Palestinians accuse UK firm of breaching human rights laws by piping oil allegedly used by Israeli army
Palestinian victims of the war in Gaza are taking legal action against BP for running a pipeline that supplies much of Israel’s crude oil.
The claimants have sent the British oil company a letter before claim, alleging it is breaching its stated commitments to human rights under international law.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
By Emma Andrews, Henare te Ua Māori Journalism Intern at RNZ News
The New Zealand fuel company Z Energy is swapping out street names for “correct” kupu on service stops around the country, with the help of local hapū.
When Z took over 226 fuel sites from Shell in 2010, the easy solution was to name the respective stations after the streets they were on, or near.
But when it named the Kahikatea Drive station in Kirikiriroa Z — K Drive, the company’s Māori advisor questioned the abbreviation.
“Kahikatea is the correct name. That led to a bigger conversation about where are we with our knowledge as we start to learn a bit more about te reo Māori and acknowledging interconnected-ness of all things, like, where else are there opportunities to do it,” Z Energy customer general manager Andy Baird said.
After 12 months of whakawhanaungatanga (relationship building), the company was guided by Te Hā o te Whenua o Kirikiriroa on changing the name of Z Dinsdale to Z Tuhikaramea.
That led to two other stations being renamed — New Plymouth’s Z Courtenay Street became Z Huatoki, while Hamilton’s Five Cross Roads station became Z Te Papanui.
“This is not about ticking a box per se, this is about a bigger sort of commitment that we have to te reo Māori and obviously to the communities that we operate in, so it’s a much bigger broader long-term programme,” Baird said.
Internal te reo drive
There had also been an internal drive to incorporate more use of te reo, kicking off each day with karakia, Baird said.
It added more of a connection between the company and Māori traditions.
“We’ve been adding bilingual language inside the sites but we have equally taken the time to make sure that we’re getting the right dialects as the regions as we go through it.
“Part of the project this year was to sort of understand the process that we go through in terms of engagement with mana whenua and how they want things to happen and occur, and how we can come together to make that really a great outcome for local communities we operate in.”
The company could have changed the station names off the bat, but Baird said consulting with local hapū and iwi was the right thing to do.
“The opportunity to meet them, to start to engage with mana whenua and to build a relationship with them and to do something that they’re just as proud of as we are, was just as important as the actual name.”
Each site’s name was gifted by the hapū, with careful consideration of the history of the whenua.
Facebook community included
Ngāti Te Whiti hapū in Ngāmotu was thrilled to play a big part in renaming the Courtenay Street petrol station and included its Facebook community in making the decision.
It had a kete of three names that went to a vote — the name Huatoki was favoured.
Julie Healey of Ngāti Te Whiti said it was only fitting to have the name Huatoki, as the awa flowed just around the corner from the petrol station.
“Huatoki is probably all the life essence of New Plymouth at the beginning. We have the pā Puke Ariki at the front and then we have the other pā around, I think there’s about five or six different pā in that area.”
The hapū was in its rebuilding phase and was working towards a Huatoki restoration plan with the New Plymouth District Council, so when Z approached it at the start of the year, the timing could not have been better, she said.
“When we were approached, I just thought straight away ‘this is going to work brilliantly with our Huātoki’, and I was hoping whānau would vote that way, and they did. It just made sense, it was consistent.”
She praised Z for taking the right steps to engage with locals.
“One of our whānau, Damon Ritai, met the people outside Puke Ariki Museum, talked to them about the museum, the designs, the cultural expression on the museum, the meaning of the different things of whakapapa on the ceremonial doors, all the names that were in the foyer, and explained everything about those.”
Cultural induction hīkoi
The cultural induction hīkoi ended at Te Whare Honanga (Taranaki Cathedral) where they had refreshments.
Then, the hapū worked on the dialect, something Healey triple-checked before giving the nod of approval.
“This is about reclaiming our language and culture, not as a political act, but as a celebration.
“It’s always a good opportunity for hapū to try and get those names, you know, renaming before the colonial names, taking things back to language and culture.”
Z Energy aimed to rename more petrol stations but first, more whakawhanaungatanga, Baird said.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
What’s not to love about Molly the Magpie and Peggy the Staffy? But scratch the surface, and you’ll find a circus-sideshow some even have the temerity to call a scam. Andrew Gardiner reports from the battle zone.
It has all the ingredients of a culture wars cause célèbre: an overbearing ‘Nanny State’, curtailing the freedom of an average Aussie couple who reportedly rescued ‘Molly’, a loveable abandoned magpie-turned internet sensation.
Then there’s the narrators: shock jocks anxious as always to parlay controversy into ratings, country crooners clambering aboard this burgeoning bandwagon and a state Premier determined to distract punters from headlines of a youth crime ‘crisis’.
The only thing missing was a side hustle. Or was it?
Shock jocks politicians and celebrities rallied behind the couple that re-homed Molly the Magpie
For anyone who’s just emerged from a coma, here’s the tale of Peggy and Molly, unlikely interspecies ‘intimates’ who took
Australia by storm. Who better to kick us off with the tabloid side of this tale than The Project’s Sarah Harris: “Molly the Magpie and Peggy the Staffy might seem like a strange pair, but from the moment paw touched claw, their unlikely friendship began to blossom.”
Molly, the abandoned magpie who fell from a tree back in 2020, was adopted by a couple from the Gold Coast hinterland, Juliette Wells and Reece Mortensen, who owned of the other star of this show, Peggy, a Blue Staffordshire Bull Terrier.
“The little bird soon formed an unbreakable bond with Peggy, along with their other Staffy, Ruby … even learning to speak their language [by barking],” Harris gushed on Channel 10.
Of course, every good yarn needs a villain. Enter Queensland’s Department of Environment, Science and Innovation (DESI), which seized Molly in March, saying the couple didn’t have the required permit to care for native wildlife.
Cue the inevitable outcry from politicians, celebrities and media, which in turn generated 150,000 signatures on multiple petitions. Ever the spruiker, then-Queensland Premier Steven Miles weighed in, calling for a “common sense” solution from DESI and pushing for a happy ending for Molly’s legion of fans.
Queensland Premier Stephen Miles with Peggy and Molly, Juliette Wells and Reece Mortensen
By mid-April, politics had trumped policy. “This morning (DESI) advised me that Juliette and Reece can secure the appropriate license (for Molly),” Miles announced, before heading to the family’s home for a grinning photo shoot (above) with the magpie perched on his shoulder.
The tug-of-war for Molly is far from over after a conservation-conscious litigant had a win in the Supreme Court, but the Magpie (who is male, despite the name) remains with the couple. In what remains a delicate dance for politicians and bureaucrats, his fate may ultimately rest with Queensland’s new Premier, David Crisafulli.
A cause is not a cause these days without a GoFundMe (and merch). Books, scarves, a crowdfunding page and a planned animated series are shown here.
Peggy and Molly tick all the social media boxes: they’re cute, they’re cuddly and they perform for the cameras. It’s no surprise, therefore, that the pair have amassed more than two million followers across the platforms of Meta.
Like death, taxes and the monetisation of a Facebook phenomenon, along came the merchandise. And a book, Be Kind, Be Humble, Be Happy, is by most accounts doing a brisk trade at Amazon, Penguin and Angus & Robertson, from around $14 to $25 a pop.
Then there’s scarves, bandanas and, I kid you not, Peggy and Molly: the animated series. The merch features words commonly associated with the pair and images not of them but, rather, caricatures derived from “artistic inspiration” (creative license) which skirts DESI restrictions on using Molly for commercial gain.
But the pièce de résistance was a crowdfunding page – “Peggy and Molly: Interspecies Friendship” – which has raised more than $100 thousand dollars from across the globe. Organised by a third party, the GoFundMe aimed to help Juliette and Reece buy their then-Coomera home after the landlord gave them notice so he could auction the place.
“They always had plans to buy the rental home, but with the previously unseen rise in housing prices, it’s just no longer a viable possibility. Molly has grown up in their home (and he) is now following his natural instinct and being very territorial, which hinders the family from being able to relocate,” the GoFundMe page read.
So there you have it: the six figure sum was for Molly the Magpie, not Juliette and Reece, but $100k wasn’t nearly enough to buy the house or stave off their moving out. So much for Molly’s “territorial instincts”.
What will happen to the $100k? It’s believed the couple are “renting to buy” another place not far from Molly’s original home, but with housing prices going through the roof and the GoFundMe no longer accepting donations, they’re at long odds to afford this place too.
In April, DESI laid down strict conditions for Molly’s staying with the couple, including that they “not conduct activities for commercial purposes with the magpie”. So what happens to the proceeds from all this commerce?
“The magpie’s real image, photograph and the bird himself cannot make a profit (and) we are mindful that no images of the real magpie be included in any way other than artistic inspiration,” the couple’s Sydney-based manager said, referring to the animated series and, presumably, the merch.
So far, DESI has accepted this “creative license” explanation* but does it pass the pub test?
MWM reached out to both the couple and their manager, Chelsea Bonner, for an answer to these and other questions, but had not heard back by publication time. We are not suggesting any of the trio have acted unethically, illegally or in breach of the DESI agreement with these merchandising and fundraising activities.
Vicious cycle: how internet trends drive the legally-dubious market in wild animals like Molly the Magpie (right). Images: Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition (SMACA, left) and Facebook
Of course, Peggy and Molly’s ‘mateship’ isn’t all barking and belly scratches. Sources from the world of ornithology have told MWM that Molly is hard wired to be “the boss” of any pecking order and is almost-certainly territorial in his daily dealings with Peggy.
“Molly’s instinct will be to harass (dominate) Peggy, but the dog won’t put up with this forever. The moment Peggy loses patience, Molly could actually be done for,” one knowledgeable source told MWM.
Whether or not he’s happy at the couple’s home, as the tabloid narrative suggests, the fact remains Molly was taken from his natural environment (accounts differ on whether he was ‘rescued’) before being placed in alien surrounds, assimilated with a small pack of dogs and unveiled as a performing, barking internet oddity.
“There are parallels between Molly’s fate and that of a circus animal. Sure, he doesn’t have a chain through his snout (beak) but he’s entertaining and amusing audiences as if he’s under the big top,” one source told MWM.
Then there’s the issue of copy-catting, and the normalisation of keeping wildlife at home. According to SMACA, monkeys dressed in baby clothes (which you can find on the internet) or magpies with their wings clipped are often “suffering, manipulated for the camera and living in unnatural conditions.”
“Yet, these videos and images are portrayed as ‘cute’ and funny. Worryingly, they are also promoting the keeping of wild animals, meaning more people are likely to buy them as pets, causing more suffering,” SMACA’s website added (see flowchart above).
“The reason why (Molly’s) case is important is (that it’s) a precedent to all Australians that you can do this. If you get enough likes on social media, the government will override its own experts and start saying, ‘it’s fine’,” lawyer Jack Vaughan, who was involved in the recent Supreme Court case, said.
‘Molly the Magpie’ isn’t up there with black emancipation or the suffragette movement as a cause to inspire the masses, but it did entertain, amuse and, later, anger punters when the so-called ‘Nanny State’ got involved. Have Juliette Wells and Reece Mortensen followed the path Eric Hoffer (above) described, by taking their own mini-movement and turning it into “a racket”?
We’ll have the answer to that when we know two things. First, what will happen to $100k crowdfunding dollars, ostensibly to buy Molly a ‘forever home’ but perhaps not even enough for a deposit.
The second question is whether DESI – which may yet seize Molly back after courts revoked the couple’s license – belatedly stiffens its stance on “artistically inspired” ‘Peggy and Molly’ merch.
Does it pass the aforementioned pub test, or is it, in fact, a grift? Perhaps politics will decide.
Editor’s Note: the book Be Kind, Be Humble, Be Happy appears to show actual images of Peggy and Molly, but MWM was unable to confirm this.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
Ever enjoyed a relaxing remedial massage at the office? Maybe it’s time to check in on the people untangling your knots. Zacharias Szumer irons out the industry snarls.
At a recent ‘wellbeing expo’ organised by your correspondent’s workplace, employees were invited to enjoy a ten-minute massage from one of five ‘massage angels’.
The angels were ‘back by popular demand’ and ready to give a hands-on demonstration of the heavenly perks of signing on with one of the company’s ‘wellness partners’.
To help readers decode the HR jargon – this meant that, to reach the corner to which the angels had descended, employees had to pass a Medibank table staffed by several reps.
Corporate remedial massage is sometimes simply a benevolence that management or the HR department blesses upon their tired and overwrought workforce.
In other settings, it’s a promotional opportunity for companies like Medibank and Bupa – as private insurance covers remedial massage.
But how heavenly are the work conditions for our ‘angels’?
He said that he was told to take it or leave.
MWM has recently chatted with four therapists who say their industry is rife with exploitation, safety violations, and an absurd degree of micromanagement.
In August last year, Theo (not his real name) arrived at a Bunnings Warehouse presuming he’d be massaging employees in a private space.
The 31-year-old, who’s been in the industry for three years, was surprised to be asked to set up his chair near the check-out and give massages to customers and their children – as well as employees.
Much of this work is arranged by subcontractor agencies – even if Medibank or Bupa are the ultimate ‘corporate wellness partners’ – so Theo reached out to the agency that had given him the Bunnings job for help.
Private massage at Bunnings check-out
He said that he was told to take it or leave. If he chose the latter, he wouldn’t be paid for the hours he’d been booked.
“Despite my reservations, I decided to attempt to accommodate the revised arrangement,” he wrote in a subsequent complaint letter to the agency.
However, he encountered “numerous unsettling issues” in his first hour, such as staff members making “inappropriate jokes that created an uncomfortable atmosphere for both myself and the clients”, Theo wrote.
He again asked to be relocated to another area, to which Bunnings finally obliged, sending him to the following location:
A more private Bunnings massage
After protesting once again, he was asked to leave.
He says he doesn’t blame Bunnings itself – save for one “overzealous manager” – but rather the agency, and by extension the private health insurance companies, for not setting firmer boundaries.
The agencies “want the least friction possible while making a booking”, he says.
“They just ask time and place and then send us in there blind to deal with problems”.
In July, Theo complained to his boss about being set up “in a kitchen area in an open plan office, being interrupted and harangued by employees all day, and having to perform massages where clients had no privacy whatsoever)”.
His boss then told him to “suck it up” and continue working on the job – which he was carrying out on behalf of private health giant Bupa.
The boss later sent a defensive reply, saying she was under considerable stress and that this was “the 1st & only time I asked you to ‘suck it up’”.
Several other massage therapists have told MWM that such problems are relatively common – as is being asked to deliver massages for hours in stationery-cupboard-sized rooms without windows, or without access to the bathroom or a sink to wash their hands between massages.
