Finland counted its bomb shelters and found 50,500 of them

Tue, August 29, 2023 


 Santa Park underground shelter near Rovaniemi

By Anne Kauranen

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland has finished inventorying its existing bomb shelters in a government effort prompted by neighbouring Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year, and found it has 50,500 of them, its interior ministry said.

Finland joined the NATO military alliance in April in a historic security policy U-turn but it had kept preparing for the possibility of a conflict with Russia for decades, after fighting back an invasion attempt by the Soviet Union during WW2.

The wary Nordic country made the construction of emergency shelters mandatory under apartment blocks and office buildings as early as in the 1950s, which explains their current high number.

The government's census concluded that the Nordic nation of 5.5 million people has some 50,500 bomb shelters that can fit 4.8 million inhabitants in them in case of an emergency or an attack, the ministry said.

It also found that 91% of the shelters are robust enough to sustain an attack conducted with conventional weapons, while 83% are equipped to also provide shelter from gas emissions or nuclear emergencies.

"At the same time, it must be stated that in a small number of shelters there are faults that prevent them from being put into use within the 72 hours required by law," project manager Ira Pasi of the interior ministry said in a statement.

The shelters are equipped with ventilators, impervious doors, stackable beds and even dry closets, as required by the latest law that dates back to 2011.

During peacetime, some of the underground shelters house swimming pools, sports centres or - as in the very north of the country - a Santa Claus theme park.

The shelters are maintained by each building's owners and the government called for their proper upkeeping.

"Over the decades, Finland has built a civil protection infrastructure worth billions of euros, which is worth taking care of," Pasi said.

(Reporting by Anne Kauranen, Editing by Nick Zieminski)

Climate change may increase conflict deaths, says IMF

Wed, August 30, 2023 

A Somali herdsman walks with his donkey past a carcass in Garbaharey


By Rachel Savage

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Climate change is likely to worsen conflicts in fragile and war-torn states, resulting in higher death rates and greatly reduced GDP, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a report on Wednesday.

The World Bank each year revises a list of countries classed as "fragile and conflict-afflicted states," of which there are currently 39, and 21 are in Africa. Wednesday's report covers all 61 countries that have been on the list since 2006.

It found that climate shocks do not cause conflicts, but they worsen existing unrest and exacerbate other underlying fragilities, such as hunger and poverty.

Deaths from conflict as a share of the population could increase by close to 10% in fragile countries by 2060, the IMF said, adding that climate change could also push an additional 50 million people in fragile states into hunger by 2060.

Even though evidence of climate change is mounting after record temperatures across the world over recent months, the political will to take action has been eroded by economic weakness.

African leaders have said richer countries should provide more money to help them adapt to climate change and transition to greener energy, given that most African countries have produced a relatively tiny share of the emissions that cause global warming.

They are expected to try to reach a unified climate negotiating position at the African Climate Summit from Sept. 4-6, ahead of the COP28 UN climate summit in the United Arab Emirates starting at the end of November.

(Reporting by Rachel Savage; editing by Barbara Lewis)

Negligent manslaughter": Study finds climate change could kill 1 billion mostly poor people

Matthew Rozsa

SALON
Tue, August 29, 2023 

Beijing China Typhoon Aftermath JADE GAO/AFP via Getty Images

By the end of the century, nearly 1 billion mostly poor people could die due to climate change, a new study suggests. If climate change reaches 2°C higher than pre-industrial levels, the level of death it will unleash would be catastrophic, according to research published in the scientific journal Energies. If true, this means that even staying within the confines of the Paris climate accord — which pledges 2°C as the upper limit of global warming — will still lead to a humanitarian disaster.

The authors, Joshua Pearce of Western University in Ontario, Canada and Richard Parncutt of University of Graz, in Austria, performed a meta-analysis on studies that examine fatalities caused by climate change impacts. They found that "a future person is killed every time 1000 tons of fossil carbon are burned." The researchers concluded that "if warming reaches or exceeds 2 °C this century, mainly richer humans will be responsible for killing roughly 1 billion mainly poorer humans through anthropogenic global warming, which is comparable with involuntary or negligent manslaughter."

