For keepsies: Making an online return? You may end up not having to return it at all. This year, 59% of retailers offer “keep it” policies for such products, up from 26% last year, according to returns services firm goTRG, Reuters reports. The firm surveyed 500 executives at 21 major retailers, among them Amazon and Walmart. As retailers adopt tech to root out excess costs, more are embracing returnless policies for certain online purchases — a trend that obviously retailers do want out there. Online grocery, in some ways, has a similar policy in place. Get the wrong item in your Instacart order? You can report it and get a credit, but in many cases you end up keeping the item anyway. Will consumers start to abuse these systems? Time will tell. —Chloe Riley 

A chicken conundrum: When it comes to rotisserie chickens, it takes a lot to keep ahead of the game. And sometimes it’s a losing battle, according to a deli worker at Costco who explained on Reddit why sometimes the warmer is empty at stores. The main reason is that Costco requires workers to determine how many chickens will be needed for a two-hour span in order to avoid dried out chicken. The employee says the formula is far from scientific, and often the demand is too heavy and the labor power is just not there. Another reason is that there is no limit to how many shoppers can purchase, which sometimes leads to chickens being stacked 40 or 50 high. (That has to be some kind of safety hazard.) Some Reddit readers could relate to the rotisserie circus. One said they “worked chickens for over four years” and it was one of the hardest jobs in the warehouse. It appears chickens are not the only things getting cooked behind that counter. —Bill Wilson

An apple a day keeps the hunger at bay: There was an apple surplus this year, attributable to a couple of different factors. Bumper crops have kept domestic supply high, and exports declined 21% over the past decade, a symptom of retaliatory tariffs from India. Weather also played a role this year, with hail leaving a significant share of apples cosmetically unsuitable for the fresh market. In West Virginia, rather than leaving the apples to rot, the USDA ended up paying for the apples produced by growers. This apple relief program purchased $10 million worth of apples from a dozen growers — which were then donated to hunger-fighting charities across the country from South Carolina and Michigan all the way out to The Navajo Nation. Talk about avoiding food waste. —CR

A killer strategy: Dave’s Killer Bread has a pretty killer story attached to it. After 15-plus years in prison, founder Dave Dahl found his true calling: to make organic, whole-grain bread. This six-minute video from HubSpot examines how Dave’s Killer Bread nailed its target market and leaned into social to tell its story. Dahl wasn’t ashamed of his criminal past, but his advisors begged him not to mention it…So he fired them and became a champion of second-chance employment.That strategy, along with a national rollout following a 2015 acquisition by Flowers Foods, would eventually lead to 50% brand growth within a purpose-driven brand identity. The morale of the story? It pays to be on purpose. —CR

Self-checkout, now even faster: Checkout scanners are far from perfect, and when you add those not trained to work the technology the whole process can become a shopping cart full of frustration. British grocer Tesco, however, is taking that approval beep out of the equation in the self-checkout area. The retailer now has scan-free kiosks at one of its stores. The tech allows the transaction to be completed without scanning a single item. According to a recent survey by retail data supplier PYMNTS, 28% of merchants, including grocers, are investing in in-app scan-and-go capabilities. Surprisingly, shoppers are not jumping in line to take advantage of the fancy gadgets. Another PYMNTS study revealed only one-in-three consumers wanted to take advantage of the store tech. If you’ve ever had to wait for a worker to come help you in self-checkout, you might just think another thought. —BW

Source : Supermarket News

The post 5 Things: Amazon and Walmart’s ‘Secret’ Return Policy appeared first on Policy Print.

Dramatic aerial images of large-scale blueberry farming on the Acadian Peninsula has sparked a renewed political debate about the Higgs government’s agricultural policy.

The Opposition Liberals have called for a moratorium on further expansion of the growing sector, something Progressive Conservative agricultural minister Margaret Johnson has rejected.

At the same time, Green MLA Kevin Arseneau has linked the blueberry controversy to the shrinking number of locally owned farms in the province and the current government’s support for industrial-level production.

“This government continues, like successive governments, to put a lot of thought and energy into intensification of production, not the diversification of production,” he said in the legislature this week.

“What’s going to help to feed New Brunswickers is the diversification of production.”

Green MLA Kevin Arseneau connected the expansion of the blueberry industry to more small-scale farms going out of buisness. (Ed Hunter/CBC)

Expansion plans by Oxford Frozen Foods on the Acadian Peninsula gained new attention earlier this month after Radio-Canada aired striking drone images of the company’s existing industrial-scale blueberry farming.

