US officials may have avoided the coronavirus lab-leak theory to avoid associations with controversial gain-of-function research



Guards stand outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology on February 3, 2021. Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty

Scientists haven't ruled out the possibility that the coronavirus leaked from a lab.

US agencies have given grants to a nonprofit that funds laboratories that alter coronaviruses.

So US officials may have dismissed the lab leak theory to avoid association with this research.

Is the best way to protect people from a dangerous virus to create one in a lab? That's the central question in the debate over gain-of-function research, a branch of virology that alters viruses in a controlled environment to make them more transmissible or infectious.

Proponents of this type of research say the work enables them to predict deadly pathogens that might emerge in real life and start work on vaccines or treatments ahead. But opponents think the experiments are simply too risky. A lab without proper safety protocol could accidentally release a more transmissible virus into the human population.

Competing theories about the coronavirus' origin have recently thrust this gain-of-function debate into the spotlight, since a prominent lab, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, was conducting that kind of research on coronaviruses. What's more, the US has funded grants that supported that lab - which might have given State Department officials an incentive not to thoroughly investigate the possibility of a lab leak, according to a recent Vanity Fair investigation.

Vanity Fair reported that at a December 2020 meeting, US State Department officials were "explicitly told by colleagues not to explore the Wuhan Institute of Virology's gain-of-function research, because it would bring unwelcome attention to US government funding of it."

For years, the US government gave grants to a nonprofit called EcoHealth Alliance, which in turn funded gain-of-function research - including studies at the Wuhan institute.

In a January internal memo obtained by Vanity Fair, Thomas DiNanno, former acting assistant secretary of the State Department's Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance, wrote that his colleagues had warned leaders within his bureau "not to pursue an investigation into the origin of COVID-19" because it would "open a can of worms."

Of course, the possibility that US officials may have wanted to distance themselves from any association with gain-of-function work doesn't necessarily make the lab-leak theory more credible. The leading theory is still that the virus spilled over to people from animals. That's because around 75% of all new infectious diseases come to us from animals, and the coronavirus' genetic code is very similar to that of other coronaviruses found in bats.

Still, a growing chorus of political and public-health leaders are calling for more thorough investigations into the coronavirus' origin, including the possibility that it leaked from a lab.
How the lab-leak theory reentered the conversation


© Zhang Chang/China News Service via Getty ImageExperts from the joint WHO-China team that investigated the coronavirus' origin attend a press conference in Wuhan on February 9, 2021. Zhang Chang/China News Service via Getty Image

The lab leak theory gained traction again at the end of March, after World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that "all hypotheses remain on the table" as to the virus' origin - even after a WHO report concluded that a lab leak was unlikely. In a May letter, a group of biologists wrote that the lab-leak theory should be taken seriously "until we have sufficient data."

Proponents of this possibility usually point to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), since scientists were studying coronaviruses there before the pandemic.

But at the start of the pandemic, scientists quickly shut down the notion that the WIV could be to blame. A February 2020 statement published by 27 scientists in the journal The Lancet said the scientific community had overwhelmingly concluded that the virus originated in wildlife.

"We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin," the statement read.

However, the organizer of that statement was the president of EcoHealth Alliance, Peter Daszak.


A laboratory on the campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, pictured on May 27, 2020. HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images

In May 2014, EcoHealth received a roughly $3.7 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of which went toward gain-of-function experiments. By 2018, EcoHealth was receiving up to $15 million per year in grant money from federal agencies, according to Vanity Fair.

In one instance, EcoHealth Alliance helped fund research that created a new infectious pathogen using the molecular structure of the SARS virus. The aim of the study, according to the researchers, was to warn of the potential risk of a SARS-related virus re-emerging from bats.

One of the paper's authors was a prominent WIV virologist, Shi Zhengli. NIAID and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are cited as financial supporters of the research.

The Trump administration canceled EcoHealth's $3.7 million grant in April 2020. Then the NIH reinstated the grant in July but temporarily suspended its research activities.

Both NIAID director Anthony Fauci and NIH Director Francis Collins have said that US agencies never funded gain-of-function research at the WIV.

"I fully agree that you should investigate where the virus came from," Fauci told Senator Rand Paul at a Senate hearing last month. "But again, we have not funded gain-of-function research on this virus in the Wuhan Institute of Virology. No matter how many times you say it, it didn't happen."

He added, though, that it would have been "irresponsible" if the US hadn't investigated bat viruses that may have caused the SARS outbreak.

"Are you really saying that we are implicated because we gave a multibillion-dollar institution $120,000 a year for bat surveillance?" Fauci told the Financial Times on Friday.

The US has funded gain-of-function research before


Anthony Fauci listens as President Joe Biden speaks at the National Institutes of Health. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

The US currently decides whether to fund gain-of-function experiments on a case-by-case basis. A multidisciplinary board at the Department of Health and Human Services evaluates the research to determine whether the benefits outweigh the risks.

The Trump administration implemented that policy in 2017. Before that, the Obama administration had put a moratorium on new funding for gain-of-function experiments that could make influenza, MERS, or SARS viruses more transmissible - or more likely to cause disease - through respiratory droplets in mammals. But that rule, created in October 2014, still made exceptions for research that was "urgently necessary to protect the public health or national security."

