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Who Made Your World Cup Jersey?

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Who Made Your World Cup Jersey?

Because the World Cup in Qatar kicked off final week, hundreds of thousands of followers pulled on jerseys costing $90 to $150 that had been offered by Nike and Adidas, the official clothing store of this 12 months’s match. Gamers, carrying new, brightly coloured uniforms, slipped into shiny cleats and sneakers that may retail for greater than $200.

However what did the individuals who made these things receives a commission?

Within the case of seven,800 employees on the Pou Chen Group manufacturing facility in Yangon, Myanmar, a provider of soccer sneakers for Adidas, the reply is 4,800 kyat, or $2.27, per day.

The Myanmar manufacturing facility underscores the persevering with wrestle for a lot of of South Asia’s 40 million garment employees, who’ve lengthy grappled with poor working circumstances and wages, and whose troubles have been exacerbated by the pandemic. Now, with the largest sporting occasion on this planet underway, efforts by some laborers to enhance their working circumstances have been met with harsh resistance and punishment.

After employees started a strike in October, demanding a every day wage of $3.78, manufacturing facility managers known as troopers into the advanced and later fired 26 employees. They included 16 members of the manufacturing facility’s union, who had been believed to have led the strike of greater than 2,000 staff.

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In interviews final week, a number of employees mentioned they believed the manufacturing facility was utilizing the chance to punish employees engaged in organized labor, at a time when Myanmar’s ruling army junta is seeking to dismantle democratic buildings.

On the similar time, rising inflation and a weakened foreign money are placing strain on the livelihoods of individuals in Myanmar. Since final 12 months’s coup, the kyat has fallen greater than 50 % towards the greenback, and the price of groceries, transportation and housing has skyrocketed. One employee, already unwell, mentioned she had gone three days with out meals till fellow employees purchased her some.

One other employee, 22, who hopes to get her job again, spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of she feared retaliation by her employer. “We fear a lot about paying the lease and sending cash house to our households in order that they’ll survive,” she mentioned. “It was already so laborious earlier than, which is why we requested for more cash. And now, with out our jobs, it’s so a lot more durable. I can’t afford to eat.”

In an emailed assertion from Pou Chen’s headquarters in Taiwan, the corporate mentioned that it adopted native legal guidelines and laws in dealing with staff’ salaries and personnel issues and that it revered employees’ proper to cut price collectively.

“We’re going by way of an arbitration course of with the claimants as per Myanmar’s authorized process,” the e-mail mentioned, referring to the fired employees.

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Adidas additionally offered an announcement. “Adidas has objected strongly to those dismissals, that are in breach of our office requirements and our longstanding dedication to upholding employees’ freedom of affiliation,” the corporate mentioned. “We’re investigating the lawfulness of the provider’s actions, and now we have known as on Pou Chen to right away reinstate the dismissed employees.”

Most Western style and sportswear manufacturers don’t personal manufacturing services, as a substitute contracting with unbiased factories or suppliers, typically within the International South, to make their clothes. This implies they don’t seem to be technically the employers of those employees, and subsequently aren’t legally chargeable for imposing labor requirements or human rights.

Some corporations, such H&M, Adidas and Nike, have lately made components of their provide chain extra seen by publishing manufacturing facility provider info for his or her clothes, and Adidas offers a separate listing of its World Cup attire suppliers. Nike, which produces kits (as soccer uniforms are known as) for 13 World Cup groups equivalent to america, England and Brazil, doesn’t publish a separate listing of World Cup suppliers, making it more durable to trace down the place they had been made.


What we take into account earlier than utilizing nameless sources. Do the sources know the knowledge? What’s their motivation for telling us? Have they proved dependable previously? Can we corroborate the knowledge? Even with these questions happy, The Occasions makes use of nameless sources as a final resort. The reporter and at the very least one editor know the id of the supply.

And transparency about suppliers doesn’t assure accountability throughout the style provide chain, which has lengthy been met by union busting — practices meant to forestall or disrupt the formation of unions or makes an attempt to develop membership.

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Trax Attire, a manufacturing facility in Cambodia the place 2,800 employees make soccer shirts for Adidas in addition to for the British soccer crew Manchester United, laid off eight employees in 2020 after they fashioned a union to hunt higher working circumstances. The manufacturing facility’s administration mentioned it will reinstate solely 4 of the eight, and provided that the union agreed to not combat for the others’ reinstatement or full again pay. Seeing no various, the union signed an settlement surrendering these rights.

“I stored ready for a name, nevertheless it by no means got here,” mentioned Sophal Choun, 41, who earned $7 a day at a stitching machine on the manufacturing facility. “It took a 12 months and a half to seek out one other job — I needed to ask my siblings to assist assist my two younger kids and take out a mortgage to maintain going with a really excessive premium which I’m now struggling to pay.”

She added: “I believed in a union as a result of I knew we wanted safety. Now, many days I simply cry and cry.”

Trax Attire, whose homeowners are based mostly in Thailand, didn’t reply to a request for remark.