The company has bought up several blueberry farms in the region, and critics say its growing presence puts downward pressure on prices paid to the remaining local growers.

Arseneau cited Statistics Canada data showing that one in five locally owned farms closed their doors in New Brunswick between 2016 and 2021. 

That means a dwindling base of local farms and a growing role for larger corporate-owned operations, he said — an assertion backed by statistics from the National Farmers Union.

“We’re losing small farms,” said the NFU’s executive director in New Brunswick Suzanne Fournier.

Arseneau recently introduced a motion calling for more help from government to support local products, something Premier Blaine Higgs said this week he was reluctant to subsidize because farms are subject to market forces like any other businesses.

“It’s the supply and demand concept. Business speaks for itself in terms of can it be viable or can it not be viable?” the premier said.

“To say that the government should try to fund all kinds of different small farms — that could be a pretty tall order.”

Johnson spoke in the legislature and to reporters the same day about the New Brunswick Local Food and Beverages Strategy, launched in 2021.

It includes a plan to get more local produce in provincial schools, hospitals, long-term care homes and jails.

Johnson says farm cash receipts are up, despite the dwindling number of farmers. She attributes that trend to aging farmers with children unwilling to take over. 

“What happens in that case when you’re at the end of your career and you want to go on and do something else, you tend to sell off your farm to a larger farm,” she said.

Fournier said other factors are also pushing farmers out, including labour shortages and more frequent extreme weather.

She said while farm revenue is up, net income is down, a reflection of farmers needing to use more of what they bring in to pay their bills.

The province has been trying to get younger farmers into the sector by working with banks to educate them about financing options. 

Arseneau said that’s not enough to reverse the trend of corporate consolidation exemplified by the growing Oxford Foods presence in the peninsula’s blueberry sector.

Nova Scotia-based Oxford’s potential expansion onto an 18,000-hectare parcel of land that used to be a federal military firing range has stirred local opposition from hunters and four-wheeler drivers.

Arseneau’s motion called for “completely stopping the destruction of the Tracadie shooting range.”

The drone visuals of Oxford Frozen Foods’ operations this month led the Liberals to call for a moratorium on expansion. Leader Susan Holt said she supported the sector but wanted a pause so local communities could reach a consensus.

A spokesperson for Oxford Frozen Foods did not respond to a CBC request for comment Friday.

Oxford bought the former Mega Bleu processor in the region in 2003 and has ramped up its operations with support from PC and Liberal governments that have given them access to Crown land.

The company opened a 40-million-kilogram cold-storage facility near Saint-Isidore in 2016. 

Johnson said opposition to development on the former military range isn’t universal.

“I think we’ve got a very vocal group that is anti-blueberry on the Tracadie range because it is their playground, historically,” she said.

“But I think there is a population on the Acadian Peninsula that is also interested in developing the blueberry industry. Now they may not be vocal.” 

Higgs said this week that the consolidation of blueberry production by Oxford was worthy of support because it’s a good example of a “niche opportunity” made possible by ideal soil conditions in the northeast.

“I think that whole view is connected: more growers, more sustainable growers, more access to market, more access to supply. And it’s all good.” 

Amid the closure of provincial borders during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Higgs government touted food self-sufficiency as a goal, to make New Brunswick less vulnerable to supply chain disruptions.

But Higgs said supporting small, unprofitable local farmers for the sake of it would be “a pretty slippery slope for any government to follow on any sort of routine basis.”

Arseneau, however, isn’t calling for subsidies for money-losing operations, but for measures to stimulate more demand for locally grown products in the province, including firmer buying targets for the provincial institutions under Johnson’s program.

“Baby steps. Baby steps,” he said of the program as it exists now. “But it’s not enough.”

Source : CBC

The post Blueberry Controversy Sparks Debate on Higgs Agricultural Policy appeared first on Policy Print.

Baristas and shift supervisors at Ottawa’s Bridgehead coffeehouses who just got minimum wage boosts are being unfairly punished by a new policy that adds managers to their tip pools, a local labour group says.

Sean McKenny, president of the Ottawa & District Labour Council, said the tip-sharing change — which Bridgehead confirmed to CBC — takes away from the gains recently made by minimum wage workers.

The Ontario government hiked the minimum wage by just over a dollar, to $16.55 an hour, on Oct. 1.

