It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, August 21, 2022
Wayfair to lay off 870 employees worldwide
Aug. 19 (UPI) -- Online retailer Wayfair announced it is reducing its workforce by 870 employees as sales have slowed after pandemic highs.
In its regulatory filing, Wayfair said its workforce reduction represents 5% of its global workforce and 10% of its corporate team. The company's stock price plunged more than 14% Friday afternoon.
"As a result of this workforce reduction, we expect to incur between approximately $30 million and $40 million of costs, consisting primarily of employee severance and benefit costs, substantially all of which we expect to incur in the third quarter of 2022," Wayfair said in a statement.
"The foregoing estimated amounts do not include any non-cash charges associated with stock-based compensation. These estimates are subject to a number of assumptions and actual results may differ materially."
In a letter to employees, Wayfair CEO said the layoffs were a "difficult decision" resulting from a slowdown in sales.
Last year, sales fell 3.1% after a 55% increase in 2020.
"We were seeing the tailwinds of the pandemic accelerate the adoption of e-commerce shopping, and I personally pushed hard to hire a strong team to support that growth," Shah wrote, according to CNN.
"This year, that growth has not materialized as we had anticipated. Our team is too large for the environment we are now in, and unfortunately, we need to adjust."
Mischievous monkey swipes cellphone, calls 911 at California sanctuary
Aug. 19 (UPI) -- Sheriff's deputies responding to a 911 call from a wildlife sanctuary in California were surprised to discover the call had apparently been placed by an inquisitive capuchin monkey.
The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook post that dispatchers received a 911 call this week that quickly disconnected, and attempts to call the number back were not answered.
Deputies went to the source of the call, Paso wildlife sanctuary Zoo to You, but workers said they were unaware of any emergency calls placed from the facility.
Deputies and zoo staff continued to investigate and were eventually able to identify the likely caller: a capuchin monkey named Route.
The sheriff's office said Route had apparently gotten a hold of a zoo cellphone kept in a golf cart and either dialed 911 or used the phone's emergency call function.
"We're told capuchin monkeys are very inquisitive and will grab anything and everything and just start pushing buttons," the sheriff's office said.
SYRIAN KURDISTAN U.S. condemns drone strike that killed teen girls playing volleyball in Syria By Adam Schrader Zozan Zedan has been identified as one of the girls killed in the drone strike while playing volleyball. Photo courtesy of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria
Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Maj. Gen. John Brennan, the commander of Operation Inherent Resolve, condemned a drone stroke this week that killed four teen girls and injured several others who were playing volleyball.
Brennan said in a statement Friday that the girls who were killed were active in a United Nations educational outreach program in Hasakah.
"I condemn this attack and any others that kill and injure civilians. Such acts are contrary to the laws of armed conflict, which require the protection of civilians. We extend our condolences to the families of those killed and sympathies to those injured," Brennan said.
"The increase in military hostilities in northern Syria is creating chaos in a fragile region where the threat of [the Islamic State] remains present. We call for immediate de-escalation from all parties and an end to activities that put at risk the significant battlefield gains the Coalition has made against ISIS."
Brennan did not name which party conducted the Thursday drone strike but officials with the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria on Saturday alleged the teens were killed by a "Turkish occupation aircraft targeting an educational center for girls."
The strike happened in the village of Shammoka, about 1.2 miles from the base of the international coalition forces.
The AANES also revealed photographs of the teen girls, born between 2002 and 2004, who were identified as Rania Atta, Zozan Zeidan, Dylan Ezz El-Din and Diana Alo.
The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said in a statement that 11 other people were injured in the attack.
The Turkish government views the People's Protection Units of the Syrian Democratic Forces as terrorist groups linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party.
OF COURSE THEY DO TO JUSTIFY THEIR WAR OF ETHNIC CLEANSING
ENCOURAGE SELF DIRECTED LEARNING
16-year-old designed special device to help solve one of Earth's biggest problems
Varun Saikia, far right, shows off his design to state government officials.
(Courtesy of Varun Saikia)
Wyatt Loy Sat, August 20, 2022 at 5:00 AM·3 min read
When Varun Saikia, a young high school student from Gujarat, India, was 11 years old, he learned about a whale in Thailand that choked to death from eating plastic that had been discarded in the ocean.
