

“CRA’s own tax gap showed that it was larger businesses that are more likely to be dodging taxes in different ways, way more likely than small businesses. And they’ve talked a lot about doing this, but we haven’t seen much action on it at all,” Sanger said.

But CRA says that better data and analytics are allowing it to better target bigger tax evaders instead of having to cast a larger net in the hopes of catching major offenders.

“Our compliance programs are focusing on taxpayers who are most likely to not comply with their tax obligations. As we refine our tactics to focus on these taxpayers, it makes sense that the number of audits, as a whole, that are being performed will decrease,” Biram explained.

“We are focusing our audits on the segments of the population who often have complex tax arrangements resulting in lengthy and time consuming information gathering processes during the course of the audits,” he continued, adding that wealthy corporations are also more likely to “fight the CRA through increased litigation.”

The data submitted by CRA also showed that of the nearly 30,000 audits on large companies launched since November 2015, only 18 were turned over to the CRA’s criminal investigations division.

Since then, half the investigations have been abandoned and of the rest, only one has been referred to prosecutors.

“Whether or not a referral is accepted for criminal tax investigation is based on many factors, including the availability of evidence and the likelihood of a prosecution. Given that the standard of proof in criminal matters is ‘beyond a reasonable doubt,’ the evidentiary burden is very high in the criminal prosecution context,” Biram explained.

Denis Meunier, a former director general of CRA’s criminal investigations and compliance program division, said he’s cautiously happy to hear that the agency is focusing on big fish audits, though he wants to see proof that the efforts are in fact leading to more unpaid taxes being collected.

But he’s concerned by the fact that such a small number of large corporation audits end up on prosecutors’ desks and thinks there needs to be an independent review of CRA’s internal processes to understand why.

“Those numbers are very, very … I wouldn’t say troubling, but they raise a lot of questions about the process that leads to so few investigations,” Meunier said. “In my view, they need to do a review of what’s preventing higher level of deterrence through criminal investigations.”

• Email: cnardi@postmedia.com | Twitter: ChrisGNardi

In a report suppressed under Trump, the EPA has said for the first time that humans caused the climate crisis

mguenot@businessinsider.com (Marianne Guenot) 

Climate change protesters disrupt then-candidate Joe Biden's campaign event on October 9, 2019. Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images

The EPA published an update of indicators tracking the climate crisis on Wednesday.

The report had long been annual, but was not published at all during the Trump administration.

For the first time, the EPA attributed climate change to humans, a press officer told the BBC.

For the first time, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said that the climate crisis is - at least in part - caused by human activities, the BBC reported.

The agency had never before said that human activities caused the changes in the Earth's climate, a press officer for the EPA told the BBC.

The acknowledgement came in the latest update of the EPA's Climate Change Indicators, which was published on Wednesday.

Climate Change Indicators used to come out every year, but stopped publishing in early 2017, just as President Donald Trump took office. Its work recommenced after Joe Biden took office earlier this year.

"Greenhouse gases from human activities are the most significant driver of observed climate change," the EPA said in the report.

Over the course of his presidency, Trump made conflicting statements about his position on the climate crisis. In 2020, he walked back his position that it was "hoax", but also predicted that the climate "will change back" without intervention.

The report presents "compelling and clear evidence" of a climate crisis, the EPA said in a press release.

"There is no small town, big city, or rural community that's unaffected by the climate crisis," EPA Administrator Michael Regan said on Wednesday.

Here are some findings from the report:

Heat waves are happening more often in US cities, from two per year in the 1960s to six per year in the 2010s.

Sea levels have risen along US coastlines since 1960, especially around the

 mid-Atlantic coast and parts of the Gulf Coast, where some stations measured 8 inch rises.

The growing season in agriculture has become longer, by an extra 2 weeks on average.

Read the original article on Business Insider

PROFILE: Industrial Chile Constramet’s leading role in the process of drafting a new Constitution



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11 May, 2021Industrial Chile-Constramet celebrated 40 years of defending workers’ rights in December last year. The union is currently playing a leading role in a historic moment for Chile; the process of drafting a new Constitution.


