IRAQI KURDISTAN 
Archaeologists Unearth 'Lord of the Rings'-Like Fortress in Lost City

BY MARTIN M. BARILLAS, 

ZENGER NEWS 

ON 8/8/22 AT 

A mysterious ancient fort may have been found in northern Iraq, having been known before only because of a handful of ancient coins.

Archaeologist Michael Brown of Germany's Heidelberg University and colleagues believe they may have found Natounia, an ancient military and religious complex in the Zagros Mountains dating to more than 2,000 years ago.

In July, Brown published a paper about the excavations and analysis, titled Rabana-Merquly: a fortress in the kingdom of Adiabene in the Zagros Mountains, in Cambridge University's Antiquity journal.

Two settlements, a stone fortress, and other buildings, known as Rabana-Merquly, were found on what was once the border of ancient Adiabene.

The kingdom of Adiabene paid tribute to the Parthian Empire, which was a major political player in Iran that lasted about 1,000 years until 224 A.D.

Excavation of the perimeter wall at the entrance to Rabana valley in Iraqi Kurdistan in undated photo. Archaeological investigations offer up new findings on the history of Parthian settlements in Iraqi Kurdistan. 

Note: Licensed picture.RABANA-MERQULY ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT/ZENGER

'A city known only from coins'

"The twin rock-reliefs at the two entrances to the settlement appear to depict an anonymous King of Adiabene, based on the dress of the figure, in particular his hat," Brown wrote in an email to Zenger, adding that he is "pretty sure" that the fortress was built by Adiabene's ruling dynasty.

A similar rock carving has been found at Hatra, an ancient city located about 140 miles away.

"The more specific association with the city of Natounia comes from the inscription on that city's rare coins found elsewhere in the Near East.

"An epithet on the coins locates it 'on the Kapros,'which we know is the modern Lower Zab river," Brown wrote.

Natounia is known only from its rare coins; there are no historical references that give details.

"Rabana-Merquly is by far the largest and most impressive site of the Parthian era in that region, and the only one with royal iconography, so it's by far the best candidate," Brown wrote.

"The complicating factor is that the site is located on a major tributary of the Lower Zab and not the main channel, this is unusual but not unique in ancient toponyms of this type," he wrote.

The seven known ancient coins give the name of a king, Natounissar, and the location on the Lower Zab River.

The 2021 Rabana excavation team. Archaeologists believe they may have found Natounia, an ancient military and religious complex in the Zagros Mountains dating to more than 2,000 years ago.

RABANA-MERQULY ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT/ZENGER

"From coinage, we know that the city was a royal foundation—the king's name as a toponym. The other important link to Natounissar, which translates roughly as "servant of Ishtar," is a statue from Hatra of an Adiabenean king called Attalos, which is by far the best comparison for the Rabana-Merquly reliefs."

"On the base of the Hatrean stature is an inscription which identifies Attalos as a grandson or descendent at Natounissar," Brown wrote.
Evidence of a lost city

For Brown, Rabana-Merquly may not be the only possible location for Natounia, but the coins provide circumstantial evidence that the lost city is there.

In an interview with Zenger News, Brown said: "Regardless of its exact identification, Rabana-Merquly was undoubtedly a major regional center on the edge of the Zagros Mountains—the fortress shows us the practicalities of territorial control in hinterland regions of empire, where state authorities interacted with semi-autonomous and often restive highland pastoralist populations."

"The most exciting aspect of the site is definitely the natural setting. Rabana-Merquly is located on the western side of Mt. Piramagrun, one of the most spectacular mountains in the Zagros range, the western side of which runs through Iraqi Kurdistan," Brown said.

"Its fortifications enclose naturally defensible terrain, and can be viewed as an extension of the surrounding highland landscape. If you're familiar with Lord of the Rings, it's basically a real-life Helms Deep," he continued, in reference to the fictional fortress described by author J.R.R. Tolkien.

Brown did not report any hidden treasure that may have been buried at the site.

He said: "The number of artifacts found at the site is actually relatively small, we think because the duration of the main Parthian era occupation was probably no more than 100 years. This interpretation is based on the lack of any significant architectural renovations over most of the site."

While Iraqi archaeologists found ceramics at the site in 2009, Brown's campaign found iron arrowheads and pins from the later Islamic period.

Brown plans to continue digging at Rabana-Merquly, disclosing that drone mapping has revealed many more interesting structures throughout the complex.

The Heidelberg Old University or 'Domus Wilhelmina' on University Square, circa 1930.

HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES

"A research priority for us is to try and understand the function of large fortified centers beyond defense," Brown said.

"At Rabana, the presence of a probable sanctuary complex suggests it may have also been a place of pilgrimage, in addition to acting as a refugium for surrounding communities," he said.

"Large fortified centers such as Rabana-Merquly likely fulfilled a variety of economic and diplomatic roles in relation to their hinterlands. A similar mix of activity is apparent at the broadly contemporary site of Qal ͗eh-i Yazdigird on the opposite side of the mountains in Kermanshah province, Iran where a sanctuary, palace, and defensive architecture have been recorded," Brown said.

This story was provided to Newsweek by Zenger News.