“It really is hard to understand,” said McKenny of Bridgehead’s decision. “Especially at a time when those minimum wage workers need that increase in wages.”

Bridgehead, which began as an Ottawa-owned company and was acquired by Toronto-based Aegis Brands in 2019, declined to be interviewed.

In an emailed statement, Bridgehead president Paul Pascal said managers were added to the pool in October “to acknowledge their contributions.”

“Our coffeehouse managers have always been an integral part of the team, actively contributing to the exceptional guest experience we strive to provide,” Pascal said. 

The inclusion of front-line managers in tip-sharing is not new, with workers at a restaurant in Niagara Falls, Ont., going on strike partly over that issue in 2019.

Change might be ‘distressing,’ company warns

Bridgehead operates 21 cafés in Ottawa, according to its website.

According to a staff note sent to employees at one downtown location, the minimum wage hike affected the hourly pay of baristas and supervisors, and “instead of increasing the managers’ salary accordingly, Bridgehead has decided to include managers in tips as their raise” as of Oct. 9.

“Since all our tips are divided equally by the hours worked at our store,” the note continued, “adding another person’s hours to this will impact the amount of money each of you can expect to receive in tips.”

The note acknowledged the change “may be distressing.” Coffeehouse staff were consulted about the change, Pascal added in his statement to CBC.

McKenny said it was “absolutely ridiculous” Bridgehead was using tips meant for their “lowest-paid workers” to boost managers’ pay.

“It just doesn’t make any sense,” he said.

Staff resent change, says barista

A barista who works at a different downtown location told CBC the minimum wage increase “was effectively [made] moot by the decrease in tips.” 

CBC has agreed not to name her because she’s worried about losing her job. 

The salaried managers’ raise came to the detriment of “our take-home income and not at the expense of the company,” she said via email.

Staff have met the news with a mix of annoyance and resentment, she added.

In an interview, she said that while she’s not personally opposed to managers sharing in tips, she’s worried the new system might incentivize them to schedule themselves for more floor hours, which could take hours away from baristas and supervisors.

The staff note at the other location said there is a limit on how many hours managers can claim for tips. It also encouraged employees to talk to a supervisor if they thought a manager was “claiming more than what they are owed in tips.”

The barista said she’s worried about how that process would work.

She also said staff at her coffeehouse were informed about the change just a few days before it took effect, and that she wasn’t consulted beforehand. 

Source : CBC

The post Bridgehead’s New Policy to Share Tips With Managers ‘doesn’t Make Any Sense’: Labour Group appeared first on Policy Print.

As campuses across the country continue to erupt in protests over the Israel-Hamas war, a little-known 2019 presidential executive order is expected to fuel a flood of student legal claims against universities.

Attorneys — from a mix of white-shoe corporate firms to Jewish advocacy groups — are meeting with students who say their schools are failing to protect them from antisemitic or anti-Israel conduct.

In 2019, then-President Donald Trump signed an order instructing federal officials to expand the interpretation of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to include “discrimination rooted in anti-Semitism” as a form of discrimination based on race, color and national origin — prohibited behavior for programs that get federal funding. Trump signed the order amid a series of violent incidents against Jews, including the 2018 killing of 11 congregants in a Pittsburgh synagogue and a 2019 attack that killed three inside a Kosher supermarket in New Jersey.

Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act does not include the word “religion” as a subject of discrimination. Because the law does not list religious characteristics, legal experts say, federal officials have gradually expanded interpretations to include ethnoreligious groups.

Trump told federal agencies “to consider” using the Sweden-based International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which includes “holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel” and “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”

The alliance promotes Holocaust education and research, and has come under criticism by both Jewish and non-Jewish groups for suggesting that broad criticism of Israel can be construed as antisemitic.

In January 19, 2021, the day before Trump left office, the U.S. Department of Education, released a five-page questions and answers memo defining what constitutes antisemitism at schools.

An NBC News review of the department’s current investigations showed 15 pending cases related to race or national origin. The most recent filing listed was against Oberlin College in Ohio, dated a week before the Hamas attacks on Israel. Melissa Landa, an alumna of the college, told NBC News that she filed the letter because the school didn’t intervene after a professor taught students that “Israel is an illegitimate settler colonial apartheid regime,” according to Landa.

“I think that students need to file Title VI complaints so that universities can have federal money withheld from them, and maybe that will make them act,” Landa said. “I hope that my Title VI complaint will serve as an example for them.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Education said that since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, which killed more than 1,400 Israelis, “we have seen an uptick in complaints and the department is assessing them all.”

