Grid monitor report shows higher power outage risk from heat, wildfires, droughts

Heavy plumes of smoke billow from the Dixie fire above the Plumas National Forest near the Pacific Gas and Electric Rock Creek Power House last July.File Photo by Peter DaSilva/UPI | License PhotoMay 20 (UPI) -- Scorching summer heat, prolonged droughts and wildfire outbreaks will ramp up the risk of power outages across Texas, California and the central and upper Midwest, an assessment from the nation's grid monitor showed.

The North American Electric Reliability Corp. released its 2022 Summer Reliability Assessment on Wednesday, which examines areas of concern across the United States as the weather gets hotter between June and September.

The report says most of the North American continent will have adequate resources and electricity this summer except for some areas facing a higher threat of energy emergencies.

NOAA's Climate Prediction Center on Thursday noted that most of the United States would experience above-average warmth next season.The hotter it becomes, the higher the demand will be for electricity, while drought conditions could lessen the amount of power available to meet the demand.

The Midwest, according to the report, "faces a capacity shortfall in its north and central areas, resulting in high risk of energy emergencies during peak summer conditions."

The Midcontinent Independent System Operator serves as the region's grid manager and energy market operator.

The NERC report highlighted potential summer risks to the region's electricity supply of extreme temperatures, higher-generation outages and low wind conditions, which could "expose the MISO north and central areas to higher risk of temporary operator-initiated load shedding to maintain system reliability," the report read.

"An elevated risk of energy emergencies persists" across the West as dry conditions pose a threat to the availability of hydroelectric energy that can be transferred, it showed.

However, California should be able to meet peak power demands this summer, as long as there are about 3,400 megawatts of new resources available as scheduled.

Texas suffered catastrophic power issues in the past when 200 people died after the grid failed in February 2021.

In May and June 2021, the report says, the state's system was impacted by widespread solar farm shutdowns.

This summer, Texas officials seem more optimistic about the grid's outcome. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas's interim CEO, Brad Jones, said during a Tuesday press conference he is "confident" about the system's electricity reliability despite record peak demand projections of 77,317 megawatts in the coming months.

France blames bad weather, war for dijon mustard shortage


A heat dome over southern Canada last summer hampered mustard seed crop production, leading to a shortage of dijon mustard this year. 

File Photo by Harish Tyagi/EPA-EFE

May 20 (UPI) -- Supermarkets in France are reporting higher prices and shortages for dijon mustard fueled in part by poor crops last summer and the Russia-Ukraine war.

Mustard producers in France said seed production was down 50% in 2021. One of the largest producers in France, Reine de Dijon, told The Guardian that a so-called heat dome in Canada in July "really dried up the crops."

"In Burgundy, the region had a very wet winter and then three days of cold at the beginning of April last year, so we only harvested about 48% of expectations.

Most of the world's dijon mustard is produced in the Burgundy region of France, but most of the seed is grown in southern Canada, Mashed reported.

Mundus Agri reported that Canada is expected to export about 78,000 metric tons of mustard seed from the 2021-22 growing season, about 41% lower than the 133,000 metric tons projected.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February has exacerbated the shortage. Both countries also grow mustard seeds, but with sanctions on Russia and fighting disrupting the normal course of daily life in Ukraine, exports have been limited.

"The Ukraine, without being a big producer, represented a backup plan," Luc Vandermaesen, managing director of Reine de Dijon, told French business magazine L'Usine Nouvelle.

"We were counting on it to make the connection with the next harvest, but this solution fell through."

French news outlet Sud Ouest reported the price for mustard seeds has doubled compared to a year ago.

 

Harris announces $500M in EPA funds for zero-emission school buses


Vice President Kamala Harris greets local families during her tour of electric buses at Meridian High School in Falls Church, Va., on Friday. 

Photo by Jemal Countess/UPI | License Photo

May 20 (UPI) -- Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday announced $500 million in Environmental Protection Agency funds for zero-emission school buses.

The funds were secured through the administration of President Joe Biden's bipartisan infrastructure law and allow for school districts and eligible school bus operators to replace their buses.

Harris made the announcement at Meridian High School in Falls Church, Va., accompanied by EPA Administrator Michael Regan and Mitch Landrieu, the White House infrastructure coordinator, Patch reported.