Lowest acts are just the beginning
Mathew (also not his real name) said his agency and the insurance company showed little interest in helping during a booking in which, once a week, he was required to massage in the janitor’s storeroom of a hospital.
Finally, after six weeks, he was moved to a room next to the mortuary.
Through an observation window, he watched dead bodies being prepared before someone politely suggested closing the blinds.
Therapists are told that, should they have any issues at a job site, they should call a special Bupa or Telus (a Medibank contractor) hotline, but MWM has heard that calls to these numbers are rarely answered.
“I don’t even bother,” another massage therapist, who we’ll call Jessica, told MWM.
“It did work once, but apart from that, the other times when I tried to call them: no answer”.
Several massage therapists told MWM they have the worst of both worlds: the precariousness of being independent contractors and the lack of freedom of employees.
This situation is often referred to as “sham contracting” and Association of Massage Therapists Executive Officer Rebecca Barnett told MWM says it’s “a very broad issue across the entire industry”.
“Subcontracting is promoted heavily to massage therapists as a flexible, lucrative, be-your-own boss proposition,” she said.
“In reality, though, subcontractors are often subject to a huge degree of control that would suggest that they’re actually in an employment relationship, but without the security and stability that a guaranteed income brings.”
“We’re independent contractors, but we can’t negotiate with them,” Jessica says.
“It’s almost like negotiating with terrorists. You try to have a discussion and then it just goes nowhere. It goes absolutely nowhere,” she says, adding that therapists who raise issues often get offered fewer jobs in the future.
Some email threads seen my MWM show workers arguing with these companies for weeks or even months about payment claims.
They are not paid for the time – usually at least 30 minutes – that it takes them to set up at these corporate jobs.
“Self-promoting” is also prohibited.
This means that, if you’re an employee who receives a great massage from a particular therapist and wishes to have another, the therapist has to inform you to speak with the private health insurer.
MWM has seen messages from Bupa to the massage agency, and from massage agency to therapists, in which they are told off for such self-promotion.
Holistic solutions
Other emails show workers endlessly haggling with bosses over parking issues because they aren’t provided with parking, are given incorrect information, or are told to park illegally and move their cars during their fifteen-minute breaks.
“Bupa does not & has never paid for parking,” one employer tells Theo in an email message, recommending that he carry his massage chair and other equipment with him on public transport.
While not getting your parking paid for is pretty low in the grand scheme of worker hardship, it does look a tad skimpy considering the international healthcare giant made over $1 billion in profit before tax last year.
Shelton – who’s been a massage therapist for 26 years and has been doing corporate jobs for just over a year – says that, after getting “glowing reviews” from clients, arguing over a $20 parking fee with agencies is a real pain in the arse.
“It’s like you always have to follow up on it. You always have to prod and poke because, like I said, that thumb is kept on the scale that tips everything in their favour,” he said.
Shelton agreed to use his own name because he’s about to leave the industry.
“I love the work itself. I love what I do. But it’s just ‘Well, shit, what am I going to be up against now?’”
The massage industry attracts caring people who can be particularly flexible when it comes to the demands of those above them – meaning that they’re particularly vulnerable to exploitation, Theo says.
Due to the relatively high hourly wage – around $45-$60 per hour – it also attracts many workers with poor English who may lack an understanding of their work rights.
(Corporate clients reportedly pay around $100 dollars an hour for a massage therapist.)
Barnett says her organisation has only recently become aware of “ridiculous working conditions” in the corporate remedial massage sector and is concerned that there’s a double standard at play.
“Private health funds have rigorous standards of practice for massage therapists who provide treatments that can be claimed by their clients through private health insurance.
“This includes working from suitable clinical facilities, sanitation, and comprehensive client intake and record keeping processes.”
“To me there seems to be a problem if the same rigour is not being applied in these corporate wellness packages.”
“It’s also a problem that the labour of massage therapists is being unfairly exploited, apparently in terrible working conditions, in the service of what might be termed corporate wellness washing.”
In response to these complaints, a Medibank spokesperson told MWM: “We take matters of workplace health and safety seriously and will undertake a review with our suppliers regarding these concerns.”
Bupa told MWM that it had “strict guidelines and processes in place to help ensure safe working environments and care for health professionals, our customers and clients.”
“We take all concerns seriously and are committed to addressing and resolving any issues promptly,” a Bupa spokesperson said.
To extend a small olive branch – your correspondent isn’t suggesting that all massage therapists hate this corporate work.
In fact, one ‘massage angel’ he spoke to at his company’s wellness expo said he loved it.
One particular highlight, he said, was giving a massage to Anthony Albanese in the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge.
Editor’s Note: following Zach’s landmark investigation into the Wellness sector, MWM has engaged independent advice from PwC Wellness Services Procurement which is expected to hand down its report in mid 2025.
Under current Wellness procedures, overseen by MWM Global Vice President of Human Resources, Johnnie, all employees are encouraged to pursue the DIY approach to workplace massage. “Our Process Improvement Taskforce Team is evaluating a range of outcomes but US Government research has found DIY to be the only way to consistently ensure a happy ending,” said Johnnie.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
Ordering a cup of coffee may seem like a simple pleasure, but for millions of Americans who opt for non-dairy milk, that morning ritual comes with an additional cost. At many coffee shops across the country, customers are charged up to $1.50 extra for plant-based milk alternatives. This surcharge has sparked criticism for being outdated, unfair, and exclusionary, particularly as the rise in plant-based diets and health issues like lactose intolerance become increasingly prominent.
According to the new State of the Surcharge Report released by advocacy group No Milk Tax, non-dairy milk surcharges impact more than 50 million lactose-intolerant Americans.
Starbucks
These individuals are often faced with two choices: pay the surcharge for plant-based milk or consume dairy milk, risking severe health consequences including bloating, nausea, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. Chains that still charge for dairy-free milk include Dunkin’, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Caribou, Alfred, and Verve Coffee.
While dairy milk has long been the default choice, shifting consumer habits are driving demand for alternatives. Sales of plant-based milk, such as almond, oat, and soy milk, grew to $2.7 billion in 2022, a 19-percent increase since 2018, according to the Good Food Institute. This rising preference for non-dairy options is fueled by concerns over health, sustainability, and ethical treatment of animals, yet coffee chains continue to penalize consumers for making the switch.
The surcharge debate is not merely a matter of preference; for many, it is a health necessity. The report highlights that one in 20 Americans are allergic to dairy, with reactions ranging from skin rashes and vomiting to life-threatening anaphylaxis.
Beyond allergies, lactose intolerance disproportionately affects people of color. An estimated 80 percent of Black Americans, 90 percent of Asian Americans, and 50 percent of Latino Americans are lactose intolerant, compared to around 15 percent of white Americans. For these communities, the non-dairy surcharge raises questions of equity.
Pexels
“Non-dairy milk surcharges are also an equity issue because they disproportionately harm those who can’t properly digest dairy,” the report explains.
Plant-based milk also offers potential health benefits that dairy milk does not. Research links high dairy consumption to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, and certain cancers, including breast and prostate cancer. Meanwhile, many non-dairy options, like oat and almond milk, provide essential nutrients without the associated health risks.
Environmental concerns are another factor propelling the call to eliminate the surcharge. Producing dairy milk generates significantly higher environmental costs compared to plant-based alternatives. The report cites that dairy production requires eight times more greenhouse gas emissions, ten times more land use, and 20 times more water use than non-dairy milk production.
For example, producing one gallon of dairy milk consumes approximately 144 gallons of water, a concern for farmers in the face of increasing droughts and water scarcity. Dairy farms are also responsible for air, soil, and water pollution, contributing to environmental degradation and climate change.
Caryn Nelson of Guilder Coffee explains why her company is considering new initiatives. She says it’s important for Guilder to explore a default-to-dairy-free initiative because “we know that industrialized animal agriculture is one of the leading contributors to greenhouse gas emissions.”
Coffee chains that continue to impose surcharges are increasingly viewed as out of step with sustainability goals.
The tide, however, is beginning to turn. A growing number of coffee chains have recognized the need to eliminate the non-dairy surcharge. According to the report, 55 percent of locations operated by 41 major US coffee brands no longer impose the fee.
Starbucks, one of the largest coffee chains in the world, dropped its surcharge for plant-based milk earlier this year. Brian Niccol, Starbucks CEO, shared the company’s rationale.
“Core to the Starbucks experience is the ability to customize your beverage to make it yours. By removing the extra charge for non-dairy milks, we’re embracing all the ways our customers enjoy their Starbucks,” Niccol said.
Other leading chains following suit include Panera, Pret A Manger, and Philz Coffee. Jorrie Bruffett of Pret A Manger described the move as “the right thing to do,” while the New York chain Birch Coffee expressed a similar sentiment: “As we see how the environment is continually impacted, it’s incumbent upon us to do our part to help impact it as minimally as we can.”
Despite this growing momentum, many coffee chains have yet to eliminate the surcharge. The report names prominent chains, including Dunkin’, Caribou Coffee, and Peet’s, that still charge anywhere from $0.50 to $1.50 for non-dairy alternatives. At Bluestone Lane, for example, customers pay a premium of up to $1.50, one of the highest fees reported.
Dunkin’ Donuts
While chains defend the surcharge by citing the higher cost of plant-based milk compared to dairy, critics argue that the additional cost is offset by the growing popularity of non-dairy options. Coffee shops that have eliminated the surcharge demonstrate that it is possible to absorb the cost without sacrificing profitability.
As consumer demand for non-dairy options rises, pressure is mounting on coffee chains to eliminate surcharges altogether. Whether for health, environmental, or ethical reasons, plant-based milk is no longer a niche choice but a mainstream preference.
Philz Coffee
For coffee drinkers, the end of the non-dairy surcharge would mean more equitable access to options that align with their values and health needs. As more brands drop the fee, those that maintain it risk losing customers to competitors who offer greater flexibility and fairness. The move to eliminate extra fees for milk alternatives reflects a growing trend among coffee brands.
Good Earth Coffeehouse says the move supports environmentally conscious choices and provides “greater inclusivity for dietary needs.” Sara Burnett of Panera agrees. She says plant-based alternatives can meet the growing demand for wholesome, delicious options “that are good for people and planet.”
This post was originally published on VegNews.com.
A Californian man was sentenced to almost three-and-a-half years in prison on Monday for running a business that helped affluent Chinese tourists “hide their pregnancies” from immigration officials so they could give birth on American soil and grant their children U.S. citizenship.
The sentencing comes amid a proposal by President-elect Donald Trump to end birthright citizenship in the United States, and the “Run” movement that has seen a surge in Chinese immigrants arriving at the southern American border to seek asylum in the United States.
Michael Wei Yueh Liu, a 59-year-old man from San Bernardino county, was sentenced to 41 months in U.S. federal prison over the “USA Happy Baby” business he ran with his wife, 47-year-old Jing Dong, from January 2012 to March 2015, selling “birth tourism” packages.
Liu was found guilty of one count of conspiracy and 10 counts of international money laundering in September. Dong, who is now separated from Liu, is expected to be sentenced early next year.
The couple charged “tens of thousands of dollars” for the service, which included short-term housing in San Bernardino and maternity care to the mostly affluent women, who usually returned to China “within one or two months after giving birth,” a press release said.
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“Liu and Dong advised their customers on how to hide their pregnancies from the immigration authorities,” the press release said, adding that they later also helped in obtaining birth certificates.
The clients were instructed to wear baggy clothing and lie to immigration officials by saying they were visiting only for tourism and would only stay for one or two weeks. In practice, they remained in the country for months and gave birth.
“Liu and Dong or their agents also advised their customers to fly to ports of entry with perceived less customs scrutiny, such as Hawaii, before flying to Los Angeles, to wear loose fitting clothing, to favor certain lines at customs that they perceived to be less strict, and on how to answer the customs officials’ questions,” it explained.
Liu and Dong made several millions of dollars from the scheme, federal prosecutors had said in court.
Pleas for leniency
In federal court on Monday, Liu pleaded for leniency in sentencing, with his attorney noting that he was the sole provider for his 95-year-old father and 82-year-old mother, as well as he and his estranged wife’s 13-year-old son, according to a report by the Associated Press.
Prosecutors had sought a more than five-year prison sentence for the scheme that they said deliberately aimed to deceive U.S. immigration officials. His attorney argued he should face a 26-month term.
U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner said he had reduced the sentence slightly to reflect Liu’s family situation but that his legal predicament was ultimately due to the “choices you make,” and not the court’s.
Liu’s lawyers had earlier argued he and Dong had not violated any U.S. laws because they had only helped the pregnant Chinese women give birth once they had arrived in America, and that other companies were responsible for helping them evade detection on their way in.
The women would have faced punishment under China’s one-child policy, which was eventually scrapped in 2015, had they been allowed to return home to give birth, Liu’s defense attorney told the court.
However, the California jury did not buy the story and found both Liu and Jong guilty of their offenses in September – almost a decade after their “maternity hotels” were raided by police in 2015 amid a wider crackdown on the lucrative “birth tourism” industry in the state.
It’s not illegal for women to visit the United States while pregnant, but it is an offense to lie to immigration officials about the reason for travel.
Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Alex Willemyns.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
At a laboratory in Newark, New Jersey, a gray liquid swirls vigorously inside a reactor the size of a small watermelon. Here, scientists with the mining technology startup Still Bright are using a rare metal, vanadium, to extract a common one, copper, from ores that are too difficult or costly for the mining industry to process today.
If the promising results Still Bright is seeing in beakers and bottles can be replicated at much larger scales, it could unlock vast copper resources for the energy transition.
Still Bright isn’t the only company seeking to revolutionize copper production. A handful of startups with similar goals have announced partnerships with major mining firms and scooped up tens of millions of dollars of investment. These companies claim their technology can help meet humanity’s surging appetite for the metal, while driving down the industry’s environmental footprint.
“We’re facing unprecedented demand for copper, and that’s really tied to the electrification of everything,” Still Bright chief of staff Carter Schmitt told Grist.
The world cannot reach its climate goals without copper, which plays a central role in the technologies needed to decarbonize. Copper wiring is at the core of the world’s electricity networks, which will have to expand enormously to bring more renewable energy online. Wind turbines, solar panels, electric vehicles, and lithium-ion batteries all rely on the mineral, too. As the market for these technologies grows, the clean energy sector’s demand for the 29th element is expected to nearly triple by 2040.
At the same time, copper miners are exhausting their best-quality reserves. Copper that is economical to mine is found in rocks known as ores, and grades of the ores that miners are exploiting — the concentration of copper contained in them — have declined steadily over the past 20 years. Meanwhile, easy-to-process minerals near the surface are giving way to more challenging ones deeper down. And the current standard procedure for extracting the metal from the majority of ores results in a lot of pollution.