"I had read that article and it disturbed me a lot, and that basically triggered me to look and explore into this problem that was a whole new world for me," Saikia told AccuWeather National Reporter Jillian Angeline. "I did not know that this problem existed in my life." Saikia then got to work researching pollution around the world, paying special attention to where he grew up. The Ganges River, the largest river in India, carries about 3 billion microplastic particles into the Indian Ocean every day, according to a study led by National Geographic. Saikia also learned about the garbage patches -- concentrations of marine debris -- across the Pacific Ocean that are created by ocean currents. "Then I looked around and I was like, 'Wow, isn't this obvious? I see plastic everywhere,'" Saikia said. "So I made a prototype out of plastic bottles and plastic boxes and I tested it in a mini pool, and then I iterated the model and got to a 5-foot-long device that could collect about 2.5-3 kg of plastic waste."
He called this first prototype Makara, Sanskrit for crocodile, due to it having a "mouth" and "tail" similar to a real croc. It took years of Saikia improving on Makara to create his newest design, Flipper, which can operate on its own or attach to a ship. He estimates it can hold anywhere from about 1,000 pounds to several hundred tons of plastic waste, depending on how it's deployed.
The design is still in the prototyping phase, but Saikia's website claims that 100 ships equipped with Flipper technology can clean up the Pacific garbage patches in about a year. In addition, Saikia said this new design will do more than just take out the trash.
"I am currently working towards making Flipper not only a plastic waste collection device, but also a device that can collect data simultaneously," he said. The type of plastic it collects and the location where it was collected will be logged and analyzed to help make future collections more efficient, he added. To keep fish and ocean mammals from getting caught in the net, it will be outfitted with ultrasonic emitters that make critters avoid the area.
Saikia said he funded his first prototypes out of pocket, but has now received government grants from his home state of Gujarat, located on the coast of western India, and expanded his one-man operation to a handful of engineers. Once he finishes high school, the innovative student said he dreams of attending a prestigious program in the United States to take his project worldwide.
"There are a few schools on my mind," he said. "MIT is definitely my dream school. I'm going to apply to MIT, then Stanford. [The] University of Texas at Austin has an amazing environmental engineering program. So I'm keen on applying to these universities."
With reporting by Jillian Angeline
America’s largest employers are sounding the alarm on immigration rules.
Canada’s successful startup visa program shows us why
Dick Burke Fri, August 19, 2022
Earlier this month, U.S. President Joe Biden signed into law the CHIPS and Science Act. While the new law was widely celebrated, it removed key immigration provisions that were offered in a previous version of the bill–the America COMPETES Act.
If included in the CHIPS and Science Act, these provisions would have established a dedicated startup visa program for foreign entrepreneurs and streamlined the green card pathway for immigrants with Ph.D.s in STEM fields.
Failure to include these provisions in the new law is a missed opportunity for the U.S.–and a setback in the important national goal of seeding and accelerating American innovation in critical technologies. The limitations of the U.S. immigration system leave it vulnerable to falling behind countries like Canada, which already boasts a successful startup visa program and multiple pathways to citizenship for talented immigrants.
Recently, Amazon–the second largest employer in the U.S.–voiced its frustration with the immigration system, urging the U.S. government to act on the damaging green card backlog.
The original startup visa proposed in the America COMPETES Act would have formalized the recently revived International Entrepreneur Parole Program (IEPP), which initially launched toward the end of the Obama administration but was stifled during the Trump administration. In 2017, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) estimated that nearly 3,000 foreign entrepreneurs would be eligible for the program annually.
While the success stories of foreign-born entrepreneurs are widely publicized through the likes of the founders of Google, Tesla, Pfizer, Nordstrom, and others, the true impact of immigrant entrepreneurship is much broader. A 2020 National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) report on Immigration and Entrepreneurship in the United States found that immigrants in the U.S. are 80% more likely to start a business than native-born citizens and the total number of jobs created by immigrant-founder firms is 42% higher than that of native-founder firms, relative to each population. Furthermore, a 2018 economic analysis from New American Economy estimated that 85% of foreign entrepreneurs in the aforementioned International Entrepreneur Parole Program (IEPP) would start firms in STEM-related industries and would create nearly 410,000 jobs over 10 years.