The scientists emphasized the role of wealthy humans because research shows that they are disproportionately among the so-called "super emitters," or wealthy individuals whose carbon footprint is significantly greater than that of ordinary people. "In 2019, fully 40% of total U.S. emissions were associated with income flows to the highest earning 10% of households," explained the authors of a recent study in PLOS Climate.

Climate change is "a 'new abnormal' and it is now playing out in real time — the impacts of climate change are upon us in the form of unprecedented, dangerous extreme weather events," Dr. Michael E. Mann, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, told Salon in July.

Stellantis wants to move Ram truck production from Michigan to Mexico, UAW leader says


Eric D. Lawrence, Detroit Free Press
Tue, August 29, 2023 

The Ram 1500 is currently built at Stellantis' Sterling Heights Assembly Plant, but UAW Vice President Rich Boyer says the company wants to move production of the popular truck to Mexico.

UAW Vice President Rich Boyer didn't hold back when he said Stellantis wants to move production of its popular Ram 1500 pickup from Michigan to Mexico.

“That’s an American product. It’s going to stay here in America,” Boyer told a boisterous crowd at a recent union rally tied to ongoing contract negotiations with Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Stellantis.

It's hard to see how any other stance would be welcomed by union members, but a couple of industry watchers said shifting production of the gas-powered Ram 1500 from Sterling Heights Assembly Plant to another location, a point the company hasn't confirmed, wouldn't necessarily have to be the straightforward loss for the union that it appears to be at first blush.

It all depends on negotiations.

The company previously announced that it would build its first electric pickup, the Ram REV 1500, in the United States. If that truck lands at Sterling Heights Assembly Plant, as some assume, it would mean a forward-looking product there that the automaker hopes will sell well, although that would likely introduce a fair amount of uncertainty with EV sales still representing a fraction of the market.

The key is that the issue is being discussed within the framework of bargaining as the automaker, which also owns the Jeep, Chrysler, Dodge and Fiat brands, and the United Auto Workers union try to fashion an agreement to meet a key moment in the monumental transition toward electric vehicles, according to Harley Shaiken, professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley.

Shaiken, an expert in both automotive and Mexican labor issues, noted that Mexico has already been playing an expanded role for automakers. Although he described that as problematic for the union in the long run, he also suggested that this isn’t the worst time for the two sides to be discussing the matter.

“What is good for the UAW at this moment is it allows them to address it in the context of the talks,” Shaiken said.

Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting for AutoForecast Solutions, highlighted how a product change could play out.

More: UAW members practice picketing: As deadline nears, autoworkers are 'ready to strike'


“Stellantis needs all of the capacity they can find for the Ram pickups. The Saltillo (Truck Assembly Plant) has been used for the larger trucks as well as overflow production of the Ram 1500 for years. With the Ram REV coming next year, Sterling Heights will need space to build the new electric truck,” Fiorani said.

Bargaining leverage could be at play in this discussion, but Fiorani indicated that doesn’t mean the situation has to be a loser for either side.

“On the surface, the move does look like a ploy for negotiations with the UAW, but the shift of older product to Mexico has been done in the past. It does leave the door open for the UAW to gain some product and for Stellantis to address some labor and capacity issues. The potential is there for a win-win situation, but both sides are not currently positioned to take advantage of it,” he said.

Talks have been publicly testy, and the prospect of a strike, although not a foregone conclusion, is alive and well. In fact, union members gave a solid thumbs-up when the UAW asked for strike authorization this month.

But even when two sides seem far apart in contract negotiations, prospects for deal-making are possible, as demonstrated by the recent agreement between the Teamsters and UPS.

Sterling Heights Assembly Plant produces Stellantis' popular Ram 1500 pickup.

Shaiken said the fate of the idled Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois could play a role under one scenario, if, for instance, Stellantis were to agree to move the gas-powered truck there with the electric truck going to Sterling Heights. It would take “a major push” to do something like that, but it would also address an outstanding issue, Shaiken said.

The company could see a move like that as less costly than the prospect of a strike, he said.

A major perceived disadvantage for workers about trading production of a proven gas-powered vehicle for a new EV would be the size of the workforce.

The prospect that fewer workers will be needed to produce EVs has been a major theme in talking about the transition, although a recent study highlighted by Axios suggested the opposite could be true. Nonetheless, Shaiken said one way the union could address concerns about the need for fewer workers would be to bargain to bring more supplier work into the assembly process, meaning the work would be done by UAW members under the master agreement.

