Four-day workweek trial an "overwhelming success" in Iceland

Tre'Vaughn Howard 

Trials of a four-day workweek in Iceland were called an "overwhelming success" by researchers on Sunday. The Association for Sustainable Democracy (Alda) in Iceland, along with the UK-based thinktank Autonomy, published their findings of two large-scale trials of the program undertake from 2015 to 2019 of a reduced working week with no cut in pay.

The study included 2,500 workers, which is roughly 1% of Iceland's working-age population. "It shows that the public sector is ripe for being a pioneer of shorter working weeks, and lessons can be learned for other governments," said Will Stronge, director of research at Autonomy.

Workers who participated in the trials worked 35-36 hour per week. According to Alda, "worker wellbeing dramatically increased across a range of indicators, from perceived stress and burnout, to health and work-life balance." At the same time, "productivity and service provision remained the same or improved across the majority of trial workplaces."

The two trials, which took place in a variety of workplaces, including traditional offices and hospitals, were initiated by the Reykjavík City Council and the Icelandic national government as a response to campaigns by trade unions and civil society organizations.

The report describes the study as a "blueprint" for future trials in other countries, and also noted that 86% of Iceland's working population are now either working fewer hours or "gaining the right to shorten their hours."

"The Icelandic shorter working week journey tells us that not only is it possible to work less in modern times, but that progressive change is possible too," said Alda researcher Gudmundur D. Haraldsson.

Iceland trialed giving thousands of workers a 4-day workweek and saw improvements in well-being and productivity

sjones@insider.com (Stephen Jones) 

© NurPhoto / Contributor Getty Images Reykjavik, Iceland. NurPhoto / Contributor Getty Images

Iceland experimented with giving some of its workers a four-day workweek.
One percent of Iceland's workforce participated in two trials.
There was generally no reduction in productivity, and well-being improved, according to analysis.

The success of two four-day working-week trials in Iceland could act as an example for other governments, analysts say.

More than 2,500 people across 100 workplaces took part in two government-backed trials, representing roughly 1% of the country's working-age population.

Many saw their workweek reduced to 35 hours from 40 without a reduction in pay and saw no real loss in productivity, according to joint analysis of the trials by the UK future-of-work think tank Autonomy and the Icelandic Association of Sustainability and Democracy.

The results add credence to the concept of a four-day working week without a significant cut in pay, which has been increasingly pushed as a remedy for improving work-life balance, boosting employee performance, and helping the environment.

The trials were initiated by the Reykjavik City Council and the national government following lobbying by civil-society groups and trade unions, which claimed the nation lagged behind most of its Nordic neighbors in terms of work-life balance.

The first trial took place in the capital, Reykjavik, from 2014 to 2019 and initially saw childcare and service-center workers cut their hours to 35 a week from 40. It then expanded to encompass staff members in the mayor's office and care homes.

The second, conducted from 2017 to 2021, saw 440 civil servants from several national government agencies reduce their hours. Their roles covered both traditional nine-to-five hours and irregular shift patterns.

Contrary to claims that working reduced hours could be counterproductive, and actually lead staff members to work longer, the analysis suggests that overall there was no overall loss of productivity or quality of service provided.

In fact, teams were encouraged to work more efficiently by reducing meeting time, reorganizing their schedules, and improving communication between departments.

There was also generally an improvement in worker well-being. Perceived levels of stress and burnout fell in many cases, with many employees saying they felt more positive and happy at work as a result of the new regime.

Participants say reduced hours meant they could spend more time exercising and socializing, which in some cases had an impact on their work performance. In workplaces where there was no noticeable improvement in well-being, there was also no marked decrease.

More governments could introduce 4-day-week trials

The researchers described Iceland's trial as a "crucial blueprint" for how similar trials might be organized around the world, highlighting that in the years since trade unions had been able to negotiate the right to shorter hours for 86% of the Icelandic workforce.

"It shows that the public sector is ripe for being a pioneer of shorter working weeks - and lessons can be learned for other governments," said Will Stronge, the director of research at Autonomy, in a statement issued alongside the analysis.

Iceland is not the only national government to test the concept of a four-day week.

In May 2021 the Spanish government approved plans for a three-year pilot and pledged 50 million euros to support businesses implementing the plans, according to The Guardian.

Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand's prime minister, has also highlighted the concept as a means of helping the economy bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic.

In 2020 Iceland ranked 10th for the shortest working hours, according to latest figures by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, with Icelandic workers averaging 1,435 a year.

People in Germany worked the least hours in 2020, averaging 1,332 annually.

The 27 European Union countries collectively ranked 13th, with 1,513 hours worked annually on average.

In the 35th-placed US, workers notch an average of 1,767 hours annually.
Read the original article on Business Insider

Italian watchdog takes aim at delivery firm's gig-worker algorithms

MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's data protection authority on Monday ordered the delivery firm Foodinho, owned by the Spanish start-up Glovo, to change the computer algorithms used to manage staff to avoid any discrimination, after finding breaches of privacy and labour laws.

