Month: May 2020

Amazon’s runaway success during the coronavirus pandemic has brought the firm’s valuation to new heights, but there is likely to be a price to pay: tougher scrutiny from regulators.

Of all the big Silicon Valley tech companies, Amazon has fared among the best during the crisis as it continued to supply goods to millions of locked-down consumers around the world. While profits slipped to $2.5 billion in the latest quarter, the firm’s share price has boomed, bringing its market valuation to about $1.17 trillion, or just shy of the size of the entire Spanish economy.

But even as Amazon has thrived, hiring 175,000 workers as millions lost their jobs in the wider economy, it has struggled in PR terms. Anger over safety conditions in warehouses, a fight with the French court system, and the public resignation — accompanied by a public letter — of a senior Amazon Web Services executive have kept the company in a downbeat news cycle, even as other web giants used the crisis to try to burnish their public image.

“Amazon still has the opportunity to lead, but people will remember how they treated workers after the pandemic is over,” said Emily Cunningham, a former Amazon user experience designer who was among the employees fired in April. 

The next shoe to drop for Amazon is likely to be tougher oversight. Beyond the battles with unions, what the crisis has brought home on both sides of the Atlantic is Amazon’s crucial economic role — a realization that is set to help the case of lawmakers arguing the company has grown too powerful and should be subject to antitrust action.

Since the pandemic hit, U.S. lawmakers have demanded that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos testify on whether the company has misled Congress about rival data misuse. Italy’s competition authority launched a probe over coronavirus price-gouging and the New York attorney general launched an investigation after Amazon fired an activist worker.

While more than half of Amazon’s earnings come from AWS, its cloud services, it’s the firm’s online marketplaces that are currently receiving the most-focused attention.

In Brussels, the European Commission has a competition probe open against Amazon. Legislators are also examining new rules and responsibilities for online marketplaces including Amazon, marking a shift away from their previous almost exclusive focus on social media. The EU’s upcoming Digital Services Act, a package of legislation for platforms, could target not only Google, Facebook and Twitter, but also Amazon.

“On Place Flagey [in Brussels], products are safe, authorities are on top of things. That will also have to be the rules of the game when we do e-commerce,” Commission Executive Vice President for Digital Margrethe Vestager told the European Parliament on May 4, referring to one of the EU capital’s most famous marketplaces. “That’s the ultimate goal of the Digital Services Act.”

‘Business as usual’

In response to questions from POLITICO, an Amazon spokesperson said the firm expected to come under scrutiny as a result of its success.

“We understand that with success comes scrutiny, and our job is to build a company that passes that scrutiny with flying colors. We face intense competition in every segment in which we operate, and we love that competition because it makes us serve customers better,” the spokesperson said.

Analysts suggested that Amazon had been slower than other tech giants to gauge the public mood.

“They have been doing a lot of ‘Amazon business-as-usual’ things,” said Margaret O’Mara, a Silicon Valley historian and history professor at the University of Washington. “They have to realize that the environment has changed. It will be important for Amazon not to be a villain.”

One sore spot for Amazon has been conditions at its warehouses, or “fulfillment centers,” and conflicts with unions. In France, where Amazon runs six warehouses, a lawsuit brought by unions led to a court defeat for the company, which shuttered all of its France-based operations until at least May 13. The e-commerce giant said Thursday it was taking the case to the French supreme court.

In turn, the union battles have brought more attention onto the way Amazon interacts with employees who criticize the firm. In a public letter posted this week, a former vice president of Amazon Web Services, Tim Bray, criticized what he said was “a vein of toxicity running through the company culture,” after Amazon fired two employee climate activists and a worker who raised concern about the safety conditions in warehouses. Amazon said the fired workers had violated internal company policies and declined to comment on the VP’s resignation.

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“Part of what has made Amazon great as a company is the fact that they’re so analytical, data-driven and frugal,” said eMarketer’s Andrew Lipsman. “Sometimes they have a tendency to drive too hard on those dimensions and not see the bigger picture that there are a lot of constituencies that need to be accounted for.”

The crisis has sped up unionizing efforts, which increasingly are linked beyond borders — via groups such as the Amazon Employees for Climate Justice and, since 2015, Amazon Workers International.

Maria Malinowska, who works as a packer in Amazon’s fulfillment center in Poznan, Poland, said that the pandemic allowed unions to “make international demands.” 