That would be a tough sell, but Shaiken said such things are possible in negotiations.

Whether Stellantis would be open to such scenarios isn’t clear, although the company did highlight the role of the current negotiations in its decision-making.

“Product allocation for our U.S. plants will depend on the outcome of these negotiations as well as a plant’s ability to meet specific performance metrics including improving quality, reducing absenteeism and addressing overall cost. As these decisions are fluid and part of the discussions at the bargaining table, we will not comment further,” according to Stellantis spokeswoman Jodi Tinson.

More: 'We're together in red': UAW members bring the heat to Solidarity Sunday rally

Moving production to Mexico, however, raises a number of issues and fears for U.S. workers.

When he started researching manufacturing in Mexico years ago, Shaiken said he learned that his assumptions about quality and productivity were off target and that in fact both can be higher there than in the United States, partly because plants and machinery are often newer there.

However, pairing those aspects with wages that are a fraction of what U.S. workers make “has resulted in a license to print money for the automakers because these plants have been very successful,” Shaiken said.

That presents a challenge to the UAW. It also highlights the tensions that Boyer gave voice to at the union rally on Aug. 20 in Warren when he said Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares doesn’t care about “the American autoworker,” using a less polite phrasing for what he said was Tavares’ level of concern.

The Saltillo Truck Assembly Plant in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila currently produces the older version of the Ram 1500 as well as the brand’s heavy duty trucks. The facility, which has more than 4,000 employees, began production in 1995 and built its 4 millionth vehicle, a Ram 2500 Laramie, in 2019, according to the company’s website.

Sterling Heights Assembly Plant, known as SHAP, with more than 5,300 workers, was built as a jet engine plant in 1953 before it shifted to automobile production in the 1980s.

In July 2016, Stellantis predecessor Fiat Chrysler Automobiles announced it would spend $1.49 billion to retool the plant to produce what was then the next-generation Ram 1500 pickup. Mayor Michael Taylor called it the “largest one-time corporate investment in the city’s history,” according to Free Press reporting at the time. That investment came with a tax break “valued at $11.38 million over a 15-year period to help secure the automaker's commitment” and millions of dollars in other potential incentives, according to Free Press reporting.

That plan, part of a larger shift of products, involved changes at multiple plants and was credited with saving jobs in Sterling Heights.

Taylor, on Friday, said he’s aware of the news from Boyer’s announcement, but he hasn’t had any direct conversations with the company or union about the issue. He said he hopes it’s just negotiations and posturing and not a “real serious threat.”

Taylor noted the company invested a lot of money at SHAP, and he said he believes it’s one of the company’s better plants. It also has faced its share of uncertainty in the past, being slated for closure around the time of the Chrysler bankruptcy but seeing an outpouring of support from political leaders at many levels at the time.

“The Ram 1500 is one of the most popular vehicles on the road. Having the (internal combustion engine truck) produced in Sterling Heights is great for Sterling Heights and the surrounding areas, and I think good for Stellantis as well,” he said, noting that “time will tell” on whether EVs become as popular as internal combustion engine vehicles.

Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. 

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: UAW leader: Stellantis wants to move Ram truck production to Mexico

PRISONER IN A TROLL FARM
UN warns that hundreds of thousands in Southeast Asia have been roped into online scams



GENEVA (AP) — The U.N. human rights office says criminal gangs have forced hundreds of thousands of people in Southeast Asia into participating in unlawful online scam operations, including false romantic ploys, bogus investment pitches and illegal gambling schemes.

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a new report, cites “credible sources” that at least 120,000 people in strife-torn Myanmar and roughly 100,000 in Cambodia “may be held in situations where they are forced to carry out online scams.”

The report sheds new light on cybercrime scams that have become a major issue in Asia, with many of the workers trapped in virtual slavery and forced to participate in scams targeting people over the internet.

Laos, the Philippines and Thailand were also cited among the main countries of destination or transit for tens of thousands of people. Criminal gangs have increasingly targeted migrants, and lure some victims by false recruitment — suggesting they are destined for real jobs.

