NGO Global Witness accused of negligence after murder of Afghan informant

Charity orders external review into security practices.

Illustration by Simon Bridgland for POLITICO

BY MATEI ROSCA

POLITICO
July 8, 2021 

LONDON — Global Witness, the high-profile investigative NGO, stands accused of failing to protect people who risk their lives to help expose injustice and corruption, following the murder of one of its sources in Afghanistan.

The source was kidnapped and killed by militants linked to the Islamic State in Afghanistan after his identity was compromised by the charity, which has built an international reputation for holding governments and corporations to account for more than 25 years.

The killing demonstrates the dangers for those who provide information to international organizations in volatile parts of the world. But multiple former employees and associates of Global Witness say that in this case, the charity did not take those risks seriously enough, leaving the source vulnerable to intimidation and deadly violence.


Following the Afghanistan case — which occurred in August 2017, but has not been reported previously — the charity pulled out of the country in 2018 after paying at least $10,000 to the victim’s family to help them relocate, according to a former employee. Global Witness confirmed a payoff had been made but would not specify the amount.

“It is a matter of enormous regret and deep sadness to us that any harm should ever come to one of our sources, simply because they had the courage to speak to us. Our thoughts remain with the family and friends of the man who was killed,” Global Witness communications director Amy Richards said.

“Following the killing, we conducted a thorough review to understand the events that had led up to this and learn lessons from what had happened,” Richards said. “Changes to our processes were made in the weeks and months following this brutal killing, and we are again reviewing the procedures and training programs in place to ensure we are doing all we can to keep sources, partners and our staff secure.”

But there are indications that the charity was not transparent about the incident. The organization informed staff about the case only after POLITICO began asking about it.

A 76-page report by Global Witness on its Afghanistan investigation into the exploitation of talc mines by the Islamic State group made no mention of the killing. A dedication on the inside of the front cover reads: “With sincere thanks to all those whose help made this report possible.”

In June this year, following inquiries by POLITICO, Global Witness opened a tender for a security “partner” to review its source security policies and make recommendations for improvement.

The review “will look across our new strategic campaigning priorities and make recommendations on how we best work with partners, sources and information networks, as well as set out any additional training requirements for our staff,” according to Richards.
Secret information

Founded in 1994, Global Witness is an influential international charity specializing in investigating environmental crime, human rights abuse and corruption. With more than 100 staff, and offices in London, Washington and Brussels, it has made a name for itself as a swashbuckling NGO that goes where others cannot, to blow the lid off conspiracies in some of the world’s most violent and corrupt countries. Its reports gather secret information from anonymous sources, covert filming, satellites and drone footage.

The charity has links to British politics, particularly the Labour Party. One of the party’s former MEPs, Arlene McCarthy, is on its Advisory Council. Richards, the communications director, is a former Labour political adviser. The former campaign director on the now-disbanded Afghanistan team, Nick Donovan, is a veteran Labour activist who ran for the party’s National Executive Committee in 2017 while employed at Global Witness.

In June, Alok Sharma, the COP26 climate conference president and Conservative Cabinet minister, delivered the keynote speech at the charity’s Time for a Climate Revolution event.

Richards said, “Global Witness has no ties to any political party.”

The charity says it is careful to protect people on the ground who help it to gather intelligence. On its website (until the page was removed in June), Global Witness said that many of its reports “start with tip-offs from anonymous sources, who take risks to share information with us. We are always vigilant in protecting their identities to keep them safe.”


But interviews with three ex-employees and contractors, as well as two of the charity’s former sources, paint a different picture.

Global Witness had a burgeoning Afghanistan bureau in 2017. It regularly published reports of natural-resources exploitation and pillaging by ruthless groups — some of them linked to Islamist extremists. But a former employee said there was little oversight of the charity’s operations in the country or the precautions staff took.

The charity habitually failed to observe established procedures around working with confidential sources in Afghanistan, according to the former employee, who wished to remain anonymous, claiming one staff member was known as “Captain Chaos” among colleagues.
Covert meeting

The death of Global Witness’ source at the hands of the extremists happened after the charity arranged a meeting with the man to gather information, according to two ex-employees. Instead of holding that meeting alone, a second Global Witness source was also present. The two sources did not have prior knowledge of each other. The second person later told the local Islamic State faction what the first source had said to Global Witness about the talc-mining business, prompting the group to exact deadly revenge, according to one of the ex-employees.

POLITICO attempted to contact the individual at Global Witness involved in the source meeting via email, phone calls and text messages, but did not receive a response. The person left the NGO after the killing. While the charity accepts that it was responsible for bringing the two people together, it disputes the timeline of events, although it declined to explain what happened on the record.

Donovan, the former campaign director of the charity’s Afghanistan team, initially declined to comment, citing source confidentiality, and later did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

One of the former employees said they found out about the killing “in the most casual way” from colleagues at Global Witness.

“I was shocked and I became obsessed with source protection after that. I brought it up many times with superiors but they did nothing,” the person said, referring both to the killing and the general practices around source protection at the charity.

A former contractor with Global Witness said that she had raised concerns about the charity’s safety procedures regarding sources and local freelancers. She also claims management did nothing about it.

In a previous incident, the former contractor said that a confidential informant and his family had to be moved out of Liberia, West Africa, on short notice out of concern for his safety after he took part in the charity’s work on links between Charles Taylor’s regime and the timber industry in 2003.

Richards, the Global Witness communications director, said it was correct that the organization paid to have a source moved out of Liberia but denied this was linked to the person’s work with the charity. It was “instead linked to campaigning by the organisation the person headed up, compounded by the ongoing war in the country, widely recognised as one of the most violent of the 21st century,” she said in an email.
Source protection

The former contractor says the organization did not sufficiently consider the risks faced by local informants. “We didn’t give as much thought as we should have to source protection or what it meant for local people to be associated with Global Witness after the investigations came out,” said the former contractor, requesting anonymity because of a nondisclosure agreement signed with the charity.