About 80 percent of the copper mined today comes from unweathered rocks known as primary copper sulfide ores. After being crushed and ground to a fine powder, the copper inside primary sulfide ores is concentrated using chemicals before being sent to a smelter, where it is refined at high temperatures.
The process of concentrating and smelting copper produces a toxic mineral slurry called tailings, and a cocktail of air pollutants including lead and arsenic. In the United States, a single Native American tribe — the San Carlos Apache people — has borne the brunt of that pollution. Two of America’s three copper smelters are located within a few miles of the tribe’s reservation boundaries in southeastern Arizona. Both are among the worst lead emitters in the nation, spewing toxic metals into the air for the better part of a century. (One of these smelters was mothballed four years ago following a labor strike, but is reportedly planning to resume operations to meet surging copper demand.)
“This stuff doesn’t go away,” says Jim Pew, the director of clean air practice at the environmental law firm Earthjustice, told Grist. “It falls back to the Earth and permanently contaminates the communities nearby.” (The San Carlos Apache Tribe didn’t reply to Grist’s request for comment.)
In addition to air pollutants, copper smelters are energy intensive and typically require fossil fuels, driving up costs as well as carbon emissions. If the ore is too low-grade (meaning the concentration of copper is too low) companies simply can’t get enough out to cover the cost of extracting it.
But globally, low-grade primary sulfide ores contain enormous amounts of copper. A March report by Goldman Sachs estimated that the world’s top five copper miners are sitting on “billions of tons” of such ores — an amount that makes the expected 5 to 6 million ton copper supply shortfall over the next decade look puny.
“It’s not that the world is out of copper,” Cristobal Undurraga, CEO of the Santiago, Chile-based startup Ceibo, told Grist. “It is, though, in a form … harder to extract using traditional processes.”
Founded in 2021, Ceibo is one of several mining technology startups that’s proposing a new, old approach to getting copper out of low-grade sulfide ores: a process known as heap leaching. Heap leaching is already used to process the weathered rocks located toward the top of most deposits, which account for about 20 percent of copper mined today. Miners process these rocks on site by crushing the rock, piling it up into a heap, and spraying it with acid, which percolates through the rock and liberates the valuable metal. The process produces significantly less pollution and carbon emissions than traditional copper smelting — but until recently, no one has figured out how to make it work efficiently for primary sulfide ores.
Ceibo claims it is able to recover large quantities of copper with a chemical extraction approach that involves altering critical conditions in the crushed ore, such as the pH and oxygen concentration, making it easier for the acid to get to work. Ceibo says its process is flexible and can accommodate the wide variety of geologic and environmental conditions a company might encounter in different parts of the world — or even different parts of the same subterranean pit. “What we are developing is a whole geological platform” that can be adjusted based on those changing conditions, chief technology officer Catalina Urrejola told Grist.
Ceibo hasn’t revealed many details of its process, which it has mostly tested at the laboratory scale. But the firm has already secured $36 million in venture capital financing to scale up, including funding from major industry players like BHP Ventures, the investment arm of one of the world’s largest copper producers. In November, Ceibo began its first pilot tests with Glencore’s Lomas Bayas Mining Company, based in Chile’s Atacama Desert.
Another mining startup, Jetti Resources, is already processing primary sulfide ores commercially using heap leaching. The Colorado-based company has developed a proprietary catalyst that alters the surface of the crushed minerals, helping acid penetrate to extract the copper. In 2019, Jetti began deploying its technology commercially at Capstone Copper’s Pinto Valley mine in Arizona. At leaching sites where the firm’s catalyst is being used, Jetti says it has doubled production.
“We believe that our catalyst is the only commercially available technology for economically producing copper from chalcopyrite,” a primary sulfide mineral that represents about 70 percent of untapped copper reserves, chief technology officer Nelson Mora told Grist in an email.
Holly Bridgwater, director of Australian mining innovation company Unearthed Solutions, thinks the technology startups like Ceibo and Jetti are offering holds promise — despite a lack of public test results.
“Otherwise, all these mining companies wouldn’t be working with them,” she said. “They would have stopped the trials way earlier if it wasn’t demonstrating value.”
Still, heap leaching has economic and technological limitations. It can take weeks to months for the chemicals to work their way through a rock pile to extract the copper, which is typically less than 1 percent of the material present. And no company is claiming it can extract everything. Jetti told Grist its process can recover 40 to 70 percent of the copper from chalcopyrite, compared to 15 to 30 percent for “conventional leaching processes.” Undurrago said Ceibo’s technology can recover 70 to 80 percent of the copper from primary sulfide ores in a “reasonable timeframe.”
By contrast, Still Bright claims it can extract up to 99 percent of the copper from primary sulfide ores in a matter of minutes.
Still Bright’s technology, called “electrochemical reductive leaching,” starts with a copper concentrate similar to what smelters work with. Instead of smelting the metal, Still Bright combines it with a solution of liquid vanadium. The vanadium reacts with the copper, liberating it from the sulfide minerals, before being recycled in an electrolyzer that takes inspiration from vanadium flow batteries. Like heap leaching, this process can take place on-site at a mine in one of Still Bright’s “stirred tank reactors,” rather than at a separate smelting facility.
The key advantage of Still Bright’s tech, Schmitt says, is that vanadium and copper react incredibly strongly with each other. “You can extract copper really easily and really quickly at ambient temperature and pressure,” Schmitt said.
Initially, Still Bright plans to market its tech as a way to extract copper from particularly challenging ores that can’t be smelted today, as well as from mine waste. Eventually, it hopes to offer a more sustainable alternative to smelting for high-grade copper sulfide ores, too. While Still Bright’s process produces some tailings, it avoids the toxic air pollutants tied to smelting, and potentially the carbon emissions. Because Still Bright’s equipment is fully electric, it can be powered by renewable energy, Schmitt says.
Still Bright has validated its process at a lab scale and is working on setting up its first in-house pilot project, which it anticipates completing by 2026.
Pew, the Earthjustice attorney, declined to comment on the viability of these new technologies as a replacement for copper smelting. But finding alternative ways to refine copper, he says, is “very important” for ensuring vulnerable communities aren’t left footing the bill.
“We’re going to be using copper for a long time to come,” Pew said. “We should be thinking how do we get that copper without these ancient technologies that pollute so much.”
While Schmitt and others are hopeful they can bring cleaner refining methods to market, copper mining has additional impacts that improved processing techniques can’t address. No matter what extraction technology is used, copper mines can destroy habitats, create dust and water pollution, deplete freshwater supplies, and interfere with Indigenous peoples’ access to cultural practices and sacred sites. The industry is facing significant backlash over these impacts, with activists and regulators stalling and shutting down major projects in recent years. In Panama, the government recently ordered the shutdown of a major copper mine following mass protests over the threat it posed to water supplies and a court order deeming the project unconstitutional. In Arizona, an indigenous group is fighting to block Rio Tinto and BHP from mining a giant copper reserve that lies beneath lands considered sacred.
Thea Riofrancos, a political scientist at Providence College who studies resource extraction and climate change, says it is “noteworthy” that many of the mining giants pouring money into new copper processing methods — a list that includes Rio Tinto and BHP — are also being criticized over the harmful effects of mining. Whether or not these firms are planning more sweeping environmental reforms, Riofrancos says their investment in clean tech startups draws attention to the fact that the mining industry, along with many climate investors, is beginning to brand resource extraction as a climate solution.
“This is an emerging focus in the venture capital world — supporting early-stage startups in the critical mineral space,” Schmitt said. “At all stages: the mining, crushing, grinding, and onward to refining, … it’s all needed.”
Editor’s note: Earthjustice is an advertiser with Grist. Advertisers have no role in Grist’s editorial decisions.
This story was originally published by Grist with the headline New technologies could refine the copper the world needs — without the dirty smelting on Dec 3, 2024.
This post was originally published on Grist.
The U.S. Department of Energy is rolling out the first installment of its $1 billion commitment to ramp up clean hydrogen production in the Midwest, part of a bid by the Biden administration to lock in a nationwide roadmap for decarbonization.
The Midwest Hydrogen Hub, which is set to span Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, and Michigan, was awarded $22.2 million late last month as part of a billion-dollar federal cost share grant through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The hub “aims to decarbonize a variety of industries such as manufacturing, steel and glass production, power generation, refining, and heavy-duty transportation through the use of clean hydrogen,” according to a Department of Energy factsheet.
Local environmentalists, however, are taking issue with how the project is classifying “clean hydrogen,” and warn that the hub will simply allow oil and gas companies to continue business as usual without cutting emissions.
“These hubs are being built across the country in our backyards, without transparency, without our consent, and under the lie that hydrogen is a clean energy source and magic wand that will solve climate change,” said Lisa Vallee, organizing director with Just Transition Northwest Indiana, an environmental justice organization. Her group and others in Northwest Indiana have raised concerns about a hydrogen production facility that fossil fuel giant BP is considering building near its oil refinery, as part of the Midwest hub.
The hydrogen network is being led by the Midwest Alliance for Clean Hydrogen, also known as MachH2, a collection of public and private entities including manufacturers and universities across the region.
According to project organizers, the network will produce more than 1,000 metric tons per day of clean hydrogen using wind power, natural gas, and nuclear energy. It has the potential of cutting approximately 3.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year from heavily polluting industries — the equivalent to taking more than 867,000 gasoline-powered cars off the road every year. It is also projected to create some 12,000 jobs over its lifetime.
The $22.2 million investment will allow the hub to explore eight proposed projects to produce, transport, and store hydrogen across the four Midwestern states. Plans include a retrofitting public transit in Flint, Michigan, with hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Buses; constructing a new hydrogen facility in Whiting, Indiana, that would mitigate emissions with carbon capture; and a nuclear powered hydrogen production facility in northern Illinois.
“Our fleet of always-on nuclear power plants in Illinois is helping to power our economic growth with clean energy today and positions us to be a leader in the clean hydrogen future,” Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said in a statement.
The phase one funding is part of a $7 billion pledge by the Biden administration to fast-track clean hydrogen production via the development of seven regional hydrogen hubs spanning over a dozen states. Three other regional hydrogen hubs covering Appalachia, California, and Pacific Northwest landed their first phase of federal funding, a total of $87.5 million, earlier this year.
And while President Trump has taken an oppositional stance on federally funded clean energy projects, MachH2 officials are optimistic about the future of the project, “regardless of changes that ebb-and-flow between administrations,” said Neil Banwart, the chief integration officer at the Midwest hub.
Hydrogen, an abundant and odorless gas, has captured the attention of industries and policymakers alike as a potentially significant carbon-free fuel source. To make hydrogen, electricity is used to split hydrogen molecules from water. But this process is energy intensive, and where that energy comes from makes climate advocates question the “clean” branding.
Hydrogen production is color-coded based on the energy source used to produce it. Green hydrogen, for example, denotes that the power comes from renewables, like solar or wind. Pink hydrogen sources its power from nuclear energy. Blue hydrogen comes from natural gas and then traps emissions using carbon capture. When it comes to defining “clean hydrogen,” environmental advocates want to draw the line at green. But according to Banwart, the Midwest Hydrogen Hub will count all three as carbon-cutting options.
“If you look at the carbon intensity of all of our projects, which will be measured throughout the life of this hub, you will find the carbon intensity is very low,” Banwart said. “And thus, all three forms of production would be true, clean hydrogen.”
The vast majority of hydrogen manufactured in the United States today is produced with natural gas. Advocates say that anything that keeps fossil fuels online — including natural gas — isn’t clean.
“We’re seeing that a lot of the same fossil fuel companies… want to keep their assets online,” said Lauren Piette, a senior attorney with Earthjustice, an environmental law organization. “Hydrogen has the potential to help us decarbonize if it is made in a way that is truly clean,” she said, but a lot of companies “see hydrogen as a way to greenwash their dirty projects of the past.”
According to MachH2 officials, the project’s initial $22.2 million dollar installment will go toward planning, design, and community and labor engagement. This phase is expected to last 18 months, with construction still years away.
This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Midwest wins funding for a new hydrogen hub. Not everyone is convinced it’s ‘clean.’ on Dec 2, 2024.
With ex-partners suing them, the parliament grilling them, the government firing them, AFP investigating them, and media lambasting them, the scandal-ridden PwC has their lawyers pick on an academic. Marcus Reubenstein reports.
Andy Schmulow, an associate professor from the University of Wollongong, has made a name for himself, calling out the wrongdoings of the Big Four accounting firms, particularly PwC.
It’s been rich pickings for Schmulow over the past couple of years, who’s posted on his LinkedIn account scathing and totally justified commentary on the ethically questionable practices of the big end of town.
In March of this year, it was all too much for PwC, which took great offence to a 463-word Schmulow LinkedIn post in which he advocated that PwC’s Australian boss Kevin Burrowes, who’d spent his first 16 years with the company in the London office, should be kicked out of Australia.
To boot, he offered an opinion that an AFR report describing Burrowes as having a “resting bulldog face” was accurate. As loose as defamation laws are, you can’t be sued for expressing an opinion.
The AFR’s Neil Chenoweth broke the tax scandal story in January 2023, and within four months, PwC’s Australian boss, Tom Seymour, was gone. After Kristin Stubbins stepped in as interim CEO, Kevin Burrowes was shipped in from the Singapore office to clean up the mess.
Ziggy plays for time: PwC’s dual ‘independent reports’ a dual whitewash
Burrowes has been dubbed an enforcer and has had to front up to senate inquiries to answer ‘please explains’ as to his firm’s conduct. Following one such appearance, Chenoweth wrote: “Burrowes has a terminal case of resting bulldog face. On this occasion, a bulldog that has just tasted something exceptionally unpleasant.”
PwC directed its PR flacks to get on the phones to demand the deletion of those unkind words, the AFR refused. Eight months ago, Schmulow posted his tome on LinkedIn where he referred to Burrowes appearance clearly denoting “resting bulldog face” were the AFR’s words not his.
Under Australian law there is no recourse to have such posts deleted nor to commence any proceedings against the author. PwC’s lawyers, Allens stepped up with a plan of their own: complain to the University of Wollongong (UOW) about Schmulow’s post, claiming it breached the university’s social media policy.
It was a classic case of high-priced lawyers “trying it on” with a complaint couched in legalese alluding to Schmulow’s post being defamatory.
Whether they knew it or not – and one suspects the lawyers at Allens may well have known – Schmulow was informed about the complaint but had no right to see it because it was confidential.
Whilst not a criticism of UOW, it erred on the side of caution and when asked by Schmulow to show him the complaint he was eventually handed a heavily redacted version with more black ink than text. Not one to back down, Schmulow made an application under New South Wales’ freedom of information law, the Government Information (Public Access) Act, to see what PwC was saying about him.