The rights office, citing the “enormity” of the scam operations, said the exact impact in terms of people and revenues generated is hard to estimate because of their secrecy and gaps in governmental response, but it's believed to be in the billions of U.S. dollars every year.

Some victims have been subjected to torture, cruel punishments, sexual violence and arbitrary detention, among other crimes, it said.

Related video: Thailand threatens Facebook with legal action over alleged scams (WION)
Duration 1:38   View on Watch

Pia Oberoi, a senior advisor on migration and human rights for the Asia-Pacific region at the U.N. human rights office, described “two sets" of victims: people who get fleeced of large sums of money — sometimes their life savings — and people trafficked into working for the scammers, who themselves may lose money or face “stigma and shame” for the work they do.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva by video from Bangkok, Oberoi said many scams have their origins during the COVID-19 pandemic when lockdowns shut down casinos that were a key part of the economy along border zones and in Cambodia.

“What you saw really was criminal actors that were looking essentially to diversify their operations because their primary source of income had been reduced by these COVID lockdowns,” she said. It also meant economic distress, which left "middle class, educated, technologically competent young people” out of work, so many got lured on false premises into working for the schemes.

The scams involve billions of dollars worth of revenues, the rights office said.

Oberoi also described the “so-called pig butchering scheme," often involving many people operating in a compound who target people who are led to believe “that they are speaking to somebody who is interested to be romantically involved with them.”

“It’s often men that are doing the scamming, pretending to be women," Oberoi said. If a target asks to see the woman, she said, "one of the few women in the compound is brought in to act as the model.”

In June, Philippine police backed by commandos led a raid to rescue more than 2,700 workers from China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and more than a dozen other countries who were allegedly swindled into working for fraudulent online gaming sites and other cybercrime groups.

In May, leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed in a summit in Indonesia to tighten border controls and law enforcement and broaden public education to fight criminal syndicates that traffic workers to other nations, where they are made to participate in online fraud.

Jamey Keaten, The Associated Press

$5.6 million bid for one offshore tract marks modest start for Gulf of Mexico wind energy


In a first-of-its kind auction for the Gulf of Mexico, a company bid $5.6 million Tuesday to lease federal waters off the Louisiana coast for wind energy generation.

It was a modest start for wind energy in the Gulf, which lags the Northeast in offshore wind power development. Only one of three available tracts received bids. And only two companies bid. The winning bidder was RWE Offshore US.

The Biden administration said the tract covers more than 102,000 acres (41,200 hectares) with the potential for generation of 1.24 gigawatts, enough wind power to supply 435,000 homes.

Analysts cited a variety of factors behind the current, relatively low interest in the lease sale, including inflation and challenges specific to the area such as lower wind speeds and the need for designs that consider hurricane threats.

Washington-based research group Clearview Energy Partners said in a Tuesday analysis that Gulf states' governments lack the needed offshore wind targets or mandates for renewable energy that could encourage more wind development.

Clearview's report also said wind energy is likely to play a key role in development of clean hydrogen production. The Biden administration has yet to implement a planned tax credit for hydrogen — another possible drag on immediate interest in Gulf wind leases, the report said.

“Offshore wind developers have to pick and choose where to deploy their resources and time and energy. It is not surprising that they are more interested in locations like the Northeast where power prices are higher and offshore wind is better positioned to compete,” Becky Diffen, a partner specializing in renewable energy financing at the Norton Rose Fulbright law firm in Houston.

Other factors bode well for eventual wind development in the Gulf. “While RWE may be the only company to have won a bid for federal waters in the Gulf, there are a few companies interested in pursuing offshore wind in Louisiana state waters,” Clearview said. “We note Louisiana lawmakers enacted a law last year that expanded the size of allowable offshore wind leases in state water.”

In a region where offshore oil and gas production remain a major economic driver, industries are embracing wind energy as well. For instance, Louisiana shipbuilding giant Edison Chouest Offshore is assembling a 260-foot-long (80-meter) vessel to serve as floating quarters for offshore wind technicians and their tools to be used to run wind farms in the Northeast.

“Today’s auction results show the important role state public policy plays in offshore wind market development,” Luke Jeanfreau of the Business Network for Offshore Wind, an organization formed to aid the development of offshore wind. “Gulf expertise in offshore construction is unparalleled, and their innovative solutions will continue to drive the U.S. and global offshore wind industry forward.”

