Get Malik Out of Ad-Seg Keith "Malik" Washington is an incarcerated activist who has spoken out on conditions of confinement in Texas prison and beyond:  from issues of toxic water and extreme heat, to physical and sexual abuse of imprisoned people, to religious discrimination and more.  Malik has also been a tireless leader in the movement to #EndPrisonSlavery which gained visibility during nationwide prison strikes in 2016 and 2018.  View his work at comrademalik.com or write him at: Keith H. Washington TDC# 1487958 McConnell Unit 3001 S. Emily Drive Beeville, TX 78102 Friends, it's time to get Malik out of solitary confinement. Malik has experienced intense, targeted harassment ever since he dared to start speaking against brutal conditions faced by incarcerated people in Texas and nationwide--but over the past few months, prison officials have stepped up their retaliation even more. In Administrative Segregation (solitary confinement) at McConnell Unit, Malik has experienced frequent humiliating strip searches, medical neglect, mail tampering and censorship, confinement 23 hours a day to a cell that often reached 100+ degrees in the summer, and other daily abuses too numerous to name.  It could not be more clear that they are trying to make an example of him because he is a committed freedom fighter.  So we have to step up. Who to contact: TDCJ Executive Director Bryan Collier Phone: (936)295-6371 Email:  exec.director@tdcj.texas.gov Senior Warden Philip Sinfuentes (McConnell Unit) Phone: (361) 362-2300

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Major George Tillery

MAJOR TILLERY FILES NEW LEGAL PETITION SEX FOR LIES AND MANUFACTURED TESTIMONY

April 25, 2018-- The arrest of two young men in Starbucks for the crime of "sitting while black," and the four years prison sentence to rapper Meek Mill for a minor parole violation are racist outrages in Philadelphia, PA that made national news in the past weeks. Yesterday Meek Mills was released on bail after a high profile defense campaign and a Pa Supreme Court decision citing evidence his conviction was based solely on a cop's false testimony. These events underscore the racism, frame-up, corruption and brutality at the core of the criminal injustice system. Pennsylvania "lifer" Major Tillery's fight for freedom puts a spotlight on the conviction of innocent men with no evidence except the lying testimony of jailhouse snitches who have been coerced and given favors by cops and prosecutors. Sex for Lies and Manufactured Testimony For thirty-five years Major Tillery has fought against his 1983 arrest, then conviction and sentence of life imprisonment without parole for an unsolved 1976 pool hall murder and assault. Major Tillery's defense has always been his innocence. The police and prosecution knew Tillery did not commit these crimes. Jailhouse informant Emanuel Claitt gave lying testimony that Tillery was one of the shooters. In May and June 2016, Emanuel Claitt gave sworn statements that his testimony was a total lie, and that the homicide cops and the prosecutors told him what to say and coached him before trial. Not only was he coerced to lie that Major Tillery was a shooter, but to lie and claim there were no plea deals made in exchange for his testimony. He provided the information about the specific homicide detectives and prosecutors involved in manufacturing his testimony and details about being allowed "sex for lies". In August 2016, Claitt reaffirmed his sworn statements in a videotape, posted on YouTube and on JusticeforMajorTillery.org. Major Tillery has Fought his Conviction and Advocated for Other Prisoners for over 30 Years Major Tillery Needs Your Help: Major Tillery and family HOW YOU CAN HELP Financial Support—Tillery's investigation is ongoing. He badly needs funds to fight for his freedom. Go to JPay.com; code: Major Tillery AM9786 PADOC Tell Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner: The Conviction Review Unit should investigate Major Tillery's case. He is innocent. The only evidence at trial was from lying jail house informants who now admit it was false. Call: 215-686-8000 or Email: justice@phila.gov Write to: Security Processing Center Major Tillery AM 9786 268 Bricker Road Bellefonte, PA 16823 For More Information, Go To: JusticeForMajorTillery.org Call/Write: Kamilah Iddeen (717) 379-9009, Kamilah29@yahoo.com Rachel Wolkenstein (917) 689-4009, RachelWolkenstein@gmail.com Obtain Updates: www.justice4majortillery.info *---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------* *---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------* On Monday March 4th, 2019 Leonard Peltier was advised that his request for a transfer had been unceremoniously denied by the United States Bureau of Prisons. The International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee appreciates and thanks the large number of his supporters who took the time to write, call, email, or fax the BOP in support of Leonard's request for a transfer. Those of us who have been supporting Leonard's freedom for a number of years are disappointed but resolute to continue pushing for his freedom and until that day, to continue to push for his transfer to be closer to his relatives and the Indigenous Nations who support him. 44 years is too damn long for an innocent man to be locked up. How can his co-defendants be innocent on the grounds of self-defense but Leonard remains in prison? The time is now for all of us to dig deep and do what we can and what we must to secure freedom for Leonard Peltier before it's too late. We need the support of all of you now, more than ever. The ILPDC plans to appeal this denial of his transfer to be closer to his family. We plan to demand he receive appropriate medical care, and to continue to uncover and utilize every legal mechanism to secure his release. To do these things we need money to support the legal work. Please call the ILPDC National office or email us for a copy of the postcard you can send to the White House. We need your help to ask President Trump for Leonard's freedom. DONATE  ©2019 ILPDC | 116 W Osborne Avenue Tampa, FL 33603  Web Version  Preferences  Forward  Unsubscribe   Powered by GoDaddy Email Marketing ® Free Leonard Peltier!

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1) G.M. Workers Begin to Size Up the Deal Their Union Is Selling

By Neal E. Boudette, October 18, 2019

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/18/business/gm-uaw-contract.html

Workers picketed Thursday outside the Renaissance Center in Detroit, the global headquarters for General Motors, as leaders of union locals met to go over a tentative contract agreement.CreditCreditBrittany Greeson for The New York Times

The tentative contract hammered out by the United Automobile Workers and General Motors won't please all of the union's members, but it is sure to get strong support at the Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant.