That application led to the release of the PwC complaint last month, eight months after it was first lodged. There is an irony about this insofar as Schmulow’s criticism of PwC was in the public domain, yet its heavy-handed response was private and confidential. Presumably not for legal reasons but merely to satisfy the university, Schmulow amended references to two names, and his post remains online for all to see.
Allens wrote to UOW claiming, “The statements made in relation to Mr Burrowes and (a PwC partner) are factually incorrect and are likely to cause both professional harm and personal distress. Further, one of the statements made in relation to Mr Burrowes includes disparaging comments about Mr Burrowes’ appearance.”
Having finally seen the complaint, Schmulow says, “The gist from me is that the complaint refers to a post that makes assertions, all of which are verifiable. So, the complaint is a complaint without a cause, putting it in under confidentiality would only serve to conceal that.
What is the purpose? To my mind it is to intimidate me into silence.
It’s almost as if the lawyers have nothing to do.
On November 4, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) visited PwC’s Sydney office making polite inquiries as to whether it had breached secrecy laws by disclosing confidential Australian Taxation Office (ATO) information to corporate clients.
AFP officers spent several days at the PwC offices, with partners and staff having been reassured in a memo from Burrowes, “Despite the potential for distraction, let’s all encourage our teams to continue business as usual and remain focused on their important work with our clients and in the community.”
Last month, it was revealed that PwC fired up the lawyers lodging a counterclaim in the NSW Supreme Court against ex-partner Paul McNab, who was named by PwC as one of four partners associated with ATO leaks and is suing his former employer for unpaid entitlements.
Aside from McNab, seven other partners (now ex-partners), named and shamed by PwC for their part in the scandal, have either settled or commenced their own proceedings against the firm.
With the greatest of respect to sharks, the lawyers began circling once there was a drop of blood in the water about the tax scandal; now, it’s feeding a frenzy.
Why would PwC have one of its sharks slip into Wollongong Harbour to bite off the head of a lone academic? Did Schmulow breach confidentiality agreements, hand out sensitive government information to his colleagues and clients or give conflicted evidence to parliamentary committees? No, he quoted someone else who had called PwC’s boss an unkind name.
Unfortunately for PwC, Schmulow might not have the face of a bulldog, but he certainly has the fight of one. It’s a lesson for PwC and next time they brief the shysters at Allens someone is going to have to step up and say: “you’re going to need a bigger shark!”
Privacy: hackers and spammers put your data at risk. What to do?
This post was originally published on Michael West.
Read more on this topic in Vietnamese
As Vietnam gears up to tighten controls on an already heavily regulated internet with a new rule next month, users have been raising concerns that the government will be able to further restrict freedom of expression online and more closely track online businesses.
Offshore service providers such as social media companies and providers of app store services have to authenticate Vietnamese users by requiring their phone or ID card numbers under Decree 147, which will come into effect on Dec. 25.
“Account authentication helps authorities identify the real identity behind the account, providing good support for the investigation and handling of violations” Nguyen Tien Ma of the Communication Ministry’s Department of Cyber Security told Vietnam Television.
But tighter restrictions are not limited to foreign internet companies. Users of domestic social networking sites are prohibited from posting news reports and interviews.
An activist from Hanoi, who didn’t want to be identified, told Radio Free Asia this will prevent the revival of a previously strong citizen journalism movement, which used blogs to provide news and commentary on political issues.
Taxing online marketers
Decree 147 expands the scope of content supervision, putting the onus even further on internet providers to self-police by monitoring and removing content deemed illegal by Vietnamese authorities.
The new rules include monitoring of content in livestreams and online advertising, which are used by companies and individuals in Vietnam to sell products to millions of people.
One businesswoman from the city of Hung Yen told RFA the decree was good for the government and bad for companies who haven’t been declaring their Vietnamese revenue.
“Online sales are so popular now, everyone can sell online, so how can the government ignore such a lucrative opportunity? They have to track down the sellers to collect taxes,” she said.
However, some online businesses do not know about the decree and its implications for them. RFA called two online fashion store owners in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. Both said they were completely unaware of how Decree 147 would affect their livestream marketing business.
Existing management tools
Since the promulgation of the Cybersecurity Law in 2018, the government has issued three decrees related to the management, provision and use of internet services and online information: Decree 27 in 2018, Decree 53 in 2022 and Decree 147, which was issued on Nov. 9, to take effect in 90 days.
When the Cybersecurity Law was first enacted, many human rights activists said it was a tool to suppress freedom of speech rather than to protect national security.
The law prohibits the use of cyberspace to “oppose the state, spread false information that causes public confusion, offends others, [and] violates national security.”
Businesses must delete information deemed illegal upon request of the government. If they don’t, their service in Vietnam will be suspended. Internet users can be fined for spreading false information and may be prosecuted for anti-state propaganda.
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Decree 27 expanded the scope of monitoring to include misleading and untrue information that is considered “bad or toxic” but “not yet illegal.”
Decree 53 further tightened content on content related to national security, which must be removed within 24 hours if deemed a threat.
The rules require social network providers to utilize technology to automatically detect and warn of prohibited behavior. Enterprises must also report to authorities every three months on the status of content monitoring.
RFA emailed Google, along with Meta and its Facebook media representatives in Vietnam to ask about the new regulations but did not immediately receive a response.
Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Vietnamese.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
The Industry department missed its target for delivering grants and services to regional businesses last year, reflecting the shuttering of the flagship Entrepreneur’s Programme, according to its latest annual report. Only 15 per cent of grants and services went to regional businesses in financial year 2023-24, falling below the 25 per cent target that was…
The post Industry dept falls short on regional grants and services appeared first on InnovationAus.com.
This post was originally published on InnovationAus.com.
One rule for the unions, another for business. While Nine Entertainment mastheads have been battering the CFMEU, when it comes to similar practices by developers, they look the other way. Marcus Reubenstein with the story.
The CFMEU construction division is smouldering in administration following reports of links to organised crime aired by Nine Entertainment. But for years, property developers have been burning themselves to the ground, rising from liquidations, often back into the hands of the original developer. One developer, with liquidations in its past, is heading up a $500m project in Wollongong linked to Nine Entertainment’s biggest shareholder.
The Wollongong city skyline, south of Sydney, is set to undergo a major transformation with plans before the city council for a three-tower mixed commercial and residential development, the tallest of which is planned to be 39 stories. Valued at $500m, the WIN Grand mixed-use precinct is the biggest ever development in Wollongong.
The site was purchased for $70m by a company called Level 33, which has completed a number of developments in Wollongong and Sydney’s south. The vendor was Birketu Pty Ltd, owned by Bermuda-based billionaire media tycoon Bruce Gordon, who is the single biggest shareholder in Nine Entertainment.
While the Nine mastheads reported on the transaction, there was hardly a deep dive into Level 33, rather a warm and fuzzy reference to it as a “family-owned company” with a solid track record in Sydney and the Illawarra region.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Birketu, which was heavily involved in the planning phase, will maintain an interest in WIN Grand, quoting Birketu and WIN chief executive Andrew Lancaster, saying, “We will take a large part of the commercial aspect of the site when it is completed.”
Lancaster was reported as saying Level 33 was selected from a field of 20 developers who lodged expressions of interest to buy the site and that “Level 33 are experts at residential and mixed-use commercial development, and we are pleased they share our vision for the site.”
While Nine Newspapers did disclose the largest shareholder of its parent company was the vendor, which will continue to have involvement in the development, there was scant attention paid to the track record of the purchaser.
Can the con be stopped? CFMEU whistleblower on gangsters, unions and workers entitlements
Just like the CFMEU, the directors of Level 33 and its associated companies are no strangers when it comes to having the corporate undertakers knocking on their doors. That didn’t rate a mention in Nine’s reports.
Contrast this to the hiding Nine gave the CFMEU. Since the announcement in July that the administrators were heading off to the CFMEU, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have filed more than 90 stories about the union, with the AFR chiming in with another 60 connected to their “Building Bad” investigations.
An ASIC search shows there are at least 19 different entities with variations of the company name “Level 33” with nine cancelled and one under external administration. The registered address of what appears to be the group’s parent company, Level 33 Construction Pty Ltd, is PricewaterhouseCoopers Group 2 in Sydney.
Eddy Haddad, who delivered glowing quotes to Nine Newspapers on the Wollongong deal, is the sole director of Level 33 Construction Pty Ltd.
A consultant who’d worked for Level 33 in 2023 was hardly complementary, telling MWM, “Level 33 doesn’t pay its bills”, but added, “that’s nothing unusual in the property industry.”
One of its previous associated companies is North Shore Property Developments Pty Ltd, of which Haddad’s brother John was the sole director. North Shore Property Developments was first registered as a company in March 2010 as Level 33 Pty Ltd, changing its name in 2012.
The company was wound up in 2015, but not before Eddy Haddad picked up four apartments in a development in the affluent Sydney suburb of Lane Cove for $1.62m. That was in 2014. Haddad undertook renovation works and, just before the liquidators arrived, sold the apartments and two garage spaces for a total of $4.069m.
The company having gone into administration, leaving the Australian Taxation Office to stand in line, claiming it was owed $5.8m.
In Federal Court proceedings brought by the ATO, it was revealed another two units in the Lane Cove development were sold for $800,000 to the wife of a plumber who’d worked on the project. However, the court found “no consideration for the transfers was provided, and no money was paid.” That transaction was completed just four months before the liquidators were called in.
Phoenix activity is the process of liquidating a company to escape debts, particularly employees’ wages and payments to subcontractors and to the ATO, with the directors then rising from the ashes with a new company after transferring any useful assets out of the liquidated entity.
A 2018 PwC report estimated phoenix activity was costing Australia’s economy up to $5B per year, with ASIC and the ATO reporting an estimated $1.6B lost in unpaid taxes. The ATO, ASIC, and the Australian National Audit Office are all grappling with the practice.
The ATO has set up a Phoenix Taskforce, nabbing one property developer that wound up companies six times in five years, leaving behind $160m in unpaid debts.
As for the Deed of Settlement in the winding up of the John Haddad-controlled North Shore Property Developments that was negotiated by disgraced liquidator David Iannuzzi. In 2019, the Federal Court handed Iannuzzi a 10-year ban as a liquidator. The ATO labelled him “a phoenix enabling liquidator”. The court investigated 23 companies liquidated by Iannuzzi, all of them clients of Banq Accountants and Advisors Pty Ltd, an accounting firm in the southwestern Sydney suburb of Punchbowl.
Evidence before the court revealed that for most of the life of the Haddad-controlled North Shore Property Developments, its registered address was that of Banq Accountants and Advisors.
An investigation by The Guardian reported the ATO estimated Banq liquidated at least 120 companies that had monies owed to the taxation office, potentially as much as $165m. That same investigation alleged that among Banq’s clients were individuals with connections to the Comanchero bikie gang.
With big money involved in construction and development, it’s not just corrupt unionists holding out their hands. While Nine Entertainment relentlessly went after the CFMEU, it’s given the kid glove treatment to a transaction involving its major shareholder and a developer with a corporate history that hardly aligns with Nine’s characterisation of it as a “family-owned company”.
Black Hole: CFMEU, governments, BHP, black coal giants in $2.5B worker wage swindle
This post was originally published on Michael West.
One rule for the unions, another for business. While Nine Entertainment mastheads have been battering the CFMEU, when it comes to similar practices by developers, they look the other way. Marcus Reubenstein with the story.
The CFMEU construction division is smouldering in administration following reports of links to organised crime aired by Nine Entertainment. But for years, property developers have been burning themselves to the ground, rising from liquidations, often back into the hands of the original developer. One developer, with liquidations in its past, is heading up a $500m project in Wollongong linked to Nine Entertainment’s biggest shareholder.
The Wollongong city skyline, south of Sydney, is set to undergo a major transformation with plans before the city council for a three-tower mixed commercial and residential development, the tallest of which is planned to be 39 stories. Valued at $500m, the WIN Grand mixed-use precinct is the biggest ever development in Wollongong.
The site was purchased for $70m by a company called Level 33, which has completed a number of developments in Wollongong and Sydney’s south. The vendor was Birketu Pty Ltd, owned by Bermuda-based billionaire media tycoon Bruce Gordon, who is the single biggest shareholder in Nine Entertainment.
While the Nine mastheads reported on the transaction, there was hardly a deep dive into Level 33, rather a warm and fuzzy reference to it as a “family-owned company” with a solid track record in Sydney and the Illawarra region.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Birketu, which was heavily involved in the planning phase, will maintain an interest in WIN Grand, quoting Birketu and WIN chief executive Andrew Lancaster, saying, “We will take a large part of the commercial aspect of the site when it is completed.”
Lancaster was reported as saying Level 33 was selected from a field of 20 developers who lodged expressions of interest to buy the site and that “Level 33 are experts at residential and mixed-use commercial development, and we are pleased they share our vision for the site.”
While Nine Newspapers did disclose the largest shareholder of its parent company was the vendor, which will continue to have involvement in the development, there was scant attention paid to the track record of the purchaser.
Can the con be stopped? CFMEU whistleblower on gangsters, unions and workers entitlements
Just like the CFMEU, the directors of Level 33 and its associated companies are no strangers when it comes to having the corporate undertakers knocking on their doors. That didn’t rate a mention in Nine’s reports.
Contrast this to the hiding Nine gave the CFMEU. Since the announcement in July that the administrators were heading off to the CFMEU, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have filed more than 90 stories about the union, with the AFR chiming in with another 60 connected to their “Building Bad” investigations.
An ASIC search shows there are at least 19 different entities with variations of the company name “Level 33” with nine cancelled and one under external administration. The registered address of what appears to be the group’s parent company, Level 33 Construction Pty Ltd, is PricewaterhouseCoopers Group 2 in Sydney.
Eddy Haddad, who delivered glowing quotes to Nine Newspapers on the Wollongong deal, is the sole director of Level 33 Construction Pty Ltd.
A consultant who’d worked for Level 33 in 2023 was hardly complementary, telling MWM, “Level 33 doesn’t pay its bills”, but added, “that’s nothing unusual in the property industry.”
One of its previous associated companies is North Shore Property Developments Pty Ltd, of which Haddad’s brother John was the sole director. North Shore Property Developments was first registered as a company in March 2010 as Level 33 Pty Ltd, changing its name in 2012.
The company was wound up in 2015, but not before Eddy Haddad picked up four apartments in a development in the affluent Sydney suburb of Lane Cove for $1.62m. That was in 2014. Haddad undertook renovation works and, just before the liquidators arrived, sold the apartments and two garage spaces for a total of $4.069m.
The company having gone into administration, leaving the Australian Taxation Office to stand in line, claiming it was owed $5.8m.
