Monday, June 14, 2021

Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME)

The CHIME telescope has released its first catalog with 492 unique sources of fast radio bursts, the brief flashes of radio waves that have been intriguing astronomers over the past decade.

Fast radio bursts are powerful but fleeting flashes of radio waves. Their brevity makes them hard to find; since 2007, astronomers have detected only about 140 of them.

Now, at the recent virtual meeting of the American Astronomical Society, a first data release from the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) nearly quadruples that number with 535 new fast radio bursts (FRBs), including 61 bursts from 18 repeating sources. The data come from the detector’s first year of operations, from mid-2018 to mid-2019.

CHIME is uniquely suited to finding FRBs because, unlike most radio telescopes with postage-stamp fields of view, it scans the whole sky visible from its location in British Columbia every night. Astronomers then use digital signal-processing to work through huge amounts of data — about 7 terabits per second, equivalent to a few percent of the world’s internet traffic — to “focus” on FRB signals.

Nevertheless, CHIME only sees the tip of the iceberg. The CHIME/FRB Collaboration calculates that some 800 bright bursts occur every day, and the telescope only sees a small fraction of that.

The radio flashes CHIME does see are spread out on the sky, which means that, as astronomers had already suspected, the sources of these mysterious flashes aren’t concentrated in the Milky Way. But that spread isn’t completely uniform. The team finds that FRBs correlate with galaxies out to 5 billion light-years away.

WHAT ARE FAST RADIO BURSTS?

At least some fast radio bursts likely originate on or around the burnt-out stellar cinders known as magnetars. These neutron stars generate extremely strong magnetic fields, which might tangle or snap to release energy. The case for magnetars grew stronger when a known magnetar was caught emitting an FRB in our own galaxy.

An artist’s depiction of a hiccup in the magnetic field of a magnetar, a highly magnetized neutron star.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Chris Smith / USRA / GESTAR

“Magnetars are the only thing we know of that could plausibly produce such energetic flashes in such short amounts of time,” says Kiyoshi Masui (MIT), “but the actual mechanism is not well understood.”

FRBs may originate far out in the magnetar’s magnetic field, or they may arise from events on its surface. It’s also possible that magnetars may make some FRBs but not others. For example, some FRBs repeatedly flash, while others, even when watched for a long time, don’t emit another glimmer.

“Our current sample indicates that there are significant differences in the properties of repeaters and non-repeaters,” says team member Pragya Chawla (McGill University). Repeating bursts last slightly longer and emit more focused radio frequencies than bursts from their non-repeating brethren.

Repeating vs. non-repeating fast radio bursts

But what causes these differences is still up for debate. We might be seeing two different populations of objects that emit in different ways. Or, as team member Ziggy Pleunis (also at McGill) suggests, “It is also possible that all, or most, FRBs are repeaters.” We might be simply be seeing variations on a theme. For example, he explains, if narrow bursts occur less often, then the narrowest bursts would appear to be one-off events. More data will help astronomers discern between these scenarios.

“THE ULTIMATE TOOL FOR COSMOLOGY”

With hundreds of FRBs in hand, the CHIME team is particularly excited not only about the sources themselves but what can be done with them. “We are now in the era of using FRBs as cosmological probes,” says team member Alex Josephy (also at McGill).

“The distortion of each signal carries a record of the structure it traveled through,” Masui explains. As radio waves travel through hot, ionized gas (whether tightly packed around the FRB source or spread out in the space between galaxies), electrons in the gas scatter the signal. As a result, lower frequencies arrive slightly later to the telescope than the higher frequencies. By measuring how much the signal stretches out over time and frequency, something known as the dispersion measure, astronomers can calculate exactly how much plasma the signal encountered on its way toward Earth.

“We can use them to map out where all the structure in the universe is,” Masui says. “How it’s distributed on large scales, how gas falls into galaxies to form stars, how it gets expelled again by supernovae and black holes.”

Some FRBs have particularly large dispersion measures, which may mean that the signal traveled through a galaxy’s gaseous halo — probably the halo of the galaxy hosting the FRB.

“When we started building CHIME,” Masui says, “nobody knew how many FRBs would be at the frequency we’re observing. There were people who told us we wouldn’t see anything.” Now, it has become clear that CHIME will be bringing in hundreds more FRBs, enabling the study of these mysterious flashes, the galaxies that host them, and the universe around them.

References

Pleunis, Z. et al. “Fast Radio Burst Morphology in the First CHIME/FRB Catalog.” To appear in Astrophysical Journal.

Rafiei-Ravandi, M. et al. “CHIME/FRB Catalog 1 results: statistical cross-correlations with large-scale structure.” arXiv.

Josephy, A. “No Evidence for Galactic Latitude Dependence of the Fast Radio Burst Sky Distribution.” arXiv.

CHIME/FRB Collaboration et al. “The First CHIME/FRB Fast Radio Burst Catalog.” arXiv.

#NOTOKYOOLYMPICS

Japan government eyes quasi-state of emergency in Tokyo during Olympics

Kyodo News

Posted at Jun 15 2021 02:45 AM

Security officers stand guard next to Olympic Rings monument during an anti-Olympics rally outside the Japan Olympic Committee headquarters in Tokyo, June 14, 2021. *Issei Kato, Reuters*

TOKYO—The Japanese government is considering placing Tokyo under a quasi-state of emergency during the Olympics, given that a number of health experts have expressed concern over a potential spike in COVID-19 cases, officials said Monday.