The predicament of the garment employees is amongst a number of severe social points which were delivered to gentle throughout this 12 months’s World Cup. A storm of criticism has been leveled at Qatar over human rights points, together with the authoritarian monarchy’s criminalization of homosexuality and the well-documented abuse of migrant employees.

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Seven European nations, together with England and Germany, deliberate to put on rainbow-colored armbands with the phrase “One Love” as a present of assist for minority teams, together with L.G.B.T. individuals. However they backed down final week after FIFA, worldwide soccer’s governing physique, mentioned that the armbands violated its strict uniform guidelines for the match and that any participant carrying one could be issued a yellow card, basically a warning of misconduct that may result in suspension.

Nonetheless, German gamers managed a protest of types by covering their mouths in a pre-match crew picture. And Hummel made a sponsorless, monochrome equipment for Danish gamers in protest of Qatar.

Some individuals who applaud these protests suppose that the predicament of garment employees behind the World Cup kits must be acknowledged, too.

“Whereas there has rightly been important protection of the circumstances dealing with migrant employees in Qatar, there was a whole absence of concentrate on the intense rights abuses of garment employees making World Cup kits,” mentioned Thulsi Narayanasamy, director of worldwide advocacy on the nonprofit Employee Rights Consortium. “The flexibility of employees to collectively stand collectively to make sure higher circumstances of their factories is a fundamental human proper.”

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Las Vegas' Mirage Resort to close after 34-year run. Volcano to go dormant

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Las Vegas' Mirage Resort to close after 34-year run. Volcano to go dormant

Once hailed as “Las Vegas’ first 21 Century resort,” The Mirage Hotel & Casino confirmed Wednesday that its iconic volcano outside of its front entrance is going dormant less than a quarter of a century into the new millennium.

Owner Hard Rock International announced the hotel will cease operations on July 17, with bookings being accepted until July 14. The iconic resort — sporting a jungle-fantasy theme —was perhaps best known for its exploding 54-foot man-made volcano, magicians Siegfried and Roy, and its white tigers and dolphins.

“We’d like to thank the Las Vegas community and team members for warmly welcoming Hard Rock after enjoying 34 years at The Mirage,” said Jim Allen, Chairman of Hard Rock International in a statement.

The resort is expected to be redeveloped into the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and Guitar Hotel Las Vegas, with the volcano giving way to a nearly 700-foot guitar-shaped hotel. The project is expected to open in spring 2027. A similar 638-room hotel stands in Hollywood, Fla.

The Associated Press reported that more than 3,000 employees will be laid off. Hard Rock acknowledged it would pay roughly $80 million in severance packages for union and nonunion labor.

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The Culinary and Bartenders Union accounts for about 1,700 Mirage workers. It announced Wednesday that its workers have two options.

The first was a severance package of $2,000 for every year of service plus six months of pension and health benefits. The second option gives employees a lesser, undisclosed amount while maintaining seniority rights for the duration of the property’s closure along with 36 months of recall rights for jobs at the new hotel.

“Culinary Union members at The Mirage have a strong union contract, ensuring that workers are protected, even as the property closes its doors entirely for three years from July 2024 – May 2027,” said Ted Pappageorge, Culinary Union secretary-treasurer, in a statement Wednesday.

The new hotel is projected to employ nearly 7,000 employees, according to Hard Rock management, while 2,500 construction jobs are expected during the rebuilding process.

Hard Rock said that all reservations beyond July 14 would be canceled and that guests should contact the guest services department or booking agency for a refund.

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The Mirage’s closure is the second on the strip this year.

In April, the 66-year-old Tropicana closed its doors to make way for a 30,000-seat stadium that is expected to serve as the home of the Oakland A’s.

The Mirage’s opening by casino tycoon Stephen A. Wynn in 1989 was hailed as the ushering of a new era of resorts. It was the first strip hotel to open since the MGM Grand in 1973.

Wynn shelled out $600 million, then the most expensive casino project, for the sprawling 103-acre property.

The Mirage was the first fully integrated hotel, according to Alan Feldman, a Distinguished Fellow at UNLV’s International Gaming Institute.

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Integration meant operating and treating all facets of the resort, including casino, food and beverage, retail, entertainment and convention space, with equal importance, according to Feldman, who rose to become an executive with the Mirage and stayed from 1989 to 2019.

Feldman said hotel owners previously cared first about the casino and “everything else was last.”

“They gave away entertainment, food and rooms as long as someone came and played,” said Feldman. “The Mirage was the first to believe you could actually make money in these areas if you invested enough.”

Its glistening 30-story white-and-gold towers were said to make neighboring Caesars Palace look “retiring by comparison.” Traffic occasionally backed up on the strip as engineers tested gas-flared flames 40 feet into the air every few minutes.

“People just got out of the cars and went over to see what was going on,” one limousine driver said at the time.

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The hotel included a 20,000-gallon fish tank at its reception desk and 3,049 rooms.