Kevin Mcgill, The Associated Press

US military plans to unleash thousands of autonomous war robots over next two years

GOING WHERE? DOING WHAT?!!

Story by By REUTERS •

A TALON tracked military robot picks up a downed unmanned aerial system at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, May 19, 2020. 

(U.S. Army photo by Spc. Derek Mustard)© (photo credit: PICRYL)

The United States military plans to start using thousands of autonomous weapons systems in the next two years in a bid to counter China’s growing power, US Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks announced in a speech on Monday.

The so-called Replicator initiative aims to work with defense and other tech companies to produce high volumes of affordable systems for all branches of the military.

Military systems capable of various degrees of independent operation have become increasingly common over the past decade or so. But the scale and scope of the US announcement make clear the future of conflict has changed: the age of warfighting robots is upon us.

Over the past decade, there has been considerable development of advanced robotic systems for military purposes. Many of these have been based on modifying commercial technology, which itself has become more capable, cheaper, and more widely available.

More recently, the focus has shifted to experimenting with how to best use these in combat. Russia’s war in Ukraine has demonstrated that the technology is ready for real-world deployment.

Loitering munitions, a form of robot air vehicle, have been widely used to find and attack armored vehicles and artillery. Ukrainian naval attack drones have paralyzed Russia’s Black Sea fleet, forcing their crewed warships to stay in port.

Military robots are an idea whose time has come.

In her speech, Hicks talked of a perceived urgent need to change how wars are fought. She declared, in somewhat impenetrable Pentagon-speak, that the new Replicator program would field attritable autonomous systems at a scale of multiple thousands, in multiple domains, within the next 18 to 24 months.


A TALON tracked military robot picks up a downed unmanned aerial system at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, May 19, 2020. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Derek Mustard) (credit: PICRYL)© Provided by The Jerusalem PostA TALON tracked military robot picks up a downed unmanned aerial system at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, May 19, 2020.

 (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Derek Mustard) (credit: PICRYL)

Decoding this, “autonomous” means a robot that can carry out complex military missions without human intervention.

“Attritable” means the robot is cheap enough that it can be placed at risk and lost if the mission is of high priority. Such a robot is not quite designed to be disposable, but it would be reasonably affordable so many can be bought and combat losses replaced.

Finally, “multiple domains” means robots on land, at sea, in the air, and in space. In short, robots are everywhere for all kinds of tasks.

Many countries want autonomous weapons systems

For the US military, Russia is an “acute threat” but China is the “pacing challenge” against which to benchmark its military capabilities.

China’s People’s Liberation Army is seen as having a significant advantage in terms of “mass”: it has more people, more tanks, more ships, more missiles, and so on. The US may have better-quality equipment, but China wins on quantity.

By quickly building thousands of “attritable autonomous systems”, the Replicator program will now give the US the numbers considered necessary to win future major wars.

The imagined future war of most concern is a hypothetical battle for Taiwan, which some postulate could soon begin. Recent tabletop wargames have suggested large swarms of robots could be the decisive element for the US in defeating any major Chinese invasion.

However, Replicator is also looking further ahead and aims to institutionalize the mass production of robots for the long term. Hicks argues:

We must ensure [China’s] leadership wakes up every day, considers the risks of aggression, and concludes, “today is not the day” — and not just today, but every day, between now and 2027, now and 2035, now and 2049, and beyond.

One great concern about autonomous systems is whether their use can conform to the laws of armed conflict.

Optimists argue robots can be carefully programmed to follow rules, and in the heat and confusion of combat, they may even obey better than humans.

Pessimists counter by noting not all situations can be foreseen, and robots may well misunderstand and attack when they should not. They have a point.

Among earlier autonomous military systems, the Phalanx close-in point defense gun and the Patriot surface-to-air missile have both misperformed.

Used only once in combat, during the first Gulf War in 1991, the Phalanx fired at a chaff decoy cloud rather than countering the attacking anti-ship missile. The more modern Patriot has proven effective in shooting down attacking ballistic missiles, but also twice shot down friendly aircraft during the second Gulf War in 2003, killing their human crews.