© Reuters/STEFANO RELLANDINI FILE PHOTO: A delivery driver for Glovo cycles in downtown Milan

The move comes as a debate on how to regulate workers' rights in the digitised "gig economy" is unfolding around the world. The European Commission has opened a public consultation on potential EU-wide rules.

Trade unions say management algorithms on international platforms are eroding gig workers' wages and rights, just as lockdowns to contain the COVID-19 pandemic have increased demand for casual workers such as delivery drivers.

The watchdog, Garante, said it had ordered Foodinho to pay a 2.6 million euro ($3.1 million) fine after an investigation of its management of its 19,000 riders in Italy, as well as other online delivery platforms.

It said the company had not explained its automatic order management system properly to its workers, and had failed to ensure that the results of automatic processes to evaluate the workers' performance were correct.

Foodinho also failed to provide workers with ways to challenge decisions made using the algorithm, including the exclusion of some riders from taking orders, the authority said.

The watchdog gave Foodinho 150 days to make the required changes, and said Spain's data authority would look into Glovo's international digital platform.

Glovo, which is based in Barcelona and operates its services in Italy through Foodinho, had no immediate comment.

The firm delivers everything from food to household supplies to some 10 million users across 20 countries.

A court in Spain ruled last year that Glovo workers were employees and not freelancers, while the Spanish government is proposing legislation to give unions access to the algorithms that tech companies use to manage their workforces.

And in February, Britain's Supreme Court found that a group of Uber drivers were entitled to worker rights such as the minimum wage. ($1 = 0.8434 euros)

(Reporting by Elvira Pollina; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Wages are finally going up and that's going to have to continue to get people back to work

Jeff Cox 

CNBC

JUL 5, 2021

Economists have been wringing their hands over the continued difficulty in getting people back to work.

One commonly cited factor keeping some workers idled is generous unemployment benefits combined with wages that are too low.

Average hourly earnings rose 3.6% in June, above the trend before the pandemic.

Surveys indicate that pay increases and other benefits are essenital tools to lure workers back in.

© Provided by CNBC Bar tender Kim DePland, 38, attends a job fair for restaurant and hotel workers, after coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions were lifted, in Torrance, near Los Angeles, California, June 23, 2021.

American workers collectively saw a nice bump in their paychecks for June that may have to keep coming if conditions ever are going to get back to where they were before the pandemic hit.


If there was one dark cloud over the month's otherwise robust round of hiring, it was the tick higher in the unemployment rate and the stagnation of the U.S. labor force.

Even as nonfarm payroll hires swelled by 850,000, the unemployment rate edged up to 5.9%. That was largely because the labor force participation rate, a key factor in devising the headline unemployment number, was unchanged at 61.6%. The overall labor force, a measure of those working or looking for work, increased by just 151,000 and the total employment level contracted by 18,000.

It all added up to more than 7.1 million fewer people holding jobs in June than in February 2020, the last month before the Covid-19 pandemic declaration.

At the same time, average hourly earnings rose 0.3% month over month and 3.6% year over year, both about in line with Wall Street expectations.

Economists have been wringing their hands over the continued difficulty in getting people back to work. The most commonly cited reasons are continued fears of the virus, child care issues, skills mismatches, and the allure of enhanced unemployment benefits compared to the salaries companies are offering.

It's the salary and benefits issue, though, that has been the most bewildering, as companies wonder what it will take to entice workers off the sidelines.

"They've got to walk the walk. I think it's pay," said Fred Goff, founder and CEO of Jobcase, a social platform that advocates for workers. "If people don't walk the walk, I do think the labor market will continue to be tight."

© Provided by CNBC

Jobcase conducted a survey of 515 unemployed workers in May and found that almost all said they weren't making more money out of work than when they had jobs, though 34% said they are still uncomfortable going back to work.

Their biggest concerns were health worries surrounding the virus, followed by pay rates being too low. In addition to pay, Goff cites "superfluous" requirements for jobs, such as college degrees that don't apply or training that isn't needed.

And he faults corporate CEOs who place more importance on returning money to shareholders than paying workers.

"All we're saying is what was acknowledged before the crisis, that we have too much emphasis on shareholder value and not enough on worker value," Goff said.
Less urgency in getting back to work

The pay issue, at least, jibes with what executives at job search site Indeed are finding with their clients, who cite health as the biggest reason for their hesitancy to go back, according to Nick Bunker, the site's economic research director. The financial cushion accumulated during the pandemic also was a factor for some.

"There were, of course, people who were saying unemployment insurance payments were making their job search less urgent, but it wasn't in their top-tier responses," Bunker said. "You have seen signs that wage growth is picking up. The question is for some occupations and jobs, especially during the pandemic, do we need to see continued pickup in those wages to really get hiring going."

Employers have been responding to the demands for greater incentives.

Some 4.1% of companies posting on Indeed in June were offering hiring incentives, more than double the rate of a year ago. Driving-related occupations as well as personal care and home health were the leading industries in offering incentives, with cash bonuses ranging from $100 to $30,000. Food prep jobs offered bonuses of $100 to $2,500.

In the aggregate, wage growth has been difficult to measure during the pandemic because lower-earning workers were some of the last to return to their jobs. That skewed the total average hourly earnings numbers higher for much of 2020, with a peak of 8.2% year-over-year growth in April 2020 that was hardly indicative of the overall labor market.

