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COVID-19: Urgent Economic Stimulus and Workplace Measures Required
Council of Global Unions Joint Statement
The rapid and wide spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the COVID-19 disease that it causes require an urgent global response to protect health and stimulate the economy. Governments and employers must act to protect workers and tackle transmission in workplaces.
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Workers in Cambodia and Myanmar hit hard by Coronavirus fall-out The global outbreak of the Coronavirus is slowing down the economy and eliminating thousands of jobs in the global supply chain in South East Asia. Cambodia and Myanmar are among the most affected countries in the region.

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Historic march in Chile on International Women's Day Unions, feminist and migrant groups in Chile marked this year’s International Women’s Day with a mass march in Santiago, raising awareness of inequality, gender based violence and pushing for a gender equality agenda.

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South Africa: 378 trapped mineworkers safely rescued 378 mineworkers were rescued on 10 March after being trapped underground for nine hours. The workers were trapped when a UV 72 machine used to transport workers and materials underground caught fire at Sibanye Stillwater Simunye Shaft in Rustenburg.

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Fighting gender inequality and violence in Madagascar In Antananarivo the International Women’s Day (IWD) demonstration of Malagasy unions was the culmination of a week of training and capacity building on gender equality and gender-based violence (GBV).

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A TOILET PAPER HOARDER

https://www.democraticunderground.org/11983804

The universe may have been filled with supermassive black holes at the dawn of time

By Rafi Letzter - Staff Writer 14 hours ago

It existed just 900 million years after the Big Bang.


This radio image shows two jets shooting out of the center of Cygnus A, a galaxy not too far from our own. A new paper reports discovering a similar object in a much more distant, ancient galaxy. That galaxy has a bright, relatavistic jet emanating from its central supermassive black hole pointed at Earth, making it a blazar.
(Image: © NRAO)

Nine hundred million years after the Big Bang, in the epoch of our universe's earliest galaxies, there was already a black hole 1 billion times the size of our sun. That black hole sucked in huge quantities of ionized gas, forming a galactic engine — known as a blazar — that blasted a superhot jet of bright matter into space. On Earth, we can still detect the light from that explosion more than 12 billion years later.

Astronomers had previously discovered evidence of primeval supermassive black holes in slightly younger "radio-loud active galactic nuclei," or RL AGNs. RL AGNs are galaxies with cores that look extra-bright to radio telescopes, which is considered evidence that they contain supermassive black holes. Blazars are a unique type of RL AGN that spit out two narrow jets of "relativistic" (near-light-speed) matter in opposite directions. Those jets emit narrow beams of light at many different wavelengths and have to be pointed right at Earth for us to detect them across such vast distances. This new blazar discovery moves the date of the oldest confirmed supermassive black hole to within the first billion years of the universe's history and suggests there were other, similar black holes in that era that we haven't detected.

"Thanks to our discovery, we are able to say that in the first billion years of life of the universe, there existed a large number of very massive black holes emitting powerful relativistic jets," Silvia Belladitta, a doctoral student at the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) in Milan and co-author of a new paper on the blazar, said in a statement.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/early-universe-black-hole-blazar-galaxy-discovey.html

Student discovers 5,000-year-old sword hidden in Venetian monastery

By Tom Metcalfe - Live Science Contributor a day ago

It's one of the oldest swords ever found.

The sword was mistakenly thought to be medieval. It is now thought to come from eastern Anatolia and to be about 5000 years-old – one of the oldest swords ever found.
(Image: © Ca' Foscari University of Venice/Andrea Avezzù)

A keen-eyed archaeology student made the find of a lifetime when she spotted one of the oldest swords on record, mistakenly grouped with medieval artifacts in a secluded Italian museum.

The ancient sword was thought to be medieval in origin and maybe a few hundred years old at most — but studies have shown that it dates back about 5,000 years, to what is now eastern Turkey, where swords are thought to have been invented, in the early Bronze Age.