Arrow Older Than the Vikings Discovered After 1,500 Years Frozen in Ice

Ed Browne - 


Archaeologists in Scandinavia have discovered an arrow that has been lost in ice for around 1,500 years—suggesting it pre-dates the Vikings.

The discovery was made by researchers with Secrets Of The Ice, the name given to the glacier archaeology program of the Norwegian county of Innlandet.

The arrow was discovered nestled between rocks. The research team believes it was encased in ice and was then transported downslope when the ice melted.

In an August 18 Facebook post outlining the find, Secrets Of The Ice called the arrow's preservation "pretty awesome" but not perfect, with sinew and tar—which would have glued parts of the arrow together—showing signs of wear. This suggests the arrow may have been exposed and re-frozen multiple times since it was originally lost.

The research group posted several photos of the arrow online, including one of a beaming team member holding the arrow.


The arrow seen nestled amongst some rocks. 

Espen Finstad/Secretsoftheice.com

Lars Holger Pilø, an archaeologist with Secrets Of The Ice, told Newsweek: "We have found more than 200 arrows that have melted out of the ice in recent years in Innlandet County, Norway in the last 15 years. The earliest are 6,000 years old.

"The one we are talking about now is really well preserved though, with the arrowhead still attached and remains of sinew and pitch. Most arrows are preserved with only fragments of the shaft remaining," he continued.

"This is a reindeer hunting site, so the arrows were lost when the hunters missed the reindeer and the arrows disappeared into the snow. A missed shot, but an archaeological bull's eye."

Vikings were a group of Scandinavian seafaring people who raided and colonized parts of Europe from the 9th to the 11th century.

The arrow's arrowhead, plus some tar on the shaft. Espen Finstad/Secretsoftheice.com

England in particular suffered Viking raids for more than 200 years, which left deep marks on the country's society and culture still seen today in the form of dialect and place names.

It's not the only arrow found by the group in recent days. Just two days after the 1,500-year-old arrow was discovered, another, slightly newer one was discovered that is thought to date back to the early Viking age.

Although the newer arrow has been around for less time, it appears to have been exposed more, as evidenced by its worse preservation.

"Most of the sinew is gone and the arrowhead has fallen out of the shaft," the group wrote in another Facebook post. "The iron arrowhead is also rusty, probably because it is in close contact with dirt. But still: What a great find!"

Mass extinction of up to 90% of marine species could happen by 2100

Stacy Liberatore For Dailymail.com -

Nearly 90 percent of all marine species are at high or critical risk of going extinct by the end of the century if humans do not curb greenhouse emissions, a new study warns.

A team of researchers led by Dalhousie University in Canada, evaluated climate risks of nearly 25,000 species that live in the upper 328 feet of the ocean and found a large amount will disappear from the planet by 2100 if emissions continue to stay at high levels or a 'business as usual' scenario.

This would see a mass die-off of thousands of animals, plants, chromists, protozoans and bacteria that call the world's oceans their home.

The analysis shows that a 'disproportionately large number' of sharks, rays and mammals are at high or critical climate risk - 75 percent of them are predicted to go extinct by 2100.

All of the threatened species also live in some of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the Gulf of Thailand, the Coral Triangle, northern Australia, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, nearshore India, the Caribbean and some Pacific islands.


© Provided by Daily Mail

The study looked at nearly 25,000 marine species to determine how many will disappear by the end of the century due to human-made greenhouse gases - and the team found up tp 90 percent

The study also found that the top predators are more at risk of extinction than those lower on the food chain, according to the study published in Nature.

The team focused on the species living in the upper region of the ocean because this is 'where climate-driven temperature changes are the most severe.'

The highest vulnerability was found among large, long-lived species that are heavily exploited and of critical conservation concern.

The study notes, for example, the Chinese puffer at a highly impacted nearshore site near China under the high-emission scenario.


© Provided by Daily Mail

The analysis shows that a 'disproportionately large number' of sharks, rays and mammals are at high or critical climate risk - 75 percent of them are predicted to go extinct by 2100. Pictured is a mako shark that has been listed as endangered since 2018


© Provided by Daily Mail

The study also found that the top predators are more at risk of extinction than those lower on the food chain. If they do extinct, the absence will upheave the ecosystem. The map above shows where sharks are threatened and below highlights mammals

The Galapagos damselfish, which lives around the Galapagos Islands and the coast of Costa Rica, are also deemed in the highest vulnerability group.

The lowest vulnerability score is for a shorter-lived, vertically migrating, mesopelagic, pan-global species, the bluntsnout lanternfish, at an offshore site under the low-emission scenario.

Daniel Boyce, an ecologist at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, and author of the study told ABC News the findings are 'quite startling and very sobering'.

'I'd like to think that that's an implausible scenario,' Boyce said.

'But nonetheless, it is the worst-case scenario. And when we evaluated that scenario, we found that there was a very grim picture for the climate risk for marine species.'

Not only would these creatures no longer roam the seas, but their disappearance has great consequences for the ecosystem, as it would disrupt the food chain.

The last time 90 percent of life was wiped from Earth was 252 million years ago during what is dubbed the Great Dying.

Scientists have linked what has become known as the 'Great Dying' with a series of massive volcanic eruptions in Siberia that filled the atmosphere with greenhouse gas.