“There were a number of occasions where GW [Global Witness] had to pay to get local associates out of the country or region before the release of a big report, so they recognized that there is a risk for local people. But attention was much more focused on avoiding getting sued for libel and promoting the Global Witness brand than on properly protecting those they worked with in high-risk countries,” the ex-contractor said.

“GW employees stay in posh hotels with iron gates and security guards when they travel to high-risk foreign countries, but it’s a different story for people from those places who do important work for GW.”

Global Witness has been reluctant to speak openly about the Afghanistan incident. When POLITICO made inquiries in January, a spokesperson initially said the organization was not aware of the killing.

But in internal emails from early 2020 seen by POLITICO, chief executive Mike Davis said the Afghanistan “incident is a very sensitive one with potential ramifications for people in-country and some of those Global Witness has worked with over the years if we don’t handle it very carefully. For that reason, we took a view some time back that we’d share some of the main lessons with incoming campaign leaders who are going to be responsible for comparable investigative work at Global Witness. We aren’t in a position to share more widely, however.”

Staff were only informed about the case during a call on February 2, 2021, and donors were also told around that time. Richards said the charity’s initial silence on the matter stemmed from a desire to avoid attacks from the murderers directed at Global Witness sources and their families in Afghanistan.

Open Society Foundations, one of Global Witness’ funders, said the charity had been keeping it “informed about this horrific incident.”

“We welcome GW’s decision to open an independent review into what happened, and would expect them to use its findings to further strengthen their already robust security and operational protocols,” said a spokesman for the Open Society Foundations.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

EU fines German car cartel €875M over clean emissions technology

Daimler, BMW, Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche colluded to avoid using technology’s full potential, Vestager says.

European Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager | Pool photo by Olivier Hoslet/AFP via Getty Images

BY SIMON VAN DORPE AND JOSHUA POSANER
July 8, 2021 

EU Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager today slapped German carmakers with an €875 million fine for conspiring to limit the development of clean emissions technology.

Between 2009 and 2014, BMW, VW (Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche) and Daimler used so-called "circle of five" technical meetings to agree to hold back on technological innovations that could reduce harmful nitrogen oxide gases of diesel cars, Vestager said in a statement.

VW will need to pay the bulk of the penalty, €502 million, despite being granted a 45 percent reduction for having cooperated with the investigators. BMW is fined the remaining €373 million. Daimler got total immunity as it was the first participant in the cartel to denounce its existence.

“The five car manufacturers Daimler, BMW, Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche possessed the technology to reduce harmful emissions ... but they avoided to compete on using this technology's full potential to clean better than what is required by law," Vestager said in a statement.

The decision comes just before the European Commission will announce an important batch of legislative proposals to advance the EU Green Deal.

While Vestager’s focus as a competition commissioner is to ensure fair competition between companies, the fine for Germany’s powerful car makers is a strong message to industry that she will not hesitate to use her powers to pursue green objectives.

"Competition and innovation on managing car pollution are essential for Europe to meet our ambitious Green Deal objectives," Vestager said, adding that "this decision shows that we will not hesitate to take action against all forms of cartel conduct putting in jeopardy this goal.”

Cartels usually conspire to fix prices, so a cartel to delay the introduction of green technology is not a very common case. But the EU treaties clearly say that agreements limiting “technical development” restrict competition.

The Commission decided not to pursue some of the original charges against the companies, according to which they coordinated “to avoid, or at least to delay” the introduction of a new type of filter in petrol cars. Brussels said the "evidence was insufficient" to prove this part of its case.


BMW noted that the Commission "dropped most of its charges of antitrust violations" in the case. "With the withdrawal of most of the original allegations, the Board of Management of BMW AG has agreed to a settlement proposed by the European Commission that will bring these proceedings to an end," the company said in a statement.

VW said it "will carefully review today's decision" and decide whether to appeal, according to a statement.

• COMPANY NEWS

Volkswagen, BMW fined US$1 billion by EU for pollution cartel

Aoife White, Bloomberg News

Volkswagen AG and BMW AG agreed to pay 875 million (US$1 billion) in fines by the European Union for collusion that regulators said curbed the rollout of AdBlue emissions-cleaning technology.

VW must pay about 502 million euros and BMW will pay nearly 373 million euros, the European Commission said in an emailed statement on Thursday. The penalty for BMW is far below its initial provision of 1.4 billion euros. BMW did a U-turn in May in agreeing to settle the probe, after previously indicating it would fight the EU.

A settlement means companies agree to the EU’s charges in return for a lower fine and usually agree not to challenge the EU decision in court. Daimler AG avoided a fine for being the first to tell the EU about the cartel. All three companies could now face compensation lawsuits from customers.

The carmakers “possessed the technology to reduce harmful emissions beyond what was legally required under EU emission standards,” Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s antitrust chief, said in the statement. “But they avoided” competing “on using this technology’s full potential.”

Volkswagen preference shares fell 1.4 per cent at 11:36 a.m. in Frankfurt. BMW shares fell 1.3 per cent.

The fines come as German automakers start to emerge from a pandemic that slashed car sales. Vestager has previously showed little sympathy for a diesel-cheating scandal that the “car industry brought upon itself.”

The EU said the three carmakers struck a deal on AdBlue technology that adds urea to exhaust gases to reduce harmful nitrogen oxide emissions from diesel cars. The companies reached an agreement on AdBlue tank sizes and ranges and a “common understanding” on AdBlue consumption.

Swapping commercially sensitive information “removed the uncertainty about their future market conduct” and restricted competition for product features useful for customers. The EU said the conduct lasted from 2009 and 2014.

Volkswagen “cooperated fully” with regulators, it said in an email statement. The EU fines punish discussions “that were never implemented and customers were therefore never harmed,” it said.

‘Large Fines’

“The large fines imposed in this case underscore the need for more comprehensive practical guidance” on how companies can cooperate without risking a breach of antitrust law. Existing rules “no longer do justice to the complex challenges facing the automotive industry in particular in the area of necessary technical cooperations.”