An NIH official told Vanity Fair that the government's approach to gain-of-function is complicated, though.

"If you ban gain-of-function research, you ban all of virology," the official said, adding, "Ever since the moratorium, everyone's gone wink-wink and just done gain-of-function research anyway."

Aylin Woodward contributed reporting.

Environmentalists hope threatened owls will end logging at Fairy Creek

But government says owls were not found in the watershed where old-growth trees are being logged

Author of the article: Lisa Cordasco

VANCOUVER SUN
Publishing date: Jun 04, 2021 • 

A screech owl. 

PHOTO BY JENELLE SCHNEIDER /PNG


VICTORIA — The discovery of two pairs of Western screech owls by provincial biologists at two sites on Vancouver Island have environmental groups calling for a halt to logging at Fairy Creek.

The biologists from the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development confirmed the sightings in an area outside of the Fairy Creek watershed this week. They plan to return next week to search for nests and to examine half a dozen more locations where the birds have been reported.

The species of the Western screech owl found in coastal forests has been listed as threatened by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. The Committee defines “threatened” as “likely to become endangered if limiting factors are not reversed.” The birds are “blue listed” under B.C.’s Wildlife Act, which is the equivalent of a threatened designation.

It’s believed predation by barred owls and a reduction in the habitat needed to sustain the screech owls have reduced their numbers to approximately 2,000 in North America. The owls need just the right sized hole between three and 10 metres off the ground in dead or decaying trees for their nests. Biologists believe they are virtually extinct in Vancouver, Victoria and on the Gulf Islands.

Environmental groups have said this week’s discovery on the west coast of Vancouver Island should force a halt to old-growth logging underway in Fairy Creek by the Teal Jones Group. Mark Worthing, the coastal projects lead for the Sierra Club of B.C. says both federal and provincial law demand it.

“It’s so important to study them, to make sure we know where they are, so that you can actually come to a scientific assessment. Is there enough suitable habitat for a said population? We don’t know,” said Worthing.

But David Muter, the assistant deputy minister of the resource stewardship division, said the discovery will not shut down the logging operations in the Fairy Creek watershed because the biologists’ work is being done some distance away from where the birds have been spotted. And, he said, Teal Jones has no immediate plans to log in the area of its tree farm licence being examined by the biologists.

“We know there is no logging activity there right now, so we’re not worried about any impending harvest,” he said, “But if we do need to do any additional habitat protections in the future, we want to get ready for that.”

Fairy Creek is 120 kilometres west of Victoria on Vancouver Island. It has been the site of logging protests that have led to the arrests of 158 people since the end of March.

Injured sacred white raven 'perking' up since brought to B.C. rescue centre

Duration: 00:55 

https://globalnews.ca/video/7923629/injured-sacred-white-raven-perking-up-since-brought-to-b-c-rescue-centre

Rescuers at the North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre in Errington, B.C., describe the condition of a rare white raven who was found on the ground, unable to fly last week.

WEST COAST INDIGENOUS PEOPLES HAVE A LEGEND THAT RAVENS WERE WHITE UNTIL THEY PISSED OFF THE GREAT MANITOU WITH THEIR TRICKS THAT THEY WERE TURNED BLACK AS A WARNING TO OTHERS

Extremely rare white raven in intensive care at B.C. wildlife centre

By Amy Judd
June 4, 2021

An extremely rare white raven is currently being cared for at a Vancouver Island wildlife centre after being found last week malnourished and unable to fly.


Derek Downes, an animal care technician at the North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre, said the raven was brought in by a concerned citizen after being found on the ground in the Oceanside area.

 0:56 Injured sacred white raven ‘perking’ up since brought to B.C. rescue centre

The juvenile bird is not able to eat on his own and is currently in an intensive care unit so it has space to recover.

Downes said in the Oceanside area, north of Nanaimo, they have what has been dubbed the ‘Oceanside Sacred White Raven.’

Left behind in modern Peru, rural poor find a voice ahead of election


© Reuters/ALESSANDRO CINQUELuceli Banda Medina, a former student of Peru's presidential candidate Pedro Castillo, arranges blocks of cheese that she and her family made at home, in Puna

By Marcelo Rochabrun

PUNA, Peru (Reuters) - When Luceli Banda Medina, 21, the first woman in her family to read and write, left the poor, isolated northern Peruvian village of Puna to study nursing, she always dreamed what her life would have been like had she been born in a city.


© Reuters/ALESSANDRO CINQUELuceli Banda Medina and her sister look at a tablet provided by the school, at their home in Puna

"Why do the people of the countryside not have the same ability to study as people in the cities, who have practically everything they need?," Banda Medina, her father and mother's family names, told Reuters from her adobe house in Puna.

Three generations of the Medina family - daughter, mother and grandfather - live together in the house without running water, plumbing or a hard floor. Outside low clouds hug the dark-green hills dotted with roaming chickens and horses.

