The dangers of app-based delivery work

Though new delivery startups boast of record investment earnings, many of their workers complain about tiring labor, poor compensation and organizational issues.

 Paul Krantz reports from Berlin.

There's no lack of delivery startups across Germany. Many employees are unhappy with their working conditions

The delivery service business gained popularity in Berlin a little over a decade ago, when firms like Berlin-based Lieferheld introduced platforms for people to order meals from restaurants, with restaurant employees completing the deliveries.

Starting around 2013, this model was effectively replaced by online and app-based services that hired their own delivery workers. This allowed customers to order from restaurants that didn't employ their own delivery staff and simultaneously created thousands of delivery jobs that offered flexible schedules and required very little training.

Now the delivery business market is expanding beyond food and grocery services. German-based Mayd (Meds at your door), began delivering medications to peoples' homes last year and has already expanded to 25 German cities and hired 900 workers.

"We will be active all over Germany by the end of the year," said Hanno Heintzenberg, co-founder of Mayd, adding that the company also had plans to expand into Austria and France.

Another company called Dropp, is using a similar model to deliver e-commerce products to customers in Berlin.

Questionable business models

A common argument made in defense of app-based delivery startups is that they create jobs. Asked for comment about a number of employee issues, a spokesperson for Gorillas, a Berlin-based grocery delivery service, was quick to point out that since 2020 Gorillas has hired 15,000 people.

There are tens of thousands of delivery workers in Berlin today. These work opportunities, with flexible schedules and no German language requirement, do provide income for many of Germany's foreign students. However, numerous reports about work-related injuries, missing pay and union-busting suggest that the jobs created by delivery companies may be exploitative.

Workers' issues

Not the least of delivery workers' concerns is the risk of serious injury or death. Surveys of bicycle delivery workers regularly find that about half of them experience a serious traffic-related injury each year.

Beside the risk of traffic accidents, many delivery cyclists report musculoskeletal injuries that result from carrying heavy loads on their backs over time.

In Germany, delivery workers are considered dependent if they work for one company, and use the company's equipment. For most, simply needing to use their company's app for work qualifies them as dependent workers.

"Which comes with certain rights including the national minimum wage, health insurance, etc.," said Johannes Kiess, deputy director of the Else-Frenkel-Brunswik Institute for Democracy Research at the University of Leipzig.

However, delivery workers in Germany still face many issues that are common to gig work.

"Yes, these workers are being exploited with relatively low wages," said Kiess. "They are treated as expendable. These are 'jobs' in a narrow sense of the word, rather than regular employment."

'A serious lack of investment'

Last year, groups of Gorillas riders organized wildcat strikes to protest missing wages, sudden terminations and other issues. Nearly a year later, payment issues are still a problem for a number of Gorillas workers.

Gorillas provided this statement about payroll issues: "As in large companies with many employees…there may be occasional payroll errors in individual cases…At present, around one 1% to 4% of payrolls are affected by errors, which we strive to correct in a timely manner."

However, a former Gorillas people operations manager (who wishes to remain anonymous to protect contacts still working for the company), says Gorillas' HR team has been severely understaffed since he started there a year ago.

His team received an average of 900 complaints about mispayments each month. About half of these were company errors, he estimates, mostly the result of an archaic system for keeping track of sick leave and vacation days.

"There's a serious lack of investment," said the former manager. "When you have 10,000 people in a company, you cannot pay people out of an Excel sheet."

He had proposed implementing an SAP payroll system to fix the payment issues, but Gorillas didn't want to pay for it. They did, however, recently pay to launch an in-house record label, he noted.

Employees from grocery delivery chain Gorillas were seen protesting in Berlin last year against poor working conditions

Support workers and make profits?

Miguel Judez is a 27-year-old biotechnologist from Spain who has lived in Berlin for six months. He is close to finishing a MA in science communication, and also studies German at a language school. He started delivering for Flink, a grocery delivery app, in December.

"It's better than expected," Judez said about his work experience so far. "My bosses are all good people, and I get lots of free food."

However, delivery companies that are initially viewed positively by employees have a tendency to become more exploitative over time, as investment funds begin to run thin and they look for ways to become profitable.