“Amazon makes decisions on a global level, so it is very important for us to organize at an international level,” she added.

In response to the criticism, Amazon has insisted that its warehouses are safe. It has set aside more than $800 million for coronavirus-related safety measures including masks, hand sanitizer and thermal cameras, and Bezos told shareholders in late April the company would earmark $4 billion in expected profits in the next quarter for COVID-19 expenses, including to buy personal protective equipment.

Antitrust flame rekindled

Whether Amazon’s image issues will have an impact on its business remains to be seen. “There is a paradox between what people might think of Amazon and their [shopping] behavior,” said Vincent Mayet, general director at public relations firm Havas Paris and author of a book on the company.

But the more powerful Amazon grows, the greater the regulatory scrutiny.

A recent Wall Street Journal report about Amazon’s alleged misuse of seller data to launch competing products has renewed calls in Washington for antitrust action. (The company said such practices are not allowed and that it had launched an internal investigation.)

In Brussels, the European Commission is drafting new competition rules in the Digital Services Act package that would apply to platforms acting as “gatekeepers” for the online world and could target Amazon.

“We were already looking at Amazon before the crisis. But when entering into a financial and economic crisis, as will be the case as a consequence of the coronavirus, it’s even more important to create fair rules in the [European] internal market,” said Christel Schaldemose, a Danish member of the European Parliament who co-drafted last year legislation on the relations between platforms such as Amazon and their business users. 

Others want to go further — by classifying platforms including Amazon as utilities. Barry Lynn, director of the Open Markets Institute, a U.S. think tank critical of Big Tech, argues that Amazon has become an essential service to some.

“Treating [Amazon] as a utility doesn’t mean to nationalize [the company] but it means putting certain constraints on it,” Lynn said. “And the most important constraint is that the corporation treats every single seller and every single buyer the same and never discriminates against the services or the pricing it provides.”

In recent years, a new guard of scholars including Lina Khan of Columbia University have warned regulators about the so-called Amazon antitrust paradox: the fact that Amazon makes customers happy with low prices does not mean the company’s behavior cannot be anti-competitive. Regulators should think about the long term, Khan argued, to avoid a “winner takes all” effect in the future. 

Asked whether Amazon had become an essential service, a spokesperson for the company said, “In the unprecedented situation we face, we believe we have an important role to play to support our customers with products and services, at a time when they need it most.” 

All eyes on online marketplaces

To be sure, Amazon has racked up a few important wins from regulation in the past few months. The U.K. competition authority approved a massive investment in the food-delivery platform Deliveroo, a deal that looked doomed before the pandemic.

But overall policymakers in Brussels — who until the start of the year were largely concentrated on platform issues such as illegal content and hate speech — have turned their attention also to online marketplaces and how they can be vectors for unsafe products.

In this area too, the pandemic has accelerated scrutiny. “We have seen several examples during the coronavirus that have created more focus on consumer products,” said Schaldemose.

A recent decision by the U.S. government to flag Amazon’s foreign websites in Germany and France as “notorious markets” for counterfeit foreign goods could also give fresh ammunition to brands, which have argued in Brussels for years that more should be done to fight counterfeit products online.

Amazon has responded to Washington’s move by calling it “purely political.”

The company has replied to the Commission’s call to take proactive measures to address and prevent scams and unfair practices and said in late March it had “suppressed millions of product listings across our EU stores for misleading COVID-19 claims.”

According to Monique Goyens, the European Consumer Organization’s director general, the pandemic has shown that if they want, platforms can step up.

“But we cannot just rely on goodwill: We need to have the possibility of sanctions if something goes wrong,” she said.

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MONTREAL — A Cargill meat-processing plant south of Montreal announced it is closing its doors after at least 64 workers tested positive for COVID-19, even as schools across much of Quebec prepared to open theirs to students on Monday.

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The outbreak in Chambly, Que. marks the second time the company has experienced a COVID-19 closure at one of its facilities in Canada.

A spokeswoman for the union representing the workers said the Cargill plant will close temporarily as of Wednesday so all its workers can be tested.

Roxane Larouche said 171 workers were sent home last week as a preventative measure, and 30 of them have tested negative. The testing is expected to last until Friday, and the plant will reopen once there are enough uninfected employees to run it safely.

Cargill said the 64 workers represent 13 per cent of the workforce at the plant. The company said three employees have recovered.