Spewing carbon and methane into the atmosphere for roughly 2 million years, the eruption helped extinguish about 96 percent of oceanic life and 70 percent of land-based vertebrates - the largest extinction event in Earth's history.

Maya village's water, future threatened by Mexican train

VIDA Y ESPERANZA, Mexico (AP) — Mexico’s ambitious Maya Train project is supposed to bring development to the Yucatan Peninsula, but along the country’s Caribbean coast it is threatening the Indigenous Maya people it was named for and dividing communities it was meant to help.



One controversial stretch cuts a more than 68-mile (110-kilometer) swath through the jungle between the resorts of Cancun and Tulum, over some of the most complex and fragile underground cave systems in the world.

It is one of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s signature projects and has drawn objections from environmentalists, archaeologists and cave divers, who have held protests to block backhoes from tearing down trees and scraping clean the thin layer of soil.

But for the largely Maya inhabitants of the village of Vida y Esperanza – a clutch of about 300 people and 70 houses whose name means “Life and Hope” – the train is going to run right by their doors. They fear it will pollute the caves that supply them with water, endanger their children and cut off their access to the outside world.

A few miles away from the acres of felled trees where the train is supposed to run, archaeologist and cave diver Octavio Del Rio points to the Guardianes cave that lies directly beneath the train’s path. The cave's limestone roof is only two or three feet thick in some places, and would almost certainly collapse under the weight of a speeding train.

“We are running the risk that all this will be buried, and this history lost,” Del Rio says.

López Obrador dismisses critics like Del Rio as “pseudo environmentalists” funded by foreign governments.

As with his other signature projects, including a new airport in the capital and a massive new oil refinery on the gulf, the president exempted the train from environmental impact studies and last month invoked national security powers to forge ahead, overriding court injunctions.

Many critics say López Obrador’s obsession with the projects threatens Mexico’s democratic institutions. But the president counters that he just wants to develop the historically poor southern part of Mexico.

“We want to take advantage of all the tourism that arrives in Cancun, so they can take the Maya Train to see other natural beauty spots, especially the ancient Mayan cities in Yucatán, Campeche, Chiapas, Tabasco,” which are poor neighboring states, López Obrador said earlier this month.

But the Maya themselves are people scraping a living from the limestone bed of the dry tropical jungle. The ancient Mayan civilization reached its height from 300 A.D. to 900 A.D. on the Yucatan Peninsula and in adjacent to parts of Central America, and they are best known for constructing monumental temple sites like Chichen Itza.

The Mayas’ descendants continue to live on the peninsula, many speaking the Mayan language and wearing traditional clothing, while also conserving traditional foods, crops, religion and medicine practices, despite the conquest of the region by the Spanish between 1527 and 1546.

“I think that there is nothing Maya” about the train, said Lidia Caamal Puc, whose family came from the Mayan town of Peto, in the neighboring Yucatan state, to settle here 22 years ago. “Some people say it will bring great benefits, but for us Mayas that work the land, that live here, we don’t see any benefits.”

“Rather, it will hurt us, because, how should I put it, they are taking away what we love so much, the land.”

When marines showed up last month to start cutting down trees in preparation for the train on the edge of the village, residents who hadn’t been paid for their expropriated land stopped them from working.

The head of the village council and a supporter of the train, Jorge Sánchez, acknowledged that the government “had not paid the people who were affected” even though the government has said they will get compensation.

But it’s not just about the money, Sánchez said. “It will bring back jobs for our people.”

The 950-mile (1,500-kilometer) Maya Train line will run in a rough loop around the Yucatan Peninsula, connecting beach resorts and archaeological sites. But in Vida y Esperanza, the train will cut directly through the narrow, rutted four-mile (six-kilometer) dirt road that leads to the nearest paved highway.

Related video: Mexican train project endangers environment
Duration 3:13  View on Watch

For more than two years, Mayan communities have been objecting to the train line, filing court challenges arguing the railway violated their right to a safe, clean environment, and to be consulted; in 2019, the Mexico office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights found that what consultations the government did do were flawed.

The question about the economics of the train, and tourism income, is more complex, in part because no credible feasibility studies were done. The project is expected to cost about $8 billion — but appears likely to rise to as much as $11 billion — while the government calculates it will bring in $9.5 billion in revenue or “benefits.”

But those estimates are widely doubted because López Obrador is essentially betting on luring sun-and-sand beachgoers to the ruins and Indigenous towns for so-called “cultural tourism.” It is not clear how many want to combine those two activities, especially if the highspeed train zooms past the beauties of the low jungle.

International tourism to the country has started to recover from pandemic losses, with the strongest showing from U.S. visitors. In the first half of 2022, just over 10 million tourists arrived from January to June, 1.5% higher than the first half of 2019. But overall tourist spending remains below pre-pandemic levels.

Unless the army, which is building the train line, constructs a large overpass bridge above the tracks, villagers would be forced to take a back road four times as long to get to the highway. It would no longer make economic sense to live there.

The government tourism agency that oversees the train project, Fonatur, says an overpass will be built for Vida y Esperanza. But such promises have gone unfulfilled in the past.

And the army plans to fill the underground caves to support the weight of the passing trains, which could block or contaminate the underground water system.

The high-speed train can’t have at-grade crossings, and won’t be fenced, so that 100-mile per hour (160-kph) trains will rush past an elementary school. Most of the students walk to get there.

