#WATERISLIFE
Big tech data centers spark worry over scarce Western water

By ANDREW SELSKY and MANUEL VALDES

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In this Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021, photo, The Dalles Mayor Richard Mays looks at the view of his town and the Columbia River from his hilltop home in The Dalles, Oregon. Mays helped negotiate a proposal by Google to build new data centers in the town. The data centers require a lot of water to cool their servers, and would use groundwater and surface water, but not any water from the Columbia River. 

(AP Photo/Andrew Selsky)


THE DALLES, Ore. (AP) — Conflicts over water are as old as history itself, but the massive Google data centers on the edge of this Oregon town on the Columbia River represent an emerging 21st century concern.

Now a critical part of modern computing, data centers help people stream movies on Netflix, conduct transactions on PayPal, post updates on Facebook, store trillions of photos and more. But a single facility can also churn through millions of gallons of water per day to keep hot-running equipment cool.

Google wants to build at least two more data centers in The Dalles, worrying some residents who fear there eventually won’t be enough water for everyone — including for area farms and fruit orchards, which are by far the biggest users.

Across the United States, there has been some mild pushback as tech companies build and expand data centers — conflicts likely to grow as water becomes a more precious resource amid the threat of climate change and as the demand for cloud computing grows. Some tech giants have been using cutting-edge research and development to find less impactful cooling methods, but there are those who say the companies can still do more to be environmentally sustainable.

The concerns are understandable in The Dalles, the seat of Wasco County, which is suffering extreme and exceptional drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. The region last summer endured its hottest days on record, reaching 118 degrees Fahrenheit (48 Celsius) in The Dalles.

The Dalles is adjacent to the the mighty Columbia River, but the new data centers wouldn’t be able to use that water and instead would have to take water from rivers and groundwater that has gone through the city’s water treatment plant.

However, the snowpack in the nearby Cascade Range that feeds the aquifers varies wildly year-to-year and glaciers are melting. Most aquifers in north-central Oregon are declining, according to the U.S. Geological Survey Groundwater Resources Program.

Adding to the unease: The 15,000 town residents don’t know how much water the proposed data centers will use, because Google calls it a trade secret. Even the town councilors, who are scheduled to vote on the proposal on Nov. 8, had to wait until this week to find out.

Dave Anderson, public works director for The Dalles, said Google obtained the rights to 3.9 million gallons of water per day when it purchased land formerly home to an aluminum smelter. Google is requesting less water for the new data centers than that amount and would transfer those rights to the city, Anderson said.

“The city comes out ahead,” he said.

For its part, Google said it’s “committed to the long-term health of the county’s economy and natural resources.”

“We’re excited that we’re continuing conversations with local officials on an agreement that allows us to keep growing while also supporting the community,” Google said, adding that the expansion proposal includes a potential aquifer program to store water and increase supply during drier periods.

The U.S. hosts 30% of the world’s data centers, more than any other country. Some data centers are trying to become more efficient in water consumption, for example by recycling the same water several times through a center before discharging it. Google even uses treated sewage water, instead of using drinking water as many data centers do, to cool its facility in Douglas County, Georgia.

Facebook’s first data center took advantage of the cold high-desert air in Prineville, Oregon, to chill its servers, and went a step further when it built a center in Lulea, Sweden, near the Arctic Circle.

Microsoft even placed a small data center, enclosed in what looks like a giant cigar, on the seafloor off Scotland. After retrieving the barnacle-encrusted container last year after two years, company employees saw improvement in overall reliability because the servers weren’t subjected to temperature fluctuations and corrosion from oxygen and humidity. Team leader Ben Cutler said the experiment shows data centers can be kept cool without tapping freshwater resources.

A study published in May by researchers at Virginia Tech and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory showed one-fifth of data centers rely on water from moderately to highly stressed watersheds.

Tech companies typically consider tax breaks and availability of cheap electricity and land when placing data centers, said study co-author Landon Marston, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech.

They need to consider water impacts more seriously, and put the facilities in regions where they can be better sustained, both for the good of the environment and their own bottom line, Marston said.

“It’s also a risk and resilience issue that data centers and their operators need to face, because the drought that we’re seeing in the West is expected to get worse,” Marston said.

In this Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021, photo, Dawn Rasmussen stands at her well at her property on the outskirts of The Dalles, Oregon. She says the water table that her well draws from has dropped 15 feet in the last 15 years. She has deep concerns about Google's proposal to build more data centers, which use vast amounts of water, in the town. The city council is expected to vote soon on Google's proposal. As demand for cloud computing grows, the world's biggest tech companies are building more data centers, including in arid regions even though they use vast amounts of water per day.

 (AP Photo/Andrew Selsky)

  

In this Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021, photo, shows the exterior of a Google data center in The Dalles, Oregon. The Dalles City Council member Long-Curtiss wants to know more details about Google's proposal to build more data centers in the town before the city council votes on the matter. As demand for cloud computing grows, the world's biggest tech companies are building more data centers, including in arid regions even though they use vast amounts of water per day. Some residents of The Dalles, Oregon, are objecting to a proposal by Google to build more data centers there, fearing that, amid rising temperatures and drought, there won't be enough water for everyone. (AP Photo/Andrew Selsky)

About an hour’s drive east of The Dalles, Amazon is giving back some of the water its massive data centers use. Amazon’s sprawling campuses, spread between Boardman and Umatilla, Oregon, butt up against farmland, a cheese factory and neighborhoods. Like many data centers, they use water primarily in summer, with the servers being air-cooled the rest of the year.

About two-thirds of the water Amazon uses evaporates. The rest is treated and sent to irrigation canals that feed crops and pastures.

Umatilla City Manager Dave Stockdale appreciates that farms and ranches are getting that water, since the main issue the city had as Amazon’s facilities grew was that the city water treatment plant couldn’t have handled the data centers’ discharge.

John DeVoe, executive director of WaterWatch of Oregon, which seeks reform of water laws to protect and restore rivers, criticized it as a “corporate feel good tactic.”

“Does it actually mitigate for any harm of the server farm’s actual use of water on other interests who may also be using the same source water, like the environment, fish and wildlife?” DeVoe said.

Adam Selipsky, CEO of Amazon Web Services, insists that Amazon feels a sense of responsibility for its impacts.

“We have intentionally been very conscious about water usage in any of these projects,” he said, adding that the centers brought economic activity and jobs to the region.

Dawn Rasmussen, who lives on the outskirts of The Dalles, worries that her town is making a mistake in negotiating with Google, likening it to David versus Goliath.

She’s seen the level of her well-water drop year after year and worries sooner or later there won’t be enough for everyone.

“At the end of the day, if there’s not enough water, who’s going to win?” she asked.

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Follow Andrew Selsky on Twitter at https://twitter.com/andrewselsky

WHAT'S COP26 GONNA DO

In South Sudan, flooding called ‘worst thing in my lifetime’

Yel Aguer Deng, who does not know his age, walks through water from his compound to the Wanyhok-Akon road, near Malualkon in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State, South Sudan, Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021. The worst flooding that parts of South Sudan have seen in 60 years now surrounds his home of mud and grass. His field of sorghum, which fed his family, is under water. Surrounding mud dykes have collapsed. The United Nations says the flooding has affected almost a half-million people across South Sudan since May. (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

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MALUALKON, South Sudan (AP) — He feels like a man who has drowned.