The Olympics are due to begin on July 23, but public fears persist about a surge of coronavirus infections triggered by an influx of people into the Japanese capital and driven by more contagious variants.

Since late April, Tokyo has been under a stricter state of emergency, but it will likely end on June 20 as a fourth wave of infections has somewhat abated.

In addition to Tokyo, nine prefectures including Hokkaido, Osaka and Fukuoka are currently under the emergency.

The government is now planning to lift the emergency in most of the prefectures and to shift several of them to a quasi-emergency with smaller fines for noncompliance under which restaurants and bars will still be asked to shorten opening hours but may be allowed to serve alcohol.

The government will consider whether to maintain the planned quasi-state of emergency through the Olympics, due to close on Aug. 8, or to lift it and impose it again before the games open, according to the officials.

"We will take measures appropriately. There will be no cancellation or postponement (of the Olympics)," said one of the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official said staging the Olympics and Paralympics has now become an international commitment after leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies expressed support on the weekend for the sporting extravaganza.

A joint communique released Sunday by the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States after their summit in Britain said they back the holding of the games "in a safe and secure manner as a symbol of global unity in overcoming COVID-19."

Under a quasi-state of emergency, governors are allowed to impose measures in specific areas rather than entire prefectures.

A group of infectious disease experts, including Shigeru Omi, head of a government subcommittee on the virus, is expected to disclose this week the various health risks if the Olympics take place as scheduled.

Omi, the country's top COVID-19 adviser, has been apprehensive about staging the Tokyo Games, saying it is "not normal" to go ahead during a global health crisis.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will convene a task force meeting as early as Thursday to make a decision on whether to end the third state of emergency.

Attention is focused on what the government and the organizing committee of the games will do regarding spectators after those from overseas were barred in March.

The organizers want to allow at least some people in the stands and will decide on an upper limit for domestic spectators by the end of June.

The limit will be set according to the government's restrictions on the number of attendees at major events, such as sports games and concerts.

Until the end of this month, attendance at big events will be limited to a maximum of 5,000 people or 50 percent of a venue's capacity, whichever number is smaller.

Among other options, the government is now looking to relax the limit to 10,000 or 20,000 or restricting the number to simply less than 50 percent of venue capacity, according to the officials.

The subcommittee will hold a meeting, possibly Wednesday, to discuss how many people can be allowed at major events in July and August.

ICC prosecutor seeks investigation into Philippines ‘war on drugs’ killings

Police are accused of unlawfully killing thousands of civilians between 2016 and 2019 during drug crackdown

The Philippines left the ICC in 2019 after the court launched a preliminary examination into President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug crackdown. Photograph: Aaron Favila/AP

Agence France-Presse
Mon 14 Jun 2021

The international criminal court’s chief prosecutor has sought authorisation to open an investigation into crimes against humanity during the Philippines’ deadly “war on drugs”, in one of her last acts before stepping down this week.

Fatou Bensouda asked judges at the world’s only permanent war crimes court to authorise an investigation into allegations that police unlawfully killed as many as tens of thousands of civilians between 2016 and 2019.

The Philippines left the ICC in 2019 after the court launched a preliminary examination into President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug crackdown, but Bensouda said the court could still investigate crimes committed while Manila was a member.

“I have determined that there is a reasonable basis to believe that the crime against humanity of murder has been committed … in the context of the government of the Philippines ‘war on drugs’ campaign,” Bensouda said in a statement.

The brutal war on drugs in the Philippines – in pictures

“The available information indicates that members of the Philippine national police, and others acting in concert with them, have unlawfully killed between several thousand and tens of thousands of civilians” during the period under investigation.

Bensouda, a Gambian lawyer whose term of office ends on Tuesday, said that “any authorised investigation in the Philippines will fall to my able successor, Karim Khan, to take forward.”

Britain’s Khan will be sworn in on Wednesday with a host of other challenges in his inbox including an investigation into Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Duterte’s drug crackdown has drawn international censure and prompted the ICC to launch its preliminary inquiry three years ago.

The crackdown is Duterte’s signature policy initiative and he defends it fiercely, especially from critics such as western leaders and institutions who he says do not care about his country.

He was elected in 2016 on a campaign promise to get rid of the Philippines’ drug problem, openly ordering police to kill drug suspects if their lives are in danger.

More than 6,000 people have been killed in over 200,000 anti-drug operations conducted since July 2016, according to official data. Human rights groups estimate the number of dead could be several times higher.

Many suspects have been put on “drug watchlists” by local officials and then visited by police at their homes – a situation that often ends in a deadly shooting that officers claim was self-defence.

Amnesty International said the ICC investigation was a “landmark step”. “This announcement is a moment of hope for thousands of families in the Philippines who are grieving those lost to the government’s so-called ’war on drugs’,” Amnesty’s head, Agnes Callamard, said in a statement.

Human Rights Watch said the court had “dealt a blow” for Duterte’s “presumption of impunity” for the killings.

The tough-talking Duterte has repeatedly claimed the ICC has no jurisdiction over him and that he will not cooperate with what he has called an “illegal” investigation. He even threatened to arrest Bensouda.