However, leisure and hospitality provides an interesting snapshot for what is happening in terms of pay.

The sector currently has an unemployment rate of 10.9%, compared to 5.7% prior to the pandemic, so there's obviously still a lot of slack there. But hiring has picked up rapidly in recent months, and so have wages.© Provided by CNBC A Dunkin' restaurant displays a

Leisure and hospitality payrolls have increased by 1.6 million since the beginning of the year, and average hourly earnings are up 5.7%. Wages have risen more than 10% since the start of the pandemic.

While there's still plenty of ground to cover, the industry, which includes the hardest-hit businesses during the pandemic such as bars, restaurants and hotels, is coming back as pay is increasing.

Companies will be tasked with keeping the momentum going.

Projections from Indeed show that through June 18, there were about 9.8 million job openings in the U.S. Labor Department data released Friday shows that there are just shy of 9.5 million workers considered unemployed.

With the total jobs now outnumbering the eligible workers, that could signal a tipping point for the jobs market.

Separate data from Indeed shows that the amount of job postings on the site deemed "urgent" for hiring jumped to 2.3% in June from 1.6% in January, another sign that companies are getting desperate for hires.

At the industry level, demand is widespread but especially acute over the past four weeks in human resources, with postings up 12.4% during the period in another sign that companies are getting operations back to normal and need help managing the workforce.

"Right now, the job market is relatively tight, or a lot tighter than you would expect given the fact that we're still down about 10 million jobs from where the labor market would have been absent the pandemic," Bunker said. "That's a result of extraordinarily high demand now as employers want to seize on near-term opportunities. At the same time, a large chunk of the workforce is a little hesitant, a little more patient. They don't feel the same sense of urgency."

Met Opera reaches agreement with locked out stagehands


NEW YORK (AP) — The Metropolitan Opera reached an agreement on a labor contract with its locked out stagehands, the second of three major deals needed to resume performances in September following the pandemic.

The agreement was reached early Saturday, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal is subject to ratification by the union, which could take place as early as Tuesday.

The deal was first reported by the website Operawire.

Met spokeswoman Lee Abrahamian did not respond to a message seeking comment and Jamie Horwitz, spokesman for Local One of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), declined comment Sunday.

The stagehands’ contract expired last July 31 and the union had been locked out since Dec. 8.

The Met reached an agreement in May with the American Guild of Musical Artists, which represents the orchestra. Its contract with Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians, which represents the orchestra, expires July 31, and negotiations are ongoing.

The company has not performed since March 11, 2020, because of the pandemic, canceling 276 performances plus an international tour.

The Met announced plans to resume with a Verdi Requiem on Sept. 11 to mark the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. The season is to start on Sept. 27 with the Met premiere of Terence Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones.”

Ronald Blum, The Associated Press

20 years after 9/11, lawsuit against Saudis hits key moment


Mon., July 5, 2021


WASHINGTON (AP) — As the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks approaches, victims' relatives are pressing the courts to answer what they see as lingering questions about the Saudi government's role in the attacks.

A lawsuit that accuses Saudi Arabia of being complicit took a major step forward this year with the questioning under oath of former Saudi officials, but those depositions remain under seal and the U.S. has withheld a trove of other documents as too sensitive for disclosure.

The information vacuum has exasperated families who for years have tried to make the case that the Saudi government facilitated the attacks. Past investigations have outlined ties between Saudi nationals and some of the airplane hijackers, but have not established the government was directly involved.

"The legal team and the FBI, investigative agencies, can know about the details of my dad’s death and thousands of other family members' deaths, but the people who it’s most relevant to can't know," said Brett Eagleson, whose father, Bruce, was among the World Trade Center victims. “It's adding salt to an open wound for all the 9/11 family members.”

Lawyers for the victims plan to ask a judge to lift a protective order so their clients can access secret government documents as well as testimony from key subjects interviewed over the last year. Though the plaintiffs’ lawyers are unable to discuss what they’ve learned from depositions, they insist the information they’ve gathered advances their premise of Saudi complicity.

“We’re in a situation where only now, through the documents we have gotten and what our investigators have discovered and the testimony we’ve taken, only now is this iceberg that’s been underwater” floating to the surface, said attorney James Kreindler.

The Saudi government has denied any connection to the attacks. But the question has long vexed investigators and is at the heart of a long-running lawsuit in Manhattan on behalf of thousands of victims. The issue gained traction not only because 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi — as was Osama bin Laden, the mastermind — but also because of suspicions they must have had help navigating Western society given their minimal experience in the U.S.

Public documents released in the last two decades, including by the 9/11 Commission, have detailed numerous Saudi entanglements but have not proven government complicity.

They show how the first hijackers to arrive in the U.S., Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, were met and assisted by a Saudi national in 2000. That man, Omar al-Bayoumi, who helped them find and lease an apartment in San Diego, had ties to the Saudi government, investigators have said. Just before Bayoumi met the hijackers, he met with Fahad al-Thumairy, at the time an accredited diplomat at the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles who investigators say led an extremist faction at his mosque. Bayoumi and Thumairy left the U.S. weeks before the attacks.

