Mass furloughs reported at BNSF Railway operations in 4 states

Noi Mahoney
Fri, March 1, 2024 

BNSF Railway has reportedly furloughed 362 employees across the U.S. in a cost-cutting measure, according to the Transportation Trades Department with the AFL-CIO, the transportation labor federation representing U.S. rail unions and workers. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

BNSF Railway, one of the largest freight railroads in the U.S., has reportedly furloughed hundreds of employees in Kansas, Montana, Nebraska and Texas.

The furloughs were announced Tuesday, with 362 workers reportedly losing their jobs, according to the Transportation Trades Department (TTD) with the AFL-CIO, the transportation labor federation representing U.S. rail unions and workers.

“BNSF Railway callously announced it has furloughed over 362 mechanical department positions at numerous locations across their system,” Greg Regan, president of the TTD AFL-CIO, said in a letter obtained by FreightWaves. “BNSF has said that the slashing of these positions was necessary to realign with their business operations and to respond to business decline.”

Workers at BNSF terminals were reportedly furloughed at rail terminals in Kansas, Montana, Nebraska and Texas, according to posts on social media. While TTD AFL-CIO said the furloughs were in the mechanical department, social media posts indicated positions such as clerks, carmen, pipe fitters and laborers were also affected.

Fort Worth, Texas-based BNSF, whose total revenue in 2023 declined 8% year over year to $23.8 billion, said it is offering transfers and retraining for affected workers.

BNSF representatives issued a statement to FreightWaves about the furloughs:

“While the underlying economy currently lacks clarity, BNSF is pursuing and capturing growth in several areas. We have an imbalance of employees where growth is occurring among some of our mechanical work groups.

“We have team members in locations on the network where there isn’t sufficient work and simultaneously not enough team members where the growth is occurring. Work groups must be readjusted to ensure we have the right people in the right place at the right time to best serve our customers’ current transportation needs and be positioned for future growth.

“BNSF has offered location transfers with incentives targeted to those locations where there are open positions. BNSF has also offered craft transfers for mechanical employees to be retrained for other open positions on the BNSF network. There are currently several hundred open mechanical and engineering positions on our network. Our hope is that we can reallocate personnel through these incentive programs, so BNSF continues to grow with our customers.”

Regan said BNSF has notified the union that 150 mechanical jobs will be made available across the country for furloughed workers to reapply but could require workers to relocate and accept lower pay.

“If mechanical employees were to switch crafts they would be forfeiting their established seniority … by transferring to new locations, different mechanical crafts or the maintenance of way department positions,” Regan said. “They would be effectively starting their railroad careers over, as seniority is the cornerstone of work opportunities within the railroad industry.”

In the wake of the furloughs, the TTD AFL-CIO demanded immediate federal inspections of BNSF locomotives and rail cars.

“We urge the Federal Railroad Administration to immediately conduct unannounced focused inspections of all BNSF owned and leased locomotives and rail cars … and further issue non-compliance orders requiring BNSF to repair any defects before being permitted to utilize their locomotives and rail cars,” Regan wrote. “We have long-held concerns about numerous defects that are intentionally being ignored and neglected by BNSF because managers … are under pressure to perform work with an inadequate number of workers. These problems will only be exacerbated by the extreme mechanical department cuts that were carried out by BNSF.”

BNSF has over 40,000 employees and operates 32,500 miles of rail across the U.S.

Two days, two railroads in the spotlight: Missives flying over Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific


John Kingston
Fri, March 1, 2024 

The fur was flying Thursday and Friday over two class 1 railroads.

 (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

Charges, countercharges and the missives were flying back and forth over the future of two Class 1 railroads as February came to an end, with leading government officials that regulate the rails leveling heavy criticism at two distinct players.

In the proxy battle roiling Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC), the activist investor group Ancora is recommending the replacement of eight new directors to the Norfolk Southern board. It also wants to replace CEO Alan Shaw with former UPS executive Jim Barber and name Jamie Boychuk, a former executive at CSX, to replace current COO Paul Duncan.

The scorecard for the criticism and the responses over a mere two days went like this:

— Martin Oberman, chairman of the Surface Transportation Board, ripped into Ancora Associates for its proxy battle over Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC) railroad. Oberman spoke to the Southeast Association of Rail Shippers 2024 Spring Meeting in Atlanta on Thursday, where he said Ancora “has nothing to say about what it could do better” than current management in running Norfolk Southern, adding, “I think we can assume that if Ancora succeeds in its bid to control NS, its next move will be to put the Brooklyn Bridge on the market.”

— Ancora didn’t have any public response to Oberman’s comments, but on Friday, it sent a letter to the Norfolk Southern board, just a few days after the railroad released its 2024 proxy statement. The proxy revealed that in 2023 — the year when Norfolk Southern labored under the fallout from the derailment in East Palestine, Ohio — NS CEO Alan Shaw had total compensation of $13.41 million, compared to $9.78 million a year before.

— The second blast from a government official aimed at a railroad came from Amit Bose, the administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration. In a letter addressed to UP CEO Jim Vena,

Bose criticized recent furloughs implemented at Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP). “It is imperative that UP prioritizes safety above all else and takes immediate steps to address this issue, an issue disproportionately affecting UP workers since your railroad continues to furlough employees at a rate, based on available data, far outpacing that of any of your Class I peers.” Bose wrote.

— Union Pacific quickly responded to Bose’s comments with a letter from Vena, which said the FRA head was portraying an “inaccurate correlation between natural workforce fluctuations and safety.”

Oberman was harsh in his assessment of Ancora’s motives. “Several weeks ago, Ancora wrote me a letter,” Oberman said, according to a transcript released by the STB. “The essence of their message was that they had taken a $1 billion dollar stake in NS in order for it — quote — ‘to become a safer railroad.’ Really? What hedge fund raises $1 billion to promote safety anywhere?”

Oberman, as he has done before, criticized railroad focus on its operating ratio (OR), with the STB head expressing concern that a goal to reduce OR can come at the expense of both safety and performance.

“Ancora principally and repeatedly focuses on a rapid lowering of the OR to drive cash payouts and raise its stock price, harshly criticizing present NS management for not making a lower OR the objective,” Oberman said. “We now know that this is wrong-headed thinking. Making OR the corporate objective is what led to elimination of thousands of workers which caused the service crisis.”

The reference to the service crisis was from earlier in his speech when he recapped STB actions to force service improvements during the enormous system backups of 2022.

Ancora’s Friday letter was addressed to Amy Miles, the non-executive chair of the NS board. The letter said that Ancora — which as an activist investor has previously trained its sights on Forward Air (NASDAQ: FWRD) and C.H. Robinson (NASDAQ: CHRW) — said Shaw has “presided over industry-worst operating results, sustained share price underperformance and an ineffective and tone-deaf response to the preventable derailment in East Palestine.” It said Anchor had “offered viable solutions in the form of exceptional people with a strategic vision.”