Family elder, grandfather Segundo Medina, has been a subsistence farmer all his life and wears a broad-rimmed chotano hat, just like another local son, socialist presidential candidate Pedro Castillo who is now stirring up the Andean country's politics.


© Reuters/ALESSANDRO CINQUELuceli Banda Medina and her sister look at a tablet provided by their school, at their home, in Puna

Outside the yellow-bricked house hangs a banner for Castillo, who taught at the nearby primary school and tutored Banda Medina to read. He is now neck-and-neck with conservative opponent Keiko Fujimori ahead of Sunday's election run-off, his abrupt and unexpected rise driven by poor, rural voters angry at being left behind.


© Reuters/ALESSANDRO CINQUEMaria Doralisa Medina, the mother of Luceli Banda Medina who is a former student of Peru's presidential candidate Pedro Castillo, poses for a photograph at home, in Puna

Win or lose, Castillo has galvanized the rural vote like never before, raising a challenge to any new government as it tries to unify a nation that has been roiled by political scandals and five presidents in the last five years.

Fujimori has already moved to address concerns of poverty, including pledging to distribute some mining profits straight to local communities and offering payouts for families who have lost members to COVID-19.

The coronavirus pandemic, which has left Peru with the world's highest death toll per capita, forced Banda Medina to move back to Puna last year, where she now struggles to keep up with her classes due to spotty internet service.

Similar concerns about inequality and a rural-urban divide have struck a chord with many Peruvians who are supporting leftist Castillo, who is running on a radical platform to redistribute wealth while keeping traditional family values.

While rural voters have flocked in droves to back Castillo's cry of, "No more poor in a rich country," right-winger Fujimori has garnered support in big cites by pledging to maintain stability, lambasting her rival for fueling "class struggle."

The race is too close to call, but the fault lines are clear. In the metropolitan area of capital Lima, Fujimori has almost twice the level of support as Castillo. This is almost exactly the reverse in rural Peru, an IEP poll shows.

Among the capital's small wealthy elite, three-quarters support Fujimori, another poll from Ipsos shows, fearful of Castillo's plans to redistribute mineral wealth and tear up the country's decades-old constitution.

'EMPTYING OUT'

Fueling support for Castillo is the feeling that there is just no future in Peru's forgotten rural villages like Puna, as youths leave in droves to study in urban centers.

"Puna is emptying out, only the elders stay," said Maria Dorlisa Medina, Banda's mother who is illiterate and works every morning producing cheese in her kitchen that she can sell for about 70 soles (around $18) a week.

Over the past century, Peru has transformed from predominantly rural into a largely urban country amid a population boom. As part of that shift, however, Puna and other countryside communities have suffered population loss.

The result is a highly centralized country, where economic opportunities and social mobility go mainly to residents of its largest cities, even in regions like Cajamarca, where Puna is located, that have significant mineral wealth.

Since 1913, Cajamarca's share of Peru's economy has shrunk by half, while Lima's has more than tripled to over 65% of the country's GDP, according to data compiled by Bruno Seminario, a prominent economic historian who died last month.

That divide is reflected in the polls. In some surveys, Castillo wins every region of the country except for the region of Lima, which alone holds a third of Peru's population.

"Castillo is carrying with him all the social inequality and the frustration of our people," said Alvaro Galvez, 33, a historian in Tacabamba, near Puna, who supports him. "The elites, they tell us we are free, but we have no economic freedom, and we are forced to migrate for professional opportunities."

'NO ESCAPE'

As many as 70% of Puna's residents live in poverty, or on less than $100 in monthly income per household resident, a far higher rate than in Peru overall, according to government estimates.

The village is perched on hillsides a six-hour drive from the nearest big city, Cajamarca. About half the journey is on narrow dirt roads that skirt striking but deadly cliffs. It has no main square, just a collection of scattered adobe homes.

While Peru has been hailed as a model of success for reducing poverty rates from around 50% in the 1990s to 20% before the pandemic, those strides have been unequal, fueling discontent. The pandemic has seen poverty rebound to some 30%.

As of last year, 26% of Peru's urban population is poor, but that number climbs to 46% in rural communities, the government's statistics bureau INEI said in May.

"Poverty reduction has been formidable but what happens is that families could escape poverty but remain very vulnerable," said Oswaldo Molina, who heads an NGO focused on development.

In Puna, residents say they have never felt the improvements in quality of life that the statistics suggest.

"We are illiterate, we are poor, although we are always working," Medina, the mother, said.

"I would get so frustrated," she added of not being able to read and write. She enrolled in a literacy school after her first son was born, but all she learned was how to write her name and remember her Peruvian identify card number.

To be sure, complaints about inequality also translate to urban poverty in the outskirts of Lima and other cities, where the poor live in slums on sandy hills, many of whom are recent arrivals from communities in rural Peru.

Castillo comes from poverty and still keeps his home in Chugur, a similarly impoverished village about 20 minutes from Puna, an identity that resonates with many Peruvians who live very far from wealth.

He has pledged to help level inequalities, though critics say he has no clear plan yet of how to do it and may do more harm than good.

Back in Puna, Medina, Luceli's mother, said she wished had been able to leave her village as a young woman to improve her lot in life.

