New spacecraft will use lasers to transmit video, data in seconds

An illustration depicts the Laser Interconnect and Networking Communication System (LINCS) satellites built for launch in 2021 by San Diego-based General Atomics. Image courtesy of General Atomics

ORLANDO, Fla., June 9 (UPI) -- New space missions being launched this summer will attempt to revolutionize space communications by using laser beams to quickly transmit large amounts of data, including high-definition video from the moon.

Two missions by the U.S. government will test such lasers, which use invisible, infrared light beams

NASA's Laser Communications Relay Demonstration will explore the best ways to beam information to the Earth from orbit using lasers. And a separate demonstration for the Department of Defense, known as LINCS, will focus on beaming laser communications between two small satellites.

Also, NASA's Orion spacecraft being prepared for launch later this year on an uncrewed lunar mission will use lasers on future missions to send high-definition video of the moon back to Earth.

RELATEDSecond test of Air Force's drone-killing laser may start later this year

The main goal for NASA's laser demonstration spacecraft is to determine how Earth's atmosphere, especially clouds, influences laser links to the surface, David Israel, NASA architect for exploration and space communications, said in an interview.

The lasers will allow "a whole day's worth of video or observation data to just be blasted down in one quick pass," Israel said.

Israel worked on a new $310 million mission. Scheduled for launch this summer, the spacecraft consists of receivers and a laser transmitter and is no bigger than a king-sized mattress, according to NASA.

Launch provider ULA postponed a June 23 target date to evaluate an issue with the rocket's engines and hasn't yet set a new date.

The relay demonstration satellite will orbit the Earth for years, eventually testing the transmission of large amounts of data from the International Space Station to ground stations in Hawaii and New Mexico, Israel said.

RELATEDLockheed, General Motors team up on lunar rover plan

If clouds are too thick at the intended ground station, laser transmitters could be adjusted to find other receivers, he said.

"We have models and predictions, but we don't have much in the way of actual data to really characterize how bad the effects of weather will be," Israel said. "We will measure the impact of weather so we can better predict good transmission conditions."

The light beams of infrared lasers travel no faster than radio waves, but lasers can pack 10 to 100 times more data into a relatively quick beam. Such density would allow transmission of maps for the entire surface of Mars in about nine days, compared to nine months for radio waves, NASA said.

A NASA laser experiment satellite, the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration, or LCRD, is prepared for launch at the agency's Maryland-based Goddard Space Flight Center. Photo courtesy of NASA

Laser communications will aid a new era of spaceflight for private companies, such as SpaceX and Blue Origin, said Debra Emmons, general manager of communications technologies and engineering at the non-profit, California-based Aerospace Corp., a think tank for the U.S. defense department.

"The ability to communicate and operate interchangeably between space assets will be critical ... as we set sights to the moon and beyond," Emmons said in an email.

"The sheer distances require laser-based communication -- not for speed, but for smaller size, weight, and power of optical terminal payloads compared to larger radio frequency [equipment]."

Laser communication is more secure than radio transmission due to the tighter, narrow beam of data, Emmons said.

"The chances of intercepting a laser beam are much smaller," she said. "One has to be in the path of a laser beam to intercept any data, whereas radio waves scatter, and therefore can be intercepted more easily."

The study of such lasers is expanding rapidly, Peter Delfyett, professor of physics, optics and photonics at the University of Central Florida, said in an interview.

"We're talking about massive amounts of information to be transmitted quickly, within a few seconds or minutes," Delfyett said.

He compared laser communications to fiber-optics on the ground, without the use of fiber.

Infrared lasers carry no significant risk to people in most circumstances and would not be visible unless someone was wearing infrared goggles, Delfyett said.

The public may witness the improvements in communication, thanks to lasers, when NASA sends Artemis missions to the moon, NASA's Israel said.

"When that first flyby of the moon happens and high-definition video is streaming back, that'll be coming through an optical [laser] link," he said.

An illustration depicts infrared lasers beaming data to a ground station from space at speeds many times faster that radio waves. Image courtesy of NASA

 Study: Death rates from chronic conditions, 'deaths of despair' rising in rural U.S.

By  Steven Reinberg, HealthDay News

In rural America, more people die from chronic health conditions and substance abuse than in suburbs and cities, and the gap is widening.

Researchers report in a new study that the difference in rural and urban death rates tripled over the past 20 years mostly due to deaths among middle-aged white men and women

"We looked at all-cause death, and found that instead of the difference in this disparity getting better over time, as you might expect as our economy progresses and our health system improves, we've actually seen that differences really multiplied," said lead researcher Dr. Haider Warraich, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and the VA Boston Healthcare System.

This gap is partly due to access to care, but other factors also contribute, he said.

RELATEDCOVID-19 vaccination rates lower in U.S. rural areas among all groups

In terms of access, rural areas have seen a wave of hospital closures driven largely by economics, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, Warraich said.

"But it's hard to disconnect health from other factors in our societies," he said. "I think it's linked to the overall economic outlook of rural America as well, and also, health behaviors that contribute to poor health, such as poor nutrition, lack of exercise, smoking, substance use, etc.

In rural areas, death from conditions like heart and lung diseases as well as so-called "deaths of despair" from drugs, alcohol and suicide have risen significantly, and are likely to continue doing so, Warraich said.

RELATEDFinding a doctor in rural America getting tougher, experts say

This is a huge problem, he said, noting that 60 million Americans live in rural areas.