The worst flooding that parts of South Sudan have seen in 60 years now surrounds his home of mud and grass. His field of sorghum, which fed his family, is under water. Surrounding mud dykes have collapsed.

Other people have fled. Only Yel Aguer Deng’s family and a few neighbors remain.

This is the third straight year of extreme flooding in South Sudan, further imperiling livelihoods of many of the 11 million people in the world’s youngest country. A five-year civil war, hunger and corruption have all challenged the nation. Now climate change, which the United Nations has blamed on the flooding, is impossible to ignore.

As he empties a fishing net, Daniel Deng, a 50-year-old father of seven, recalls a life of being forced to flee again and again because of insecurity. “But this one event (the flood) is too much,” he said. “It is the worst thing that happened in my lifetime.”

The U.N. says the flooding has affected almost a half-million people across South Sudan since May. Here in Northern Bahr el Ghazal state, the Lol river has burst its banks.

This state is usually spared from extreme flooding that plagues the South Sudan states of Jonglei and Unity that border the White Nile and the Sudd marshlands. But now, houses and crops have been swamped.

A new report this week coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization warned of increasing such climate shocks to come across much of Africa, the continent that contributes the least to global warming but will suffer from it most.

In these rural South Sudan communities, shelters of braided grass put up a fragile resistance in a land of seemingly endless water.

Children standing on a small mud dyke are reflected in the stagnant water, in Langic, Northern Bahr el Ghazal State, South Sudan, Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021. This is the third straight year of extreme flooding in South Sudan, further imperiling livelihoods in the world's youngest country. A five-year civil war, hunger and corruption have all challenged the nation. Now climate change, which the United Nations has blamed on the flooding, is impossible to ignore.

(AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

In Langic village, Ajou Bol Yel’s family of seven hosted nine neighbors who had lost their homes. The elders sleep outside on beds protected by mosquito nets, while the children share the floor.

In Majak Awar, some 100 families have been displaced twice, in June when homes were flooded and again in August when their shelters were ruined, too.

“I want to leave for Sudan,” whispered Nyibol Arop, a 27-year-old mother of five, as she boiled her morning tea just steps away from the stagnant water that threatens her current shelter.

It is hard to see a stable future when constantly on the move, a lesson learned during the civil war that displaced millions of people before a peace agreement in 2018.

“Floods are not constant. Some people will stay, and some will go,” said Thomas Mapol, a 45-year-old father of nine, as he showed off the destroyed houses of his village near Majak Awar. “But me, I cannot move anywhere. There is no other place that I know.”

Dozens missing in Nepal as floods, mudslides kill over 100 yesterday

People wade past a flooded area in Dipayal Silgadhi, Nepal, Thursday, Oct. 21, 2021. Floods and landslides triggered by days of torrential rains have killed at least 99 people in Nepal since Monday, officials said. (AP Photo/Laxmi Prasad Ngakhusi)


KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Nepalese authorities on Friday searched for dozens of people missing in this week’s heavy rains, floods and landslides, as survivors complained they were yet to receive any government help.

The death toll has crossed 100 in the country’s eastern and western parts, said police spokesperson Basanta Bahadur Kunwar.

At least 40 others have been injured by landslides and house collapses, and another 41 people were missing, Kunwar said.

The downpour subsided in some parts and the weather is expected to improve across the Himalayan nation over the weekend.

Heavy rains also caused havoc in neighboring India this week, killing at least 88 people and flooding roads, destroying bridges and causing landslides that washed away several homes.

On Thursday, Nepal’s Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba visited the flood-stricken areas in the western region and promised a government relief package. However, many families said they were still waiting for government supplies and facing tough times on their own.

Bhimraj Shahi, who lost six family members in landslides in remote Humla district, said rescue teams reached the site more than 10 hours after they were hit on Monday.

“Although there has been an announcement from the government, the actual help hasn’t yet arrived for the family,” said Shahi.


The disasters have wiped out crops and homes, dealing a blow to families already grappling with the devastating fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Azmat Ulla of the International Federation of Red Crescent Societies in Nepal. Red Cross teams were aiding evacuation efforts in both countries.

“The people of Nepal and India are sandwiched between the pandemic and worsening climate disasters, heavily impacting millions of lives and livelihoods,” he added.

Kunwar said rescue teams have been relocating people to safer locations and taking dozens of injured to hospitals.

Authorities were still trying to ascertain the number of displaced and the full extent of damage.

Landslides and floods are common in India’s Himalayan north. Scientists say they are becoming more frequent as global warming contributes to the melting of glaciers.

In February, flash floods killed nearly 200 people and washed away houses in northern Uttarakhand state in India. In 2013, thousands of people were killed in floods there.

Where are the workers? Cutoff of jobless aid spurs no influx

SO MUCH FOR THAT RIGHT WING TROPE

Curtis McCray, a Mississippi Department of Corrections recruiter, left, points out a positive testimonial to a job applicant during the Lee County Area Job Fair in Tupelo, Miss., Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2021. Employers representing a variety of manufacturing, production, service industry, medical and clerical companies attended the day long affair with an eye towards recruitment, hiring, training and retention. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)


INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Earlier this year, an insistent cry arose from business leaders and Republican governors: Cut off a $300-a-week federal supplement for unemployed Americans. Many people, they argued, would then come off the sidelines and take the millions of jobs that employers were desperate to fill.

Yet three months after half the states began ending that federal payment, there’s been no significant influx of job seekers.

In states that cut off the $300 check, the workforce — the number of people who either have a job or are looking for one — has risen no more than it has in the states that maintained the payment. That federal aid, along with two jobless aid programs that served gig workers and the long-term unemployed, ended nationally Sept. 6. Yet America’s overall workforce actually shrank that month.

“Policymakers were pinning too many hopes on ending unemployment insurance as a labor market boost,” said Fiona Greig, managing director of the JPMorgan Chase Institute, which used JPMorgan bank account data to study the issue. “The work disincentive effects were clearly small.”

Labor shortages have persisted longer than many economists expected, deepening a mystery at the heart of the job market. Companies are eager to add workers and have posted a near-record number of available jobs. Unemployment remains elevated. The economy still has 5 million fewer jobs than it did before the pandemic. Yet job growth slowed in August and September.

An analysis of state-by-state data by The Associated Press found that workforces in the 25 states that maintained the $300 payment actually grew slightly more from May through September, according to data released Friday, than they did in the 25 states that cut off the payment early, most of them in June. The $300-a-week federal check, on top of regular state jobless aid, meant that many of the unemployed received more in benefits than they earned at their old jobs.

State Employment and Unemployment (Monthly) News Release (bls.gov)

An earlier study by Arindrajit Dube, an economist at University of Massachusetts, Amherst and several colleagues found that the states that cut off the $300 federal payment saw a small increase in the number of unemployed taking jobs. But it also found that it didn’t draw more people off the sidelines to look for work.

Economists point to a range of factors that are likely keeping millions of former recipients of federal jobless aid from returning to the workforce. Many Americans in public-facing jobs still fear contracting COVID-19, for example. Some families lack child care.

Other people, like Rachel Montgomery of Anderson, Indiana, have grown to cherish the opportunity to spend more time with their families and feel they can get by financially, at least for now. Montgomery, a 37-year-old mother, said she has become much “pickier” about where she’s willing to work after having lost a catering job last year. Losing the $300-a-week federal payment hasn’t changed her mind. She’ll receive her regular state jobless aid for a few more weeks.