“Because the health and safety of Cargill employees remains our priority, we’ve decided to close our protein production factory in Chambly,” the company said, adding that it would continue to pay workers during the stoppage.

“Cargill is working in close collaboration with local health authorities and the union to test our employees as quickly as possible.”

The workplace had implemented safety measures for employees, including installing plexiglass between workers where possible, staggering arrival and departure times and providing masks, visors and safety glasses, Larouche confirmed.

A Cargill beef-packing plant in High River, Alta., reopened last Monday after a two-week shutdown.

More than 900 of 2,000 workers at that plant have tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

In a statement, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada said public health authorities and food inspectors were working with plant owners to ensure the safety of both workers and the food supply.

It noted the federal government had committed $77.5 million in funding to help processors carry out safety retrofits and purchase protective equipment, as well as $20 million for food safety inspectors.

“We fully recognize the health concerns of workers in certain meat plants,” the statement read.

“As with all essential workers, proper measures must be in place, if workers can continue to provide essential services to Canadians during these critical times.”

Meanwhile, some of Quebec’s children are preparing to return to class on Monday as the province moves ahead with a plan to reopen elementary schools and daycares outside the Montreal area.

Students will be subject to physical distancing, frequent handwashing and carefully co-ordinated school days spent in large part at their desks while school officials keep up with cleaning, disinfection and following public health guidelines.

Attendance isn’t mandatory, and two school boards told The Canadian Press that most of their students were staying home for now.

The province allowed most retail stores outside Montreal to open May 11, but pushed back the opening date for schools and other businesses in the hard-hit metropolis to May 25 as case numbers remained high.

As of Sunday morning, there were 67,996 COVID-19 cases, including 4,728 deaths, according to Canada’s top public health doctor, Dr. Theresa Tam. Some 47 per cent of cases have recovered, she said in a statement.

Half of total cases are in Quebec

Over half of the country’s cases are in Quebec, which registered 142 new deaths on Sunday for a total of 2,928, as well as a caseload of over 37,700. 

Other provinces are also taking small steps to reopen, albeit at a slower pace than the hardest-hit province.

Ontario allowed hardware stores and safety supply stores to reopen this weekend, while non-essential retail stores will be allowed to offer curbside pickup this week.

The province reported 35 more deaths related to the novel coronavirus and 294 more cases, which represents the lowest rate of growth since March, even as the province was dealing with another COVID-19 outbreak at Toronto Western Hospital.

The University Health Network said the new outbreak is on the hospital’s 9A Fell unit, which had previously been declared one of its “COVID negative units.”

The organization didn’t reveal how many cases are part of the new outbreak, but said that across its network, 83 staff members have tested positive for the virus from January to May 4.

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Alberta is also planning to allow some retail stores to open this week, while New Brunswick’s stores, offices, restaurants, libraries, museums and campgrounds started reopening Friday — but only if they could show they had a plan to meet guidelines for physical distancing, hand hygiene and allowing staff to remain home when ill.

Saskatchewan and Manitoba began to gradually reopen last week, while British Columbia is phasing in the reopening of its economy with certain health services, retail outlets, restaurants, salons and museums resuming some operations in mid-May.

In Prince Edward Island, there was some good news as the province’s chief health officer announced Friday that some physical distancing restrictions would be lifted, including an allowance for Mother’s Day hugs.

 This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 10, 2020.

With files from Helen Moka in Montreal

BRENTWOOD, NY – Evelyn Rodriguez, the mother of a teen who authorities say was murdered by MS-13 gang members in 2016, died Friday after being struck by an SUV while at a memorial service for her daughter in Brentwood.

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According to Suffolk Police, Rodriguez was involved in a dispute on Ray Court, near Stahley Street, with the driver of a 2016 Nissan Rouge regarding the placement of a memorial dedicated to Rodriguez’s daughter, 16-year-old Kayla Cuevas, and 15-year-old Nisa Mickens, who were murdered near the location on Sept. 13, 2016. During the dispute, the driver, who is a relative of a resident of Ray Court, attempted to leave the scene and her SUV struck Rodriguez, police said.

Rodriguez, of Brentwood, was transported to Southside Hospital in Bay Shore where she was pronounced dead. The driver, who remained at the scene and called 911, was not injured.

In video footage aired by News 12, Rodriguez and an unidentified man can be seen confronting a woman in a white SUV seconds before the SUV strikes Rodriguez.

