As concerns grow over the alleged human rights abuses and forced labor in China's Xinjiang territory, five organizations told The Wall Street Journal they won't provide labor-audit or inspection services of companies' supply chains in the region. Two other auditing companies told the Workers Rights Consortium they won't operate in Xinjiang in emails reviewed by the Journal, but did not respond to requests for comment. Another firm confirmed it would no longer conduct audits there, but did not elaborate.
The withdrawal of auditors has sparked some mixed reactions, says the Journal. Some other firms acknowledged the challenges of detecting forced labor in Xinjiang — auditors have been detained by Chinese authorities and others are required to rely on Beijing-approved translators who may convey misinformation at factories employing Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking minorities, while some workers simply find the risk of telling the truth to auditors to be too great — but also expressed concern that blacklisting the region could push human rights abuses even further underground.
At the same time, there's a sense that third-party auditors generally are more inclined to serve corporate interests, lowering the chances of exposing violations, the Journal reports. That's why labor rights groups and Uighur rights activists have urged organizations to halt audits in Xinjiang. Ultimately, they believe forcing companies to shift their supply chains out of the region is the only way to avoid contributing to forced-labor practices. Read more at The Wall Street Journal. Tim O'Donnell
The CDC is already walking back its latest COVID-19 guidance.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently updated its website to acknowledge that the coronavirus is spread through the air and that "there is growing evidence that droplets and airborne particles can remain suspended in the air and be breathed in by others, and travel distances beyond 6 feet," as reported by CNN on Sunday. But the agency is already walking this guidance back, as The Washington Post reports the new guidelines have now been removed. A top CDC official told the Post, "that does not reflect our current state of knowledge."
The relevant page on the CDC's website now features a message which reads, "A draft version of proposed changes to these recommendations was posted in error to the agency's official website." The message also says that the CDC is "currently updating its recommendations regarding airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19)" and that "once this process has been completed, the update language will be posted."
This is yet another reversal at the CDC after last month, the agency raised eyebrows when it released a guidance that suggested not everyone exposed to COVID-19 "necessarily" needs to be tested if they are asymptomatic. Amid criticism from experts, and a report from The New York Times saying that this change was not written by CDC scientists and was published despite their objections, this guidance change was ultimately reversed.
Experts had praised the recent CDC guidance on airborne transmission of COVID-19, with University of Maryland professor Donald Milton telling CNN, "I'm very encouraged to see that the CDC is paying attention and moving with the science." Brendan Morrow
New data obtained by The Guardian provides a more specific look at how the changes implemented by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy affected the U.S. Postal Service's on-time first-class mail delivery rate after he took over the role in June.
In what North Carolina A&T history professor and former postal worker Philip Rubio described as a "remarkable graphic illustration," The Guardian shows that rates plummeted not long after DeJoy stepped in. The USPS was delivering first-class mail on time about 93 percent of the time during most of the first half of 2020, just shy of its 95 percent goal, and was averaging nearly 91 percent at the moment of leadership transition. But by August the national rate had dipped to about 81.5 percent, and was even lower in some postal districts, reaching as far south as 63.6 percent in northern Ohio and just over 61 percent in Detroit, although it's worth pointing out that Detroit had also fallen well below the national average for multiple weeks earlier in 2020, jumping back up shortly before DeJoy arrived. As The Guardian notes, those districts are both in key swing states, which will likely raise some eyebrows, given that DeJoy has already had critics accuse him of trying to slow deliveries with an increase in mail-in ballots expected for the general election because of the coronavirus pandemic.
DeJoy denied those allegations during congressional testimony and explained that any slowdowns that occurred were the result of a bumpy transition. DeJoy went on to pause the reforms he put in place until after the election, but The Guardian's analysis shows that delivery speed is still lagging in several districts. View the trends of delivery rates in postal districts across the country at The Guardian. Tim O'Donnell