PROFILE

From Global Worker No. 1 May 2021


Country: Chile

Union: Constramet


Industrial Chile-Constramet celebrated 40 years of defending workers’ rights in December last year. The union is currently playing a leading role in a historic moment for Chile; the process of drafting a new Constitution.

Although Industrial Chile-Constramet was founded in 1929, the union was declared illegal in 1973 during the dictatorship. In 1980, the dictatorship decree was reversed, and the union became legal again.

On 18 October 2020, an increase in Santiago’s subway fares triggered historic protests. The social outburst brought attention to feelings of injustice due to Chile’s growing inequality.

Protesters called for an increased minimum wage, changes in education and rejected high electricity and gas rates, gasoline prices, and health care costs. A change to the Constitution was proposed, that would guarantee social justice and provide solutions to the deep-rooted issues affecting society.

In a referendum on 25 October last year, Chileans voted in favour of drafting a new Constitution to replace the one in force since Pinochet’s dictatorship.

Industrial Chile-Constramet has been engaged in promoting the approval of the referendum and are also willing to be part of the process of drafting the country’s new Constitution. A new Constitution should be ready to be put to a referendum by April 2022, which Chileans will then approve or reject.



Industrial Chile-Constramet president and member of IndustriALL’s executive committee, Horacio Fuentes, says:


“In 2021, we have the challenge of continuing to fight for the transformations demanded by the people of Chile. For this reason, we are playing a leading role in the constituent process, which is the door to a dignified and fair Chile for all.”

The union leader says that the union will present proposals for “A new development model for Chile,” to be delivered to those elected to work on the new Constitution.

“We have prepared a document saying that the new Constitution must establish labour rights and a new development model. It should help to create a national industry associated with our natural resources that is able to achieve greater industrial development in Chile. The new Constitution has to change the country’s destiny,” says Fuentes.

The union brings together 8,000 workers from the manufacturing industry, including the leather sector, footwear, textile, forestry, metal, plastic, mining, chemical and energy sectors, regardless of the type of contract they have. A third of the members are women; the union’s goal is to increase the number to at least 50 per cent.



Fuentes explains that incorporating more young workers and women is a challenge. Industrial Chile-Constramet has established a secretariat for youth and one for women to train and encourage them to join governing bodies. However, finding young people who are committed to the union, where the collective interest takes priority over the individual, is difficult.

OBU OF ALL PROLETARIANS 

A SOCIAL UNION FOR ALL

“We need to be the kind of organization that workers want and not only the one that the law creates. This implies moving beyond company unions and instead appeal to creating of large national union,” says Fuentes.

SOLIDARITY UNIONISM

United ArcelorMittal workers in Canada vote for strike



12 May, 2021   With a near 100 per cent majority, ArcelorMittal workers in Canada’s Quebec region have rejected the last offer from company management and called for an indefinite strike over wages, pensions and broken promises.

2,500 workers of ArcelorMittal Mining Canada in Port-Cartier, Fermont and Fire Lake participated in the vote, which returned between 97 to 99.8 per cent support to reject the company’s offer and in support of an indefinite strike.

"Taking the hard way out, our members decided to strike so that ArcelorMittal would share its staggering profits with the workers, for the benefit of their region, rather than just the shareholders,”

says Dominic Lemieux, Metallos (USW) Quebec director.

Workers had organized permanent picket lines in front of the company's facilities in Port-Cartier and Fermont.

The union is demanding better wages and pensions, improved working conditions as well as premiums for living in the North. As the price of iron is at a record high, workers argue it is high time that ArcelorMittal respect and acknowledge their immense contribution.

In addition, promises made during the 2017 negotiations have not been fulfilled, for example with regards to the hygiene of certain sites and the quality of some food served to workers.

Valter Sanches, IndustriALL Global Union general secretary, expresses solidarity with the workers and demand that ArcelorMittal returns to the bargaining table:

“The high level of support from the workers is a very direct indication of the trust between the members and their union. This is a clear signal to ArcelorMittal management to immediately return to the bargaining table and negotiate in good faith to find a solution."