Lawyers said they have received an overwhelming number of calls from across the country from Jewish college students and their parents requesting representation in Title VI claims. Kenneth Marcus, who ran the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights during the Trump and George W. Bush administrations, said he is getting many calls.

“Oh, my God, I can’t tell you how many campuses we’re dealing with every single day. We have never been so inundated with cases,” said Marcus, who now runs the Brandeis Center for Human Rights, a nonprofit focused on protecting the civil rights of Jews.

In recent years, the Brandeis Center has filed Title VI complaints against the University of Vermont and the State University of New York at New Paltz on behalf of Jewish students who said their universities have allowed antisemitism to fester on campus.

In April, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights said it found that the University of Vermont failed to investigate student claims of antisemitism and did not examine whether the complaints had created a hostile environment for Jewish students.

The University of Vermont signed a resolution agreement with federal officials later that month vowing to enact reforms such as expanding the school’s discrimination policy to include protections for students based on shared ancestry, including antisemitism. In June, the Office for Civil Rights opened a formal investigation into SUNY-New Paltz.

For years, Marcus has also been fighting to broaden Title VI protections to members of other ethnoreligious groups. He said prior to the Trump administration, he wrote guidance memos that said Title VI could be interpreted to include protecting members of other ethnoreligious groups such as Sikhs and Arab Muslims. But in 2019, Trump kept his executive order focused on protecting Jews.

In September, President Joe Biden issued a statement noting that Title VI also prohibits Islamophobic activities in federally funded programs. But the U.S. Department of Education has not released a detailed memo that defines Islamophobia as it has done for antisemitism.

Gadeir Abbas, a senior litigation attorney with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said his team is preparing discrimination complaints on behalf of Muslim and pro-Palestinian students, who he says are being unfairly labeled as Hamas sympathizers or unfairly accused of providing support to terrorists.

“I think that pro-Israel groups, groups that are seeking to marginalize Palestinian voices on campus, see the Title VI claim as a way of attacking not the administration, but the other student groups,” Abbas said. “The idea is that [they’re] going to censor or penalize or punish any advocacy for equal rights of Palestinians.”

As a result, he said, Palestinian students — or students who say they support Palestinian civilians in Gaza — feel vulnerable on campus and in their communities, and some are considering filing their own Title VI claims.

NBC News has reported that bias incidents against Muslims are on the rise. CAIR said that it received 774 reports of bias incidents and requests for help from Muslims across the country from Oct. 7 through Oct. 24, nearly triple the number compared to a similar time period last year.

Abbas said that students, like all Americans, have a right to protest in the United States. “In a conflict between the First Amendment and Title VI, the First Amendment wins,” Abbas said. “Those student groups are participating in lawful activity. They’re recognized willingly by their colleges and universities.”

Three weeks before the Hamas attacks and the subsequent protests on American campuses, Palestine Legal, an advocacy organization for Palestinian rights, filed a Title VI complaint with the U.S. Department of Education. Attorneys demanded a federal investigation after the University of Illinois Chicago barred students “with Arab sounding names” from attending a January 2023 informational session on a university-sponsored Israel study-abroad program.

Legal experts said they expect the largest number of future Title VI cases to be filed against universities by Jewish students. The Anti-Defamation League recently reported that nationwide, “incidents of harassment, vandalism and assault increased by 388 percent over the same period last year.”

One of the most outspoken advocates for Jewish students’ use of Title VI since Oct. 7 has been the Lawfare Project, a nonprofit that represents Jewish clients. Lawfare staffers have met with Jewish students on campuses, posted solicitations for cases in Jewish WhatsApp groups, and used the organization’s social media accounts “End Jew Hatred” to recruit young clients.

“While we always had students reaching out to us, after Oct. 7, that became a flood,” said Lawfare senior counsel Gerard Filitti, while standing on the sidelines of a recent pro-Israel rally at Columbia University. “The phone was ringing nonstop.”

Georgetown Law student Julia Wax, 25, was also at the Columbia rally. Wax said she is in talks with Lawfare to file a Title VI lawsuit against her law school, claiming that pro-Palestinian student organizations on her campus have been publicly supporting Hamas.

“I think in a perfect world, Georgetown would create some sort of an open forum for this conflict to be discussed,” said Wax, adding that she wants Georgetown to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism.