“Once you’ve stayed home with your kids and family like this, who wants to physically have to go back to work?” she said. “As I’m looking and looking, I’ve told myself that I’m not going to sacrifice pay or flexibility working remotely when I know I’m qualified to do certain things. But what that also means is that it’s taking longer to find those kinds of jobs.”

Indeed, the pandemic appears to have caused a re-evaluation of priorities, with some people deciding to spend more time with family and others insistent on working remotely or gaining more flexible hours.

Some former recipients, especially older, more affluent ones, have decided to retire earlier than they had planned. With Americans’ overall home values and stock portfolios having surged since the pandemic struck, Fed officials estimate that up to 2 million more people have retired since then than otherwise would have.

And after having received three stimulus checks in 18 months, plus federal jobless aid in some cases, most households have larger cash cushions than they did before the pandemic. Greig and her colleagues at JPMorgan found in a study that the median bank balance for the poorest one-quarter of households has jumped 70% since COVID hit. A result is that some people are taking time to consider their options before rushing back into the job market.

Graham Berryman, a 44-year-old resident of Springfield, Missouri, has been living off savings since Missouri cut off the $300-a-week federal jobless payment in June. He has had temporary work reviewing documents for law firms in the past. But he hasn’t found anything permanent since August 2020.

“I’m not lazy,” Berryman said. “I am unemployed. That does not mean I’m lazy. Just because someone cannot find suitable work in their profession doesn’t mean they’re trash to be thrown away.”

Likewise, some couples have decided that they can get by with only one income, rather than two, at least temporarily.

Sarah Hamby of Kokomo, Indiana, lost her $300-a-week federal payment this summer after Gov. Eric Holcomb, a Republican, ended that benefit early. Hamby’s husband, who is 65, has kept his job working an overnight shift at a printing press throughout the pandemic. But he may decide to join the ranks of people retiring earlier than they’d planned.

And Hamby, 51, may do so herself if she doesn’t find work soon. The jobs she had for decades at auto factories have largely disappeared. The positions that she sees available now require skills she doesn’t have. Yet she isn’t desperate for just any job.

“I’m at a point where I feel too old to go off and get educated or trained to do other type of work,” she said. “And to be honest, I don’t want to go work at a computer, in an office, like what a lot of us are being pushed to do. So now I’m stuck between doing some line of work that pays too little for what it’s worth — or is too physically demanding — or I just don’t work.”

Nationally, the proportion of women who were either working or looking for work in September fell for a second straight month, evidence that many parents — mostly mothers — are still unable to manage their childcare duties to return to work. Staffing at childcare centers has fallen, reducing the care that is available. And while schools have reopened for in-person learning, frequent closings because of COVID outbreaks have been disruptive for some working parents.

Exacerbating the labor shortfall, a record number of people quit their jobs in August, in some cases spurred by the prospect of higher pay elsewhere.

In Missouri, a group of businesses, still frustrated by labor shortages more than three months after the state cut off the $300-a-week federal jobless checks, paid for billboards in Springfield that said: “Get Off Your Butt!” and “Get. To. Work.”

The state has seen no growth in its workforce since ending emergency benefits.

“We don’t know where people are,” said Brad Parke, general manager of Greek Corner Screen Printing and Embroidery, who helped pay for the billboards. “Obviously, they’re not at work. Apparently, they’re at home.”

Richard von Glahn, policy director for Missouri Jobs With Justice, an advocacy group, suggested that many people on the sidelines of the job market want more benefits or the flexibility to care for children.

“People don’t want to go back” to the pre-pandemic job market, von Glahn said. “Employers have a role in creating a work environment and offering a package that provides workers the security they need.”

In Wyoming, fewer people are in the workforce now than when the state cut off all emergency jobless aid. Fear of contracting COVID-19 likely discouraged some people from seeking jobs, Wenlin Liu, chief economist at the state Economic Analysis Division, said last week.

Wyoming has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, he noted, and has been a COVID-19 hotspot since late summer. The surge in infections, Liu said, may be causing some parents to keep their children home.

State Rep. Landon Brown, a Republican, defended the cutoff of federal unemployment aid.

“Wyoming,” Brown said, “is not interested in continuing to allow the federal government to keep people away from jobs, paying them as much to stay home in some cases as to go and get a job.”

Mississippi ended all emergency jobless aid on June 12. Yet it had fewer people working in August than in May. In Tupelo last week, a job fair attracted 60 companies, including a recruiter from VT Halter Marine, a shipbuilder located 300 miles south. About 150 to 200 job seekers also attended, fewer than some businesses had hoped.

Adam Todd had organized the job fair for the Mississippi Department of Employment Security, which helps people find jobs and distributes unemployment benefits. The agency has received “calls of desperation,” Todd said, “from businesses needing to recruit workers during the pandemic.

“We’re in a different point in time than we have been in a very long time,” Todd said. “The job seeker is truly in the driver’s seat right now.”

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Fenn is a data journalist based in New York. Smith is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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Rugaber reported from Arlington, Virginia. AP Writers Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi, Mead Gruver in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Summer Ballentine in Jefferson City, Missouri, contributed to this report.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M 

Jury finds Lev Parnas guilty of campaign finance criminal charges


Giuliani Associate Lev Parnas was found guilty Friday of campaign finance criminal charges.

 File Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI | License Photo


Oct. 22 (UPI) -- A jury found Lev Parnas, a former associate of Rudy Giuliani, guilty Friday of six counts of campaign finance criminal charges.

Parnas was charged with campaign schemes in which he used money from a Russian backer to fund political donations to win support for a recreational marijuana business.

He also was convicted of lying to the Federal Election Commission about funneling political contributions from Igor Fruman and a fake company to pro-Donald Trump committees, including a $325,000 contribution to the America First Action Super PAC.

Co-defendant Andrey Kukushkin was found guilty of two counts related to the use of Russian money in political campaigns.

The jury deliberated for six hours after the two-week trial in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

Parnas, a Florida businessman who was born in the Ukraine, faces up to five years in prison for each of five counts and a maximum of 20 years for a sixth count of falsifying records to the FEC.

Parnas and Fruman, who pleaded guilty last month to one count of soliciting foreign campaign contributions, were arrested in October 2019 at Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C., before boarding a flight.

Parnas also is connected to events that led to former President Donald Trump's first impeachment. He provided information to House investigators about his involvement in an effort by Giuliani, Trump's personal attorney at the time, to pressure Ukrainian officials to investigate Joe Biden.

Prosecutors said Parnas gained access to elected officials and candidates through illegal fundraising efforts and showed photos of Parnas with Trump and Giuliani.

Prosecutor Hagan Cordell Scotten described the campaign scheme using contributions tied to Russian donor Andrey Muraviev during closing arguments Thursday.

"The purpose behind this conspiracy was influence buying," Scotten said. "The voters would never know whose money was pouring into our elections."

The defense argued that Parnas didn't understand campaign finance rules, was "in well over his head" and hadn't willfully broken any laws.

Parnas is to face a second trial for fraud charges related to another company, Fraud Guarantee.

Giuliani associate convicted of campaign finance crimes


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Lev Parnas leaves Federal court, in New York, Friday, Oct. 22, 2021. A New York jury convicted Parnas, a former associate of Rudy Giuliani on Friday of charges that he made illegal campaign contributions to influence U.S. politicians and advance his business interests. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

NEW YORK (AP) — A Florida businessman who helped Rudy Giuliani’s effort to dig up dirt on Joe Biden in Ukraine was convicted Friday of campaign finance crimes, including funneling a Russian entrepreneur’s money to U.S. politicians.