Volkswagen will consider an appeal before a mid-September deadline, it said, adding that regulators in China, South Korea and Turkey are also examining potential AdBlue collusion.

BMW said the EU had dropped allegations of joint development on software to restrict AdBlue dosing and efforts to curb a particle filter for direct-injection petrol engine. That lead to the lower fine, according to a company statement. BMW said the EU notice stated there’s no indication of collusion on the use of defeat devices to manipulate exhaust gas tests.

The EU case is the latest regulatory scandal for an industry that’s frequently tested the patience of authorities with emissions issues. VW is still dealing with the fallout of the so-called dieselgate affair, which has cost the company as much as 32 billion euros

The cost of net zero is a small price to pay

Jordan O'Brien
Contributing Editor
Electrical Review
July 8, 2021




I’m not sure if any of you caught Rishi Sunak’s interview on GB News, but during the segment, Andrew Neil drilled the Chancellor of the Exchequer on how much it will cost the UK to achieve net zero. Unsurprisingly, Sunak wasn’t exactly forthcoming with an answer.

Neil continuously pressed Sunak claiming that the cost of net zero is colossal, which I don’t think anyone is under any illusion that it wouldn’t be, but just how colossal is it? Well, if you believe Good Energy, a renewable energy supplier, the bill will come to around £14 billion a year.

Good Energy claims that the UK will be able to achieve net zero by 2050 by leaning on renewable energy, with it estimating that it will cost £14 billion more a year to enable renewables to provide 98% of all electricity. Last year, renewables was responsible for just 27% of all electricity generated in the UK, meaning to get to 98% by 2050 will be quite a leap.

So, how do we get there? According to Good Energy, the UK will need a total of 210GW of solar power and 150GW of wind capacity, as well as 100GW of lithium-ion battery energy storage. That energy storage will be vital to deal with the intermittency of renewables.

Additionally, the report calls for people to become responsible for their own power generation needs, with half of all houses adopting rooftop solar panels, while over 80% of heating and 90% of transport needs to be electrified. This can all be funded by interest free loans from the Government, as well as a new-look Green Homes Grant.

But how much will this all cost in total? Well, Good Energy suggests that the annual cost of the total energy system will be approximately £126 billion. That’s a smidgen more than the current £117 billion it costs now, and more than worth it for the benefits that net zero will bring.

Let’s put that figure into perspective, £126 billion is £14 billion more each year. That’s less than the cost of Hinkley Point C, a single nuclear power plant. It’s less than the £350 million a week Vote Leave claimed that the UK paid to the European Union. It’s almost a tenth of the estimated final cost of HS2, while also being less than Crossrail.

So, £14 billion a year. Sounds like a lot, but if you ask me, it sounds like a small price to pay for the multitude of benefits that net zero brings.

 

Growing concern over SARS-CoV-2 Lambda variant

• Download PDF Copy

By Dr. Tomislav Meštrović, MD, Ph.D.Jul 8 2021

A new report from Chile – currently available on the medRxiv* preprint server – reveals how mutations in the spike glycoprotein of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Lambda variant can confer protection from neutralizing antibodies and increase viral infectivity rates, which means massive vaccination campaigns should be accompanied by strict genomic surveillance.

Study: Infectivity and immune escape of the new SARS-CoV-2 variant of interest Lambda. Image Credit: NIAID

Variants of concern and variants of interest of SARS-CoV-​2 have been a distinctive feature of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic during 2021, demonstrating the importance of viral sequencing in our epidemiological approach.

A variant of interest is “suspected” to be more infectious when compared to the initial strain, to escape the vaccine protection or result in more severe disease. Consequently, it can become a variant of interest if there is ample evidence that it actually has one or more of the aforementioned features.

A newly described SARS-CoV-2 lineage C.37 was recently designated as a variant of interest by the World Health Organization (WHO) on June 14th and denominated as the Lambda variant. Its presence was reported in more than 20 countries as of July 2021, and most sequences to date stem from South American countries – particularly for Chile, Argentina, Ecuador and Peru.

And albeit the Lambda variant is characterized by specific mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein, their exact impact of infectivity and potential escape to neutralizing antibodies are still unknown. The latter is particularly important in countries currently undergoing massive vaccination efforts.

Since one of such countries is Chile, a research group led by Dr. Mónica L. Acevedo from the University of Chile School Of Medicine aimed to appraise the impact of the Lambda variant on the neutralizing antibodies responses stemming from the inactivated virus vaccine CoronaVac (also known as the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine).

An emphasis on neutralization assays

In this study, volunteers employed in two health care institutions in Santiago (Chile) received two doses of CoronaVac – each dose being administered 28 days apart (in accordance with the Chilean vaccination program). Patient samples were acquired between May and June 2021.

Pseudotyped virus neutralization assays were performed in order to study functional antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2 in laboratory conditions. The researchers calculated the percentage of neutralization for each dilution, as well as the infectious dose ID50, which is an estimated number of viral particles necessary to produce infection in 50% of individuals.

This study also pursued public data analysis by using available data on SARS-CoV-2 lineages from the Consorcio Genomas CoV2 site in Chile, and vaccination data published by the Chilean Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation.

Schematic representation of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and the variants used in this study. Lineages are indicated in parenthesis. RBD, receptor-binding domain, CM; cytoplasmic tail.

Increased infectivity and escape from neutralization

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The researchers observed an increased infectivity potential of the variant of interest mediated by the Lambda spike glycoprotein that was even higher in comparison to the D614G (lineage B) or the Alpha and Gamma variants.

More specifically, when compared to the wild-type virus (i.e., Wuhan-1 reference lineage A), the neutralization potential was diminished by 3.05-fold for the Lambda variant. For comparison purposes, this was 1.37-fold lower for the D614G, 2.03-fold lower for the Alpha variant and 2.33-fold lower for the Gamma variant.

No correlation between age, sex, smoke status, or body mass index and neutralizing antibody titers has been observed in this study cohort, which means that this should be considered a relatively universal phenomenon.