Clever design may overcome such problems in future autonomous systems. However, Hicks promised a “responsible and ethical approach to AI and autonomous systems” in her speech – which suggests any system able to kill targets will still need formal authorization from a human to do so.

The US may be the first nation to field large numbers of autonomous systems, but other countries will be close behind. China is an obvious candidate, with great strength in both artificial intelligence and combat drone production.

However, because much of the technology behind autonomous military drones has been developed for civilian purposes, it is widely available and relatively cheap. Autonomous military systems are not just for the great powers, but could also soon be fielded by many middle and smaller powers.

Libya and Israel, among others, have reportedly deployed autonomous weapons, and Turkish-made drones have proved important in the Ukraine war.

Australia is another country keenly interested in the possibilities of autonomous weapons. The Australian Defence Force is today building the MQ-28 Ghostbat autonomous fast jet air vehicle, robot mechanized armored vehicles, robot logistic trucks, and robot submarines and is already using the Bluebottle robot sailboat for maritime border surveillance in the Timor Sea.

And in a move that foreshadowed the Replicator initiative, the Australian government last month called for local companies to suggest how they might build very large numbers of military aerial drones in-country in the next few years.

At least one Australian company, SYPAQ, is already on the move, sending a number of its cheap, cardboard-bodied drones to bolster Ukraine’s defenses.

Leaked Microsoft memo tells managers not to use budget cuts as an explainer for lack of pay rises: ‘Reinforce that every year offers unique opportunity for impact’

Story by Orianna Rosa Royle •14h

As the tech company cuts the budget for bonuses and freezes salaries, managers are being asked to skim over that fact during lackluster performance reviews.

© Loren Elliott—Getty Images

Microsoft employees were already expecting lackluster pay rises. In a company-wide email sent earlier this year, the tech company’s CEO Satya Nadella warned staff of salary freezes and cuts to the bonus budget.

But despite previous transparency around the cost-cutting measures, employees enquiring about how the budget cuts have impacted their performance review will now be fobbed off.

According to leaked guidance viewed by Insider, managers are being ordered to dodge such questions in the name of company culture.

"It's natural for employees to ask questions about budget given the decisions shared in Satya's email," the guidance reportedly states. "However, it's most important to focus discussions with direct reports on their impact for the past fiscal year and directly tie it to their rewards."

Managers should not use the budget cuts as an "explanation" for compensation decisions for individual employees and instead should emphasize that the employee's own "impact" determines "rewards."

"Using budgets or factors besides the employee's impact as an explanation for an employee's rewards will erode trust and confidence within your team," the guide cautions. "Reinforce that every year offers unique opportunity for impact, and we increase our high expectations, regardless of our budget."

Microsoft didn’t respond to Fortune’s request for comment.

A transparency U-turn

The latest guidance to Microsoft managers comes in spite of the fact that this year’s subpar pay review is intrinsically linked to the business's budget cuts.

In May—just after the company's annual review cycle began with performance reviews in April—Nadella told staff that due to the current economic conditions, full-time employees won’t see an increase in their wages this year.

Typically, Microsoft employees are told how their performance affects their compensation in August with their payout taking effect from September, but this year, not only will most workers see their salary stagnate, but their bonuses are also likely to be significantly smaller.

Nadella’s email cautioned that the company will not "overfund" bonuses and stock awards like it did last year, meaning the bonus and stock award budget has been reduced.

“As a senior leadership team, we don't take this decision lightly having considered it over several months, and believe it is necessary to prepare the company for long-term success,” Nadella wrote.

In a separate leaked email back in May, Microsoft’s chief people officer Kathleen Hogan told managers to allocate less than usual “exceptional rewards”.

"Fewer employees will be able to receive exceptional rewards, and more will need to be at the middle of the range," she reportedly wrote in the memo.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s chief marketing officer Christopher Capossela told employees angry about the lack of salary raises that their best way to increase their pay is to make the stock go higher—after cashing out $4.4 million worth of stock.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Bavarian governor orders his deputy to fully explain himself to clear allegations of antisemitism



BERLIN (AP) — The governor of the German state of Bavaria said Tuesday that his deputy had not done enough to prove he wasn't responsible for an antisemitic flyer as a high school student and ordered him to answer a detailed questionnaire to clear himself of any possible involvement in the scandal that caused an uproar in Germany.