In Federal Court proceedings brought by the ATO, it was revealed another two units in the Lane Cove development were sold for $800,000 to the wife of a plumber who’d worked on the project. However, the court found “no consideration for the transfers was provided, and no money was paid.” That transaction was completed just four months before the liquidators were called in.
Phoenix activity is the process of liquidating a company to escape debts, particularly employees’ wages and payments to subcontractors and to the ATO, with the directors then rising from the ashes with a new company after transferring any useful assets out of the liquidated entity.
A 2018 PwC report estimated phoenix activity was costing Australia’s economy up to $5B per year, with ASIC and the ATO reporting an estimated $1.6B lost in unpaid taxes. The ATO, ASIC, and the Australian National Audit Office are all grappling with the practice.
The ATO has set up a Phoenix Taskforce, nabbing one property developer that wound up companies six times in five years, leaving behind $160m in unpaid debts.
As for the Deed of Settlement in the winding up of the John Haddad-controlled North Shore Property Developments that was negotiated by disgraced liquidator David Iannuzzi. In 2019, the Federal Court handed Iannuzzi a 10-year ban as a liquidator. The ATO labelled him “a phoenix enabling liquidator”. The court investigated 23 companies liquidated by Iannuzzi, all of them clients of Banq Accountants and Advisors Pty Ltd, an accounting firm in the southwestern Sydney suburb of Punchbowl.
Evidence before the court revealed that for most of the life of the Haddad-controlled North Shore Property Developments, its registered address was that of Banq Accountants and Advisors.
An investigation by The Guardian reported the ATO estimated Banq liquidated at least 120 companies that had monies owed to the taxation office, potentially as much as $165m. That same investigation alleged that among Banq’s clients were individuals with connections to the Comanchero bikie gang.
With big money involved in construction and development, it’s not just corrupt unionists holding out their hands. While Nine Entertainment relentlessly went after the CFMEU, it’s given the kid glove treatment to a transaction involving its major shareholder and a developer with a corporate history that hardly aligns with Nine’s characterisation of it as a “family-owned company”.
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This post was originally published on Michael West.
We know too well that overseas territories and crown dependencies play a pivotal role in helping crooks and tax dodgers
This week, UK ministers and political leaders from Britain’s overseas territories will come together at the joint ministerial council. This summit is intended to build a united strategy for our partnership with the overseas territories, built on shared democratic values and respect for human rights.
But this partnership also comes with the obligation to adhere to certain standards. For those campaigning to eradicate money laundering and fraud from the UK’s economy, that involves tearing down secrecy and promoting full corporate transparency and robust accountability through publicly accessible registers of beneficial ownership.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
Exclusive: Rights group expresses concerns as it emerges US spy tech company has been lobbying UK ministers
The US spy tech company Palantir has been in talks with the Ministry of Justice about using its technology to calculate prisoners’ “reoffending risks”, it has emerged.
The proposals emerged in correspondence released under the Freedom of Information Act which showed how the company has also been lobbying new UK government ministers, including the chancellor, Rachel Reeves.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
Berlin, November 14, 2024—A local business owner and his security guards insulted and attacked journalist Ana Raičković after following her and her family to their car outside a restaurant in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, on Sunday, November 10.
One man grabbed Raičković, editor for online newspaper Pobjeda, by her throat and threatened her and her family with physical violence and death; another grabbed her by the hair and slammed her head against the car door. Raičković filed a report with police the night of the attack, and police arrested three suspects.
“It is a welcome development that Montenegrin authorities acted swiftly in response to the physical attack against journalist Ana Raičković. They must now ensure that all those responsible are held accountable,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Threatening or attacking a journalist because of their reporting is completely unacceptable. Montenegrin authorities must send a clear signal that violence against journalists will not be tolerated.”
Pobjeda reported that the attack was in response to Raičković’s reporting and TV appearances. about the business owner’s dealings and court cases.
She was treated in an emergency room for neck bruising, head lacerations, and a swollen arm.
The independent trade group Trade Union of Media of Montenegro said the business owner has a “history of aggression towards journalists” and that the police investigation of previous threats he made against a journalist in 2019 ended without “criminal or misdemeanor responsibility.”
CPJ’s email to the press department of the Ministry of the Interior in Podgorica did not receive a reply.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Australian steel maker Bisalloy provides armour for Israeli tanks and is due to begin work on the AUKUS submarine deal. The Malcolm Turnbull-backed company is facing protests tomorrow against unlawful supply. Yaakov Aharon investigates.
In 2017, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and then Ambassador to Israel Dave Sharma travelled to Israel to sign an arms deal. This deal marked the beginning of a steep increase in Australia’s arms trade with Israel, which often relies on Bisalloy’s specialty steel as central to the supply line.
The International Court of Justice stated in July that it is against international law to arm Israel. It called on all Member States of the ICJ to apply strong diplomatic and economic pressure against Israel in order to bring about the end of the military occupation of Palestine.
While the Australian government has repeatedly denied that there is a two-way arms trade with Israel,
Bisalloy has released numerous statements announcing that their relationship with the Israeli arms trade is as strong as ever.
In the past weeks, it was announced by the Department of Defence that 66 permits for two-way arms exports to Israel were under review, while 16 permits were silently amended or ended due to concern over the “very high number of civilian casualties” in Gaza.
Between October 7, 2023 and November 14, 2024, Bisalloy Steel Group’s (ASX:BIS) shares have risen from $2.06 to $3.62, or 75%.
As of January 2023, Turnbull & Partners Pty Ltd owned 2.372m shares (as per ASX disclosures), currently worth $8.4m. His company became a substantial shareholder in July 2021. Dave Sharma was obliged as an MP to disclose in December 2022 that both he and his wife had investments in Bisalloy.
The largest shareholder is Bisalloy chairman David Balkin, with 7.78m shares. Balkin served as president of the Jewish Communal Appeal from 2005-2011, where he remains in the roles of director and Honorary Life Governor.
Peter Smaller is the second largest shareholder. Smaller was the president of Jewish National Fund Australia (JNF) from 2012-2017, and remains a director of the charity. Further, Smaller is the executive chairperson of Southern Steel Group, which also owns Bisalloy shares while distributing raw materials to Bisalloy.
Both the Jewish National Fund and Jewish Communal Appeal are fundamentally pro-Israel organisations. JNF’s mission statement is “developing the land of Israel, strengthening the bond between the Jewish people and its homeland.”
In July 2017, Minister of Defence Christopher Pyne visited Israel to initiate the Australia-Israel Defence Industry Cooperation Joint Working Group.
On 31 October 2017, Bibi Netanyahu, Malcolm Turnbull and Dave Sharma attended the 100th anniversary of The Battle of Beersheba in Israel, where ANZAC cavalry charged Ottoman forces and captured the city.
At the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the ANZAC Museum and Memorial Center. Image by Diego Mittleberg.
Peter Smaller led a delegation to the event consisting of 80 of JNF Australia’s supporters and donors, including David Balkin. The Beersheba ANZAC Memorial Center, mostly built with JNF funds, was unveiled.
Bisalloy Steel released a statement dated 28 October 2017 in advance of the big day.
“Following a successful trip to the Middle East, Justin Suwart, Business Manager – Armour, has returned to Australia with a positive outlook for Bisalloy Steels’ business opportunities in the region, particularly those in one of Australia’s key trading partner countries, Israel. “Israel is already the largest export market for BISALLOY® Armour grade steel, and following meetings with both customers and end-users, we believe there are some strong opportunities to further increase sales in the region,” said Mr Suwart…
“… This was evidenced recently during a visit to Israel by Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, to witness the signing of a defence industry cooperation memorandum.”
By November 9, Israel’s state-funded arms manufacturer Rafael, had created an Australian subsidiary, Varley Rafael, opened an office in Melbourne – and soon after that – a factory in Newcastle. Giora Katz, the executive VP at Rafael, said:
“We have recently signed agreements with Australia’s Bisalloy for the supply of metals for the manufacture of military systems and with Varley for the creation of cooperation and the establishment of an infrastructure for joint production of Spike LR2 anti-tank missiles.”
On February 9, 2018, Bisalloy announced that Rafael had handpicked them for a $900,000 contract to provide steel parts for armoured vehicles.
Malcolm Turnbull visited Bisalloy’s Wollongong factory in March 2018 to boost an announcement that Rheinmetall, in a teaming agreement with Bisalloy, had won the contract for the Australian Government’s $5.2B ‘LAND 400’ program, commissioning the production of 200 Boxer Combat Recon Vehicles (CRV) by 2020. The Boxer CRV design relied on Rafael for Spike anti-tank missile technology and the Trophy protection system.
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In the first 100 days of the war in Gaza, Israel issued Germany with 200 requests to provide armoured vehicles and tank munitions. An Israeli request in November 2023 specifically asked for 10,000 120-millimeter Rheinmetall precision rounds. In order to approve all of Israel’s requests as a “priority,” Germany relied on existing military stock rather than industrial production.
According to a statement by Australian-owned arms manufacturer NIOA Group in December, it had signed a joint venture partnership with Rheinmetall in Germany. The statement said that NIOA is
“a major tenant at the government owned, contractor-operated (GOCO) munitions facility at Benalla in Victoria where it is manufacturing 120mm munitions for the Abrams tank along with 30mm and 35mm cannon ammunition… the Rheinmetall NIOA Munitions forging factory in Maryborough, Queensland [is] delivering key munitions for allied nations.”
The NIOA Munitions chairperson is Christopher Pyne, who had also initiated the Australia-Israel Defence Industry Cooperation Joint Working Group.
Rheinmetall won a €2.7B contract with the German government in March this year for the production and supply of 123 Boxer Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs).
Meanwhile, Rheinmetall Australia secured another $1B contract to deliver a further 120 ready-made Boxer Heavy Weapon Carriers (HWC) vehicles to Germany. Richard Marles MP, the Minister for Defence, called it
the biggest defence export agreement in Australia’s history.
The Boxer APC and HWC vehicles would be assembled in Rheinmetall’s Queensland factory, and would use Bisalloy armoured steel, Rafael’s Spike anti-missiles and the Trophy counter system.
On April 2, 2024, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited the Rheinmetall factory in Queensland to mark the beginning of the deal. For the press conference, Albanese stood in front of a new and glossy Rheinmetall tank while wearing an even newer and cleaner hi-vis vest.
However, the conference was interrupted by breaking news that an Australian World Central Kitchen aid worker, identified that afternoon as Zomi Frankcom, was murdered in Gaza. An IDF drone hunted and murdered Frankcom alongside six of her colleagues, despite the fact that they travelled along an IDF-approved route and had switched to different cars three times in an effort to lose the drone’s trail.
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SBS News filmed the conference and appeared to have done their best to paint Albanese in a flattering light as he fielded questions about Frankcom’s death and whether he would take action against Israel. The camera is zoomed in and the tank in the background is blurred.
In return for his services that day, Rheinmetall gifted Albanese a miniature Boxer model.
Albanese at Rheinmetal (Image supplied)
Activists from Wollongong Friends of Palestine will be staging the fourth community picket outside Bisalloy Steel this Friday, looking to “stop all work at the site for as long as possible.”
Safaa Rayan, who is Palestinian and local to the area, has attended the previous three pickets. She has lost sleep worrying over the safety of her family members who remain in Gaza and the West Bank, saying, “To know that a company so close to where I live is actively supporting the country responsible for the murder, displacement and imprisonment of our family members is profoundly disturbing”.
Lena Mozayani, Safaa’s sister, said, “Our aunty and cousins were sheltering in North Gaza, and their apartment building was completely surrounded by tanks. They were totally stuck. They couldn’t access urgently needed medication,” Lena said.
I just wonder when the CEOs and shareholders of Bisalloy will see our families as equally deserving of life as their own families.
Ties that bind. Australians who serve the Israeli war machine
This post was originally published on Michael West.
Some taxi and hire car industry members are furious with the proposed settlement of one of Australia’s biggest class actions. Zacharias Szumer reports.
Uber’s agreement to pay over $270 million to Australian taxi and hire car industry members was hailed as ‘historic’ and a ‘world-first’ when announced in March.
At the time, lawyers from the law firm that took on their case praised the outcome, saying “thousands of everyday Australians [had] joined together to stare down a global giant”.
But some of the 8,700 taxi owners, licensees and drivers who took part in Australia’s fifth largest class action believe their cut is “woefully unfair”.
After subtracting Maurice Blackburn’s legal costs and the litigation funder’s commission, the plaintiffs get just a fraction of what they lost when Uber illegally entered Australia over a decade ago and proceeded to decimate the taxi industry.
Although the precise settlement details are still confidential, one plaintiff told the Victorian Supreme Court in September that most would be left with something “pretty close” to $15,000-$21,000.
Queensland Taxi Licence Owner’s Association boss Paul Scaini told the Supreme Court that such compensation was “woefully inadequate” given that Uber had directly caused his family damages of roughly $1 million.
“My family had to sell their home … I find it amazing that the legal team now considers it somehow equitable that class members be the big losers.”
Possibly cutting further into the plaintiffs’ cut, several thousand taxi and hire car industry members, who had not registered for the class action, have sought to sign on since the settlement was announced.
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Scaini told MWM in October that Maurice Blackburn, which chalked up over $38.6 million in legal fees, promised the plaintiffs justice, not “a token settlement”.
In court, he claimed the decision to settle “boiled down to the litigation funder’s desire to get their hands on $81,541,000 right now rather than have to wait for class members getting any fair and equitable results”.
Like most Australian class actions, this one was funded by an investor: Harbour, which is the largest privately owned litigation funder in the world.
The return on investment for firms like Harbour can be quite high – which is often justified by the level of financial risk.
If the case went to trial and the taxi drivers lost, Harbour wouldn’t only lose the money they’d put up; they’d also be on the hook for any costs above the amount they had insured.
This case came with “unique risks and unique scale”, Harbour’s barrister told the court in September while arguing in favour of the settlement and the investor’s 30 percent cut.
Harbour did not respond to MWM’s requests for comment.
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Several plaintiffs said Maurice Blackburn had previously expressed confidence in taking the case to trial and the settlement announcement took them by surprise.
Brisbane taxi owner Stephen Lacaze said the case’s principal lawyer first came “riding into town on Bradman-like batting averages and the reputation of Maurice Blackburn”.
She “made it very clear that this would be a slow, grinding process, but assured all that Maurice Blackburn had the runs on the board, expertise, and will to see it through”, Lacaze told the court in September.
Scaini said that, given Uber’s track record as a tenacious legal foe, “Everyone should have understood from the outset that this matter may drag on for 10 years or more and with relevant and related costs.”
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Rod Barton – who was boss of the Victorian Taxi and Hire Car Association when the suit was filed in 2019 – told MWM that this could have been a fool’s errand.