Correlation of neutralizing antibody titers against SARS-CoV-2 variants and participants’ sex, age, BMI or smoke status. Stratification neutralizing antibody titers (NAbTs) against SARS-CoV-2 variants by sex (A), Age (B),

The need for strict genomic surveillance

In a nutshell, these results indicate that mutations present in the spike glycoprotein of the Lambda variant of interest give rise to increased infectivity and enable the immune escape of this specific lineage from neutralizing antibodies elicited by CoronaVac.

“These data reinforce the idea that massive vaccination campaigns in countries with high SARS-CoV-2 circulation must be accompanied by strict genomic surveillance allowing the identification of new isolates carrying spike mutations and immunology studies aimed to determine the impact of these mutations in immune escape and vaccines breakthrough”, caution study authors in this medRxiv paper.

Such propensity of variants to escape from vaccine-induced immunity means there is still a need for next-generation vaccines that would provide broader neutralizing activity against present and potential future SARS-CoV-2 variants.

*Important Notice

medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.

Journal reference:

• Acevedo, M.L. et al. (2021). Infectivity and immune escape of the new SARS-CoV-2 variant of interest Lambda. medRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.28.21259673, https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.28.21259673v1.full

Written by

Dr. Tomislav Meštrović

Dr. Tomislav Meštrović is a medical doctor (MD) with a Ph.D. in biomedical and health sciences, specialist in the field of clinical microbiology, and an Assistant Professor at Croatia's youngest university - University North. In addition to his interest in clinical, research and lecturing activities, his immense passion for medical writing and scientific communication goes back to his student days. He enjoys contributing back to the community. In his spare time, Tomislav is a movie buff and an avid traveler.

SHOULD BE GLOBAL FRONT PAGE NEWS

Covid 19 coronavirus: Scientists pour cold water on lab leak theory

7 Jul, 2021 

Security personnel gather near the entrance of the Wuhan Institute of Virology during a visit by the World Health Organization team in February. Photo / AP

By: Jamie Morton
Science Reporter, NZ Herald

jamie.morton@nzherald.co.nz@Jamienzherald

Top international scientists have again poured cold water on widespread claims the Covid-19 pandemic began in a Chinese laboratory.

At first dismissed, the "lab leak theory" has been given more credence after intense media coverage in the US over the past few months.

US President Joe Biden directed scientists to take a closer look, an open letter published in The Lancet called for more transparency, reports said a top Chinese official defected with sensitive information and a leaked US intelligence memo talked of several researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) becoming ill shortly before the outbreak.

One theory was that Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, had been deliberately engineered; another was that that scientists could simply have been growing a culture of the virus, and it escaped from there.

But, as a team of international scientists have set out in a review just published online, ahead of peer review, there's still scant evidence to support either possibility.

"All of the evidence points toward a natural, zoonotic origin," Otago University virologist and review co-author Dr Jemma Geoghegan told the Herald.

In particular, there were "striking" similarities to the early spread of the 2003 Sars epidemic to markets in Guangdong, near where the earliest-infected people lived and worked.

Already, the World Health Organisation's report on the Covid-19 pandemic's beginnings had identified that live animals like ferret-badgers and rabbits were being traded in the markets

The animals could provide an intermediate host for the virus to jump to humans – and the market was just the type of setting for a zoonosis event to happen.

By contrast, all lab escapes documented to date had almost exclusively involved viruses that were being studied specifically because of their known human infectivity.

The researchers said there was still no evidence that any of the early cases had any connection to the WIV, nor was there any evidence the institute had or worked on a progenitor of Sars-CoV-2 virus before the pandemic.

"The suspicion that Sars-CoV-2 might have a laboratory origin stems from the coincidence that it was first detected in a city that houses a major virological laboratory that studies coronaviruses," they said.

"Wuhan is the largest city in central China with multiple animal markets and is a major hub for travel and commerce, well connected to other areas within China and internationally.

The SARS-CoV-2 genome sequence happened to be 96 per cent identical to a coronavirus found in horseshoe bats. Photo / 123RF

"The link to Wuhan therefore more likely reflects the fact that pathogens often require heavily populated areas to become established."

Going deeper, the researchers addressed widespread speculation about the supposedly unusual molecular make-up of Sars-CoV-2.

In one of the earliest major studies into the virus, scientists analysed its genetic template for spike proteins, which it used to grab and penetrate the outer walls of human and animal cells.

More specifically, they focused on its receptor-binding domain (RBD) - a kind of grappling hook that grips on to host cells - and what's called the furin cleavage site, a molecular can opener that allows the virus to crack open and enter host cells.


This earliest research suggested the RBD portion of the spike proteins had evolved to effectively target a molecular feature on the outside of human cells called ACE2 - a receptor involved in regulating blood pressure.

The Sars-CoV-2 spike protein was so effective at binding the human cells, in fact, that the scientists concluded it was the result of natural selection, and not the product of genetic engineering.

Yet many theorists have surmised that the furin cleavage site was so unusual it must have been artificially inserted by scientists.

The review authors did note the cleavage site was absent from the closest known relatives of Sars-CoV-2, but they added that wasn't surprising, given the lineage leading to the virus had been poorly sampled.

"All of the evidence points toward a natural, zoonotic origin," Otago University virologist Dr Jemma Geoghegan says. Photo / Supplied

Further, they added, furin cleavage sites were common in other coronavirus spike proteins, including the last coronavirus to spark a global incident - MERS-CoV – and also feline alphacoronaviruses, most strains of mouse hepatitis virus, and endemic human betacoronaviruses.

A near identical nucleotide sequence to Sars-CoV-2's had also been found in the spike gene of the bat coronavirus HKU9-172 – and there were indications the evolution of both viruses had involved "recombination", or the natural exchange of genetic material.

"Hence, simple evolutionary mechanisms can readily explain the evolution of an out-of-frame insertion of a furin cleavage site in Sars-CoV-2," the researchers said.