"Yellow school buses are our nation's largest form of mass transit," Harris said.

"Everyday in our country, more than 25 million children ride to and from school on our nation's fleet of school buses. And 95% of our nearly 500,000 school buses run on diesel fuel."

Harris said that the electric school buses will help cut down on diesel exhaust and greenhouse gas emissions as well as the "diesel smell."

The EPA said in a press release also announcing the Clean School Bus Program that diesel air pollution is linked to asthma and other health problems "that hurt our communities and cause students to miss school."

Zero-emission buses cost less for school districts to operate than diesel buses, according to the EPA.

The $500 million in funds mark the first round of funding for the Clean School Bus Program, which will dole out $5 billion in the next five years. The program started accepting applications Friday.

The EPA noted that the bipartisan infrastructure law will allow the federal agency to prioritize applications to replace buses serving "high-need local education agencies" as well as tribal schools and rural communities.

"This approach supports President Biden's Justice40 initiative to direct at least 40% of the benefits of certain government investments to underserved communities," the agency said.

"EPA's Clean School Bus Program will strive to meet this commitment and advance environmental justice and equity considerations into all aspects of our work."

French comedy on Russian homophobia filmed in Ukraine

"The Revenge of the Shiny Shrimps" follows an all-queer water polo team that lands in homophobic Russia. But the scenes had to be shot in Ukraine, before the war.


Above, the real-life Shiny Shrimps water polo team during a match in Paris

The fictional water LGBTQ polo team portrayed in the hit French comedy, "The Shiny Shrimps," was inspired by an actual group of people who practice the sport together.

When DW met them at their Wednesday evening training in southern Paris, they were still warming up, all wearing bathing caps with bright orange plastic ear coverings.

"You have to cover your opponent, and you have to do it with body contact," coach Sebastien Beysson told the athletes before they started playing. "Body contact is no problem," one of the players replied, and the others giggled.

A whistle then kicked off the game.

Half the team worked to get the ball into the opposing team's goal as many times as possible, while the other half sat on the substitutes' bench on the sidelines.

Team spirit: The real-life Shiny Shrimps

The first film inspired by the Shiny Shrimps came out in 2019; now its sequel, "The Shiny Shrimps Strike Back," has been released in France and will soon be screened at international festivals.

All while centering on the world of LGBTQ water polo, the new comedy also illustrates the culture clash that separates Russia from Europe and Ukraine.
Film comments on homophobia in Russia

In the 2019 film, an Olympic champion swimmer is offered a chance to make up for a homophobic statement by coaching a gay water polo team.

In the new comedy, "the water polo team travels to Russia and encounters homophobia in that country," director Cedric Le Gallo, who played defense on the water polo team that Wednesday in Paris, told DW.

In the film, the water polo team is detained by police in Russia

On their way to the Gay Games in Tokyo, the players have to spend a night in Moscow because of a booking error. The police arrest some of them and take them to a gay conversion camp.

"It is important to show that in some countries of the world it is not easy to be gay," he said, including in Russia, where it is "illegal to be a man kissing your boyfriend on the street — because that's considered LGBTQI+ propaganda."

The law made it impossible for the crew to film in Russia.

A still from the film 'The Shiny Shrimps Strike Back'

'Ukrainians want to be part of Europe'

In Ukraine, people speak Russian, some of the architecture is reminiscent of Russia — so that is where filming took place from January to April 2021.

Le Gallo still can't fathom that tanks are now rolling down the streets where he was filming, and that people are dying in the war. "The whole situation just shows more clearly how different Ukraine and Russia are," he said. "Ukrainians want to be part of Europe, they are more like us and very different from Russians."

Director Cedric Le Gallo, left, is a Shiny Shrimp

Coach Sebastien Beysson, who was an extra in the film and part of the shooting in Ukraine, agrees: "You could feel that Ukraine was in a positive momentum towards more personal freedoms, not only in terms of LGBTQI+ rights," he told DW, adding that at the moment, none of that matters.

"It's terrible that there's a war going on in Ukraine. The actors we were shooting with a moment ago are now busy defending their country, fleeing, or moving their family to safety," says Beysson.