Norfolk Southern’s stock price in the last 52 weeks is up about 14%. During that time, its fierce rival for business east of the Mississippi, CSX (NASDAQ: CSX), is up about 23.7% while Union Pacific is up 21.5%.

Focusing in on Shaw’s pay package from 2023

On the issue of Shaw’s pay, the Ancora letter said shareholders were “baffled” at the decision to give the CEO a raise in the same year as the East Palestine derailment and the fallout from it.

“We challenge the Board’s determination that it had to adjust executive compensation in 2023 to ‘retain key talent,’” Ancora said, quoting a board statement. “We do not see how the Board could have actually viewed Mr. Shaw as a flight risk. In addition to being a more than 30-year insider at Norfolk Southern, he was a relatively new, unproven CEO off to an extremely rocky start. The fact that this decision was made suggests deference to management and a lack of respect for shareholders and stakeholders.”

UP furloughs at issue

In the back-and-forth surrounding Union Pacific, Bose said UP’s decision to furlough some worker is a sign that the railroad “has again chosen to prioritize cost-cutting measures over ensuring safe operations, jeopardizing the well-being of both UP’s workers and the public.”

“Furloughing maintenance of equipment workers puts a strain on workers across the railroad, leading to fatigue and potential errors that could have severe ramifications for both workers and the public,” Bose wrote.

In a letter signed by Vena, UP responded to Bose’s criticism with several key rebuttals.

— It cited several statistical points about derailments, that “serious” derailments were down 26% in 2023 from 2019 levels, track-related derailments had declined 28% in the past 10 years, and that UP had recorded an 8.7% improvement in mainline derailments in 2023 versus 2021.

— The Vena letter said “fluctuations in workforce needs are a natural component of operating the railroad … normal, cyclical and vary from year to year based on business needs, capital projects and weather.”

To support its criticism that Bose was not making distinctions among types of workers and railroad needs, Vena’s response said the Bose letter “combines different types of workers (Mechanical employees and Engineering employees) and work done on the railroad (equipment maintenance and capital projects), and therefore paints an incorrect and incomplete picture of the natural role workforce fluctuations play in operating a railroad year-round.”

“We’ve already begun seeing an increase in demand and have more employees working in January and February of this year,” Vena wrote.

The letter also said workers impacted by furloughs and layoffs can apply for other positions at Union Pacific.

Haitian police unions plead for help after attack on main prison

Reuters
Sat, March 2, 2024 

 People demonstrate against the government and insecurity in Port-au-Prince

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Armed groups were closing in on Haiti's largest prison on Saturday night, defying police forces who called for help after days of gunfire in parts of the capital as a major gang leader seeks to topple Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

Two of the Caribbean country's main police unions called for assistance to stop inmates, many considered to be high-profile criminals, from fleeing the National Penitentiary in Port-Au-Prince.

It was unclear how many had fled the prison, a number that newspaper Gazette Haiti said was "significant." Some detainees were reluctant to leave en masse for fear of being killed in crossfire, sources told Reuters.


Police officers assigned to the prison had vacated the premises on Saturday, according to reports by local media AyiboPost.

The government of Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, did not comment on the situation on Saturday.

Heavy gunfire has caused panic in recent days after calls by gang leader Jimmy Cherizier, a former police officer, for criminal groups to unite and overthrow Henry. Cherizier, also known as Barbecue, heads an alliance of gangs and faces sanctions from the U.N. and the U.S.

The penitentiary, built to hold 700 prisoners, held 3,687 as of February last year, according to rights group RNDDH. A 2017 report by the group warned of serious overcrowding at the prison, which is said to suffer from poor police staffing.

The prison attack follows reports on Friday that armed men had attempted to take control of the capital's main container port, causing traffic disruptions, and gangs threatened to attack more of the city's police stations.

Cherizier this week warned locals to keep children from going to school to "avoid collateral damages" as violence surged.

Prime Minister Henry, who came to power after the assassination of the country's last president, Jovenel Moise, in 2021, had previously pledged to step down by early February. He later said security must first be re-established in order to ensure free and fair elections.

(Reporting by Harold Isaac; Writing by Lucinda Elliott; Editing by William Mallard)

Police in Haiti struggle against gangs storming prison in latest surge of violence

EVENS SANON
Sat, March 2, 2024 
14






Haiti Violence
Police take cover during an anti-gang operation in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday, March 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)


PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Police in Haiti urgently appealed for help Saturday night as they struggled to hold back gangs trying to storm the country's main prison in a major escalation of violence sweeping the troubled Caribbean nation.

“They need help,” a union representing Haitian police said in a message posted on social media bearing an “SOS” emoji repeated eight times. “Let's mobilize the army and the police to prevent the bandits from breaking into the prison.”

A police officer told The Associated Press that the gangs had overwhelmed security forces but were not yet in control of the prison, where several gang leaders were being held. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The armed clashes follow a string of violent protests that have been building for some time but turned deadlier in recent days as Prime Minister Ariel Henry went to Kenya to salvage a proposed security mission in Haiti to be led by that East African country and backed by the United Nations.

Henry took over as prime minister following the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise and has repeatedly postponed plans to hold parliamentary and presidential elections, which haven't taken place in almost a decade.

As part of coordinated attacks by gangs, four police officers were killed Thursday in the capital when gunmen opened fire on targets including Haiti's international airport. Gang members also seized control of two police stations, prompting civilians to flee in fear and forcing businesses and schools to close.

The penitentiary targeted by gangs is notorious for its extremely crowded and unhygienic conditions. Among its high-profile inmates are several gang leaders and 18 former Colombian soldiers accused in Moïse’s killing.

As a result of the violence at the airport, the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince said it was temporarily halting all official travel to Haiti.

Haiti’s National Police has roughly 9,000 officers to provide security for more than 11 million people, according to the U.N. The officers are routinely overwhelmed and outgunned by powerful gangs, which are estimated to control up to 80% of Port-au-Prince.

Jimmy Chérizier, a former elite police officer known as Barbecue who now runs a gang federation, claimed responsibility for the surge in attacks. He said the goal was to capture Haiti’s police chief and government ministers and prevent Henry's return.

The prime minister, a neurosurgeon, has shrugged off calls for his resignation and didn't comment when asked if he felt it was safe to return home.

He signed reciprocal agreements Friday with Kenyan President William Ruto to try and salvage the plan to deploy Kenyan police to Haiti. Kenya’s High Court had ruled in January that the proposed deployment was unconstitutional, in part because the original deal lacked reciprocal agreements between the two countries.