“Evelyn Rodriguez has passed away,” Rep. Peter King, who was on his way to the memorial when Rodriguez was struck, wrote on Twitter at 5:34 p.m. “Terrible news. RIP.”

No criminal charges have been filed, but Homicide Squad detectives are investigating, police said.

Rodriguez attended President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address last January.

“”I’m not here for anybody’s political gain,” she told the New York Times. “I just want what’s right to be done. Everybody should put their political agenda aside and think about what’s going on in our country.”

In a tweet Friday night, Trump wrote, “My thoughts and prayers are with Evelyn Rodriguez this evening, along with her family and friends. #RIPEvelyn”

Rep. Lee Zeldin called Rodriguez’s death a “terribly shocking loss of a national voice and powerful advocate.”

“Evelyn was filled with tremendous strength, passion and commitment to combating a brutal gang here on Long Island and nationally,” Zeldin said in the post on his Facebook page.

Suffolk County District Attorney Tim Sini said Rodriguez was able to turn the tragedy of losing her daughter into a mission for good.

“She harvested her grief and used it as a catalyst for positive change on behalf of her community and on behalf of this country,” Sini said. “She was a fierce advocate for her hometown of Brentwood and was fearless in her fight to put an end to the violence caused by MS-13 to ensure that other parents never have to endure the pain she suffered.”

Main photo of Evelyn Rodriguez provided by the White House

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA – SpaceX announced Monday that the first moon tourist will be Japanese billionaire clothing retailer Yusaku Maezawa. Maezawa will be a passenger on a planned private trip around the moon on a spacecraft designed by the Hawthorne-based aerospace company.

Although the trip won’t include an actual landing on the lunar surface, Maezawa will be the first to travel to the moon since 1972. SpaceX officials announced last week that it had reached an agreement to send a private citizen on a voyage around the moon.

But the name of the passenger wasn’t announced until Monday night, during a webcast announcement from SpaceX’s Hawthorne facility.

“I choose to go to the moon,” Maezawa told the cheering crowd after he was introduced by SpaceX founder Elon Musk. “Ever since I was a kid, I have loved the moon,” he said. “Just staring at the moon filled my imagination. … That is why I could not pass up this opportunity to see the moon up close, and at the same time, I did not want to have such a fantastic experience by myself.”

Maezawa said he plans to invite six to eight artists to go on the trip with him.

“These artists will be asked to create something after they return to Earth,” he said.

He said he hasn’t yet decided which artists he plans to invite, but he joked, “if you should hear from me, please say yes and accept my invitation.”

The trip is tentative set to occur in 2023. The amount that Maezawa paid for the trip was not disclosed.

In February 2017, SpaceX announced that two “private citizens” had “paid a significant deposit” for a trip around the moon. It’s unclear if Maezawa was one of those people.

SpaceX noted in its announcement last week that “only 24 humans have been to the moon in history. No one has visited since the last Apollo mission in 1972.”

The company is still developing the BFR rocket, which will power the mission. The BFR will be the successor to SpaceX’s oft-used Falcon 9 rocket and its upgraded version, the Falcon Heavy. The BFR (Big Falcon Rocket) is being developed in a SpaceX facility at the Port of Los Angeles. Musk has said previously he hoped the rocket would be ready for a trip to Mars by 2022.

The moon travelers will be carried around the moon in a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, which is also still in development. It is scheduled for an unmanned demonstration launch in November. The first manned flight is expected in April 2019 – a demonstration flight carrying two NASA astronauts. Following those demonstrations, the Crew Dragon is expected to be used to carry two more NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.

During Monday night’s announcement, Musk said the whole purpose of SpaceX is to “help advance rocket technology to the point where we could potentially become a multi-planet species,” and to “extend life beyond Earth and do so as quickly as we can.”

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Maezawa, 42, built his fortune first through a mail-order album business called Start Monday. He also began selling clothing online and established the site Zozotown, the largest of its type in Japan. Forbes has ranked him as the 14th richest person in Japan with a net worth of about $3.6 billion.

City News Service and Patch staffer Emily Holland contributed to this post; Image via Shutterstock

TAPPAN, NY — A Hudson Valley man is accused of building a massive bomb in his basement in order to detonate it on Election Day in Washington DC. According to the FBI, Paul Rosenfeld planned to detonate a large explosive to kill himself and draw attention to his radical political beliefs.