The factory, which employs 700 U.A.W. members, is scheduled to close in January. But under the contract, G.M. has promised to spend $3 billion to retool Hamtramck to make battery modules and electric trucks, most likely increasing its work force and ensuring its operation for at least several more years.

"I think it's a good contract," Wiley Turnage, chairman of Local 22, which represents Hamtramck workers, said Friday. "I'm happy." He said he planned to vote in favor of the contract and to recommend that his members do the same.

If ratified by the U.A.W.'s rank and file, the contract will end a strike that has idled 34 factories in seven states for more than a month and has cost G.M. an estimated $2 billion in operating profit. The walkout's effects have rippled through the North American auto industry, affecting production and idling workers at parts suppliers and G.M.'s operations in Canada and Mexico.

Voting on the contract will take place next week, with a result due on Friday. A simple majority is required for ratification, but it must include a majority of skilled-trades workers — the electricians and other technical specialists who maintain machinery. If it does not, the union will have to bargain with the company to address their concerns — as occurred in 2015, the last time G.M. negotiated a contract.

The agreement includes provisions for higher wages and a process that allows temporary workers to become full-fledged employees. It also enables full-time hourly workers to rise to the top wage of $32 an hour within four years, ending a two-tier wage system that fostered tensions between workers. Each worker would also be paid a bonus of $11,000.

RBC Capital Markets estimated that the contract would raise G.M.'s labor costs by $100 million a year.

For its part, G.M. secured the union's acceptance that three plants already idled, including a factory in Lordstown, Ohio, will close permanently. That will help G.M. guard against excess manufacturing capacity at a time when auto sales are slowing, and put G.M. in a more stable position if the economy goes into a recession. The union went into the talks hoping to prod G.M. into reactivating the Lordstown plant.

A rejection of the contract would be a major setback for the U.A.W. president, Doug Jones, and the union's other senior officials at a delicate moment. Before the strike, union leaders had come under heavy criticism from the rank and file over a federal corruption investigation in which several high-ranking officers have been charged with using union funds for lavish travel and personal purchases.

Many union locals have started planning informational meetings to explain the terms of the contract to members. Darlene Maddox, who was laid off when the Lordstown factory closed this year and accepted a transfer to Lansing, Mich., said she was very disappointed that her old plant wouldn't be saved but wanted to know more before deciding how to vote.

"My first instinct is to vote no," she said. "But the major highlights appear to be good."

Others said they were encouraged that temporary workers would be able to become permanent employees with full benefits after three years of service.

Under current rules, temporary workers earn about $15 an hour, can be laid off at any time and have no dental or vision insurance.

Linda Castro, a temporary worker at a plant making sport utility vehicles in Spring Hill, Tenn., joined G.M. in January 2017, was laid off after a few months and more than a year later was recalled. She said she was worried that G.M. would lay off temporary workers before they could become full employees.

"No one is going to make it to three years," she said. "So it's useless."

Others said the end of the two-tier wage system was a big victory. Under current conditions, some G.M. workers earning less than $20 an hour work alongside veterans making $31 an hour, the current top wage. The proposed contract would move workers to the top wage in four years, half the time it takes now.

"For me, what matters is making sure everyone makes the same wage, and to be able to do that in a time frame that's not eight years," said Ashly Luna, an assembler at a truck plant in Flint, Mich., who has been at G.M. for 12 years.

The proposed contract also would leave the workers' share of health care costs unchanged at about 3 percent, well below the level paid by other manufacturing workers and G.M.'s salaried staff.

D. J. Calma, another line worker in Flint, said autoworkers deserved generous health care terms because of the physical toll of assembly work.

"In the short amount of time I've been here, 12 years, I never thought my body would feel this way," he said. "It's the repetitious squeezing. You're putting your body to the test, truck to truck."

Todd Campanella, an officer in a U.A.W. branch that represents more than 800 G.M. employees in Rochester, N.Y., said the leadership of his local would meet with senior union officials over the weekend to discuss the contract before presenting it to members for a vote.

Mr. Campanella attended the meeting on Thursday in Detroit at which leaders of G.M. union locals gathered to debate the proposed contract. He said representatives from idled plants had voiced concerns about the agreement before the group voted to recommend it to workers.

"We're all in this together, and when some of us are hurting, we're all hurting," Mr. Campanella said. "That's really where the discontent would come from. Other than that, a lot of the contract was very positive for a lot of the plants."

David Yaffe-Bellany and Scott Atkinson contributed reporting.

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2) The Arab Spring Rekindled in Beirut

The Lebanese government falls to a popular uprising as Iran's role across the Middle East is questioned.
By Roger Cohen, October 29, 2019
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/29/opinion/lebanon-protests-hariri.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

Protesters on Sunday in Beirut, Lebanon, calling for the resignation of the government.Credit...Nabil Mounzer/EPA, via Shutterstock

BEIRUT — Eight years after the Arab Spring, massive street protests over corruption, sectarianism and official contempt for the citizenry have brought down the Lebanese government of Prime Minister Saad Hariri. The sources of Arab rage have not changed.

Across the region, societal dysfunction still runs deep. Very young populations are frustrated by the lack of economic opportunity and by constant insults to their dignity in the form of governmental impunity and waste. A millennial generation is sick of nepotism, frozen political systems and waste. Neither the oppression of dictators nor the promises of Islamic radicalism have delivered the human dignity that comes with government accountability.

Young Arabs want agency. They don't want to pay their water bill and then pay again to bribe some official to get connected to the water pipe that goes to a minister's home and so actually works. They don't want to watch the same old men doing the same old things over and over again, before handing power to their sons.

"I'm at a dead end," Hariri said as he quit. He might have been speaking about the Lebanese system with its sectarian division of the spoils and its inefficiency so gross that stretches of highway stink of sewage, electricity comes and goes, and the internet flickers to life from time to time.