Lev Parnas was on trial for more than two weeks as prosecutors accused him of using other people’s money to pose as a powerful political broker and cozy up to some of the nation’s star Republicans.

One part of the case alleged that Parnas and an associate made illegal donations through a corporate entity in 2018 as they tried to jump-start a new energy company, including a $325,000 donation to America First Action, a super PAC supporting former President Donald Trump.

Another part said he used the wealth of a Russian financier, Andrey Muraviev, to donate to Republicans in Nevada, Florida and other states, ostensibly in support of an effort to launch a legal, recreational marijuana business.

Parnas, 49, was convicted on all six counts after about five hours of jury deliberations.

The Soviet-born businessman had insisted through his lawyer that he never used the Russian’s money for political donations. He briefly closed his eyes and shook his head as the verdict was read.

“I’ve never hid from nobody. I’ve always stood to tell the truth,” Parnas said as he emerged from the courtroom. His lawyer, Joseph Bondy, promised an appeal Parnas said it was “not the end of the story.”

“I’m sad. But at this time, I just want to get home to my wife and kids,” he said.

A co-defendant, Ukraine-born investor Andrey Kukushkin, was convicted of being part of the effort to use Muraviev’s money for political contributions. He had also denied any wrongdoing. Kukushkin and his attorney left the courthouse without speaking to reporters.

The case had drawn interest because of the deep involvement of Parnas and a former co-defendant, Igor Fruman, in Giuliani’s efforts to get Ukrainian officials to investigate Joe Biden’s son during Biden’s campaign for president.

Giuliani remains under criminal investigation as authorities decide whether his interactions with Ukraine officials required him to register as a foreign agent, but he wasn’t alleged to have been involved in illegal campaign contributions and wasn’t part of the New York trial.

The case did, though, give an up-close look at how Parnas entered Republican circles in 2018 with a pattern of campaign donations big enough to get him meetings with the party’s stars.

“In order to gain influence with American politicians and candidates, they illegally funneled foreign money into the 2018 midterm elections with an eye toward making huge profits in the cannabis business,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement following the verdict. “Campaign finance laws are designed to protect the integrity of our free and fair elections – unencumbered by foreign interests or influence – and safeguarding those laws is essential to preserving the freedoms that Americans hold sacred.”

In addition to the $325,000 donation to America First Action, prosecutors said Parnas and Fruman orchestrated donations to U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, of Texas, and to other committees supporting House Republicans.

Giuliani and Trump were sparsely mentioned during the trial, although a photograph featuring Parnas with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, was one of the first exhibits shown to jurors during closing arguments.

DeSantis was among those who received campaign contributions that prosecutors said were traced to $1 million that Parnas and Fruman received from Muraviev, who has been involved in several U.S. cannabis ventures.

About $100,000 of Muraviev’s money went toward campaign contributions in what Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagan Scotten called a conspiracy to secretly bring his “wealth and corruption into American politics” in violation of laws barring foreign donations to U.S. political candidates.

“The voters would never know whose money was pouring into our elections,” Scotten said.

Former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, now a candidate for U.S. Senate, testified during the trial that a blustering Parnas suggested he could raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for him in 2018. He eventually came through only with a $10,000 check that Laxalt’s lawyers told him to reject.

Bondy, representing Parnas, had called the allegations against his client “absurd.”

He insisted in his closing argument that Muraviev’s money went toward supporting legal marijuana businesses looking to expand. Muraviev was not charged in the case.

Kukushkin’s lawyer, Gerald Lefcourt, sought to portray his client as an unknowing dupe who was mocked behind his back by other participants as mentally challenged.

Following the verdict, prosecutors asked for immediate incarceration of Parnas and Kukushkin, citing a risk of flight, but the judge allowed them to remain free on bail while awaiting sentencing.

The charges against Parnas collectively carry the potential for decades behind bars, but any prison sentence would likely be measured in years, rather than decades.

Fruman pleaded guilty earlier this year to a single count of solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national. He awaits sentencing.

Another co-defendant, David Correia, also pleaded guilty and has been sentenced to a year in prison for crimes including defrauding investors in an insurance company that had paid Giuliani a $500,000 consulting fee.

Parnas awaits a second trial in connection with that scheme.

Giuliani barely factored in the trial, though a video of him with Parnas was among exhibits jurors could view during deliberations.

The former New York mayor insisted he knew nothing about potentially illegal campaign contributions and has said everything he did in Ukraine was done on Trump’s behalf and there is no reason he would have had to register as a foreign agent.

Giuliani’s company and attorney didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment on the verdict.

Amid the Capitol riot, Facebook faced its own insurrection

By ALAN SUDERMAN and JOSHUA GOODMAN

In this Jan. 6, 2021 file photo insurrectionists loyal to President Donald Trump try to open a door of the U.S. Capitol as they riot in Washington. New internal documents provided by former Facebook employee-turned-whistleblower Frances Haugen provide a rare glimpse into how the company, after years under the microscope for the policing of its platform, appears to have simply stumbled into the Jan. 6 riot

 U.S. Capitol Police push back rioters who were trying to enter the U.S. Capitol on on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — As supporters of Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6th, battling police and forcing lawmakers into hiding, an insurrection of a different kind was taking place inside the world’s largest social media company.

Thousands of miles away, in California, Facebook engineers were racing to tweak internal controls to slow the spread of misinformation and inciteful content. Emergency actions — some of which were rolled back after the 2020 election — included banning Trump, freezing comments in groups with a record for hate speech, filtering out the “Stop the Steal” rallying cry and empowering content moderators to act more assertively by labeling the U.S. a “Temporary High Risk Location” for political violence.

At the same time, frustration inside Facebook erupted over what some saw as the company’s halting and often reversed response to rising extremism in the U.S.

“Haven’t we had enough time to figure out how to manage discourse without enabling violence?” one employee wrote on an internal message board at the height of the Jan. 6 turmoil. “We’ve been fueling this fire for a long time and we shouldn’t be surprised it’s now out of control.”

It’s a question that still hangs over the company today, as Congress and regulators investigate Facebook’s part in the Jan. 6 riots.

New internal documents provided by former Facebook employee-turned-whistleblower Frances Haugen provide a rare glimpse into how the company appears to have simply stumbled into the Jan. 6 riot. It quickly became clear that even after years under the microscope for insufficiently policing its platform, the social network had missed how riot participants spent weeks vowing — on Facebook itself — to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election victory.

The documents also appear to bolster Haugen’s claim that Facebook put its growth and profits ahead of public safety, opening the clearest window yet into how Facebook’s conflicting impulses — to safeguard its business and protect democracy — clashed in the days and weeks leading up to the attempted Jan. 6 coup.

This story is based in part on disclosures Haugen made to the Securities and Exchange Commission and provided to Congress in redacted form by Haugen’s legal counsel. The redacted versions received by Congress were obtained by a consortium of news organizations, including The Associated Press.

What Facebook called “Break the Glass” emergency measures put in place on Jan. 6 were essentially a toolkit of options designed to stem the spread of dangerous or violent content that the social network had first used in the run-up to the bitter 2020 election. As many as 22 of those measures were rolled back at some point after the election, according to an internal spreadsheet analyzing the company’s response.