"It's hard to divorce health from the overall economy," Warraich said. "But I think one thing that we really need to do is re-imagine rural health care, really think about what are the things that make an effective rural health care system -- and it might not be just simply hospitals."

Bolstering a lack of high-quality primary and preventive care is essential, he said.

RELATEDStudy: Black adults in rural areas more likely to die from heart-linked causes

Warraich predicted that health care trends in rural America are likely to spread to suburban and urban areas.

"A lot of what we're seeing already in our society, especially with regard to the challenges of rural America, are a consequence of this public health crisis," he said.

"I think, often times, there's a feeling that what happens in these areas stays there, and it's not a problem for the rest of the country. That might become harder to ignore as the crisis evolves and transforms into something that might be even greater," Warraich said.

Bill Finerfrock, executive director of the National Association of Rural Health Clinics in Alexandria, Va., said that unfortunately, the findings are not surprising.

"They only serve to reinforce the long-held understanding that there are ongoing and pervasive health disparities between urban and rural residents," he said.

Finerfrock, who was not part of the study, said while it cited no cause for the stark differences in death rates, the opioid crisis is probably a factor -- especially in rising death rates among rural Americans between 25 and 64 years of age.

He warned that the loss of health care clinics as well as hospitals over the last 10 years may make these disparities even worse in the years ahead.

For the study, Warraich and his colleagues used federal government health data for 1999 through 2019.

They found that age-adjusted death rates dropped in both rural and urban areas over that period. But the gap widened dramatically as death rates rose among white rural residents between 25 and 64.

Over the study period, rural death rates increased 12% for that group. Although death rates dropped among rural Black residents, they still had a higher death rate than all other groups in both rural and urban areas, researchers noted.

Nationwide, the racial difference in death rates was cut in half over the period.

The research was published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Mark Holmes, director of the North Carolina Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Center in Chapel Hill, also reviewed the findings.

"This study adds to existing evidence by showing how individual populations contribute -- the fact that, for example, mortality among rural whites is increasing. The higher mortality from COVID-19 in rural areas is yet another example," he said.

Breaking down the rural trends, as the authors do, can provide better understanding of causes, Holmes added.

More information

Learn more about disparities in rural health care at the Rural Health Information Hub.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved. 

U.N. : Southern Myanmar faces exodus, 'mass deaths' with military in control

A demonstrator walks near a barricade during an opposition protest against the military coup in Yangon, Myaar, on March 27. File Photo by EPA-

June 9 (UPI) -- The United Nations says about 100,000 people in Myanmar's Kayah State have fled because of deteriorating security and the humanitarian situation in the country, which has now been under military control for more than four months.

The global body says civilians living in the southern Myanmar border state, adjacent to Thailand, have been targeted by indiscriminate attacks by security forces, which has led to severe displacement.Officials said those fleeing are in need of food, water, shelter, fuel and access to healthcare. The United Nations said it's been able to help those seeking safe shelter and persons who decide to stay and wait out the violence.

"Many of them are currently seeking safety in host communities and forests across Kayah and southern parts of neighboring Shan State," the United Nations in Myanmar said in a statement Tuesday.

RELATEDChina highlights ties with ASEAN ahead of 30th anniversary meeting

"This crisis could push people across international borders seeking safety, as already seen in other parts of the country."

The military junta staged a coup on Feb. 1 and forcefully removed Myanmar's civilian leaders from power, arguing that parliamentary elections last fall were illegitimate. The military has since charged leaders, including head of state Aung San Suu Kyi, with crimes and physically cracked down on opposition demonstrators in streets nationwide.

The United Nations in Myanmar also blamed security forces for delaying humanitarian supplies in critical areas.

RELATEDVeteran Myanmar activist with brother in military dead, report says

Tom Andrews, U.N. special rapporteur for Myanmar, warned on Tuesday that the military's suppressive tactics are threatening the lives of thousands of people in Kayah and Karenni states.

"Let me blunt. Mass deaths from starvation, disease, and exposure, on a scale we have not yet seen since the February 1 coup, could occur in Kayah State absent immediate action," he said in a statement.

"Any pressure or leverage U.N. member states can put on the junta must now be exerted so that junta leader Min Aung Hlaing will immediately ... open access roads and allow lifesaving aid to reach those in need, and stop terrorizing the population by ceasing the aerial bombardment, shelling and shooting of civilians."

RELATEDOusted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi seen in court for first time since coup

UN report: Aquaculture linked with harmful algal blooms

Researchers say that rising seafood demand and coastal development may be linked to an increase in more harmful algal blooms, such as the one pictured in the Baltic Sea. Photo by European Space Agency

June 8 (UPI) -- New analysis of thousands of harmful algae blooms, or HABs, has revealed links between increases in the damage caused by algae blooms and human activities, including aquaculture development.

The international study, organized and funded by UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, featured several dozen scientists from all over the world. Scientists analyzed the timing and extent of more than 9,500 HABs over the last 33 years.

The analysis -- published Tuesday in the journal Communications and Earth and Environment -- revealed strong links between algae blooms and increased stress on marine resources, undermining the notion that global warming and rising ocean temperatures are the primary driver of harmful algae blooms.

"There has been a widely-stated contention that HABs worldwide are increasing in distribution, frequency or intensity, so a quantitative global assessment is long overdue," lead author Gustaaf M. Hallegraeff, a professor at the University of Tasmania's Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, said in a press release.

By amassing data on thousands of HABs, researchers were able to establish a baseline with which to compare future changes in the frequency, origins and extent of harmful algae blooms.