The 9/11 Commission, which assembled the most prominent accounting of the run-up to the attacks, laid out those connections but found Bayoumi to be an “unlikely candidate for clandestine involvement” with Islamic extremists. It said that while it was logical to regard Thumairy as a possible contact for the hijackers, investigators didn't find evidence he actually assisted them. He has denied it.

More broadly, the commission in 2004 said it found no evidence the Saudi government or senior Saudi officials had funded al-Qaida, though it noted Saudi-linked charities could have diverted money to the group.

In 2016, the final chapter of a congressional report on the attacks was declassified. The document named people who knew the hijackers after they arrived in the U.S. and helped them get apartments, open bank accounts and connect with mosques. It said some hijackers had connections to, and received support from, people who may be connected to the Saudi government, and that information from FBI sources suggested at least two of them may have been intelligence officers.

But it didn't reach a conclusion on complicity, saying while it was possible the interactions could reveal proof of Saudi government support for terrorism, there were also possibly more innocuous explanations for the associations.

The FBI conducted its own investigation, Operation Encore, with some agents drawing a tighter link.

One former agent, Stephen Moore, stated in a 2017 declaration that al-Qaida wouldn't have sent Hazmi and Mihdhar to the U.S. “without a support structure in place.” The document said the FBI believed Bayoumi was a “clandestine agent” and that Thumairy knew the hijackers “were on a complex pre-planned mission." He said he had concluded that “diplomatic and intelligence personnel of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia knowingly provided material support to the two 9/11 hijackers.”

Families of the 9/11 victims are hoping to prove similar allegations. They believe the entire story has not been revealed because of the U.S. government's reluctance for a full accounting. Any new evidence they might surface could be politically explosive given Saudi Arabia's role as a Middle East partner.

A spokesperson for the Saudi Embassy in Washington did not return a message seeking comment. Lawyers for the Saudi government declined to comment.

Andrew Maloney, another of the plaintiffs' lawyers, said that besides getting compensation for families, they hope Saudi Arabia will accept responsibility and commit to root out terrorism.

“If they did all three of those things, that would be a huge victory,” he said.

The suit gained steam with a judge's 2018 ruling permitting plaintiffs' lawyers to do a limited fact-finding investigation.

Bayoumi and Thumairy were questioned in recent weeks, as was Musaed al Jarrah, a former Saudi embassy official whose name Yahoo News said was inadvertently revealed in an FBI filing last year that suggested he was suspected of having directed support for the hijackers.

The Justice Department, meanwhile, has given lawyers once-secret documents but under a protective order. Some information remains concealed entirely after the department invoked a “state secrets” privilege to block certain material seen as potentially jeopardizing national security.

“Sooner or later, this trial is going to become mainstream, and there's going to be a tremendous amount of public pressure, and they can’t keep things secret forever,” Eagleson said.

____

Follow Eric Tucker at http://www.twitter/com/etuckerAP

US left Afghan airfield at night, didn't tell new commander

Mon., July 5, 2021, 



BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) — The U.S. left Afghanistan's Bagram Airfield after nearly 20 years by shutting off the electricity and slipping away in the night without notifying the base's new Afghan commander, who discovered the Americans' departure more than two hours after they left, Afghan military officials said.

Afghanistan’s army showed off the sprawling air base Monday, providing a rare first glimpse of what had been the epicenter of America’s war to unseat the Taliban and hunt down the al-Qaida perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks on America.

The U.S. announced Friday it had completely vacated its biggest airfield in the country in advance of a final withdrawal the Pentagon says will be completed by the end of August.

“We (heard) some rumor that the Americans had left Bagram ... and finally by seven o'clock in the morning, we understood that it was confirmed that they had already left Bagram," Gen. Mir Asadullah Kohistani, Bagram's new commander said.

U.S. military spokesman Col. Sonny Leggett did not address the specific complaints of many Afghan soldiers who inherited the abandoned airfield, instead referring to a statement last week.

The statement said the handover had been in the process soon after President Joe Biden’s mid-April announcement that America was withdrawing the last of its forces. Leggett said in the statement that they had coordinated their departures with Afghanistan’s leaders.

Before the Afghan army could take control of the airfield about an hour’s drive from the Afghan capital Kabul, it was invaded by a small army of looters, who ransacked barrack after barrack and rummaged through giant storage tents before being evicted, according to Afghan military officials.

“At first we thought maybe they were Taliban,” said Abdul Raouf, a soldier of 10 years. He said the the U.S. called from the Kabul airport and said “we are here at the airport in Kabul.”

Kohistani insisted the Afghan National Security and Defense Force could hold on to the heavily fortified base despite a string of Taliban wins on the battlefield. The airfield also includes a prison with about 5,000 prisoners, many of them allegedly Taliban.

The Taliban's latest surge comes as the last U.S. and NATO forces pull out of the country. As of last week, most NATO soldiers had already quietly left. The last U.S. soldiers are likely to remain until an agreement to protect the Kabul Hamid Karzai International Airport, which is expected to be done by Turkey, is completed.