The failure of the U.S. government to establish a startup visa program is limiting economic growth and ceding ground to our competitors in the global race for foreign talent. Meanwhile, north of the border, Canada is increasing its intake of immigrant entrepreneurs through its own dedicated startup visa program.
Canadian immigration policy has long been viewed by employers as preferable when compared to the limitations of the U.S. immigration system. In Envoy’s 2022 Immigration Trends Report, 61% of employers viewed Canada’s immigration policy as more favorable than that of the U.S. Amazon is among the many employers that have recently expanded into growing tech hubs like Vancouver.
The Canadian startup visa program is designed to target foreign entrepreneurs with the skills and potential to start innovative businesses that can create jobs for Canadians and compete on a global scale. Notably, when compared to the U.S. immigration system, the efficiency of the Canadian startup visa application process offers a seamless transition for startup founders and their companies.
At Launch Academy, a Vancouver-based tech startup accelerator, we witness firsthand how innovative foreign entrepreneurs grow into success stories in the Canadian market. Since 2017, we’ve helped 287 foreign entrepreneurs from over 38 countries navigate Canada’s startup visa program and build successful businesses in emerging technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, VR/AR, Fintech, AgTech, and more.
As Canada reaps the benefits of successful startups flourishing and creating jobs, the U.S. continues to leave driven foreign entrepreneurs and talented professionals knocking at the door only to look elsewhere.
With a recession looming, an enduring STEM talent shortage, and major employers like Amazon sounding the alarm on the current shortcomings of the immigration system, it’s time for the U.S. government to enact reforms that embrace the job-creating power of foreign talent through a startup visa program. Dick Burke, JD, is the CEO of Envoy Global. Ray Walia is the co-founder and CEO at Launch Academy.
The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.
Hundreds of Google workers signed a petition demanding it stop collecting abortion search data from people Isobel Asher Hamilton Fri, August 19, 2022
Pro-choice protestors.MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Google's worker union wants the company to better protect users and workers seeking abortion care.
The union said over 650 Google workers signed a petition calling for major changes.
The petition asks the company to stop collecting data from users who search for abortion services.
Hundreds of Google workers are pressuring the company to make major changes to protect users and workers following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
The Alphabet Workers' Union — a union for employees at Google's parent company Alphabet — circulated a petition that garnered over 650 signatures, the union said in a Twitter thread.
One of the petition's demand is that Google stop collecting data from users searching for abortion information.
"We know companies are often legally required to hand over data, which is why we're demanding Google stop collecting data on users seeking abortion information — period. It's the only way to protect it from law enforcement," the union said in its Twitter thread.
The AWU cited the case of a 17 year-old and her mother who were accused in June of obtaining an illegal abortion for the teenager, and whose Facebook data was given to law enforcement.
"We can't allow that at Google," the AWU said.
It also said Google must work to get rid of ads for "misleading 'pregnancy crisis centers.'"
The union is also demanding the company look after its contractors when they need medical care related to abortions.
Google announced along with many companies that it would offer benefits to employees such as covering travel expenses for seeking out-of-state medical care ahead of Roe being struck down.
The AWU said these policies should be extended to cover Google's contracted workers, which it says make up more than half its total workforce.
It is also demanded Google stop political donations and lobbying altogether.
"Google has given at least half a million [dollars] to anti-abortion PACs, despite all the highfalutin language about abortion rights," the union said in a tweet.
It added the damage done by lobbying goes beyond abortion.
"Alphabet's political donations are significant — and too often they're directed at anti-worker causes, funneling money to candidates actively stripping away our rights," it said.
Workers at UK's biggest container port Felixstowe due to begin 8-day strike
Shipping containers at the port of Felixstowe
Sat, August 20, 2022 at 6:05 PM·2 min read
LONDON (Reuters) -More than 1,900 workers at Britain's biggest container port are due on Sunday to start eight days of strike action which their union and shipping companies warn could seriously affect trade and supply chains.
The staff at Felixstowe, on the east coast of England, are taking industrial action in a dispute over pay, becoming the latest workers to strike in Britain as unions demand higher wages for members facing a cost-of-living crisis.