Records from a pair of databases, the Harmful Algae Event Database and the Biodiversity Information System, showed HABs are increasing in the Caribbean, South America, Mediterranean and North Asia.

Harmful algae blooms are occurring slightly less frequently, however, along the West Coast of the United States and along the coasts of Australia and New Zealand.

RELATED Blue-green algae blooms can release harmful toxins into the air

Almost half of all the analyzed HABs yielded seafood toxins, while approximately 7 percent resulted in mass plant and animals deaths.

Researchers had to work hard to standardize the HAB records from different parts of the world. HAB monitoring efforts are more robust, for example, in places where aquaculture development has dramatically increased.

Even when accounting for this, researchers found strong links between aquaculture development and harmful algae events.

While scientists suspect increases in nutrient pollution from aquaculture activity can help explain increases in HAB events, they suggest more analysis is necessary to confirm the link.

Given that algal blooms serve as a direct threat to both human health and the health of marine ecosystems, it's imperative that scientists work out the connections between aquaculture and HABs.

"Overexploitation acts as a natural multiplier of the effects of HABs, leading to an increase in impacts independent of an actual trend in HABs," said co-author Adriana Zingone, researcher at Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn in Italy.

Unlike previous studies, which have suggested HABs are increasing exponentially in all parts of the world, the latest findings suggest more nuanced trends.

Still, the scientists suggest it is imperative that marine researchers and policy makers improve their ability to forecast the threats posed by HABs.

"As the human population continues to increase in tandem with resource demands, HABs will predictably constitute a serious threat in terms of seafood safety and security, a hindrance to recreational uses of the sea, and a problem for the tourism industry," said study co-author Henrik Oksfeldt Enevoldsen.

"Occurrences of harmful species over time and their human impacts can be expected to change locally, regionally and globally alongside the effects that climate, hydrography and human pressure impose on the coastal environment," said Enevoldsen, a researcher at the University of Copenhagen.

Rio de Janeiro's Christ statue: 'Thou shalt not bribe'

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — After years of Brazilians being battered by revelations of bribery and corruption, Rio de Janeiro’s huge Christ the Redeemer statue is trying to set a moral example -- by introducing its own compliance program.

Administrators of the 125-foot-tall figure overlooking the “Marvelous City” announced a program Tuesday to bring more transparency to operations of the flagship tourism destination. Almost 2 million people visited in 2019, the year before the pandemic, and pay relatively hefty admission fees.

The Rio branch of the international accounting firm KPMG has signed an agreement with the administration of the Sanctuary of Christ the Redeemer to ensure operations are aboveboard.

“With this partnership, Christ the Redeemer becomes an important milestone for establishing ethical relations, committed to values," Rev. Omar Raposo, rector of the sanctuary, said at the base of the statue.

The program will train managers to better flag and address suspicious activity and to establish an anonymous hotline for anyone seeking to submit claims or complaints.

While the Christ statue has come to symbolize Brazil for many people, Rio de Janeiro state has become emblematic of Brazilian corruption. All governors elected between 1998 and 2014 have been jailed at different points over corruption allegations or convictions. One of them, Sérgio Cabral, was sentenced to a total of more than 300 years in prison for corruption, money laundering and other crimes.

More recently, Wilson Witzel, a former judge who won the 2018 gubernatorial election with his law-and-order platform, was impeached in April for allegedly taking part in a bribery scheme related to fraudulent contracts for COVID-19 field hospitals. He remains under investigation and has denied any wrongdoing.

The case was part of operation “Car Wash,” an anti-corruption task force that targeted the nation’s political and business elite. Its investigations turned up kickbacks related to contracts awarded by state-run companies, particularly Rio-based oil giant Petrobras, and for some World Cup arenas, including renovation of Rio's Maracana stadium where the final was played.

The team of prosecutors, whose work began in 2014, was recently disbanded, but has had a lasting impact on business as usual, said Guilherme Donegá, a Brazilian anti-corruption expert based in Washington.

“Very few traditional Brazilian companies had compliance programs,” Donegá told The Associated Press by phone. "With ‘Car Wash,’ Brazil’s private sector started paying attention to the issue of corruption.”

There's room for improvement. Brazil ranked 94th of 180 countries in the monitoring group Transparency International's most-recent global ranking on the perception of corruption.

“Our Christ the Redeemer, so special, great symbol of our country, opens its arms to innovations,” the rector said.

Diane Jeantet, The Associated Press

BLUE HYDROGEN NOT GREEN

Canada, Alberta sign deal for $1.3B hydrogen plant in Edmonton

The governments say they're working with Air Products Canada to build the $1.3-billon plant, which would produce the clean-burning fuel from natural gas.

© Provided by The Canadian Press


EDMONTON — The federal and Alberta governments are signing an agreement that could lead to a plant to produce hydrogen built near Edmonton.

They say the plant would produce hydrogen-fuelled electricity and liquid hydrogen for transportation and could be running by 2024.

Hydrogen releases no carbon when it burns.

Using hydrogen instead of fossil fuels is thought to be a significant way to reduce Canada's greenhouse gas emissions.

Air Products Canada has been in business since 1997 and operates three hydrogen facilities in Alberta and one in Ontario, as well as pipeline networks in both provinces.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 9, 2021.

The Canadian Press

GREENWASHING

A group of the largest producers in Canada's oilsands have announced a joint strategy to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson Suncor's base plant with upgraders in the oil sands in Fort McMurray Alta, on Monday June 13, 2017.