In February 2020, Lawfare represented one of the first Jewish college students to file a Title VI complaint against a university after Trump’s executive order. Jonathan Karten, then 24, was a Columbia University student who said he was harassed by members of the campus group Students for Justice in Palestine. (The group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

Karten’s complaint said students called him “racist” and a “Zionist pig.” Tensions further escalated as professor Joseph Massad, who teaches modern Arab politics and has a history of criticizing Israel, referred to the military wing of Hamas as “armed resistance,” according to the complaint. Karten’s uncle was killed by Hamas militants in 1996 while hitchhiking in Israel.

“My professor endorsed the very same monsters,” Karten, who recently rejoined the Israeli army, said in a WhatsApp message.

The Department of Education declined to comment on the status of the case. 

Karten’s younger brother, Isidore, also a Columbia alumnus, is pressuring the department to do more. Since the Hamas terrorist attacks, he has also helped organize pro-Israel events around the city and says he is frustrated by what he sees as Columbia’s muted response to antisemitism.

On Wednesday, Columbia University announced it was starting an antisemitism task force to come up with changes to academic and extracurricular programs. Columbia spokesperson Samantha Slater said in a statement that the university is beefing up security.

“Over the past few weeks, we have increased our public safety presence across all our campuses,” Slater wrote. “We are also working closely with outside security firms and are in regular contact with the New York City Police Department.”

Isidore Karten said he and other young Jewish activists continue to feel that Columbia can do more. “I don’t think they are doing enough,” he said.

Source : NBC

The post Trump-Era Antisemitism Policy Expected to Fuel Flood of Student Lawsuits Against Universities appeared first on Policy Print.

At the time of buying an insurance policy, customers tend to face some confusion with regards to understanding features and other terms & conditions. As a result, policyholders skip reading the entire document since it is too esoteric for a guy-next-door or a girl-next-door.

It has been acknowledged by the insurance regulator IRDAI which has issued a diktat to insurers to list out all the basic features of insurance policy in simple words and in a pre-defined format given in customer information sheet (CIS). 

The revised format of CIS will come into force from Jan 1 next year.

The regulator directed that insurers are meant to send concise and updated CIS bearing all the relevant information pertaining to policy.

As a matter of fact, a number of complaints were received in relation to asymmetry of information between insurer and policyholders.

The latest set of rules stems from the need to promote transparency and enhance policyholders’ awareness.

The customer information sheet will carry information in a pre-defined format which includes name of insurance product, policy number, type of insurance product, sum insured, policy coverage, exclusions, waiting period, financial limits of coverage, claims procedure, policy servicing, grievances,  things to remember and obligations. 

The insurers are also supposed to take acknowledgement of policyholders confirming that they have taken note of the details of CIS and received it.

Health insurance

The CIS in health insurance is designed to provide policyholders all important information about their health insurance policy in simple language which includes the following:

A. Name and type of policy

B. Coverage details

C. Waiting Periods

D. Limits and sub limits

E. All exclusions

F. Concepts such as free look cancellation, migration, portability and moratorium period

G. Guidance on procedure for claims submission

H. Contact details/ web links for grievance/complaint filing

“This step is expected to result in better-informed policyholders, reduced disputes and delays, and a seamless health insurance experience for policyholders,” reads the IRDAI statement.

Besides, policyholders are also obliged to make transparent and fair disclosures of relevant material information pertaining to their health, as non-disclosure could affect the claim settlement. 

Source : Mint

The post Starting Next Year, Policyholders Can Expect These Changes in Their Insurance Policies appeared first on Policy Print.

JOHANNESBURG — The annual summit of the African Growth and Opportunity Act — a program that has provided eligible sub-Saharan African countries with duty-free access to the U.S. economy since 2000 — wrapped up in South Africa on Saturday.

Under AGOA, total goods imports into the United States were worth about $10 billion in 2022, compared with $6.8 billion in 2021. African leaders are asking the U.S. Congress to renew the trade policy for another 10 years or more before it expires in 2025.

To be eligible for AGOA, nations must respect the rule of law and protect human rights. On Monday, U.S. President Joe Biden said four countries would be dropped from AGOA: Niger and Gabon for coup d’etats, and the Central African Republic and Uganda for human rights violations.

On Saturday, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai sat down with several reporters to answer questions about AGOA’s future. The following transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity:

VOA: China is Africa’s largest trade partner; how can the U.S. compete and how do the two countries’ approaches to trade with Africa differ?