Just as bad, the train project has divided Vida y Esperanza.

Luis López, 36, who works at a local store and opposes the train, said “it might bring minor benefits, but it has downsides.”

“The cenotes will be filled or contaminated,” he said, referring to the sinkholes that villagers rely on. “I survive on the water from a cenote, to wash dishes, to bathe.”

Many residents of Vida y Esperanza, who rely on diesel generators, would much rather have electricity than a tourist train that will rush by and never stop there.

Mario Basto, 78, a wiry resident who works as a gardener, said he’d rather have decent medical care than the train.

“It seems like the government has money it just needs to get rid of, when there are hundreds of hospitals that don’t have medicine,” Basto said.

And there are some people in Vida y Esperanza who support the train project, almost entirely because of jobs it has brought during construction.

Benjamin Chim, a taxi and truck driver who is already employed by the Maya Train, will also lose part of his land to the project. But he says he doesn’t care, noting “it is going to be a benefit, in terms of jobs.”

“They are taking a bit of land, but it’s a bit that doesn’t have any symbolic value, for me it doesn’t mean anything,” Chim said.

While the president’s supporters have claimed that anybody who opposes the train isn’t really Mayan, that would be news to people in Vida y Esperanza, where residents swear that Mayan spirits, known as “Aluxes,” inhabit the forest.

Locals pacify the spirits by leaving a small drink of wine out for them.

Bright blue-green Toh birds, tarantulas, blue morpho butterflies, iguanas and the occasional jaguar cross the roads and jungle.

And it would also threaten something older than even the Mayas.

Del Rio, the archaeologist, discovered human remains of the Maya’s ancestors that may date as far back as 13,700 years in another cave network – but it took him and other divers 1 1/2 years to snake through a single cavern system. “This is work that takes years, years,” he said.

López Obrador wants to finish the entire train in 16 months by filling the caves with cement or sinking concrete columns through the caverns – the only places that allowed humans to survive in this area.

But for the villagers, much of the damage has already been done.

“They have already stolen our tranquility, the moment they cut through to lay the train line,” Caamal Puc said.

Mark Stevenson, The Associated Press

No longer freezing: Working from home can make workplaces more comfortable

Working from home during the pandemic presented a wide array of challenges and benefits for those who were able to do so. For some, a benefit was workplace comfort.


© (Shutterstock)Thermal discomfort is just another reason employees may prefer to continue teleworking.

While the conversation on gender differences when it comes to thermal comfort in the workplace is not new — men tend to report being more comfortable than women — our research on teleworkers’ behaviours during the pandemic revealed that women were more comfortable in their home offices because they could control the temperature, add or remove layers.

Specifically, our results and previous research suggest that workplaces that do not provide personalized thermostat settings or require any formal attire don’t promote equitable thermal comfort conditions.
Survey of teleworkers

Our research team at the Human Building Interaction Laboratory at Carleton University surveyed teleworkers (many of whom relocated to home offices) during the COVID-19 pandemic by conducting in-depth interviews.

We sought to uncover how teleworking impacted workers’ behaviours at home compared to their behaviours in traditional office spaces.

What we found strongly suggests that teleworkers experienced many benefits, including increased productivity, less mental exhaustion and greater thermal comfort.
Relaxed formal attire requirements

Our data indicates that improved thermal comfort at home is because of personal control over the thermostat and greater flexibility over what to wear during the workday.

In our study, most teleworkers’ primary action to stay comfortable was to add or remove clothing layers when they felt too hot or cold, unless they had a child. When teleworkers’ had a child, they kept the thermostat set to a temperature that was comfortable for their children.

“I am more comfortable now [at home] because it’s warmer and the office, it was colder,” said one of our interviewees.


© (Moja Msanii/Unsplash)Thermostat settings were originally 

designed based on men’s formal office attire.

Related video: Simple and Healthy Snacks to Enjoy While Working From Home

View on Watch

In traditional office settings, employees typically cannot control the thermostat or temperature to suit their needs, which can lead to discomfort.

The situation can be even more challenging for women in settings where relatively formal attire is required. This is because office thermostat settings were originally designed based on men’s formal office attire.

“I remember feeling cold all the time over there [office] […] definitely, that was something that doesn’t happen anymore because it’s my own home, and I’m comfortable with temperatures here,” said an interviewee.

Teleworking brought more relaxed attire requirements to employees because, well, there often weren’t any. Both men and women during video conferencing said they only wore formal clothes on the portion of their bodies that was visible to others via the camera.

Equity in the workplace

While equity in the workplace has many different facets, such as salaries, providing comfortable working conditions for all is one of the primary subcategories of workplace equity.

Our results, along with many others, show that this basic tenet of workplace equity is not achieved in many workplaces when it comes to thermal comfort.

There remains a need to take action and improve conditions in traditional workspaces by giving employees more ways to control the temperature and their comfort. Some solutions may be providing them with flexible or less formal clothing options, or coming up with other ways of improving thermal comfort like desk fans, openable windows and chairs with built-in heaters. Perhaps its also time to revisit the ideal office thermostat settings.

Thermal discomfort is just another reason employees may prefer to continue teleworking.