Judez has already noticed subtle changes within Flink's organization. Originally, he could block out his work availability around his class schedule. Then the system changed, and now he can only set "notices of interest" for times he would prefer to work. This subtle change inevitably results in workers being scheduled when they are not available, which could lead to absences and terminations.

In the investment-fueled startup world, promising companies win hundreds of millions in investments. Gorillas made business news for securing $1 billion (€960,000,000) in investment funding in its first year. Mayd had received €43 million by January of this year.

But these young and still growing companies also have a lot of costs. After subsidizing discounted deliveries for new customers, paying rent for more and more warehouse spaces as they expand coverage areas, and paying thousands of workers' wages, eventually these investments begin to dry up, and companies need to turn profits.

"After a period of intensive growth, Gorillas' focus has shifted to building a strong and profitable business," said a statement provided by the company. "More than 25 of our microfulfillment centers are already operating profitably."

However, employees who can't afford rent while they wait for missing pay, or heal from injuries, would argue that profitability comes at the expense of their quality of life. Whether a company can offer delivery service at prices that customers will pay, and also support employees with livable wage and benefits is yet to be seen.

US high schoolers design low-cost filter to remove lead from water




Rebecca Bushway with students in her high school science class at 

Barrie Middle and Upper School, in Silver Spring, Maryland 

(AFP/OLIVIER DOULIERY)

Issam AHMED
Sat, May 21, 2022, 

When the pandemic forced schools into remote learning, Washington-area science teacher Rebecca Bushway set her students an ambitious task: design and build a low-cost lead filter that fixes to faucets and removes the toxic metal.

Using 3D printing and high-school level chemistry, the team now has a working prototype -- a three-inch (7.5 centimeter) tall filter housing made of biodegradable plastic, which they hope to eventually bring to market for $1 apiece.

"The science is straightforward," Bushway told AFP on a recent visit to the Barrie Middle and Upper School in suburban Maryland, where she demonstrated the filter in action.

"I thought, 'We have these 3D printers. What if we make something like this?'"

Bushway has presented the prototype at four conferences, including the prestigious spring meeting of the American Chemistry Society, and plans to move forward with a paper in a peer-reviewed journal.

Up to 10 million US homes still receive water through lead pipes, with exposure particularly harmful during childhood.

The metal, which evades a key defense of the body known as the blood-brain-barrier, can cause permanent loss of cognitive abilities and contribute to psychological problems that aggravate enduring cycles of poverty.

A serious contamination problem uncovered in Flint, Michigan in 2014 is perhaps the most famous recent disaster -- but lead poisoning is widespread and disproportionately impacts African Americans and other minorities, explained Barrie team member Nia Frederick.

"And I think that's something we can help with," she said.

The harms of lead poisoning have been known for decades, but lobbying by the lead industry prevented meaningful action until recent decades.

President Joe Biden’s administration has pledged billions of dollars from an infrastructure law to fund the removal of all the nation’s lead pipes over the coming years -- but until that happens, people need solutions now.

- A clever trick -

Bushway's idea was to use the same chemical reaction used to restore contaminated soil: the exposure of dissolved lead to calcium phosphate powder produces a solid lead phosphate that stays inside the filter, along with harmless free calcium.

The filter has a clever trick up its sleeve: under the calcium phosphate, there's a reservoir of a chemical called potassium iodide.

When the calcium phosphate is used up, dissolved lead will react with potassium iodide, turning the water yellow - a sign it is time to replace the filter.

Student Wathon Maung spent months designing the housing on 3D printing software, going through many prototypes.

"What's great about it was that it's kind of this little puzzle that I had to figure out," he said.

Calcium phosphate was clumping inside the filter, slowing the reaction. But Maung found that by incorporating hexagonal bevels he could ensure the flow of water and prevent clumping.

The result is a flow rate of two gallons (nine liters) per minute, the normal rate at which water flows out a tap.

Next, the Barrie team would like to incorporate an instrument called a spectrophotometer that will detect the yellowing of the water even before it is visible to the human eye and then turn on a little LED warning light.

Paul Frail, a chemical engineer who was not involved in the work, said the group "deserves an incredible amount of credit" for its work, combining general chemistry concepts with 3D printing to design a novel product.