"If only I had thought earlier to travel far and work, and get educated," she said. "But I had my husband, my kids, and then we had no escape."

(Reporting by Marcelo Rochabrun in Puna, Peru; Additional reporting by Herbert Villarraga and Reuters TV in Lima; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Alistair Bell)

Police: sugar worker, 86, fatally shoots boss after firing


© Provided by The Canadian Press

BELLE GLADE, Fla. (AP) — An 86-year-old sugar mill worker with 31 years on the job fatally shot his boss after he was refused another year at the mill, authorities said Saturday.

The Palm Beach Sheriff's Office said in a news release that Felix Cabrera was jailed without bail on a first-degree murder charge following the Friday morning shooting at the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative in Belle Glade.

Jail records did not list an attorney for Cabrera. The victim's name was not released by the sheriff's department. He was a 67-year-old man from nearby Martin County.

Authorities say Cabrera sought to work one additional year for financial reasons but was turned down. That's when he allegedly pulled out a handgun and shot the boss several times, killing him.

The cooperative is comprised of 44 different sugar cane farms that operate on about 70,000 acres (28,327 hectares) in the Everglades Agricultural Area near Lake Okeechobee.

The cooperative put out a statement saying it was “horrified and deeply saddened by the senseless violence,” The Palm Beach Post reported.

“The victim was part of the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative family, and we are praying for the victim’s loved ones, as well as all our team members and growers," the statement said.

SO WAS THE EMPLOYEE EXPLOITED FOR 31 YEARS AND ALL HE ASKED WAS TO BE EXPLOITED FOR ONE MORE YEAR FOR SHIT WAGES.

The Associated Press

Workers are 'rage quitting' their jobs as a tightening labor market forces employers to take note of unfavorable conditions and low pay

insider@insider.com (Áine Cain) - 9h ago


© Samantha Lee/Insider

Are we seeing the rise of rage-quitting at work? 

The waning days of the pandemic have prompted plenty of work-related reflection.

The result is a pent-up feeling that's prompting some to walk off jobs in frustration.

But is the advent of "rage quitting" really a positive thing for employees? Experts aren't sure.

Kendra wasn't usually one to get mad, especially not on the job. She'd joined Dollar General in 2019, as a longtime homemaker hoping for a change of pace. She loved chatting with the regulars who filed into her small-town location. She was meticulous about all the little tasks that went into keeping the store clean, organized, and running smoothly. Kendra had even worked her way up to the role of key-holder, the store employee responsible for opening and closing.

But then came the pandemic, and Kendra began to watch the stress start to "roll downhill." The headwaters of the strain seemed to be visits, announcements, or corrections from regional and district management. The negativity seemed to submerge Kendra's store manager, who became overwhelmed and less communicative toward her team. Soon, Kendra herself would find herself drowning in an increasingly fraught work environment.

"By the time you get down to that lowly stay-at-home mom that just wanted a part-time job - who is earning less than a hundred dollars a week because she's making $7.25 an hour and only working 10 hours a week - it's not worth it," Kendra told Insider.

She says she's not the "type of person" who acts out of anger. Yet, in the springtime of 2021, Kendra rage-quit her job.

Kendra isn't the Dollar General worker's real name. After verifying her employment records, Insider is protecting Kendra's identity because she is concerned about getting her ex-boss in trouble with management. She said her manager is a "good person" who is simply under pressure.

On her last shift, Kendra says she could tell her store manager was displeased with something. During the pandemic, Kendra said she felt like she was constantly dealing with passive-aggressive and snide remarks, instead of clear direction.

"It's like, if I've done something wrong, just tell me, you don't have to be mean about it," Kendra said. "Just tell me."

The manager declined to share what the problem was, and the conversation got heated. So Kendra walked out, and never went back.

The phenomenon of rage-quitting is as old as work itself. Some people prefer to end things with a bang, not a whimper. So things like bridge-burning, walking off sans a two weeks' notice, or even making a scene are nothing new when leaving a workplace. But the American workforce seems to be primed for rage-quitting at the moment - especially hourly workers in low-wage occupations like retail, which make up a giant portion of the workforce. In fact, hourly workers made up 58.1% of the US workforce in 2019, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Recently, multiple Dollar General employees at a store in Maine walked off the job after posting notes decrying the company's work culture and pay. Similar incidents have occurred at Chipotle, Hardee's, and Wendy's around the country. Meanwhile, employers are complaining of a tight labor market, in some cases accusing unemployment benefits of luring potential workers away.

But there's also evidence that many hourly wage-earners are simply fed up with their jobs. A study from the human resources assessment platform Traitify found that one in four respondents were at least "somewhat" less happy with their job than they were a year ago.

Gigs in industries like retail have long been denounced over low pay and high stress. But will the boiled-over rage of workers fresh off a life-altering pandemic - and any resulting labor shortage - finally prompt a major shift in working conditions?

'So done with that job'

The pandemic itself had an outsized influence on worker's decision-making. In some cases, workers who spoke with Insider cited the coronavirus as a primary reason for their unhappiness on the job, and their ultimate departure.