© (Hunters Race/Unsplash)

Employers should revisit formal dress codes and consider personalized thermostat settings.

Workplace attire

Business researchers Katherine Karl and Joy Peluchette found that workplace attire was linked to productivity, as well as perceived authoritativeness, trustworthiness, friendliness, creativity and competency of employees. In other words, a company’s goals are directly linked to how employees will be required to dress.

For instance, banks might need their employees to convey a sense of trustworthiness and so require their customer-facing employees to wear more formal clothes, whereas organizations in creative fields might allow their employees to choose their attire more freely.

Our research suggests that employers should revisit formal dress codes and consider personalized thermostat settings. By applying such strategies, organizations can move toward improved workplace equity and benefit from increased productivity and performance.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

Read more:
The folly of the work-life balance

As people continue working from home, the monthly transit pass needs to change to remain worth it

Farzam Kharvari, PhD Candidate, Building Engineering, Carleton University, 

Liam O'Brien, Professor in Architectural Conservation and Sustainability Engineering, Carleton University, 

Laura Arpan, Theodore Clevenger Professor of Communication, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, 

Marianne Touchie, Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering, University of Toronto - 

Apple workers hit back against the company's return-to-office plans, saying they have carried out 'exceptional work' from home
bnolan@insider.com (Beatrice Nolan) -

Apple is asking staff to return to the office for at least three days a week. 

Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images

A group of staff at Apple has launched a petition to demand more flexible working arrangements.

Earlier this month, the company asked staff to return to the office for at least three days a week.

Workers said in the petition that the plan did not consider the unique demands of each job role.

Apple employees are pushing back against the company's return-to-office plans.

A group of Apple workers called Apple Together tweeted a petition on Monday, arguing that employees have shown over the past two years that they can do "exceptional work" from home.

The petition claimed that workers asking for flexible arrangements may have "compelling reasons and circumstances" such as disabilities or care responsibilities.

Some, they said, might just be plain "happier and more productive" when working from home.

Related video: Apple Employees Push Back Against Return-To-Office Policy

Duration 1:36  View on Watch

This month, Apple's senior leadership told employees that they had to return to the office for at least three days a week. A memo sent by Apple CEO, Tim Cook, said the push to get staff back in the office was designed to restore "in-person collaboration," per The Guardian.

It came after similar comments made last year.

The new petition argued that Apple's return-to-office mandate does not consider the unique demands of specific jobs or the diversity of individual employees.

Apple did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment made outside normal working hours.

Apple Together's petition demands that decisions on flexible-work arrangements be left up to individuals and their immediate managers. The workers have also asked that these arrangements be free of higher-level approvals and not require staff to provide private information.

Employees have fought back against Apple's return-to-office plans before. In 2021, dozens of Apple workers wrote a letter to Cook signaling their frustration with the company's stance on remote working.

Employees said in the letter, seen by The Verge last year, that they felt "not just unheard, but at times actively ignored" during communication about remote work at Apple.

In May, Ian Goodfellow, Apple's former machine learning director reportedly left the company for Google's DeepMind due to Apple's return-to-office plans.

U$A

Why teachers seem more willing to go on strike

Zachary B. Wolf - CNN


Teachers are on strike in Columbus, Ohio, demanding functioning air conditioning.

In Philadelphia, it’s mostly bus drivers and other workers who want better wages and training.

These are local stories with distinct issues and details, but they feed a national narrative of discontented teachers and support staff who feel underpaid and underappreciated.

This week, it’s Columbus and Philadelphia. Last school year, it was Minneapolis and Sacramento.

Teachers are increasingly comfortable resorting to strikes, a tendency that predates Covid-19 pandemic standoffs over working conditions. Think back to the 2019 Chicago teacher strike, or to 2018, when a wave of #RedforEd strikes won higher pay or other improved benefits for teachers in Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oklahoma and West Virginia.

An Urban Institute review published in May of this year found evidence of nearly 700 teacher strikes between 2007 and 2019 – most of those occurred as part of coordinated multi-district efforts after 2017. The analysis included any example resulting in at least one school closing in a district and also included “walkouts, sickouts and other work stoppages.”
What’s happening in Columbus

Columbus is the largest school district in Ohio, and students in the district may not be able to start school on time now that the Columbus Education Association union is striking for the first time since 1975. Read CNN’s full report.

Rather than report to school, students may have to relive the pandemic and log in for remote learning Wednesday, the first day of school, according to the district’s current plan.
It’s about air conditioning, not economics

The union has said the sticking points are about learning conditions and it wants the district to guarantee smaller class sizes, more specialized teachers for art, music and physical education in elementary school, “functional heating and air-conditioning in classrooms,” more prep time and a cap on the number of class periods during the school day, according to a statement from the union.

Appearing on CNN from Columbus on Monday, Columbus Education Association member and library media specialist Courtney Johnson talked about the strike and argued the teachers are focused on working conditions, not economics.

“Our Columbus City School students deserve a commitment to modern schools with properly working heating and air conditioning and smaller class sizes, and art, music and PE,” she said. “CEA has never made this about economics.”

She said schools there have been forced to close in the past when air conditioning failed, and students in the high school where she works move from hot rooms to cold rooms.

“You can imagine how hard it is to learn in a classroom that’s freezing cold or very hot,” she said.