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai: Let me start … with what the basis for our relationship is, which is that the U.S. partnership with the countries of Africa is inherently valuable vis-à-vis ourselves, first and foremost. Our historical ties, our people-to-people ties, the fact that the United States grew out of our own colonial past, there are so many points of shared cultural, historical narrative. That is the cornerstone of our partnership.

Beyond that, we look at the demographics of Africa. … By the year 2050, one in four human beings on this planet will be African. Then you look at the median age of the population in Africa and you compare it to the median age in different places and you realize that the future is Africa. The potential — human potential, the economic potential — of Africa, that is another reason why we know that charting our own path for the future necessarily involves partnership with Africa. So, there is the reason why we are here.

Separately, let me turn to your question on China. Yes, China’s footprint in the global economy in terms of trade is enormous. We know that; that is true in many of our conversations around the world. We feel very strongly that the type of partnership the United States brings and can bring is inherently different from what other partners bring and that is why we are focused on enhancing and building on a U.S. partnership with Africa.

Tai addressed other reporters’ questions regarding the U.S. relationship with countries in Africa.

Q: Yesterday, a representative of an African country told me ‘We don’t want Western democracy imposed on Africa.’ How do you cope with this?

Tai: Obviously there’s not just one form of democracy, we all have our versions of democracy. But broadly speaking, I think when we talk about democracy, you break it down, it’s about a system of government where the people have the right and power to select their government. … I don’t think AGOA dictates the specific kind of democracy, I think the way that I have phrased it is AGOA is set up to support African solutions to the political and economic reforms that AGOA’s meant to encourage.

Q: How is the U.S. relationship with South Africa, owing to South Africa’s stance on the Ukraine crisis?

Tai: Now recall I’m the U.S. trade representative, so I am an economic policy team member. So let me focus on the U.S.-South Africa economic relationship. Let’s acknowledge that we live in a very complex world that is only becoming more complicated. That said, I think that the relationship overall, and the relationships on a more human level, are strong, on the economic side, which is where my competency lies. …

We all need to figure out how to navigate this complex world, and I have a high degree of confidence, at least on the economic side, that we have managed to navigate some choppy waters this year and that we will continue to do our best to do so. I think the South African government, on this trip, at this forum, has indicated the strength of its support for the economic relationship with the United States.

VOA: It has been a thorny issue, Africa wants to be developed, and as long as we continue to send raw materials outside of Africa, we are not going to learn the skills. What’s your view?

Tai: As I understand it, you’re talking about: How does Africa and the countries in Africa move up the value chain and industrialize? And I think that that is the challenge of economic development. We in the United States are focused also on a reindustrialization project, having gone through a period of deindustrialization, so it’s made for a period of very interesting conversations while I’ve been here.

I think that that is a tremendously important question that we all have to figure out. In my instincts, I feel convinced that as globalization evolves, because we see that it is needing to evolve … the next iteration of globalization should do a better job than this past one. … This next one has to involve a development program that looks at how we can more effectively partner between advanced economies and emerging economies to provide a win-win solution to development.

And I think that the basic principle is going to be, if you take President Biden’s outlook, that we’re trying to rebuild and reinvigorate our middle class, how through trade policy could we help each other build our middle classes?

How do we do it in a way that we’re not pitting our middle class against your middle class, our workers against your workers? How do we think more about trade being a complementary exercise as opposed to a cut-throat competition? … I have been really, really privileged to work with our partners on the African continent on how we solve that problem.

Q: We’ve heard, especially from Republican members of Congress, that they are going to want to look at enforcement of eligibility because some of them have said they don’t think the administration is doing a good job of implementing enforcement. So, what do you say to that?

Tai: I don’t know who exactly else they would like to suspend from AGOA, but there is an annual review process, it is a very rigorous process … a lot of deliberation goes into it and the calls are not easy.

Source : VOA News

The post US Trade Envoy Tai Talks Trade Policy in Africa as Summit Ends appeared first on Policy Print.

Saskatchewan Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, Seniors, and Rural and Remote Health Tim McLeod was in the hot seat at Friday’s medical association conference when delegates began asking questions about the province’s pronoun policy.

The policy, passed by the use of the notwithstanding clause, prevents school authorities from using the preferred names or pronouns of students under the age of 16 without parental consent.

On Friday, delegates and members of Saskatchewan’s medical community turned the minister’s attention to the mental health crisis predicted to escalate as a result of the bill.