Duterte has previously told the tribunal that the country’s justice system is working, amid allegations that local courts cannot or are unwilling to prosecute suspects in the killings – one of the criteria for the ICC to open a full investigation.

Duterte has said he is willing to go behind bars if proven guilty in the Philippine judicial system. “If the court says that I should go to jail, I will go to jail. That’s no problem. I did what I embarked to do,” Duterte said in a televised speech in December 2020.

Rodrigo Duterte's drug war is 'large-scale murdering enterprise' says Amnesty

Bensouda said previous cases showed that the ICC “retains jurisdiction over crimes that are alleged to have occurred on the territory of that state during the period when it was a state party” to the international court.

She added that the court “does not take a position on any government’s internal policies” to combat drugs but that it was acting under its mandate to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The court would also investigate allegations of torture and other “inhumane acts” dating back as far as 2011, she said.

INFRASTRUCTURE FAIL

China launches nationwide safety checks after deadly blast in Hubei

Mimi Lau, South China Morning Post
Posted at Jun 14 2021 09:30 PM

China’s central government has taken over rescue operations in response to a deadly blast in Hubei province on the weekend, the latest of a handful of disasters ahead of the Communist Party’s centenary next month.

At least 25 people were killed and more than 100 injured when a gas pipe exploded in a market in Shiyan on Sunday morning, prompting an order from President Xi Jinping for cadres to “stay vigilant and politically sensitive” in preventing major safety hazards.

Provincial authorities had been leading the rescue efforts and investigation but on Monday the State Council’s Work Safety Committee and the Ministry of Emergency Management met and decided to assume those responsibilities, according to an official notice.

“A work team headed by senior emergency management cadres has been sent to the site to ensure all rescue operations are carried out to the greatest extent and casualties minimised,” the notice said.

“The cause and proceedings of the incident will also be thoroughly investigated and shall be handled strictly in accordance with laws and regulations. The State Council’s Work Safety Committee has taken over all investigations in relation to the incident.”

Quoting minutes of the meeting, China News Service reported: “The recent safety hazards have revealed problems among certain local governments, departments and corporations in terms of their thinking and inspections.”

The blast is the latest in a series of major safety incidents that have resulted in high casualties.

Beijing responded each time by ordering all-out efforts in rescue operations, and for nationwide inspections against hidden risks, to prevent a repeat.

In his instructions on Sunday, Xi called on local governments to learn from Hubei’s painful lesson, ordered the explosion be investigated and those who were responsible for the accident to be held accountable.

Video footage published on the online news portal Btime.com showed the market had been destroyed, with almost all windows and doors in the two-storey building shattered and the streets filled with rubble.

Premier Li Keqiang urged the work safety committee of the State Council and emergency management ministry to supervise the hazard hunts across the country as well as the checks on local authorities’ safety oversight.

There have been numerous efforts in recent years to raise safety regulations in China, where hazards often lead to severe casualties.

Also on Sunday, six maintenance workers were reportedly killed after falling into a sewage water tank at a food factory in Chengdu, in the western province of Sichuan. A chemical leak on Saturday also killed at least eight people and injured another three in Guiyang, capital of the southern province of Guizhou.

The central government has sent aid to the rescue operation in Hubei, including officials from emergency management, housing and construction to handle disaster follow-up. Burns specialists and psychologists were among a group of medical experts also dispatched to Shiyan.

State broadcaster CCTV reported that more than 2,000 rescuers had been mobilised and that citywide safety hazard inspections were under way.

More than 900 residents and merchants from Shiyan’s Yanhu residential area were evacuated after the blast, according to the Shiyan city government, and 853 relatives of the injured had been settled into eight hotels, as the investigation into the cause of the blast continued.

DUTERTE'S OWN FAKE CURE

Duterte claims many people with COVID-19 cured by 'bakuna sa bulate' ivermectin

ABS-CBN News

Posted at Jun 15 2021 12:13 AM

MANILA - President Rodrigo Duterte told the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to continue with clinical trials on the use of anti-parasitic drug ivermectin for COVID-19, claiming that many people, including doctors, swear by its efficacy.

In his weekly public briefing on Monday, Duterte asked FDA Director General Eric Domingo about the status of the ivermectin clinical trials, which the later said is due to start within the month.

Duterte then said that he has been hearing a lot of testimonials from different people who talk about how the drug, originally intended for animal use, has allegedly helped them in their battle with COVID-19.

"There are a lot of credible people, doctors at that, at maraming sibilyan na they swear by their fathers' graves na 'yang ivermectin na 'yan is doing good to their bodies while they are suffering from COVID-19. 'Yung iba reported that the following day nakatindig na sila (Others were able to stand up the following day)," he claimed.

"I'm just telling you, a lot of people, in the province, maraming nagsasabi sa akin na gumaling sila pagkatapos nilang inumin itong bakuna sa bulate," Duterte added.

(I'm just telling you, a lot of people, in the province, a lot of them told me they got cured after taking this anti-parasitic drug.)

He, however, reiterated that the government must ensure the safety of ivermectin for human use before it can be made available publicly.

"And you know, kagaya ko, pareho man tayo, as a lawyer, as a doctor, we have to exercise the greatest of diligence of a good father of a family, 'yung talagang pinakastriktong daanan before giving it to the public," Duterte said.