He added, however, that the filter would need further testing with ion chromatography instruments that are generally available in universities or research labs -- as well as market research to determine the demand.

Bushway is confident there is a niche. Reverse osmosis systems that fulfill the same role cost hundreds to thousands of dollars, while carbon block filters available for around $20 have to be replaced every few months, which is more often than her group's filter.

"I am over-the-Moon proud of these students," Bushway said, adding that the group hoped to work with partners to finalize the design and produce it at scale.

ia/bbk

SPECULATIVE JUNK
'Enormously risky': How NFTs lost their lustre


Enthusiasts promote NFTs as a user-friendly entry into the crypto space

 (AFP/Justin TALLIS) 

Theo MATTIOLO, Yassine KHIRI
Sat, May 21, 2022

A slew of celebrity endorsements helped inflate a multi-billion dollar bubble around digital tokens over the past year, but cryptocurrencies are crashing and some fear NFTs could be next.

NFTs are tokens linked to digital images, "collectable" items, avatars in games or property and objects in the burgeoning virtual world of the metaverse.

The likes of Paris Hilton, Gwyneth Paltrow and Serena Williams have boasted about owning NFTs and many under-30s have been enticed to gamble for the chance of making a quick profit.

But the whole sector is suffering a rout at the moment with all the major cryptocurrencies slumping in value, and the signs for NFTs are mixed at best.

The number of NFTs traded in the first quarter of this year slumped by almost 50 percent compared to the previous quarter, according to analysis firm Non-Fungible.

They reckoned the market was digesting the vast amount of NFTs created last year, with the resale market just getting off the ground.

Monitoring firm CryptoSlam reported a dramatic tail-off in May, with just $31 million spent on art and collectibles in the week to May 15, the lowest figure all year.

A symbol of the struggle is the forlorn attempt to re-sell an NFT of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey's first tweet.

Dorsey managed to sell the NFT for almost $3 million last year but the new owner cannot find anyone willing to pay more than $20,000.

- The year of scams -

Molly White, a prominent critic of the crypto sphere, told AFP there were many possible reasons for the downturn.

"It could be a general decrease in hype, it could be fear of scams after so many high-profile ones, or it could be people tightening their belts," she said.

The reputation of the industry has been hammered for much of the year.

The main exchange, OpenSea, admitted in January that more than 80 percent of the NFTs created with its free tool were fraudulent -- many of them copies of other NFTs or famous artworks reproduced without permission.

"There's a bit of everything on OpenSea," said Olivier Lerner, co-author of the book "NFT Mine d'Or" (NFT Gold Mine).

"It's a huge site and it's not curated, so you really have no idea what you're buying."

LooksRare, an NFT exchange that overtook OpenSea for volume of sales this year, got into similar problems as its rival.

As many as 95 percent of the transactions on its platform were found to be fake, according to CryptoSlam.

Users were selling NFTs to themselves because LooksRare was offering tokens with every transaction -- no matter what you were buying.

And the amounts lost to scams this year have been eye-watering.

The owners of Axie Infinity, a game played by millions in the Philippines and elsewhere and a key driver of the NFT market, managed to lose more than $500 million in a single swindle.

- 'Like the lottery' -

"As soon as you have a new technology, you immediately have fraudsters circling," lawyer Eric Barbry told AFP.

He pointed out that the NFT market had no dedicated regulation so law enforcement agencies are left to cobble together a response using existing frameworks.

Molly White said strong regulation could help eliminate the extreme speculation but that could, in turn, rob NFTs of their major appeal -- that they can bring quick profits.

"I think less hype would be a good thing -- in its current form, NFT trading is enormously risky and probably unwise for the average person," she said.

NFTs are often likened to the traditional art market because they have no inherent utility and their prices fluctuated wildly depending on trends and hype.

But Olivier Lerner suggested a different comparison.

"It's like the lottery," he said of those seeking big profits from NFTs. "You play, but you never win."

tmt-yk/jxb/rl

'A great joy': punk laureate Patti Smith granted France's highest honor






The prolific US musician Patti Smith said the French honour inspired her to do 'more work, better work.' 

AFP/Andrea RENAULT


Maggy DONALDSON
Sat, May 21, 2022, 

As a child, punk-poet icon Patti Smith was instructed never to accept anything from strangers -- which meant one day she was forced to decline a campaign button she coveted and everyone else had.