Meanwhile, in northern Afghanistan, district after district has fallen to the Taliban. In just the last two days hundreds of Afghan soldiers fled across the border into Tajikistan rather than fight the insurgents.

“In battle it is sometimes one step forward and some steps back,” said Kohistani.

Kohistani said the Afghan military is changing its strategy to focus on the strategic districts. He insisted they would retake them in the coming days without saying how that would be accomplished.

On display on Monday during was a massive facility, the size of a small city, that had been exclusively used by the U.S. and NATO. The sheer size is extraordinary, with roadways weaving through barracks and past hangar-like buildings. There are two runways and over 100 parking spots for fighter jets known as revetments because of the blast walls that protect each aircraft. One of the two runways is 12,000 feet (3,660 meters) long and was built in 2006. There's a passenger lounge, a 50-bed hospital and giant hangar size tents filled with supplies such as furniture.

Kohistani said the U.S. left behind 3.5 million items, all itemized by the departing U.S. military. They include tens of thousands of bottles of water, energy drinks and military ready made meals, known as MRE's.

“When you say 3.5 million items, it is every small items, like every phone, every door knob, every window in every barracks, every door in every barracks,” he said.

The big ticket items left behind include thousands of civilian vehicles, many of them without keys to start them, and hundreds of armored vehicles. Kohistani said the U.S. also left behind small weapons and the ammunition for them, but the departing troops took heavy weapons with them. Ammunition for weapons not being left behind for the Afghan military was blown up before they left.

Afghan soldiers who wandered Monday throughout the base that had once seen as many as 100,000 U.S. troops were deeply critical of how the U.S. left Bagram, leaving in the night without telling the Afghan soldiers tasked with patrolling the perimeter.

"In one night they lost all the good will of 20 years by leaving the way they did, in the night, without telling the Afghan soldiers who were outside patrolling the area,” said Afghan soldier Naematullah, who asked that only his one name be used.

Within 20 minutes of the U.S.'s silent departure on Friday, the electricity was shut down and the base was plunged into darkness, said Raouf, the soldier of 10 years who has also served in Taliban strongholds of Helmand and Kandahar provinces.

The sudden darkness was like a signal to the small army of looters, he said. They entered from the north smashing through the first barrier, ransacking buildings, loading anything that was not nailed down into trucks.

On Monday, three days after the U.S. departure, Afghan soldiers were still collecting piles of garbage that included empty water bottles, cans and empty energy drinks left behind by the looters.

Kohistani meanwhile said the nearly 20 years of U.S. and NATO involvement in Afghanistan was appreciated but now it was time for Afghans to step up.

“We have to solve our problem. We have to secure our country and once again build our country with our own hands,” he said.

_______

Associated Press Writer Tameem Akhgar contributed to this report

Kathy Gannon, The Associated Press

Echoes of 1989 as foreign forces withdraw from Afghanistan

Lyse Doucet - Chief international correspondent

BBC
Mon., July 5, 2021, 

A security personnel guards an entrance near the Australian embassy at the Green Zone in Kabul on May 25, 2021

The "final warning" on fine notepaper was delivered to me in the depth of a harsh Kabul winter at the peak of a Cold War conflict. "I must advise you that you should leave Afghanistan without delay while normal flights are still available," advised the British chargé d'affaires.

Eleven days later, on a snowy 30 January 1989, we watched the US chargé d'affaires solemnly lower the stars and stripes in a simple ceremony freighted with political meaning. The last Soviet troops were pulling out within weeks, ending their disastrous decade-long Afghan engagement. An exodus of Western missions was meant to rattle the beleaguered Moscow-backed government.

Britain also shut its gates on its magnificent white stucco compound once hailed as the "finest in Asia".

"UK ministers felt that they had no choice but to follow suit even though our embassy staff were keen to stay put and carry on with the job," recalls Stephen Evans, a former British ambassador to Afghanistan who was then the Afghanistan desk officer in the British foreign office.

Both Washington and London promised they'd soon be back, but their missions would stay shut until a US-led invasion in 2001 toppled the Taliban.

Now, as a nearly 20-year Nato military mission ends with the exit of foreign troops, the question of staying or going is back at the top of the envoys' agenda.

Letter

"We absolutely do not want to send a similar signal right now by closing our embassy, unless there is an overwhelming security reason to do so," emphasises Mr Evans in a sentiment widely echoed behind soaring blast walls and sharp coils of barbed wire now cocooning diplomatic and aid missions, as well as a multitude of other buildings in the capital.

But the faster than expected pace of the US-led pull out, the tumbling of districts to the Taliban at a surprising speed and scale, not to mention the dread of a highly infectious variant of Covid-19, has added a large lashing of unpredictability to this mix.

Evacuation plans are constantly updated, staff numbers have been steadily drawn down - driven by both Covid and security risks - and some bags are packed, just in case. There are days of calm, days of concern.

"All our capitals are interested in right now is security," laments one European diplomat. "For the last few months in Kabul we've all been discussing security because we're all so invested here and want to stay."

The last Belgian diplomats bid adieu this week and the Australians shut up shop in May. The French almost left and the British, like everyone else, constantly assess the situation.