The school board wants to ask voters for more money. The union wants the board to use federal money.

Pay is also an issue

Pay has, however, been an issue, and the district has previously offered a 3% annual increase for three years, according to local reports. The union was seeking 8%, something more in line with inflation.

It’s not clear from the recent reporting where the pay disagreement between the board and the union landed.

In Philadelphia, another strike threatens the start of school, but it’s not teachers who are involved. Instead, employees represented under a contract with the union 32BJ SEIU are mostly bus drivers, bus attendants, bus mechanics, building cleaners, building engineers and trade workers, according to CNN’s report.
Teachers pay a ‘wage penalty’

The Economic Policy Institute used government data to argue that average weekly wages for teachers, when adjusted for inflation, increased about $29 in the 25 years between 1996 and 2021.

The weekly wages of all other college graduates rose by $445 over the same time period using the same inflation-adjusted figures. See the full argument.

While teachers do get non-salary compensation, like time off in the summer and health and retirement benefits, they are still paying a “wage penalty” compared with other college-educated workers, according to EPI.

The year stolen from kids

As I was considering the idea of Columbus kids again navigating remote learning, I got sucked into the interview CNN’s Sara Sidner had with Anya Kamenetz, an NPR reporter and author of “The Stolen Year,” a new book focused on how the pandemic affected American children.

I was interested in the following excerpts from their conversation that aired on CNN International.

What was stolen in ‘The Stolen Year’?

KAMENETZ: The United States is a wealthy country full of poor children. More than half the children in public schools are considered low income. When schools closed, many of those children lost meals that they depended on, a safe place to be during the day and mental health services, as well as academics and socialization.

So what I document in “The Stolen Year” is how these changes really wreaked havoc on children starting in the first few weeks.
It will take years to get back on track

KAMENETZ: The most recent numbers in July of 2020 suggest that it’s going to take about three years for the average elementary school student to be where they were on an academic trajectory.

Obviously that doesn’t capture what we’re talking about as far as mental health, as far as trauma.

Middle school students, in the last school year, have not started to make academic recovery. So they’re going to be even longer. I’m also really concerned about the kids who drifted from high school into paid work. Many of them, we see that college-going has really gone down, specifically in the United States.

We are worried about their long-term economic and educational outcomes from no longer being engaged with school in the same way.

Teachers feeling targeted

KAMENETZ: Schools, over the time of their prolonged closure, really became the site of a culture war. There was a lot of vitriol directed not only at teachers, but also at administrators and school board members, who really felt that they were victims of harassment and threats.

And I’ve talked to those school leaders who said, “All I ever wanted to do is help take care of the kids and now everybody is targeting me.”
The pandemic was harder on many mothers

KAMENETZ: I argue it based on the research. I argue it to some extent based on my experience as the mom of two young girls.

My family tried to divide things up equally, but inevitably – well, I won’t say it’s inevitable – what happened in this country is that we allowed mothers to cut back on their working hours, become stressed, start drinking, gain weight, express depression, anxiety, insomnia, and we allowed them to continue picking up more and more of the slack at home and with remote schooling.

Statistically, generally speaking, heterosexual partners who were men didn’t step up. They didn’t do their part; they didn’t step back from the workforce in the same way that women did.

We are seeing the brunt across an entire generation of working women, millennial generation, my generation, that feel absolutely exhausted and overwhelmed by the effects of the last two years and absolutely feel abandoned by our leaders and by our partners. Why did nobody step up to help us?

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Amazon upgraded warehouse AC system after saying worker’s death wasn’t heat-related

Eli M. Rosenberg - NBC

Amazon upgraded the air conditioning system at a New Jersey warehouse where it blamed a worker’s death during a heat wave last month on a “personal medical condition,” according to three facility employees and photographs seen by NBC News.

One photo shows a large new ducting system installed on a ground floor of the warehouse in Carteret, known as EWR9, with the ducts pointing upward.

Workers said the equipment was part of a new industrial air conditioner that the company added weeks after the death of Rafael Reynaldo Mota Frias, a 42-year-old Dominican national, in mid-July. It wasn’t clear if the system was up and running yet.


© Obtained by NBC NewsNewly installed air-conditioning equipment at Amazon's Carteret, N.J., fulfillment center. (Obtained by NBC News)

Employees also said more fans had been installed around the warehouse in recent weeks. The area where Frias was working when he collapsed was known to be especially hot and with little air circulation, according to seven workers at the site.

Amazon said it regularly updates its facilities. “Our climate control systems constantly measure the temperature in our buildings, and our safety teams are empowered to take action to address any temperature-related issues,” said spokesman Sam Stephenson. He said the company takes safety precautions in warm weather, always provides access to water stations — not just on hot days — and encourages employees to take breaks to hydrate.

Amazon and other major logistics operators, including UPS and FedEx, have faced growing scrutiny around labor conditions amid a summer of record heat across the country. The high temperatures have raised concerns about the safety of warehouse employees, delivery drivers and others who work outdoors or in large industrial spaces during hot weather. Dozens of workers at an Amazon air hub in San Bernardino, California, staged a walkout last week, citing heat-related job risks among other complaints.

This summer, after years of reports about injuries at Amazon facilities, federal authorities led by the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan opened an investigation into the company’s warehouses, soliciting information from workers, supervisors and others about conditions there.