While dejectedly walking to her New Jersey family home, she vowed to her future self that she would soon acquire her own medals to add to her lapel.

On Saturday, the 75-year-old rock legend made good on that promise, as France's ambassador to the United States Philippe Etienne bestowed her with the Legion d'Honneur, his country's highest order of merit.

Smith regaled a rapt audience with that touching anecdote after her medal ceremony in central Brooklyn, where crowds gathered for the "Night of Ideas," an annual marathon of philosophy and performance put on by the French Embassy's Villa Albertine in partnership with the Brooklyn Public Library.

"It's an indescribable honor, I understand the gravity of it," she told AFP backstage, after delivering a spirited performance alongside her daughter Jesse on piano and her long-time collaborator and guitarist Lenny Kaye.

"For someone... who has been greatly shaped by French culture, French literature, French art, and film, just my whole life -- it's especially meaningful," she continued.

"I embraced France my whole life, and to receive an embrace like this in return is a wonderful thing."

For more than half-a-century, Smith has been celebrated as an artist's artist, adored for her music, songwriting, poetry and deeply introspective, raw writing that in 2010 won the US National Book Award for her stirring memoir "Just Kids."

The book sees Smith excavate memories from her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe, the late photographer with whom she shared a deep friendship, romance and creative bond.

"I feel like it's very fitting to have such an accolade here in Brooklyn -- it's only a couple of subway stops away that Robert Mapplethorpe and I lived at 20-years-old," she told the audience. "At night, when Robert couldn't sleep, he would ask me to read him French poetry... I remember those nights so clearly."

Smith also felt a particular kinship to the venue of Saturday's ceremony.

"It's also fitting that it should be a library, because coming from a very rural area of South Jersey, with very little culture in the '50s and mid-'60s, I depended on the library to open and expand my world," she said.

In typical Smith fashion, she honored the artists who came before her in closing her acceptance speech, having opened with a performance of her 1996 song "Wing."

The rock laureate read the final letter by spiritual-surrealist poet Rene Daumal, which he wrote to his wife before his death.

"Seeing that you are nothing you desire to become," Smith read. "In desiring to become, you begin to live."

- People make change -

Following the ceremony Smith -- donning her signature black blazer atop a black vest, along with combat boots and her long, gray hair flowing as a few small braids framed her face -- delighted fans with a show that included her hit "People Have The Power," which she wrote with her late husband, Fred "Sonic" Smith.

Speaking to AFP, she said that while "artists can always inspire people, they can rally people, give people hope... in the end, it's not artists who make change, it's the people."

"Through voting, through initiative, through mass marches -- it's the people that make change."

Citing the ongoing pandemic and the "pain of war," Smith said "we are living in a very troubled world," underscoring climate change as the great crisis of our time.

"There are heat waves right now that are unprecedented... there's tremendous famine, and violent weather patterns we've never seen," she said.

"The only way it can be solved is a global effort, and I think more than anything... that is the most important thing that people have to address.

"However small the gesture, every gesture is important."

Smith is set in the fall to release a new book entitled "A Book Of Days," a visual collection inspired by her beloved Instagram account.

These days "I'm writing just as always," she told AFP, "writing songs, writing poems, writing another book -- I'm always busy, always doing something."

After her performance, Smith said the medal inspired her to do "more work, better work," and it "felt very fitting to work right after I received it."

"I still feel like I've got a little, you know, that post-performance adrenaline," she smiled, "but also just the excitement and happiness... of receiving such an honor."

"That I would be chosen to, you know, be a sort of a mini-ambassador for the country is really a great joy for me," she said.

"So you leave me a happy girl."

mdo/aha

Nigerian Women Basketball Team, D’Tigress Disagrees With Two-year Ban By Buhari Government

The Nigerian government had announced that Nigeria would not participate in international basketball competitions for two years.

BY SAHARAREPORTERS, 

NEW YORK

MAY 21, 2022

The women basketball team, D’Tigress, has pleaded with the Nigerian government to overturn the embargo placed on international basketball competitions for two years.

This was contained in a statement on its Twitter handle on Friday.