The violence has complicated efforts to stabilize Haiti and pave the way for elections. Caribbean leaders said Wednesday that Henry had agreed to schedule a vote by mid-2025 — a far-off date likely to further enrage Henry's opponents.


Armed gangs attack main prison in Haiti, releasing inmates

Jacqueline Charles
Sat, March 2, 2024


Armed gangs attacked Haiti’s National Penitentiary on Saturday, allowing several notorious gang leaders and other prisoners to escape the vastly overcrowded facility, a high-level police source confirmed.

The prison houses some of the country’s highest-profile inmates — including indicted suspects in the July 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.

The break occurred after gangs had besieged the Port-au-Prince prison for days.

The siege unfolded while Prime Minister Ariel Henry was visiting Kenya. He is in the East African nation to finalize an agreement for the deployment of a United Nations-backed Multinational Security Support mission to help the Haiti National Police combat gang violence that has destabilized the country.

In his absence, terrorizing gangs launched an attack on the capital that led to the deaths of at least five police officers when they overtook a police station, and the cancellation of international flights. After shots were fired near the domestic and international airports on Thursday, both U.S.-based carriers, American Airlines and Spirit Airlines, canceled flights from South Florida while Haiti-based Sunrise Airways also canceled flights after bullets struck several of its airplanes. International flights resumed Friday.

As gangs continued their attack on Friday, however, the U.S. embassy issued a security alert to warn U.S. citizens that multiple locations in the capital were under heavy gunfire from violent gangs and that civilians should take precautions.

The attacks mark an escalation of already dangerous levels of violence in Haiti, where over 314,000 people have been forced from their homes and the toll is expected to rise with the latest wave of unrest.

READ MORE: Gang attacks at Haiti airport damage jetliners; airlines cancel flights from South Florida

The National Penitentiary in downtown Port-au-Prince is Haiti’s most overcrowded prison. It was designed for 3,900 inmates, but as of early January held 11, 778 inmates. They include 18 Colombians accused in the assassination plot against Moïse, as well as the late president’s palace security chief, Dimitri Hérard, and security coordinator, Jean Laguel Civil. All were recently indicted by a Haitian investigative judge in the killing.
Gangs using drones

Earlier Saturday, a video circulated online with an image of the prison from a drone reportedly being operated by the leader of the Baz 5 Segon gang, Izo. A voice could be heard monitoring the penitentiary and reporting on the lack of police presence in the prison yard and informing gang members they could progress. In another recording, an unidentified voice could be heard confirming the prison break.

Izo also shared a drone video on TikTok from on top of an office building in the palace yard. Specialized police officers from the National Palace’s security unit could be seen lying flat on the roof as a voice mocked them and said “keep shooting at them.”

A Haiti National Police spokesman did not respond to a Miami Herald request for comment, and the high-level police source did not provide additional details.

In separate social media posts on X, formerly Twitter, two Haitian police unions launched a SOS, asking for police officers to unite to protect the prisons and strategic intersections, such as the road leading to the international airport.

Gang members, who now appear to be more coordinated and united than ever, had been trying for months to breach the country’s main prison. Unsuccessful attempts on both the prison and National Palace were reported on Friday as automatic gunfire rang out across the capital and armed gangs continued to target police officers and government facilities.

Earlier in the week, former policeman-turned-gang member Jimmy Chérizier, aka Barbecue, took credit for the latest wave of violence, saying in a video shared online that the goal is to “topple” Henry and his government.


Violence surges as Haiti gang leader aims to unseat PM

Reuters Videos
Updated Sat, March 2, 2024 



STORY: Chaos and violence surged in Haiti’s capital on Friday (March 1).

Heavy gunfire rang out in Port-au-Prince, after a Haitian gang leader Jimmy Cherizier, known as Barbecue, warned he would try to oust Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

Bodies of slain victims lay on streets. It was unclear how many have died so far.

There were unverified reports of armed men trying to take control of the capital’s main container port.

The gangs also reportedly threatened to attack more police stations.

Reuters was unable to independently confirm these claims.

Assault rifle in hand, Cherizier addressed the island's law enforcement:

""We ask the Haitian National Police and the military to take responsibility and arrest Ariel Henry. Once again, the population is not our enemy; the armed groups are not your enemy. You arrest Ariel Henry for the country's liberation."

In a statement, Prime Minister Henry’s office said it was "outraged by the acts of violence and terror orchestrated by armed bandits."

The fresh attacks ramped up during Henry's visit to Kenya this week – where he reached a security deal with Nairobi removing legal obstacles that stop the sending of Kenyan police officers to Haiti, to tackle gang violence in a U.N.-approved mission.

Haitian gangs have grown in strength in the power vacuum since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise, Henry’s predecessor.

At a recent Caribbean summit, Henry told leaders he would hold elections by 2025, after postponing an earlier pledge due to the insecurity.

Haitian gang leader vows to 'fight' prime minister, violence surges

Reuters
Updated Fri, March 1, 2024 





 People demonstrate against the government and insecurity in Port-au-Prince

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Haitian gang leader Jimmy Cherizier, also known as Barbecue, warned on Friday he would keep trying to oust Prime Minister Ariel Henry, and asked families to keep children from going to school to "avoid collateral damages" as violence surges in parts of the capital.

Heavy gunfire and traffic disruptions were seen in some areas of Haiti's capital, where more people fled homes close to the fighting as burnt buses lay on the streets and burning barricades filled the air with thick, gray smoke.

"The battle will last as long as it needs to. We will keep fighting Ariel Henry. To avoid collateral damage, keep the kids at home," the gang leader said at a press conference.

Cherizier is a former police officer who heads an alliance of gangs and disrupted the country when he blocked its biggest oil terminal in 2022. He has faced sanctions from both the United Nations and the United States Department of Treasury.

By late Friday, there were reports armed men had attempted to take control of the capital's main container port, as gangs threatened to attack more of the city's police stations. Reuters was unable to immediately verify these reports.

A video, meanwhile, went viral on social media appearing to show two murdered policemen, which SYNAPOHA police union leader Lionel Lazare told Reuters depicted the killing of some of the four officers who were slain on Thursday.

Members of another police union, the SPNH, gathered outside the force headquarters earlier in the day calling for the recovery of the bodies.

In a statement, Prime Minister Henry's office said it was "outraged by the acts of violence and terror orchestrated by armed bandits," and expressed condolences to victims' families, saying the government would continue to work to resolve the conflict.

Violence ramped up during Henry's visit to Kenya this week. The two countries signed earlier in the day a security deal that Nairobi hopes will satisfy a domestic court's objections to its plan to send 1,000 police officers to lead a U.N.-approved mission aimed at tackling gang violence in Haiti.

Henry had previously been in Guyana for a regional Caribbean summit, during which he told leaders he would hold elections by August 2025, after postponing an earlier pledge due to the insecurity.