Ukrainian Dmitriy Soloviov was one of the film's actors

Friends became foes

Dmitriy Soloviov is one of the film's actors; he plays the leader of a gang that goes around beating up gays. Months after the shoot, the 33-year-old Ukrainian is a member of a militia in the central province of Cherkasy.

"Until the Russian invasion began on February 24, we Ukrainians had many Russian friends and colleagues with whom we got along really well," he told DW via the news app Telegram, adding that this is no longer possible: "Russia is now only an aggressor and an enemy."

Actor Sasha Ivanov, who plays a Russian who admits himself to a gay conversion camp because he no longer wants to be gay, says the film is like a metaphor of the Russian state: "The camp symbolizes Russia as evil," says the 20-year-old, who fled to France just days before the Russian invasion began. The Russian state has been throwing people in prison for a long time just for being who they are, he says.

"'The Shiny Shrimps Strike Back' counters that with an almost therapeutic message — and that is to love yourself and accept yourself as you are," adds Ivanov.
Hoping for better times

The war in his country deeply upsets Ivanov, but he is confident that "Russia will never be able to dominate Ukraine."

"After every war, every crisis, comes a renaissance, a golden age of culture," he argues, recalling the wealth of cultural events, films and concerts after the 2014 Maidan Revolution. "After this war, it will be the same."

The film gives hope to Soloviov, too. "This is such a wonderful film about life and free love — I hope we will all work together on the third part soon."

This article was originally written in German.

A 'forgotten' mass grave of WWI: Winterberg Tunnel

An exhibition about German WWI soldiers killed in a collapsed tunnel in France traces their fate more than 100 years later. Authorities are debating on what should happen with the area.


Remembering the collapse: One of the exhibits of the Winterberg Tunnel exhibition

The exhibition "Death in the Winterberg Tunnel. A Tragedy in World War I" tells about the fate of hundreds of German soldiers who were buried alive in a protective tunnel in northern France, in May 1917.

The exact number of soldiers who died there remains unclear. The exhibition, at Germany's General State Archives of Baden-Württemberg in Karlsruhe, notes "about 100 to 150 soldiers," while some historians have found there were between 250 and 270. There has even been speculation that 400 people went missing.

'Insane chaos'

"Today, we assume that 80 to 100 soldiers were in the tunnel and about 100 were in the immediate vicinity," Diane Tempel-Bornett, a spokeswoman for the German War Graves Commission, told DW.

She mentions the account of a soldier who managed to get out after two days, and who described the situation as "insane chaos," as "artillery fire caused the ammunition stored at the entrance to explode, tracer ammunition also caught fire and toxic gases developed."

Founded in 1919, the German War Graves Commission has contributed to the exhibition with some of their excavation finds.

The commission is "dedicated to the task of recording, preserving and caring for the graves of German war dead abroad on behalf of the German government," as their website states.

Financed mainly by donations, it currently looks after "more than 830 war cemeteries and graves in 46 countries, the last resting places of about 2.8 million war casualties." The commission also helps relatives search for graves, and offers guided tours of war cemeteries to schoolchildren.
Fate of millions of soldiers unknown

The buried soldiers belonged to Baden Reserve Infantry Regiment 111, and the tunnel at Winterberg in the small French commune of Craonne in the Aisne department served as a link between their trenches. Only three soldiers survived; the bodies of the others were never recovered. The site of the incident was never rediscovered.

Trying to find the entrance to the tunnel in May 2022

Winterberg Tunnel was forgotten for a long time, which is not unusual — the fate of millions of soldiers who fought in the world wars remains unresolved worldwide.

More than 100 years after the tunnel collapsed, there is still no consensus on how the area and the buried soldiers' remains should be handled.

In recent years, investigations have picked up steam. Amateur archaeologists, too, have tried their hand at illegal excavations.

"These sites draw amateur historians, at worst grave robbers," says Tempel-Bornett, adding that unfortunately, they can also destroy clues and traces.

Today, the area is a nature reserve, overgrown and forested. It is also a restricted zone — ammunition was found there last year.