“We could highly likely have won the case in the court, but I 100 percent guarantee that Uber would’ve then appealed … because they’ve got the money”.
“We would’ve ended up in court for another five years, for what? To get a similar amount of money?” he said, citing the additional costs of the case dragging out.
The case against Uber was lodged in 2019 and an additional case was added in 2020.
“A lot of the taxi people don’t really understand the complexities of all this”.
Scaini told MWM that Barton’s assessment was correct.
“Most licence owners are far too professionally unsophisticated to properly express what has happened to them”.
He also claimed that none of the lead plaintiffs were present at the negotiations that led to the settlement decision. MWM was unable to confirm this.
However, the lead plaintiffs agreed to the settlement before it was presented to the court and some have publicly praised the outcome.
Scaini acknowledged that, “without Maurice Blackburn and Harbour, we would likely not have had the capacity to hold Uber to account”.
“Not unless somebody else perhaps took a shine to us”.
Barton told MWM that this was unlikely.
He said he “brought the case to Maurice Blackburn after spending nearly 12 months shopping it around trying to get a class action moving”.
“The reality was that nobody wanted to take it on”.
In response to the deregulation of the taxi and hire car industry, Barton established the Transport Matters Party in 2017. He served as a member of the Victorian upper house from 2018 to 2022.
He said that the funding agreement with Harbour was the best deal they could find.
“There’s no secret to this. These mobs go around and they fund class actions what they reckon they can win”.
“They’re like professional punters, really.”
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“Everybody who joined the class action knew from the very beginning” that Harbour would take a 30 percent cut of any settlement, Barton said.
“I know people are very upset, but the people responsible for the loss of the licence values are the state governments, not Uber.”
Previous cases brought against state governments in Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia have all failed.
“We all wanted to win millions, but no one was ever, ever going to do it,” said Barton, adding that he lost his home when Uber wiped out his hire car business.
“I sympathise with [those objecting to the settlement], because I’m in exactly the same position.”
“I want my home back again, but I ain’t going to get it.”
“No other country, as far as I’m aware, has been able to hold Uber accountable for their illegal activity”.
Scaini and Glazebrook were two of 10 objectors who attended the September hearing to protest the settlement.
“When push comes to shove, when people needed to come and mount their case, it was less than a dozen people out of eight and a half thousand,” Barton told MWM.
In response, Scaini told MWM: “There were a hell of a lot more objections. It was only that 10 people chose to talk to those objections in the court.”
According to the court-appointed contradictors, 85 objections were made about the settlement itself.
Scaini said relatively few plaintiffs lodged formal objections because they were “beaten and let down” by promise of adequate compensation being snatched away.
Maurice Blackburn told MWM it was “proud to have secured a $271.8 million settlement” and that it “consider[s] the settlement to be fair and reasonable”.
DISCLOSURE: The writer’s sister is a senior associate at Maurice Blackburn. She was not involved in the Uber class action.
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This post was originally published on Michael West.
While political pundits billed the Harris/Trump race as the most important election of a generation, is it really going to change anything in a nation where the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the billionaires run the politicians? Marcus Reubenstein.
With Donald Trump back in the White House, aside from perhaps some social policy, how much will change in America?
Two weeks ago, CEO of private equity behemoth BlackRock, Larry Fink told a conference “It really doesn’t matter” who wins the U.S. presidential election. Fink reiterated his point saying, “We work with both administrations and are having conversations with both candidates”.
That’s now how things work, the all-powerful cartel of billionaires, private equity and investment banks in the U.S. don’t talk to the government and ask for things to get done; the government goes to them to be told what to do.
The world is in a new cold war with the U.S. on one side and China on the other, yes there’s an arms race but the key battleground is economic might and geopolitical influence. America remains the world’s overwhelming military power, but China is in the ascendancy in economic might; thanks to the growing success of BRICS, its position is reaching unassailable in geopolitical influence.
Those desperate for the U.S. to preserve its global hegemony sell this cold war as being “communism versus capitalism”. Thanks to western rhetoric extending back to the end of World War Two, it is very easy to sell the idea of communism bad, capitalism good.
But is capitalism all it’s cracked up to be? Is it good for Australia, so inextricably tied to the U.S., to be navigating major geopolitical challenges when corporate America reckons it doesn’t matter who’s running the world’s biggest capitalist nation?
The authoritative U.S. dictionary, Webster’s defines capitalism as, “An economic system characterised by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market.”
In simple terms, those with the capital—billionaires and corporations—run the U.S. government. Fink advanced this proposition succinctly in saying, “I’m tired of hearing this is the biggest election in your lifetime. The reality is over time it doesn’t matter”.
One reason it doesn’t matter is the fact that those with capital can easily funnel it into the coffers of U.S. politicians in return for access and influence. Figures reported by Open Secrets show this year BlackRock made $US1.8 million in campaign contributions. Another $US2 million was spent on lobbying, a well-oiled revolving door with 32 of its 44 lobbyists having previously held positions in the U.S. government.
Then there’s the direct plug into the US government, U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Eric Van Nostrand was plucked from a senior role at BlackRock by Joe Biden’s Administration.
Another key figure, Mike Pyle worked as a senior economic to the failed Kamala Harris 2020 primary campaign, before his appointment as Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economics in the Biden Administration. Two months ago, he moved back to New York as deputy of a BlackRock group that has nearly $5 trillion in assets under management.
Pyle is a poster child for revolving doors, he worked for the Obama Administration, before moving to BlackRock in 2014, then back to Washington DC in 2019, now sitting pretty at BlackRock to manage trillions of dollars in investments in the world’s largest economy run by a president his boss says doesn’t really matter.
Should Trump win the election there are rumours swirling around that Fink might leave his post as BlackRock CEO to become Treasury Secretary. In July, Trump poured cold water on that suggestion, but for someone who changes position as often as Trump, that doesn’t necessarily mean Fink is not headed for Washington DC.
Last month BlackRock announced its total assets under management reached $A17.6 trillion, up from $A13.9 trillion the previous year. Comparing this to global GDP, only the U.S. and China have economies larger than BlackRock’s assets; its assets are 6.4 times the value of Australia’s economy.
The fact that capital is running the U.S. has real impact on Australia, 25.1 percent of foreign investment in Australia comes from the U.S., by contrast China, our largest trading partner, accounts for a paltry 1.9 percent of foreign investment in Australia.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
In June, U.S. solar manufacturer Qcells became the second company in the world to register its solar panels with EPEAT, a labeling system that sets sustainability standards for electronics makers. By doing so, the company triggered an obscure regulation that requires federal agencies to purchase EPEAT-certified solar panels. If, say, NASA wants to build a solar farm to power a research facility, it must now purchase panels that meet EPEAT’s strict sustainability requirements — including a first-of-its-kind limit on the carbon emissions tied to solar manufacturing.
There’s just one problem: Although EPEAT launched its solar standards in 2019, as of today, there are only six EPEAT-registered solar panels on the global market. And there are currently no EPEAT-registered solar inverters, devices that convert the direct current electricity a solar panel produces to alternating current electricity, which the grid uses. That doesn’t leave a lot of choices for the federal government, or anyone else who wants to purchase sustainably-produced solar equipment.
That’s why, in October, the Department of Energy, or DOE, launched a new prize that offers up to $450,000 to U.S.-based solar panel and inverter manufacturers that achieve EPEAT certification for their products. As a new wave of domestic solar manufacturing kicks into high gear, the DOE hopes the prize will ensure that companies use efficient processes, sustainable materials, fair labor practices, and low-carbon energy.
“The fact of the matter is, not all solar [products] in their production are created equal,” said Patty Dillon, a vice president at the Global Electronics Council, the sustainable technology nonprofit that manages the EPEAT ecolabel.
Solar panels convert the sun’s rays into electricity in a process that emits no greenhouse gases, which makes them essential for fighting climate change. To achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, the International Energy Agency estimates that the world must add 630 gigawatts of new solar power annually by 2030 — up from the 135 gigawatts installed in 2020.
But some solar panels are more climate-friendly than others. Polysilicon, which is used to make the sunlight-harvesting cells inside silicon panels, is made using an energy-intensive process often powered by fossil fuels. The frames that hold solar panels together are made of aluminum, which is typically smelted in China using coal-powered electricity. The manufacturing processes that turn these materials into a solar panel also require energy, which can lead to more emissions. On a global level, the difference between solar panels manufactured using clean energy and those made with fossil fuels could amount to tens of billions of metric tons of carbon pollution by the middle of the 21st century.
To minimize those emissions, along with other environmental challenges like the use of toxic chemicals and the disposal of solar e-waste, companies must take a hard look at their supply chains and, in some cases, engage in difficult clean-up work. The DOE’s new prize, “Promoting Registration of Inverters and Modules with Ecolabel,” or PRIME, encourages companies to do so by going through the EPEAT registration process.
“EPEAT certification enables companies to show how they have been taking the steps to have more environmentally friendly supply chains and manufacturing processes,” Becca Jones-Albertus, who directs the DOE’s solar energy technologies office, told Grist.
Solar companies seeking EPEAT registration must meet a list of criteria that span four broad themes: climate change, sustainable resource use, hazardous chemicals, and responsible supply chains. Depending on how many standards a manufacturer meets, it can receive an EPEAT Bronze, Silver, or Gold designation.
In addition, as of June, solar manufacturers registered with EPEAT are required to meet the industry’s first-ever criteria for embodied carbon, the emissions generated when a product is produced. For each kilowatt of power produced, no more than 630 kilograms of CO2 can be emitted during the production of an EPEAT-registered solar panel. The limit, Dillon says, represents about 25 percent fewer carbon emissions than the global average. Solar panels that fall below the “ultra low carbon” threshold of 400 kilograms of CO2 per kilowatt of power earn a special EPEAT Climate+ designation.
“That basically represents the best in class,” Dillon said.
It’s difficult to make a direct comparison to fossil fuel plants, since most of their emissions come from operations rather than building infrastructure. But other research has found that over their lifespan, solar plants are considerably more climate friendly, emitting roughly 50 grams of CO2 per kilowatt-hour of energy produced compared with about 1,000 grams per kilowatt-hour for coal.
Meeting EPEAT’s requirements isn’t easy, which might explain why there are only two companies — QCells and the Arizona-based First Solar — currently listed on the registry. And only two solar panels manufactured by First Solar have earned the ecolabel’s Climate+ badge. QCells, which manufactures two EPEAT-registered panels at a factory in Dalton, Georgia, spent about two years going through a “very extensive” certification process that involved collecting data across its supply chain and submitting to a third-party audit, corporate communications lead Debra DeShong told Grist.
“It’s not an easy task,” DeShong said. “It requires resources and it requires a will.”
Other companies may now be motivated to try. QCells’ additions to the EPEAT registry in June activated the Federal Acquisition Regulation, which requires the federal government to purchase goods that meet standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, except in limited circumstances where it’s impractical to do so. In the case of solar panels, that means EPEAT-registered products. The DOE’s PRIME Prize, which provides U.S. solar manufacturers $50,000 for starting the registration process and up to $100,000 per product for up to four products that complete it, offers additional incentive. Jones-Albertus told Grist that the prize was designed to “roughly offset the cost of collecting all the data and moving through the registration process.”
Solar companies “told us that they’re interested in EPEAT certification, but they haven’t gotten there yet,” Jones-Albertus said. “We’re hoping to provide incentives so that companies go through the EPEAT registration process sooner.”
Companies peering deep into their supply chains for the first time might discover they have to make some changes to meet EPEAT registration requirements. To slim down the carbon footprint of its panels, a solar manufacturer might have to switch to a low-carbon polysilicon supplier. (QCells, for instance, is purchasing polysilicon from a facility in Washington state that produces the stuff using hydropower.) Or it might decide to swap out virgin aluminum frames manufactured overseas for recycled steel ones built domestically by Origami Solar, a change that can reduce carbon emissions tied to the frame by upwards of 90 percent. To meet EPEAT’s optional recycled content criteria, a manufacturer could decide to start purchasing recycled panel glass from a company like SolarCycle.
Making these sorts of manufacturing supply chain alterations takes time and money beyond what the new DOE prize will provide. But Dillon, of the Global Electronics Council, is optimistic that more companies will start registering their products with EPEAT now that federal purchasers require it.
Erik Petersen, the chief strategy officer at Origami Solar, believes the Biden administration’s push for clean domestic manufacturing, combined with growing consumer interest in supply chain transparency, will spur more U.S. solar companies to ensure their products meet high sustainability standards.
“What’s exciting is all of these forces are coming together at the same time,” Petersen told Grist. “That really gives the industry an incentive to do the right things.”
This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The Department of Energy wants to pay companies to make greener solar panels on Nov 1, 2024.
This post was originally published on Grist.
This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by ProPublica.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by ProPublica.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
When the Racetrac chain of convenience stores was deciding whether to install electric vehicle chargers, project lead Rushi Patel started with a blank Excel sheet and a lot of questions. Did the financials make sense? Where is the best to install them? What features should they have? The answers to questions like these could go a long way toward establishing an economic argument for building out America’s public EV charging infrastructure.
“We found our guests using new types of fuels, like electrons, and we wanted to be with them as part of that journey,” said Patel, the diversified energy manager at Racetrac’s parent company Metroplex Energy. But he was clear that “it’s important to have an offer that does make money.”
Patel slowly started to populate his spreadsheet in 2021, filling cells with EV adoption rates, utility prices, construction costs and a range of other metrics. He also took the company’s executives on a two-hour tour of charging spots in Atlanta, where Racetrac is based. One was tucked behind a shopping plaza, the other was deep within the bowels of a mall garage. It was clear to them that Racetrac could do better.
Two years later, Racetrac installed its first Level 3 fast charger in Oxford, Alabama — complete with the company’s logo and a canopy to shade people from the sun as they pump electrons. It has since opened seven more in three states. So far, he said, “[the business model] is holding up pretty well.”
Those eight chargers are among the 61,000 that blanket the country, a figure that has more than doubled since 2022. The increase comes as mounting evidence shows EV charging stations can be a boon to businesses, and not only by selling electricity.
A recent study in the journal Nature Communications looked at chargers in California and found that, pre-pandemic, businesses saw an average annual boost of $1,500 when at least one of the devices stood nearby. Another paper examined Tesla Supercharger installations nationally and saw they brought a 4 percent increase in visitors to a business. The effect was particularly pronounced if the chargers were within 500 feet, and if it was the first one in the area. This boon is due to the fact that it can take 30 minutes or more to fully charge an EV, giving drivers plenty of time to shop.
“The places that tend to get the biggest bump, is the place that aligns with how long it takes you to charge your car,” said Gordon Burtch, an author of the paper and a professor of information systems at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. “Sit-down restaurants aren’t benefiting as much as fast-food restaurants.”