Henry came to power after the 2021 assassination of the country's last president. Haiti last held elections in 2016 and ensuring a transition of power is a goal of the international mission alongside securing routes for humanitarian aid.

The United Nations estimates some 300,000 people in Haiti have fled their homes.

(Reporting by Harold Isaac, Steven Aristil and Ralph Tedy Erol; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by Brendan O'Boyle and Himani Sarkar)
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Haiti gangs vow to oust PM as they unleash gunfight in capital

Our Foreign Staff
Fri, March 1, 2024 

People drive past a burning road blockade as protesters call for the prime minister to resign - Ralph Tedy Erol

Gun battles broke out in Haiti’s capital on Thursday, leaving four police officers dead, as a gang leader launched attacks aimed at ousting the country’s prime minister.

Shots were heard across Port-au-Prince as authorities fought gunmen who had targeted police stations, as well as a police academy and the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in a coordinated assault.
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Gang leader Jimmy Cherisier, known by the nickname Barbecue, said in a social media video before the attacks began: “Today, we announce that all armed groups are going to act to get prime minister Ariel Henry to step down.”
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“We will use all strategies to achieve this goal,” he said. “We claim responsibility for everything that’s happening in the streets right now.”
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Armed gangs have taken control of vast swaths of Haiti in recent years, including most of the capital, unleashing violence that has left the country’s economy and public health system in tatters.
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At the same time, the Caribbean nation has also been engulfed in widespread civil and political unrest, with thousands taking to the streets in recent weeks to demand the prime minister step down after he refused to do so as scheduled.

Police take cover as they try to control gangs who forced businesses, agencies and schools to close earlier in Port-au-Prince 

- Odelyn Joseph/AP

Under a political deal concluded after the assassination of president Jovenel Moïse in 2021, Haiti was supposed to hold elections and Mr Henry cede power to newly elected officials by Feb 7 2024, but that hasn’t happened.
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Thursday’s attacks came as the prime minister was on a visit to Kenya, which is moving to head up a multinational mission greenlit by the UN Security Council to help the Haitian police wrest back control of the country.
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Special police units were deployed throughout Port-au-Prince and national police trade union Synapoha said four officers had been killed, including a chief inspector.
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Schools, universities and businesses in Haiti meanwhile halted their activities.
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Multiple airlines cancelled domestic and international flights after aircraft and an airport terminal came under fire.
‘No political solution’

Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary general, called for the restoration of order and a long-term solution for years of political turmoil in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere.
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“You can put as many police forces as possible in Haiti [but] if there is no political solution, the problem will not be solved,” he said in the Caribbean nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines ahead of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States summit.
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Mr Henry had on Wednesday agreed to “share power” with the opposition until fresh elections are held, though a date for the vote has not been set.
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Five countries have said they are willing to join the Kenya-led multinational policing mission, including the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin and Chad.
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The UN estimates the violence in Haiti killed almost 5,000 people in 2023 and has driven some 300,000 from their homes, while the fighting has blocked off access to food and medical services.

Kenya, Haiti sign 'reciprocal' accord on police deployment

Hillary ORINDE
Fri, March 1, 2024 

Kenya has said it is ready to provide up to 1,000 personnel to a UN-backed law and order mission to Haiti (YASUYOSHI CHIBA)

Kenya and Haiti signed a "reciprocal" agreement on Friday to deploy police from the East African country to lead a UN-backed law and order mission to the gang-plagued Caribbean nation, Kenyan President William Ruto said.

Ruto said he and Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry had "discussed the next steps to enable the fast-tracking of the deployment", but it was not immediately clear whether the agreement would counter a court ruling in January that branded the deployment "illegal".

Haiti's government has pleaded for international help to confront violence that has cost thousands of lives, as armed gangs take over entire swathes of the country, leaving the economy and public health system in tatters.

Kenya had previously said that it was ready to provide up to 1,000 personnel, an offer welcomed by the United States and other nations that had ruled out putting their own forces on the ground.

But a Nairobi court said the decision was unconstitutional, in part because the two countries had not signed a reciprocal agreement on the issue.

On Friday, Ruto said he and Henry had "witnessed the signing" of a reciprocal agreement in Kenya's capital Nairobi. Details of the document have not been made public.

"I take this opportunity to reiterate Kenya's commitment to contribute to the success of this multinational mission. We believe this is a historic duty because peace in Haiti is good for the world as a whole," Ruto said in a statement.

The UN Security Council had approved the multinational mission in early October but the Kenyan court ruling threw its future into doubt.

Opposition politician Ekuru Aukot, who had filed the petition against the deployment, told AFP on Friday that he would lodge a case "for contempt of court".

"What is emerging is that William Ruto does not care about the rule of law or the constitution of this country," he said.

"We will question the validity of this secretive agreement."

- 'A helping hand' -

In the face of criticism, Ruto had described the Kenyan undertaking as a "mission for humanity", in step with its long record of contributing to peacekeeping missions abroad.

Haiti, the Western hemisphere's poorest nation, has been in turmoil for years, and the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise plunged the country further into chaos.

No elections have taken place since 2016 and the presidency remains vacant.

Thousands of protesters have demanded Henry's resignation in line with a political deal that required Haiti to hold polls and for him to cede power to newly elected officials by February 7 of this year.

The prime minister, who is on a visit to Nairobi, told an audience of university students on Friday he aimed to "have elections as soon as possible".

"We need elections to stabilise the country," he said, but offered no specific timeframe for the polls.

On Thursday, the Caribbean Community bloc said Henry had agreed to hold elections by 31 August 2025 following a regional summit this week in Guyana.

In January alone, more than 1,100 people were killed, injured or kidnapped in Haiti, according to the UN.

"In October 2022, we asked the world to give us a helping hand. President Ruto was the first one to agree to come to Haiti and we want to say thank you to him," Henry said.

"We thank Kenya for its active solidarity."

The multinational mission -- initially approved for one year -- had envisioned Kenyan police on the offensive with their Haitian counterparts, who are outnumbered and outgunned by gang members.

Five countries have agreed to join the Kenya-led multinational policing mission, including the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin and Chad.

Last year saw nearly 5,000 homicides counted in Haiti, more than double the number in 2022, according to a UN report.

str-ho-dyg-amu/bp

South Korean doctors hold massive anti-government rally over medical school recruitment plan

HYUNG-JIN KIM
Sun, March 3, 2024 

Doctors stage a rally against the government's medical policy in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, March 3, 2024. Thousands of senior doctors rallied in Seoul on Sunday to express their support for junior doctors who have been on strike for nearly two weeks over a government plan to sharply increase the number of medical school admissions.(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)


SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Thousands of senior doctors rallied in Seoul on Sunday to express their support for junior doctors who have been on strike for nearly two weeks over a government plan to sharply increase the number of medical school admissions.