The companies include Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., Cenovus Energy Inc., Imperial Oil Ltd, MEG Energy Corp., and Suncor Energy Inc.

Read more: Natural gas straddle plant designed to reduce oilsands emissions with cleaner fuel

A large part of the strategy includes building a carbon sequestration facility in Cold Lake, Alta. The group says the facility would be available for other industries to use as well.

The companies also plan to pilot emerging carbon reduction technologies around oilsands operations, such as direct air capture, which uses a mechanical system to extract carbon dioxide out of the air.

Video: Clean energy summit aims to ignite growth of new technology in Alberta

The companies say the project will need significant investments and was made possible because of support programs from the federal and Alberta governments.

Read more: Alberta eases security payment burden for oilsands companies

The group compared their plan to the Longship project in Norway, a multi-billion dollar project that includes a cross-border carbon dioxide storage and transportation facility that will be open to multiple industries and is slated to open by 2024.

Study: Rideshare services reduce drunk-driving convictions, injuries from crashes

By Brian P. Dunleavy
HEALTH NEWS
JUNE 9, 2021 


Rideshare services such as Uber can help reduce injuries from motor vehicle accidents by discouraging drunk driving, a new study has found. File Photo by Will Oliver/EPA-EFE

June 9 (UPI) -- The availability of rideshare services such as Uber and Lyft in Houston reduced the number of convictions for impaired driving in the city by 24% during a six-year period, a study published Wednesday by JAMA Surgery found.

Over the same period, the city saw a similar drop in the number of injuries from motor vehicle crashes, the data showed.

ACCIDENTS ARE PREVENTABLE INCIDENTS
The increased availability of these rideshare services could help discourage people from driving while impaired -- on either drugs or alcohol -- and thus lower the rate of injuries from automobile accidents, the researchers said.

The findings are likely applicable to other cities and towns nationally, they said.

RELATED Study: As pot rules relax, more U.S. teens driving while stoned

"Rideshares are a convenient and reliable way to get home after going out," study co-author Dr. Christopher Conner told UPI in an email.

"This is a vital piece of the discussion when we discuss what services rideshares offer and what we are willing to pay for them," said Conner, a neurosurgery resident at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

Accidents, including motor vehicle crashes, cause more than 170,000 deaths in the United States each year, a figure that trails only heart disease and cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

RELATED CDC: 93K Americans die from alcohol-related causes each year

About one-third of all motor vehicle crashes nationally involve at least one driver under the influence of alcohol, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates.

Such accidents are associated with more severe injuries than those involving unimpaired drivers, Conner and his colleagues said.

As many as 33% of customers of services such as Uber and Lyft use them to avoid driving while impaired, based on data from Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

RELATED Teen traffic deaths decline as states enact distracted driving laws

For this study, Conner and his colleagues analyzed data on more than 23,000 motor vehicle crash injuries, nearly 94,000 impaired driving convictions and more than 24 million Uber rides in Houston between 2007 and 2019.

Between the introduction of Uber in Houston in February 2014 and the end of 2018, injuries from motor vehicle crashes decreased by 24% during peak periods on Friday and Saturday nights, the data showed.

From January 2014 through the end of 2019, which coincided with the availability of Uber, convictions for impaired driving in the city also fell by 24%.

"Rideshare services are an effective means to decrease alcohol-associated motor vehicle crashes and drunk-driving convictions," Conner said.

"This finding is important as car accidents are a leading cause of death and disability in the U.S., and it has been challenging to combat this epidemic," he said.

Gig companies' push for state-level worker laws faces divided labor movement

By Tina Bellon 

 Reuters/Mike Blake FILE PHOTO: A sign marks a rendezvous location for Lyft and Uber users at San Diego State University in San Diego

(Reuters) - Uber and other gig economy companies are trying a new approach to ending their battles with unions, and getting ahead of possible federal regulation that could upend their business based on classifying workers as independent contractors.

In New York, for example, gig economy companies are working with several unions including the Machinists and Transport Workers Union to strike a compromise that would allow drivers and food delivery workers to organize in a union and negotiate minimum pay and other benefits without being reclassified as employees.

With the support of the unions, the gig economy companies are pushing state lawmakers in Albany to pass a bill that would allow workers to negotiate wages and caps on company commission fees, and provide unemployment insurance in some circumstances.

Among the most vocal opponents of a proposed bill to achieve that goal is the Service Employees International Union's (SEIU) northeastern Local 32BJ, which says the compromise would enshrine gig workers' misclassified status and create a company-sanctioned union that would only further erode workers' rights by setting no floor for the negotiations.

"This legislation moves workers backwards," Kyle Bragg, 32BJ's president said. "There's too much company manipulation."

Amid the controversy, efforts to have the bill introduced before the end of the state's legislative session this week failed.

New York is just one of several states where gig economy companies led by Uber, Doordash, Lyft and Instacart are courting unions and state officials in an effort to cement their workers' status as independent contractors across the United States.

FAULT LINES

The push by the gig economy companies has exposed divisions within organized labor over whether to bargain with the companies, or insist on workers being reclassified as employees with full protection of U.S. labor standards - and a clear legal right to join unions.

The rifts at times also run within the same union. For example, while 32BJ rejects the New York bill, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry in the past said she would back workers' demands in reaching a deal with companies. The SEIU declined to comment for this story.

Similarly, the New York chapter of the AFL-CIO, the largest U.S. labor federation, backs the compromise proposal, while members of its Colorado chapter said they were opposed to bargaining agreements with the gig companies.