"Strike action will cause huge disruption and will generate massive shockwaves throughout the UK's supply chain, but this dispute is entirely of the company's own making," said Bobby Morton, the Unite union's national officer for docks.
"It [the company] has had every opportunity make our members a fair offer but has chosen not to do so."
On Friday, Felixstowe's operator Hutchison Ports said it believed its offer of a 7% pay rise and a lump sum of 500 pounds ($604) was fair. It said the port's workers union, which represents about 500 staff in supervisory, engineering and clerical roles, had accepted the deal.
Unite, which represents mainly dock workers, says the proposal is significantly below the current inflation rate, and followed a below inflation increase last year.
"The port regrets the impact this action will have on UK supply chains," a Hutchison Ports spokesperson said.
The port said it would have a contingency plan in place, and was working to minimise disruption during the walkouts which will last until Aug. 29.
Shipping group Maersk, one of the world's biggest container shippers, has warned the action would have a significant impact, causing operational delays and forcing it to make changes to its vessel line-up.
Figures released on Aug. 17 showed Britain's consumer price inflation hit 10.1% in July, the highest since February 1982, and some economists forecast it will hit 15% in the first three months of next year amid surging energy and food costs.
The squeeze on household incomes has already led to strikes by the likes of rail and bus workers demanding higher pay rises.
(Reporting by Michael Holden)
UK Barristers balloted on escalating action to an all-out strike after 6,000 court hearings disrupted
Flora Thompson Sun, August 21, 2022 at 1:01 AM·2 min read Barristers have been staging walkouts in a dispute over pay (PA Wire)
Barristers are voting on plans for an all-out strike next month as part of a row with the Government over jobs and pay.
Members of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) have been walking out on alternate weeks but are now being balloted on an indefinite, uninterrupted strike that would start on September 5.
The ballot closes at midnight on Sunday, with the result expected on Monday.
According to Ministry of Justice (MoJ) figures, more than 6,000 court hearings have been disrupted a result of the dispute over conditions and Government-set fees for legal aid advocacy work.
Data released under freedom of information laws show that during the first 19 days of industrial action – between June 27 and August 5 – there were 6,235 court cases disrupted, including 1,415 trials, across England and Wales.
The CBA said the action was already having a “devastating impact on the ability of our crown courts to function with any semblance of normality” and that the “continuing refusal of the Justice Secretary to negotiate a fair settlement with criminal barristers comes at a very heavy price”.
In a statement published on its website when it opened the ballot earlier this month, the CBA said members had indicated there should be “no pausing or halting of the ongoing programme of strike action”, adding: “It has become clear that a significant proportion of our members wish to be given an option to escalate our current action towards an uninterrupted strike in order to exert maximum leverage upon Government at this critical time.
“Given the expectation that the ongoing strike action will inevitably lead to the progressive incapacitation of court business, there is no doubt that resolving this dispute will be the critical priority of any incoming Justice Secretary.”
Criminal barristers are due to receive a 15% fee rise from the end of September, meaning they will earn £7,000 more per year.
But there has been anger that the proposed pay rise will not be made effective immediately and will only apply to new cases, not those already sitting in the backlog waiting to be dealt with by courts.
An MoJ spokesman said: “We are increasing barristers’ fees by 15%, investing a further £135 million a year into criminal legal aid, which will see the typical barrister earn around £7,000 more a year.
“We fast tracked this legislation so lawyers will start receiving this extra money from the end of September.
“The only outcome of escalating strike action is further distress for victims forced to wait longer for justice.”
The Government department said it had “repeatedly explained” to the CBA that backdating pay would require a “fundamental change” in how fees are paid, adding: “That reform would cost a disproportionate amount of taxpayers’ money and would take longer to implement, meaning barristers would have to wait longer for payment.”
TV host opens up about 'etalk' termination, talks 'solidarity' with 'mistreated' women
Following Lisa LaFlamme' sudden departure from "CTV News" earlier this week, another past employee is speaking out about alleged mistreatment and gender discrimination.
On Saturday morning, past "etalk" co-host Danielle Graham tweeted a timeline of her experience being terminated from Bell Media.