“As soon as the election was over, they turned them back off or they changed the settings back to what they were before, to prioritize growth over safety,” Haugen said in an interview with “60 Minutes.”

An internal Facebook report following Jan. 6, previously reported by BuzzFeed, faulted the company for having a “piecemeal” approach to the rapid growth of “Stop the Steal” pages, related misinformation sources, and violent and inciteful comments.

Facebook says the situation is more nuanced and that it carefully calibrates its controls to react quickly to spikes in hateful and violent content, as it did on Jan 6. The company said it’s not responsible for the actions of the rioters and that having stricter controls in place prior to that day wouldn’t have helped.

Facebook’s decisions to phase certain safety measures in or out took into account signals from the Facebook platform as well as information from law enforcement, said spokeswoman Dani Lever. “When those signals changed, so did the measures.”

Lever said some of the measures stayed in place well into February and others remain active today.

Some employees were unhappy with Facebook’s managing of problematic content even before the Jan. 6 riots. One employee who departed the company in 2020 left a long note charging that promising new tools, backed by strong research, were being constrained by Facebook for “fears of public and policy stakeholder responses” (translation: concerns about negative reactions from Trump allies and investors).

“Similarly (though even more concerning), I’ve seen already built & functioning safeguards being rolled back for the same reasons,” wrote the employee, whose name is blacked out.

Research conducted by Facebook well before the 2020 campaign left little doubt that its algorithm could pose a serious danger of spreading misinformation and potentially radicalizing users.

One 2019 study, entitled “Carol’s Journey to QAnon—A Test User Study of Misinfo & Polarization Risks Encountered through Recommendation Systems,” described results of an experiment conducted with a test account established to reflect the views of a prototypical “strong conservative” — but not extremist — 41-year North Carolina woman. This test account, using the fake name Carol Smith, indicated a preference for mainstream news sources like Fox News, followed humor groups that mocked liberals, embraced Christianity and was a fan of Melania Trump.

Within a single day, page recommendations for this account generated by Facebook itself had evolved to a “quite troubling, polarizing state,” the study found. By day 2, the algorithm was recommending more extremist content, including a QAnon-linked group, which the fake user didn’t join because she wasn’t innately drawn to conspiracy theories.

A week later the test subject’s feed featured “a barrage of extreme, conspiratorial and graphic content,” including posts reviving the false Obama birther lie and linking the Clintons to the murder of a former Arkansas state senator. Much of the content was pushed by dubious groups run from abroad or by administrators with a track record for violating Facebook’s rules on bot activity.

Those results led the researcher, whose name was redacted by the whistleblower, to recommend safety measures running from removing content with known conspiracy references and disabling “top contributor” badges for misinformation commenters to lowering the threshold number of followers required before Facebook verifies a page administrator’s identity.

Among the other Facebook employees who read the research the response was almost universally supportive.

“Hey! This is such a thorough and well-outlined (and disturbing) study,” one user wrote, their name blacked out by the whistleblower. “Do you know of any concrete changes that came out of this?”

Facebook said the study was an one of many examples of its commitment to continually studying and improving its platform.

Another study turned over to congressional investigators, titled “Understanding the Dangers of Harmful Topic Communities,” discussed how like-minded individuals embracing a borderline topic or identity can form “echo chambers” for misinformation that normalizes harmful attitudes, spurs radicalization and can even provide a justification for violence.

Examples of such harmful communities include QAnon and, hate groups promoting theories of a race war.

“The risk of offline violence or harm becomes more likely when like-minded individuals come together and support one another to act,” the study concludes.

Charging documents filed by federal prosecutors against those alleged to have stormed the Capitol have examples of such like-minded people coming together.

Prosecutors say a reputed leader in the Oath Keepers militia group used Facebook to discuss forming an “alliance” and coordinating plans with another extremist group, the Proud Boys, ahead of the riot at the Capitol.

“We have decided to work together and shut this s—t down,” Kelly Meggs, described by authorities as the leader of the Florida chapter of the Oath Keepers, wrote on Facebook, according to court records.

ANOTHER FB WHISTLEBLOWER

Facebook 'prizes growth and profits' over combatting 'hate speech, misinformation, and other threats to the public', new whistleblower affidavit claims 

A former member of Facebook's Integrity Team said the company failed to combat dangers to society and only focused on making a profit

The whistleblower alleged that top officials shot down concerns regarding misinformation and hate speech, saying it was only 'a flash in the pan'

The former employee also lamented Facebook's failure to curb hate speech in Myanmar, which propagated the 2017 ethnic killings of the Rohingya

 
'I, working for Facebook, had been a party to genocide,' the whistleblower wrote

The allegations come after whistleblower Frances Haugen's bombshell testimony before congress on Facebook's failings

By RONNY REYES FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 22 October 2021 

A new whistleblower affidavit submitted by a former Facebook employee accuses the social media giant of prioritizing profits over their due diligence to combat hate speech, misinformation and other threats to the public.

The new allegations, submitted anonymously under penalty of perjury, echoed the claims made by fellow whistleblower Frances Haugen, who delivered a scathing testimony before Congress earlier this month on Facebook's moral failings.

In the most dramatic line of the affidavit, the former employee anguished over Facebook's inability to act quickly to help curb racial killings in Myanmar in 2017 as military officials used the site to spread hate speech.

'I, working for Facebook, bad been a party to genocide,' the whistleblower wrote.

The new allegations come after whistleblower Frances Haugen, pictured, testified before Congress earlier this month over Facebook's failings

The anonymous whistleblower accused one of Facebook's top communication officials, Tucker Bounds, pictured, of brushing aside an employee's concern of misinformation

Building on Haugen's statements, the anonymous whistleblower, who worked on Facebook's Integrity Team, also shared a story about a top company official brushing aside worries of election interference, the Washington Post reports.

As the company was looking to quell political controversy following Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, Facebook communications official Tucker Bounds allegedly said, 'It will be a flash in the pan.'

'Some legislators will get pissy. And then in a few weeks they will move onto something else. Meanwhile we are printing money in the basement, and we are fine.'

The whistleblower explained that Bounds' alleged viewpoint was common among the leadership in the company, and other former employees have said that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg were well aware of the problems.

Bounds has denied the claim and both he and Facebook chastised the Washington Post's reporting of the affidavit.

'It sets a dangerous precedent to hang an entire story on a single source making a wide range of claims without any apparent corroboration,' Facebook spokeswoman Erin McPike said in a statement.

+6

Former employees said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and COO Sheryl Sandberg were aware of Facebook's failings but did little to fix the situation

Zuckerberg, shown testifying before congress in 2019, has defended his company despite leaked documents and testimony from former employees detailing the company's wrongs

This is the first time the company has faced such accusations since the internal memos released and testimony given by Haugen.

Haugen and the new whistleblower also submitted the allegations to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which oversees all publicly traded companies.

In the SEC affidavit, the anonymous ex-employee alleges that Facebook officials routinely undermined efforts within the company to fight misinformation and hate speech out of fear of angering then-President Donald Trump and his allies.

The former employee said that on one occasion, Facebook's Public Policy team defended a 'white list' that exempted the alt-right media company Breitbart News and other Trump-aligned publishers from Facebook's ordinary rules against spreading fake news.

When an employee questioned this policy, Joel Kaplan, Facebook's vice president of global policy, reportedly shot down any concerns.

'Do you want to start a fight with Steven Bannon,' Kaplan allegedly said.