A range of companies have seen the upside of installing chargers. Walmart is building its own network of chargers to add to the more than 1,300 chargers already at its stores. Kohl’s and Starbucks are adding more hardware. Subway plans to add “charging oasis parks,” complete with picnic tables, Wi-Fi, and playgrounds. Some places are even offering free charging to entice potential customers.
“Owning and operating a charger on its own can be really tough,” said Jim Burness, the founder of National Car Charging, which manages more than 11,000 charging points across the country. “If you add in the increased shopping basket, the economic case becomes pretty easy.”
Patel says Racetrac is indeed seeing a bump in sales while people stop to plug in. The quality of the experience seems to make a big difference, he added, which is why the company has invested in features like canopies.
“If you’re going to fill your regular vehicle up under a canopy, there should be no reason you can’t do the same [with an EV],” he said, noting that a well-lit facility that includes access to clean restrooms also goes a long way toward drawing patrons.
“If you dial in the offering and make the experience great, not only will they pay a premium, but they’ll come back,” said Karl Doenges, executive director of charging analytics at The Transportation Energy Institute. But both he and Patel noted that there are still challenges to overcome; most notably how to coordinate utility costs with customer pricing.
Utilities often charge commercial accounts two fees: one for the amount of energy consumed and one fixed amount based on the peak demand for the month. Rates can also vary depending on the time of day. This can make determining how to price a charger difficult.
Doenges says operators have been experimenting with time of use pricing, and increasingly, dynamic pricing based on demand, similar to Uber surcharges. According to Patel, some utilities are also developing models that better suit EV charging patterns, which is why Racetrac chose Alabama for its first charger. But, he said, “the hardest part even today has been the way electricity is priced.”
Chargers can also be very expensive to install, ranging from thousands of dollars for a Level 2 charger to hundreds of thousands for a much faster Level 3 device that can do the job in as little as 20 minutes. On that front, at least, there are significant federal incentives available to help. The 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law established the $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, which is currently rolling out across the country with a goal of creating 500,000 new stations by 2030. Racetrac received $619,575.87 to install four chargers at its store in Dublin, Georgia.
While Patel wouldn’t elaborate on Racetrac’s expansion plans, he said more chargers are coming, and he’s confident that if the company builds them, enough customers will come to make it worth the expense. “We’ve done a ton of analysis,” he said. “We’ve gone deep.”
This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Public EV chargers are good for the planet. They’re also good for business. on Oct 22, 2024.
This post was originally published on Grist.
Analysis from business and trade department says bill will significantly strengthen workers’ right. This live blog is closed
In the past the weirdest budget tradition was the convention that the chancellor is allowed to drink alcohol while delivering the budget speech. But since no chancellor has taken advantage of the rule since the 1990s (and no one expects Rachel Reeves to be quaffing on Wednesday week), this tradition is probably best viewed as lapsed.
But Sam Coates from Sky News has discovered another weird budget ritual. On his Politics at Jack and Sam’s podcast, he says:
Someone messaged me to say: ‘Did you know that over in the Treasury as they’ve been going over all these spending settlements, in one of the offices, its full of balloons. And every time an individual department finalises its settlements, one of the balloons is popped.’
There couldn’t be a more important time for us to have this conversation.
The NHS is going through what is objectively the worst crisis in its history, whether it’s people struggling to get access to their GP, dialling 999 and an ambulance not arriving in time, turning up to A&E departments and waiting far too long, sometimes on trolleys in corridors, or going through the ordeal of knowing that you’re waiting for a diagnosis that could be the difference between life and death.
We feel really strongly that the best ideas aren’t going to come from politicians in Whitehall.
They’re going to come from staff working right across the country and, crucially, patients, because our experiences as patients are also really important to understanding what the future of the NHS needs to be and what it could be with the right ideas.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
Union whistleblower Andrew Quirk questions the clean-up of corruption in the building industry and foreshadows a further decline in building standards if this is not achieved.
In its rush to liquidate the corrupt leaderships of the Victorian and NSW construction unions, the government has failed to part the head from the snake. The current New South Wales organisation, for instance, largely reports to the exiled leadership some of whose members are facing criminal charges..
There are now millions and millions of dollars in outstanding workers’ entitlements due from companies, some owned by violent and very greedy criminals.
These crooks will now consider liquidating their companies to avoid paying unionised CFMEU workers, who are also the victims of their crimes. In many cases, the companies will re-emerge to rip-off more workers as ‘phoenix firms’, aided and abetted by lazy or corrupt unionism.
In the normal process of investigating a failure to pay entitlements the union (that is a union with organisers of integrity), sends an official to look at the building site induction records, compare them to various other records, examine the shortfall and get the builder to hold the money until the members are paid their entitlements.
If the outstanding sum is significant, the men sit in in the sheds until the builder coughs up. Failure to recoup outstanding entitlements from corrupt building companies in 2014 resulted in death threats delivered by members of the current exiled NSW CFMEU leadership to the then senior executive officer of the union, Brian Fitzpatrick, as he tried to draw attention to this issue.
This is the original crime from 2014 which garnered organised crime more than $1 million. Led by now convicted organised crime figure George Alex, it was widely known that corrupt union officials received $5000 a week.
Evidence to the Trade Union Royal Commission strongly suggested a senior CFMEU organiser personally visited George Alex’s house to receive the money in envelopes conveniently left in the toilets.
Recently released police tapes further reveal Alex boasting of the large number of CFMEU officials in his pocket.
The hive-like influence of organised crime groups within the construction industry is supported by a venal ecosystem of bottom-feeding liquidators and lawyers. Putting on public record through official reports the presence of these figures is vital and a process the administrator has commenced. These people thrive in the shadows and fear the slow grinding exposure of their criminality.
It is however just as important to follow the money. Some of the current officials and organisers still operating the NSW branch of the CFMEU are unlikely to enforce these entitlements as their loyalties are still likely to lie with the exiled leadership holed up at the Sydney Branch of the MUA. Why the MUA would give grace and favour to this lot is beyond me.
To identify an entitlement shortfall in labour hire or traffic control, you need to inform a branch official. If you do this, you still run the risk that, via the exiled leadership which was decapitated due to its links with organised crime, the investigation may become known even before the builder is notified of an industrial dispute.
I know of this first-hand. When I raised concerns in 2014, the national CFMEU held a sham internal inquiry, the details of which leaked directly to organised crime figures.
While the administrator has significant powers and resources, it should be noted that in many ways they are evenly matched by organised crime, who are resourced by the proceeds of their crimes, have extensive personal networks and can call on the services of expensive lawyers and liquidators.
Containing the influence of organised crime might be more straightforward nationally, given the majority of these companies are limited to labour hire and traffic control. However, the corruption in New South Wales has spread to the Gyprock sector which has dire implications for the infrastructure projects of the New South Wales state government.
At this point, I’d ask anybody reading this to indulge me in a little construction mansplaining. Building a hospital, school or police station is obviously different from building home units
There are all sorts of specialist requirements to each of these constructions: police interview rooms which are not soundproof are obviously useless; evacuation and fire suppression systems in schools have their own set of safety requirements; hospitals require everything from parking, waiting rooms, and administration blocks even before you install the specialist medical equipment.
In NSW under the notorious former CFMEU leadership there has been a wholesale deskilling of the plasterboard sector as the contracts were routinely awarded on neither cost nor skill but on influence or bribery. The plasterboard guys are the people who lay out the internal walls that define a building. In a normal block of units, a fire suppressant board with acoustic properties might go in the lift lobby, after that, it’s all the run-of-the-mill plasterboard you see at Bunnings.
In a hospital, however, you will have several different types of specialist plasterboard. In terms of the internal fit-out this is also the key trade in that it interacts most with the other trades. There is always a temptation for a shoddy builder to employ a second-rate plasterboard contractor. You just employ a first-class tradie to go round and clean up the crap job, to put lipstick on the pig so to speak.
All that’s required is the job must last just long enough for any liability the builder has to expire, after that the people that bought the buildings can go and eat dirt.
This in essence is the source of the slow-moving disaster unfolding in the New South Wales home unit sector. Shoddy labour patched up long enough for the builders to hop off into the sunset with their money. It is also in essence the scope of the potential disaster left by this corrupt former CFMEU officialdom. Shoddy hospitals, shitty schools and second-rate police stations.
Bear in mind this deskilling has occurred against the neo-liberal backdrop of underfunding skills training, and the privatisation of building inspectors.
The benefit for the corrupt officials is a bribe, the benefit for the corrupting subcontractors it’s a contract. For the builder, the benefit of this corruption is a cheap contract which features substandard wages and conditions for workers. To pretend the builder does not know about all this beggars belief.
As a state government with local knowledge and as the builder, the New South Wales government does at least have some steps it could take against this chicanery.
Requiring an immediate copy of induction books and an examination of wages and entitlements paid on infrastructure projects are all obvious first steps. Because of the disaster in the unit building sector the state government also has the construction knowledge necessary to assess the performance of these projects.
It is important to note that this attack on EBA conditions is currently being undertaken by a prominent second-tier infrastructure specialist on state government projects as we speak.
The fact is, the former leadership was undermining workers’ entitlements and allowing the roll-out of shonky EBA conditions. The state government, the administrator – and any incoming clean union leadership – will need to act in the interests of the members to get this all cleaned up.
The Setka Circus: get the gangsters out off CFMEU and the building industry for unions sake
This post was originally published on Michael West.
After years of pressure from environmental advocates, the global retail giant Amazon announced last week that it has eliminated plastic air pillows from its global network of “fulfillment centers,” as Amazon calls its warehouse and distribution facilities. Around the world, products inside the company’s packages are now cushioned by paper-based padding that can be collected in curbside recycling programs.
“We are committed to improving how orders are shipped, for the good of customers and the planet,” Amazon wrote in a blog post.
The announcement represents the fulfillment of a promise Amazon made in June to work “toward full removal” of plastic air pillows from North America by the end of the year. At that time, the company said it had already replaced 95 percent of its air pillows across the continent with paper filler. Years before that, in 2021, Amazon eliminated plastic air pillows in Australia, and in 2022 it did the same for orders shipped from its warehouses in Europe.
Oceana, a nonprofit ocean advocacy group, has dogged Amazon for several years over its use of plastics, largely through a series of reports quantifying the company’s overall plastic footprint and its contribution to aquatic plastic pollution. Matt Littlejohn, Oceana’s senior vice president for strategic initiatives, said Amazon’s announcement is “actually quite significant,” even though the phaseout doesn’t apply to orders shipped by third-party sellers. Amazon hasn’t disclosed what fraction of its sales are fulfilled in that way. “It’s great news for the oceans and for the globe in general that the world’s biggest e-commerce company did this,” Littlejohn said.
Still, Amazon continues to use tens of thousands of tons of plastic every year in other forms of packaging — much of it thin, filmy plastic used in delivery bags and padded mailers. Plastic film is not only virtually impossible to recycle, but also the most common form of plastic litter in coastal waters and the most lethal type of plastic to large marine animals. Oceana and other environmental groups say the company should strengthen its plastic-reduction promises by setting deadlines to move away from all types of single-use plastic packaging, and scaling up reusable alternatives.
“We want the company to make a commitment to do more,” Littlejohn told Grist. He said Amazon’s actions could influence other large retailers to also reduce their plastics use.
Amazon is one of the largest companies in the world, with an estimated value near $2 trillion and annual revenue above $600 billion. It operates in 21 countries and ships to many more. In the U.S., Amazon controls nearly 40 percent of the e-commerce market.
So far, Amazon’s greatest progress on plastic reduction has happened in international jurisdictions, potentially due to stronger regulations on single-use plastics. The company’s warehouses in India have been plastic packaging-free since 2020, and its European distribution centers stopped using plastic delivery bags in 2022. Those changes contributed to a 9 percent self-reported decline in global plastic use between 2022 and 2023, according to an Amazon spokesperson.
Plastic reduction has been slower in the U.S., perhaps because of the sheer size of its largest market. Oceana has estimated that Amazon generated 208 million pounds of plastic packaging trash in the United States in 2022 — about 10 percent more than the previous year — although this doesn’t account for the company’s most recent efforts to transition to paper. In its recent blog post, Amazon said it has now retrofitted more than 120 automated packing machines across the country so they can make paper bags, rather than plastic ones.
Amazon also hinted in its 2022 sustainability report that it was “phasing out padded bags containing plastics,” presumably referring to its ubiquitous blue-and-white mailers. Littlejohn said Amazon should make this commitment more precise by clarifying its geographical scope and a timeline for accomplishing it.
The company also said in its most recent sustainability report that it’s “working to reduce our use of single-use plastic packaging in favor of household-recyclable alternatives.” Littlejohn said that the emphasis on curbside recycling — instead of specialty take-back programs at retail stores — is meaningful. Currently, the company’s blue-and-white mailers feature a label directing customers to “store drop-off” recycling receptacles at locations like Kohl’s, Safeway, and Stop & Shop. But investigations from the media and environmental groups have shown that plastic collected in these receptacles is often sent to landfills and incinerators, rather than to a recycler. Plastic film that does get reprocessed is downgraded into nonrecyclable products like deck chairs.
In response to Grist’s request for comment, an Amazon spokesperson pointed to previously announced plastic reduction efforts, including the complete elimination of plastic packaging from two U.S. distribution facilities.
“We recognize the importance of reducing single-use plastic, in the U.S. and globally, but this can’t be done overnight,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. They went on to say that Amazon is “obsessed with getting this right for customers, and we’re incredibly proud of the progress so far.”
Amazon also said in its blog post from last week that its first priority is “to remove packaging altogether,” meaning it tries to ship products in their original packaging rather than adding Amazon-branded sleeves, bags, boxes, and padding. As of December of last year, Amazon was shipping one-third of its sales in North America without any additional packaging, and it said it would increase this fraction to two-thirds by December 2024.
As You Sow is a nonprofit shareholder advocacy organization that has filed several resolutions at Amazon asking the company to disclose and reduce its plastic packaging footprint. Conrad MacKerron, the organization’s senior vice president, noted that there are still plenty of opportunities outside of Amazon’s e-commerce business to cut down on unnecessary plastic packaging. For example, he said, Amazon sells many private-label food and beverage products that are packed in flexible plastic, like bags of nuts and candies. These products contribute to plastic pollution, even if they’re shipped to buyers in a paper envelope.
Amazon also owns Whole Foods, one of the largest grocery chains in the United States, where entire aisles of products are sold in flimsy plastic packaging that is virtually impossible to recycle. Many of these products are sold under the Amazon-owned label 365 by Whole Foods Market. “Unlike PET bottles, that flexible packaging cannot be recycled really anywhere in the world at this point. All of that goes to the landfill,” MacKerron said. He said he’d like to see Amazon “reevaluate” its grocery store plastic use, “given that there’s nothing on the horizon that’s going to provide a recycling option” for it.