That was the reasoning behind Crista's choice to depart from their job at PetSmart. Crista is also a member of the labor rights group United for Respect.

"I was really concerned about bringing COVID home from my place of work," they told Insider.

Those fears grew as they watched managers and coworkers continuously flout mask requirements within the stores, even as COVID-19 deaths spiked. Crista says they found the work environment "callous."

"It's definitely hard to report stuff to the boss when the boss is breaking the rules, too," they said.

Crista lives with their mother, who is 62. Their decision to quit was informed less by "rage" than by a deep dread over potentially infecting their loved one. Still, it amounted to a hasty departure. Crista can even pinpoint "the exact moment" they realized they needed to leave.

"My coworker was talking about how masks are so inconvenient to wear," they said. "And she said, 'If any of y'all get COVID from me, then sorry, not sorry.' So she literally was like, 'Yeah, I don't care if you get sick, I just don't want to wear my mask.'"

After thinking it over at home, they decided the "amount of pay" wasn't worth the "lack of safety." They called into work to put in their two weeks notice.

"The team lead said, 'Just write it down on a piece of paper and don't say anything about why,'" they said.

"I found it very strange and concerning that they would rather not hear why someone found a company to be a bad fit, especially during a global pandemic," Crista said.

Crista says they went in to hand-deliver the note, but couldn't find a manager. They left after situating the letter on a doorknob, and never received another call from PetSmart.

"PetSmart should know that there's a huge disconnect between the corporate policies that have been put in place versus what their management and their staff actually do at their stores," they said. "And that there needs to be some oversight and enforcement."

In a statement sent to Insider, a PetSmart spokesperson said that the company remains committed to measures like "enhanced cleaning and disinfecting protocols, face covering requirements for associates and customers, daily health screening for associates, and many other steps to reduce the spread of COVID-19."

"Nothing is more important than the safety of our teams and pet parents, and since the beginning of the pandemic, we have continuously directed our stores to adapt business practices to meet or exceed all applicable health and safety guidance, as well as other best practices for retail store operations," the spokesperson said. "Additionally, we have significantly invested in personal protective equipment, including cloth face coverings, KN-95 masks and gloves for associates, cleaning supplies, physical barriers in our stores, and other items to protect our associates and customers."

Insider also spoke with Helena, a former employee at a fast-fashion retailer. Insider verified her work history and is using a pseudonym to protect her identity over concerns about retaliation.

Helena says she had a number of relatives died from COVID-19, and she was often stressed about her boss taking the side of maskless shoppers over her own team.

"I was like, you know what, this company and the employees here just don't care about anything other than the bottom line," she said.

But things came to a head after Helena took a moment to check her phone at work, looking for updates on a relative who had just had a stroke.

"My manager went on the walkie-talkie for everyone to hear, saying, 'Do me a favor and put your phone in your locker," Helena said. "This was right after the mass shooting where the employees couldn't even call home because they were made to put their phones in their lockers."

During the April FedEx hub shooting in Indianapolis, workers trapped inside the facility were unable to call or text loved ones because of the shipping giant's policy against cellphones at work.

The next day, the manager sent a long text out to the store workers about staying off their phones while on the job.

"This company furloughed us at the beginning of the pandemic," Helena said, thinking to herself: "Why are you working so hard for them? They pay you $10 an hour and you have to do way more work. They don't care about you."

Helena had always given two weeks' notice before leaving a job, so she penned a resignation letter and went to work her next shift. At closing, she found herself getting yelled at by her manager once more, as she tried to deliver her two weeks' notice.

"I was just so done with that job," she said.

She decided to just not show up the following day.

"When they texted me to ask me where I was, I told them I was revoking my two weeks' notice," she told Insider. "It felt so good to know that I would never have to work there again."

Gypsy Noonan, another United for Respect member, thought about quitting Walmart many times. She was often assigned as the sole cashier in the store, a task which she found incredibly stressful. Noonan says that work-related stress ended up causing her seizures. But she ultimately managed to hold off until she was offered a new opportunity. She gave her two weeks' notice, but then found herself assigned to work the cash registers alone, once more.

She requested backup from her team lead, and from other coworkers. Everyone refused.

"At this point, it's like a light bulb went off and I was like, I'm not doing this. I don't have to do this. I refuse to let myself be abused by the system. And I walked out the next day"

'Just trying to survive'

Some experts say that the spate of rage-quitting could signal a sea change for hourly workers. Quincy Valencia, the vice president of product innovation at hiring platform Hourly by AMS.

She began her career in big box retail management where she said "you enjoyed your workers, and the best ones you wanted to keep, but if someone quit, it was not a big deal. There were 10 people waiting to take that job."

Now, Valencia said that attitude "boggles" her mind.

"A bad experience with the cashier is going to ensure that a customer doesn't come back," she said. "Nobody cares who your financial analyst is. And yet these industries have always taken more time and more care in trying to hire the right people into those [corporate] roles, than in hiring the people who are upfront."

She said that there's a "twisted mentality" around hiring hourly workers, in particular. Namely, jobs like working as a cook at a fast-food joint or a clerk in a grocery store are seen as a "rite of passage" for high schoolers, a frequently touted myth.