IndustriALL informed ArcelorMittal global union network members and asked to extend solidarity to their sisters and brothers in Quebec, Canada.

http://www.industriall-union.org/united-arcelormittal-workers-in-canada-vote-for-strike

IndustriALL and Anglo American set framework for global dialogue





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10 May, 2021

In a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed today with the support of the global union network, IndustriALL and Anglo American commit to sound industrial relations across Anglo American’s global operations.

Anglo American recognizes IndustriALL as global counterpart and pledges its commitments for ILO fundamental rights at work and puts in place mechanisms to ensure a permanent monitoring of workers’ effective access to these fundamental rights.

The global dialogue mechanism will take place at least twice a year.

Among other things, the global dialogue mechanism provides for:

identifying collaboration opportunities on health and safety issues at the workplace, including gender-based violence

an opportunity for discussing Anglo American’s code of conduct and an environment to work on policy matters of shared interest, like how to manage the introduction to new technologies

 
continuous dialogue and joint action on Covid-19 responses to mitigate the impact on workers and communities

a dialogue on how to achieve a Just Transition for coal industry workers

a joint commitment to the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA)

Says Anglo American CEO, Mark Cutifiani:

“The last year has again reminded us of the value of collaboration across the mining industry. As economies reopen and we transition towards a lower carbon future, dialogue with our employees and their representatives has never been more important. I therefore very much welcome the chance to continue the dialogue we have with IndustriALL and look forward to further productive cooperation.”

Today’s signature is the culmination of a process that began at the height of the commodities crises when workers across the mining industry were losing their jobs. and protests and strikes characterized industrial relations. Covid-19 brought another testing period for the mining industry but also proved an opportunity for further dialogue and collaboration between the two parties.

Says IndustriALL general secretary, Valter Sanches:

“This memorandum of understanding is ground-breaking for the mining industry and provides open channels between us and Anglo American in order to improve conflict resolution processes. The commitment goes beyond effective access to fundamental rights at work and extends to health and safety, managing the introduction of new technologies and a Just transition for coal miners and the communities around Anglo American’s operations.”

Anglo American is the world's largest producer of platinum, with around 40 per cent of world output, as well as a major producer of diamonds, copper, nickel, iron ore, and metallurgical and thermal coal with 90,000 employees.

http://www.industriall-union.org/industriall-and-anglo-american-set-framework-for-global-dialogue

 Global unions to withdraw from unenforceable garment factory safety scheme in Bangladesh


12 May, 2021IndustriALL Global Union and UNI Global Union, the labour signatories of the Bangladesh Accord, have today given notice to withdraw from the RMG Sustainability Council (RSC) in Bangladesh on 1 June.

The withdrawal means that IndustriALL, UNI and local unions in Bangladesh will no longer be part of the RSC and its Board of Directors—stripping away any credibility of the RSC as an effective worker safety organization.

The RSC was created by the Accord through negotiations with the Bangladeshi garment industry in order to include factory owners as stakeholders, with the understanding of a new legally-binding agreement between unions and brands to succeed the Accord.

The global unions cannot accept replacing the extremely effective Accord model with an alternative proposal from brands derived from the failed approaches of the decades prior to the Rana Plaza industrial homicide.

In recent months, global apparel brands have insisted upon a new framework for the future which discards the key elements that have led to the Accord’s success in making garment factories in Bangladesh safe for workers, for example individual brand accountability and independent monitoring of the brands.

The brands’ empty promises to renew the Accord and derogatory counter proposals have led to a critical point in Bangladesh garment factory safety and risk the lives of millions of garment workers in Bangladesh.

IndustriALL Global Union General Secretary Valter Sanches said:

“The Accord and the independent secretariat empowered to report on brand performance, and more recently through the cooperation agreement with the RSC, have successfully prevented the loss of lives during the last eight years. The brands’ proposal of self-monitoring is a dangerous step backwards and undermines the credibility of the programme. It will have immediate consequences for the safety of millions of workers in the brands’ supply chains.”

UNI Global Union General Secretary Christy Hoffman said:

“Instead of bargaining over the next phase of our joint safety work in Bangladesh, the brands have pursued an ‘Accord Exit’ strategy designed to write away any meaningful role for unions in the future. We can’t be a rubber stamp for an industry-brand partnership without real accountability and robust oversight. This is a time when we should be moving forward and building on progress, not going in reverse.”