Daily newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported Friday that when Deputy Governor Hubert Aiwanger was 17, he was suspected of writing a printed flyer calling for entries to a competition titled “Who is the biggest traitor to the fatherland?”

It listed, among other things, a “1st prize: a free flight through the chimney at Auschwitz.”

Aiwanger has denied that he wrote the flyer. His older brother later came forward to claim that he had written it.

In a statement on Saturday, Aiwanger also said that one or more copies of the flyer were found in his school bag and he was summoned to see the principal. He said he was threatened with police involvement if he didn’t clear up the facts and had agreed under pressure to make a presentation.

Aiwanger did not specify what the presentation entailed. But that, he said, had been the end of the matter. He also said he distanced himself “completely” from the leaflet 35 years later.

Among other things, Aiwanger did not yet explain publicly why he was carrying the flyers in his school bag.

Governor Markus Soeder on Tuesday called the flyer “disgusting” and said it was written “in the worst Nazi jargon.”

“This is not just a stupid boy’s prank or a mere youthful sin,” Soeder told reporters in Munich, adding that even the suspicion that Aiwanger was somehow linked to the flyer damages the reputation of Bavaria and the deputy governor's personal credibility.

He said a meeting earlier on Tuesday with Aiwanger, who is also Bavaria's economy minister, did not fully clear up what exactly happened.

“We listened to Hubert Aiwanger today. We questioned him. But today’s statements are definitely not enough for a final assessment and clarification," Soeder said. "Many questions remained and remain open.”

Therefore, Soeder announced, Aiwanger would be asked to answer 25 detailed questions in writing.

Germany's leading Jewish group, the Central Council of Jews in Germany, also sharply condemned the text of the flyer.

"It denigrates the millions of victims of the Shoah in a despicable manner,” the council's president, Josef Schuster, said, using the Hebrew name for the Holocaust.

In the Holocaust, the Germans and their henchmen murdered 6 million European Jews.

Aiwanger, now 52, leads the Free Voters, a party that is a conservative force in Bavaria but has no seats in Germany’s national parliament. He has served as the state’s deputy governor and economy minister since 2018, when his party became the junior partner in a regional government under Bavaria’s long-dominant center-right Christian Social Union, or CSU.

The scandal comes at an especially inconvenient time for Soeder, who is also the CSU leader. Bavaria has a state election scheduled for Oct. 8., and Soeder is hoping to continue leading Germany's southernmost state in coalition with Aiwanger and his Free Voters.

One of the two leaders of the Social Democrats, the party of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, criticized Soeder's efforts to shed light on the incident as “not enough.”

“For five days, there have been serious accusations against parts of his government. His deputy governor is said to have spread antisemitic ideas and is losing himself in justifications and evasions,” Lars Klingbeil told daily Rheinische Post. “Instead of clearing up these accusations, Soeder is now asking a few questions. That’s time-wasting, that’s not enough.”

Kirsten Grieshaber, The Associated Press

Canadian anti-crime researcher sentenced to two years in prison in Algeria

Story by The Canadian Press •6h


MONTREAL — A Canadian researcher detained in Algeria since February was sentenced on Tuesday to two years in prison, according to his lawyer.

Kouceila Zerguine said Raouf Farrah has also been fined 200,000 Algerian dinars, around C$2,000.

"An appeal has been filed against this decision," Zerguine wrote in a text message Tuesday.

Zerguine said Farrah's father, Sebti Farrah, a Montreal-area resident, was given a one-year suspended sentence by the same court in the eastern Algerian city of Constantine.

Farrah, who studies migration and criminal economies for an international anti-crime non-governmental organization, had been charged with publishing secret information and being paid to commit offences against public order.

Farrah's employer, the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, condemned the sentence, saying the charges were proven to be without merit during a one-day trial earlier this month.

"Although we were being realistic about the potential trial outcomes, today’s result is particularly difficult to accept, given that the prosecution failed to present any legal case against Raouf and Sebti," Mark Shaw, the organization's director, said in a news release.