“As alleged, Paul M. Rosenfeld concocted a twisted plan to draw attention to his political ideology by killing himself on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.—risking harm to many others in the process,” Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York said in announcing the Tappan resident’s arrest. “Rosenfeld’s alleged plan for an Election Day detonation cut against our democratic principles. Thanks to outstanding coordination between local and federal law enforcement, Rosenfeld’s alleged plot was thwarted and he is now in federal custody.”

Agents learned about letters and text messages Rosenfeld had sent about buying black powder and building a bomb to detonate in the nation’s capital on Election Day. (Get real time Pearl River Patch news alerts free.)

His reason for these acts was to draw attention to his political belief in “sortition,” a political theory that advocates the random selection of government officials, they allege.

They stopped him in a car on Tuesday, and in the course of interviewing him learned about the bomb in his basement in Tappan. Armed with a search warrant they searched the house and found a 200-pound explosive device.

He had apparently been practicing with smaller explosives, and done test detonations prosecutors allege.

He ordered large quantities of black powder—an explosive substance—over the Internet, which he transported from a location in New Jersey to his home in Tappan. Prosecutors said Rosenfeld stated, among other things, that he used about eight pounds of black powder to construct a large explosive device in the basement, and that he installed certain components in the explosive device to ensure that he was killed in the blast.

FBI bomb technicians removed the bomb from the basement and transported it to a safe location. Within the home, law enforcement agents also found, among other things, a fusing system for triggering explosive devices and what appeared to be empty canisters of black powder, prosecutors said.

“As alleged in the complaint, had he been successful, Rosenfeld’s alleged plot could have claimed the lives of innocent bystanders and caused untold destruction,” Assistant Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney Jr. said. “Fortunately, his plans were thwarted by the quick action of a concerned citizen and the diligent work of a host of our law enforcement partners and the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.”

Rosenfeld, 56, has been charged with one count of unlawfully manufacturing a destructive device, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, and one count of interstate transportation and receipt of an explosive, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. The maximum potential sentences in this case are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the judge.

He was presented before U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul E. Davison in White Plains federal court Wednesday afternoon.

Berman and Sweeney thanked the Orangetown Police Department, the Rockland County Sheriff’s Office, the Rockland County District Attorney, the New York State Police, the New York City Police Department, and the Stony Point Police Department.

This prosecution is being handled by the Office’s Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit. Assistant United States Attorney Michael K. Krouse is in charge of the prosecution.

The charges contained in the complaint are merely accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

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La France note un début de circulation active du virus de la grippe A/H1N1 sur le territoire. On compterait en France près de 800 cas, le 22 juillet. Des chiffres qui ont poussé les autorités sanitaires à mettre la médecine ambulatoire en première ligne face à l’épidémie. Face à des symptômes grippaux, le médecin traitant devient votre premier interlocuteur.

Selon le pointage du Dr Françoise Weber, directrice de l’Institut de Veille Sanitaire lors du point presse du 22 juillet 2009, il y aurait en France une circulation active mais limitée du virus avec au total : – 483 cas confirmés en France métropolitaine et 102 dans les DOM-TOM auxquels il convient d’ajouter 207 cas probables (la recherche du virus n’étant pas systématique), soit au total : 793 cas (dont 586 confirmés). Dans l’Union Européenne, on compterait le 22 juillet 17 189 cas, dont 29 décès au Royaume-Uni et 4 en Espagne ; – 37 épisodes de cas groupés (dont 23 sans lien avec des cas importés) ; – 19 hospitalisations dont 3 en soins intensifs.Ces chiffres témoignent ainsi d’un virus ayant une forte capacité de transmission mais une virulence modérée. Selon la Ministre de la santé, un passage au niveau d’alerte 6 pourrait intervenir à la rentrée (ou plus tôt si l’on constate une accélération de l’épidémie durant le mois d’août). Néanmoins, le dispositif change dès aujourd’hui avec un nouveau protocole.
Depuis le 23 juillet, les patients devront s’adresser à leur médecin de famille, alors que jusqu’à présent il était recommandé d’appeler le 15. Le médecin traitant décidera ensuite du type de traitement à privilégier (antiviraux ou non), et de l’orientation éventuelle vers l’hôpital pour les patients les plus inquiétants. Les pharmacies ont normalement été approvisionnées en Tamiflu ® et en masques chirurgicaux. Ces masques seront délivrés gratuitement sur ordonnance.
Découvrez dès demain sur Doctissimo l’essentiel sur ce nouveau protocole.
Source : Conférence de presse du Ministère de la santé, 22 juillet 2009
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Les enfants qui consomment du lait et ses dérivés régulièrement depuis l’enfance vivent plus longtemps. c’est en tout cas ce qu’observe une étude britannique menée depuis plus de… 70 ans auprès de 4374 personnes, suivies entre 1937 et 2005.