Its animals — and its white tiger habitat — brought the resort fame and infamy, including in 2003 when a tiger critically injured magician Roy Horn.

The Mirage’s opening kicked off a resort building and remodeling spree that included the debut of the Circus Circus’ Excalibur in June 1990, the $250-million renovation of Caesars Palace and the opening of Treasure Island in 1994.

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Sony warns tech companies: Don't use our music to train your AI

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Sony warns tech companies: Don't use our music to train your AI

Sony Music Group is sending letters to 700 artificial intelligence developers and music streaming services warning them to not use its artists’ music to train generative AI tools without its permission.

The company — one of the three largest recorded music firms — said it is explicitly opting out of the use of its music for training or developing AI models through text or data mining or web scraping as it relates to lyrics, audio recordings, artwork, musical compositions and images. Sony Music Group artists include Celine Dion, Doja Cat and Harry Styles.

“We support artists and songwriters taking the lead in embracing new technologies in support of their art,” Sony Music Group said in a statement on its website Thursday. “Evolutions in technology have frequently shifted the course of creative industries. … However, that innovation must ensure that songwriters’ and recording artists’ rights, including copyrights, are respected.”

The letters were sent to companies including San Francisco-based ChatGPT creator OpenAI and Mountain View-based search giant Google, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly. OpenAI and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The move comes as the entertainment industry is grappling with rapid innovations in artificial intelligence technology. Writers and actors raised concerns last summer about whether leaving AI unchecked could threaten their livelihoods. Meanwhile, some creatives have marveled at the advancements that could allow them to pursue bold ideas with tight budgets.

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This year, OpenAI unveiled its text-to-video tool Sora, which was used to create a four-minute music video for music artist Washed Out. The director of the video told The Times that Sora helped him depict multiple locations and visual effects that he otherwise couldn’t have.

But AI can also create chaos. Celebrities have dealt with “deep fakes” — false videos or audio depicting a celebrity endorsing certain brands or activities. To help protect their clients against unauthorized use of their voice and likeness, Century City-based Creative Artists Agency is helping talent create their own digital doubles.

On Thursday, two New York voice-over actors sued Berkeley-based AI voice generator business Lovo for unauthorized use of their voices. Lovo did not immediately return a request for comment. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Some people in the entertainment industry have said they would like the AI companies to be more transparent about how they are training their tools and whether they have the appropriate copyright permissions.

OpenAI has said its large language models, including those that power ChatGPT, are developed through information available publicly on the internet, material acquired through licenses with third parties and information its users and “human trainers” provide.

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The company said in a blog post that it believes training AI models on publicly available materials on the internet is “fair use.”

But some media outlets, including the New York Times, have sued OpenAI. The newspaper raised alarms about how its stories are being used by the tech company.

In Sony Music Group’s letters to AI businesses, the company said it has reason to believe its content may have been used to train, develop or commercialize artificial intelligence systems without its permission, according to a copy obtained by the Times. Sony Music Group asked the tech companies to provide information regarding that use and why it was necessary.

Sony Music Group, owned by Tokyo-based electronics giant Sony Corp., also wants music streaming providers to add language in its terms of service saying that third parties are not allowed to mine and train using Sony Music Group content, the person familiar with the matter said.

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A woman was dragged by a self-driving Cruise taxi in San Francisco. The company is paying her millions

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A woman was dragged by a self-driving Cruise taxi in San Francisco. The company is paying her millions

General Motors’ autonomous car company, Cruise, has reportedly agreed to pay an $8-million to $12-million settlement to a woman who was hospitalized after getting dragged along the pavement by a self-driving taxi in San Francisco last year.

The woman, a pedestrian, was struck by a hit-and-run vehicle at 5th and Market streets and thrown into the path of Cruise’s self-driving car, which pinned her underneath, according to Cruise and authorities. The car dragged her about 20 feet as it tried to pull out of the roadway before coming to a stop.

She sustained “multiple traumatic injuries” and was treated at the scene before being hospitalized.

It’s unclear when the settlement was reached or the exact amount, sources familiar with the situation told Fortune and Bloomberg. The condition of the woman, whose name was not released by authorities, is unknown, but a representative of Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital told Fortune that she had been discharged.

Cruise initially said that its self-driving car “braked aggressively to minimize impact” but later said the vehicle’s software made a mistake in registering where it hit the woman. The car tried to pull over but continued driving 7 mph for 20 feet with the woman still under the vehicle.

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“The hearts of all Cruise employees continue to be with the pedestrian, and we hope for her continued recovery,” Cruise said in a statement.

Cruise halted its driverless operations after its autonomous taxi license was suspended by California’s Department of Motor Vehicles. The company was also accused of lying to investigators and withholding footage of the car crash.

Cruise said this week that it would start testing robotaxis in Arizona with a “safety driver” behind the wheel in case a human needs to take control of the vehicle, according to a company news release.

“Safety is the defining principle for everything we do and continues to guide our progress towards resuming driverless operations,” according to the release.

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