Kabul watches closely as events unfold

Watching even more nervously are Afghans who assist anxious envoys, the interpreters who translated language and culture for foreign troops, and the many vulnerable Afghans surviving in a city plagued by incessant power cuts and endless aggravations, who watch the embassies' every move as an omen of what's to come.

"If the country is told enough times that it is destined for failure then what hope is there for embattled Afghans to fulfil an alternative?" asks Muqaddesa Yourish, a former deputy minister of commerce who is now an executive at a leading communications firm in Kabul.


Who are the Taliban?


How can the West fight terror after leaving?


US troops must leave by deadline - Afghan Taliban

There was upset among Afghans when the Australian government announced in May it was closing its Kabul embassy although it expressed hope the move would be temporary. This time, in a sign of the times, it was a tweet, not a letter, from the British embassy which urged all British nationals in Afghanistan leave "as soon as possible".

"It's unfortunately an international echo chamber and the world seems to be projecting their guilt of withdrawal in predicting the worst for us - a civil war," Mr Yourish adds with regret. Afghans are also anxious about the threats of intensifying war.

Yet again, the British are watching the Americans; most foreign missions are. The US says it's planning to keep hundreds of its troops on the ground to secure its embassy, as it does in many other places.

Even that is fraught with risk. This week, a Taliban spokesman reiterated to the BBC that any residual presence of foreign forces would be regarded as "an occupation army". The Taliban insist it's a violation of the US-Taliban deal which paved the way for this pullout.

"During negotiations with the US, all these topics came up for discussion and, ultimately, the US side agreed to withdraw all troops, advisors, trainers etc from the country," emphasises Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen when I ask him about this issue.

A general view of Bagram airfield in Kabul, Afghanistan

The Taliban, keen to enhance their international legitimacy, are keeping an eye on embassies too. Last month, when the EU's new special envoy for Afghanistan Tomas Niklasson raised security concerns with Taliban leaders based in Doha, they released a statement within hours that diplomatic and aid missions in the Afghan capital would be protected.

But not everyone is convinced that what one western diplomat called "words from polished diplomats in Doha" would be respected by all Taliban field commanders. And while the Taliban want the world's envoys to stay in Kabul, they don't want them doing their job - supporting the government in power.

Some foreign missions now situated outside the outside the sprawling high security compound known as the Green Zone are planning to shift inside its gates within gates within gates. Norway has agreed to continue operating a vital field hospital used by diplomats and aid workers until next spring, by which time it's hoped a civilian hospital will have been established. Most crucial of all is the international airport - vital for Afghans too - which can serve, in the worst-case scenario no one wants to see, as an evacuation route.

Hamid Karzai International Airport is now guarded by Turkish and US troops under Nato's legal umbrella. It's hoped that Turkey will continue this task through a bilateral agreement with the Afghan government.

But, even at this eleventh hour, difficult discussions with Ankara are in a tangle of political, security and legal issues, not to mention the stubborn Taliban edict. Nato officials express confidence a deal can be done.

Will Afghan special force commandos be a match for Taliban fighters?

So most embassies are now trying to signal that they're staying put.

"The US embassy in Kabul is open and will remain open," underscored a post on their twitter account when media reports started surfacing of stepped-up evacuation planning.

"Embassies will remain in Kabul," emphasises a western diplomat. "But we are in a sensitive period and monitor the situation daily. The security of embassy staff is paramount."

"The embassy to watch is the UK," remarks another diplomat in Kabul. "It's not just Western missions. Even the Chinese ambassador is indicating he wants to increase dialogue on security issues."

The British compound, just inside the Green Zone, is larger than some missions, but is much closer in size to many others. So it's being seen as a bellwether.

And all eyes - Afghan and foreign - are on a fast-changing security situation across the country.

"A lot of the districts the Taliban have taken are irrelevant in strategic terms, but important for propaganda purposes," assesses Tamim Asey, a former Afghan deputy defence minister who now heads the Institute for War and Peace Studies in Kabul. "The next fighting season will be the battle for cities," he points out.

In a conflict where the narrative about what is happening on the ground can matter as much as the events, there's an effort now among envoys to try to stay calm, and carry on, as hard as that can be.

Indian activist Stan Swamy, jailed under terror law, dies

Mon., July 5, 2021



NEW DELHI (AP) — Father Stan Swamy, a jailed Jesuit priest and longtime Indian tribal rights activist, died Monday in the western Indian city of Mumbai. He was 84.

His lawyer and doctor told the Bombay High Court that Swamy, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease, died of cardiac arrest. The court was hearing a plea for bail on medical grounds after Swamy had been denied bail in March.

The activist had been moved to a private hospital from Tajola Central Prison in May after his health began rapidly deteriorating. He was admitted to the ICU, where he tested positive for COVID-19.

“Stan worked to light the world and do away with injustice. The government may have succeeded in snuffing his life out, but his spirit will continue to inspire,” Father Jerome Stanislaus D’souza, the president of Jesuits in India, said in a statement.

In October, Swamy was arrested in the eastern state of Jharkhand after being charged under India’s harsh anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. He was the oldest person to be accused of terrorism in India.