They added there was "no logical reason" why an engineered virus would use such a poor furin cleavage site as Sars-CoV-2's.

That would have entailed an "unusual and needlessly complex" feat of genetic engineering, for which there were few precedents.

"Further, there is no evidence of prior research at the WIV involving the artificial insertion of complete furin cleavage sites into coronaviruses."

Although they said the possibility of a lab accident still couldn't be entirely dismissed, they concluded the explanation remained "highly unlikely, relative to the numerous and repeated human-animal contacts that occur routinely in the wildlife trade".

"Failure to comprehensively investigate the zoonotic origin through collaborative and carefully coordinated studies would leave the world vulnerable to future pandemics arising from the same human activities that have repeatedly put us on a collision course with novel viruses."

 

Sunak Hints U.K. Government May Stray From Pensions Triple Lock

Alex Morales and Khadija Kothia, Bloomberg News

Rishi Sunak. Photographer: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images , Photographer: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Europe

(Bloomberg) -- Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak hinted he may abandon the U.K. government’s “triple lock” pledge on pension rises, saying his decision will be guided by “fairness.”

The election manifesto promise means pensions rise every year by the highest of three measures: annual growth in average earnings, inflation, or 2.5%.

But the pandemic has led to volatile data, with earnings plunging last year because of the effect of millions of workers going on furlough, and rebounding strongly this year.

Average earnings rose by 5.6% in the three months to April 2021, and the Office for Budget Responsibility has said the risk is “high” that the data point feeding into the pensions decision will be as much as 8%.

Each percentage point increase in pensions adds about 900 million pounds ($1.2 billion) to annual spending. That puts Sunak in a quandary: whether to abandon an electoral promise and opt for a lower rise in the state pension, or whether to swallow a sizable and permanent increase to government spending

“I do recognize people’s concerns on this, I think they are completely legitimate and fair concerns to raise,” Sunak told the BBC on Thursday. “Our approach to these things will be driven by fairness. Fairness both to pensioners and for taxpayers.”

The OBR in March estimated the government would have to raise pensions by 4.6% next year because of surging wages. If that were to rise to 8% for average earnings in the three months through July, the data point used in the triple lock pledge, the extra 3.4 percentage points would increase annual spending on pensions by about 3 billion pounds.

In a round of broadcast interviews on Thursday morning, Sunak also:

• Told Times Radio that he and Prime Minister Boris Johnson are “on exactly the same page” when it comes to managing public expenditure and that “we go through these things together”
• Told LBC the 20 pound a week increase in Universal Credit “will end because it was always meant to be temporary”
• Told BBC Radio’s ‘Today’ program that the England soccer team’s run to the final in this year’s European Championship “can have an impact” on a services-oriented economy such as the U.K.
• Told multiple broadcasters that Health Secretary Sajid Javid is taking advice on the National Health Service Covid app because of concerns too many people are having to self-isolate after being alerted they’ve been near someone with the virus

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

USING JEWS AS A TROPE

We want to avoid NI jewish exodus says Boris Johnson in attack on EU over protocol implementation

The PM said the Jewish community is considering leaving amid concerns about access to kosher foods.

A loyalist protest against the Northern Ireland protocol (Brian Lawless/PA)

By Gavin Cordon, PA Whitehall Editor

July 07 2021 05:39 PM

Boris Johnson has again accused the EU of implementing the provisions on Northern Ireland in the Brexit divorce settlement in a “grossly disproportionate and unnecessary” fashion.

Giving evidence to the Commons Liaison Committee, the Prime Minister insisted the NI Protocol did not pose any threat to Northern Ireland’s status within the United Kingdom.

Read More
Northern Ireland Protocol puts Belfast’s Jewish community under threat

But he said recent problems over to movement of chilled meats from the rest of the UK were still “far from fixed” following an agreement to delay the implementation of border checks.

There is absolutely no threat to Northern Ireland's place within the United KingdomBoris Johnson

He said there were now concerns among Northern Ireland’s Jewish community that they would be unable to access kosher foods unless it was resolved.

“They are talking now about an exodus from Northern Ireland. We want to do everything that we can to avoid that,” he said.

“I think what we all need to do is work rapidly on some solutions, fix this thing fast.

“I think it will take some effort but we really can’t exclude any actions that the UK government my need to take to protect what it says in the Protocol.”

Boris Johnson said he wanted to avoid an exodus of Northern Ireland’s Jewish community (House of Commons/PA)

At the same time, the Prime Minister sought to allay concerns among some unionist communities that Northern Ireland’s place in the UK had been weakened as a result of the Protocol.

“There is absolutely no threat to Northern Ireland’s place within the United Kingdom and there should not be from the Protocol,” he said.

“It is clear that Northern Ireland is part of the sovereign territory of the United Kingdom. That is all clear from the Protocol.”

Mr Johnson however indicated that he regretted some parts of the agreement which he had signed to get the UK out of the EU.

He said he had agreed to checks on goods moving from Great Britain out of “neighbourliness” as part of the arrangements to ensure there was no return of a hard border with the Republic.

“We also agreed, unfortunately, that the EU could have a say in how this was done,” he said.

Collapsed Florida tower could have been repaired faster under repealed law, experts say

If a 2008 Florida law that required condos to plan for repairs had still been in place, "this never would have happened," said the legislator who sponsored the law.


Rescue workers search in the rubble at the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Fla., on June 26. Gerald Herbert / AP

July 8, 2021, 2:31 AM MDT
By Jon Schuppe and Phil Prazan, NBC Miami


SURFSIDE, Fla. — Late last year, after years of delays and disputes, the Champlain Towers South Condominium Association began a desperate search for $16.2 million to fix major structural damage that was slowly threatening the Surfside high-rise — and that may have contributed to the building's partial collapse June 24.

The obvious place to look was the building's reserve fund — extra money socked away to cover the cost of future repairs. But the account held just $777,000, according to condo board documents — nowhere near enough to soften the blow.

