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☆ Bill Gates says he's done some 'weird crap' in his life, such as drinking 'water from fecal sludge', to mark World Toilet Day
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Bill Gates said in a LinkedIn post on Saturday that he's done some "weird crap" in his life. In 2015, he also convinced TV host Jimmy Fallon to drink water made from "fecal sludge." In 2015, he convinced TV host Jimmy Fallon to drink water from "fecal sludge" after Gates examined the Omniprocessor, a machine that turns feces into water and electricity. "A few minutes later I took a long taste of the end result: a glass of delicious drinking water." Watch a clip of Bill Gates and Jimmy Fallon here:

☆ Starbucks is urged to keep its bathrooms open to everyone, not just paying customers
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Stephanie Stacey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The American Restroom Association has called on Starbucks to keep its restrooms open to all. A Starbucks spokesperson told The Guardian that its policy hadn't changed, but the American Restroom Association said that some stores were restricting their bathrooms to paying customers. Kevin Johnson, CEO of Starbucks at the time, apologized and closed all Starbucks stores in the US for a entire day so staff could attend anti-bias training. In May 2018, Starbucks announced that it would allow everyone — including people who hadn't purchased anything — to use its bathrooms "100% of the time." Starbucks and the American Restroom Association did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider.

☆ World population reaches 8 billion people, with India expected to surpass China as most populous nation
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Indian passengers stand and hang onto a train as it departs from a station on the outskirts of New Delhi. The world population reached 8 billion people on Tuesday, and India is expected to surpass China as the most populous country in the next year, according to projections from the United Nations. The global population has more than tripled since 1950 as mortality dropped and life expectancy increased, due in large part to better sanitation, access to clean drinking water and the development of vaccines and antibiotics, along with improved nutrition. Life expectancy fell by a year to 71 in 2021, due in large part of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Still, people born in 2050 are expected to live until age 77 on average.

☆ Children Illegally Worked Overnight Shifts to Clean Meat-Processing Plants, Labor Department Says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-12 | by ( Talal Ansari | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

JBS, one of the world’s largest meat processing companies, said it worked with a third-party to audit sanitation providers after it was made aware of the allegations. Dozens of minors, some as young as 13, were illegally employed to clean meat-processing plants in Minnesota and Nebraska, federal authorities said. The Labor Department filed a federal complaint in Nebraska asking for a nationwide temporary restraining order and injunction against Packers Sanitation Services Inc., a food-safety company that provides contract sanitation services, over the allegations.

☆ Food sanitation company accused of employing at least 31 children on graveyard shifts in slaughterhouses
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Julianne Mcshane | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +10 min

A leading sanitation company is accused of employing dozens of children to clean the killing floors of slaughterhouses during graveyard shifts, the Department of Labor announced. The Department of Labor’s Child Labor Regulations designates many roles in slaughterhouse and meatpacking facilities as hazardous for minors. That order requires PSSI to “immediately cease and refrain from employing oppressive child labor” and comply with the Department of Labor’s investigation. Yet, the children working overnight on the kill floor of these slaughterhouses cannot wait,” the complaint states. When they are hired by PSSI, workers sign paperwork assuming the risk of death and injury on the job, NBC News reported last year.

☆ Supreme Court’s Sotomayor rejects challenge to N.Y. Covid vaccine mandate
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Thursday rejected a bid to prevent New York City from enforcing its Covid vaccine mandate for municipal workers against a group teachers, firefighters and others who challenged the policy. The plaintiffs — firefighters, building inspectors, police officers, emergency medical technicians, teachers, sanitation workers and others — are represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom conservative religious liberty group. The court as a whole in June refused to take up a religious challenge to New York state’s vaccine mandate for health care workers. New York City in August 2021 ordered employees in the largest U.S. public school system to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Among the plaintiffs’ claims is opposition to any Covid vaccine whose testing or development relied on cell lines from aborted fetuses.

☆ Food plant cleaning company accused in federal probe of hiring children for 'hazardous' work that left 13-year-old with chemical burns
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The US Labor Department filed a complaint against PSSI following a three-month investigation into unlawful child labor claims. The department is accusing the sanitation contractor of having employees as young as 13 working 'hazardous' overnight shifts. PSSI emphasized its 'zero tolerance' for violating its policy of employing anyone under 18 years old. A news release Wednesday from the DOL said Packers Sanitation Services Inc. employed at least 31 children — ages 13 to 17 — in "hazardous occupations." But a PSSI spokesperson said in a statement to Insider Thursday that it has a "zero tolerance" policy around hiring employees under 18.

REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File PhotoNov 10 (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Thursday rejected a bid to prevent New York City from enforcing its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for municipal workers against a group teachers, firefighters and others who challenged the policy. The court as a whole in June refused to take up a religious challenge to New York state's vaccine mandate for healthcare workers. New York City in August 2021 ordered employees in the largest U.S. public school system to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Among the plaintiffs' claims is opposition to any COVID-19 vaccine whose testing or development relied on cell lines from aborted fetuses. Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Editing by Will Dunham and Grant McCoolOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Residents clash with Chinese authorities over Covid rules
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

BEIJING — Police in northeastern China said that seven people have been arrested following a clash between residents and authorities enforcing Covid-19 quarantine restrictions. The violence comes as China reports new cases nationwide, with 2,230 cases reported Tuesday in the southern manufacturing and technology hub of Guangzhou. While the numbers remain relatively low, China has relentlessly pursued its strict “zero-Covid” policy of quarantines, lockdowns and daily or near-daily compulsory testing. News of the arrests appeared on social media Tuesday morning, but was erased by the country’s censors before noon. Those include the former party leader of Shanghai, where a draconian two-month lockdown earlier this year led to food shortages, confrontations with authorities and severe disruptions to global supply chains that have grown dependent on Chinese manufacturing and shipping.

☆ Immigration and rights groups ask Biden administration not to send Haitian migrants to Guantanamo facility
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Julia-Ainsley-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Julia Ainsley | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

More than 280 immigration, faith-based and rights groups sent a letter to the Biden administration on Friday asking it not to send Haitian migrants interdicted at sea to Guantanamo Bay or a third-party country. The groups were responding to a Sunday report by NBC News that the White House's National Security Council had asked the Department of Homeland Security to model scenarios in case of a surge of Haitian migrants. The groups who signed the letter, led by the Haitian Bridge Alliance, urged the Biden administration to instead allow Haitians to be removed from dangerous vessels at sea and taken to the U.S. to claim asylum. The administration must not under any circumstances send asylum seekers and migrants to the notorious Guantánamo Bay or other offshore detention locations,” the groups said. Similar criticism arose in September 2021 after the Biden administration began mass deportations of Haitian asylum seekers who crowded by the thousands under an international bridge in Del Rio, Texas.

That the WNBA star, who lost her appeal Tuesday, is a gay Black woman could add unknown variables to a penal system that is known to be remote and harrowing. “Conditions in prisons and detention centers varied but were often harsh and life threatening,” a 2021 State Department report on Russian human rights abuses said. “Russian prisons are grim, even relative to prisons in other countries. Prisoners were used for farming, mining or logging in sparsely populated areas of the country or worked in sweatshop conditions. It can often take weeks for prisoners to arrive at the prisons on prison trucks and specially designed train carriages called Stolypins.

☆ Judge orders NYC to rehire group of workers fired for refusing COVID-19 vaccines and give them back pay
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Sophia Ankel | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

New York City ordered a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all city workers last year. A judge said Tuesday that a group of workers fired for refusing a vaccine must be rehired and paid. The New York City Law Department did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. New York City ordered a vaccine mandate for all of its city workers last year. Mayor Eric Adams announced last month that he would be dropping a vaccine mandate specifically for private sector employees as of November 1.

☆ World Bank disburses additional $500 mln to Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Oct 24 (Reuters) - The World Bank said on Monday it had disbursed an additional $500 million to help Ukraine meet urgent spending needs created by Russia's Feb. 24 invasion and the ongoing war. The financing by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the bank's main lending arm, was supported by $500 million in loan guarantees from Britain that were announced on Sept. 30, the bank said. We stand firmly to support the Ukrainian people as they face this unparalleled crisis.”The World Bank has mobilized a total of $13 billion in emergency financing for Ukraine, of which $11.4 billion has been fully disbursed. Russia's invasion caused over $97 billion in direct damages to Ukraine through June 1, but it could cost nearly $350 billion to rebuild the country, the World Bank, Ukrainian government and the European Commission said in a report released in September. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Muralikumar AnantharamanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Cholera outbreak hits Syrian refugees sheltering in camps in Lebanon
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Maya Gebeily | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Syrian refugee children stand near water way at an informal camp in Qab Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley October 18, 2022. REUTERS/Mohamed AzakirQUB ELIAS, Lebanon, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Syrian refugees in displacement camps are falling victim to a cholera outbreak in Lebanon, already suffering from an economic meltdown that has slashed access to clean water and strained hospitals. Lebanon recorded its first cholera case in early October -- signalling the return of the bacteria for the first time in 30 years. WHO country director Abdinasir Abubakar told Reuters cholera posed a "very high risk" for Lebanon – and that transmission to other countries was likely. "Now it's affecting more Syrian refugees, but sooner or later we will see more cases for Lebanese,” Abubakar said.