The weapon was spotted in November 2017 by Vittoria Dall'Armellina, who was then a doctoral student in archaeology at Ca' Foscari University of Venice. She had made a day trip to the monastery on San Lazzaro degli Armeni, a tiny island on the edge of the Venetian lagoon.

https://www.livescience.com/ancient-anatolian-sword-in-venetian-monastery.html?utm_source=notification

Ecuador: State must urgently adopt public policy to protect human rights defenders facing grave risk

Ecuador: State must urgently adopt public policy to protect human rights defenders facing grave risks
12 March 2020, 14:00 UTC

Today, at the end of Amnesty International’s visit to Ecuador, the organization expressed concern about the lack of concrete measures taken by the state to guarantee the effective protection of human rights defenders, as well as highlighting the authorities’ persistent inability to carry out appropriate and effective investigations into attacks and threats against members of the Mujeres Amazónicas (Amazonian Women) collective. The organization also expressed concern at impunity for human rights violations committed during the October 2019 protests and the state’s failure to assess the impact of austerity measures on human rights.

“For any policy for the protection of human rights defenders to be effective, the authorities must first publicly recognize the legitimacy of human rights defenders' work and foster an environment that enables them to carry out this work in safe conditions,” said María José Veramendi, Amnesty International researcher for South America.

One year after the publication of the report “They will not stop us”, which exposed the flaws in the response of the Attorney General's Office to a series of attacks and death threats against Patricia Gualinga, Nema Grefa, Salomé Aranda and Margoth Escobar, all members of Mujeres Amazónicas, Amnesty International's research shows that investigations into these attacks have not made any significant progress.

For any policy for the protection of human rights defenders to be effective, the authorities must first publicly recognize the legitimacy of human rights defenders' work and foster an environment that enables them to carry out this work in safe conditions

María José Veramendi, Amnesty International researcher for South America

More:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/03/ecuador-personas-defensoras-urgente-adopcion-politica-publica-para-proteccion/

BERNIE SANDERS  I am honored to have the endorsement of Milwaukee's @AFTLocal212. Link to tweet Following a 10-month process involving full and part-time faculty, academic support staff and counselors, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Local 212’s Committee on Political Education (COPE) has endorsed Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders for president. “This endorsement is about values. Senator Bernie Sanders has been vocal and unwavering in his support for fair and equitable treatment of workers, access to high quality, affordable healthcare and strengthening of public education, to name a few”, declared Dr. Lisa Conley, an MATC Natural Science Instructor and President of Local 212. “At the end of the day, Senator Sanders most closely aligns with the very things that our union stands for.” Dr. Conley explained that the union polled its members last May to identify a top-tier slate of preferred candidates. A COPE team then analyzed the candidates’ positions on issues of critical importance to MATC employees and students, sharing this information with members who also participated in a later preference poll and a caucus event. The process culminated with COPE’s endorsement vote over the weekend. https://www.democraticunderground.org/?com=forum&id=1296

Airbus: End of Washington state tax break of Boeing just 'initial step'
Source: Reuters

BUSINESS NEWS MARCH 12, 2020 / 4:10 PM / UPDATED 4 MINUTES AGO

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Europe’s Airbus (AIR.PA) on Thursday welcomed a move by Washington state to remove what it called “illegal subsidies” to Boeing (BA.N), but said the U.S. planemaker had received billions of dollars in other subsidies and tax breaks.

The Washington state Senate voted on Thursday to remove an aerospace tax break for Boeing that had been contested by the European Union, sending the measure to Washington state Governor Jay Inslee for a potential signature.

Boeing said the move would bring the United States into compliance with World Trade Organization rules, but Airbus said it marked only “initial steps” and it remained to be seen how other aid provided to Boeing by the state of Kansas and some U.S. federal agencies would be addressed

Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Sandra Maler

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-usa-aircraft-airbus/airbus-end-of-washington-state-tax-break-of-boeing-just-initial-step-idUSKBN20Z3FK?il=0


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Washington state repeals pro-Boeing tax break; U.S. hopes to avoid EU tariffs

BUSINESS NEWS MARCH 12, 2020 / 2:39 PM / UPDATED 36 MINUTES AGO

WASHINGTON/SEATTLE (Reuters) - Washington state on Thursday moved to formally repeal an aerospace tax break that benefited U.S. planemaker Boeing (BA.N) and avert looming European Union tariffs on U.S. goods.