The tunnel, where the soldiers' remains are presumed buried, is dozens of meters underground. The exact location of the grave is unclear, and complex drilling and seismographic investigations have recently shown the conditions to be difficult.
Safeguard eternal rest

"The War Graves Commission works with the French authorities and always with their authorization," says Tempel-Bornett. When working in the previously secured areas they are allowed to access, they are "accompanied by the fire department, explosives experts, the gendarmerie, representatives of the authorities and the forestry department." An ambulance always stands by, too.

Meanwhile, the Franco-German Council of Ministers is debating whether the remains should be recovered — which is not even the association's main interest, says Tempel-Bornett.

"Our task is to ensure that the peace of the dead is guaranteed," the spokeswoman says, as well as preventing unauthorized persons from digging at the site and disturbing the peace of the dead, perhaps looting graves, and putting themselves in danger.

Winterberg could also become an official memorial site. "Many can't bear the uncertainty of what happened to their ancestors," says Tempel-Bornett, adding it can give relatives a sense of peace when, for instance, their grandfather's name appears on a memorial plaque at the Rossoshka war cemetery in Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad.

Others need a place to grieve, she says, recalling octogenarians standing at the graves of fathers they last saw when they were children. "Tears are shed, but it helps them come to terms with the past."

The German War Graves Commission has set up a provisional memorial

The association has dark chapters in its own past. Founded by soldiers, it was highly respected by the Nazis.

According to a 2019 study, the association long had problems distinguishing between perpetrators and victims and not turning the commemoration of fallen soldiers into heroes' memorials.

The debate over burials

In view of the role of German soldiers as aggressors in the world wars, the War Graves Commission must always justify its commemorations — that is also true for the Winterberg tunnel.

War criminals, she says, must be buried, too. "That is criticized sometimes, but it's ingrained in our Christian culture that everyone should have a grave."

The exhibition in Karlsruhe aims to recreate the tunnel look with a three-dimensional exhibition architecture. Various excavation finds from the tunnel made available by the War Graves Commission are on public display for the first time.

"Death in the Winterberg Tunnel. A Tragedy in World War I" is on show at the Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe until August 14, 2022, before moving on to France and Belgium as a traveling exhibition.

This article was originally written in German.

Ford in Germany faces possible sales ban — reports

A patent licensing dispute over microchips in cars has caused legal trouble in Germany for the US carmaker. Germany has notoriously strict patent laws.

Ford is that latest car company to be pressured under strict patent law in Germany


A judge in a Munich court ruled Friday that Ford Motor Company will not be able to sell or manufacture vehicles in Germany if it doesn't settle a dispute over microchips, according to German media.

Ford is said to have 4G cellular chips built into its vehicles for which the company has not paid licensing fees, the business magazine Wirtschaftswoche reported.

The ruling, which is subject to appeal, could be enforced in two weeks if Ford does not reach a settlement with the plaintiffs.
What is the 4G patent case about?

Ford is being sued by eight owners of 4G mobile communications patents, according to the report.

The specific companies in question were not named, but the case was brought to the Munich court by Japanese intellectual property management company IP Bridge.

The communications chips are essential for "connected cars," and Ford is the latest car company to be put under pressure by the patent owners of mobile communications technology.

Volkswagen was also sued by IP Bridge in the same patent court in Munich. The German carmaker quickly settled the matter by purchasing a patent license from a platform called Avanci that bundled patents from 48 owners, the report said.

Daimler also faced a similar patent dispute over mobile tech in its cars brought on by Nokia and Sharp.

Germany's strict patent laws

Germany's patent laws are considered very strict, which is why many international companies take patent disputes before German courts.

For example, the judge's ruling in Ford's case provided for the recall of all cars from dealers and their destruction if a settlement is not reached, Wirtschaftswoche reported.

There have been attempts at legal reform so that patent claims on small parts of vehicles cannot be used to threaten large disruptions in sales and production.

However, according to the report, these reforms have yet to have an effect.

Ford said it would not comment on the ruling as it has yet to receive the arguments in writing, Reuters news agency reported.

wmr/sms (Reuters, DPA)

Abortion in EU: Fragile progress — and tightened laws

Although abortion is broadly available across the European Union, observers point to developments that endanger such access. DW looks at four EU countries with diverging policies.