The rally came as the government said it would begin to take steps Monday to suspend the medical licenses of nearly 9,000 medical interns and residents for defying government orders to end their walkouts, which have disrupted hospital operations.

“The government’s absurd medical policy has triggered immense resistance by trainee doctors and medical students, and we doctors have become one,” Park Sung-min, a senior member of the Korea Medical Association, said in a speech at the rally. “I’m asking the government: Please, stop the threats and suppression now.”


Protesters chanted slogans, sang and held placards criticizing the government’s plan. There were were no reports of any violence at the rally.

As of Thursday night, 8,945 of the country’s 13,000 medical interns and residents were confirmed to have left their worksites, according to the Health Ministry. The government has repeatedly said they would face minimum three-month license suspensions and indictments by prosecutors if they didn’t return by Feb. 29.

The striking doctors are a fraction of South Korea’s 140,000 doctors. But they account for about 30-40% of the total doctors at some major hospitals, where they assist senior doctors during surgeries and other treatments while training. Their walkouts have subsequently caused numerous cancellations of surgeries and medical treatments at the hospitals.

Senior doctors have staged a series of rallies backing the young doctors but haven't joined the walkouts. If they also launch strikes, that would pose a major blow to South Korea's medical service.

The government wants to increase South Korea’s medical school enrollment quota by 2,000 starting next year, from the current 3,058, to better deal with the country’s rapidly aging population. Officials say South Korea’s doctor-to-population ratio is one of the lowest among developed countries.

But many doctors have vehemently protested the plan, saying medical schools can’t handle such a sharp increase in the number of students. They say the recruitment plan also does not address a chronic shortage of doctors in essential but low-paying specialties like pediatrics and emergency departments.

Doctors say adding too many new doctors would also result in an increase in public medical expenses since greater competition would lead to excess treatments. But critics say the doctors simply worry about receiving a lower income due to the rising number of doctors.

South Korea police launch raid on doctors' association over walkout

South Korean doctors march to protest against the government's medical policy in Seoul

Fri, March 1, 2024 By Hyunsu Yim

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean police launched a raid on Friday targeting officials of the Korean Medical Association, as authorities step up pressure to end a walkout by trainee doctors protesting against plans to reform the health system.

The raid comes ahead of a mass demonstration in Seoul planned for Sunday by doctors, after the walkout, which began on Feb. 20, disrupted major hospitals, forcing some to turn away patients and cancel surgeries and other medical procedures.

"Doctors are enraged by the government's absurd behavior," the KMA, which represents private practitioners, said in a statement after the raid on the leaders of its emergency committee.

"The government has clearly shown that doctors in South Korea cannot enjoy freedom."

It denied having encouraged the trainee doctors to resign, saying they had left their posts of their own volition.

Health ministry data showed more than two-thirds of the trainee doctors, or nearly 9,000, had ignored a government deadline to return to work by Thursday or face punishment.

They are protesting against a plan to increase medical school admissions by 2,000 starting from 2025, which the government says is vital to remedy a shortage of doctors in one of the world's fastest-ageing societies.

The young doctors say they are overworked and underpaid, however, and the priority should be to improve their pay and working conditions instead.

Seoul police investigators raided the offices of five current and former KMA officials to collect evidence from their mobile telephones and computers, the Yonhap news agency said.

The health ministry told police this week of accusations that the officials had sought to obstruct business activity and were abetting the strike as well as defying the order to return to work, the agency added.

Police in the capital did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

During a visit to a veterans hospital in Seoul, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo pledged on Friday to ensure there was no disruption to services for veterans of the military.

The health ministry posted an order on its website urging 13 of the striking doctors to return to work or face criminal charges.

The government can order doctors back to work in case of grave risk to lives and public health.

Flouting such orders could lead to suspension of medical licences for up to a year, as well as three years in jail or a fine of 30 million won ($22,000).

($1=1,334.8500 won)

(Reporting by Hyunsu Yim; Editing by Ed Davies and Clarence Fernandez)


South Korea Doctors Rally as Government Calls for End to Walkout

Jon Herskovitz and Sam Kim
Sat, March 2, 2024 




(Bloomberg) -- South Korean doctors led thousands of protesters in Seoul on Sunday as a standoff with the government nears a third week, in one of the largest demonstrations yet for a labor action that has slowed the delivery of health care.

Protesters wore masks and carried banners with messages demanding the government scrap its plan to increase enrollment in medical schools, footage from local broadcaster MBC showed. The Korean Medical Association — the nation’s largest lobby group for physicians — said about 30,000 people are at the march.

About 70% of South Korea’s 13,000 trainee doctors have walked out in the past two weeks over the initiative. The government argues the number of medical students has not been raised for about three decades and that South Korea now has one of the most acute doctor shortages in the developed world amid a rapidly aging population.

The KMA led the rally with its leaders speaking at the podium and vowing to refuse talks until President Yoon Suk Yeol’s government backs down. South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said Sunday the administration would “go ahead and implement its duty” if doctors stayed off the job in violation of law, Yonhap News Agency reported. It wasn’t clear what that would entail.

Yoon has stood firm on the plan to add 2,000 spaces at medical schools from 3,058 now. His administration has indicated willingness to discuss doctors’ concerns such as low pay and long hours for trainees, and revisions to the legal system for malpractice suits. It said the walkout has led to people being turned away from understaffed emergency rooms and the cancellation of about half of surgeries.

Yoon’s approval rating climbed to 39% in a weekly tracking poll released Friday from Gallup Korea, the highest since July last year, indicating broad support among the public for his stance to hold firm. This could help his conservative People Power Party in April elections as it tries to take control of parliament from the progressive Democratic Party.

Authorities have threatened to arrest and prosecute people who refused to comply by the government order to return to work. The government is looking at suspending licenses of doctors who encouraged the labor action that it says defies medical regulations and violates the law.

Critics of the walkout contend that doctors participating in the labor action are more keen on protecting their earning power, which ranks among the top among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, rather than improving the quality of the health-care system.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.

Thousands of Striking Doctors in South Korea Defy Government’s Return-to-Work Deadline

Koh Ewe
Fri, March 1, 2024 



Tensions continue to soar between thousands of striking South Korean doctors and the government, as a vast majority of the protesting junior residents have refused to go back to work on Friday despite threats of prosecution for their ongoing collective action and promises of immunity from penalty if they had quit their walkout by now.

Only 294 doctors out of some 9,000 striking doctors have returned to work as of Thursday night since the strike began on Feb. 20, Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo told reporters. Authorities had given an ultimatum earlier in the week, promising striking doctors that they would not be held accountable if they returned to work by Thursday evening but that the government would begin to take legal action against remaining strikers starting Friday.