According to a Reuters review, the companies over the past few months set up lobbying groups in Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Colorado and Washington to push for laws that declare app-based ride-hail and food delivery drivers independent contractors, while proposing to offer them some benefits. In some states the companies hope for buy-in from labor groups, company and union officials said.

The companies are trying to build on their success in California, where voters approved an industry-backed ballot measure that exempts ride-hail and food delivery workers from rules that require other types of contractors to be classified as employees, and provides them with limited benefits.

The companies say they pursue tailored policies for each state to combine flexibility for their mostly part-time workers with benefits and protections. They have yet to offer concrete proposals in most states.

Some executives hope state-based independent contractor laws can also forestall federal action by the labor-friendly Biden administration, which has vowed to end the misclassification of workers as independent contractors.

"The models that are developed at the state level can be given a framework at the federal level," Lyft President John Zimmer said during an interview last month.

While any state law could be superseded by federal rules, Zimmer's calculation assumes that the U.S. Labor Department is less likely to act once facts on the ground are established.

The companies' race for state backing runs counter to the labor movement's single biggest legislative priority, the passage of a far-reaching labor reform bill known as the PRO Act in Congress. The bill would make worker organizing easier and among other things reclassify most independent contractors as employees for the purpose of collective bargaining, though not for wage laws and benefits.

The bill is unlikely to pass the Republican-led U.S. Senate, but even if it did, several years of regulatory and court wrangling would ensue, a time during which gig workers' rights would remain unchanged, said Wilma Liebman, former chair of the National Labor 
Relations Board.

SKEPTICS ON BOTH SIDES

Some union figures have therefore taken a more pragmatic approach. Andy Stern, former president of the SEIU and at the time one of the most politically influential labor leaders, for the past six years has been trying to strike deals between the gig companies and unions, including failed attempts in California to ward off the ballot measure.

The California referendum, a costly victory for the gig companies, was also a cautionary tale for unions, as well as for drivers, who are now left without any avenues to organize or object to the terms stipulated by the companies.

Stern said internal union surveys in New York had repeatedly shown that a majority of drivers did not want to be employees and said debates focused solely on reclassification were based on unrealistic and purist sentiments.

Stern instead advocates for drivers' rights to organize in unions and negotiate their own contracts.

"Give a worker a union and collective bargaining and they'll decide themselves what kind of status, wages and benefits they want. People who believe litigation and legislation are the solution have failed these workers," Stern said.

Stern and others dubious of reclassification point to Seattle and New York City, where years of union efforts to organize drivers have led to the only driver minimum wage laws in the country.

Uber and Lyft have rocky histories with unions and workers who want to organize. The companies in 2015 enlisted the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for a years-long court battle against a Seattle law spearheaded by the Teamsters union that would have allowed ride-hail drivers to bargain collectively.

Uber more recently appears to have opened up to such agreements, however. The company last month recognized Britain's GMB union as the collective bargaining unit of its 70,000 British drivers. Lyft's Zimmer said the company was having constructive conversations with labor leaders.

Many union officials remain skeptical about basing workers' fate on the goodwill of companies.

"You never get everything you want out of collective bargaining...and it would be better to give drivers more options and protections under the law," said Kjersten Forseth, political and legislative director for the Colorado AFL-CIO, which plans to make state-based gig worker policy solutions its focus over the next two years.

(Reporting by Tina Bellon in Austin; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

4 million Americans quit their jobs in April - a 20-year record. Many of them worked in the retail sector, which is in the middle of a massive labor shortage.

acooban@businessinsider.com (Anna Cooban)

Photo by Sergei Karpukhin\TASS via Getty Images The food service industry has struggled to find workers to fill roles in recent weeks. Photo by Sergei Karpukhin\TASS via Getty Images

About 4 million workers in the US quit their jobs in April - a 20-year record.

There were 9.3 million job vacancies at the end of April, another 20-year record.

Job vacancies rose most in the accommodation and food-service sectors.

Job vacancies rose to a 20 year-high in April, a Labor Department survey showed Tuesday.

The survey also showed that 4 million workers quit their jobs in April - another 20-year record. Job quits rose most in the retail sector and the professional and business services sector.

Companies were advertising 9.3 job million openings at the end of April, up 12% from the previous month. The number of vacancies grew most in the accommodation and food-service sectors, which are opening up after more than a year of COVID-19 restrictions.

Vacancies fell in education, mining, and logging.

Video: 40% of Workers Would Think About Quitting Their Jobs If They Weren’t Allowed 

The job vacancy rate - the number of new job openings as a proportion of total jobs plus vacancies - was up 6%.

The Labor Department started keeping records on job openings in 2000.

Businesses have reported severe labor shortages in recent weeks. The US Chamber of Commerce last week declared a "national economic emergency" which posed "an imminent threat to our fragile recovery."

The shortage has given many workers the confidence to leave their jobs. Insider previously spoke to some workers who "rage quit" their jobs in search of better pay and working conditions, with the pandemic having encouraged many to reevaluate what they want from their work.

Fares on ride-hailing apps Uber and Lyft surged as much as 40% in April compared to the same time last year thanks to a driver shortage.

Four in five local pharmacies have struggled to find enough people to deliver prescriptions and run the cash register, according to a report this month by the National Community Pharmacists Association.