A chart showing dehydration risks by urine color was posted in some employee bathrooms at the EWR9 facility. (Obtained by NBC News)

Staffers at the Carteret fulfillment center have said that managers began handing out more water and snacks and encouraging workers to take breaks after Frias’ death, which triggered anger and questions within the EWR9 workforce.

Management posted charts showing dehydration risks indicated by urine color in some of the facility’s bathrooms after the worker died, according to one EWR9 employee and a photo of the chart. Amazon didn’t immediately comment on the bathroom notices.

“Amazon is an agency that reacts to situations. They’re not proactive,” said the employee, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal. “They wait till something happens and then they act like they’re doing something.”

The staffer said managers made sure that there were fans at every workstation after Frias’ death, but that parts of the warehouse with little cool air remained very hot.

“Prior to him passing away, every station didn’t have a fan,” the employee said. “It’s hot inside a warehouse, and then you have a fan blowing hot air on you.”

Frias died after collapsing around 8 a.m. on July 13 during the busy Prime Day shopping rush, which coincided with an East Coast heat wave that drove outdoor temperatures in the Carteret area into the low 90s. Facility workers and Amazon Labor Union President Chris Smalls have said they believe the heat was a factor, alleging that Frias had been kept working despite flagging to management that he was having chest pains.

Amazon has dismissed that characterization of events. Stephenson referred to the company’s statement last month, which disputed “rumors” surrounding Frias’ death and said an internal investigation had determined it “was related to a personal medical condition.”

The death kicked off an investigation by federal regulators with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which has since opened another inquiry into two additional deaths of people employed at a separate Amazon facility in New Jersey. One of those stemmed from a fall from a ladder, according to police cited in local news reports, while details around the other death are less clear. OSHA confirmed the probes are ongoing and declined to comment further. Amazon has said it is cooperating with investigating authorities.

The workplace-safety agency, which is operated by the Labor Department, says that heat is a “growing problem” threatening workers across the country. OSHA has put the creation of a heat-related workplace rule on its official agenda, and labor advocates are pushing for such a federal standard. At least four states — California, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington — have rules on the books governing high heat in workplaces, and legislators in other states are considering similar policies.

At the EWR9 warehouse, employees said the atmosphere changed temporarily following the worker’s death, as managers seemed to soften up a bit, before getting stricter recently. Some workers said they believed that firings over small infractions were occurring more frequently and that management had imposed tighter rules in some areas, like preventing workers from using their phones at their stations, even to listen to music.

Sequoya Guyden said she was fired at the beginning of August, after missing a few days of work when her car broke down during her lunch break. Amazon workers are allotted a limited amount of unpaid time off, and Guyden said her balance had been low.

She said she tried to make her case to the company, even submitting documentation about her car’s repair. But after trying to address the issue with an HR representative, she says, the discussion became heated and she was advised that she should’ve walked to work or taken a cab.

Upon terminating her, Amazon told Guyden in an email that she hadn’t provided the right documentation. She tried to appeal the decision but was told in a follow-up email that her firing was upheld. Both emails, viewed by NBC News, were signed “EWR9 HR” rather than with a manager’s name.

Guyden says she was retaliated against for pushing back during her conversation with the human resources employee.

“I feel like it was personal stuff — the confrontation between me and HR,” said Guyden, who moved to New Jersey year and a half ago to take the job at Amazon. “I came here from Louisiana to do something new. I think it’s foul.”

Stephenson said that Guyden was fired “for having negative unpaid time off after exhausting all of her time off options” and that she didn’t appeal the decision when given an opportunity.

After NBC News contacted Amazon about Guyden’s case, she received another email from EWR9 HR on Friday, saying she could appeal by phone on Monday morning at 8 a.m. and acknowledging a “miscommunication” in the matter.

Guyden said she is starting a new job this week and is no longer interested in working for Amazon.

“I shouldn’t have to go through that at all,” she said. “I got four kids and I’m a single mom. Kids have had to watch me budget and penny pinch. … Me going back to work in [Amazon’s] chaos won’t better my situation.”

BMI to Lay Off ‘Just Under 10%’ of Workforce

Jem Aswad - VARIETY

BMI, one of the two largest performing rights organizations in the United States, announced layoffs of “just under 10%” of its workforce last week, a rep has confirmed to Variety.

The move comes shortly after plans to sell the PRO, which represents some of the world’s biggest artists in the U.S. and pulls in more than $1 billion in revenue annually, were abandoned after the organization did not meet its target price, according to a report in Bloomberg, although the BMI rep said the layoffs were unrelated to the sale cancelation. News of the layoffs was first reported in Billboard.

A source close to the situation tells Variety that the 10% was comprised of a mostly even split between headcount (fewer than 30 people) and then eliminating open positions that were being recruited for.

President and CEO Mike O’Neill announced the cuts in an email obtained by the outlet. “I’m writing to let you know about some difficult actions we took today,” he wrote. “After a careful and comprehensive review process, we are reducing BMI’s total workforce by just under 10% through a combination of headcount reduction and not filling a number of current open positions. This impacted most departments and is effective immediately.”