The doctors are protesting a government plan to address the country’s longstanding doctor shortage by increasing the annual quota for medical students from 3,058 to 5,058 beginning in 2025. Critics say the protesting doctors are worried that the quota expansion will hurt their competitive pay, while doctors argue the plan will do little to address the poor working conditions in fields where the personnel shortages are most pressing.

As of Wednesday evening, around 10,000 residents—80% of all junior doctors—had tendered their resignations as part of the protest. Around 9,000 were on strike—a slight decrease from the previous day, per health authorities, who also noted that the number of striking doctors had decreased two days in a row.

Across 100 teaching hospitals in the country, there were 32 hospitals where more than one person has returned to work, and 10 hospitals where more than 10 have returned, Park said on Thursday, adding there are also hospitals where up to 66 doctors have resumed work.

Authorities have issued over 9,400 back-to-work orders to striking doctors, but many have avoided accepting the text message orders by simply turning off their phones and changing their phone numbers. In response, officials are now visiting the homes of trainee doctors to personally deliver the orders. The Ministry of Health has also posted back-to-work orders for about a dozen trainee doctors on the ministry website, local media reported. These steps would allow authorities to subsequently file criminal complaints with those who refuse to comply with the back-to-work orders.

Defying a back-to-work order can be punished by up to three years in prison, a 30 million won ($22,000) fine, or a minimum three-month medical license suspension.

The government has stood firm on its quota expansion plan, which remains broadly popular among the general public, with the health ministry lodging its first criminal complaint against five alleged organizers of the strike on Tuesday. On Friday, police raided several offices at the Korean Medical Association and Seoul Medical Association, which have been accused of violating medical law for their alleged role in instigating the strike.

At the same time, authorities also appear to be trying to assuage concerns among doctors about the quota expansion plan, with the health ministry announcing on Thursday that the government would add up to 1,000 medical professors at key national hospitals by 2027 in response to worries raised by doctors that increasing the intake of medical students would affect the quality of medical care and education. Meanwhile, Park said that officials had invited 94 representatives of the striking doctors to a meeting on Thursday, but only a handful of doctors showed up.

Hospitals across the country are being stretched to their limits, with some patients having their treatments postponed amid a shortage of doctors. The heads of hospitals have written emails begging doctors to return. “Your sincerity is well-delivered,” Kim Young-tae, the president of Seoul National University wrote on Wednesday. “A handful of patients suffering from high-risk diseases and incurable illnesses await you. Now, please come back.”

S. Korea police raid medical association office over walkout
AFP
Fri, March 1, 2024 

Nearly 10,000 junior doctors -- about 80 percent of the trainee workforce -- walked off the job last week (Jung Yeon-je)

South Korean police said they raided the offices of the Korean Medical Association on Friday, as the government contends with a doctors' strike that has led to chaos in hospitals.

Nearly 10,000 junior doctors -- about 80 percent of the trainee workforce -- walked off the job last week. They are protesting against government plans to sharply increase medical school admissions to cope with shortages and an ageing society.

The government had set a February 29 deadline for medics to resume work or face potential legal consequences, including suspension of their medical licences and arrest.

Only 565 doctors had resumed work by the deadline, according to figures released by the health ministry.

The mass work stoppage has taken a toll on hospitals, prompting the government to raise its public health alert to the highest level.

Around half of the surgeries scheduled at 15 major hospitals have been cancelled since last week, according to the health ministry.

Under South Korean law, doctors are restricted from striking, and the government this week requested police investigate people connected to the stoppage.

Police in Seoul confirmed a raid on the Korean Medical Association (KMA) on Friday.

The health ministry also posted on its website the back-to-work orders for 13 trainee doctors, leaving their licence numbers and parts of their names visible.

"We would like to inform you that refusing to comply with the order to commence work without justifiable reasons may result in disciplinary action and criminal prosecution," the order said.

Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong said in a statement released Friday: "We express our gratitude for the wise decision of the trainee doctors who have returned to the patients' side."

The KMA said its members were "enraged" by the raid and said they would continue "resisting and raising voices".

"Doctors will have to make every effort to be recognised as a free citizen in South Korea," spokesman Joo Soo-ho said.

"We apologise for any inconvenience that we may cause to the public during this process."

- Rally on Sunday -

South Korea's government is pushing to admit 2,000 more students to medical schools annually from next year to address what it calls one of the lowest doctor-to-population ratios among developed nations.

Doctors fear the reform will erode the quality of service and medical education, but proponents accuse medics of trying to safeguard their salaries and social status.

Junior doctors argue that the healthcare system's over-reliance on trainees is unreasonable and unfair.

Polling shows up to 75 percent of the public support the reforms.

President Yoon Suk Yeol, who has taken a hard line on the striking doctors, has seen his approval ratings tick up.

With legislative elections in April, and Yoon's party looking to win back a parliamentary majority, the government is unlikely to compromise quickly, analysts said.

The KMA has accused the government of using "intimidation tactics" to try to force doctors back to work, and said it was turning the country into a "totalitarian state".

The medical association will hold a rally in Seoul on Sunday, with local reports saying around 25,000 people are expected to join.

cdl/pbt

ANTI-WORKER LAW 

Kentucky bill could end workers’ lunch, rest breaks and slash pay

Matt Spears

Fri, March 1, 2024


(NewsNation) — Some workers in Kentucky may be poorer — and hungrier — at their jobs soon if a new bill passes the state’s House of Representatives.

The legislation, House Bill 500, would allow employers to stop offering their workers “reasonable” lunch and rest breaks, mandatory under current Kentucky law, and end the requirement that employees who work seven days in a row receive overtime pay.

According to the Kentucky Lantern, the bill also “(prevents) employers from being punished for not paying minimum wage or overtime pay when an employee is traveling to and from a workplace.”

The bill’s sponsor, GOP state Rep. Phillip Pratt, said he introduced the legislation so that employers no longer have to deal with differences between state and federal law regarding lunch and rest breaks. Currently, federal law does not require employees to receive the breaks.

Opponents of the law argue that the bill would eliminate necessary worker protections.

“Repealing these guardrails will make work more dangerous by depriving workers of time and for food and rest, incentivizing them to travel too quickly to get to their job sites and discouraging them from taking proper precautions at the beginning of the shift,” Dustin Pugel, policy director at the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, told the Lantern.

The bill passed a Republican-led House committee Wednesday in a party-line vote and now moves to a vote by the full chamber.

Kentucky has been in the spotlight recently for other pieces of legislation scaling back worker protections, including one bill passed by the House removing working hour restrictions for 16- and 17-year-olds, which Pratt said would get children “off the couch [and] quit playing Nintendo games.”

It is also the state where, in May 2023, U.S. Department of Labor investigators discovered two 10-year-old workers operating dangerous cooking equipment while working late shifts at a McDonald’s.