The collapse, which killed at least 54 people and left 86 others missing, occurred before the condo board could collect the needed money from residents and begin repairs. The cause of the collapse is unknown, and investigators, experts and advocates are trying to determine whether the uncompleted repairs played a role, whether the board could have seen the problem coming earlier — and whether a Florida law regulating condo repairs that was repealed a decade ago could have made a difference.

One way to keep track of needed repairs is a "reserve study," in which condo boards bring in experts like engineers or certified specialists every few years to inspect buildings and estimate how much the boards should collect from residents to prepare for future fixes. The building's financial documents, obtained by NBC News and NBC Miami, show that Champlain Towers South had not done a professional reserve study since at least 2016. That decision was legal, but it meant that planning was left to the board, a shifting group of volunteers with little training in building maintenance.

 

"If the owners would have had a reserve study, if the board was proactive and had funded its reserves, this never would have happened," said Julio Robaina, a former Republican state legislator.

Robaina sponsored a 2008 law requiring condo associations to hire engineers or architects to submit reports every five years about how much it would cost to keep up with repairs.

The law lasted just two years before it was repealed in 2010, after Robaina left office. Robaina blamed pushback from real estate lawyers and property managers, who he said claimed that the law was too burdensome for condo owners. The legislator who sponsored the repeal, former state Rep. Gary Aubuchon, a Republican real estate broker and homebuilder, did not reply to messages seeking comment.

The repeal left Florida's condo residents less protected than those in nine states that legally require reserve studies, according to the Community Associations Institute, a nonprofit organization that advocates for condo associations. Thirty-one other states, including Florida, regulate reserves in some way — although Florida is one of three states with loopholes that enable owners to opt out of requirements, the nonprofit said. Ten states have no regulations about reserves at all.


"One of the steps that should be taken by a building, especially an aging building, is having adequate funds available so that when you have to face significant cost challenges there's an appropriate amount of money available," said Gary Mars, a South Florida lawyer who represents condo associations.

A survey last year by the Community Associations Institute found that most homeowners associations are hesitant to increase residents' fees, anticipating opposition, and therefore fail to plan for long-term infrastructure fixes.

"In postponing inspections, reserve studies, and — ultimately — complete repairs or renovations, boards often end up facing an exponentially more comprehensive and expensive project in the long run," the report said.

Maxwell Marcucci, a spokesman for the Champlain Towers South Condominium Association, declined to comment on reserve studies. In a previous statement to NBC News, he said the condo board was doing its best to ensure the building was safe. “They are not engineers and not building safety experts,” Marcucci said. “They hired experts, trusted experts, and at no point did the experts indicate that there was a threat of imminent collapse.”

The lack of a professional reserve study is a departure from what many experts say is best practice for condominiums, particularly older ones on the coast — like Champlain Towers South, built in 1981 — that have been exposed for decades to corrosive salt and water.

Robaina, who co-owns a property management company, said maintaining healthy reserves "is the single most important action that a condominium board needs to take."

Florida law requires condo boards to maintain reserves for repairs over $10,000, but it does not say exactly how much to set aside. That means condo boards have some flexibility in avoiding saving for repairs that do not need to be made right away.

In addition, the law allows condo buildings to waive the reserve requirement altogether. Once it has passed its annual budget, a condo board can give residents the opportunity to opt out of collecting reserves by a vote of a majority of unit owners. The votes are common in Florida condo buildings, condo lawyers say.

That is what it appears Champlain Towers South did, lawyers and reserve experts said.

The experts pointed to the board's reliance on special assessments — additional fees on top of residents' normal monthly payments — to fund needed repairs. The board imposed a $1 million special assessment in 2016 for hallway renovations and a $350,000 special assessment in 2019 for work on a generator, a fuel pump and a fuel tank. Such lump-sum levies are indicative of a building whose owners have decided not to set aside enough reserves through regular monthly fees, choosing instead to wait until a big-ticket repair is needed to ask residents to pay for it, experts said. Many associations make that choice by repeatedly voting to waive or reduce the funding of their reserves.

"I can't help but think that the building did that for years and years, which is why there was not enough funds available," said Matthew Kuisle, Southeast regional director for Reserve Advisors, which prepares reserve studies. "Why would they do that? So they have lower fees. But in the long run, the fees are a small price to pay."


The shortcomings of that approach started to become clear in 2018, when the board began inspecting the building before a checkup mandated by Miami-Dade County for buildings that reach 40 years old. In an October 2018 report, engineer Frank Morabito alerted the board to "major structural damage" to concrete slabs underneath the building's pool deck and its entrance drive. He blamed a "major error" in the building's construction and years of corrosion. He estimated the cost of repairs at $9 million.

Reeling from sticker shock, the board invited a Surfside building official to its November 2018 meeting. The official told the board that the building was "in very good shape," according to minutes of the meeting. Some residents have said that led them to believe the situation was not dire.

Even so, the board began trying to find a way to repair the damage — and to pay for it.

Disagreements over the costs frustrated board members. Five members quit over two weeks in fall 2019. The condo association has had four presidents since 2018.

Damage to Miami building was known — but key oversight process was broken, experts say

By late last year, the board had accepted that there was no safe way forward without doing the massive reconstruction Morabito recommended, along with repairs to a deteriorating roof. Morabito began preliminary work and found that the damage discovered in 2018 had gotten worse. The bill rose to more than $16 million.

The board scrambled for money. It found $707,000 left over from the previous special assessments and $777,000 more in reserves. But a quarter of the reserves were designated for insurance deductibles, leaving $556,000. The board chose not to tap the reserves just in case there was another emergency. That meant the building was short by $15.5 million, which the board voted in April to raise through a special assessment. The cost to residents would be $80,000 to $360,000 per unit.

"A lot of this work could have been done or planned for in years gone by. But this is where we are now," board President Jean Wodnicki wrote to residents before the vote.

By last month, the board had started work on the roof, and it put other repairs out for bid. Responses were due July 7. Two weeks before the deadline, the building partly collapsed.