According to the Bloomberg report, BMI hired Goldman Sachs earlier this year to explore strategic options, including a sale. With record revenue of over $1.4 billion in 2021, company execs hoped to sell it for at least $1.5 billion and even asked some interested parties for as much $2 billion or $3 billion, sources told Bloomberg.

However, a sale “is no longer an avenue we are considering,” BMI said in a statement earlier this month. “We’ve been clear from the start that as we explored strategic opportunities for BMI, we were going to evaluate all options that would support our affiliates and grow the value of their music.”

The move comes despite BMI setting financial records in 2021 by registering an 8% increase in distributions (to $1.335 billion) and a 7% revenue gain (to $1.409 billion) O’Neill wrote in his email, “I appreciate that you may wonder why, when we regularly highlight how we continue to outperform the competition, this year included, we need to take these difficult steps. It’s a fair question, but our success does not mean that we shouldn’t also take a critical look at our business and ensure we are operating in the most efficient and effective way possible, particularly as we head into uncertain economic times.”

He seemed to nod to the impact of the pandemic on the organization’s revenue, a large percentage of which comes from arenas, bars, restaurants and other places where people gather and music is played: “We learned some important lessons during the pandemic about how we could operate more effectively. Unlike many other companies, we made a concerted effort to maintain headcount as COVID took hold, the right decision for us at that time.”

However, he continued, “as we emerged from the pandemic, it became clear that there were areas in our workforce that needed adjustment.”

Ford Motors to lay off 3,000 employees from global workforce, including Canada

MobileSyrup - 

Ford is the latest in a string of companies laying off employees. The company is cutting off roughly 3,000 employees from its global workforce, including Canada, the U.S. and India, as part of a restructuring effort to cut costs.



The report, as shared by CNBC News, suggests that Ford began notifying employees about the cuts today, Monday, August 22nd. “The cuts will include 2,000 salaried positions and 1,000 agency jobs in the U.S., Canada and India, Farley and Ford Chairman Bill Ford said in a message to employees that was obtained by CNBC,” wrote the publication.

“Building this future requires changing and reshaping virtually all aspects of the way we have operated for more than a century. It requires focus, clarity and speed. And, as we have discussed in recent months, it means redeploying resources and addressing our cost structure, which is uncompetitive versus traditional and new competitors,” reads the message.

The job cuts are divided between Ford Blue and Ford Model E, the company’s combustion engine and electric vehicle divisions. Back in July, Bloomberg indicated that Ford intends to lay off roughly 8,000 of its employees, however, it seems the company walked back on its plans for such a mass layoff.

This comes soon after Irvine, California-based Rivian announced in July that it is laying off five percent of its workforce.

Ford cutting 3,000 white-collar jobs in bid to lower costs


DETROIT (AP) — About 3,000 white-collar workers at Ford Motor Co. will lose their jobs as the company cuts costs to help make the long transition from internal combustion vehicles to those powered by batteries.



Leaders of the Dearborn, Michigan, automaker made the announcement Monday in a companywide email, saying that 2,000 full-time salaried workers would be let go along with another 1,000 contract workers.

The cuts represent about 6% of the 31,000 full-time salaried work force in the the U.S. and Canada. Ford’s 56,000 union factory workers are not affected. Some workers also will lose jobs in India.

The job losses come at a time of unprecedented change in the auto industry that for more than 100 years has made a living by selling petroleum-powered vehicles. Governments across the globe are pushing to eliminate combustion automobiles to mitigate the impact of climate change. Companies like Ford are orchestrating the wind-down of their combustion businesses over multiple years, even though they are still generating the cash to fund electric vehicle development.

Ford has said it plans for half of its global production to be electric vehicles by 2030.

Executive Chairman Bill Ford and CEO Jim Farley said in the email to employees that Ford will provide severance benefits and significant help for the workers to find new jobs. They wrote that Ford has a chance to lead in the new era of connected and electric vehicles.

Related video: Ford Scales EV Production While Keeping Possible Recession in Min

Duration 8:05 View on Watch

“Building on this future requires changing and reshaping virtually all aspects of the way we have operated for more than a century,” the email said. “It means redeploying resources and addressing our cost structure, which is uncompetitive versus traditional and new companies.”

Farley and Ford wrote that the company examined each team’s shifting work to decide where cuts would be made. The company determined that its cost structure wasn’t competitive with General Motors, Stellantis and Tesla. Ford has said previously that it has a target of cutting $3 billion in annual internal combustion vehicle structural costs by 2026.

“We are eliminating work, as well as reorganizing and simplifying functions throughout the business,” they wrote in the email.

Farley has said repeatedly that the company’s global work force of 182,000 is too large, and it needs to trim costs and simplify processes so it can move faster as it transitions to electric vehicles.

The company already has restructured in Europe, Asia and India.

The cuts may not be over. Company spokesman T.R. Reid said Ford will continue to change with the industry and more job losses are possible. He said it’s common for companies to continually add people where they need them and trim where fewer jobs are needed. “With the fast pace of this industry, we’re going to manage the business smartly for these rapidly evolving priorities,” he said.

Ford shares, already under pressure after a $1.7 billion verdict against the company related to a vehicle fatality in Georgia, slid almost 6% and led automakers lower amid a broad sell-off in markets Monday.

Tom Krisher, The Associated Press