Starbucks union seeks national template for US bargaining




Fri, March 1, 2024
By Waylon Cunningham and Daniel Wiessner

SAN ANTONIO, Texas, March 1 (Reuters) - Starbucks union representatives want to create a national template for labor contract negotiations with the coffee chain, according to union organizers - an idea a Starbucks spokeswoman said the company believes is "speculative." The union, Workers United, has organized nearly 400 stores out of the company's 9,700 U.S. locations since 2021, and is seeking to organize more.

Starbucks so far has sought to negotiate only individual contracts store-by-store. The union has argued this is a delaying tactic.

The union and Starbucks said on Tuesday they had agreed they would create a "framework" to guide organizing and collective bargaining and potentially settle scores of pending legal disputes.

Workers United wants the framework to include hashing out a national template contract for bargaining that individual stores would adopt, two union organizers told Reuters.

Starbucks spokeswoman Rachel Wall said the only agreement between the company and union leadership has been to begin discussion on a framework.

"We're eager to schedule that meeting soon, in the coming weeks, I'd hope," she said. She referred to the talk of a national template for bargaining as "speculative."

Workers United declined to comment.

Reagan Skaggs, a union organizer at a Starbucks in Valparaiso, Indiana, said the conversation currently appears to be moving toward a national union front, "which is fantastic."

Quinn Craig, a former barista and organizer at Texas' first unionized Starbucks, said under the preliminary discussions, Starbucks has agreed "instead of going through (the bargaining) process with all stores, we would bargain a national baseline contract for everyone, and then go around get all of the specific needs met."

The union claims that Craig was illegally fired last summer for participating in a walkout. A spokeswoman for Starbucks said Craig “was separated from our store for clear violations of established cash-handling and workplace violence policies and failure to adhere to store alarm protocols,” not in retaliation for union activities.
Milestone contract

Beyond Starbucks, a national bargaining process would mark a significant milestone for nascent efforts to organize the service sector.

"No other chain has had something like this, but we have to understand that there's no other chain that's been organized in so many different places so rapidly," said Ileen DeVault, a professor of labor history at Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

In recent years, union-backed organizing groups such as Fight for $15, which focuses on fast food workers, and OUR Walmart have sought to pressure major companies to engage in large-scale bargaining by staging strikes and protests and filing legal complaints against employers. But those efforts, including at fast food giant McDonald's, have largely stalled.

Newer campaigns, including efforts to organize workers at Starbucks, Amazon.com, sporting goods retailer REI and Wells Fargo, have largely focused on unionizing individual workplaces.

DeVault said a national bargaining table would be beneficial for both sides, considering the hundreds of sites.

"It's not like Starbucks has a whole troupe of labor relations people who can run out to these different locations and bargain."

DeVault said similar arrangements have been made outside of retail and food industries. Last year the Teamsters, the union representing roughly 340,000 UPS workers, ratified a master contract alongside local supplemental agreements.

Lane Windham, a labor historian and professor at Georgetown University, and a former labor organizer, said U.S. contract negotiations function differently than in many other countries, usually through individual workplaces.

Other countries such as Germany and France tend to have sectoral bargaining, Windham said, where unions negotiate contracts with employers across an entire industry.

"It's been a long time since we've seen something like this, and certainly never in the service sector," Windham said. But, she continued, "It hasn't actually happened yet."

(Reporting by Waylon Cunningham in San Antonio, Texas, and Daniel Wiessner in Albany, NY; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Nick Zieminski)

Unionized Google workers learned their jobs were over while testifying to City Council about why they need higher pay


Chloe Berger
Fri, March 1, 2024


Rather than meeting employees at the bargaining table, Google decided to do what could be described as the equivalent of hucking the table into the sky. This week, YouTube Music workers who were recently locked in a tense union fight with Google were laid off while in the middle of testifying before Austin City Council.

In a video of the testimony, Jack Benedict spoke of their unionization efforts, explaining that a group of less than 50 was determined to fight two of the largest corporations in the world (Google and its subcontractor Cognizant). During the speech, another employee approaches and says "They just laid us all off. Our jobs are ended today, effective immediately.” Benedict, visibly shocked, responds “wow,” and they leave the podium as they’re told their time is up.

This all comes in light of a year-long fight, after a group of 58 employees on the YouTube Music Content Operations Team unanimously voted to unionize as part of the Alphabet Workers Union last spring, in an election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), per a press release by Austin City Council Members. Employes spoke of the need for better pay, benefits, and a more flexible return-to-office policy.

The news of Google laying off the YouTube Music team broke before the results of an Austin City Council vote on a resolution calling for Google and Cognizant to negotiate with the YouTube Music Content Operations Team. The resolution passed 9-1.

“While workers were at city hall testifying, they received word that their team had been laid off. Instead of getting the chance to stay and celebrate the passage of their resolution they instead needed to leave to go retrieve their personal belongings from their office,” according to an Austin City Council press release. “Many of the workers feel they could lose their homes due to the sudden and unexpected layoff, which some of them believe could be retaliation for standing up today.”
The dark side of tech

Employees unionized as part of the larger fight for better pay and benefits and petitioned Google to come to the table for negotiations, but the software company had refused. The company has claimed that because the employees are contractors, Google is not responsible for bargaining; instead, the contractor, Cognizant, is. But the NLRB has said otherwise, ruling Google and Cognizant as joint employers of YouTube Music workers.

The NLRB has ruled that Google's refusal to bargain with YouTube Music workers is illegal. The board also introduced a new rule this December that would “make it even harder for companies like Google to argue they aren’t responsible for dealing with unionization efforts by third-party contractors,” according to the Verge.

Indeed, in a statement to Fortune, a Google spokesperson says that the Austin-based unionized workers are “not Google employees. Cognizant is responsible for these workers' employment terms, including staffing.” They add that they “have no objections to Cognizant employees electing to form a union. We simply believe it’s only appropriate for Cognizant, as their employer, to engage in collective bargaining,” and say that Google will be appealing the NLRB's ruling that stated otherwise.

Google also denied that it fired the YouTube Music workers, saying this was a routine end of contract “which was agreed to with Cognizant.”

After this story's publication, a Cognizant spokeperson told Fortune, "ramp-downs and ramp-ups of projects are a normal part of Cognizant’s business operations. This contract ended at its planned expiration date. "

The spokesperson added that the former YouTube Music workers "will become part of Cognizant’s deployable talent pool, better known as our ‘bench,’ where they are given seven (7) weeks of dedicated, paid time to explore other roles within the organization and build new skills through our training ecosystem. "

Still, the Alphabet Workers Union said that the contract end had come as a surprise, with no notice to affected workers.

As a former employee noted, the NLRB has twice ruled that Google and Cognizant are joint employers of these contractors and that Google has illegally changed working conditions without contacting the union.