The government’s National Investigation Agency arrested him and 15 other activists and academics over a 2018 incident in which violence broke out between low-caste Dalits and right-wing groups.

Authorities alleged that those arrested had links to Maoist rebels, who are active in several states and are considered the country's biggest internal security threat.

Swamy maintained his innocence and rejected any links to the rebels, saying he was targeted over his work and writings on caste injustice and struggles faced by marginalized groups.

His arrest sparked widespread outrage in India, with many prominent opposition politicians and academics demanding his release.

The anti-terror law was amended in 2019 to allow the government to designate an individual as a terrorist. Police can detain people for up to six months without producing any evidence, and the accused can subsequently be imprisoned for up to seven years. Critics have called the law draconian, and accuse Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of using it to mute dissent.

Swamy, who focused on empowering and uplifting India's indigenous tribes, was known for tirelessly advocating for the rights of those most marginalized.

Tributes poured in on social media on Monday.

“He deserved justice and humaneness,” tweeted Rahul Gandhi, leader of the main opposition Congress party.

“Father Stan Swamy spent a lifetime working for the dispossessed and the disadvantaged,” wrote prominent historian Ramachandra Guha, calling his death “a case of judicial murder.”

In January, to mark 100 days in jail, Swamy penned a letter thanking all those who had stood by him. He said he hadn't met the 15 other people accused with him, despite being in the same jail.

“But we still sing in chorus. A caged bird can still sing,” he wrote.

In his last bail hearing in May, he predicted his death if he remained in jail.

“I would rather die here very shortly if things go on as it is,” Swamy told the judges.

On Monday, his lawyer, Mihir Desai, told the court that Swamy isn't survived by any family members, the Live Law website reported.

“The Jesuits are his only family,” Desai said.

Krutika Pathi, The Associated Press

Toppled queen statues being assessed; federal Conservatives want them restored

Mon., July 5, 2021,


WINNIPEG — The fate of two toppled statues on the grounds of the Manitoba legislature remains unclear.

The statues of Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria were brought down with ropes on Canada Day by demonstrators who were protesting the deaths of Indigenous children at residential schools.

The head on the Queen Victoria statue was removed and dumped in a river before being recovered.

The Manitoba government says the statues have been taken away and are being assessed for damage.

Winnipeg police say they are investigating, but no charges have been laid.

Federal Conservative politicians in Manitoba have written to Premier Brian Pallister to urge the government to restore the statues quickly.

"Vandalism at the legislature and the burning of places of worship in provinces across Canada are criminal acts contrary to reconciliation," reads the letter signed by the eight Conservative members of Parliament in Manitoba, as well as by Eric Melillo, MP for Kenora in northwestern Ontario.

"We cannot allow a small number of individuals to subvert our democracy or erode our democratic institutions. Therefore, we respectfully request that the statues ... be repaired and restored to the legislative grounds as soon as possible."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 5, 2021.

The Canadian Press

'They don't care': Inmate complaints paint troubling portrait of Sask. jails during pandemic


Mon., July 5, 2021

The Saskatoon Provincial Correctional Centre. (CBC News - image credit)

Many jailed and working inside Saskatchewan's correctional centres feel the provincial government has failed those on the front-lines of the system during the pandemic, but those responsible for the provincial facilities say the government did everything humanly possible to keep people safe.

More than 600 inmates and 200 correctional staff have been infected with COVID-19.

CBC reviewed more than 100 pages of complaints filed by inmates during the pandemic. They show that many in provincial care felt let down as COVID-19 spread.

The dozens of complaints, handwritten by inmates and obtained through Freedom of Information Legislation, detail the conditions and the stress they felt as the limited programming they had access to slowly dwindled away.

Robin Ledoux, an inmate at the Saskatoon Provincial Correctional Centre, lived through the pandemic inside. He claims he spent 27 consecutive days under strict COVID-19 protocols, during which time he alleges he was mistreated, having to ask to use the bathroom and sometimes being denied.

Ledoux said those denials resulted in him having to use his waste pail as a toilet numerous times. He said the treatment is cruel and unusual.

"It's rank," he said in an interview from the jail earlier this year.

Ledoux said he was regularly isolated for 48 hours at a time, only being let out of his cell for requested bathroom breaks and for a shower that often felt cut short. He said staff often denied him things like medication thats helps him stay off meth, cleaning supplies and proper clothes.

"Honestly, they don't care," he said.

Complaints paint grim portrait

Ledoux's concerns are echoed by many inmates.

One complaint from an inmate at Pine Grove Correctional Centre in Prince Albert says her mental health suffered greatly from the facility's library being closed.

"It would be something for us to do," wrote the inmate, whose name has not been released for privacy reasons. "To take our minds off of the crazy that is our lives. When people dwell on the bad, bad things can happen.

"If I don't have something to read, I think about the different ways to off myself in jail."

CBC

The complaints range from inmates who work as cleaners in the jails complaining about poor payment, to healthy inmates being housed among those with COVID-19.

An inmate from Saskatoon Correctional wrote that he is afraid for his health and asked those overseeing him to get him medical care. The province says inmates have regular access to doctors and nurses.