(Like me, we are the same, as a lawyer, as a doctor, we have to exercise the greatest of diligence of a good father of a family, we have to be very strict before giving it to the public.)

Duterte also said it can be helpful if the clinical trials prove the efficacy of ivermectin.

"So the earlier the studies are completed, whether or not it has the efficacy to fight COVID-19 is important kasi mura at available (because it is cheap and available). And if it can lessen COVID by 50 percent, maganda na yan, sa totoo lang (that's good already, truth be told)," he said.

"Sa akin lang, if there's an application at may mga clinical studies na kayo. If there is no, kung funding lang, eh di i-fund mo na lang. We can replenish the money later," Duterte added.

(For me, if there's an application and if you already have clinical studies. If you don't have yet, if you need funding, just fund it first. We can replenish the money later.)

Duterte earlier ordered the conduct of clinical trials of the anti-parasitic drug, despite initial hesitancy from experts.

FDA said there are now human grade ivermectin being used. It has previously granted at least 3 hospitals compassionate special permits to use the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin as potential treatment for COVID-19.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended against using ivermectin in patients with COVID-19 except for clinical trials, because of a lack of data demonstrating its benefits.

The recommendation follows the European Medicines Agency's warning against the drug. The US Food and Drug Administration has also recommended it not be used for COVID-19.

Merck, an ivermectin manufacturer, has also said its analysis did not support the drug's safety and efficacy for COVID-19.

- with a report from Reuters

Capitol Hill staffers are fed up with unlivable salaries that hinder diversity and kneecap careers

CA Publishers

Hill staffers have put up with low wages for years. Some start in the high $20,000s.

Powerful Congress members want to give them a raise after a pandemic and the January 6 insurrection.

Current and former staffers tell Insider how low pay affected their lives and harms diversity.

Several days a week, a Capitol Hill intern would rise before dawn to take the bus not to her congressional members’ office but to a Starbucks, where she worked 5:30 a.m. shifts before heading east to start her unpaid full-time internship.

On other days, she left the hallowed halls of Congress at dusk, exhausted, only to work several more hours as a barista giving other Washingtonians their energy fix.

“It’s incredibly stressful,” she told Insider of the experience. “I wasn’t getting a lot of sleep. I was looking very tired. I was breaking out a lot. My hair was not in great shape — it was thinning out.”

She made a total of $4,958 while she worked for Starbucks, declining to take the benefits that came with her managerial status because she needed every penny of her paycheck to make ends meet, she said. She survived the internship and landed a full-time job working for a member of Congress.

But the starting pay of $32,000 still wasn’t enough to cover her financial obligations.

The staffer, who’s also a representative for the nonpartisan Congressional Hispanic Staff Association and now makes $43,000, said she occasionally delivered food for DoorDash or tutored students. But she had to pause her outside jobs because their low pay wasn’t worth the added stress.

After one of the most hellish years for congressional staff on record — they endured a pandemic, an insurrection, and endless vitriol brought on by toxic political debates of the 2020 election — some have simply lost faith that serving the public on the Hill is worth the financial toll.

Insider spoke with 14 current and former staffers in the House and Senate about how low pay had affected their lives, careers, and ability to serve the public. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because their offices do not authorize them to speak with the press. But they said they were compelled to speak up because they believed they and many of their colleagues were at or near a breaking point.

[Do you have a tip about Capitol Hill workplace issues? Bad bosses? Toxic offices? Systemic problems? Email the reporter at kepstein@insider.com, and we’ll keep you anonymous.]

Some congressional staffers make barely enough to live in Washington, DC, one of the nation’s most expensive cities, or stay on the Hill long enough to master policy disciplines or grow into leaders. Low pay and a chronic lack of diversity among Hill staffers are also inextricably linked, some staffers said, with meager salaries preventing many Black, Latino, Asian American, and other nonwhite job aspirants from carving out a gainful career in Congress.

Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, waits to do an interview as a staffer talks on the phone. Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

A lot of talk, little change

Democratic members of Congress routinely rail against income inequality in general, and Republicans often demand more efficient government and greater oversight of the executive branch. Some have spoken publicly about giving their staffers a raise.

And while members, journalists, and pundits called for raises in 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2019, there’s been little change.

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York made headlines when she pledged her most junior staffers would earn at least $52,000 annually, but that was just one office.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, has renewed advocacy for higher staff pay and better benefits. The effort has some level of bipartisan support, with at least one House Republican, former GOP staffers, conservative think tanks, and some advocacy organizations lobbying hard for change.

“Congressional staff choose a career in public service due to their deep sense of commitment for this country, yet with deteriorating pay and rising costs, many staffers are finding it increasingly difficult to support themselves as living costs have continued to rise in Washington, D.C.,” a group of nine staff associations, including the Middle Eastern and North African Staff Association, the Senate Black Legislative Caucus, and Congressional Asian Pacific American Staff Association, wrote in a letter to Hoyer in May.

In the meantime, congressional staffers continue to leave for better-paying opportunities. Congress loses skilled workers with policy experience and nuanced understanding of the communities they serve.

“There is an incentive for underpaid staff to sell out to K Street and go lobby,” said Zach Graves of the conservative Lincoln Network, which joined 29 other groups across the political spectrum on May 17 to urge lawmakers to give staff a raise. “There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that, but if the disparity is too high, you create bad incentives that don’t serve the interests of the American people. You run the risk of not having the capacity to make good legislative decisions.”