Alphabet Workers Union directed Fortune to its public statement on the issue, which mentioned how many employees were forced to work multiple gigs to make ends meet and were unable to meet the mandate to work in person as they were “not paid enough to afford the associated expenses with in-person work, like gas and childcare costs.” They also highlighted a quote from the regional director of the NLRB in Fort Worth, Texas, from last year’s ruling that found the contractors were employed by both Alphabet and Cognizant. “Google exercises direct and immediate control over benefits, hours of work, supervision and direction of work,” said the regional director.

An employee who had worked at YouTube Music for three years opened up about how the tech job was not as cushy as it’s often stereotyped to be. “Truth of the matter is, we get paid $19 an hour here with awful benefits that come out of our paycheck and [we had] a restrictive PTO policy,” they said in an Instagram post. “This is simply not enough to live with any kind of comfortability in this city which is, across the board, significantly increasing its average cost of living year by year.” Adding that the group unionized to change these conditions and pay, the employee notes that the gig was easier when working remotely as they could save money by skipping a commute and making food at home.

“Google and Cognizant have profited immensely off of our labor and consequently -for lack of a better word- fucked us,” says the employee.

Update, Mar. 1, 2024: This story has been updated with a response from Cognizant.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Mystery of common mushroom growing from an amphibian shows how little we know about fungi

Katie Hunt, CNN
Sat, March 2, 2024 


Fungi are fascinating and integral parts of the web of life. They also have a bit of a mixed reputation.

On one hand, mushrooms and networks of fungal roots are sought-after sources of nutritionally rich food, mind-altering drugs and eco-friendly materials — and they help trees share nutrients and store carbon in a way that might fight climate change.


Other members of the fungi family tree are less desirable and act as disease-causing pathogens that can disrupt ecosystems and blight human and animal health.

But a newly described mystery involving a mushroom and a frog suggests that fungi’s role in the environment is anything but black-and-white.
Once upon a planet

A golden-backed frog is seen with a small mushroom (right) growing out of its body. - Lohit Y T

Some naturalists stumbled upon a strange sight within a roadside pond in the Indian state of Karnataka in June 2023: a golden-backed frog with a tiny mushroom sprouting from its flank.

The team photographed the seemingly healthy amphibian and reported the discovery. Examining the images, an expert identified the mushroom as a common bonnet, a type of fungus that mostly grows on rotting wood.

It’s not clear why the mushroom made the frog its home. The odd growth could be the result of a fungal infection, which is common in frogs, or evidence of a symbiotic relationship.

The researchers plan to return to the same spot during the next monsoon season to investigate further.
Look up

The DART mission was a landmark test of asteroid deflection technology — a proof of concept in case humanity ever needs to defend Earth from a potentially devastating collision with a space rock, such as the one that doomed dinosaurs 66 million years ago.

The target of that 2022 NASA mission was Dimorphos, a moonlet asteroid that orbits a larger asteroid known as Didymos. When the DART spacecraft crashed into Dimorphos, it changed the asteroid’s orbital period — how long it takes to circle Didymos — by about 32 to 33 minutes.

Space scientists have since learned more about what happened to Dimorphos. Rather than forming a simple crater, the impact altered the asteroid in a fundamental way, new research has revealed.

“If you think of Dimorphos as starting out as resembling a chocolate M&M, now it would look like it has had a bite taken out of it!” said lead study author Dr. Sabina Raducan, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bern’s Physics Institute in Switzerland.

Ocean secrets

Only half an inch (12 millimeters) long, but louder than 140 decibels, Danionella cerebrum is one noisy fish. - Senckenberg/Britz

Whale songs have long been known to echo through the surprisingly noisy ocean depths, but it’s not just marine giants making themselves heard.

Scientists have discovered a diminutive, translucent fish that makes a noise louder than an elephant. Living in shallow waters off the coast of Myanmar, members of the species Danionella cerebrum can make noises higher than 140 decibels.

“This is comparable to the noise a human perceives of an airplane during take-off at a distance of 100 (meters) and quite unusual for an animal of such diminutive size,” said ichthyologist Dr. Ralf Britz of the Senckenberg Natural History Collections in Dresden, Germany, in a news release.

Britz and his colleagues analyzed high-speed video recordings, micro-CT scans and genetic information to understand the unique way in which males of the species generate the thunderous sound.
Turn, turn, turn

Have you forgotten why February had an extra day this year? Here’s a quick refresher.

A leap year is essentially a necessary piece of cosmic bookkeeping that prevents the seasons from getting out of whack. Without one, the summer solstice we generally experience in June would happen in December 700 years from now.

A solar year is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds, according to NASA’s calculations. As a result, every year the commonly used 365-day calendar lags behind the solar year by about one-quarter of a day.

While this might not seem like much of a difference, over four years, it works out to roughly a full day.

Argentina femicides keep rising after record last year, observatory says

Candelaria Grimberg
Fri, March 1, 2024 



FILE PHOTO: Protest against violence towards women in Buenos Aires

By Candelaria Grimberg

BUENOS AIRES(Reuters) - Femicides in Argentina, already at a record level last year, have increased further in the first two months of 2024, a report from a local observatory on Friday showed, with more than one killing per day underscoring the deadly threat to women.

The country saw 61 misogynistic murders of women and girls due to their gender by the end of February, the femicide observatory at the authoritative La Casa del Encuentro non-governmental organization said, up from 56 a year earlier.

The rise, up almost 10%, comes after the South American country saw a record 322 femicides last year according to separate official figures, amid rising poverty, political uncertainty and inflation stoking a cost of living crisis.

New libertarian President Javier Milei, who took office in December, has since dismantled the country's women's ministry as part of a cost-cutting drive, moving those responsibilities under a broader ministry of human capital. Some groups have raised concerns this will hurt protections for women.

"What we are seeing, unfortunately, is that violence against women has been exacerbated," said Ada Beatriz Rico, director of the observatory that carried out the report.

"They are leaving us without tools. We feel like we have gone back in time."

The government declined to comment. Milei is openly anti-feminist, although he says that does not make him anti-women. He wants to re-open the debate over abortion which was legalized by Congress under the previous government, and has ordered that government bodies do not use inclusive language.

Of the 61 victims, 57% were murdered in their home and 20% had made a prior complaint. In turn, according to the report, 77 children were orphaned as a result of the murders.

While official reports are prepared by the Supreme Court of Justice and the Ombudsman's Office, those figures are only published late in the year, meaning NGO data is the best quick indication of trends with femicides.

La Casa del Encuentro, along with 14 other organizations, is pushing the government to clarify its state policies and how it will bolster protections for women against gender violence.

(Reporting by Candelaria Grimberg; Editing by Nicolas Misculin, William Maclean)