Read the original article on Business Insider

It's perfectly legal for billionaires to pay so little in taxes. Democrats say they could finally change that after the bombshell ProPublica report.

insider@insider.com (Juliana Kaplan,Joseph Zeballos-Roig) 

Provided by Business Insider Felipe Castro holds a sign advertising a tax-preparation office for people who still need help completing their taxes before the IRS deadline on April 14, 2010, in Miami. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

A ProPublica report based on secret IRS files showed billionaires pay relatively little tax.
Inequality experts have been warning for years that the wealthy pay relatively low taxes.
The details added impetus to a push by Democrats to ramp up taxes on the country's highest earners.

On Tuesday morning, ProPublica published a bombshell report showing how little America's wealthiest pay in taxes, based on leaked documents from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

The report shows in detail how billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffett have seen billions added to their net worth with little impact on their tax bill. It's totally legal, and for many, not all that surprising.

"It's not surprising at all, I think," Chuck Collins, who works at the left-leaning Institute for Policy Studies, an organization dedicated to highlighting wealth inequality, told Insider.

Collins recently wrote a book on the ways the ultrawealthy hide their money and avoid taxation. In it, he uses the term "wealth defense industry" for the cottage industry that's grown around helping the rich hold onto their money.

"It's going to be very hard for ordinary people to decipher these tax transactions because they're purposefully complex," Collins said. "The wealth defense industry, their bread and butter is complexity, and opaqueness."

Chuck Marr, the director of federal tax policy at the liberal-leaning Center on Budget and Progressive Priorities, said "we've been making this case for a long time." He pointed to a paper from 2019 that outlines many findings similar to those in Tuesday's report.

Still, it's one thing to know something is likely happening, and another to see the details laid bare, and the figures involved. For example, ProPublica found that Warren Buffett paid 0.1% in "true tax rate," which compares how much he paid each year in taxes to how much his wealth grew.

ProPublica's report could draw widespread attention - and scrutiny - to certain intricacies of the tax code just as President Joe Biden moves to reform taxes to pay for his infrastructure proposals.

Already, Democratic lawmakers are seizing on the public report as a way to kickstart tax reform.

The report "should make it very hard for the Congress to not address it," Marr said. "I think it really underscores, again, that very wealthy people do not pay tax on much of their income. And so this tax bill is a clear opening to address that."

 Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the world's wealthiest man. Alex Wong/Getty Images

America's wealthiest make most of their money from assets, not income

As the 2019 CBPP paper lays out, a good amount of the income that the wealthiest bring in isn't technically income - or at least it's not taxed that way.

If you work a job where you receive wages in a paycheck, you're probably familiar with the income tax, which taxes the money you get for going to work. Those wages would be income, and you'd be taxed under the income tax.

But, as both the CBPP and ProPublica note, the wealthiest Americans get most of their wealth from assets like stocks, and therefore pay taxes on capital gains.

As Marr and coauthors Samantha Jacoby and Kathleen Bryant write, capital-gains taxes are "effectively voluntary to a substantial extent: High-wealth filers may accumulate capital gains every year as their investments appreciate, but they don't owe tax on those gains until - or unless - they 'realize' the gain, usually by selling the appreciated asset."

So if you hold onto your stock assets, you're not seeing that capital gains rate. Goldman Sachs estimated last month that the wealthiest Americans possessed between $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion in unrealized capital gains at that time. Some argue that those unrealized gains should be taxed, since the wealthiest could be sitting on valuable stocks, making money, and not paying taxes. Meanwhile, researchers at the right-leaning Tax Foundation argue that a progressive consumption tax would be a better way to tax the rich.

ProPublica reported that the ultrawealthy can also borrow hefty sums of money to pay off their bills as they sit on stocks and take in little income. "They'll borrow money and they'll use the stock as collateral," Marr said. That means the wealthy are essentially using these loans as a form of income, but aren't taxed as such.

As Marr, Jacoby, and Bryant write, "this is often a much cheaper strategy than selling stock and paying capital gains taxes, particularly when interest rates are low."

©

  President Joe Biden. Nicholas Kamm / AFP) (Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images

The report could add flame to the fire for tax reform

Even before the ProPublica report, tax debate had been brewing. In particular, a provision called the "step-up basis" had been facing scrutiny.

Let's say you've held onto stock for your whole life, and it's only grown in value. If you die and leave it to someone else, the stock takes on the value at which the recipient gets it, meaning neither the original owner nor the inheritor are taxed on those gains.

For very wealthy people, Marr said, that "wipes out a lifetime of tax liability."

Biden wants to do away with the step-up basis and he wants to tax capital gains for those making over $1 million at a rate equivalent to income.

"Broadly speaking, we know that there is more to be done to ensure that corporations, individuals who are at the highest income are paying more of their fair share," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told The Washington Post in response to the ProPublica report. "Hence, it's in the president's proposals. His budget and part of how he's proposing to pay for his ideas will go ahead."

"The principle here is to equalize the treatment of ordinary income and capital gains, and that is a principle that's neither new or particularly novel," Brian Deese, the director of the National Economic Council, said in an April briefing. "In fact, the last president to enact a reform to equalize the treatment of ordinary income and capital gains was President Reagan, who did so while raising capital-gains taxes as part of the 1986 tax reform."

The White House did not respond to Insider's request for comment.

There's been GOP resistance to further alterations to the tax code following their 2017 tax cut, especially any increase in rates. But the new reporting already ramped up the tax debate within Congress on Tuesday.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, told reporters on Capitol Hill, "To the surprise of nobody I know, the rich and powerful aren't paying their fair share, what else is new?" He urged lawmakers to approve Biden's tax proposals.