Entre 1937 et 1939, des chercheurs ont analysé le comportement alimentaire sur 7 jours de 4 999 enfants vivant en Angleterre et en Ecosse. Les chercheurs ont ensuite observé les évolutions de la santé de 4374 d’entre eux entre 1948 et 2005, avec une attention particulière sur les causes de décès.
Après plus de 70 ans d’observation, les auteurs ont donc pu constater que l’espérance de vie globale des enfants qui avaient consommé beaucoup de produits laitiers était en moyenne plus élevée que ceux qui en consommaient moins, ou pas du tout. Ces enfants ont également fait, une fois devenus adultes, moins d’accidents vasculaires cérébraux. Par contre il n’y a pas de différence pour les infarctus.
Même si cette étude demande confirmation (en moins de 70 ans si possible…), c’est un encouragement à faire déguster sans scrupule des yaourts, fromages et boissons lactées à nos chérubins… Par contre, à l’âge adulte, les acides gras saturés et le cholestérol de ces produits sont plutôt à consommer avec modération…Source : Childhood dairy and calcium intake and cardiovascular mortality in adulthood: 65-y follow-up of the Boyd Orr cohort, Jolieke van der Pols et coll. Heart. Published Online First: 29 July 2009
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Décidément, Geneviève de Fontenay a de plus en plus de mal avec ses Miss. Dernière péripéties en date : la dame au chapeau vient d’être assignée en justice pour “injure publique“, par Luce Auger, Miss France 61. Elle comparaîtra le 1er septembre.Ce que l’ancienne Miss reproche à Mme de Fontenay ? Dans une interview accordée à Télé Cable Sat Hebdo, du 28 février 2009, la chaperonne des Miss avait insulté Luce Auger parce que cette dernière avait pris la défense de Valérie Bègue. On se souvient que Geneviève n’avait pas du tout apprécié les photos faites par Valérie Bègue (Miss France 2008) avant d’être élue.Ce n’est pas la première fois que la présidente du Comité Miss France s’en prend à Luce Auger. Déjà en 2008, l’ancienne miss avait porté plainte pour des injures proférées par la dame au chapeau dans un quotidien suisse. L’affaire avait été rejetée par le tribunal de Marseille pour incompétence de territoire. Cette fois-ci, Geneviève de Fontenay devrait bien être jugée.© LYDIE/SIPASource : Elle.fr, 20 août 2008Click Here: NRL Telstra Premiership

Depuis la fermeture progressive des routes orientale (Turquie-Grèce) et centrale, via la Libye (ou la Tunisie) et l’Italie, le Maroc «a senti une forte pression migratoire» et a vu «les réseaux transférer leurs activités au niveau du nord» du pays, a déclaré le Wali (préfet) en charge de l’immigration et de la surveillance des frontières.

200 millions d’euros minimum  pour le seul littoral Nord  
Depuis le début de l’année, «on en est à plus de 80 réseaux démantelés, dont 23 pour le seul mois d’août», a-t-il précisé en affirmant que ce chiffre illustrait le «repositionnement géographique des passeurs» vers le nord du Maroc.
 
Selon lui, le Maroc est «le seul pays d’Afrique du Nord qui a un dispositif le long du littoral Nord», avec un contingent terrestre de plus de 13.000 hommes «équipés de moyens colossaux» entre Saïdia, à la frontière algérienne et Kenitra, au nord de Rabat.
 
Pour le seul littoral Nord, ce dispositif «représente un coût annuel qui avoisine les 200 millions d’euros minimum», auquel s’ajoutent les moyens déployés au sud du pays, au bord de l’Atlantique et le long de la frontière avec l’Algérie, a dit le haut responsable sans autres précisions.
 