Kaplan, who had been previously criticized by former employees for allegedly seeking to protect conservative interests on Facebook, denies he ever showed bias.

'There has never been a whitelist that exempts publishers, including Breitbart, from Facebook's rules against misinformation.'

The whistleblower also complained that Facebook had not been aggressive enough when it came to military officials in Myanmar using the platform to spread hate speech during the mass killings of the Rohingya ethnic group.

Although Facebook had previously acknowledged its failure to act swiftly in the mass deaths of the Rohingya people, the company said it no longer makes such mistakes.

'Facebook's approach in Myanmar today is fundamentally different from what it was in 2017, and allegations that we have not invested in safety and security in the country are wrong,' McPike said in a statement.

The whistleblower went on to accuse Facebook of failing to properly police the secret groups set up on the site.

The former employee said the secret group enable 'terrifying and aberrant behaviors' and are poorly monitored. They go on to say that Facebook Groups have become havens for crime.

These are claims echoed by Gretchen Peters, of the Alliance to Counter Crime Online, who has filed a series of complaints against Facebook for its alleged failings since 2017.

Those failing include permitting terrorist content, drug sales, allowing hate speech and misinformation to flourish, all while inadequately warning investors about any potential risks.

'Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives repeatedly claimed high rates of success in restricting illicit and toxic content — to lawmakers, regulators and investors — when in fact they knew the firm could not remove this content and remain profitable,' Peters said in a new complaint filed on Friday.

Haugen (pictured testifying in Congress on October 5), who claims Facebook puts 'profits before people,' earlier this month released tens of thousands of pages of internal research documents she secretly copied before leaving her job in the company's civic integrity unit

Facebook whistleblower says Zuckerberg puts profits before people

Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen's testimony to Congress


During a Senate Commerce subcommittee hearing on October 5, Whistleblower Frances Haugen called for transparency about how Facebook entices its users to keep scrolling on its apps, and the harmful effect it can have on users.

'As long as Facebook is operating in the shadows, hiding its research from public scrutiny, it is unaccountable,' said Haugen, a former product manager on Facebook's civic misinformation team. She left the nearly $1 trillion company with tens of thousands of confidential documents.

'The company's leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer, but won't make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people. Congressional action is needed,' Haugen said.

Haugen revealed she was the person who provided documents used in a Wall Street Journal and a Senate hearing on Instagram's harm to teenage girls. She compared the social media services to addictive substances like tobacco and opioids.

Before the hearing, she appeared on CBS television program '60 Minutes,' revealing her identity as the whistleblower who provided the documents.

'There were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook,' she said during the interview. 'And Facebook over and over again chose to optimize for its own interests like making more money.'

Haugen, who previously worked at Google and Pinterest, said Facebook has lied to the public about the progress it made to clamp down on hate speech and misinformation on its platform.

She added that Facebook was used to help organize the Capitol riot on January 6, after the company turned off safety systems following the U.S. presidential elections.

While she believed no one at Facebook was 'malevolent,' she said the company had misaligned incentives.

In response to Haugen's bombshell comments, a Facebook executive accused her of stealing company documents and claimed she is 'not an expert' on the company's content algorithms.

Facebook Vice President of Content Policy Monika Bickert spoke out in an interview with Fox News on, slamming Haugen a day after she testified to Congress.

Bickert said that Haugen 'mischaracterized' the internal studies regarding the harmful impacts of content on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, which she presented to to Congress.

The complaints come after the Haugen's testimony before Congress in early October, where she claimed Facebook promoted divisiveness as a way to keep people on the site, with Haugen saying the documents showed the company had failed to protect young users.

It also showed that the company knew Instagram harmed young girls' body image and even tried to brainstorm ways to appeal to toddlers by 'exploring playdates as a growth lever.'

'The company's leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer, but won't make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people. Congressional action is needed,' Haugen said at a hearing.

Haugen, who anonymously filed eight complaints about her former employer with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, told 60 Minutes earlier this month: 'Facebook, over and over again, has shown it chooses profit over safety.'

She claimed that a 2018 change prioritizing divisive posts, which made Facebook users argue, was found to boost user engagement.

That in turn helped bosses sell more online ads that have seen the social media giant's value pass $1 trillion.

'You are forcing us to take positions that we don't like, that we know are bad for society. We know if we don't take those positions, we won't win in the marketplace of social media,' Haugen said.

She also blamed Facebook for spurring the January 6 Capitol riot.

Meanwhile, the senator leading a probe of Facebook's Instagram and its impact on young people is asking Zuckerberg to testify before the panel that has heard far-reaching criticisms from a former employee of the company.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who heads the Senate Commerce subcommittee on consumer protection, called in a sharply worded letter Wednesday for the Facebook founder to testify on Instagram's effects on children.

'Parents across America are deeply disturbed by ongoing reports that Facebook knows that Instagram can cause destructive and lasting harms to many teens and children, especially to their mental health and wellbeing,' Blumenthal said in the letter addressed to Zuckerberg.

'Those parents, and the twenty million teens that use your app, have a right to know the truth about the safety of Instagram.'

In the wake of Haugen's testimony early this month, Blumenthal told Zuckerberg, 'Facebook representatives, including yourself, have doubled down on evasive answers, keeping hidden several reports on teen health, offering noncommittal and vague plans for action at an unspecified time down the road, and even turning to personal attacks on Ms. Haugen.'

Blumenthal did offer, however, that either Zuckerberg or the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, could appear before his committee.

'It is urgent and necessary for you or Mr. Adam Mosseri to testify to set the record straight and provide members of Congress and parents with a plan on how you are going to protect our kids,' he told Zuckerberg.

A spokesman for Facebook, based in Menlo Park, California, confirmed receipt of Blumenthal's letter but declined any comment.

Haugen, who buttressed her statements with tens of thousands of pages of internal research documents she secretly copied before leaving her job in the company's civic integrity unit, accused Facebook of prioritizing profit over safety and being dishonest in its public fight against hate and misinformation.

'In the end, the buck stops with Mark,' Haugen said in her testimony. 'There is no one currently holding Mark accountable but himself.'

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen is reportedly being funded by the billionaire founder of eBay

htowey@insider.com (Hannah Towey) 

© Provided by Business Insider Matt McClain-Pool/Getty Images; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images; Samantha Lee/Insider

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen is backed by the billionaire founder of eBay, Politico reported.

Pierre Omidyar is a well-known critic of Big Tech, donating $150,000 to Whistleblower Aid last year.

From PR to legal aid, here's how Haugen's expensive fight against Facebook is reportedly funded.

Fighting one of the most powerful companies in the world can be expensive, but Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen has the billionaire founder of eBay in her corner, according to a Wednesday Politico report.

His name is Pierre Omidyar, a well-known critic of Big Tech whose previous advocacy efforts have supported independent journalism in Hawaii, anti-monopoly campaigns, and employee activism.

Omidyar's foundation donated $150,000 to Whistleblower Aid last year - the same nonprofit responsible for Haugen's legal representation.

Omidyar's philanthropic organization, Luminate, is also providing Haugen's PR operations in Europe, Politico's Emily Birnbaum wrote. Bill Burton, Haugen's top PR representative in the US, comes from the Center for Humane Technology, a group that Omidyar also funds.

Neither Haugen nor Omidyar has responded to claims of financial support detailed in Politico's report, and were not immediately available to comment when contacted by Insider.