"I haven't yet spoken publicly about my dismissal from Bell Media. But in light of recent news, there have been a lot of questions surrounding my departure," Graham wrote in a slide posted on her Twitter account before 9:30 a.m. on Aug. 20.
Graham continued to detail her experience at work in the first two weeks of March, before she was eventually let go by the media company.
"March 1: I brought to management's attention a situation where it was clear I was being discriminated against as a woman. I was ignored and laughed at," she began. "March 4: I forwarded this example of the blatant gender discrimination I was facing to HR. March 7: HR told me to file a formal complaint and that an investigation would commence. March 8: A meeting to discuss these issues was set for March 11."
However, things quickly took a turn for the worse, according to Graham.
"Instead, on March 11, I was re-scheduled to be in the office for a 'shoot,'" she wrote. "As I was getting ready in my office, I was suddenly told by management, 'Your services are no longer required.' I was told it was a 'business decision.'"
In a second slide, Graham went on to explain more of her experience with being let go so suddenly.
"I was not allowed to say goodbye on-air or to contribute to the messaging surrounding my departure, despite several requests from my representative to do so," she penned. "I was given three months severance for my 17 months there.
"I'm proud to stand in solidarity and fight alongside all women who have been mistreated, discriminated against and who have been retaliated against for speaking up."
Several people on social media expressed their support for Graham, with some calling out Bell Media for how it treats its employees.
Before announcing her departure from Bell Media earlier in March in another tweet, Graham had spent 17 years with the Canadian media giant.
On Aug. 15, long-time "CTV News" lead anchor Lisa LaFlamme voiced her own experience with Bell Media when she was informed on June 29 that her contract would be ending. After spending 35 years working for the company, LaFlamme explained how she felt "blindsided" in a video posted to her Twitter account.
That same day, Bell Media issued a statement explaining its decision to replace LaFlamme with 39-year-old Vancouver-born journalist, Omar Sachedina.
Amid the controversy, Brent Jolly, president of the Canadian Association of Journalists told the Toronto Star that it was “a stolen moment” in which both a decorated woman and an accomplished man of colour have been robbed of significant benchmarks in their careers.
On Friday, Bell Media followed up with its decision in another statement on Twitter. Signed by the company's president, Wade Oosterman, and vice president, Karine Moses, the letter explains that "CTV regrets" how it communicated the news of LaFlamme's departure.
'Someone should be held accountable': LaFlamme's exit from CTV sparks internal investigation, petition for her return
Reinstate Lisa LaFlamme as Chief Anchor at CTV News petition
The trajectory of CTV's former lead anchor, Lisa LaFlamme's dismissal from the network has led to loud feedback from viewers and now an internal investigation into how it was all handled.
Earlier this week, the veteran journalist took to her social media to inform her followers that her contract with CTV was not renewed, despite having two years left. She described being “blindsided” by the decision, which was described by the network as a “business decision” sparked by “changing viewer habits”.
Many on social media were outraged by the move, describing it as sexist and ageist. There are reports of conversation around LaFlamme’s decision to go gray, with some wondering if that was part of her exit from the network. A petition on Change.org has since been launched to reinstate LaFlamme back to her former job.
Bell Media, the parent company of the network, has since put out a statement saying they regret the way the situation was handled and they take the accusations around it very seriously. They added that an independent, third-party internal workplace review will be taking place in the near future.
Anil Verma is a professor emeritus of industrial relations and HR management with the University of Toronto. He says Bell Media appears to be in damage control at the moment because they know they’ve done damage to themselves.
“I don’t think it went well for them, in fact it went badly,” he tells Yahoo Canada News.
He’s unsure whether CTV was within their legal right to not renew LaFlamme’s contract if she wasn’t needed, saying it could be a matter of personalities clashing. However, a number of people were likely involved with the final decision and still managed to handle it poorly.
“You can’t argue that she wasn’t doing her job properly, that wouldn't stand in front of an arbitrator,” he says. “She could justly sue CTV and win a big settlement because she has lots of evidence to show that performance on the job wasn’t an issue and she was fired for reasons unrelated to her ability to do the job.”
When it comes to proving the allegations of ageism and sexism, Verma says that would be more of a challenge to prove, as you’d have to demonstrate there was a systemic issue of demoting women at the network.
