Female protesters have been at the forefront of escalating protests in Iran and have been burning headscarves, after the death in custody of a woman detained for breaking hijab laws. Mahsa Amini died in hospital on Friday after spending three days in a coma. Ms Amini was arrested in the capital last week by Iran’s morality police, accused of breaking the law requiring women to cover their hair with a hijab, or headscarf, and their arms and legs with loose clothing. There were reports that morality police beat Ms Amini’s head with a baton and banged her head against one of their vehicles,

 Save the Children is urgently calling on the international community to ramp up its support to Haiti, to meet the growing needs of vulnerable children and families.

More than 4.9 million people—including 2.2 million children—need assistance, many of them suffering from hunger and malnutrition. 

Widespread poverty, a rising cost of living, extreme levels of violence, low agricultural production, expensive food imports and growing political instability have worsened existing food insecurity in the country.

Chantal Imbeault, Save the Children’s Country Director in Haiti, said, “The situation in the country is increasingly precarious, violence has reached extreme levels. It is very difficult to access water and food, with children being the most affected, suffering from hunger and at risk of losing their lives. There is lack of health services for mothers who are blocked behind barricades. We urge the international community to continue the efforts to assist children and families in Haiti.”

Haiti: More than 2.2 million children in need as violence surges across the country – Haiti | ReliefWeb

 They have fought to deny sick days and other vital benefits to workers in the rail freight industry and the safety of workers and communities, meanwhile, has been put in jeopardy by executives who have fired workers and increased hours, train operator executives have been rewarding shareholders with billions of dollars in stock buybacks and dividend bumps.

According to Railroad Operators: Bad for Workers, Good for Investors, a collection of data compiled by the Groundwork Collaborative, a handful of major rail companies reported more than $10 billion in buybacks and dividends over the first six months of 2022.

“Our research shows just how far railroad executives will go to funnel record profits to their shareholders—even if that means stagnant wages, inhumane attendance policies, and throwing our supply chain into further turmoil,” Mike Mitchell, director of policy and research at Groundwork Collaborative, explained.

Groundwork found that Union Pacific is leading the pack in 2022. Rather than using billions of dollars in revenue to improve pay and job conditions, Union Pacific gave $5 billion to shareholders through buybacks and dividends in the first six months of this year alone. CSX, for instance, funneled nearly $3 billion in buybacks and dividends to investors from January through June, while Canadian National Railway reported $2.3 billion in stock buybacks during the same time period.

Norfolk Southern’s chief financial officer Mark George said on a July call that “shareholder distributions are up and you’ll observe here the 19% higher dividend payments through six months on top of continued strong share repurchase activity.”

Railroads have been enjoying record profits after decades of deregulation, consolidation, and “just-in-time” practices known as “precision railroad scheduling” transformed the industry into what Sarah Miller, executive director of the American Economic Liberties Project, describes as “another monopolized cash cow for Wall Street.”

Union Pacific chief executive officer Lance Fritz told investors on a July call that the company had cut staff by a third since 2018 and said, “We’ve got to do some other unique and creative things with our labor unions in order to make our crews more available and more productive.”

 He also said that Union Pacific is prepared to make further staffing cuts during an economic downturn, asserting that conductor-less trains would be “better for the conductors’ quality of life.”

While Fighting Workers, Railroads Made Over $10 Billion in Stock Buybacks (commondreams.org)

 One person is estimated to be dying of hunger every four seconds. 19,700 people are estimated to be dying of hunger every day, which translates to one person dying of hunger every four seconds.

238 organisations from 75 countries – including Oxfam and Save the Children have warned that urging decisive international action is required to “end the spiralling global hunger crisis”.

In an open letter addressing world leaders gathering in New York for the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, they expressed outrage at skyrocketing hunger levels.

“A staggering 345 million people are now experiencing acute hunger, a number that has more than doubled since 2019,” they said.