"Even now, the debate is going on about how these workers shouldn't make $15 an hour, because these should be for high school students," she said. "I would counter that this is sort of off-topic. So what, you can abuse them because they're not raising a family?"

Valencia said that this attitude "cannot" continue to pervade the talent acquisition community.

"This category of worker - particularly in retail - has driven our economy over the past, especially here through this pandemic," she said. "And now there's a big mismatch right now between job availability and applicants for those jobs."

But still, that doesn't mean that going through with rage-quitting will empower workers on an individual basis. Laurie Ruettimann, a human resources expert with a focus on fixing work, told Insider that she's concerned about the long-term implications for rage-quitters forced to find a new job on the fly.

"Why would you give up your known crappy job for an unknown, potentially crappy job?" she told Insider. "There is this tendency - especially when we've been sheltering in place for so long - like, 'I've just got to get the hell out of here.' But that instinct to just flee is always the wrong instinct."

Ruettimann said that employees considering rage-quitting on the spot should try to give themselves "permission to take this process slowly" and to focus on gathering information on truly promising new opportunities before resorting to drastic measures.

For her part, Kendra, the former Dollar General worker, says that she doesn't feel good about quitting out of anger. For now, she is enjoying spending more time with her husband, who she rarely used to see because of all the night shifts she worked. She also feels that there was no reason for her to continue subjecting herself to a high-stress environment for so little pay.

"I feel bad about it," she said. "But in this country, everyone's making money except for the ones actually doing the work."

Kendra tries to avoid driving by her old Dollar General. The sight of the distinctive black-and-yellow sign makes her sad, thinking about all the workers "just trying to survive."
Read the original article on Business Insider

Pope meets Canadian cardinals after indigenous school scandal
By Philip Pullella - 10h ago

© Reuters/POOLFILE PHOTO: Pope Francis leads Holy Rosary prayer in Vatican gardens to end the month of May

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis met with both Vatican-based Canadian cardinals on Saturday as their country reels from the discovery of the remains of 215 children at a former school for indigenous students run by the Catholic Church.

The pope met separately with Cardinal Michael Czerny and Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the Vatican said in its daily announcement of papal appointments.

Ouellet meets with the pope every Saturday in his capacity as head of the Vatican department that oversees bishops.

Czerny, the Vatican's expert on migrants and refugees, does not have a regular weekly meeting with the pope. He is a Czech-born Canadian national whose family emigrated to Montreal when he was two years old.

While the Vatican did not say what was discussed in the private audiences, diplomats said it would be highly unusual if the recent events in Canada did not come up.

Many Canadians have called on the pope to make a formal apology for the Catholic Church's role in the residential schools, which operated between 1831 and 1996 and were run by a number of Christian denominations on behalf of the government.

Francis, who was elected pope in 2013, has already apologised for the Church's role in colonialism in the Americas but he has mostly chosen to make such apologies while visiting countries. No papal visit to Canada is scheduled.

Visiting Bolivia in 2015, Francis apologised for the "many grave sins were committed against the native people of America in the name of God".

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday the Catholic Church must take responsibility for its role in running many of the schools.

The residential school system forcibly separated about 150,000 children from their homes. Many were subjected to abuse, rape and malnutrition in what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015 called "cultural genocide".

Run by the government and various Christian Churches, their stated aim was to assimilate indigenous children.

The discovery last month of the remains of the children at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, which closed in 1978, has reopened old wounds and is fueling outrage in Canada about the lack of information and accountability.

In 2008, the Canadian government formally apologised for the system. Trudeau said on Friday many are "wondering why the Catholic Church in Canada is silent, is not stepping up".

(Reporting by Philip Pullella)

CANADA

Catholic church’s ‘lack of commitment’ to share residential school records under scrutiny


By Amanda Connolly Global News
Posted June 3, 2021 

WATCH: Canadians have been mourning the discovery of an unmarked burial site at a residential school in Kamloops, B.C.

 But Indigenous leaders and experts say the uncovering of the remains of 215 children is not an isolated incident. Emanuela Campanella has more.

Warning: Some of the details in this story may be disturbing to some readers. Discretion is advised.

The Catholic church is showing a “lack of commitment” to face up to its role in the horrors of Canada’s residential school system, according to one former Canadian senator and a residential school survivor.

Senator Murray Sinclair’s testimony before a special parliamentary committee came as calls continue to grow for church officials to open their archives to survivors and formally apologize for the schools.

Scrutiny of the church’s inaction is mounting after the horrific discovery of the remains of 215 children in unmarked burial sites at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in B.C.

“The fact that there are still church records that have not been revealed … is also a sad commentary of the lack of commitment by the Catholic church to allow us to investigate this further. We need to have that question looked at as well,” Sinclair told the committee.

1:56Fundraising campaign to start searches at other residential school sites

READ MORE: Residential schools — What we know about their history and how many died

Shortly before his testimony, residential school survivor Evelyn Korkmaz told journalists that the time for “crocodile tears” from governments is over, and the time has come to support Indigenous communities that have for years been pushing to explore the former school locations for unmarked burial sites.