The Nigerian government had announced that Nigeria would not participate in international basketball competitions for two years.

It hinged this decision on the lingering leadership crisis in the Nigerian Basketball Federation.

But in the statement released on Friday, D'Tigress faulted the government's decision stating that the ban would take away their future competitions, accomplishments, and goals.

The D’Tigress said, “We, as the Women’s National Team of Nigeria, would like to speak on the government’s recently placed two-year ban on all Nigerian Basketball international competitions.

“The D’Tigress team would like to state that we do not agree with this ban. This ban is taking away all our future competitions, accomplishments, and goals to elevate, inspire, and make Nigeria proud.

“We would like to be given the opportunity to play for our country that we passionately love to represent in this upcoming @FIBAWWC competition.

“We have worked very hard to be three times Afrobasket Champions, Olympians and now we are blessed with another opportunity to continue that representation for Nigeria.

“We want Nigerian basketball to continue to grow and succeed on every level; from the local leagues, grassroots, and even on the international stage. We believe that all levels of Nigerian basketball can excel with the proper attention, togetherness, and organisation. Our team is a testament to how successful Nigerian Basketball can be and how we have been an inspiration to all Nigerian athletes across the globe.

“We wish to express our gratitude to all the coaches, medical staff, organisers, and fans. This ban not only penalises us but you all as well. Your commitment and loyalty to our team will never go unnoticed.”

OLYMPIC SUCCESSES
Cuban boxers set for professional comeback after 60 years

Vu(m) AFP|Update: 19.05.2022 

Cuban Olympic champion Julio Cesar La Cruz (L) shakes hands with Colombian boxer Deivis Casseres ahead of the island nation's first professional contest in decades / © AFP

Cuban boxers will compete in their nation's first professional contest in six decades on Friday, eager to draw on their Olympic success to stage a victorious comeback.

Four Olympic medalists, in a squad of six Cuban boxers, will make their professional debuts in Mexico on Friday, "for the first time in the history of boxing," event organizer Gerardo Saldivar said.

Cuba has long been a powerhouse of Olympic boxing, but participation in professional sport was barred by the late revolutionary leader Fidel Castro in 1962.

After decades of defections by boxers who fled overseas to pursue salaried careers, the communist nation's authorities in April finally opened up participation in professional boxing competitions.

Members of the "Los Domadores" national team will fight their first professional bouts in Mexico's central city of Aguascalientes under a deal between the Cuban Boxing Federation and the Golden Ring Promotions company.

"Let world boxing fans know that Cubans have the quality and pedigree to box in all kinds of fields," said two-time Olympic champion and team captain Julio Cesar La Cruz, 32.

- 'Let the whole world know' -

Also competing against opponents from Mexico and Colombia will be three-time world champion and Olympic medalist Lazaro Alvarez, along with two-time Olympic champions Roniel Iglesias and Arlen Lopez.

"I feel very proud and eager to make my professional debut," said Alvarez, who hopes for a "great show" on Friday.

Julio Cesar La Cruz, captain of Cuba's "Los Domadores" national boxing team, trains in Havana 

/ © AFP/File

"Let the whole world know and let all the boxers know that I'm looking forward to it and that I want to be great," added the 31-year-old, who will adopt the nickname "The Prince" for his professional debut.

The Cuban squad is rounded out by world champion Yoenlis Hernandez and super featherweight Osvel Caballero, who replaced Olympic gold medalist Andy Cruz at the last minute.

According to Cuban Boxing Federation President Alberto Puig, Cruz was excluded from the squad because he had neglected training.

Cuban boxers hold around 80 World and 41 Olympic titles.

Friday's contest comes as Cuba faces its worst economic crisis in nearly three decades, due to the coronavirus pandemic and biting US sanctions.

The Cuban Boxing Federation has said that fighters will be allowed to keep 80 percent of the salary owed to them for each fight.

"Many of us have families. I am a father of two... so it will help us to raise our socio-economic status and solve many problems," Lopez told AFP in Havana last month.

Cuba started a slow advance towards joining the professional realm when Los Domadores debuted at the World Series of Boxing (WSB) in 2014. The tournament allowed fighters to retain their amateur status.

The country won three of the five WSB tournaments in which it competed, including the last one in 2018.