 “Despite promises from world leaders to never allow famine again in the 21st century, famine is once more imminent in Somalia. Around the world, 50 million people are on the brink of starvation in 45 countries,” they said.

“It is abysmal that with all the technology in agriculture and harvesting techniques today we are still talking about famine in the 21st century,” Mohanna Ahmed Ali Eljabaly from the Yemen Family Care Association said. “This is not about one country or one continent and hunger never only has one cause. This is about the injustice of the whole of humanity.”

According to the organisations, the global hunger crisis has been fuelled by a “deadly mix of poverty, social injustice, gender inequality, conflict, climate change, and economic shocks”, along with the lingering impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine, which further increased food prices.

Hunger now killing one person every four seconds, NGOs say | Russia-Ukraine war News | Al Jazeera

 Industries such as retail, health care and logistics are reverting to an old tactic and trapping people in miserable jobs by threatening to saddle them with debt if they quit. Workers across the United States in fields ranging from nursing to trucking have been discouraged from leaving jobs because employers charge them for training costs if they quit before an arbitrary deadline.

It is the  Training Repayment Agreement Provisions (TRAPs) clauses in employment contracts. A practice likened by critics to indentured servitude, peonage and modern slavery, a form of debt bondage. Bosses are primarily using TRAPs to obstruct workers from leaving jobs.

TRAPs have been commonly used by employers since the 1990s, but they were almost exclusively reserved then for highly specialized workers such as engineers or airline pilots. As markets became increasingly concentrated and union power was diminished by policymakers into the 21st century, bosses used their growing dominance to impose TRAPs on rank-and-file workers, such as truckers, nurses, mechanics, electricians, salespeople, paramedics, flight attendants, bank workers, repairmen, and social workers. 

Registered nurse Cassie Pennings testified about being stuck with $7,500, “more than six months’ rent,” after leaving one hospital job because she was appalled by staffing ratios during the COVID-19 pandemic and didn’t want to be complicit in neglecting patients.

“Despite being one of the most profitable health care systems in the nation, my former employer responded to cries for help from the front line with breakfast burritos and free water bottles,” Pennings said.

Pennings also told lawmakers that she doubted the $7,500 price tag placed on the cost of her training. “I didn’t get any kind of license or accreditation or anything, and my actual training was only a few weeks.”

Lawyer, David Seligman, told the Senate Banking Committee that TRAPs are used by managers to leave workers “stuck with low pay, dangerous conditions, abusive treatment, or work that does not allow them to advance professionally.” He continued, “The law does not permit employers or others to provide a work opportunity in exchange for a worker’s promise to indenture themselves to their employer through debt,” Seligman said. “These sorts of work arrangements harken back to nineteenth century peonage used to subjugate former slaves, and they are precisely the kind of exploitation that our anti-trafficking and peonage laws were designed to prohibit.”

The chair of the committee, Sherrod Brown, commented, “Last I checked, indentured servitude was illegal in the United States. But it looks like some enterprising companies are rebranding it, with these new employment contracts.”

“For every TRAP that is the subject of a court opinion, tens of thousands remain unchallenged.”

More US Employers Are Trapping Workers in a New Form of Indentured Servitude (truthout.org)

Less than 10% of U.S. plastic waste is recycled annually.

 The American Chemistry Council (ACC), an industry group is seeking to “change existing law so that plastics incinerators can operate without meeting the environmental and health protections of the Clean Air Act.”

“Removing existing Clean Air Act limitations on burning plastic will allow chemical manufacturers to produce and release these toxic chemicals into our communities without limitation.”

“Under the guise of offering a solution to the global plastic waste crisis, the American Chemistry Council has invented an Orwellian new name for decades-old incineration technologies,” the signers stated. “It seeks to rebrand pyrolysis and gasification incinerators as ‘advanced recycling,’ even though there is nothing advanced about them and nothing gets recycled.” 