"Any free and fair trial would have found Raouf and Sebti, as well as the other co-defendants, innocent. Instead, we are facing a scenario where Raouf faces more jail time on top of the almost six months in custody that he has already unjustly served, while his 67-year-old father, a respectable law-abiding citizen, now has a criminal record.”

Eric Goldstein, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa division, said the fundamental problem with the charges faced by the Farrahs and Algerian journalist Mustapha Bendjama, who was tried and sentenced alongside them, is the nature of the charges themselves.

"You can tell by looking at the nature of the charges that these are manifestly political charges that can be used to fit any occasion when the government wants to punish anyone," Goldstein said in an interview. "We are looking at a researcher for an internationally-known NGO and a journalist, both of whom are now facing two years in prison for doing their jobs."

Goldstein said the court found that Bendjama had received money from foreign institutions with the intent of committing acts that can disturb public order, because he was paid to do research for Farrah, adding that Algerian authorities can arbitrarily declare information to be classified.

"With charges that are so vague, it's really hard to talk about trials that are fair, or a justice system that is fair, because anything you do can be turned against you," he said.

Bendjama testified that during his interrogation, authorities used a screwdriver to pry his fingers open and place one on his phone's fingerprint scanner to open it, Goldstein said, adding that police subjected him to all-night interrogations and threats of violence.

Farrah's conviction comes amid a larger crackdown against Algeria's pro-democracy movement and follows the flight of a prominent pro-democracy activist, Amira Bouraoui, from the country, Goldstein said.

Both Farrah and Bendjama have denied helping Bouraoui, who was banned from leaving Algeria, to flee.

Born in Algeria, Farrah moved to Canada when he was 18. He lived in Montreal, where he studied at the Université de Montréal, before getting a master's degree at the University of Ottawa.

The Algerian Embassy in Ottawa did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment Tuesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 29, 2023.

Jacob Serebrin, The Canadian Press

Oklahoma bank and the Justice Department propose settlement of redlining allegations around Tulsa


The U.S. Department of Justice and a northeastern Oklahoma bank have announced a proposed agreement to settle claims that the bank discriminated in lending to Blacks and Hispanics in the Tulsa area.

Collinsville-based American Bank of Oklahoma used the illegal practice known as redlining in majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in the Tulsa area, including the area of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, according to the Justice Department.

Redlining is an illegal practice in which lenders avoid providing credit to people because of their race, color or national origin.

The practice was used by the bank from 2017 through at least 2021, the Justice Department alleged.

The proposed consent agreement filed in federal court in Tulsa on Monday is pending court approval and calls for ABOK to provide $1.15 million in credit opportunities in neighborhoods of color in the Tulsa area.

“This agreement will help expand investment in Black communities and communities of color in Tulsa and increase opportunities for homeownership and financial stability," Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement.

“Remedial provisions in the agreement will open up opportunities for building generational wealth while focusing on neighborhoods that bear the scars of the Tulsa Race Massacre,” Clarke said.

Lawsuit Filed Over "Improve Our Tulsa"

ABOK denied the allegations but said in a statement that it agreed to the proposal to avoid the cost and distraction of lengthy litigation.

Bank chief executive Joe Landon said in a statement that ABOK, with branches in Collinsville, Ramona, Muskogee, Disney and Skiatook, is a small community bank with $383 million in assets and lamented that the Justice Department referenced the 1921 Race Massacre.

“As Oklahomans, we carry a profound sense of sorrow for the tragic events of the Tulsa Race Massacre over a century ago,” Landon said.

The 1921 massacre left hundreds of Black residents dead when an angry white mob descended on a 35-block area known as Greenwood, looting, killing and burning it to the ground. Beyond those killed, thousands more were left homeless and living in a hastily constructed internment camp.

The three known living survivors of the massacre are appealing a ruling that dismissed their lawsuit seeking reparations from the city and other defendants for the destruction of the once-thriving Black district.

Landon said the bank will expand its deposit and lending products and add mortgage and refinancing options in Tulsa and open a new loan production office in a historically Black area of the city.

The Justice Department said the bank will also provide at least two mortgage loan officers for majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods, and host at least six consumer financial education seminars annually with translation and interpretation services in Spanish.

ABOK is also to hire a full-time director of community lending to oversee lending in neighborhoods of color in the Tulsa area.

Ken Miller, The Associated Press