Rep. Bobby Rush, an Illinois Democrat, speaks with a staffer during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing. Michael A. McCoy/Getty Images

‘Overworked and underpaid’

One former chief of staff was blunt about the trade-offs of working for Congress.

“If you want a job on the Hill because you saw ‘House of Cards,’ and you think you’re going to be like Kevin Spacey, then walk away. That’s not the job,” he said. “The job is you’re going to be overworked and underpaid, and you’re going to be successful … because you really believe in what we’re doing.”

Working second jobs to stay afloat is commonplace among junior-level staffers on Capitol Hill, multiple employees told Insider. That’s on top of the grueling hours and 24/7 availability that members expect from their staff.

Others lived far from the Hill or with multiple roommates, all while seeing little prospect of becoming homeowners. One former staffer who eventually rose to chief of staff recounted relying on catered Hill luncheons and briefings to provide up to three free meals a day when he was a junior aide.

The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Washington is $2,195, and it’s $1,722 for a studio, according to the real-estate-listing site Zumper.

“You’re taking home almost nothing, when you think about how much rent costs, how much it costs to feed yourself,” in DC, a former legislative aide who left Congress to work in city government, told Insider.

“Maintenance, add on your vehicle if you’re commuting to work, getting your suits cleaned and dry-cleaned, making sure you’re presentable … because you’re representing that office” further chips away at the budget and makes it difficult to save, the aide, who started on the Hill at $45,000 a year, said.

Junior roles such as staff assistants or legislative assistants can start out in the high $20,000 range and broach the low $30,000s.

Some staff assistants are required to have cars because they also work as drivers for their members, adding costs of owning, insuring, and maintaining a vehicle to their already tight budgets.

“You’re immediately eliminating a lot of communities of color” with that requirement, the former House chief of staff said.

It doesn’t get much better for junior and midlevel staffers.

One recently departed Democratic House staffer joined Congress as a staff assistant, the lowest level employee in an office, even though he had prior experience and an advanced degree.

He was 32 years old and made $31,000 a year.

$16.14 PER HOUR

After a few years, he had worked his way up to $43,000 — hardly a princely sum.

$22.39 PER HOUR

“I have almost a decade’s worth of experience at this point, and it’s like, I should not be making this low. It was infuriating,” he told Insider.

Last winter, he left Congress — and Washington — for a job that paid more than $100,000 annually and didn’t burn him out.

Salaries can top out about $160,000 for chiefs of staff, the highest-ranking employee in an office, because members themselves make $174,000, and it’s weird if you’re making more than the boss. Some senior committee staffers or legal counsels can also make in the mid-to-upper $100,000s.

Most staffers never make it to chief of staff or other senior-level roles because they are lured away by higher salaries or face professional roadblocks because of bias, workplace issues, and burnout.

The former chief of staff said he felt added pressure to prove that he was qualified for well-paying senior-level positions and compete with white staffers, whose qualifications might be taken for granted.

“There are certain stereotypes of Asian Americans,” he said. “And I tried to create my résumé and my professional profile to push against that.”

House staffers walk through Statuary Hall in the Capitol Building.
Alex Edelman/AFP via Getty Images

‘Forced to fend for themselves’

The problem is rooted in how staffers are paid.

Overall funding for the legislative branch must not only fund the Senate and House but also offices like the Architect of the Capitol and Capitol Police — two bodies that will likely get significant investments after the pandemic and the January 6 attack.

Out of that funding comes large pots of money for the House and the Senate, which get distributed to every lawmaker’s office. Over time, those pots got smaller even as the cost of living in DC and in members’ districts rose.

The pool of money for the House — called the Members’ Representational Allowance — is now 20% lower than its peak in fiscal year 2010.

The Senate’s money has also shrunk since its peak in fiscal year 2010, according to the Congressional Research Service. It’s been on the rise for the past couple years but still hasn’t recovered completely. Adjusted for inflation, that pool of money is now equivalent to 2008 levels.

In the House, every member’s office gets the same allotment, while in the Senate, the money available to an office can sometimes depend on the size of the state they represent. Committees are funded through a separate pool of money.

Lawmakers have to work within that tight budget to not only pay staffers but also fund travel, office supplies, direct mail, and more. Salaries are set by the chief of staff or members themselves based on budget constraints. And their decisions are not always equitable.

“Whenever I do a performance review, it’s always praise, ‘You’ve done so well,’ ‘You’ve broken an internal record.’ But it doesn’t always translate into the fair compensation I’m looking for,” one current Democratic legislative aide told Insider. “The answer is always, ‘We don’t have enough in the budget right now.'”

There’s no formal human-resources office for Congress that can handle pay disputes or set fair wages across the institution. Rather, each office operates like its own business, setting salaries, promotions, and raises.

“Every staffer is forced to fend for themselves each and every year,” one senior Democratic House staffer said.

Low pay stymies diversity efforts

Multiple staffers told Insider a lack of equity in Hill salaries contributed to staffers of color either not getting in the door or not being able to work their way toward senior positions because the pay is unsustainable.

A 2019 House diversity survey found that nearly 70% of staffers were white, while just 14% were Black or African American, and just 7% were Asian. About 12% identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino and may be of any race. (The Middle Eastern and North African Staff Association told Insider that its members were counted with white staffers, which they want fixed so they can study the effect of pay on these employees.)