Boeing said the move would bring the United States into compliance with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, but Europe’s Airbus said it marked only “initial steps” toward resolving a longstanding transatlantic dispute over aircraft subsidies.

The Geneva-based WTO has found that Boeing and Airbus (AIR.PA), the world’s two largest planemakers, received billions of dollars of unfair subsidies in cases dating back to 2004. It has faulted both sides for failing to comply fully with previous rulings, opening the door to a tariff war.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-usa-aircraft-boeing/washington-state-repeals-pro-boeing-tax-break-u-s-hopes-to-avoid-eu-tariffs-idUSKBN20Z39A?il=0

DARTH VADER'S CAT

https://www.democraticunderground.org/10181328957

GOP uses emergency bill for coronavirus testing to fight about abortion

OF COURSE THEY DO
Source: American Independent

By Emily Singer -March 12, 2020

The White House is trying to kill legislation to fund coronavirus testing by adding anti-abortion language to it.

The White House is objecting to a Democratic bill that would fund coronavirus testing kits for all Americans by demanding that unrelated anti-abortion language be added to the legislation.

House Democrats introduced the "Families First" bill on Thursday, which, along with providing funding for coronavirus test kits, would also call for mandatory paid sick leave for all workers, and ensure that poor Americans hurt by the economic impact of the virus would have access to food security.

But the White House is opposed to the bill, with Donald Trump saying that the bill is filled with "goodies" Democrats have wanted to pass for years.

And in an apparent effort to build opposition to the bill, Republicans, including first son Donald Trump Jr., are claiming the $1 billion in funding the Democratic bill would make available for coronavirus testing would actually be an "abortion slush fund."

Read more: https://americanindependent.com/gop-coronavirus-bill-abortion-hyde-amendment-donald-trump-republicans-congress/

Republicans Are Opposing Paid Sick Leave & Holding Up Free Coronavirus Testing-- Over Abortion

'Republicans are opposing paid sick leave and holding up free coronavirus testing over abortion.' 

 By Laura Clawson For Daily Kos Labor, March 12, 2020.

Senate Republicans have backed down on the threat to wait until after a week-long recess to consider the House coronavirus response bill, and have canceled recess. But that doesn’t mean they’re gearing up to be reasonable about protecting families from the economic impact of the pandemic. “Per multiple sources, there are 2 issues emerging as sticking points in negotiations between the White House and Speaker Pelosi on the Coronavirus aid bill: paid sick leave and abortion,” NBC's Alex Moe tweeted. It’s a close call which of these is more shocking (without being all that surprising)—that Republicans are balking at paid sick leave during a pandemic or that Republicans are somehow turning pandemic response into an abortion fight.

The issue at play, abortion-wise, is that Republicans want to add anti-abortion language to the bill. That scans—as something ruthlessly partisan politicians with no regard for health or safety would do. It also comes in the context of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell having warned about the House Democrats’ bill—the one with the sick leave and coronavirus testing—being “an ideological wish list that was not tailored closely to the circumstances.”

According to the Daily Caller (no, I’m not linking), the issue was “a mandate for up to $1 billion to reimburse laboratory claims, which White House officials say would set a precedent of health spending without protections outlined in the Hyde Amendment.” So Democrats called for funding to cover laboratory costs of testing for coronavirus, and Republicans said no, because it would set a precedent that the federal government could spend money on health care without explicitly excluding abortion? IT’S CORONAVIRUS TESTING. But oh noes, it would set a precedent.

According to Politico Playbook, “The two sides resolved issues over federal funding of abortion in a separate bill that will also hit the floor.” Then there’s paid sick leave. Which is at least a relevant issue here. In fact, it’s one of the absolute central issues: People who may miss weeks of work because they’re sick, caring for a sick loved one, or caring for a child whose school is closed should not face hunger and eviction or foreclosure for it. We should not want these people going about their daily lives infecting other people, even if we lack the basic humanity to say they shouldn’t have to suffer through working while sick.

Paid sick leave is, for the record, extremely popular with the public...

More, https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/3/12/1926856/-Republicans-are-opposing-paid-sick-leave-and-holding-up-free-coronavirus-testing-over-abortion