Still, he points out that not only have CTV lost their lead anchor on the network, they’ve invited a tsunami of bad publicity.
“Someone should be held accountable for that,” he says. “If you’d done it right, you wouldn’t have to do an internal investigation.”
Jared Kushner memoir chronicles frustrations of negotiating trade deal with Canada
CBC Sat, August 20, 2022 Kushner, right, as his father-in-law announces a new NAFTA deal on Oct. 1, 2018.
It was a rocky ride getting there. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters - image credit)
Members of the Trump administration would rant at their Canadian counterparts during the renegotiation of NAFTA about the frequency of leaks that appeared in the press.
The Americans insisted those trade talks be allowed to unfold discreetly at the negotiating table. They avoided news conferences, rarely spoke to reporters and let Donald Trump's occasional ill-tempered tweets speak for the U.S.
A new memoir lays out the U.S. perspective on those closed-door talks.
The book by presidential son-in-law and senior-staffer Jared Kushner earned the literary equivalent of a ritualized execution in a vividly unflattering New York Times book review that mocked its wooden writing and wilful blindness to the seedier aspects of the Trump legacy.
The book does fill in some gaps on a significant historical event for Canada: it describes the false-starts in the trade talks; frustrations with the Canadians; and how the deal wound up with two tongue-twisting acronyms for a name.
Breaking History, Kushner's book, describes a method to Trump's madness, crediting the president's sporadic threats to cancel NAFTA with creating valuable pressure on Canada and Mexico.
It also acknowledges the madness in the method.
An angry tweet from Trump stalled talks before they even began. In early 2017, the North American countries planned an amicable announcement of new trade negotiations at a three-country event at the White House.
When Kushner called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's chief of staff to confirm plans, Katie Telford asked whether it was still on: "Didn't you see his tweets this morning?"
In fact, Kushner had not seen his father-in-law's public threat to cancel meetings with the Mexican leader unless Mexico paid for a new border wall; the meeting was cancelled.
Later in the day he said Trump realized that might have been a mistake and half-jokingly told Kushner: "I can't make this too easy for you."
Carlos Barria/Reuters
The tweets, then the drama
Months later, there was another bumpy launch. Trump asked staff to draw up documents to terminate the original NAFTA.
Trump was actually undecided about whether to go through with it when someone — Kushner suspects it was White House trade skeptic Peter Navarro — leaked the news to the Politico website, hoping to pressure the president to do it.
Aspects of what happened next are already public knowledge: Trudeau and his Mexican counterpart Enrique Peña Nieto called Trump, pleading with him not to, warning it would cause chaos, and after a frantic few hours everyone agreed to launch renegotiation talks.
What's less well-known is that Trump engineered those calls, according to the book.
What had happened was the pro-trade Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue had already persuaded Trump not to cancel NAFTA; he showed Trump a large map and explained it would crush farmers in the rural areas that support him.
Trump needed a face-saving way to back down from his threat.
The solution? Get those foreign leaders on the phone to plead with him; Kushner called Telford and a Mexican colleague and said their bosses should urgently phone Trump.
"Sensing that Trump was looking for a solution, I [said]: 'What if I get President Peña Nieto and Prime Minister Trudeau to call right now and ask you not to cancel NAFTA, and then you can put out a statement that says you will give them time to negotiate,'" Kushner wrote. "The immediate crisis abated."
That was in April 2017. Formal talks began later that summer. After months of negotiations, the Americans grew increasingly annoyed at Canada 's alleged unwillingess to budge on key issues.
Kushner said he enlisted billionaire businessman Steve Schwarzman to call Trudeau and tell him the Canadians were taking a serious risk: "They are playing chicken with the wrong guy," he said he told Schwarzman.
He said the businessman called him back a few hours later: "Trudeau, he said, 'Got the message loud and clear.'"
A Canadian team flew down to Washington and Telford says there were three impediments to a deal: U.S. steel tariffs on Canada, the need for a dispute mechanism, and dairy.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
U.S. team erupts at Freeland The book describes how U.S. officials grew annoyed in the final bargaining sessions with Canada's lead politician in the talks, Chrystia Freeland.
It's been reported that one American erupted up at Freeland for slow-walking during those sessions, losing his patience when she started discussing whaling rights for Inuit people.