A full 47% of the 5,290 staffers who responded to the survey said they were dissatisfied with their pay, and 44% said they had considered employment elsewhere.

“Most Black people can’t afford to take a free internship, an unpaid internship,” said the former legislative aide who left the Hill for a job in city government — and a salary approaching six figures. The gateways to the Hill “ultimately serve as barriers for things like diversity,” he said.

“These issues are not silos,” he added. “These issues of diversity, of staff pay, of retention, all these other things that are connected to having staff on Capitol Hill, they’re all entangled.”

The current Democratic legislative aide, who is an Asian American woman, found out that a white male colleague promoted into the same role as her but who had less experience with legislative issues made $10,000 more than she did.

She said she confronted her chief of staff with an outline of her accomplishments and evidence of how her pay compared with what others made in the role.

“I looked him in the eye and said I deserve everything I’m asking for,” she said.

She eventually rose to a more senior position making $56,000 — but still makes less than her white colleague, she said.

“I am also the only person of color in my DC office,” the legislative aide said. “Oftentimes, I have to go above and beyond and just be perfect so there is no fault in order to ask for what I deserve.”

Her friends outside the Hill frequently tell her she could be making two or three times as much in the private sector, a possibility that seems more appealing each day, she said.

A committee staffer prepares the video streaming for senators and witnesses before a hearing in July.
Samuel Corum/Getty Images

Solutions but no decisions

The House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress has made staffer salaries a priority, holding several hearings this session.

“We’re spending so much money. It’s beyond my comprehension that we would not invest in having the best possible staff running our country,” Rep. William Timmons, a South Carolina Republican and vice chair of the committee, said at a May 6 hearing.

The current and most likely proposal, backed by Hoyer, would increase the Members’ Representational Allowance — that pot of money that’s distributed among all House offices — by 20%. He’s seeking a similar increase for committee and leadership budgets. Hoyer, along with Democratic Reps. Hakeem Jeffries of New York and Zoe Lofgren of California, also wants the House to study expanding staffer benefits.

In their joint letter, the nine staff associations banded together to urge lawmakers to adopt this proposal.

A separate February letter from 30 advocacy groups, including the Lincoln Network and Demand Progress, urged leaders on the House and Senate appropriations committees to pass legislation that would increase the legislative branch’s budget, which funds office stipends, by 10%.

Yet another idea would create a tiered system where staffers would earn a specific range for each job, similar to what exists across the federal government.

No decision on how to fix staff pay has been made yet. And whenever it comes, it might be too late to keep some talent on the Hill.

One member of the Senate Black Legislative Staff Caucus told Insider he had to decline three opportunities to work in senators’ offices because he would, in fact, be taking a pay cut from his $60,000-a-year salary.

He hoped to make a career in Congress but said “at this point, as a person of color in America, I’ve got to go somewhere that’s willing to pay me according to my worth.”

“If it’s on the Hill, great,” he said. “If it’s elsewhere, then great.”

GREEN CAPITALI$M
Canada selects HSBC, TD Securities as advisors for inaugural green bond issue

TORONTO (Reuters) - The Government of Canada has selected HSBC and TD Securities as structuring advisors for its first ever issue of green bonds, expected in the current fiscal year that began in April, HSBC said in a statement on Monday.

HSBC and TD Securities were hired to advise on the design of Canada's green bond framework, assist in the development of the on-going program and support a successful inaugural issuance, the statement added.

(Reporting by Fergal Smith; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

DO ANY OF THESE BANKS FUND BIG OIL? AND HSBC IS A HONG KONG BANK!

GREEN CAPITALI$M

Exclusive-IMF eyes new trust to provide aid to broader group of countries-Georgieva

By Andrea Shalal

© Reuters/POOL Financing of African Economies summit in Paris

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The International Monetary Fund is exploring creation of a new trust that could allow its members to lend their IMF reserves to more countries, including middle-income countries vulnerable to climate change, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said on Sunday.

Georgieva said leaders of the Group of Seven rich economies had given the IMF a 'green light' to keep working on the plan, and China - the world's second largest economy - had also expressed interest, along with middle-income countries that stand to benefit from such a fund.

She said the IMF would continue working on the "Resilience and Sustainability Trust" - which could help countries combat climate change or improve their health care systems - ahead of the July meeting of finance officials from the Group of 20 major economies, which includes China.

"Now we have the indication that we have a green light to go ahead, and we will reach out to others," Georgieva told Reuters in an interview after the end of the G7 leaders summit in Cornwall, England.

"China has expressed interest to participate, and I would expect there could be other emerging market economies with sound fundamentals and strong reserve positions that may also do the same," she said.

G7 leaders on Sunday said they welcomed an expansion of the global lender's emergency reserves, or Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), by $650 billion, and backed a global target of providing $100 billion to the most vulnerable countries, but said other countries should participate.

The IMF's Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust already allows members to share their IMF reserves, but small island states and other middle-income countries that have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and significant economic downturns, are not eligible for funding through that IMF vehicle.

'MORAL IMPERATIVE'

Georgieva welcomed the G7's commitment to donate one billion COVID-19 vaccine doses as a key step toward ending the pandemic, and said discussions would continue within the G20.