"Our kids have been growing up in a polluted place," Kamal Mansour, a businessman, told me. "They have put labels on us. But we are Lebanese." Mansour turned to the protesters around him in the Hamra district of Beirut: "I don't ask if they are Sunni or Shia Muslim, or Maronite, or whatever," he said.

Lebanon fought a devastating civil war in the late 20th century over precisely those divisions. Balancing the political strength of each religious group seemed like a way of keeping the peace. But to a new generation, it looks like a way to perpetuate the power of corrupt clan leaders who pay their followers to entrench their influence. For example, Nabih Berri, the Shia speaker of the Parliament, has held that post for 27 years.

The Lebanese in the streets want to be Lebanese, period. They want to elect a decent government that respects them. They are tired of Lebanon as a plaything for the region's powers. The Palestine Liberation Organization came and left. Israel came and left. Syria came and left. Iran, through its Hezbollah surrogate, is still in Lebanon.

Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, the militant group and political party that is a member of Hariri's coalition, spoke out last week against the government's resigning and warned of possible civil war. (He appeared last week flanked by the Lebanese flag, a departure from his normal practice of speaking beside Hezbollah's yellow flag.)

The government resignation is therefore a direct challenge to Hezbollah and Iranian influence in Lebanon. It comes at the same time as crowds in Iraq, angered for similar reasons as the Lebanese, have been chanting: "Free, free Iraq. Get out corrupt ones" and "Iran, get out!"

Iran is not a great power. It is a modest power that has played a weak hand well.

As Walid Joumblatt, the Druze leader, told me over dinner at his Moukhtara mountain fastness, "The American invasion of Iraq opened the door to the Persian Empire."

The Shia-Sunni balance was upset in 2003, within Iraq and across the region, in favor of Shia Iran. The Islamic Republic, like President Vladimir Putin of Russia, is adept at exploiting strategic opportunity on the cheap.

It pocketed as much of Iraq as newfound Shia dominance would allow, used proxies to shore up Bashar al-Assad in Syria and win the Syrian war, underwrote the Houthis against the Saudis and Emiratis in Yemen, and consolidated Hezbollah's presence in southern Lebanon as the embodiment of "the resistance" to Israel.

That was pretty impressive. But the Islamic Republic, more than four decades after the revolution, resembles the late Soviet Empire — powerful but hollow, estranged from much of its population, an economic shambles and devoid of answers to the real challenges facing the Middle East today.

Iranian overreach is suddenly on the table. The word "hostages" is frequently heard in Beirut — as in hostages of Hezbollah. Why, people ask, should we be that? For a long time, the Israeli threat was sufficient answer. It does not feel that way in Lebanon today.

Powerful reactionary forces, from Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates, from Egypt to the Islamic Republic, are arrayed against the people of the Middle East who want to free themselves, establish accountable governments, secure the rule of law, live with dignity and enjoy economic opportunity. That has been demonstrated between 2011 and now. Only in Tunisia was the hope of the uprisings fulfilled to a significant degree.

Lebanon faces an uphill battle. With the economy on the brink, a descent into mayhem is not implausible. That mayhem could become violent, especially if Hezbollah sets red lines. But the Lebanese know civil war. They want to avoid it, become one people, fulfill the open promise of beautiful Beirut and start anew.

"Run for Modernity," says a T-shirt I've been seeing on the seafront. Why not?

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3) Reading Scores on National Exam Decline in Half the States

The results of the test, which assesses a sample of fourth- and eighth-grade students, will inevitably prompt demands for policy change.

"Over the past decade, there has been no progress in either mathematics or reading performance, and the lowest performing students are doing worse,"

By Erica L. Green and Dana Goldstein, October 30, 2019

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/30/us/reading-scores-national-exam.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

A student reading in the library at a school in Baltimore in May.Credit...Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The average eighth-grade reading score on a nationally representative test declined among public school students in more than half of the states, according to data released Wednesday by the National Center for Education Statistics, the research arm of the Education Department. 

The dismal results were part of the release of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the "nation's report card." The test assesses a sample of fourth- and eighth-grade students — more than 290,000 in each subject in 2019 — every other year.

"Over the past decade, there has been no progress in either mathematics or reading performance, and the lowest performing students are doing worse," Peggy G. Carr, the associate commissioner of the center, said in a statement. 

Such findings will inevitably prompt demands for policy change. In a statement, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who is championing a $5 billion school choice program, said that the results "must be America's wake-up call."

"We can neither excuse them away, nor simply throw more money at the problem," she said.

That vision is in stark contrast to the one that has emerged in the Democratic presidential primary. All the leading candidates have suggested spending billions of more federal dollars on traditional public schools, and two of the front-runners — Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders — have proposed slowing the growth of the charter school sector. 

The losses on the national exam were steepest for students who had been struggling the most, a segment that is the focus of many school reform policies.

Eighth graders at the bottom 10th percentile of reading achievement lost six points on the exam compared with similar students two years ago, while students at the 50th percentile lost 3 points and students at the 90th percentile — top achievers — lost only 1 point. 

"Eighth grade is a transitional point in preparing students for success in high school, so it is critical that researchers further explore the declines we are seeing here," Ms. Carr said. 

White, black, Hispanic, Native American and multiracial students all lost ground in eighth-grade reading, while there was no significant change for Asian students.

Washington, one of 27 cities to participate in a separate analysis of urban school systems, was the only city or state to see significant improvement in eighth-grade reading, according to a federal analysis of the data.

This year, 31 states noted a drop of two to seven points in their average eighth-grade reading score — which the federal government deemed significant — compared with their performances in 2017. Indiana, New Hampshire and Virginia were the states with the largest declines among eighth graders. 

Fourth-grade reading scores dropped in 17 states, with New Jersey having the largest decline, 6 points; only one state, Mississippi, improved, the data showed. 