The book places the U.S. narrative on the public record.
"An increasingly frustrating series of negotiations," is how Kushner described it. He said Freeland would read notes scribbled in ink on her hand, then let her officials spar with U.S. trade chief Robert Lighthizer over the technical details.
"All the while [she was] refusing to commit to any substantive changes," Kushner wrote.
"Following this theater, she would walk to the steps of the USTR [U.S. Trade Representative] building and hold an outdoor press conference, uttering platitudes like 'I get paid in Canadian dollars, not U.S. dollars.'"
At this point the U.S. prepared for two outcomes: a Mexico-U.S. deal or a three-country one. Kushner says Peña Nieto also told Trudeau his representatives were moving too slowly and that Mexico would sign.
Then, on Sept. 26, Trump trashed Freeland at a press conference and threatened to punish Canadian autos with tariffs.
Kushner writes: "Less than an hour later, the Canadians gave us an offer in writing. After 16 months of stalling, they were finally ready to talk specifics."
Yet when he showed the Canadian offer to Lighthizer, the U.S. trade chief said: "This is all rubbish! They don't want to make a deal." Kushner said he suggested calling Telford to explain why it was unworkable: "'No,' Lighthizer shot back."
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters 'I want it to be called the USMCA'
After meetings the next morning, however, Kushner called Telford, and they settled some longstanding irritants. Trudeau's chief of staff called back an hour later and said: "The prime minister is going to take the deal."
With the deal done, Trump made one final request.
"I want it to be called the USMCA, like [the] U.S. Marine Corps." Freeland and the rest of the Canadian government have refused to use that name, continuing to call it, "the new NAFTA," or by the acronym, CUSMA.
Kushner credits the president's style for producing a better deal for the U.S.: the new agreement sets caps on low-wage auto production in Mexico; lets slightly more U.S. dairy into Canada; and forces once-a-decade reviews of the pact.
"Negotiating a trade deal is like a game of chicken, with real consequences. The other side has to believe you are going to jump off a cliff. We succeeded because Trump was absolutely prepared to terminate NAFTA — and Mexico and Canada knew it," he writes. "His style made many people uncomfortable, including his allies in Congress, foreign leaders and his own advisers, but it led to unprecedented results."
One Canadian official involved in the talks said Ottawa knew exactly what it was doing by stalling: Canada was aware the U.S. wanted a deal quickly, before late 2018.
Canadian official: We intentionally drained the clock
Trump's team hoped to conclude talks while Republicans still controlled Congress before the 2018 midterms, and before a new Mexican president took office.
"The truth is we were draining the clock," said one Canadian involved. "Trudeau never instructed us to make a final deal. He always said [get] the right deal or no deal."
The Canadian government was more circumspect when asked for an on-the-record comment about Kushner's book: in an emailed statement, a spokeswoman for Freeland said the Canadian team worked hard for a good deal and was vindicated by its firm approach. The juicier parts of Kushner's book include chronicles of rampant back-stabbing and turf wars in the Trump White House.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
In particular, he portrays ex-aide Steve Bannon as a volatile schemer who set out to get Kushner fired by leaking unflattering half-truths about him to the press.
He writes that Bannon dishonestly brands himself as the keeper of the Trumpian ideological flame, and Kushner as a liberal interloper, when, in reality, Bannon joined the Trump team late in the 2016 campaign, long after his policies were set.
Sidestepping Jan. 6
The historic events of Jan. 6, 2021, barely merit a mention. Kushner says he was travelling back from the Middle East and didn't realize until late in the day the seriousness of the storming of the Capitol. Leah Millis/Reuters
The New York Times review assailed Kushner's book as self-servingly selective, its prose soulless, sidestepping the key unflattering details of Trump's political epitaph.
"Kushner almost entirely ignores the chaos, the alienation of allies, the breaking of laws and norms, the flirtations with dictators, the comprehensive loss of America's moral leadership, and so on," said the review.
"This book is like a tour of a once majestic 18th-century wooden house, now burned to its foundations, that focuses solely on, and rejoices in, what's left amid the ashes: the two singed bathtubs, the gravel driveway and the mailbox. Kushner's fealty to Trump remains absolute."