The IMF has been urging rich countries to act, warning that a big divergence in the recoveries of advanced and developing economies could undercut demand and disrupt supply chains, which would also affect countries that are recovering faster.

"This is a moral imperative and an economic necessity," Georgieva said, adding that allowing the gap between rich and poor countries to continue to widen could also trigger unrest.

"We have seen in the past that divergence that leads to more inequality, it creates a breeding ground for more instability in the world," she said.

Georgieva said she would work with IMF members in the coming months on how they could re-allocate some of their SDRs or use budget loans to reach - or even exceed - the $100 billion goal.

Countries could also use budget loans and other means to raise the money, she said, noting this was done successfully in the first year of the pandemic when the IMF sought donations for its Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust.

The IMF expects its board to formally approve the $650 billion SDR allocation in August, paving the way for member countries to donate their unneeded reserves to others in need.

The previously unreported new trust could help broaden the effort and make funds available to more countries, and for broader initiatives, in line with global goals for combating climate change.

Eric LeCompte, an adviser to the United Nations and executive director of Jubilee USA Network, said the IMF's work on the new trust marked "significant progress" for many middle income countries also hit hard by the pandemic.

"It means that more countries with needs can get aid and resources to get through the pandemic," he said.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; editing by Diane Craft)

Colorado gray wolves: Officials observe gray wolf pups for the first time in about 80 years

Spotting cute pups is worth celebrating any day, but in Colorado it's historic.

By Mawal Sidi, CNN JUN 13,2021

For the first time since the 1940s, a litter of gray wolves has been seen in Colorado.

Officials began tracking two adult wolves named "John" and "Jane" earlier this year. Fast-forward a few months, Colorado Parks and Wildlife staff saw "John" and "Jane" with three pups in Jackson County, about 150 miles northwest of Denver.

The gray wolves were eradicated by hunting and poisoning in the 1940s, but a ballot initiative to reintroduce the wolves onto the Western Slope of Colorado passed late last year. The measure requires the state to restore and manage gray wolves in the state by the end of 2023.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis emphasized the importance of the initiative to help the gray wolf population in the state.

"We welcome this historic den and the new wolf family to Colorado," Polis said Wednesday. "With voter passage last year of the initiative to require re-introduction of the wolf by the end of 2023, these pups will have plenty of potential mates when they grow up to start their own families."

But not everyone is celebrating. The pups don't stay small for long and grow up to become the largest living wild canine species.

The reintroduction has faced opposition from some ranchers concerned about their livestock, according to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

Part of the initiative provides compensation for loss of livestock due to the predator.

Officials will continue to monitor "John," "Jane" and the pups.

"Our hope is that we will eventually have photos to document this momentous occasion in Colorado's incredible and diverse wildlife history, but not bothering them remains a paramount concern," said Libbie Miller, Colorado Parks and Wildlife biologist.

Even though gray wolves have been taken off the federal endangered species list, they're still protected by the state of Colorado. Taking or killing one is punishable by a fine of $100,000, jail time and/or loss of hunting license.

IS IT A DIP OR A DROP, BIG DIFFERENCE

Germany’s Greens back Baerbock for chancellorship despite dip in polls

Kate Connolly in Berlin

THE GUARDIAN, JUN 13,2021

Germany’s Green party has said it remains confident of securing the chancellorship and succeeding Angela Merkel at the country’s autumn election despite a drop in the polls, as it officially endorsed its lead candidate for the job.

Setbacks in recent weeks have led to the Greens slipping to second place behind Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) after commanding the polls for the first time in years. But this did not dissuade delegates from wholeheartedly throwing their support behind Annalena Baerbock at the party’s annual gathering on Saturday.

She received 98.5% of support at the weekend conference in a former post office rail depot in Berlin which many participants watched via video link.

Using her victory speech to emphasise the “fundamental changes and reforms” which she said were needed throughout Germany, Baerbock, 40, said: “There can be no more excuses, no ducking or muddling through … we are fighting for a new awakening.”

She apologised for mistakes she had made in the past weeks, including over her failure to register extra payments to parliament as well as errors on her CV which have since been corrected. Critics have seized on both incidents, saying they prove the party’s lack of professionalism and trustworthiness, and they are believed to have contributed to her own personal fall in the polls from a month ago – from 28% to 16% – to put her behind her main rival, Armin Laschet of the CDU.

© Photograph: Axel Schmidt/Reuters Annalena Baerbock, the German Greens’ co-leader, speaks at her party’s annual conference in Berlin.

The latest poll showed the Greens have dropped 6 points in the polls to 20% and the CDU has risen 5 points to 28%, prompting speculation over whether the Greens will manage to regain their momentum.

The poll results have also led to calls for Baerbock’s co-leader, Robert Habeck, to take the candidacy from her, although the idea was rejected at the weekend. Their joint leadership was also reconfirmed in a vote on Saturday.

Baerbock thanked the party for its “full solidarity” and for the “tailwind” it had given her to deal with the “headwind of the past few weeks”.

The mood surrounding the end of the 16-year Merkel era, together with urgency over the climate emergency and growing optimism that the pandemic will soon be under control, is being seized on by the Green party, which hopes to garner many new voters when Germans go to the polls on 26 September.

“For the first time in decades change is in the air,” Baerbock told delegates. “An era is coming to an end, and we have the chance to found a new one.”

