What do we make of Biden standing on the picket line? Just an easy way to score some points with progressives? Given that he crushed the rail unions I assume he's not actually pro-union in any shape or form. I mean, I don't know, I guess I could imagine some twisted mental gymnastics where he could think of himself as pro-union and still stop the rail strike out of political pragmatism. So what's the deal? Purely opportunist? Or is old Union Joe a rube who genuinely believes in the lies of the democratic party being pro-worker?

Because if it is just opportunist, this does seem like a bit of a risk. I mean, I suspect the President getting a photo op on a picket line doesn't really mean anything, materially. But it seems like most Presidents are somewhere between "Kill all Union members" and just kind of publicly avoiding the issue. Tepid support in the press while crushing unions in private is genuinely a better stance than I'd expect.

Seems to me that Joe Biden, lifelong conservative democrat who happily waved the New Deal off on its path to hell, could only risk to alienate his corporate sponsors while probably not meaningfully gaining much among the liberal progressive voting bloc, who are sufficiently cowed into voting blue no matter who.

Weekly Update for September 18th - 24th

Over 5500 words of pure distilled news.

with the destruction of the Oskil bridges , roumors of a Russian offensive grow

Underage gig workers keep outsmarting facial recognition

Eduardo Montanari, who manages delivery logistics at a burger shop north of São Paulo, has noticed a pattern: Every time an order pickup is assigned to a female driver, there’s a good chance the worker is a minor. “Often these minors use [delivery] apps with an account in their mother or older sister’s name,” he told Rest of World.

Delivery work in Brazil is only legal for people above the age of 18 years. Apps like iFood and Rappi — the two biggest delivery platforms in Brazil — have attempted to combat child labor with the introduction of technological safeguards, particularly facial recognition. But the problem has persisted as workers find ways to circumvent the rules.

Facing pressure from authorities to eradicate child labor, and lacking a fully dependable tech solution, iFood and Rappi now also rely on facial recognition of a different sort: They ask customers and restaurants to report underage delivery workers.

But none of the customers and restaurant employees who spoke to Rest of World said they’d ever reported the workers to the apps or to authorities, even if they believed they were minors. Reasons for not reporting included uncertainty about whether the person was actually underaged, not having the time, or not wanting to potentially cause harm by having the accounts associated with the minors canceled. Both Rappi and iFood declined to answer Rest of World’s questions on the number of reports made by customers or businesses.

Junior, who asked to be identified only by his first name for fear of repercussions at work, oversees deliveries at a health-food restaurant. In the past year, he told Rest of World, around 18 to 20 underage boys have shown up to collect deliveries for iFood — the app his restaurant exclusively works with. When asked if he had reported any of them to iFood, Junior said no. “Nowadays, it’s very hard to tell; 16-year-olds already have beards, tattoos,” he said, adding that he has noticed a pattern: Minors often tend to come on weekends — when it’s busiest — and on bicycles.

According to official government data, there were approximately 1.8 million children and adolescents working across Brazil as of 2019. The International Labour Organization considers any work that involves being on the street — like delivery work — to be one of “the worst forms of labor” as it is not considered appropriately educational, said Tânia Dornellas, political scientist and advocacy officer at Brazilian Campaign for the Right to Education. Around 700,000 children fall in this category in Brazil, according to the latest data.

Anyone seen any updates from the weeaboo unit in the Russian army?

UAW to Add Strike Targets Against Big Three US Automakers

The list of potential strike targets in the next stage involves engine and transmission facilities.

The United Auto Workers (UAW) plans to add strike targets against the Big Three U.S. automakers Friday if there is no major progress in their contract negotiation, The Detroit News quoted a UAW source as saying Wednesday.

The list of potential strike targets in the next stage involves engine and transmission facilities, as well as large pickup trucks and SUV factories.

Like last week, the new locations for strike would be announced at 10 a.m. local time on a Facebook livestream hosted by the union, and the strike will begin at noon on Friday.

The UAW's unprecedented strike against the Big Three is now on its 13th day. The UAW went on strike on Sept. 15 at three select facilities of Ford, GM and Stellantis, and expanded the strike to 38 General Motors (GM) and Stellantis facilities on Sept. 22.

Nationwide, 18,300 UAW autoworkers at 41 Ford Motor Co, GM and Stellantis NV facilities in 20 states are on strike, asking for higher wages, pensions for all workers and elimination of the tiered wage systems.

U.S. President Joe Biden visited a picket line outside a GM parts distribution center in the state of Michigan Tuesday, voicing his support to auto workers.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump's visit here came a day after Biden's appearance, where he attacked Biden's policies for transforming the auto industry and showed his support for auto workers.

On Tuesday, UAW President Shawn Fain said he sees "no point" in meeting with Trump, "I don't think the man has any bit of care about what our workers stand for, what the working class stands for. He serves a billionaire class."

"Our focus right now is 100 percent on getting a great agreement for our members. Today was really about our workers," the UAW leader added.

The automakers are "all for taking all of our tax dollars, helping finance this transition to EVs. But when it comes to taking care of the workers, the companies keep trying to take us backward and it's unacceptable," Fain added.

The UAW has not endorsed Biden for his 2024 presidential run yet. The union is seeking more support from the president and lawmakers for a "just" transition to EVs, The Detroit News said.

According to a Cox Automotive forecast released on Tuesday, even with a strike and uncertainties of what's to come between the Big Three and the UAW, the U.S. auto industry's sales through the end of September showed a continued "robust" recovery.

Analysts at Edmunds, an U.S. online resource for automotive information, said that the effects of the strike are unlikely to show up in third-quarter sales results for the industry. But if the strike lingers, they expect an impact on auto inventory in the near future.

Greek agriculture devastated for five or more years

Storm Daniel wiped out a quarter of Greece’s annual farming production, as a result of deadly flash flooding that submerged fields and drowned livestock. The central region of Thessaly was especially hard hit. Thessaly produces a quarter of the country’s food.

Mud and silt from the flooding could make the region unproductive. Efthymios Lekkas, a disaster management expert, told Greek state television that it will take five or more years for the region to become fertile once more. “The agricultural production isn't destroyed just for this year. The thick coat of silt means it is no longer fertile," he said. “We've had the worst floods in our history,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis added after meeting the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Strasbourg. “This is probably one of the most powerful storms to ever hit Europe,”