“In reality, the plastic trash that enters pyrolysis and gasification incinerators gets burned, creating dioxins and other harmful air pollution. What’s left is toxic chemical waste that gets burned again later at hazardous waste disposal facilities or as a dirty fuel. Far from ‘recycling’ the plastic waste they get paid to accept, gasification and pyrolysis incinerators are turning plastic into highly toxic air pollutants and generating hundreds of thousands of pounds of hazardous waste.”

“Plastic contains hundreds of toxic chemicals, including heavy metals, phthalates, flame retardants, bisphenol A, and PFAS. The process of burning plastic via pyrolysis and gasification generates even more toxic pollution, including chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects, and other serious health harms. Emissions include dioxins, benzene, cadmium, arsenic, lead, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and mercury.”

“Changing the legal definition of incineration or waste so that chemical companies can burn plastic in poor and minority communities without controlling the toxic pollution they emit is environmental injustice at its worst.” 

200+ Groups Decry ‘Orwellian’ Industry-Backed Plastic Burning Push (commondreams.org)

 An estimated 20% of UK adults, or 10.9 million people, are behind on one or more household bill – up by 3 million since March – according to the Money Advice Trust report. This figure was much higher, at 45%, for households that received a means-tested benefit, the debt charity said. High energy price rises had already become unaffordable for millions of people, the charity said. About 10.7 million had seen their energy bills rise by £100 or more a month since April.

 5.6 million have gone without food in the past three months according to new research that reveals Britons are skipping meals “just to keep the lights on”. This included skipping meals, eating once a day or not eating at all on some days.

Joanna Elson, the charity’s chief executive, said, “Many households are already facing impossible choices, such as which meal to skip just to keep the lights on.” 

The charity found that many households had little or no wriggle room left in their budgets to cope with rising prices. It said 41% had already cut all nonessential spending, a figure which was up seven percentage points on its March poll.

The jump in energy costs meant more people were borrowing money to try to make ends meet. The charity estimates that more than 15 million people have had to use credit to pay for essentials – an increase of 2.1 million since March 2022 – while one in 10 have had to borrow money from family or friends.

Britons skipping meals ‘just to keep the lights on’, research reveals | UK cost of living crisis | The Guardian

 The series of right-wing attacks in 2008/2009 was the gravest set of crimes committed in Hungary’s recent history.  The perpetrators ambushed their victims, set their homes on fire and then shot them as they sought to escape the flames. Or they killed them in their sleep. In all, the neo-Nazi group killed six people, among them a small child, and injured a further 55, most seriously. The only motivation for their crimes was the fact that their victims were Roma.

The case of Hungary’s Roma murders was never entirely solved. Nevertheless, three perpetrators were handed life sentences in 2014, and an accomplice was given 13 years in prison. Still, despite ample evidence of their guilt — including DNA samples collected at various crime scenes — all of the men involved were unflinching in their claims of innocence. Only one of the four, Arpad Kiss, considered the leader of the group and the main suspect in the case, ever spoke of the crime in public, each time proclaiming his innocence. Now, some 13 years on, out of the blue, he has given a confession. 

But that wasn’t the only statement that made the interview so remarkable. For the first time, Kiss publicly confirmed what most who have followed the case long suspected: accomplices and supporters enabled the murders by providing cash, guns and logistics. In the interview, Kiss referred to two helpers: A local politician from the far-right Jobbik party, and an employee at a gun shop who apparently had access to confidential information from the Interior Ministry through a relative. Kiss did not name names, nor did he offer further information, though he claimed to have provided details on both accomplices to Hungarian investigators back in 2020. But official investigations went nowhere. 

“We were held responsible, but those two went free,” said Kiss.

Although the Roma murders represent a uniquely racist, far-right crime spree, reaction to the interview has been nonexistent. A few media outlets offered short summaries, but neither Orban or his fellow Fidesz politicians have addressed it, nor has anyone from the opposition party. Journalists have also remained silent.