Poland is among European countries to roll back access to abortion

From Ireland to Spain, EU countries have been overhauling abortion laws, rolling back measures that made it difficult — or illegal — to access safe care for the procedure.

"The trend across Europe is squarely and overwhelmingly toward the legalization of abortion, toward the removal of legal and policy barriers," says Leah Hoctor, the senior regional director for Europe at the Center for Reproductive Rights.

But it's not accessible to everyone.

In the 27 EU member states, abortion is completely illegal in Malta, while Poland has a near-total ban.

And, according to Caroline Hickson, the regional director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation European Network, all but five of the 52 European countries the group surveyed in 2021 impose medically unnecessary procedures such as compulsory waiting periods.

Hickson describes diverging trends, in which some countries have overturned long-standing abortion bans. Yet, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe, she said, "regression on women's rights, and particularly on their reproductive rights, actually goes hand in hand with regression on the rule of law and democracy."
Spain: Access to be expanded

On Tuesday, Spain's Council of Ministers council approved a draft law that removes the requirement for 16- and 17-year-olds to obtain parental consent to terminate a pregnancy.

If approved, the new law would also eliminate a three-day "reflection period" before an abortion. It would also include reproductive health provisions such as granting leave after abortion. In a first for Europe, the law would also institute menstrual leave for people with severe period symptoms.

Doctors who refuse to carry out an abortion procedure would still be able to join a registry of objectors. This "denial of care" barrier is present in numerous other European countries, Hickson indicates.

Hoctor says the pending proposal is "indicative of this trend across the region to really improve, modernize abortion laws."

"We very much hope that the legislation will be adopted by the legislature in Spain," Hoctor says.

Although some may consider 16 or 17 young, Hickson says, "young women need to be able to access a confidential medical service when they need it," citing potentially difficult family situations.

She attributes the new law to an upsurge in women's activism and to the democratic socialist alliance currently governing Spain. Access to abortion "very much follows the wider political swing of a given country," she points out.

Poland: Near-total ban

This is also evident in Poland. In contrast to European countries that have expanded access to abortion in recent decades, Poland's Constitutional Tribunal — itself a focus of EU concern — in January 2021 issued a ruling that imposed a near-total ban.

Abortion is now only permitted in cases where pregnancy threatens the life or health of the pregnant person, or in cases of rape or incest.

The ruling spurred massive public protest, with more than 1,000 women challenging it at the European Court of Human Rights. The Council of Europe commissioner for human rights and nine leading human rights organizations have filed third-party interventions on behalf of these women.

"As an outlier in the European region, Poland is the only EU member state in recent decades to remove a ground for legal abortion from its law," Hoctor says. "Poland is really out of step with the general trend."

Both Hoctor and Hickson express concern that the ban also applies to Ukrainian refugees in Poland, some of whom are survivors of sexual violence.

When refugee women or girls cross the EU border into Poland, Slovakia or Hungary, "they are moving into some of the most restrictive contexts in the region on abortion," Hoctor says.

Watch video 03:27 Poland government aims to create pregnancy register

Hungary: Interlocking obstacles

Although abortion is legal in Hungary, Hoctor says the law is still very restrictive in terms of imposing a mandatory waiting period, stringent counseling requirements and a range of other barriers, including the fact that abortion care is not covered under public health insurance or subsidization schemes.

Hickson describes Hungary as among numerous European countries whose abortion policies "impose a lot of interconnecting barriers that in practice make it much more difficult to access."

In Hungary, abortion restrictions are also strongly connected to right-wing populist Viktor Orban's agenda, Hickson says.

Ireland: Referendum reflects reforms

Ireland has overhauled its abortion laws since a 1983 constitutional amendment —which was riding Catholic sentiment — prohibited abortion. In a 2018 referendum, the public voted overwhelmingly to overturn the ban.

"It was a real recognition by the Irish people and by the Irish state of the need to treat abortion as essential health care," Hoctor says.

"While the change in Ireland was phenomenal and incredibly important, a number of barriers to access are still retained in the legislation," she adds, indicating that a review process currently underway could ameliorate the situation.

Reflecting on the situation in Europe as a whole, particularly considering developments restricting abortion in the United States, Hickson says: "We need to acknowledge that, yes, progress is fragile, and we should never rest."

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."

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