Another complaint listed multiple concerns ranging from deteriorating mental health to people's rights being violated. It was written by one inmate and signed by several others.

"WHY AM I STILL HOUSED WITH INFECTED INMATES??!!" Another inmate wrote in all caps. "CORRECTIONS IS PUTTING MY HEALTH IN SERIOUS JEOPARDY AND CONTINUES NOT TO DO A DAMN THING ABOUT IT. I HAVE A WIFE … OUT THERE TO GO TO HOME TO."

Ministry did everything humanly possible: Christine Tell

The complaints have put the provincial Ministry of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety under the spotlight, with some members of the public and the Opposition NDP calling for Minister Christine Tell to resign.

In an interview with CBC, Tell said she will not resign and that the government did everything it could to keep inmates safe.

She said the government put restrictions and protocols in place across the board in the early stages of the pandemic to slow the spread of the virus.

"There is nothing more that could have been done," she said. "I don't know of anything that's humanly possible."

Tell said the trends in the province's jails reflected those in the community.

She also said there are untold success stories in the system — including dedicated substance abuse treatment and reintegration units — and that staff on the front lines have played a critical role.

CBC

Tell said calls for her resignation were rooted in a lack of understanding. In response to calls for inmates to be released en masse, she said up to 95 per cent are in there for serious crimes and that releasing them would interfere with judicial decisions and be unfair to the victims.

"COVID is not a get out of jail free card," she said. "Public safety is paramount."

Before his death, prisoner advocate and poet Cory Cardinal told CBC he wanted a meeting with Tell to discuss what inmates are going through. When asked about that request, Tell said there are channels in place for inmates to file complaints and concerns, and that it's important those channels are used.

She said the ministry has been gathering data throughout the pandemic and will analyze it to prepare a better response moving forward. She said precautions have been adaptive from the start.

Tell said other provinces are already looking at how Saskatchewan handled COVID-19 in its jails.

Pandemic added pressures for those outside

The pandemic has been extremely hard for those with family inside.

Leonard Daniels has a daughter in Pine Grove Correctional Centre and said all he does is worry about the 20-year-old.

"More than I ever did in my life," he said.

While Pine Grove has had few COVID-19 cases, his daughter is living with pre-existing medical conditions. He said he wonders whether she will get the support she needs if she contracts the virus.

"It's not a very good environment," he said.

Daniels would like to see vulnerable people like his daughter released from provincial jails.

"Somebody is making a grave mistake."

Advocates working with inmates have been continuously critical of the province's response to the pandemic. Pierre Hawkins, the public legal counsel with the John Howard Society, said jails are failing inmates.

He said rehabilitation is not possible if inmates leave feeling resentful and that the COVID-19 pandemic has made chances of a productive sentence even less likely.

CBC News

"As they're structured now, our correctional facilities are not built for rehabilitation. They are built for warehousing," said Hawkins.

He said demand for programming in jails far outpaces supply and that a significant investment is needed.

"The near-universal experience right now is people go in, their mental health gets worse, they wind up in a setting that is very tense, quite violent and quite traumatic, and then they're released far worse off than when they went in."

Tell said that while the pandemic has reduced the government's ability to provide programming, the province has been taking steps to overcoming the challenges. She said it has brought on more space in the form of trailers that are separated from the institution.

She also pointed to the province allocating roughly $52 million for a new remand centre in Saskatoon, saying the additional space and funding will help ensure inmates receive the support they need.

"We want them to be productive citizens," she said.

SGEU says cases in jails, youth facilities avoidable

Union leaders say workers in jails were victims of a government that ignored its own medical advice by not immediately prioritizing correctional workers and inmates for vaccination.

"Essential workers should have been made a priority and the government chose not to make that happen," said Barry Nowoselsky, chair of the Public-Service Government Employment bargaining committee. "There's people right now who are in the hospital, in ICU, and it was all avoidable."

Nowoselsky said he's heard from many members who feel frustrated and betrayed.

"To be treated the way they have been by the government, it's unacceptable."

Some progress made during pandemic

Kayleigh Lafontaine has seen two sides of the system. She worked for more than a decade in both Manitoba and Saskatchewan as a corrections officer and is now advocating for inmates as the executive director of the Elizabeth Fry Society Saskatchewan.

She said she's seen firsthand how these facilities can let inmates down.

"I know that the government feels like they're doing the best that they can with the circumstances, and sometimes they are and sometimes they aren't," she said.

Submitted by Kayleigh Lafontaine

Before the pandemic, representatives from Elizabeth Fry would visit Pine Grove twice a month to offer support and assess conditions, but Lafontaine said they haven't had access for more than a year.

She pointed to a recent call she had with leaders at Pine Grove as an example of the work being done by advocates.

In the call, they discussed ways to let inmates inside know about the services offered by Elizabeth Fry, expand programming for remand inmates and launch a pilot project where those leaving the facility will have access to basic necessities.

She said Elizabeth Fry and Pine Grove leadership have reaffirmed a partnership that will support inmates virtually for now and in-person as soon as possible.

"They seem to be really hopeful about sort of the changes and the trajectory we can go on together, so I'm hopeful too," she said.