Compared to previous tech whistleblowers, Haugen has been able to capture the nation's attention due in part to advanced press relations, starting with The Wall Street Journal's Facebook Files and her "60 Minutes" appearance.

Video: Who Is Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen? Here’s What We Know About Her (Newsweek)

Sophie Zhang, another Facebook whistleblower who first spoke out about issues at the company in April 2021, has received less public attention.

After Haugen denounced Facebook for putting "profits before people" during her testimony to congress, Zhang tweeted, "If Congress wishes for me to testify, I will fulfill my civic duty, as I've publicly stated for the past half year."

In an interview with Insider, Zhang said although she and Haugen saw completely different sides of the company, Haugen's testimony felt familiar.

"There is basically no overlap between any of our details. What overlaps is our overall message," she said.

Following Politico's report, The Omidyar Network posted a blog titled "In Support of Tech Whistleblowers Who are Holding Tech to Account," the author of which is not listed.

The blog post said the foundation supports Pinterest whistleblower Ifeoma Ozoma and her project, The Tech Worker Handbook, a resource guide for employees considering speaking out about workplace issues "in the public interest."

"We are grateful to the brave people who have called out Big Tech for its bad behavior. They are an important part of creating systemic checks and balances for Big Tech," the post continues. "Because of them, policymakers are taking notice and taking action to rein in their excessive power and restore trust and balance in digital markets."
Read the original article on Business Insider

SCOTLAND
Sturgeon told to get involved in long-running rail dispute as staff set to strike during Cop26

A Caledonian Sleeper train at Edinburgh Waverley Station

A RAIL union has told Nicola Sturgeon that she must personally intervene and try to resolve a long-running rail dispute which could see staff take strike action during the Cop26 climate summit.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch accused rail bosses of having “dragged their heels over further talks,” despite the fact that the “clock is ticking” to the start of the summit.

Thousands of delegates from across the globe, including world leaders such as US President Joe Biden, will be in Scotland for the crucial UN Cop26 climate change talks, which get underway on October 31.

With that in mind, Mr Lynch said he had now written to the First Minister “calling on her to intervene as a matter of urgency to bring about a fair resolution” to the dispute.

In his letter, he said it is completely within the Scottish government’s powers to resolve these disputes before Cop26 commences.

Earlier this week, members of another rail union, the TSSA, voted to accept the pay offer from ScotRail.

It comes after Scotland’s railways have seen months of industrial action.

Mr Lynch said: “It is frankly disgraceful that, rather than getting all parties round the table for meaningful talks to bring about a fair resolution to these disputes, the Scottish government is still failing to intervene — despite being in control of the ScotRail franchise and having a major interest in the Sleeper service.

“RMT has made clear from the outset that it is open to meaningful talks.

“Therefore, it is disappointing that with the clock ticking and just days to go until Cop26, ScotRail and the Sleeper have dragged their heels over further talks, preferring instead to issue inflammatory and misleading communications to its workforce.”

A spokeswoman for Transport Scotland, the Scottish government’s transport agency, said it was “disappointing” that the RMT had not put the pay offer to its members in a ballot.

She said: “We are keen to see this issue resolved ahead of Cop26 so everyone who works in Scotland’s railways can play their part in welcoming the world to our country and showcase our efforts towards building a greener, cleaner railway.”

A ScotRail spokesman said it was disappointing to see the RMT continue with strike action, calling for workers and bosses to come together to rebuild the railways.

DON'T HIRE MALE DRIVERS

Lyft recorded more than 4,000 cases of sexual assault including 360 reports of rape over just three years

Ride-share company Lyft has recorded more than 4,000 sexual assault cases between 2017 to 2019

The company had previously received criticism for not detailing safety methods for riders in situations such as sexual assault

The report was released two years after Uber made public their own with 5,981 cases recorded

Lyft's new report is one of many safety measures that the company is implementing for their riders and drivers

By TOMMY TAYLOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED, 22 October 2021


The ride-share company Lyft recorded more than 4,000 sexual assault cases between 2017 to 2019, its first safety report released on Thursday reveals.

The Lyft report comes after fellow ride sharing company Uber released similar data in a 2019 report which revealed around 6,000 reported cases between 2017 to 2018.

In total, Lyft reported 1,096 reports of sexual assault in 2017, 1,255 in 2018 and 1,807 in 2019. There were also 360 total reports of rape between the three years.

The company, which received criticism for not addressing sexual assault, was initially seen as the safer ride-sharing option as compared to Uber.

The ride-share company Lyft has recorded more than 4,000 sexual cases between 2017 to 2019 in their new safety report that was released on Thursday


Fellow ride-share company Uber had released their own report two years earlier with 5,981 cases recorded between 2017 to 2018

'We recognize that sexual assault is chronically underreported, and it can sometimes be months or years before a survivor is ready to come forward and report what happened — if they choose to do so at all,' the company wrote in a statement, according to the Washington Post.

'Knowing this, Lyft included any incident reported in 2017, 2018 and 2019, regardless of when the incident was reported to have occurred.'

'Lyft intentionally uses broad definitions … to classify instances of sexual assault.'

The report also states that the highest number of these assaults were determined to be in relation to nonconsensual touching of a sexual body part.

Nonconsensual touching of a sexual body part was one of five categories included in the safety report.

The others included were nonconsensual kissing of both sexual and nonsexual body parts as well as attempted and nonconsensual sexual penetration.

Lyft had previously received criticism for their alleged lack of 'awareness' in the treatment of incidents such as sexual assault

The Lyft report appears to be one of the first steps for the company in recognizing sexual assault and ensuring the safety for their riders.

'In putting the safety of its community members as its top priority, Lyft takes all reported incidents seriously and thoroughly investigates each one,' Jennifer Brandenburger, the company's head of policy development and research wrote in the report.

'Lyft’s Safety Specialists are trained to approach each case with respect and care. Doing so helps protect drivers and riders and makes the Lyft community safer for all.'

The company had previously begun enforcing safety measures in 2019 by adding in new features on the app.

Some of these features include hiding contact information between the drivers and riders, using a check-in option for users during their trips as well as a partnership with security company ADT for emergency services.

President and co-founder John Zimmer has commented on the company's new efforts and said 'Safety is fundamental to Lyft'

'Safety is fundamental to Lyft,' the company president and co-founder John Zimmer said.

'That means creating features and policies to give riders and drivers peace of mind, and being clear about what happens on our platform.'

'Our report is just that: a look at where our company has been and where we're heading, in order to help everyone have a safe ride from beginning to end.'

The ride-sharing company also has said that they do not automatically report sexual assault cases to the police unless it is requested by the victim.

They also are providing support services to victims such as counseling, crisis interventions and detailing how to properly contact law enforcement.

Lyft is also providing background checks for the company's drivers to further ensure that their riders in safe hands.

Besides sexual assault, Lyft has also documented 105 motor vehicle deaths and 10 physical assault related fatalities in its three-year report.

Uber's previous 2019 report documented a total of 5,981 cases between 2017 to 2018.

Despite the report, the company was still faced with a $59 million fine by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) for not releasing further details on the sexual assault victim's private information in December of last year.

The fine was reduced in July to $150,000 following an agreement after the pair had reached a preliminary agreement.

As part of the agreement, Uber would pay $9million to supp

ort a state victims' fund and help create industry-wide safety and reporting standards.