As part of that, the Catholic church, which ran roughly 60 per cent of residential schools, must also recognize its role.

“The Catholic Church also needs to acknowledge and take ownership to repent and pay for their sins,” said Korkmaz at a press conference ahead of a House of Commons debate on an NDP motion urging the government to act.

READ MORE: Canada’s Catholic bishops have responsibility to apologize for residential schools, minister says

Martin Reiher, an assistant deputy minister with the Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations, suggested there’s no easy way to get those records from churches until they offer them up.

He said federal officials have had conversations with the churches involved in running the schools.

“As part of these discussions, they have all indicated around the table they are prepared to share the information in their archives,” he said.

“In terms of legal capacity to impose sharing, we do not have that authority.”

Residential schools were boarding schools set up by the Canadian federal government and administered by the Roman Catholic, Anglican, United, Methodist and Presbyterian churches as part of a federal policy with the goal of stripping Indigenous children of their culture and identities.

READ MORE: ‘Disgrace’ — Indigenous leaders blast Catholic Church for silence on residential schools

Sir John A. Macdonald, the first prime minister of Canada, described the intent of the schools as follows:

“When the school is on the reserve, the child lives with its parents, who are savages; he is surrounded by savages, and though he may learn to read and write his habits, and training and mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who can read and write. It has been strongly pressed on myself, as the head of the Department, that Indian children should be withdrawn as much as possible from the parental influence, and the only way to do that would be to put them in central training industrial schools where they will acquire the habits and modes of thought of white men.”

ALBERTA PREMIER JASON KENNEY IS A BIG FAN 

OF SIR JOHN 'EH THE DRUNK

A total of 139 residential schools across the country have been identified in the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement. A map of the schools can be found online.

Victims forced to attend the schools suffered horrific physical, mental and sexual abuse.

But so far, the responses from Catholic church representatives have ranged from regional apologies to a complete lack of acknowledgement of the church’s role in the system.

0:40 Trudeau disappointed by Pope’s decision not to apologize for residential schools– Mar 28, 2018

Richard Gagnon, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, expressed “sorrow” in a statement that described the discovery of the remains as “shocking.” The statement made no apology and did not acknowledge the Catholic church’s central role in the residential school system.

Archbishop Brian Dunn of the Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth in Nova Scotia issued a statement that acknowledged the participation of Catholics in the residential school system and called news of the discovery of the 215 remains “absolutely heartbreaking.”

“I am conscious that this tragedy has a significant impact on all Indigenous communities, especially those here in Nova Scotia,” he said in the statement.

“As Archbishop I want to offer my prayers for these children, their families, and their communities. Acknowledging and bringing to light this dark chapter of our Catholic and Canadian history is difficult but necessary in order to be able to do and be better,” Dunn continued.

“I continue to be committed to all who have been mistreated and hurt by the residential school experience, in which Church members participated knowingly or unknowingly.”

READ MORE: No apology for Canada’s residential schools, Pope Francis says

Rev. J. Michael Miller, the current shepherd of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver, apologized to all First Nations governments, Indigenous communities, families and citizens for the Church’s involvement in a letter released Wednesday.

“The Church was unquestionably wrong in implementing a government colonialist policy which resulted in devastation for children, families and communities,” he said.

The Indian Residential School Survivors Society (IRSSS) last week called on Pope Francis to apologize.

He has refused to do so, despite issuing formal apologies for the “crimes” of the Catholic church in Ireland and for its “grave sins” in Latin America

Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller on Wednesday said he believes the time has come for a papal apology, while Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett said that it’s clear Indigenous people want an apology and that it’s up to Catholics to urge their church to do better.

‘Shameful’ Catholic Church hasn’t apologized over burial sites discovered at B.C. residential school, Indigenous Services minister says

Anyone experiencing pain or distress as a result of their residential school experience can access the 24-hour, toll-free and confidential National Indian Residential School Crisis Line at 1-866-925-4419.

© 2021 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Congo volcano observatory failed to predict eruption due to mismanagement, say workers


© Reuters/Stringer .Residents walk near destroyed homes with the smouldering lava deposited by the eruption of Mount Nyiragongo volcano near Goma

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Researchers at an eastern Congolese volcano observatory on Saturday said they could have predicted the deadly eruption of Mount Nyiragongo in May if their work had not been impeded by alleged mismanagement and embezzlement.

At least 31 people died when the volcano sent a wall of lava spreading towards Goma on May 22, destroying 3,000 homes along the way and cutting a major road used to bring aid to the strife-torn region.

In a public letter to President Felix Tshisekedi, the workers at OVG, which monitors Nyiragongo, said the organisation had been crippled by salary arrears, embezzlement of funding, mistreatment of employees and other issues.

"Nyiragongo's recent eruption could have been predicted by OVG researchers if it were not for all the problems," they said, demanding payment of back salaries and the nomination of new management.

Representatives of OVG's current management committee did not respond to requests for comment.

In late May, the president's office said it would pay all OVG's salary arrears and unpaid operational costs, promising to replace out-of-date or damaged equipment.