"Look we all love Emmanuel the Emu but he has avian flu. Avian flu experts, too, said touching an infected emu isn't advisable, given that the virus can jump from animals to humans in rare cases. H5N1, the bird flu strain currently spreading, is highly contagious among birds, and it can be deadly to them. "Once an avian virus can move to mammals, now we’re in the realm of 'Yeah, we better be careful.'" All three experts said scientists are watching this bird flu closely even though the risk to humans is low.

☆ Restoring a rat-infested 1948 school bus
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Melissa Estrada | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Jason Kellogg from Country Boy Gas Garage restored an abandoned 1948 Ford F5 bus found in a forest. The old church bus was covered in moss and ferns and was infested with rats. Jason Kellogg: Today, we're gonna be talking about the 1948 Ford F5 school bus that I found abandoned in the forest that had been there for over 25 years. My favorite part of the entire restoration would probably be the fact that this used to be a church bus. So I decided that I was going to make a reunion trip with the bus back to the church.

☆ Appeal raises $135,000 for a released Ukrainian POW to help with medical expenses after his brutal treatment by Russian captors
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-25 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

More than $130,000 has been raised for a Ukrainian man who was held as a POW by Russian captors. He has a scar on his elbow caused by rusty pliers being used to pull a foreign object out of his arm. Mykhailo Dianov, a musician who served in the Azov regiment, was one of the 215 PoWs freed in a surprise prisoner swap between Ukraine and Russia earlier this week. Photos of Dianov shared by the Ukrainian military show him emaciated, bruised, and scarred after his time in a Russian prison. Russian captors were brutal, say POWsAiden Aslin, 28, (right) a British man released by Russia in POW swap on September 22, 2022 ReutersSome of the POWs freed earlier this week have given accounts of brutal treatment and torture by their Russian captors.

☆ Enjoy your Airbnb — just don’t forget to do the laundry and take out the trash
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Airbnb hosts say there are two reasons for the higher fees and the chore demands: Covid-19 raised sanitation requirements, and — you guessed it — inflation. Airbnb allows hosts to set their own rates and encourages them to avoid cleaning fees if possible. BOTTOM LINEThe social media outrage about cleaning fees and chores is certainly a PR headache for Airbnb, but it’s far from a crisis. Plus, Jon speaks to Redfin’s Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather about what homebuyers need to know about mortgage rates. ), but mortgage rates may keep going up as long as the Fed keeps raising interest rates.

☆ Why California can just decide what cars people buy
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-06 | by ( Peter Valdes-Dapena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

A core part of federal emissions regulations since the early 1970s has been the so-called California Waiver. Nik Wheeler/Corbis/Getty ImagesBut, in 1967, it was Reagan, then the governor of California, who signed off on the creation of the California Air Resources Board. By this time, the groundwork had already been laid for California to set its own rules and that continued with the “California waiver,” a part of federal regulations that made this special exception for California. During his tenure, President Donald Trump asked the courts to do away with the California waiver. President Joseph Biden’s administration dropped that effort and, in March 2022, the California waiver was renewed once more.

☆ Why cities can't get rid of rats
▼ + stars: | 2021-06-03 | by ( Uma Sharma | Shira Polan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

In many ways, rats are better suited for living in cities than people. Meet your average city rats: Rattus rattus and Rattus norvegicus. But a 2014 study gave a ballpark estimate of 2 million rats. And in some ways, rats are better suited for living in cities than people. In 2017, for example, New York City launched a $32 million war plan against its rats.