The remaining part of the partly collapsed 12-story Champlain Towers South condominium building falls in a controlled demolition Sunday.Joe Raedle / Getty Images

The board's nearly three-year struggle to start work on the concrete replacement project has loomed over the catastrophe's aftermath. Investigators have not determined what caused the failure; the deteriorating supports are among the possibilities.

Experts say the extent of disrepair documented in the 2018 report raises questions about how the damage went unnoticed previously.

"I read the report, and I wondered how long the building looked that way," said Robert Nordlund, founder and CEO of Association Reserves, a reserve study firm based in California. "Did it look that way in 1998? 2008? Because clearly there was some significant deterioration in that 2018 report."

Documents reviewed by NBC News and NBC Miami, including audits, budgets, financial statements and board meeting minutes, do not indicate when the structural issues noted by Morabito started, though the board did pay to replace leaking pipes in the building’s parking garage in 2016. But the documents do show that the board did not perform professional reserve studies and instead relied on board members to determine how much to set aside for repairs. In 2016, an accountant performing a year-end audit noted that "an independent study has not been conducted to determine the adequacy of the current funding" and that "the estimates for future replacement costs are based upon estimates provided by the budget committee."

Audits conducted by the same accountant in 2017, 2018 and 2019 included the same language. Last year, a different accountant provided a similar disclaimer.

Mars, the lawyer who represents condo associations, said he believes that the note was "the CPA saying, 'We don't have any official documentation to rely on.'"

The accountants who conducted the audits did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Jeffrey Rembaum, another lawyer for condo associations, pointed to figures in the audits that showed that from 2016 to 2020, the board did not update the amount of money needed to replace balconies and concrete. Each year, the board estimated needing $320,000 for the work, even after Morabito's report found that much more extensive and costly repairs were needed.

"We know the building had millions in concrete repairs on the horizon," Rembaum said. "So how did it come up with $320,000 for their current needs? If they'd had a reserve study and an engineer looked at what they had, they would have come up with a higher number. That suggests the board wasn't regularly updating it."

He added: "This is the effect of the Florida Legislature not requiring a reserve study by qualified people."

More than a decade since his short-lived law on reserve studies was repealed, Robaina said he hopes lawmakers will change course and reimpose the mandate.

"This is a window of opportunity," he said, "and unfortunately it took a tragedy that could have been prevented."

Jon Schuppe reported from New York; Phil Prazan reported from Surfside, Florida

A White Teen Was Killed by Cops. Working Class Lives Need to Matter, Too | Opinion

SKYLAR BAKER-JORDAN , 

JOURNALIST WRITING ABOUT THE INTERSECTION OF IDENTITY, POLITICS, AND PUBLIC POLICY.

Hunter Brittain should have been celebrating this Fourth of July weekend. A seventeen-year-old white boy from McRae, Arkansas, Hunter was a rising senior at Beebe High School. Like so many country boys, Hunter enjoyed the little things in life: fishing, riding dirt bikes, 4-wheelers. He dreamed of becoming a NASCAR driver.

But instead of spending the holiday weekend fishing, wheeling and dreaming, Hunter spent it being laid to rest by his family. He was the latest victim of police brutality in the United States.

Last week, after being stopped by a police officer, Hunter's truck wouldn't shift into park, so he got out of the car to get a blue oil jug to put behind a tire; he wanted to make sure it wouldn't roll back and hit the police cruiser. According to a witness, without warning, the officer who had pulled him over shot and killed Hunter.

Like George Floyd before him and Eric Garner before him and Michael Brown before him, Hunter Brittain was killed in cold blood by the police who ostensibly were there to protect him. Like Floyd and Garner and Brown, he was unarmed. Unlike Floyd, Garner, and Brown though, you probably haven't heard Hunter Brittain's name. That's because Hunter Brittain was white.

Some on the right like The Federalist's Eddie Scarry have latched onto Hunter's death and the fact that poor and working-class white people suffer from brutality as a means of discrediting the Black Lives Matter movement. "Hunter Brittain's life mattered just as much as Andrew Brown's," he writes, referencing the killing of yet another Black man by police earlier this year. "Say his name, even though he's white."

We should say Hunter Brittain's name, but not for the reasons Scarry and his ilk would have. Yes, Hunter represents an often-overlooked reality: White working-class and poor Americans are also disproportionately victims of police brutality. But rather than using identity politics to stoke racial divisions, Hunter Brittain's death should serve as a call-to-action for everyone interested in justice to join a diverse coalition committed to ending police violence against unarmed Americans.

Over the past several years, we have begun a reckoning in this country about violence committed by agents of the state against Black and brown citizens. It is as right and just as it is long overdue. Studies show that Black people are more than three times as likely to be killed by police as white people.

But lost in this discourse is an important fact, one tragically represented by the killing of Hunter Brittain: Working class and poor white people are also disproportionately victims of police brutality. A 2020 study by the People's Policy Project found that "whites in the poorest areas have a police killing rate of 7.9 per million, compared to 2 per million for whites in the least-poor areas." This experience is mirrored in attitudes towards the police, with a 2016 CATO Institute study finding that white folks making more than $60,000 a year had a much more favorable view of police than those making less than $30,000 a year.

Over the years, cases of unarmed white boys being killed by the police have occasionally made the headlines. In 2014, 18-year-old Keith Vidal was killed by a cop in North Carolina after suffering a schizophrenic episode. The officer reportedly said, "I don't have time for this shit," shortly before killing Vidal in his home, while his parents watched helplessly. In 2015, 19-year-old Zachary Hammond was shot and killed by an officer when the passenger in his car attempted to buy marijuana from an undercover cop. He was unarmed. And last year, a Salt Lake City, Utah officer shot and killed 13-year-old Linden Cameron after his mother called for a crisis intervention team while the autistic teen has a "mental breakdown."