States' average math scores fared considerably better, particularly among fourth graders. Nine states had significant increases in fourth-grade math, compared with 2017 numbers, with Mississippi again leading the pack. The eighth-grade score in three states improved, while six noted a decline. 

While the most recent results are disappointing, trends in student achievement look more positive over the long term. American students have made large gains in math and small gains in reading since 1990, but those improvements began to level out around 2009. There is no consensus among experts as to why.

The Council of the Great City Schools, a coalition of large urban school systems, said it saw a hopeful story in the new data. Over the past two decades, students in cities have moved closer to national achievement averages in both math and reading.

"The fact that large city schools have cut their performance gap with the nation in about half is even more remarkable when you consider that our schools have substantially more poor students and English-language learners than the average public school across the nation," the group said in a statement. Such results "suggest that the nation's urban public schools are adding substantially more educational value than the average school." 

The National Assessment of Educational Progress is considered a "low stakes" exam, because schools and teachers do not lose funding, pay or autonomy based on how their students perform. Some researchers consider the test the gold-standard measure of learning nationwide, while others argue it is unfair to judge schools using an exam that may have little connection to the material teachers cover in the classroom.

Ms. DeVos said the 2019 scores reflected a "student achievement crisis," where progress had stalled, two out of three children were not proficient readers, and outcomes continued to worsen for the most vulnerable students. 

"Every American family needs to open the nation's report card this year and think about what it means for their child and for our country's future," she said. "The results are, frankly, devastating."

Erica Green reported from Washington, and Dana Goldstein from New York.

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4) Juul Knowingly Sold Tainted Nicotine Pods, Former Executive Says

In a lawsuit, a former senior vice president claims he was fired for raising safety concerns and said that the company's C.E.O. said customers are "drunk and vaping" so wouldn't notice the quality of the pods.

By Sheila Kaplan, October 30, 2019

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/30/health/juul-pods-contaminated.html?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage

Siddharth Breja, a former Juul senior vice president, claims he was fired in retaliation for whistleblowing and objecting to shipments of contaminated and expired pods.Credit...Brittainy Newman/The New York Times

A former top executive of Juul is alleging that the e-cigarette giant sold at least one million contaminated mint-flavored nicotine pods— and refused to recall them when told about the problem.

In a lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on Tuesday, Siddharth Breja, who was senior vice president for global finance, claims he was fired on March 21 in retaliation for whistle-blowing and objecting to the shipment of the contaminated and expired pods and other illegal and unsafe conduct that "has jeopardized and continues to jeopardize public health and safety and the lives of millions of consumers, many of them children and teens."

The lawsuit was first reported by BuzzFeed News.

Mr. Breja detailed a culture of indifference to safety and quality-control issues among top executives at the company and quoted the then-chief executive Kevin Burns saying at a meeting in February: "Half our customers are drunk and vaping" and wouldn't "notice the quality of our pods."

Ted Kwong, a Juul spokesman, dismissed Mr. Breja's claims as baseless. 

"He was terminated in March 2019 because he failed to demonstrate the leadership qualities needed in his role," Mr. Kwong said. "The allegations concerning safety issues with Juul products are equally meritless, and we already investigated the underlying manufacturing issue and determined the product met all applicable specifications."

Jan Hoffman contributed reporting.

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5) Grenfell Tower Inquiry Criticized for Faulting Fire Brigade

Survivor groups and firefighters said the investigation into the high-rise blaze that left 72 people dead should instead have begun by focusing on unsafe conditions in the building.
By Richard Pérez-Peña and Ceylan Yeginsu, October 30, 2019https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/30/world/europe/grenfell-tower.html

The burnt-out shell of Grenfell Tower in London in 2017. The fire, which killed 72 people, was the deadliest in Britain in generations.Credit...Andrew Testa for The New York Times

LONDON — Survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire and firefighters reacted angrily on Wednesday to an official inquiry into the disaster for focusing first on the shortcomings of the emergency services' response to the 2017 blaze, not on the dangerous conditions that fed it.

The government-commissioned investigation produced a nearly 900-page report, more than two years in the making, that is harshly critical of the London Fire Brigade, especially for advising residents of the tower to stay in their apartments during the first hours of the inferno, rather than to try to escape.

The fire, the deadliest in Britain in generations, killed 72 people, while about 200 others in the building survived.

The report reflects the first of two phases in the inquiry, led by Martin Moore-Bick, a retired appellate court judge, focusing on what happened the night of the fire.

As a result, it acknowledges but does not go in depth into the underlying cause of the calamity: the dangerously flammable exterior of the 24-story building, which caused the fire to spread with deadly speed. The second phase of the investigation is expected to address how the material came to be used in a renovation that was completed the year before the fire.

Flammable cladding and insulation enabled the fire to spread rapidly on the exterior of the building.Credit...Hannah Mckay/Reuters

The report was leaked on Tuesday to British news organizations, so that survivors saw headlines blaming the Fire Brigade before they had a chance to begin digesting the findings.

"My husband kept looking through the papers to try and find details about the cheap materials they used to renovate the building, but all we could see was blame against the brave firefighters, who saved my family's life," said Asma Kazmi, a survivor of the fire. "It is shameful. The government is always finding others to blame." 

In the report, Mr. Moore-Bick said: "Although there was much public speculation at the time about the origin of the fire and the role played by the cladding in its spread, it seemed to me that the first step must be to find out as far as possible exactly what happened during the early hours of 14 June 2017. Only when that had been done would it be possible to focus attention on the underlying causes and the decisions that gave rise to them."

The inquiry panel has not commented on the responses to the first phase of its report.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson acknowledged on Wednesday that many of the survivors and allies campaigning for change had no faith in the national or local government to move to ensure that the disaster will not be repeated.

"This is understandable," he said in a lengthy address in Parliament. "They have been let down many times before."

He promised to introduce legislation enacting Mr. Moore-Bick's recommendations, and said that additional money had been allocated for removing flammable cladding from buildings around the country.

He also praised the inquiry, adding: "Phase One sets out what happened. Phase Two will explain why."

To many activists, that order is backward. The group Justice 4 Grenfell, said the fire occurred "within a historical background of cuts to public services, deregulation" and other factors that should have been the first focus of the inquiry.

"Instead, the inquiry began with 'Act II, Scene 1' asking details about the fire on that fateful night," the group said in a statement, leading inevitably to what it said was blaming the firefighters.

"The real meat is expected in Phase Two of the investigation," said Melvyn Akins, who grew up near the tower and has been among those demonstrating for change. "Yes, there's a question mark about whether more lives could be saved, but the real question is, would any lives have been lost if the building companies and managers didn't do what they did?"

Matt Wrack, chief of Britain's main firefighters' union, said, "Before any firefighter arrived that night, Grenfell Tower was a death trap." 

"We have said from the start that the order of issues to be investigated has been entirely wrong," he said. "The inquiry's structure prioritizes scrutiny of firefighters, who did everything that they could to save lives, over investigating the critical issues of public safety that led to the fire and caused it to spread in such a disastrous manner."

Grenfell activists marched through London on Wednesday with signs demanding government action on building safety. They, like opposition members of Parliament, say such action is long overdue.

Grenfell was clad in panels made of layers of an aluminum composite over a core of polyethylene, a type of plastic, which melted, caught fire and sent flaming drops and rivulets down the sides of the building. The insulation between the cladding and the concrete structure was also combustible, and the thin space between them acted like a chimney, funneling heat and flames upward.

In addition, the building lacked sprinklers, fire alarms and fire escapes, it had only one staircase, and the inquiry found that apartment doors were not self-closing, as they should have been. Residents had complained for years that the tower was unsafe.

The type of cladding on Grenfell is not allowed on high-rises in many countries, including the United States, specifically because of the fire danger. Britain's building safety rules are relatively laxcompared to those of other wealthy countries, as is enforcement of them; tests conducted after the fire found that the cladding did not meet even those standards.

"Following the refurbishment, the external walls of the building did not comply with the building regulations, because they did not adequately resist the spread of fire over them," Mr. Moore-Bick said in a video statement accompanying the report. "On the contrary, they promoted it."

Hundreds of high-rise buildings around the country had similar cladding, and many still do, despite the government's expressed commitment to get rid of it.

But this phase of the inquiry dwelled much more on what the emergency services did on the night of the fire, which was first reported shortly before 1 a.m. For nearly two hours, firefighters and emergency operators advised residents to stay in their apartments, rather than try to evacuate.

The advice was routine, based on the belief that closed doors and the building's concrete structure would keep the fire from spreading within the tower. It did not take into account the cladding that would instead spread flames along the exterior of the building.

Fire commanders "were not trained to recognize a fire in the external wall of a high-rise building, nor were they trained in how to respond to it," Mr. Moore-Bick said. "There was no contingency plan for evacuation of the tower, and the L.F.B. failed to revoke the 'stay put' advice at a time when the stairs remained passable. Had it done so, more lives could have been saved."

The Fire Brigade has a database with information on London buildings, but it had not been updated to reflect the renovation of Grenfell, the report said. "In some cases, basic information relating to the tower held by the L.F.B. was wrong, and in others it was missing altogether."

Some of the communication systems used by the Fire Brigade did not work that night, the report said, and the emergency operators were overwhelmed by the volume of calls.

City officials have said that the Fire Brigade has already addressed many of the problems that were exposed that night.

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6) Greek Refugee Camps Are Near Catastrophe, Rights Chief Warns

Conditions in overcrowded, unsanitary camps on the Aegean Islands have turned into “a struggle for survival.”

By Niki Kitsantonis, October 31, 2019

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/31/world/europe/migrants-greece-aegean-islands.html

The Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos this month.  Parliament is considering a plan aimed at easing crowding in the camps.Credit...Petros Giannakouris/Associated Press

ATHENS — Life in the overcrowded migrant camps on Greek islands “has dramatically worsened” in the past year, with thousands of refugees fighting to meet their most basic needs, Europe’s top human rights official warned on Thursday.

“It is an explosive situation,” the official, Dunja Mijatovic, the human rights commissioner of the Council of Europe, said after going to several camps. For many people in the camps, she said, “this has become a struggle for survival.”

The Greek Parliament was expected to adopt a bill later Thursday aimed at easing crowding in the camps. But that plan could simply substitute one set of problems for another, Ms. Mijatovic suggested.

“There is a desperate lack of medical care and sanitation in the vastly overcrowded camps I have visited,” she said at a news conference in Athens. “People queue for hours to get food and to go to bathrooms, when these are available.”

She described families “chipping away at rocks to make some space on steep hillsides to set up their makeshift shelters, often made from trees they cut themselves.”

Ms. Mijatovic’s comments underscored the predicament that Greece still faces four years after the height of the refugee crisis: arrivals from neighboring Turkey are increasing, and many fear of a new wave of migrants from Syria.

About 70,000 migrants in Greece have pending asylum applications, including about 34,000 who are in the Aegean island camps, and many would like to move on to other European countries. Ms Mijatovic denounced the “political deadlock” that has prevented the 28 members of the European Union from reaching an agreement on how to deal with refugees.

On Thursday, one of the European Union’s chief lawyers advised the bloc’s top court that the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland had no legal right to refuse to take significant numbers of refugees, under a policy adopted in 2015. The Court of Justice nearly always accepts the recommendations of those lawyers, but it is not clear how such a ruling could be enforced.

Ms. Mijatovic described “unbearable” conditions on the island of Samos, where a migrant center houses 6,000 people, nine times its maximum capacity, and also expressed concern about Lesbos, where the main camp holds nearly 14,000 people, up from 7,000 last year. Rioting has broken out at camps on both islands in recent weeks, and frustrated migrants have set fires, demanding relocation to the mainland.

Ms. Mijatovic welcomed plans by the government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to transfer 20,000 migrants to mainland facilities by the end of the year.

But she joined the chorus of rights advocates criticizing the government’s plan to change how Greece handles migrants who arrive by boat from Turkey.

The proposed law would speed both the processing of asylum applications and the deportation of people who are denied that protection. Anyone refused asylum would be transported first to Turkey and then, in many cases, to their home country; the government has said it plans to send 10,000 people to Turkey by the end of the year.

Ms. Mijatovic said her chief concerns were that the proposed law would allow the authorities to detain migrants more easily and for longer periods, and that it made it harder for rejected asylum applicants to challenge those decisions.

Rights groups held protests in central Athens on Thursday before the vote in Parliament, which is likely to approve the bill.

Mr. Mitsotakis has said repeatedly that Greece cannot bear the burden of the migrant crisis alone.

Under a 2016 pact between Turkey and the European Union, Turkey agreed to curb illegal migration to Europe, and Greece agreed that those who reach its shores would be restricted to the Aegean Islands until their asylum applications were processed. But many migrants have managed to travel to mainland Greece, from where it is easier to slip into other European countries.

To relieve the humanitarian crisis on the Aegean Islands, many people must be moved to the mainland, Ms. Mijatovic said, suggesting that the provision restricting migrants to the islands be lifted. But the European authorities fear that such a move would encourage more people to migrate.

The Aegean crossings have increasingly strained relations between Greece and Turkey. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has threatened to allow refugees now in Turkey to continue on to Europe.

Last weekend, the Turkish Foreign Ministry accused the Greek authorities of pushing back more than 25,000 migrants trying to cross the Aegean. Mr. Mitsotakis responded by accusing Turkey of exploiting the refugee crisis and “using the persecuted as pawns in forwarding its geopolitical goals.”

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7) Keystone Pipeline Leaks 383,000 Gallons of Oil in North Dakota

The spill in the northeastern part of the state, which occurred along a different stretch than the controversial XL pipeline addition, coated an estimated half-acre of wetland, officials said.

By Niraj Chokshi, October 31, 2019

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/31/us/keystone-pipeline-leak.html

The TC Energy’s Keystone pipeline facility in Alberta, Canada, in 2015. The spill was near the town of Edinburg in northeast North Dakota, less than 50 miles from the Canadian border.Credit...Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press, via Associated Press

The Keystone pipeline system, an addition to which has been the subject of environmental protests for years, leaked about 383,000 gallons of crude oil in North Dakota, covering an estimated half-acre of wetland, state environmental regulators said. 

The spill, which has been contained, occurred in a low-gradient drainage area near the small town of Edinburg in northeast North Dakota, less than 50 miles from the Canadian border, according to Karl Rockeman, the director of the state Department of Environmental Quality’s division of water quality.

“It is one of the larger spills in the state,” he said in an email on Thursday.

There are no residences near the site and the wetland is not a source of drinking water, he said. State regulators and cleanup equipment are on site, but Mr. Rockeman could not say whether cleanup had begun.

The leak occurred along a stretch of the Keystone pipeline system, not the 1,179-mile-long addition to that system known as the Keystone XL pipeline, he said. Keystone XL has been the subject of environmental protests for years. President Barack Obama denied a permit for the pipeline in 2015, but President Trump cleared its path just days after taking office.

In a statement, the pipeline’s operator, TC Energy, formerly known as TransCanada, said the pipeline was shut down after the spill was detected at about 9:20 p.m. local time on Tuesday. The cause of the spill will not be known, the statement said, until an internal investigation is complete and the pipeline is analyzed by federal officials. 

“We are establishing air quality, water and wildlife monitoring and will continue monitoring throughout the response,” the statement said.

In 2017, a spill along the Keystone pipeline system coated a stretch of grassland in South Dakota with more than 407,000 gallons of leaked Canadian crude oil, which was nearly twice as much as originally estimated, according to the company. The pipeline also leaked about 16,000 gallons each in spills in 2011 in North Dakotaand in 2016 in South Dakota.

The original Keystone pipeline system began operation in 2010 and carries crude oil from Alberta, Canada, south to Texas. The system contains 2,687 miles of pipeline.

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8) Lots of Job Hunting, but No Job, Despite Low Unemployment

Even with the strongest labor market in half a century, getting work after losing it can still be a challenge.

"Most of these people do not show up in the stunningly low official unemployment rate of 3.5 percent, the lowest in a half-century. Working even one hour during the week when the Labor Department does its employment survey keeps you out of the jobless category."

By Patricia Cohen, October 31, 2019

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/31/business/economy/long-term-unemployed.html

Laura Ward has worked temporary stints over the last three and a half years, but she has not been able to find a steady, full-time job.Credit...Mary Inhea Kang for The New York Times

RIVER VALE, N.J. — Laura Ward flipped through the small, lined notebook where she had neatly recorded every job posting she had answered, résumé she had sent and application she had completed since being laid off in March 2016.

No. 28 was a job listing for a creative manager at Byre Group posted on the website Indeed.

No. 97 was about a brand marketing administrator job at Benjamin Moore.

No. 109 — marketing operations at AMC. No. 158 — associate production manager at Vitamin Shoppe.

Callbacks were circled in green. Rejections were marked with a red X. Most have neither, signaling no reply one way or the other. Bottled messages dropped in an ocean.

“I had to keep track somehow,” said Ms. Ward, who has maintained job-hunting diaries since the 1990s.

Even in some of the hottest labor markets in the country — let alone lagging rural regions and former industrial powerhouses — workers, including skilled ones like Ms. Ward, say they cannot find jobs that provide a middle-class income and don’t come with an expiration date.

After more than a decade as production manager at a small advertising agency, Ms. Ward was let go after the firm lost a major account. Over the last three and a half years, she has worked temporary stints, and bolstered her skills by taking a project-management course at a nearby college. But she has not been able to find a steady, full-time job.

So for her, the reports of low unemployment rates and employer complaints of labor shortages are puzzling.

“I don’t know what all those jobs out there are,” she said from her living room in River Vale, a New Jersey suburb within commuting distance of Manhattan.

The continuing strength of the labor market has been one of the most remarkable economic achievements since the recession petered out. One hundred and eight months of consecutive job gains have coaxed discouraged and disabled Americans back into the work force and raised wages and hours, particularly for those at low end of the pay scale.

But beneath the clear benefits of the economic expansion, there is an undertow of anxiety, heightened recently by fears of slowing growth around the globe and in the United States.

“We’re not focusing enough on the people who have continued to be left behind by this recovery,” said Martha Gimbel, a manager of economic research at Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic initiative. “We have not talked enough about the workers who are still stuck even in a labor market that is this competitive.”

Most of these people do not show up in the stunningly low official unemployment rate of 3.5 percent, the lowest in a half-century. Working even one hour during the week when the Labor Department does its employment survey keeps you out of the jobless category.

Many more show up in a broader measure, which includes people who are working part time but would prefer full-time employment, and those who want to work but have given up an active job search. That rate in September was 6.9 percent, some 11 million people.

But there are also many others, like Ms. Ward, who work temporary jobs for months at a time and are not necessarily captured in either measure. And millions of contract workers — freelancers, consultants, Lyft drivers — lack benefits, regular schedules and job security. They have found a foothold, but it rests on loose rock.

A recent survey by Gallup found that a majority of Americans do not consider themselves to be in a “good job.”

Appealing to “Americans on the sidelines” and those who had not benefited from the “so-called recovery” was a key element of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016. Now, Democratic presidential contenders like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sandersare arguing that American workers have barely shared in the economy’s gains.

And they have bypassed benchmark statistics like the unemployment rate, and focused instead on the system’s fundamental unfairness, highlighting stark income inequality and worker rights.

The political pressures have even registered in penthouse suites. The Business Roundtable, a group of chief executives of some of the nation’s biggest corporations, issued a new mission statementin August, declaring that companies should promote the interests of their employees as well as their investors.

“We know that many Americans are struggling,” the group said in a release. “Too often hard work is not rewarded, and not enough is being done for workers to adjust to the rapid pace of change in the economy.”

Such pronouncements have yet to produce a tangible change in many Americans’ daily lives.

One in four workers say they have unpredictable work schedules, which can have insidious effects on family life. One in five adults who are employed say they want to work more hours. Annual wage growth has struggled to reach 3 percent. And nearly 40 percent of Americans, a Federal Reserve report found, are in such a financially precarious state that they say they would have trouble finding $400 for an unexpected expense like a car repair or a medical bill.

Keenan Harton, 45, juggles two jobs, one at a Biscuitville fast-food restaurant that pays $8 an hour, and another at a hospital laundry in Durham, N.C., that pays $10.50 an hour. Often he shows up for work at the fast-food job for an eight-hour shift, only to be sent home after a couple of hours if business is slow.

“It’s real hard to find a full-time job that’s actually going to pay over $10 an hour,” said Mr. Harton, who has a high school diploma.

Four hundred fifty miles north, in New Jersey, Sonia Johnson’s last job was in August, a four-week assignment. “But my last full-time direct hire was back in 2009,” said Ms. Johnson, who worked in the human resources department of a pharmaceutical company until she was laid off. “For me, it’s been all through an agency, working as a contractor.”

Ms. Johnson, 55, who has a college degree, said she had kept her skills up to date by using grant money from the state’s labor department to take courses. “I have really good technical skills,” she said.

Asked how many jobs she had applied for, Ms. Johnson hesitated. “It’s almost embarrassing,” she said. “At least 500.”

Her impression is that the contract work that enables her to pay the bills may at times hinder her ability to get a full-time job. “Employers are not happy with people with a contract working background,” Ms. Johnson said, adding that they are also suspicious of any gaps in a résumé.

National averages, of course, can mask distinct geographical differences. Workers may not have the specific skills a particular employer needs, or live where a job opening is. But research also shows that some employers have a negative view of people who have been unemployed for long stretches at a time.

“The longer you are unemployed, the more stigma is attached,” said Carl Van Horn, the founding director of the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University.

African-Americans and older Americans are more likely to find themselves among the long-term unemployed, he said, a group that includes people out of work for more than six months. And age discrimination, particularly against women over 40, has been documented in several studies.

“There are very limited remedies in this country to deal with these issues,” Mr. Van Horn said. Cash assistance runs out, and there are few retraining opportunities. He noted that a lot of higher education assistance, like Pell Grants, do not pay for short-term training, which is what many people lacking a particular skill could benefit from.

The Heldrich Center runs the New Start Career Network, a program for the long-term unemployed that provides online job-search resources, job fairs and career coaching.

Both Ms. Ward and Ms. Johnson are members, and that is where they learned about the state’s grants for training.

“Every morning, I wake up and there’s that one second when I realize I don’t have a job, and it’s scary and awful,” Ms. Ward said.

Holding her notebook in her lap, Ms. Ward slowly ran her finger along the pages of color-coded entries of job leads.

“It’s interesting to watch as time went on,” she said. As the weeks, and then months went by, her search criteria shifted. “O.K., a little further away, 35 miles instead of 25,” she recalled. “Maybe a little less money, maybe this title instead of that.”

Her cellphone rang, and she excused herself to answer it.

“I applied to these three jobs yesterday, and I thought maybe they’ll call me,” she said when she did not recognize the number. It turned out to be a nuisance call.

Now that three years have passed since her last training, Ms. Ward is again eligible to receive unemployment insurance while taking up to $4,000 worth of classes. She has signed up for a social-media marketing class and an introductory design course.

“That should buy me till the end of the year,” she said.

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9) Hong Kong Falls Into Recession; Protesters Defy Mask Ban on Halloween

The Chinese territory’s economy shrank sharply in recent months, officials said on a day when the traditional wearing of masks became especially provocative.

By Amy Qin, Tiffany May and Alexandra Stevenson, October 31, 2019

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/31/world/asia/hong-kong-halloween.html

Hong Kong has banned the wearing of masks at public gatherings, but Halloween demonstrations on Thursday night tested the authorities’s tolerance.

Credit...Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times

HONG KONG — Hong Kong’s economy officially fell into recession in the third quarter after enduring nearly five months of protests and a persistent trade war between the United States and China. 

The economy dropped by 3.2 percent in the three months ending in September compared with the quarter that ended in June, Hong Kong officials said on Thursday. It was the worst economic performance for the city since the global financial crisis a decade ago and the strongest signal yet of the damage caused by political unrest.

“The blow to Hong Kong economy is multifaceted,” Paul Chan, the city’s financial secretary, wrote in a blog post. He said that a full year contraction was also “very likely.”

The performance marked the second consecutive quarter that the territory’s economy shrank, meeting the formal definition of a recession. In the quarter that ended in June, the economy contracted 0.4 percent from the first three months of the year.

Weekends in Hong Kong are now punctuated with public transport shutdowns, road blockages and the early closure of the malls and the luxury stores that were once part of the engine that keeps the city humming.

Tourists that traveled to Hong Kong from mainland China to fill their empty suitcases are almost all gone. During China’s main holiday week in early October, visitors plummeted by 55 percentfrom the year before. 

Hong Kong’s growth has also been buffeted by a protracted trade war between China and the United States and is part of a broader global economic slowdown that has raised fears of recession in other major economies, including Germany and Britain.

The protests that have seized Hong Kong continued on Thursday, with demonstrators using the city’s Halloween demonstrations to challenge a recent ban on masks at public gatherings by the authorities.

Early on Thursday evening, the mood in Lan Kwai Fong, a rowdy night life district known for its booze-soaked Halloween parties, was noticeably muted. While the streets were still filled with revelers in costumes, compared to years past there were fewer Halloween decorations and more security and journalists.

At around 7 p.m., dozens of protesters wearing masks of government leaders like Xi Jinping and Carrie Lam gathered in the district. Amid blaring music from nearby bars, the protesters began shouting slogans like “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong.”

Not long after, a tense standoff formed between the police and protesters. Officers soon declared the gathering an unlawful assembly and took the nearly unprecedented step of ordering an immediate evacuation of the district. 

Later in the evening, with the area blocked off, a reveler dressed as Snow White could be seen coughing in the tear gas as tourists took selfies.

The night included multiple clashes between protesters and police elsewhere around the city. The police fired canisters of tear gas at protesters outside the Mong Kok police station in the Prince Edward district, and later in the heart of the central business district, which includes Lan Kwai Fong.

The protest movement began as a fight over a now-withdrawn extradition bill and has expanded its demands to include free elections and an independent investigation into the police’s use of force. But after agreeing to withdraw the extradition bill, the government has since then refused to budge on the other demands, summed up by protesters under the slogan “five demands, not one less.”

Under mounting pressure to take action, Hong Kong’s embattled leader, Carrie Lam, drew on a colonial-era law to ban face masks at public gatherings. The move set off some of the most violent protests since the movement began in June. Pan-democratic lawmakers say the ban is unconstitutional since it was introduced without going through the normal legislative process. On Thursday, the High Court began a two-day hearing to review the lawmakers’ requests to overturn the emergency law.

Protesters wearing masks at a march in the Causeway Bay district on Thursday evening. Enforcement of the ban on masks has been uneven.Credit...Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times

Dozens of protesters have since been arrested on charges of violating the prohibition. But enforcement has been uneven. Face masks have long been a common accessory in Hong Kong, particularly since a deadly SARS outbreak in the city in 2003, and there has also been confusion about what constitutes a public gathering. The ambiguity has provided cover for some protesters to defy the ban.

Leading up to Halloween night, preparations were being made in anticipation of clashes. In a statement on Tuesday, the police warned of possible road closures and urged shops to close early if necessary. In a video released on Thursday afternoon, a police spokesman sought to pre-empt criticism by stating that officers were empowered to use force to remove facial coverings, if necessary.

Ocean Park, the city’s largest theme park, announced on Wednesday that it was canceling the last day of its signature seasonal event, Halloween Fest, citing the “current social situation.” The MTR Corporation, the Hong Kong subway operator, also announced that it was shutting train service down early, ostensibly to deter protesters from taking to the streets. 

Prince Edward Station, near one of the busiest shopping districts on the Kowloon Peninsula, was shut down the earliest, at 2 p.m., apparently in response to calls among protesters to gather Thursday at the station, the site of a particularly violent confrontation between police and protesters exactly two months ago. Protesters are still angry about that night after video footage showed riot officers charging into a waiting subway carriage and beating people with batons and dousing them with pepper spray.

The announcement on Thursday about the city’s recession came as no surprise to bar employees in Lan Kwai Fong, which has seen business plummet in recent months.

“The locals are pretty terrified of coming out, the mainlanders used to give us a lot of business but they’re not here anymore, and the tourists aren’t showing up anymore either,” said Paul Pecas, a bartender at a bar in Lan Kwai Fong bar called Tipsy Bird.

Mr. Pecas said that business at the bar had dropped by 50 percent this month compared to last October, which is typically the peak month for customers. Two of Tipsy Bird’s sister bars, he said, had been shut down in recent months because of the protests.

“I have nothing against anyone,” said Mr. Pecas. “I’m just terrified of losing my job.”

Elaine Yu and Ezra Cheung contributed reporting.

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