Alison Turkos, 33, was one of 14 plaintiffs in 2019 to report a Lyft assault after had been gang raped by her driver and two other men a couple years earlier

Lyft had also faced a California lawsuit of their own in 2019 by 14 plaintiffs who claimed that the company did not take steps to prevent sexual assault or violence from its drivers.

One suit involved Alison Turkos, 33, who claimed she was kidnapped and gang raped by her driver and two men in 2017 while on a trip from Brooklyn to a park in New Jersey.

After notifying Lyft of the terrifying incident, she was still forced to pay the fee for the ride and was 'unpaired' her from the driver.

She also reported to the incident to the NYPD who opened an investigation and contacted the FBI. It was said to be handled as a human trafficking case.

UN chief Guterres 'very worried' over possible COP26 failure

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrives to addresses the 76th Session of the UN General Assembly on September 21, 2021 in New York. -

Copyright © africanews EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP

By Rédaction Africanews

with AFP Last updated: 15 hours ago

COP26


UN chief Antonio Guterres said Thursday that the current climate situation was "a one-way ticket for disaster" and stresed the need to "avoid a failure" at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow.

The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, struck at the COP21 summit, called for capping global warming at well below 2C above the pre-industrial level, and ideally closer to 1.5C.

But current UN estimates indicate a "catastrophic" warming of 2.7C is on the cards.



Guterres said the present indications "show a pathway of at least 2,7C heating above pre industrial levels, and that’s obviously a one way ticket for disaster."

"The carbon pollution of a handful of countries has brought humanity to its knees and they bear the greatest responsability," he told an online press conference with members of the Covering Climate Now international project.

"I hope we are still on time to avoid a failure in Glasgow, but time is running short, and things are getting more difficult and that is why I’m very very worried. I’m afraid things might get wrong," he said.

"The G20 leaders will meet in Rome and they know their economies are responsible for four-fifth of planet carbon pollution," Guterres said.

"If they do not stand up ... we are headed for terrible human sufferings," he added.

He said: "China and the United States must do more than what they have announced so far."

Held between October 31 and November 12, the Glasgow gathering is seen as a crucial step in setting worldwide emission targets to slow global warming.

Alabama executes Willie B. Smith III, an intellectually disabled prisoner, after US Supreme Court fails to intervene

Kate Randall

WSWS.ORG

Willie B. Smith III

Willie B. Smith III, 52, was executed Thursday night in Alabama, despite overwhelming evidence of his intellectual disability. The US Supreme Court declined to hear an 11th-hour appeal on Smith’s behalf, clearing the way for his execution.

Smith was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1991 murder of Sharma Ruth Johnson, 22. Smith robbed Johnson, the sister of a police officer, then forced her into the trunk of her car, shot her and set her car on fire. Smith spent close to three decades on death row.

Smith’s jury voted 10-2 to recommend the death penalty, and his trial judge sentenced him to death. Alabama is the only state that still allows a death sentence to be imposed without a unanimous recommendation from the jury.

His execution was delayed by several hours while the US Supreme Court considered a petition by his lawyers over the method of execution. Smith later died by lethal injection in the execution chamber of the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama. He was pronounced dead at 9:47 p.m., according to the Associated Press (AP).

On October 17, a federal district court denied for a second time Smith’s claim that putting him to death by lethal injection violated his rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Smith was set to die by lethal injection, Alabama’s default method of execution, after he failed to fill out a form from the Alabama Department of Corrections in which he could have designated the alternative method of execution, nitrogen hypoxia.

State death row inmates, including Smith, were given 30 days from June 1, 2018, to choose lethal injection or nitrogen hypoxia as their means of execution. They were required to sign, date and return the provided form. The Montgomery Adviser reports that several inmates received the notice “a few days before the deadline and described a scramble to contact attorneys and understand the offer to them.”

Smith’s legal team said he needed assistance to understand the form and what to do with it. They said their client’s “significant cognitive deficiencies” qualified him for protection under the ADA and required Alabama to provide him reasonable accommodations to designate a method of execution. A successful appeal on this issue would have stayed Smith’s execution, not prevented it outright.

Alabama is one of three states, the others being Oklahoma and Mississippi, that authorizes nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method. No state has used it. In a nitrogen hypoxia execution, the prisoner would breathe pure nitrogen, depriving the body of oxygen and causing asphyxiation.

Oklahoma, the only state other than Alabama to have publicly discussed plans to use

nitrogen hypoxia executions, said in 2019 that at least seven companies declined to sell them a

“gas delivery device” for executions. Pharmaceutical companies in the past have refused to sell drugs to states to be used for lethal injection, saying the use of their products for executions violates their terms of business.

“In a very real sense, execution by nitrogen hypoxia is experimental,” Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robert Dunham told Newsweek. “It has never been done before and no one has any idea whether it is going to work the way its proponents say it will. And there is no way to test it because it is completely unethical to experimentally kill someone against their will.”

Alabama says that its nitrogen hypoxia execution protocol and facilities are nearly complete, but the state has not indicated whether it plans to carry out nitrogen-gas executions by filling a specially designed chamber with the gas or by administering a lethal dose of the gas through a breathing apparatus strapped to the prisoner’s face.

Arizona announced in June that it is ready to revive another method of execution, saying it has

“refurbished” its gas chamber and is prepared to use cyanide gas, which was used by the Nazis to murder more than a million people during the Holocaust.

Willie Smith’s final appeal, and its deadly outcome, was the latest in a series of legal developments in his case. The US Supreme Court ruled in 2002 in Atkins v. Virginia that the use of capital punishment against individuals with intellectual disabilities violates the Eighth Amendment’s ban against cruel and unusual punishment. In July 2020, however, the high court declined to review Smith’s appeal of Alabama state and federal courts’ denial of his Atkins claim.

Alabama denied Smith’s claim on the basis that he had not proved that his intellectual and adaptive functioning were sufficiently impaired to be diagnosed as intellectually disabled. The state courts ruled that Smith’s IQ score was 72, unadjusted for measurement errors. This was just two points above the state’s IQ cutoff of 70. Focusing on his adaptive skills, the courts claimed these skills outweighed his intellectual disability.

In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled in Hall v. Florida that the use of IQ cutoff scores is unconstitutional, and subsequently ruled in Moore v. Texas that the focus of a determination of adaptive functioning should be on the presence or absence of deficits, not on whether there are counterbalancing strengths.

The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit agreed that Smith would have been ineligible for execution if Alabama had applied a constitutionally valid standard for determining intellectual disability. However, it ruled that his execution could proceed because Hall and Moore should be applied only to cases that had not yet been decided on appeal at the time of the Supreme Court decision. It was, they argued, simply “a matter of timing”—timing that arbitrarily condemned Smith to death.

On February 10, 2021, a three-judge panel of the Eleventh Circuit voted to enjoin Alabama from carrying out Smith’s execution on the basis of the state’s refusal to allow his spiritual adviser to attend to him in the execution chamber. The Supreme Court left the injunction in place unless the state would allow Smith’s pastor to be present in the execution chamber, which they agreed to in June, removing that barrier to his execution.

Willie Smith was the eighth person to be executed in the US in 2021, including three federal prisoners. Since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 after a brief hiatus, 1,537 condemned prisoners have met their deaths, including the intellectually disabled, those convicted of crimes committed as juveniles and foreign nationals denied their consular rights. Victims of capital punishment in the US are overwhelming poor and working class. Ethnic minorities are disproportionately represented among them.