This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Amazon’s inflatable plastic pillows are officially a thing of the past on Oct 18, 2024.
This post was originally published on Grist.
An adviser to Senate President Hun Sen was arrested at Phnom Penh International Airport on Friday after returning from a business trip to China, two Cambodian news outlets reported.
It was unclear what charges Duong Dara could be facing. Earlier this year, he was named in a complaint filed by villagers in southern Svay Rieng province that accused a Phnom Penh company of scamming them out of investments that ranged between US$40,000 and US$120,000.
The Fresh News online news site and the Koh Santepheap newspaper reported that Duong Dara was arrested in connection with a citizen’s complaint. No further details were given.
Duong Dara was appointed secretary of state for the Council of Ministers – the government’s Cabinet – last year and has also worked as a personal assistant to Hun Sen.
Duong Dara is credited with creating and overseeing Hun Sen’s popular Facebook account, where the former prime minister continues to post statements and personal observations, as well as video clips from public appearances.
The arrest comes several days after Hun Sen wrote on Facebook that another adviser, Ly Sameth, had defrauded several Cambodians over the last two years by soliciting bribes in exchange for favors and government positions.
Hun Sen wrote on Facebook on Monday that Ly Sameth’s assets should be frozen and Phnom Penh court officials should issue an order to return money he accepted from people.
Police officers went to Ly Sameth’s house on Tuesday morning, but he wasn’t at home and authorities were unable to locate him on Wednesday, Phnom Penh Municipal Police spokesperson Sam Vichheka said. Authorities haven’t charged Ly Sameth, he said.
Business interests
The complaint submitted at Svay Rieng Provincial Court in June stated that the Phum Khmer Group promised that its duck farms, animal feed factories, restaurants and real estate holdings would generate a monthly 4% payment for investors.
One investor told Radio Free Asia that he never received any interest or dividend payments, as promised in the signed contract.
Phum Khmer’s chief executive, Som Sothea, stopped responding to messages, another investor told RFA in June. Som Sothea is believed to be a close friend of Duong Dara.
Several investors told RFA that Duong Dara and his younger brother, Duong Virath, all have shares in the Phum Khmer Group.
Duong Dara said on his Facebook page in June that – other than joining company workers in distributing food to the poor on one occasion – he has no involvement with the Phum Khmer Group’s business interests.
RFA was unable to reach Duong Dara for comment on Friday.
Sam Vichheka, Phnom Penh Municipal Court spokesman I Rin, Phnom Penh Municipal Police Commissioner Chuon Narin also didn’t respond to requests for comment on the arrest.
Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Daniel Humm, chef of Eleven Madison Park, and celebrated artist Francesco Clemente are teaming up to debut Clemente Bar, a new cocktail lounge located one floor above Humm’s iconic three-Michelin-starred restaurant. The bar, opening October 10, is set to be an intimate yet creative space where plant-based cocktails and art take center stage, reflecting both Humm’s culinary ingenuity and Clemente’s whimsical, dreamlike artwork.
“We saw the bar as an opportunity to connect with these guests in a more relaxed setting,” Humm tells VegNews, reflecting on how the clientele at Eleven Madison Park has evolved since the restaurant went plant-based in 2021. “We wanted to create a place where they could experience this level of plant-based cooking and incredible cocktails in an environment that also felt cool and very personal.” Humm notes that Clemente, a close friend, was the perfect creative partner to shape the bar’s look and feel.
Clemente Bar/Instagram
Clemente Bar isn’t just a casual afterthought; it’s designed to be a destination on its own. “It seemed right that the new space would live right above [the restaurant] as a hidden gem,” Humm says. “We want Clemente Bar to be a part of the Eleven Madison Park family yet stand apart in its own right.”
At the restaurant, food leads the way, but at Clemente Bar, cocktails will take the spotlight, while food plays a complementary role. “We’ve designed it to be an intimate cocktail bar for people to go to on its own or for Eleven Madison Park guests to visit pre- or post-dinner,” he adds.
Evan Sung
The menu at Clemente Bar, created in collaboration with beverage director Sebastian Tollius and bar manager Richie Millwater, will feature creative takes on classic cocktails. The drinks are categorized by composition or tasting notes such as “fresh,” clarified concoctions, low ABV, and spirit-forward. Guests can expect playful combinations like a Negroni–piña colada hybrid inspired by Samoas Girl Scout cookies; the 5th Leaf, a pisco- and vodka-based option that tastes like crisp pears; or the sour Doctor’s Orders made with aquafaba and peated scotch.
Jodi Hinds
Each cocktail comes with imaginative garnishes, such as an iced Campari coin for the Negroni-colada, or a mini churro atop a raicilla old-fashioned.
“The cocktails are all very elegant in their presentation with these amazing flavor profiles that are both new and familiar, with many evoking feelings of nostalgia,” Humm shares.
Evan Sung
The bar will also offer an inventive menu of plant-based snacks, keeping in line with the philosophy that has driven Eleven Madison Park’s transition to entirely plant-based dining. “In the bar, we have a whole menu of snacks that you can have with drinks and eat with your hands, like sake pickles, an Agedashi tofu dog, a Nashville-inspired fried mushroom sandwich, and crispy tempura fries,” says Humm.
For those looking for a more immersive experience, the bar’s tasting counter offers a four- to five-course menu, each paired with a cocktail. “It’s super delicious food paired with cocktails where you can really see the bartenders making each cocktail in front of you,” Humm explains, adding that the experience is designed to be quick and enjoyable, lasting about 90 minutes.
Evan Sung
The plant-based menu will also showcase ingredients sourced from Humm’s farm, Magic Farms, located upstate.
“I think it’s incredibly important to continue pushing forward and doing what we can to create a more sustainable food industry,” Humm says. “I love that people are accepting more plant-based food when it comes to fine dining, and we’re excited to showcase how it can work in a more casual bar setting as well.”
UNESCO
With his recent appointment as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Global Food Education, Humm emphasizes the need to drive awareness of the impact food choices have on the environment. “It’s a key time to collectively drive awareness in the choices we make in our food to lead us to a more sustainable and purposeful future,” he adds.
Ye Fan/Clemente Bar Instagram
Clemente Bar’s visual identity will be shaped by three stunning murals created by Clemente, whose work has long graced galleries and museums around the world. His vibrant, symbolic artwork brings a unique character to the space, adding layers of meaning to the bar’s design. “Both the design and menu have been crafted in harmony to ultimately create a beautiful meeting point for New Yorkers like the famous artist bars of the past from around the world,” Humm explains.
The bar’s interior, designed by Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works, features textured walnut paneling, dark marble surfaces, and a vintage couch, creating a warm, inviting atmosphere where guests can relax and soak in the art and ambiance.
Jodi Hinds
Humm hopes that Clemente Bar will become a welcoming destination for both locals and visitors. “Rather than a one-off special visit, we want it to become a welcoming return spot for guests and locals, where they feel they can come whenever they want for high-quality cocktails and bites,” he says.
Despite the challenges currently facing the restaurant industry, Humm remains optimistic. “Fine dining is both a creative endeavor and a business. Challenges often create innovations, so there is a lot to be excited and hopeful about within the restaurant industry and fine dining as a whole,” he shares. With Clemente Bar and a new restaurant in the West Village slated for the end of next year, Humm continues to evolve his approach to fine dining.
The celebrated chef is no stranger to this kind of culinary evolution. In 2021, he transitioned Eleven Madison Park to a fully plant-based menu. “We took the jump to transform Eleven Madison Park into a plant-based fine-dining restaurant knowing in our hearts that this is what we believed in,” Humm said at the time.
In October 2022, Eleven Madison Park retained its three Michelin stars, becoming the first plant-based establishment in the world to hold the coveted honor.
As Humm looks ahead, he’s also gearing up for the release of his first plant-based cookbook, Eleven Madison Park: The Plant-Based Chapter, which he describes as a behind-the-scenes look at the restaurant’s transformation to a plant-based kitchen. The limited-edition book captures the creative journey of one of the world’s most celebrated restaurants.
This post was originally published on VegNews.com.
Senators continue to probe the investigation into ABC Bullion by ASIC and auditors Deloitte, querying the methods used and why whistleblower evidence seems to have been ignored. Kim Wingerei with the story.
Australian bullion companies have had a rough ride lately. Last year, Perth Mint operators, the Gold Corporation, accepted an ‘Enforceable Undertaking‘ after a lengthy investigation by AUSTRAC found that the company had failed to comply with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) laws. East Coast competitor ABC Bullion was cleared by ASIC earlier this year after an investigation into its bullion storage practices, while its parent, Pallion Group is in ATOs crosshairs.
ASIC engaged ‘Big 4’ auditor Deloitte to conduct an audit of ABC Bullion. Economist and bullion dealer John Adams, who instigated the ASIC inquiry, believes the audit process was inadequate, a sentiment echoed by Senator Roberts.
On September 10, Malcolm Roberts asked why “ASIC did not physically inspect any ABC Bullion or Pallion group facility for 9½ months.” He went on to state that “a mere 3½ weeks after the ASIC investigators tipped off ABC Bullion that it was under investigation, ABC Bullion moved an undisclosed quantity of physical bullion from a tiny room in the Sydney CBD to an industrial building located in Marrickville.”
ABC Bullion is a subsidiary of the Pallion Group, which is under investigation by the ATO, chasing $200 million in unpaid GST.
Did Albo know? ASIC faces questions into bungled investigation of ABC Bullion
ASIC commenced the investigation into ABC Bullion in July 2022. However, Deloitte was not formally appointed until February 2023. Their role was to audit the physical storage and movement of bullion between ABC’s facilities following the initial report of alleged misconduct from Adams submitted in April 2022.
Adams questions both the length of time it took to commence the audit and its methodology.
In response to parliamentary questions put on notice by Senator Roberts, ASIC revealed to Parliament on 23 October last year that ASIC “engaged an external consulting firm to carry out an assurance of physical stock based on randomised selection.”
Adams suggested to MWM that “randomly counting physical gold and silver bars when the allegation was that physical gold and silver bars are missing is a puzzling audit methodology.”
When confronted by Senator Roberts on 19 March 2024 in a private briefing held in Federal Parliament as to why didn’t ASIC count all the physical bullion that ABC Bullion was required to contractually hold, ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court stated that ASIC “didn’t have the financial budget.”
Deloitte was paid approx. $300,000 for the audit.
Adams has told MWM that having created an assurance plan in January 2023, ASIC investigators met with ABC Bullion on multiple occasions in January, February and March 2023 after informing them that an audit would take place.
These meetings occurred partly because ASIC was not willing to seek a court-approved search warrant and instead required the permission of ABC Bullion and its parent company, Pallion Group, to access its physical premises.
While the contents of meetings are unknown, one email obtained via a Freedom of Information request suggests that ASIC investigators provided a redacted copy of the assurance plan to ABC Bullion in or around late January or early February 2023.
Beyond this, ASIC acquiesced to ABC Bullion’s demand of having ASIC officials and Deloitte employees obtain new police checks (which ASIC paid for).
ASIC also actually paid for Deloitte employees to receive training to use equipment capable of testing the purity of physical gold and silver bars (which took several weeks to organise) rather than find a market operator who could perform this function immediately.
According to Adams, the most troubling part of the audit process was that it appears
ASIC went out of its way to guarantee that ABC Bullion knew precisely when to be fully prepared for the audit.
They did so when ASIC provided ABC Bullion with ten days’ notice prior to the first site inspection, which occurred on Friday, 28 April 2023, in Marrickville, NSW.
Subsequent site inspections occurred on Tuesday, 2 May and Thursday, 4 May 2023, in the Sydney region with only 24 hours’ notice and on Thursday, 11 May 2023, in Perth with six days’ notice.
Again, when confronted by Senator Roberts as to why ASIC didn’t conduct physical site inspections across multiple locations on a single day, Deputy Chair Court cited financial constraints.
After ASIC initially cleared ABC Bullion of any wrongdoing, Adams submitted a follow-up ‘Critical Review” to ASIC, which was dismissed in August this year.
During this review, Adams was able to find a new whistleblower (the second in two years) with intimate details of ABC Bullion’s operations, especially in the April – May 2023 period.
Working with Adams, this whistleblower agreed to a 23-page statement in which they stated that while having no knowledge that ABC Bullion was under criminal investigation by ASIC, they had heard rumours out of Sydney in April 2023 that the company was about to be subjected to a major and very serious audit.
The whistleblower also states that in late April 2023, within the ten-day notice period provided by ASIC (approximately 2 – 3 weeks prior to the 11 May 2023 site inspection in Perth), he was told to drop everything and ship approximately one metric tonne of physical gold and silver bullion from Perth to Sydney within 24 hours – an unprecedented and uncommercial instruction which they had never received before.
Such instructions to urgently ship physical bullion back to Sydney were also issued to ABC Bullion’s Brisbane and Melbourne offices.
MWM understands that none of these retail stores ever performed client storage services, meaning that the physical bullion that was shipped back to Sydney was company inventory.
During the same period of time of mid to late April 2023, the whistleblower also heard that Pallion Group’s refinery arm – ABC Refinery – had shifted its production schedule to urgently manufacture a large quantity of physical bullion for ABC Bullion while delaying production for other clients.
These actions, according to the whistleblower, coincided with rumours out of Sydney that there were concerns that ABC Bullion held insufficient physical bullion for clients and that the deficit required to be backfilled prior to the audit commencing.
The whistleblower also contends that once the audit was over, a significant portion of the bullion that was shipped from Perth to Sydney in April 2023 was shipped back to Perth after 11 May 2023.
Sizzling WhatsApp texts blow the lid off ASIC investigation into ABC Bullion
Given the whistleblower revelations, Adams expected ASIC “to take a keen interest as the integrity of the audit and its results put into question.”
Upon receiving Adams’ Critical Review Report on 3 June 2024, ASIC was eager to interview the new whistleblower on a voluntary basis.
However, as soon as the whistleblower requested that ASIC produce a record of the conversation or transcript of the voluntary interview, ASIC refused without any justification.
When the whistleblower then subsequently requested a section 19 legal notice to participate in a formal examination where a transcript would be produced by law, ASIC refused again with no justification.
Instead, ASIC informed the whistleblower that they would solely consider their witness statement. The whistleblower never heard back from ASIC.
ABC Bullion has previously denied any wrongdoing in a statement to MWM.
MWM put questions regarding the audit process to Deloitte but has received no reply. ASIC has also declined to comment on the investigation or the audit process.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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