Before the latest eruption, volcanologists at OVG struggled to make basic checks on a regular basis as the World Bank had not renewed funding amid embezzlement allegations.

From October to April, the observatory could not carry out comprehensive seismic checks on the volcano because analysts lacked an internet connection. Nonetheless, volcano-watchers have said the eruption was not easily predictable.

"Even if there were more instruments, I don't think we would have been able to know in advance," said Francois Kervyn, the head of GeoRiskA, which monitors geological hazards in Africa. "It surprised us that it happened very abruptly."

(Reporting by Hereward Holland; Additional reporting by Aaron Ross; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

Transgender Salvadoran killed despite long search for safety

SAN MIGUEL, El Salvador (AP) — Rejected by her family, Zashy Zuley del Cid Velásquez fled her coastal village in 2014, the first of a series of forced displacements across El Salvador. She had hoped that in the larger city of San Miguel she could live as a transgender woman without discrimination and violence, but there she was threatened by a gang.

She moved away from San Miguel then back again in a series of forced moves until the 27-year-old was shot dead on April 25, sending shockwaves through the close-knit LGBTQ community in San Miguel, the largest city in eastern El Salvador.

“Zashy was desperate; her family didn’t want her because of her sexual preference and the gangsters had threatened her,” said Venus Nolasco, director of the San Miguel LGBTQ collective “Pearls of the East." “She knew they were going to kill her. She wanted to flee the country, go to the United States, but they killed her with a shot through her lung.”

One day after Del Cid’s murder, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris identified anti-LGBTQ violence in Central America as one of the root causes of migration in the region during a virtual meeting with the president of neighboring Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei. She is scheduled to visit Guatemala and Mexico this week.

Transgender migrants were present in the Central American caravans that attempted to reach the United States border in recent years, fleeing harassment, gang extortion, murder and police indifference to crimes against them. Even in those large migrant movements say they faced harassment.

Things had been rough during Del Cid’s first stint in San Miguel. She and Nolasco had been living in a neighborhood where, as in many parts of the country, the MS-13 gang was the ultimate local authority. Gang members began to harass her, then brutally beat her, breaking her arm in 2015, Nolasco said.

“They warned her to leave, but she didn’t listen,” Nolasco said.

Instead of leaving, Del Cid moved in with Nolasco in the same neighborhood. One day, the gang grabbed Del Cid again.

“They took her, they wanted to kill her,” Nolasco said. “I begged them not to kill her, to let her go and she would leave the neighborhood.”

Del Cid moved back to her hometown, but her family rejected her again. She tried to please them, but she couldn’t, Nolasco said. Del Cid joined a church, got a girlfriend, had a baby girl, but could not maintain that life, she said.

She returned to San Miguel, where initially things seemed to go better. In 2020, Del Cid received humanitarian and housing support from COMCAVIS TRANS, a national LGBTQ rights organization, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Del Cid rented a home and opened a beauty salon there. She hired another woman to help her and was participating in a entrepreneurship program. She was preparing a business proposal to move the salon out of her home into its own space.

But Del Cid was shot in the back walking alone at night down the street. Passersby tried to help her and took her to a local hospital where she died. So far, police have made no arrests and Nolasco believes that like other hate crimes in the country, “it will be forgotten; they’re not interested in what happens to us.”

Laura Almirall, UNHCR representative in El Salvador, said Del Cid’s killing frightened her community and saddened everyone who knew her.

“She was excited about her new plans and her new life. And unfortunately and tragically, everything came to an end,” she said.

Nolasco said that in San Miguel, some 90 miles (150 kilometers) east of the capital, the transgender community endures constant harassment from intolerant residents and gangs. They have rocks thrown at them, are beaten and extorted. If they go to police to make a report, they are insulted and demeaned. “Don’t come here to claim rights, because there are no rights for you,” police tell them, Nolasco said.

The “Pearls of the East” group has a parade squad in which Del Cid participated. It started with some 50 people, but crime and forced displacement have shrunk it to 35, Nolasco said.

“No one does anything here to protect us,” Nolasco said.

Bianka Rodríguez, director of COMCAVIS TRANS, said the forced displacement of transgender people in El Salvador increases each year. Even though a law exists to protect people displaced by violence, it hasn’t been effective, she said.

A report prepared by the organization found that gangs were responsible for nearly two-thirds of the violence against the LGTBQ community, while government authorities accounted for another 21%. Since 1993 in El Salvador, a country of only 6.5 million inhabitants, more than 600 LGBTQ people have been killed, according to their tally.

They registered 84 cases of internal displacement in 2019 and another eight who left the country, but were deported and needed protection.

“Regrettably, (multiple displacements) are very common not only for the LGBTI community, but thousands of people in El Salvador have been displaced because of gang violence and often we find that displacement does not occur only once, but families and individuals are displaced more than once,” Almirall, the UNHCR representative, said.

Del Cid “was displaced so many times in the country and finally she managed to get a new life project and to be part of the community again and everything ended so abruptly and so tragically,” Almirall said.

__

AP writer Christopher Sherman in Mexico City contributed to this report.

Marcos Aleman, The Associated Press