☆ The EU and the “changing” Eastern neighborhood - between “post-factum diplomacy” and realpolitik, Analysis by Dionis Cenușă
▼ + stars: | 2020-11-14 | by ( ) www.ipn.md time to read: +21 min

The EU and the “changing” Eastern neighborhood - between “post-factum diplomacy” and realpolitik, Analysis by Dionis CenușăOp-EdThe diversity of realities in Eastern Europe requires from the EU a "differentiated diplomacy" which emerges from the dynamics of local and external factors, dominant in the region ...Dionis Cenuşa, Senior ContributorThe European strategy for the Eastern Neighborhood is losing ground to the ever-changing reality. It is these shortcomings that define European diplomacy of post-factum, which remains relevant in 2020. First of all, Russia has structural levers that can influence the situation on the ground in the Eastern Partnership states. Instead, the emphasis of Westerners is on calming the political situation, without encouraging the opposition to annul the results of the parliamentary elections. Dionis Cenuşa, Senior Contributor Dionis Cenuşa, Senior ContributorAreas of research: European Neighborhood Policy, EU-Moldova relationship, EU's foreign policy and Russia, migration and energy security.

Persons: Cenușă, Dionis Cenuşa, Volodymyr Zelensky, Zelensky, Maia Sandu's, Fiasco, Igor Dodon, Maia Sandu, Vladimir Putin, oligarch Bidzina, Ivanishvili, Nikol, ”, Ilham Aliyev's, Alexander Lukashenko, Lukashenko, Hanns Seidel Organizations: EU, European People's Party, Social Democrats, Eastern Partnership, Eastern, Constitutional, Socialist, OSCE, Moldovan, Russian, Hanns Seidel Foundation, IPN Press Agency, Policy, Institute of Political Sciences, Liebig, Justus University, College of Europe, Twitter Locations: Eastern Europe, EU, Belarus, Nagorno, Karabakh, Brussels, Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine, Russian, Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Chisinau, Moldovan, Turkey, South Caucasus, Yerevan, Moscow, Baku, Turkish, Azerbaijani, Iran, Ankara, Minsk, Belarusian, Giessen, Germany

☆ A nuclear attack would most likely target one of these 6 US cities — but an expert says none of them are prepared
▼ + stars: | 2019-12-17 | by ( Aria Bendix | Taylor Ardrey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

A nuclear attack on US soil would most likely target one of six cities: New York, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Washington, DC. A nuclear attack in a large metropolitan area is one of the 15 disaster scenarios for which the US Federal Emergency Management Agency has an emergency strategy. That includes the six urban areas that Redlener thinks are the most likely targets of a nuclear attack: New York, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. "Can you imagine a public official keeping buildings intact for fallout shelters when the real-estate market is so tight?" Both experts agreed that for a city to be prepared for a nuclear attack, it must acknowledge that such an attack is possible — even if the threat is remote.

AdvertisementAdvertisementRetirement looks vastly different in countries around the world. For its latest global retirement ranking, Natixis Investment Managers and CoreData Research examined indicators related to the health, finances, material well-being, and quality of life of retirees in 44 countries. The Nordic countries rank high on the list, while the United States and the United Kingdom fall behind. The report notes that "countries with strong overall rankings tend to perform well in the finances sub-index," including New Zealand, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Iceland, and Ireland. Below, check out the top 18 countries for retirement around the world.

Organizations: Investment, CoreData, Visit, Service, Natixis Investment, Monetary Fund, Organization for Economic Cooperation, Development Locations: United States, United Kingdom, Wall, Silicon, Brazil, Russia, India, China, New Zealand, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Iceland, Ireland

☆ San Francisco has a 'Poop Patrol' to deal with its feces problem, and workers make more than $184,000 a year in salary and benefits
▼ + stars: | 2018-08-23 | by ( Aria Bendix | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Employees of San Francisco's "Poop Patrol" are set to earn $71,760 a year, plus an additional $112,918 in benefits, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. AdvertisementAdvertisementIn San Francisco, you can earn more than $184,000 a year in salary and benefits for cleaning up feces. As members of the city's "Poop Patrol," workers are entitled to $71,760 a year, plus an additional $112,918 in benefits, such as healthcare and retirement savings, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. As San Francisco faces a shortage of affordable housing, it has struggled to accommodate its more than 7,400 homeless residents. The city's feces problem is a visible reminder of the gap between its rich and poor.

Persons: London Breed Organizations: San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Department of Public, San Francisco, London, NBC Locations: San, Francisco, —, San Francisco

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