And yet, none of these cases ever solicited outrage from the #AllLivesMatter brigade. No one on the right organized marches or protests for these boys. No one said their names, except preceded by "what about" whenever police brutality against Black Americans was brought up. Instead, they use these deaths to stoke racial division and keep white working-class Americans from joining in arms with our Black brothers and sisters to demand justice for our slain children.

Meanwhile, Black civil rights leaders are left to speak for white victims of police brutality—as they have done for Hunter Brittain, standing alongside his family and friends in their own community. Crowds gathered last week outside the Lonoke County Sherriff's Office chanting "No justice, no peace" just as they do when unarmed Black people are killed.

The local NAACP chapter pledged to support the family as they seek justice for Hunter. Benjamin Crump and Devon M. Davis, the attorneys who represented the families of Trayvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd, are representing the Brittain family. The Reverend Al Sharpton will speak at his funeral today.

"At his funeral today." Those words fill me with an incandescent rage and inconsolable sadness. I think of my own teenage brother, two years older than Hunter and, like him, a racing fan who just graduated from the NASCAR Technical Institute. I think of all the crazy ass redneck boys I grew up with in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky who drove too fast, smarted off too much, even the ones who bullied me, who were just kids themselves.

I think of Hunter. He was 17. A child. Just trying to fix his truck.

Maybe you disagree with certain tactics or tenants of the Black Lives Matter movement. That's fine. One needn't want to defund the police to recognize that something's rotten when a good ol' boy can't even fix his truck without the law shooting him like roadkill. If, like me, you are white and working class or poor, I want you to consider the injustice and inhumanity of this. I want you to consider Hunter.

Saying Black Lives Matter doesn't mean Hunter's didn't. Recognizing the material reality of racism in policing does not diminish Hunter Brittain's life, nor the pointless and evil taking of it. But failing to demand justice for Hunter and all victims of police brutality insults the memory of that precious boy whose family will lay him to rest today. It is downright sinful.

The time has come for the white working class join hands with our Black brothers and sisters and say, quite simply, enough is enough. We will not sit here while our children, our neighbors, our friends and family are gunned down like dogs on the side of the road. Enough is enough is enough. It is time for the white working class to join the movement for Black lives—and for all lives cruelly and needlessly taken by this barbarous and inhuman system we dare call policing.

NEWSWEEK ON 7/6/21 

Skylar Baker-Jordan writes about the intersection of identity, politics, and public policy based. He lives in Tennessee.

OPIUM IS THEIR MAJOR EXPORT

Laila Haidari, the mother to Kabul's drug addicts


Issued on: 08/07/2021 -

The founder of a rehabilitation centre for drug addicts, Haidari says many of her social activist friends have already quit the country ADEK BERRY AFP


Kabul (AFP)

Her friends and family tell her to pack up and flee Afghanistan without waiting for the possible return of the Taliban, but sitting on a terrace, smoking a cigarette, Laila Haidari is determined to stay.

The founder of a rehabilitation centre for drug addicts, she says many of her social activist friends have already quit the country.

"How can I easily leave all this behind? 'Laila Haidari, the mother of the addicts' -- this is my identity," she told AFP.

The US has pulled out more than 90 percent of its troops from the country, at a time when peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government have stalled and the insurgents are waging a blistering offensive.

There are growing fears that Afghan security forces will be unable to hold back the militants without the help of international troops.

"For the Taliban, drug addicts are criminals who are tried and sent to prison, they do not see them as sick," she said.

Poppy cultivation was banned under Taliban rule, but since being kicked out of power by a US-led invasion in 2001, the export of heroin has provided militants with billions of dollars, fuelling their insurgency.

With poppies cheap and easy to grow, Afghanistan now provides 90 percent of the world's production of heroin.

Crystal methamphetamine production has also surged, created from the ephedra plant which grows wild in the country.

According to anti-narcotics experts, 11 percent of Afghanistan's 34 million population are drug users, with four to six percent addicted to hard stimulants.

- 'The Mother Centre' -

Raised in Iran where her family had taken refuge, Haidari was married at 12 to a mullah, who as a man had instant custody rights over their three children when she divorced him a decade later.

On her return to Afghanistan, she discovered her brother, Hakim, had become addicted to heroin and was living with other homeless users under a squalid Kabul bridge, next to a filthy stream.#photo1

Like "something out of a Hollywood movie", she began rescuing the "living dead" and attempting to wean them off drugs using the Narcotics Anonymous programme, at a live-in centre that she launched.

"When I started, it was estimated that there were around 5,000 (addicts) in the country. The youngest were 15 to 18 years old," she said.

"Today the number is only increasing. And above all, 10 to 12 year-old children are falling victim," she said.

Affectionately named "the Mother Centre" by her first guests, she has helped hundreds kick their habits and connected them with support groups for ongoing help.

Sayed Hossein was one of those pulled from under the bridge and given a fresh start by Haidari.

"I started using drugs when I was in Iran, I arrived here at 20 without a family," said Hossein, who called Haidari "my mother".

The 33-year-old now works at a restaurant -- temporarily shut because of the pandemic -- Haidari established to offer employment to recovered addicts.

- 'Can the Taliban accept me?'

In a yellow dress and with turquoise painted nails, Haidari watches over the Taj Begum restaurant -- increasingly popular with young Hazaras, a minority persecuted under the Taliban and now facing a fresh wave of violence in Kabul.

As a woman who enjoys speeding through the city's streets in her car, singing along to the radio with her friends, she knows there is much that puts her at risk.#photo2

A string of high profile women, including activists, judges and journalists have been assassinated in recent months -- attacks the US and Afghan government have blamed on the Taliban.

"Can the Taliban accept me, with an uncovered head, smoking and chatting with a man?"

"I received a lot of threats in the past... now the only threat is the Taliban," she said.

As violence surges across the country, Haidari -- who has already overcome so many challenges in her lifetime -- is doubtful peace will ever return to her country.

"The Taliban killed people 20 years ago. Today they are attacking the districts. When they get here, we will have to fight," she said.

© 2021 AFP