The Accord model has been widely cited as unparalleled in its success and in its consistency with UN Guiding Principles, OECD guidelines, and the tenets of credible supply chain responsibility and business and human rights obligations.

Union busting at Novartis in India

12 May, 2021In the last few years, workers at Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis’ operations in India have been subjected to rights violations, where the local management refuses to engage with the long-established union.

IndustriALL Global Union, Swiss affiliate Unia, and Swiss campaigning organisation MultiWatch are joining forces to support the Indian union colleagues.

Since it was formed in 1984, the Novartis Employees Union (NEU) in India has enjoyed a constructive relationship with management.

In January 2017, the union and management agreed on a Memorandum of Settlement (MoS), whereby both parties commit to meet three times a year to solve grievances. Not only was this not followed; management unilaterally tried to change employment conditions instead of using the established collective bargaining process.

The MoS expired in December 2018 and the NEU submitted a new charter of demands in March 2019. But so far, management has refused to meet with the union to continue collective bargaining.

In their quest to bust the union, management manipulated the appraisal system to be used in a punitive way against union members and even as base for unfair dismissals. Management also informed newspapers about planned dismissals before informing workers and the union. Against the public position of the Novartis’ chairman of the board, management in India used the Covid-19 pandemic to enact mass dismissals.

The union says that they have tried all possible avenues to rebuild relations and trust, but that management continues to disregard agreed protocols and honour the written agreements and understandings.

In a joint letter with Swiss union Unia and human rights organization Multiwatch, IndustriALL calls on the CEO of Novartis, based in Switzerland to intervene and

“to work with the management in India and remind them of the global social commitments of the Novartis group. These violations are a serious black mark on the image of Novartis. However, with your commitment, the damage can be healed, and our organizations are ready to assist that process.”

http://www.industriall-union.org/union-busting-at-novartis-in-india

AOC criticizes Biden statement of support for Israel as siding with 'occupation'

The president said Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas' attacks

By Brie Stimson | Fox News

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., criticized President Biden over his Wednesday statement of support for Israel amid escalating violence with Hamas, claiming he gave little context for what stoked the tensions and was consequently "siding with occupation."

Biden told reporters Israel has a right to defend itself "when you have thousands of rockets flying into your territory."

Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that Biden had failed to mention the pending evictions of dozens of Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem in favor of Israelis and the Israeli police raid of the Al-Aqsa mosque that left hundreds of worshippers hurt as an instigator to Hamas’ rocket attacks.

She said statements that don’t recognize Israel’s role in the violence "dehumanize Palestinians & imply the US will look the other way at human rights violations. It’s wrong."

"By only stepping in to name Hamas’ actions - which are condemnable - & refusing to acknowledge the rights of Palestinians, Biden reinforces the false idea that Palestinians instigated this cycle of violence," she wrote. "This is not neutral language. It takes a side - the side of occupation."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi put out a similar statement Tuesday saying Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas’ "indiscriminate" attacks.

State Department spokesman Ned Price responded to a tweet U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar sent Wednesday, in which she claimed the deputy mayor of Jerusalem was supporting "ethnic cleansing" in his defense of the evictions, according to The New York Times.

"This deputy mayor is describing ethnic cleansing here, yet everyone is the West is pretending that’s not what’s happening to Palestinians," Omar tweeted.

Prince told reporters Omar's claim was "not something that our analysis supports."



At least 67 people have been killed in Gaza and seven people in Israel since the violence started, including some women and children on both sides, Reuters reported.

The current eruption of violence began a month ago in Jerusalem, where heavy-handed Israeli police tactics during Ramadan and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers ignited protests and clashes with police. A focal point was the Al-Aqsa Mosque, built on a hilltop compound that is revered by Jews and Muslims, where police fired tear gas and stun grenades at protesters who threw chairs and stones at them.

Hamas, claiming to be defending Jerusalem, launched a barrage of rockets at the city late Monday, setting off days of fighting.

A representative for Ocasio-Cortez did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report