Delegate Dr. Anna Redekop, who offers gender-affirming care in Meadow Lake, said that while the topic seems fitting for an education conference, it has a place in health as well.

“This isn’t something that just affects the education system,” Redekop said. “It also affects mental health significantly and even physical health.”

She noted that mental health is generally worse in the queer community.

“There are higher rates of suicide, especially in youth without supports.”

Reddekop asked the province what it is doing to address the effects of the pronoun policy on youth mental health. Her question was answered by cheers from the audience.

McLeod claimed that transphobia in Saskatchewan is no more acceptable than racism.

“The policy is an inclusive policy. It’s not transphobic. It is intended to provide assistance and support to families to ensure that the individuals that you are talking about who are at risk because of low levels of support with their parents, the parental bill of rights ensures that the school system is providing supports that are necessary for those children who may be at high risk.”

He said that the province will be expanding the rapid access counselling to 13 communities with the goal of reaching 24 communities where adults’ rapid access counselling is already being offered.

The mental health capacity building will be expanded to 15 schools by the end of the current year and the remainder of divisions in the future.

“The intent is to involve parents and make sure that if there is a relationship there, there is peace there that needs to be built up, that it has the appropriate supports for children to remain safe and that the family unit is protected,” McLeod said.

Several questions later, Moose Jaw family physician Dr. Karissa Brabant called McLeod’s answer unacceptable.

“The parental rights bill is transphobic,” she said. “It is requiring (youth) to come out to their parents before any other system and this is not safe.”

Brabant noted there are many trans youths living in unsupportive home environments.

“This is what is forcing transgender youth to live in the closet,” Brabant said.

She claimed the government knew before enacting the bill that the policy jeopardizes human rights.

“This bill was deemed to be non-constitutional and was advised to be stayed by the Court of King’s Bench and the notwithstanding clause was used to put this bill through legislation, meaning the government acknowledges and admits fully that this bill jeopardizes human rights of our youth in our province.”

She told the minister that he does not have support from the gender-affirming care physicians in the province.

McLeod gave no response to her comments other than opening the door for a conversation at a different time.

“Thanks for your comments. Perhaps when we return to Moose Jaw, I’m more than happy to sit down and we can have a more detailed conversation about this, but I thank you for raising it today,” McLeod said.

Source : Global News

The post Saskatchewan Minister Drilled Over Pronoun Policy at Saskatoon Medical Conference appeared first on Policy Print.

The first comprehensive analysis of the relationship between campaign donations and the issues legislators prioritize with congressional speech is published in the open access journal PLOS ONE this week.

While prior research reaches mixed conclusions on associations between political donations in the U.S. and voting patterns of legislators, this research suggests there are substantial associations between donations and policy priorities expressed in congressional speeches, and marks language use as an interesting and viable arena for looking at the impact political donors may have on congressional behavior.

Publicly traded corporations and labor unions in the U.S. routinely raise funds and donate money to candidates for political office. In the 2020 election cycle, this amounted to nearly $500 million in donations. Although it has been shown that donations have an impact on policy outcomes, until now the focus has been on voting on congressional bills and congressional committees.

Dr. Pranav Goel of the University of Maryland, and colleagues, pulled together publicly available data on U.S. House representatives from 1995 to 2018. This included committee assignments, legislative speeches and donation records. The various sources of information were linked together through a combination of computational and manual effort.

The researchers identified patterns of donation for corporations and unions, suggesting that their donations are not strictly partisan and are given to both Democrat and Republican candidates. Using a machine learning approach, they found that political donations are associated with legislators prioritizing the relevant issues in their congressional speeches: when legislators are associated with donors with a particular policy interest, more of their speaking time is dedicated to that political issue.

While it might be assumed that variables such as party affiliation, home state, and committee assignment dictate how representatives prioritize their time speaking on the floor of Congress, the research suggests that legislators’ issue-attention is more strongly linked to who their donors are than to these factors. The researchers also noted that businesses donate to more legislators on average and have a significantly higher association with issue-attention than labor unions.

The team was also able to identify relevant speeches that occur in close proximity to donations, though they stress that their findings do not suggest causality between the two events. They share that methodology, which could be an avenue for investigative journalism. The framework, data, and findings are all openly available for others to use, and taken together can help increase the transparency of the role of money in politics.