She joined DHS to fight disinformation. She says she was halted by... disinformation

May 21, 2022
SHANNON BOND

NPR

Nina Jankowicz resigned as head of the Disinformation Governance Board at DHS after relentless attacks from conservatives. DHS has put the board on pause.

Three weeks: That's how long it took for the Department of Homeland Security to go from announcing a board intended to combat disinformation to suspending it.

In those three weeks, both the Disinformation Governance Board and its leader, Nina Jankowicz, came under relentless and sometimes vicious attack from right-wing media and Republican lawmakers.

POLITICS
DHS pauses a board created to combat disinformation amid a campaign to discredit it

DHS initially shared few details about the board's function and purview, leading to speculation and fears it would police online speech.

As the board's public face, Jankowicz became a lighting rod. A well-regarded authority in online disinformation, who has studied Russian information operations and advised governments including that of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, she was accused of being a Democratic hack.

Conservatives seized on her tweets and past public statements as evidence of her partisan bias. The attacks got personal: Jankowicz has been barraged with abuse, harassment and death threats.

It all culminated Wednesday in DHS's decision to put the board on pause for 75 days while the agency reviews its work addressing disinformation. The same day, Jankowicz quit.

Jankowicz spoke with NPR about the board's botched rollout, what she had hoped to accomplish, and the irony of an effort to combat disinformation being derailed by disinformation. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What was the purpose of the Disinformation Governance Board?

Basically, everything you may have heard about the Disinformation Governance Board is wrong or is just a flat out lie. The board was quite simple and anodyne. What it wanted to do was to coordinate among the Department of Homeland Security's components — agencies like FEMA or the Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency or Customs and Border Patrol — and make sure that Americans had trustworthy information about issues connected to homeland security.

But we weren't going to be doing anything related to policing speech. It was an internal coordinating mechanism to make sure that we were doing that work efficiently, we were doing it to the best of our ability, and we were doing it in a way that respected privacy, civil rights, civil liberties and, most importantly, the First Amendment.

Can you give an example of the work the board was meant to do?

Let's say that there was a deepfake video about how to access disaster aid or how to get out of a city during a disaster released by a malign actor like Russia, China or Iran in order to put Americans in danger.

The board would support FEMA in getting good information out there. How do we want to reach this audience? What's the best way to do that? Let's look at best practices in resilience building or counter-messaging, to make sure that Americans are safe during this natural disaster.

Why was the board's purpose so poorly communicated?

I think DHS had other priorities at the time the rollout was happening. They didn't anticipate this fierce backlash and weren't able to mount a transparent, open, rapid response when these criticisms came down the pike.

I wish it went differently. And I definitely think that the information vacuum that we created allowed people to fill in the blanks. It frankly showed exactly how disinformation campaigns work.

You have not been shy about sharing your opinions on Twitter, on television. That's given your critics fodder to accuse you of being partisan. What's your response to those criticisms?

My response is that there are 250,000 employees at DHS. When I was at DHS along with them, I checked my politics at the door. So these deliberate misconstruals and stripping of nuance and context of my previous statements is nothing but a bad faith, childish distraction from real national security issues that has now hampered the department and the federal government's response to these issues.

That makes me extremely sad. These are serious issues that have deadly consequences as we're seeing in places like Ukraine right now. I have always said that disinformation is not a partisan issue. It is a small-d democratic issue. It knows no political party.

The term "disinformation" means one thing for people working in your field. It's also been used politically to dismiss ideas people disagree with. How would you address concerns that this work can be politically manipulated?

We're not just talking about speech that happens to be inconvenient for someone's political viewpoint. Disinformation is false or misleading information spread with malign intent. In this case, the intent would be to hurt or harm the American people. That's the type of stuff that we were looking at: where disinformation had a nexus with offline action. So violence or making people unsafe in some way.

The idea is to help people understand how these techniques of manipulation look when they encounter them online. To help people recognize when they're being manipulated or when they're being scammed.

Why didn't DHS and you anticipate that this board, however it was intended, would get backlash?

We should have anticipated this response. I think that we absolutely should have done better in communicating it. I understand the American people's hesitance to get behind an initiative that sounds as scary as the name communicated.