"I do want people to understand the bottom line," Sen. Ron Wyden, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, told reporters. "What ProPublica is revealing is, again, some of the country's wealthiest taxpayers [that] profited handsomely during the pandemic are not paying their fair share."

He said he's in the process of crafting a proposal to change that. Asked by Insider about the timeline of its introduction, Wyden responded: "I'll have it ready to go shortly."

"Often solutions to this are portrayed as radical, but what's radical is the current situation," Marr said. "What's radical is that wealthy people, a lot of their income never gets taxed. That's radical."

Read the original article on Business Insider

Solar eclipse to darken sky over NYC, Montreal Thursday morning
By
Brian Lada, Accuweather.com
JUNE 5, 2021 

Jo Anne Lin holds solar eclipse glasses on her friend Dorthy Tan while she photographs the sun through glasses during a solar eclipse watch party in Sunset Hills, Mo., on August 21, 2017. File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo

The Earth, moon and sun will align again for the second time in as many weeks to create a solar eclipse that will be visible for part of Canada and the United States -- but only if Mother Nature cooperates and provides clear skies.

On May 26, the moon passed through Earth's shadow during a lunar eclipse, and on June 10, the roles will be reversed as the moon casts a shadow on the Earth during the first of two solar eclipses in 2021.

This event will be a far cry from the Great American Eclipse of 2017 when day turned to night from Oregon to South Carolina, but it will still be an impressive show for those in its path.

The upcoming celestial alignment will create an annular solar eclipse, otherwise known as a "ring of fire" eclipse as the moon will be slightly farther away from the Earth than normal, meaning it will not quite be large enough to block out the sun entirely.

The result will be a halo of sunlight around the moon during the height of the eclipse, but this spectacle will only be visible to the remote areas of northern Ontario, far northwestern Greenland, around the North Pole and eastern Russia.

However, millions of people will still be able to see a partial solar eclipse.

A global map of the shadow path for the June 10, 2021, annular solar eclipse. Times are in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). (Image/NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio )

Right at sunrise on Thursday morning, people across the northeastern U.S. and eastern Canada will be able to see, if skies are clear enough, more than half of the sun blocked out by the moon.

This includes metropolitan areas like New York City, Boston, Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City.

The shaded area of the map is where the solar eclipse will be visible after sunrise on June 10, 2021. (Image/NASA)

People across northern Europe, Iceland, Greenland and northern Russia will also see the moon take a bite out of the sun on Thursday.

Since the moon will never completely block out the sun, proper eye protection is needed throughout the entire eclipse

"It is never safe to look directly at the sun's rays -- even if the sun is partly obscured," NASA warns. "When watching a partial eclipse you must wear eclipse glasses at all times if you want to face the sun, or use an alternate indirect method."

Looking at the sun without a solar filter or eclipse glasses can lead to permanent eye damage, so safety is the top priority for viewing the eclipse first-hand.

Millions of people purchased specially made eclipse glasses for the total solar eclipse in 2017, and they may still be good to use for the upcoming eclipse as long as they have been stored properly.

First, make sure that the glasses have a label that reads "ISO 12312-2" as this is the approved safety standard for eclipse glasses.

"If the filters aren't scratched, punctured, or torn, you may reuse them indefinitely," according to NASA.

People who do not have these eclipse glasses can still enjoy the event by viewing the sun indirectly.

This includes making a simple pinhole projector out of common household items or even just looking at the crescent-shaped shadows that appear when holding out an object like a pasta strainer or crossed fingers.

A pinhole projector is essentially a small hole in a piece of paper. The light that makes it through appears as a crescent when the moon is blocking out part of the sun. (Image/NASA)

Clouds will be concerning for some folks hoping to witness the celestial alignment, including those in some big cities in the mid-Atlantic such as Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.

The forecast looks better farther north for Boston, as well as Canadian cities such as Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, although a few clouds could still cause some disruptions for onlookers. Even better weather is in the offing for much of Atlantic Canada with a mainly clear sky expected on Thursday morning.

Areas farther west, such as Chicago and Minneapolis, will be able to see a small sliver of the sun covered by the moon right at sunrise, but it will not be nearly impressive as areas farther east.

Another solar eclipse is set to unfold later this year in early December, but this will only be visible across Antarctica so only a handful of people and penguins will have a chance to experience the event

This week's eclipse will also be the last solar eclipse visible from North America until Oct. 14, 2023, when another ring of fire eclipse unfolds, but this time over more populated areas of the U.S. and across Central America and northern South America.

This will be an appetizer for the main event on April 8, 2024, when a total solar eclipse is once again visible from the contiguous U.S.

"The 2024 total solar eclipse will be a spectacular eclipse to witness," expert eclipse photographer and eclipse educator Dr. Gordon Telepun said. "The path encompasses many big cities and therefore a large number of people."

It will also last for nearly twice as long as the eclipse in 2017, so folks that get to enjoy this week's event may want to start planning for the main event taking place in less than three years.

Colombia Church says govt-strike committee dialogue will continue, despite pause

Inés San Martín

Jun 9, 2021

THE CRUX

ROME BUREAU CHIEF

A woman holds a Colombian flag as she listens to Pope Francis Angelus noon prayer in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, May 9, 2021. (Credit: AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia.)

ROME – The Catholic Church in Colombia says dialogue efforts between the government and the National Strike Committee (CNP) will resume, despite an announcement on Sunday by the government that the CNP had decided to “unilaterally suspend the dialogue.”