The authors summarize, “Understanding the role of donations is a crucial part of understanding how our democracy works. In this work, we developed new methods for analyzing how donations by Political Action Committees (PACs) relate to the language that legislators use, and we found a robust and substantial association between the congressional donors that donate to U.S. House legislators and the issues those legislators prioritize when speaking on the floor of Congress.”

Source : PHYS

The post US Political Donations Are Associated With Policy Issues Prioritized in Congressional Speeches appeared first on Policy Print.

Nigeria’s central bank said on Thursday that it had delayed an interest rate meeting that had been planned for next week and that it would schedule a new meeting later.

In a statement on its website, the Central Bank of Nigeria did not say why the Sept. 25-26 meeting of its Monetary Policy Committee was delayed and a new date would be set later.

The postponement comes days after President Bola Tinubu nominated a new central bank governor and four new deputy governors. The Senate is yet to hold confirmation hearings for Tinubu’s picks.

In July, the central bank opted for a small rate hike at the first monetary policy meeting since Tinubu suspended central bank governor Godwin Emefiele.

Emefiele oversaw a much-criticised system of multiple exchange rates used to keep the local naira currency artificially strong and lent directly to businesses to try to boost growth in Africa’s biggest economy.

Tinubu criticised the central bank’s policies under Emefiele at his inauguration in May, saying they needed “thorough house-cleaning”.

Source : Yahoo

The post Nigeria Central Bank Postpones Next Week’s Policy Meeting appeared first on Policy Print.

The UK will water down policies aimed at achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and instead pursue a “pragmatic” approach to hitting the target, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said.

“We can adopt a more pragmatic, proportionate and realistic approach to meeting net zero,” Sunak told a news conference on Wednesday, saying a ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars would be pushed back from 2030 to 2035.

That would bring it in line with countries such as France and Germany, he said.

The prime minister also announced an easing of energy efficiency targets for rental properties and backtracked on plans to make homeowners replace gas boilers with heat pumps.

The move comes amid growing concern over the potential financial cost of the government’s net zero pledge.

A general election is expected next year and Sunak’s Conservative Party is trailing in the polls behind the Labour opposition amid a cost-of-living crisis that has seen food and housing costs spiral.

The narrow win by a Conservative candidate in a west London by-election in July – largely put down to a campaign against the expansion of a vehicle pollution toll zone by London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan, of the Labour Party – triggered calls within the party to rethink climate commitments.

‘I believe in net zero’

Stressing that “no one can doubt” the reality of climate change, Sunak said he was a firm believer both in net zero and the UK’s ability to achieve it.

But he added that “too often motivated by short-term thinking, politicians have taken the easy way out, telling people the bits they want to hear, and not necessarily always the bits they need to hear.

“We haven’t had an honest conversation about these issues in a long time. It’s not enough to just announce these targets – great headlines in the short term – to will this thing to happen. That’s not right,” he said.

The UK had leeway to ease targets as it had achieved “the fastest reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the G7”, he argued.

But the rethink sparked anger among opposition lawmakers, environmental campaigners, the car industry and some Conservative MPs, setting up a possible rift in Sunak’s party.

In July, Sunak approved hundreds of new oil and gas licences in the North Sea off Britain’s east coast, angering environmentalists.

Former prime minister and net zero proponent Boris Johnson warned that “we cannot afford to falter now or in any way lose our ambition for this country”, while COP26 president and Conservative lawmaker Alok Sharma added that “for any party to resile from this agenda will not help economically or electorally.”

Reports suggested that some MPs may even be preparing letters of no confidence in protest.

‘Complete farce’

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas called the move “economically illiterate, historically inaccurate and environmentally bone-headed” while Ed Miliband, Labour’s spokesman for energy, said it was a “complete farce from a Tory government that literally does not know what they are doing day to day”.

Lady Parminter, chair of the House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee, also criticised Sunak’s move, saying she was “dismayed” by the announcement and will be outlining concerns and seeking clarification.

Criticism also came from industry, with Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, saying the UK should be a “leader in zero-emission mobility” but “clear, consistent” messaging is required from the government for consumers to want to switch to electric vehicles.

“Confusion and uncertainty will only hold them back,” Hawes added.

Green campaigners were angered, too.

Rebecca Newsom, head of politics at Greenpeace UK, said that move “will only hasten our waning influence on the world stage”.

Source : Al Jazeera

The post Sunak Announces U-turn on Several UK Net Zero Policies appeared first on Policy Print.