I think there was a little bit of myopic thinking going on when the board was named, which was prior to my tenure at DHS. The thinking was, OK, it's going to govern the work that DHS is doing in that sphere – it's not going to govern the entire internet, right? And that should have been communicated more clearly as well.

I believe that I gave the department the best advice that they could have received. That advice was not always heeded.

And, frankly, it speaks to why efforts like the one I was supposed to lead are needed. I don't think governments are equipped to handle disinformation campaigns. I don't think governments are thinking very deeply about what to do when their employees are the subject of harassment and death threats and absolute mischaracterization of the work that they've done and committed their careers to.

Why did you choose to resign?

My decision to leave was in part because of hesitancies about whether the department is up to the task. And the uncertainty of the future of the board. I'm about to have a baby in two weeks and I really didn't want this rancor and partisanship and uncertainty to hang over what should be a very happy time for me and my family.

You wrote a book called How to Be a Woman Online about the harassment women, including yourself, face on the internet. Was what happened in the last three weeks different?

It was way more overwhelming and exhausting than anything I've experienced before. This was three weeks of a barrage of sexualized, gendered attacks. Attacks on my personal life, attacking my hobbies and my own personality.

NPR'S BOOK OF THE DAY
'How to Be a Woman Online' tackles online harassment against women

But the worst thing, especially as somebody who's about to become a mom, was these death threats. I think I had maybe one, two, or three days over the three weeks where I wasn't reporting one to DHS. It was about killing me and my family, taking away everything I held dear. Encouragement for me to commit suicide. Doxxing me and my family.

It should be said that the people who are spreading these childish characterizations of me and my work encourage this type of behavior online, whether or not they say those words themselves.

How has this experience changed the way you see the challenge of disinformation?

It's made me a lot less optimistic about the American response to disinformation.

This needs to be a wake-up call that things aren't getting better in this country by ignoring them. That our democratic discourse, the way it is so polarized and so, again, childish and not focused on the real threats, leaves us vulnerable to attacks from without and within. And our adversaries know that.

That's what I worry most about. I'm coming out of this experience pretty pessimistic. But I'm still committed to the work, because I don't want my son to grow up in a world where you can't tell truth from fiction and where you can't trust anything anybody says.

I'm going to keep working on it as long as I have the energy to.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Wells Fargo Advisors fined $7 million by U.S. SEC for anti-money laundering lapses

Michelle Price
Fri, May 20, 2022, 

FILE PHOTO: Signage is seen at the headquarters of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Washington, D.C., U.S.


By Michelle Price

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Securities and Exchange commission on Friday said Wells Fargo Advisors had agreed to pay $7 million to settle charges of anti-money laundering related violations.

The regulator said Wells Fargo Advisors failed to file at least 34 Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) in a timely manner between April 2017 and October 2021.

"At Wells Fargo Advisors, we take regulatory responsibilities seriously," bank spokeswoman Shea Leordeanu said in an emailed statement. "This matter refers to legacy issues that impacted a transaction monitoring system and the issues were resolved promptly upon discovery."

The lapse arose because the broker failed to properly implement and test a new version of its internal anti-money laundering (AML) transaction monitoring and alert system adopted in January 2019, the SEC said. The system failed to reconcile the different country codes used to monitor foreign wire transfers.

As a result, Wells Fargo Advisors did not timely file at least 25 SARs related to suspicious transactions in its customers’ brokerage accounts involving wire transfers to or from foreign countries it determined to be a risk for laundering, terrorist financing, or other illegal money movements.

"When SEC registrants like Wells Fargo Advisors fail to comply with their AML obligations, they put the investing public at risk," said Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, adding that the SEC was sending a message to the rest of the industry that "AML obligations are sacrosanct."

(Reporting by Michelle Price; Additional reporting by Elizabeth Dilts Marshall; Editing by Chizu Nomiyiama and Mark Porter)

Extreme fire threats prompt US suspension of planned burns


Spring Wildfires - A firefighting crew arrives at the scene of a field on fire adjacent to the Amazon Distribution Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., on May 12, 2022. More than 5,000 firefighters are battling multiple wildland blazes in dry, windy weather across the Southwest. Evacuation orders remained in place Thursday, May 19, 2022, for residents near fires in Texas, Colorado and New Mexico. 

(Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette via AP, File)

SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN
Fri, May 20, 2022

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore cited extreme fire danger and unfavorable weather conditions Friday in announcing a suspension of all planned fire burning operations to clear brush and small trees on all national forest lands while his agency conducts a review of protocols and practices ahead of planned operations this fall.

His decision came as federal forecasters warned that expanding drought conditions coupled with hot and dry weather, extreme wind and unstable atmospheric conditions have led to explosive fire behavior in the southwestern U.S. The fires that are set on purpose are called prescribed burns or fires.

“Our primary goal in engaging prescribed fires and wildfires is to ensure the safety of the communities involved. Our employees who are engaging in prescribed fire operations are part of these communities across the nation,” Moore said in a statement.

He said they “deserve the very best tools and science supporting them as we continue to navigate toward reducing the risk of severe wildfires in the future.”

The U.S. Forest Service has faced heavy criticism for a prescribed fire in New Mexico that escaped its containment lines in April and joined with another blaze to form what is now the largest fire burning nationally.

Moore said that in 99.84% of cases, prescribed fires go as planned and are a valuable tool for reducing the threat of extreme fires by removing dead and down trees and other vegetation that serves as fuel in overgrown forests.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who praised the temporary suspension of intentionally set fires, said it's clear that well-managed prescribed burns can help reduce wildfire risks.

But "it is critical that federal agencies update and modernize these practices in response to a changing climate, as what used to be considered extreme conditions are now much more common,” she said in a statement.

“The situation unfolding in New Mexico right now demonstrates without a doubt the grave consequences of neglecting to do so," she said.

Wildfires have broken out this spring in multiple states in the western U.S., where climate change and an enduring drought are fanning the frequency and intensity of forest and grassland fires. The number of square miles burned so far this year is far above the 10-year national average.

Nationally, nearly 6,000 wildland firefighters were battling 16 uncontained large fires that had charred over a half-million acres (2,025 square kilometers) of dry forest and grassland, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

A California fire that started Friday in a building and spread to vegetation in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada about 80 miles (129 kilometers) north of Sacramento forced evacuations and closed a state highway.

In Texas, firefighters made progress against a wildfire near Abilene that destroyed at least 27 structures. Evacuations were lifted.

The biggest U.S. fire has blackened more than 474 square miles (1,228 square kilometers) of northern New Mexico's forested Rocky Mountain foothills. State officials expect the number of homes and other structures that have burned to rise to more than 1,000 as more assessments are done.

The winds on Friday prevented some aircraft from flying and dumping retardant and water, but ground crews managed to turn back flames and reinforce fire lines threatened by gusts exceeding 40 mph (64 kph).

“Crews did a really incredible job today,” said Jayson Coil, one of the fire operations chiefs.

And forecasters said cooler, moister conditions beginning Saturday should provide relief from the relentless winds and low humidity that have fueled the spring wildfires.
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Associated Press writers Terry Wallace in Dallas and Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, contributed to this report

WHO IS GREENWASHING

HSBC banker's remarks on climate risk inconsistent with strategy, CEO says


HSBC CEO Noel Quinn attends COP26 in Glasgow

Sat, May 21, 2022

(Reuters) - HSBC Holdings CEO Noel Quinn says his bank will not be distracted from its ambition to lead the global economy in the transition to net zero, after a senior executive said central banks had exaggerated the financial risks of climate change.

In a LinkedIn post on Saturday, Quinn said the senior banker's remarks were "inconsistent with HSBC's strategy" and "do not reflect the views of the senior leadership of HSBC or HSBC Asset Management."

At a conference hosted by the Financial Times on Thursday, HSBC's head of responsible investing Stuart Kirk said central bank policymakers and other global authorities were overplaying the financial risks of climate change, in comments that drew criticism from climate activists.

Quinn reiterated HSBC's commitment to a net zero future and his post was endorsed by several other HSBC staff including Nuno Matos, CEO for Wealth and Personal Banking, who said the transition to net zero was of "utmost importance" to the bank.

Kirk could not be immediately reached for comment.

(Reporting by Nishit Jogi in Bengaluru and Sinead Cruise in London; Editing by Pravin Char)