But the party’s biggest challenge remains how it will take voters with it, amid a growing realisation that enthusiasm among young people in particular to do something for the climate crisis does not necessarily translate into ballots as easily as it might have hoped.

Analysts have compared the gap between ideology and the ballot box to intent and action, pointing at studies which show that Germans’ intentions to behave in an environmentally friendly manner do not mean they will. In a recent questionnaire, 24% of frequent flyers said they would be prepared to pay a form of compensation for the C02 emissions they had caused. But in reality less than 1% do so.

The party is aware of the difficulty it will have to communicate the link between what it sees as moral aspiration and tangible action without sounding heavy-handed and didactic.

It has a long-standing reputation, which it is trying to shake off, as a stickler for regulations. It was ridiculed for suggesting the introduction of one meat-free day a week in work canteens eight years ago; it has been attacked for appearing to recently question the ecological sense of single-family homes; and Baerbock earned scorn after appearing to suggest short-haul flights should be banned. What she actually said was that the rail network should be developed to the extent that short-haul flights would become obsolete, but that was not the line which stuck.

But the overall and perhaps most damaging impression being successfully pushed by opponents is that the Greens could make life for many Germans not just more rule-bound and restrictive, but also a lot more expensive.

The party’s plans to raise petrol prices have earned it derision and prompted accusations its policies will hit the least well off, leaving Baerbock and Habeck at pains to prove they will strive for social fairness.

Delegates have grappled with the question of whether the party can manage to communicate its message that measures such as higher fuel costs and CO2 emission compensation will ultimately translate into a better world. It has pledged to give revenues back to those less well off.

Habeck, in particular, tried hard to hammer home the message to delegates and the wider audience, that the party is one of “Freiheit nicht Vorschrift” – freedom not regulation.

But while for some party supporters its policies are seen as going too far, others feel the party is not going nearly far enough.

The traditional frictions between the 40-year-old party’s wings of so-called “realos” (realists) and “fundis” or fundamentalists have changed, but the groups still very much make their positions felt and the gap between them is often considerable.

In a row over the CO2 emission price, party leaders have insisted they are committed to €60 (£51) a ton from 2023. But Jakob Blasel, a 21-year-old climate activist who wants to represent the party in the Bundestag, delivered a passionate plea to delegates via video link for a price of €80 a ton by 2022, to rise annually by €15. Only then, he argued, would Germany have a chance of reaching Paris climate goals to limit global warming to 1.5C. He warned the Greens against “beating a hasty retreat in the face of criticism” over climate protection.

Gottfried Boehm, architect of concrete churches, dies at 101

BERLIN (AP) — German architect Gottfried Boehm, who was famous for his concrete brutalist-style church buildings, has died at 101.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Boehm's Cologne architecture office on Thursday confirmed his death on Wednesday night but didn't give a cause.

Boehm, who was born in Offenbach in central Germany in 1920, built more than 50 churches, many of them in his signature concrete style. He was one of the most famous postwar architects in the country and in 1986 became the first German to receive the renowned Pritzker Architecture Prize.

One of his most best-known sacral buildings is the Catholic pilgrimage church Mary, Queen of Peace, in Neviges near the western city of Duesseldorf. Built in the brutalist style and consecrated in 1968, the church became famous for its irregular roof and forum-like interior.

Boehm also created other buildings such as the city hall of Bensberg near Cologne, a glass-and-steel fronted theater in Potsdam, and a pyramid-shaped public library in Ulm.

The governor of North Rhine-Westphalia state, Armin Laschet, praised Boehm for his work.

“His unique architecture style made him world-famous,” Laschet said adding that Boehm leaves behind a “visible and impressive lifework.”

The Associated Press

NOT FOR SALE, GIMME A BID ANYWAY
Montenegro has no plan to sell state property to ease debt - report

BELGRADE (Reuters) -Montenegro has denied it has plans to sell state property to ease its debt burden, a local newspaper said on Sunday, after a Reuters report quoted senior officials as saying the tiny Balkan country was preparing the way for asset sales.

© Reuters/STEVO VASILJEVIC FILE PHOTO: Workers fit a manhole on Bar-Boljare highway

The Reuters report on Friday also quoted a senior European Union official as saying Montenegro was looking to raise cheap EU credit in a plan - to be spearheaded by state lenders from France, Germany and Italy - to reduce its financial reliance on Chinese debt.

In 2014, Montenegro, with a population of 628,000 people, borrowed $944 million from China to fund a stretch of a highway to the border with its neighbour Serbia.

The loan sent total government debt skyrocketing and it now equals 103% of economic output.

The Dan daily newspaper, quoting an unnamed finance ministry official, said on Sunday there are no plans for selling state property for the repayment of the Chinese debt, "nor is there any need for that."

"This government has ensured that Montenegro has the money to finance all obligations, including those to Chinese creditors," Dan quoted the official as saying.

"We are open for cooperation with our European partners, to reach the most favorable ... conditions for financing of strategic projects ... such as the highway," the official added, according to the article.

Finance Minister Milojko Spajic told Reuters in a recent interview that the government wants to make a strategic review of assets, that could ultimately lead to regular sales. He also stressed that Montenegro's state finances were stable.

(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Gareth Jones and Andrew Heavens)

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment