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Tesco faces UK lawsuit over forced labour in Thailand

19 Dec 2022 12 Mar 2024

Tesco is facing a UK lawsuit brought by Burmese migrants in Thailand, who claim that one of the supermarket giant’s former clothing suppliers used their forced labour, lawyers said on Monday.

“Burmese migrants were made to work up to 99 hours a week on unlawful wages and in forced labour conditions at a Thailand factory making clothes for Tesco’s F&F fashion range,” said law firm Leigh Day, which represents the 130 claimants.

The claimants are demanding compensation from Tesco and its Thai subsidiary at the time, Ek-Chai, which it sold in 2020.

They accuse the companies of being “unjustly enriched at the expense of the adult workers”.

The suit will also target Intertek, the insurance and auditing group which inspected the factory where the alleged forced labour took place.

If a settlement is not reached, the case will be pursued in the High Court in London, the legal firm warned in a statement.

The workers were employed in the VK Garments factory in Mae Sot, northwest Thailand, between 2017 and 2020, where they cut, made and packed garments to be sold in Thailand.

They were paid a maximum of £4.00 (4.60 euros) per day, and claim they were worked at a relentless pace for seven days a week and lived in tiny dormitories where they slept on a concrete floor.

Tesco told AFP in a statement Monday that the claims were “incredibly serious” and that if it had “identified issues like this at the time they took place, we would have ended our relationship with this supplier immediately”.

While Tesco was not involved in the day-to-day running of the factory, it said “we would continue to urge” its former supplier “to reimburse employees for any wages they’re owed”.

Compensation has so far only been awarded by the Thai courts, and only for severance pay.

Intertek also said the allegations were serious, but it would not comment while legal proceedings were ongoing.

Separately, 10 investment companies with assets totalling around £800 billion, including Schroders and Quilter Cheviot, on Monday signed a joint appeal calling for UK food retailers and the government to be increasingly vigilant about forced migrant labour in British agriculture.

Many migrant workers in the UK have had to stump up large travel costs and “excessive fees to agents and middlemen”, often finding themselves saddled with debts, they warned.

The UK’s main farming union warned in early December that the UK was heading for a food-supply crisis, mainly due to a lack of visas to bring in seasonal workers, who are in short supply after Brexit.

The government announced on Friday plans to increase the number of seasonal visas available next year from a maximum of 40,000 to 45,000, with the possibility of an additional 10,000 if needed.

En garde! Wasps use penis spikes to ward off predators

19 Dec 2022 12 Mar 2024

An accidental sting has helped Japanese scientists prove some male wasps have a rather unusual predator defence weapon: penis spikes.

While wasps are known for their prickly attacks, only females have a real sting in their tails. Their male counterparts generally evade predators by mimicking the fairer sex.

Scientists had theorised that some male wasps might have other defence mechanisms, including perhaps deploying their genital spikes.

“However, the evidence was lacking,” explained Shinji Sugiura, an ecologist at Japan’s Kobe University.

Sugiura studies animal anti-predator defences but it was only by chance that he investigated the unusual male wasp mechanism, after his graduate student and co-author reported being stung by a mason wasp.

“I tried to be stung after hearing her experience,” Sugiura told AFP.

“Because I had believed male wasps as harmless, I was very surprised to experience the pain.”

Female wasps sting via an ovipositor, a tube-like protrusion that deposits eggs but can also deliver a venomous riposte.

Male wasps lack the organ but are equipped with two large spikes that sit either side of their penis.

To test the effectiveness of this defence, Sugiura’s team offered up male mason wasps to two different kinds of frogs to see how the spikes were deployed.

“Male wasps were frequently observed to pierce the mouth or other parts of frogs with their genitalia while being attacked,” Sugiura reported in research published Tuesday in the Current Biology journal.

The attacks are documented in a video that shows an unfortunate frog trying repeatedly to chomp down on a wasp, before using its front feet to pull the stinging insect out of its mouth.

Pond frogs happily ate all the males, as well as stinging females, but over a third of tree frogs rejected the male wasps after being stung.

When the experiment was repeated with the genital spikes removed from the wasps, the tree frogs no longer held back and ate them without hesitation.

“The difference was statistically significant. Even a small difference of survival could cause the evolution of anti-predator devices in insects,” Sugiura said.

There has been little research on insect genitalia outside of its role in reproduction, according to Sugiura, though the wasp defence mechanism is not entirely without precedent.

Previous research has found, for example, that some species of hawkmoth use their genitalia to emit ultrasound that jams bat sonar.

Sugiura is no stranger to uncovering some of the weirdest ways animals evade their predators.

He has documented how some beetles can escape after being swallowed, by following the digestive tract to its logical conclusion and escaping from the anus.

And he has shown that other insects can make any unfortunate toad that has eaten them vomit them back up.

He now hopes to expand his current research to determine whether other wasp families have the same genital spike defence mechanism.

Planet spiralling into star may offer glimpse into Earth's end

19 Dec 2022 12 Mar 2024

For the first time astronomers have identified a planet that is spiralling towards a cataclysmic collision with its ageing sun, potentially offering a glimpse into how Earth could end one day.

In a new study published on Monday, a team of mostly US-based researchers said they hope the doomed exoplanet Kepler-1658b can help shed light on how worlds die as their stars get older.

Kepler-1658b, which is 2,600 light years from Earth, is known as a “hot Jupiter” planet.

While similar in size to Jupiter, the planet orbits its host star an eighth of the distance between our Sun and Mercury, making it far hotter than the gas giant in our own Solar System.

Kepler-1658b’s orbit around its host star takes less than three days — and it is getting shorter by around 131 milliseconds a year, according to the study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

“If it continues spiralling towards its star at the observed rate, the planet will collide with its star in less than three million years,” said Shreyas Vissapragada, a postdoc at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the study’s lead author.

“This is the first time we’ve observed direct evidence for a planet spiralling towards its evolved star,” he told AFP.

An evolved star has entered the “subgiant” phase of the stellar life cycle, when it starts expanding and becoming brighter.

Kepler-1658b’s orbit is being shortened by the tides, in a similar process to how Earth’s oceans rise and fall every day.

This gravitational push-and-pull can work both ways — for example the Moon is very slowly spiralling away from Earth.

– Earth’s ‘ultimate adios’? –

So could Earth be heading towards a similar doom?

“Death-by-star is a fate thought to await many worlds and could be the Earth’s ultimate adios billions of years from now as our Sun grows older,” the Center for Astrophysics said in a statement.

Vissapragada said that “in five billion years or so, the Sun will evolve into a red giant star”.

While the tidally-driven processes seen on Kepler-1658b “will drive the decay of the Earth’s orbit towards the Sun,” that effect could be counter-balanced by the Sun losing mass, he said.

“The ultimate fate of the Earth is somewhat unclear,” he added.

Kepler-1658b was the first exoplanet ever observed by the Kepler space telescope, which launched in 2009. However it took nearly a decade of work before the planet’s existence was confirmed in 2019, the Center for Astrophysics said.

Over 13 years, astronomers were able to observe the slow but steady change in the planet’s orbit as it crossed the face of its host star.

One “big surprise” was that the planet itself is quite bright, Vissapragada said.

Previously it had been thought this was because it is a particularly reflective planet, he said.

But now the researchers believe the planet itself is far hotter than anticipated, possibly due to the same forces that are driving it towards its star.

FTX chief Bankman-Fried could accept extradition from Bahamas

19 Dec 2022 19 Dec 2022

Cryptocurrency tycoon Samuel Bankman-Fried arrived at Bahamas magistrate court Monday where he could move to accept extradition to the United States to face charges over the multibillion-dollar collapse of his FTX group.

Bahamas television showed Bankman-Fried, once the wunderkind of the global digital currency world, arriving at the court in Nassau under heavy security after leaving a local jail, where he has been held since his arrest one week ago.

Local and US media reported that he is mulling reversing his decision last week to fight extradition and accept to be sent to the United States for trial.

His hearing is scheduled to begin around 11:00 am (1600 GMT), local media reported.

Last week the US Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed criminal and civil charges against the one-time crypto billionaire and media star, alleging that he cheated investors in FTX and misused funds that belonged to FTX customers.

FTX’s spectacular rise from 2019 to become a leading player in the virtual currency industry based in the Bahamas ended dramatically in November when the company and its sister trading firm Alameda Research collapsed into insolvency.

Bankman-Fried was arrested at his Nassau apartment one week ago at the request of federal prosecutors in New York.

He was charged in the United States with eight counts including conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and election finance violations.

Separately the SEC accused him of violating securities laws.

FTX chief Bankman-Fried could accept extradition from Bahamas

19 Dec 2022 19 Dec 2022

Local and US media reported that he is mulling reversing his decision last week to fight extradition and accept to be sent to the United States for trial.

His hearing is scheduled to begin around 11:00 am (1600 GMT), local media reported.

Bankman-Fried was arrested at his Nassau apartment one week ago at the request of federal prosecutors in New York.

He was charged in the United States with eight counts including conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and election finance violations.

Separately the SEC accused him of violating securities laws.

Belarus strongman urges unity with Moscow in 'difficult times'

19 Dec 2022 19 Dec 2022

Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko urged closer military cooperation with Russia on Monday during a rare visit from President Vladimir Putin, who launched his invasion of Ukraine from his neighbour’s territory.

Putin landed in Minsk with his defence and foreign minister in tow, hours after Russian forces launched a swarm of attack drones at critical infrastructure in Kyiv, which provoked emergency blackouts in a dozen regions.

“Difficult times require us to have political will and to focus on getting results on all topics of the bilateral agenda,” Lukashenko told Putin.

“The main issues lately have been defence and security issues,” he added.

The Kremlin has for years sought to deepen integration with Belarus, which relies on Moscow for cheap oil and loans, but Lukashenko had resisted outright unification with Russia despite being a key ally.

Speculation mounted ahead of the Russian leader’s visit that he would pressure Lukashenko to send troops to Ukraine to fight alongside the Russians after Moscow suffered a string of defeats in nearly 10 months of fighting.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, however, dismissed the reports “as totally stupid, groundless fabrications.”

– ‘Open for dialogue’ –

“Russia and Belarus are open for dialogue with other states, including European ones. I hope that soon they will listen to the voice of reason,” Lukashenko said.

Putin told his Belarusian ally that he hoped to deepen economic ties between the countries during the visit and praised Belarus as “our ally in the truest sense of the word”.

The drone attacks over Ukraine, which wounded three people near Kyiv, came as Russia said it shot down several US-made missiles over its airspace near Ukraine.

“I first heard the air raid siren… I thought there is going to be a drone attack. For the first time, it scared me,” Natalia Dobrovolska, a 68-year-old resident of Kyiv, told AFP.

She described hearing multiple explosions before power shut off in her building in western Kyiv. Officials said Russia had dispatched 35 attack drones nationwide, including 23 over Kyiv.

Ukraine said it downed 30 of the aerial weapons, including Iranian-made “Shaheds”, which have pummelled the capital in recent weeks.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said critical infrastructure facilities were “damaged” while regional authorities said nine homes had been scarred by the attacks.

Energy operator Ukrenergo announced that emergency electricity outages were scheduled in the capital and nearly a dozen regions.

– Belarus border a ‘priority’ –

Ukraine has experienced frequent and deadly aerial attacks in the 10 months since Russia invaded in late February.

After a series of battlefield setbacks and territory lost this summer and autumn, Moscow stepped up its aerial campaign to target the country’s energy grid.

With winter setting in, missile and drone attacks have plunged cities around the country into darkness, and severed water and heat supplies to millions of Ukrainians.

Speaking to the leaders of several NATO countries via video link on Monday, President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Ukraine’s allies to supply its military with more weapons.

“Russian aggression can and must fail. And our task now is to accelerate it,” he told the leaders assembled in Riga.

He said in a late-night address Sunday that some nine million people had their electricity restored after Russia’s previous missile barrage last week.

Ukraine has an estimated population of 40 million.

Before Putin’s visit, Ukraine’s leader also described the situation on Ukraine’s border with Russia and Belarus as a “constant priority”.

“We are preparing for all possible defence scenarios,” Zelensky said.

Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, is a long-time Kremlin ally and allowed Russian troops to attack Ukraine from his country on February 24.

– Russian-Belarusian military drills –

Hours before Putin touched down in Minsk, Russia announced its forces were running military drills with Belarusian forces.

The defence ministry released footage of drills in Belarus, showing soldiers conducting tank manoeuvres, and practising artillery and sniper fire at a snow-dusted training ground.

“From the morning until the evening twilight — there is not a single second of silence at the training grounds of Belarus,” the ministry said.

It did not say where the drills were taking place or how long they would last.

In October, Belarus announced the formation of a joint regional force with Moscow with several thousand Russian servicemen arriving in the ex-Soviet country, fuelling concerns Minsk could also send troops to Ukraine.

On Monday, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said Ukrainian strikes left around 14,000 people without power in a district of southern Russia’s Belgorod region.

German gas giant's shareholders back nationalisation

19 Dec 2022 12 Mar 2024

Shareholders of troubled German gas giant Uniper on Monday approved the company’s nationalisation after it was pushed to the brink of collapse following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

After Moscow sent its forces into Ukraine in February, crucial Russian gas supplies to Germany were drastically slashed in suspected retaliation for Western sanctions.

Starved of Russian deliveries, Uniper was left facing bankruptcy, prompting the German government to announce it would nationalise the firm over fears its failure could send shockwaves through Europe’s top economy.

Shareholders backed the deal “by a large majority” in a vote at an extraordinary general meeting, Uniper said in a statement.

The vote was seen as a formality after the majority shareholder, Finnish state-owned energy company Fortum, agreed to the measures in September.

The European Commission still needs to agree to the nationalisation under state aid laws. Uniper, Germany’s biggest gas importer, said this approval is expected “in the near future”.

Ahead of the vote, company CEO Klaus-Dieter Maubach said that “by stabilising the company, the federal government recognises the central role that Uniper plays for the security of supply in Germany and Europe”.

Earlier Monday, the German government and Uniper concluded a framework agreement related to the rescue package.

Berlin had initially agreed to an eight-billion-euro ($8.5 billion) cash injection for Uniper, but the debt-laden company said last month the government would need to spend an additional 25 billion euros.

Uniper has reported a 40-billion-euro net loss for the first nine months of the year, one of the biggest losses in German corporate history.

The government will finance the rescue out of a 200-billion-euro fund designed to cushion the impact of the energy crisis on households and businesses.

With Russian supplies slashed, Uniper has been forced to pay high prices on the open market.

And while costs have come down since the summer, they remain elevated.

“We are still in a situation where we have to buy gas on the (spot) markets, where the prices have reached a level that is — in general — higher than the purchase price of our customers,” Holger Kreetz, Uniper’s chief operating officer for asset management, told AFP.

“We are still in a tight situation,” he said, adding this would remain the case until existing long-term contracts expire.

Uniper is seeking damages at an international tribunal from Gazprom over what it claims is the Russian energy giant’s failure to deliver contractually agreed gas supplies.

Gazprom has said it does not recognise the legitimacy of the claims.

European stocks attempt pre-Christmas rebound

19 Dec 2022 19 Dec 2022

European equities rose Monday in light pre-Christmas trade, rebounding gently from last week’s losses that followed bumper interest rate hikes, but Wall Street and Asian markets failed to get into the festive mood.

Equity markets often experience a so-called Santa rally, when prices rise during the low-level holiday trading.

“Everyone, it seems, is waiting to see if Santa is going to come around, which leaves the market stuck between feelings of hope and angst,” said market analyst Patrick O’Hare at Briefing.com.

“Accordingly, there isn’t much happening at the broad market level this morning,” he added.

The blue-chip Dow opened marginally lower, with the broader S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite were flat.

Meanwhile in Europe, London rose 0.6 percent in afternoon trading, while Frankfurt and Paris both added 0.5 percent.

“Markets are grinding higher as some traders are optimistic about valuations which seem to them somewhat attractive,” AvaTrade analyst Naeem Aslam told AFP.

“We really don’t have much volume in markets as traders are away for holidays,” he added.

“Overall I think it’s going to be pretty subdued trading, given the lack of significant data to react to,” noted analyst Susannah Streeter at stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown.

Asian indices, however, fell on lingering concern over a possible global recession caused by moves to fight inflation from top central banks.

Equities took a turn south last week after monetary policymakers around the world signalled that while price rises appeared to be stabilising, more work would be needed to get them under control.

All three main indexes on Wall Street ended sharply lower Friday after the Federal Reserve warned it would continue tightening monetary policy into 2023.

That was followed by similar warnings from the European Central Bank and Bank of England, while data suggested economies were feeling the pinch, dealing a blow to sentiment heading into the Christmas break.

“With no shortage of economic headwinds, investors struggle to find something cheerful about this holiday week after the two most dominant central banks cast a pall over the proceedings,” said SPI Asset Management’s Stephen Innes.

The US sell-off fed through to Asia, where Tokyo shed more than one percent, while Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taipei, Manila, Bangkok, Jakarta and Wellington were in negative territory, but Singapore and Mumbai edged up.

Adding to the downbeat mood was a spike in Covid-19 cases in China following the country’s reopening after almost three years of strict containment measures.

While the move is expected to boost the world’s number two economy, there is a worry that businesses and China’s health system will be hit in the near term.

Still, Beijing flagged a number of measures aimed at kickstarting growth next year, including support for the beleaguered property sector.

An expected pick-up in Chinese demand helped propel oil prices higher.

– Key figures around 1430 GMT –

London – FTSE 100: UP 0.6 percent at 7,374.60 points

Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.5 percent at 13,960.89

Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.5 percent at 6,482.31

EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.4 percent at 3,819.75

New York – Dow: DOWN less than 0.1 percent at 32,894.27

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.1 percent at 27,237.64 (close)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.5 percent at 19,352.81 (close)

Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 1.9 percent at 3,107.11 (close)

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0610 from $1.0586 on Friday

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2187 from $1.2148

Euro/pound: DOWN at 87.09 pence from 87.14 pence

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 136.59 yen from 136.60 yen

West Texas Intermediate: UP 1.9 percent at $75.72 per barrel

Brent North Sea crude: UP 1.7 percent at $80.35 per barrel

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