“No political side in Hungary has any interest in completely investigating and solving the Roma murders, that is consensus,” filmmaker and journalist Andras B. Vagvolgyi told DW. Vagvolgyi is one of the few people who know the case inside and out. He attended the trial over the course of years, and published a book on the crimes in 2016. Vagvolgyi is convinced that a fundamental investigation into the case could prove the perpetrators had accomplices in the security and intelligence communities. He said a general lack of will to get to the bottom of the case, as well as a latent antiziganism, are both impeding closure. “Many politicians have told me that people should finally just forget about it,”

Liberal ex-politician Jozsef Gulyas, who together with friends and acquaintances helps survivors of the crimes, agrees. “Sadly, hardly anyone is still interested in the case. The victims are all but forgotten,” he told DW. Gulyas was a member of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security that investigated the case back in 2009 and 2010. “In light of Arpad Kiss’ public statements,” said Gulyas, “the most important thing now would be to open a new investigation and demand intelligence agencies turn over whatever information they have on the case.”  

Istvan Csontos, an informant for the Hungarian military’s KBH security office, also happened to be the getaway driver in the last two attacks. He reportedly informed his contact at the KBH of his role, but that information is said to have not been passed on. 

Hungary: Shocking confession in Roma murder case garners zero interest | Europe | News and current affairs from around the continent | DW | 17.09.2022

 India is seeing an increase in suicides among daily wage workers, according to the latest report by the National Crime Records Bureau. The report released in August revealed that the share of daily wage workers is the largest among those who die by suicide in India.

Out of 164,033 suicide cases reported in 2021, just over 42,000 suicides, or one in four, were among wage workers.

“Suicide numbers and attempts have risen significantly. The data is reflective of the trend but the numbers are likely to be even more,” Delhi-based psychiatrist Achal Bhagat told DW. “Poverty contributes to mental health problems in multiple ways.” Bhagat, who has studied the issue closely, said many wage workers are uncertain if they will be able to support themselves, and have feelings of feelings of guilt for not living up to the role of being a young man in a patriarchal society. 

Mental health professionals attribute the climb in suicides to factors including joblessness, poverty, debt and inability to cope with cuts in wages.

 “The two most important policies that could make a difference are sustainable livelihoods with social security, and access to mental health and suicide prevention services,” Bhagat said. 

About 450 million of India’s 1.3 billion plus population work in the informal economy. These include wage workers, construction workers, street vendors and landless laborers. Over half of India’s daily wager workers earn just 200-400 rupees a day (€2.5- €5, $2-$5), far below the prescribed minimum wage for unskilled workers. Many workers become indebted and are left vulnerable to exploitation.

The pandemic “led to a severe decline in earnings for the majority of workers resulting in a sudden increase in poverty. Women and younger workers have been disproportionately affected,” a recent study by the Azim Premji University in collaboration with various civil society organizations found. Most daily workers experienced an acute drop in employment, including after November 2020 and in much of early 2021. Sectors such as real estate, construction, infrastructure and urban development took time to restart projects.

“Because of the uncertainty about work and income, they [daily wage workers] had to frequently migrate, have lost safety nets, possess zero savings and are debt-ridden,” Nelson Vinod Moses, founder of the Suicide Prevention India Foundation, explained. “Many have high alcoholism rates, no health insurance, get ill-treated and work in hazardous conditions with injuries,” he added.

Tina Gupta, a psychotherapist who has studied behavioral patterns, cited a study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health showing that a $1 increase in the minimum wage is linked to a fall in the suicide rate of between 3.5 and 6% among people with high school education or less. 

“This study points out how low wages are linked to high suicide risk among the vulnerable. Daily wage workers are among the poorest,” she said. “There would be a complex pattern of vulnerabilities like financial stress, lack of social and economic stability, and debt,” she added.

Daily wage workers are most often the primary breadwinners of the family, stated Anjali Nagpal, another psychiatrist in New Delhi.

“Because of their limited academic or vocational skills, if they are terminated or face financial difficulties, they’re not in a condition to adapt by changing their trade or ask for help from their friends, as they are in similar position,” she said. “On top of their work and financial woes, they often struggle with their personal life as being aware of one’s mental health issues isn’t a priority in this stratum,” she pointed out.

But without social and economic safety nets or access to mental health care, many daily wage workers continue to feel trapped.

The key to suicide prevention is “health insurance, debt assistance, social security, access to health care and a public health campaign that shows that civil society cares,” stressed Nelson Vinod Moses of the Suicide Prevention India Foundation.

India sees spike in suicides among wage workers | Asia | An in-depth look at news from across the continent | DW | 18.09.2022

 Agricultural water use makes up nearly 80% of total water consumption in the Colorado River basin, with roughly half of that going toward the production of alfalfa hay, according to a 2020 study. One out of every three farmed acres in  California’s Imperial Valley is dedicated to growing alfalfa, which dries into a high-protein hay commonly used as food for livestock. 

The large-scale production of alfalfa during a megadrought is, in a large part, possible because the Imperial Valley is the single biggest controller of rights to Colorado River water. Now, with the basin on the brink of the most severe water cuts in history, the alfalfa industry has been propelled to the center of longstanding debates over sustainable water use and the future of farming in the west.  Farmers have faced growing criticism for what some have characterized as the “perverse” practice of growing a thirsty crop – none of which goes directly to feeding people – in a drought-stricken region.

The Colorado River, which supplies freshwater to more than 40 million people in seven states and 29 federally recognized tribes across the south-west, as well as northern Mexico, is in rapid decline. Reduced snowpack, drought conditions and higher average temperatures have all reduced the river’s flow in recent decades.

The two biggest reservoirs along the river, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, are each close to hitting levels so low that the Colorado River could stop flowing entirely, a condition ominously known as dead pool.

 “We’re teetering on the edge,” said Jack Schmidt, a professor and director of the Center for Colorado River Studies at Utah State University. “We’re irrigating alfalfa in 120-degree temperatures in the dead of July … how does that possibly make any sense?” Schmidt said.

Alfalfa production in California uses around 5 feet an acre (6167.4 cubic metres) of water, making it one of the most water-intensive crops alongside the likes of almonds, pistachios and rice. Crops such as sugar beets use roughly 3 feet an acre (3,700 cubic metres), and dry beans as little as 1.5 feet each acre (1,850 cubic metres).

Stephen Hawk, a fourth-generation farmer who grows a mix of forage crops and vegetables, decided to scale back production of alfalfa – then his biggest crop. He ramped up production of vegetables like lettuce, onions, carrots and sugar beets. In addition to conserving water, the decision allowed him to diversify revenue streams and practice ground rotation, which comes with soil health benefits. 

“We’re ultimately stewards of the land and our resources,” Hawk said. “And our water is our most precious resource.” He added: “There’s a lot of farms that are 100% forage. That’s going to be very difficult for them to continue. When there’s a shortage, they won’t have enough water to farm all their acres.”

Policymakers have imposed various restrictions aimed at curtailing residential water use, including limiting pool sizes and paying people to rip up their lawns. But others argue that municipal conservation measures can only go so far.

“Even if everybody ripped up their lawns and planted native plants that didn’t need to be irrigated, we’re still going to have this problem. We need to address agriculture straight on,” said Amanda Starbuck, research director of Food & Water Watch, an advocacy group on farming and water issues. “Alfalfa is one of the major crops that is being grown with this water. And it is unfortunately one of the most water-thirsty”.

In 2021, nearly 20% of alfalfa produced in the west was shipped abroad, according to analysis of United States Department of Agriculture data. Nationwide, alfalfa exports reached a record high last year, driven by strong demand from China. Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia are among other top importers.

It’s the thirstiest crop in the US south-west. Will the drought put alfalfa farmers out of business? | Water | The Guardian