The dialogue efforts between the government and the CNP, composed mostly of unions, began a month ago and was mediated by the Catholic Church and United Nations.

Representatives met several times without any progress, because neither part is willing to budge: The government is asking strikers to lift the blockades that have created havoc on many of the nation’s main highways since the protests began on April 28, and the strikers want the government of President Iván Duque to sign a protocol that guarantees peaceful protests and limits the use of force by the Colombian police.

A delegation from the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR) arrived in Colombia on Sunday ahead of a June 8-10 visit to the country to assess the human rights situation.

At the end of the day of talks on Sunday, Father Fabio Henao Gaviria, the Caritas director who is the facilitator of the process on behalf of the Colombian Episcopal Conference, said on Sunday he believes that the dialogue had been positive, and despite the pause in the negotiations, progress is being made on setting “a national agenda based on the needs of different regions of the country.”

Therefore “the Church is willing to continue accompanying the process, both at the national level and in the territories” and also “reiterates its closeness to the most vulnerable sectors, particularly the youth.”

Several regions in Colombia are holding their own dialogues, particularly in the largest cities, such as Cali and Bogota, most impacted by the violence during the protests. These efforts are still ongoing, despite the temporary suspension of the national dialogue.

Protestors have argued that they had been peaceful in their rallies and that violence only broke out when the police suppressed the demonstrations using violence. Several allegations of human rights violations have been made, including by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

More than 40 people died in the protests and hundreds were wounded. There are also 25 allegations of sexual violence by members of the police during the protests.

According to Archbishop Dario Monsalve Mejia, “the global pandemic has made us all children of the same need, and the national strike, by affecting mobility and distribution, has made everyone feel scarcity, hunger and absolute need, which means vital sustenance for everyone.”

In a statement released on Sunday for the feast of Corpus Christi, the prelate linked the celebration with the lives of Colombians: “The evil and perverse violence, with which some have infiltrated the peaceful protest, and have made armed citizens clash with unarmed citizens, makes us see human blood flow not in the veins, but in the streets and in the territories.”

He called on all citizens to “drink from the cup of Christ’s blood, which means purifying the soul, receiving forgiveness from God and swearing not to kill.”

Bishop Elkin Alvarez of Santa Rosa de Osos and secretary general of the Colombian bishops conference, asked Colombians to continue praying for the country, independently of the dialogue efforts: In these “difficult times that the country continues to go through today, it demands the commitment of all of us Catholics to continue in constant prayer.”

“It is very important to dedicate long moments to the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, in community, praying for peace, the reconciliation of the country and the overcoming of this critical moment we are living,” he added.

The voice of the bishops has morphed since the protests began back in April. The day before the beginning of the general strike, the conference invited people to avoid marching because of the risks involved with the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the apprehension, they recognized the legitimacy of peaceful protests and acknowledged the “complexity of the current situation.”

As the strike gained momentum, however, the bishops were less tepid in their support of the grievances of the protestors, in a country where 23.9 million people lived on less than $91 a month in 2020. The country’s total population is 51 million people, with 37.5 percent living below the poverty line.

“We recognize the legitimate motivations that have led millions of Colombians to express in the streets and in other scenarios their dissatisfaction with the situations of injustice in the country,” one bishop wrote in a May 12 statement. “Being one of the most unequal countries in the world, with nearly half of the population living in poverty, are sufficient reasons for the cup to run over.”

Duque, a Catholic, became president with the support of conservative sectors of the Catholic Church and members of evangelical Christian churches. Now, when the country is going through its deepest crisis in decades, these churches have aligned themselves with the protestors.

“We have realized that the main actor of the strike has been the youth,” said Henao in his post-dialogue reflections. “They have been among the most affected by unemployment and the pandemic. This led us to ask not to stigmatize the protest and to understand that many do not have opportunities, that there is a great lack of hope.”

Follow Inés San Martín on Twitter: @inesanma

Systemic failures behind Colombia police rights abuses: HRW




Systemic failures behind Colombia police rights abuses: HRWFILE PHOTO: Anti-government demonstrations continue in Bogota

Oliver Griffin
Wed, 9 June 2021

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Brutal abuses by Colombia's police during recent anti-government protests are not isolated incidents but part of extensive failings by state security forces, advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report on Wednesday.

Nationwide demonstrations against the social and economic policies of President Ivan Duque, which began in late April, have been directly connected with at least 21 deaths, according to government figures.

Local rights groups say dozens more have been killed by security forces and HRW says it has confirmed 34 deaths are connected to demonstrations, including 20 people likely killed by police.

HRW said it has also documented beatings, sexual abuse and arbitrary detention of protesters and bystanders by security forces.

"These brutal abuses are not isolated incidents by rogue officers, but rather the result of systemic shortcomings of the Colombian police," Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

Credible evidence suggests police killed 16 protesters or bystanders with live ammunition, the report found. In 15 of these cases, the killings may have been intentional.

At least one other victim died after being beaten by police, while three others were killed following "inappropriate or excessive" use of teargas or flash-bang cartridges, it added.

Duque has repeatedly insisted that most Colombian police respect the human rights of civilians, and he has said that any cops who act illegally will be punished. On Sunday, he announced his government will ask Congress to approve more training and increased oversight of police.

Representatives from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) arrived in the country over the weekend for a three-day visit to gather information about possible rights abuses during the protests. They are expected to release a report next week.

(Reporting by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Aurora Ellis)