«Nous avons l’expertise, nous avons la capacité de lutter, mais nous devons être assistés» face à «la nouvelle pression migratoire qui se profile sur la côte Nord», a-t-il dit en souhaitant «un véritable programme de coopération en matière de contrôle des frontières».
 
«Depuis une décennie, le Maroc a réussi à tarir les flux sur la route migratoire: on est passé de 2004 à mi-2015 à -93%», concernant les passages vers les côtes espagnoles, a-t-il insisté en soulignant que le pays avait «lutté seul avec ses propres moyens».

Depuis le début de l’année, l’Espagne est cependant redevenue la première porte d’entrée vers l’Europe, avec près de 38.000 arrivées par voie maritime et terrestre, selon l’Organisation internationale pour les migrations (OIM).
 
Jusqu’à présent, la grande majorité des migrants – soit subsahariens, soit marocains – arrivait par bateau, dans des embarcations de fortune ou des petits bateaux affrétés par les passeurs.
 
Signe de l’évolution des modes opératoires, le Maroc est depuis peu confronté au «phénomène» des go-fast pour le transport de migrants, alors que «ces puissants bateaux à moteurs étaient jusque là utilisés pour le trafic de drogue en Méditerranée», comme l’a dit M.Zerouali au cours de son entretien avec l’AFP.
 
La nouvelle stratégie des passeurs
La Marine royale marocaine a ouvert le feu le 25 septembre sur un go-fast piloté par un Espagnol qui a refusé de répondre aux sommations dans les eaux marocaines au large de M’diq-Fnideq (Nord). Une Marocaine de 22 ans, touchée par les tirs, a succombé à ses blessures à l’hôpital et trois autres migrants marocains ont été blessés, selon le bilan des autorités locales marocaines.
 
«Le crime transfrontalier est une logistique, c’est un crime qui ne se spécialise pas», a souligné le directeur de la migration à l’AFP en soulignant que la violence des derniers assauts lancés sur les barrières qui séparent les enclaves espagnoles de Ceuta et Mellila du Maroc relevait aussi d’une nouvelle stratégie des passeurs.
 
C’est en réponse à «l’agressivité» de cet assaut que les autorités marocaines ont lancé ces dernières semaines une vaste opération de déplacements de migrants vers le sud du pays, a précisé M.Zerouali.
 
Le Maroc a parallèlement développé ces dernières années une politique de régularisation des clandestins, avec environ 50.000 régularisations depuis 2014, a-t-il encore rappelé.
 
Sa politique de retour volontaire a par ailleurs permis de rapatrier entre 2.000 et 3.000 personnes depuis le début de l’année, avec également «quelques retours forcés pour des “éléments dangereux” qui sont escortés à la frontière», a-t-il dit sans autre précision.
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“L’aspirine, c’est bon pour le coeur“, pensent de nombreuses personnes. Alors pourquoi ne pas en prendre à titre préventif ? Parce qu’en fait, une prise quotidienne augmente significativement les risques d’hémorragies chez les personnes en bonne santé affirme une étude britannique.

L’étude intitulée “Aspirin for Asymptomatic Atherosclerosis (AAA)“ se fixait pour but d’évaluer l’efficacité de traitements préventifs avec aspirine, en comparaison avec un placebo, chez des personnes présentant des symptômes de maladies artérielles.
Pour cela, les chercheurs ont donné quotidiennement, durant 8 années, 100 mg d’aspirine (ou un placebo selon les groupes) à 3 350 hommes et femmes âgés de 50 à 70 ans. Les résultats entre les deux groupes montrent qu’il n’y a eu aucune différence en nombre d’attaques cardiaques et cérébrales, ou d’accidents cardiovasculaires. Néanmoins, les chercheurs ont constaté que des hémorragies majeures nécessitant une hospitalisation ont été constatées pour 2 % des personnes consommant de l’aspirine et seulement 1,2 % de celles prenant le placebo.
Conclusion : la prise quotidienne d’aspirine, à titre préventif, est vivement déconseillée chez les personnes en bonne santé car le rapport bénéfice/risque n’est pas nécessairement positif.
De manière générale, l’aspirine est un médicament comme les autres, il faut prendre certaines précautions et demander conseil à votre médecin en matière d’automédication, surtout si vous avez des problèmes chroniques de santé. Source : American College of Cardiology Foundation, étude AAA présentée à Barcelone en août 2009 lors du European Society of Cardiology Congress, 1er septembre 2009.Click Here: cd universidad catolica