General Motors now says striking workers will get company-paid health insurance, nine days after saying coverage would be cut off.

The company says in an email to the United Auto Workers union that it will keep benefits in place due to significant confusion among members. The letter says employee health and well-being are GM’s top priorities.

Workers howled and politicians criticized GM after the company said it would end benefits the day after the strike began Sept. 16.  

It’s standard procedure for health care costs to shift to the union in a strike. The United Auto Workers’ website says the union would pick up the cost of premiums.

The strike by about 49,000 factory workers has shut down production at more than 30 GM factories. Talks continued Thursday.

An immense mass of black smoke is rising over Normandy as firefighters battle a blaze Thursday at a chemical plant, and authorities closed schools in 11 surrounding towns and asked residents to stay indoors.

The fire poses a pollution risk for the nearby Seine River, the government’s top official for the region said Thursday, according to the French news service AFP.

“We’re still fighting the blaze, with the risk that pollution could spill into the Seine if retention ponds overflow,” Pierre-Andre Durand told journalists.

No injuries have been reported and French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said on RTL radio “there is no element that could lead us to believe that the smoke is dangerous.”

But authorities are taking precautionary measures and carrying out air quality tests as about 200 firefighters work to extinguish the fire.

The administration for the Seine-Maritime region urged people to avoid non-essential travel in the area after the fire alarm rang at the Lubrizol plant in Rouen early Thursday. The Interior Ministry tweeted that schools and nurseries in the area have been closed, and residents in nursing homes are being confined.

Images showed bursts of orange flames and the sounds of repeated explosions from the plant overnight. The site was still spewing huge plumes of black smoke midmorning, with bursts of flames still visible as sirens sounded over and over.

The cause of the fire is being investigated.

The plant produces additives for lubricants and paint, and pledges on its website “to lead all activities in full security for people and goods while preserving the natural environment.” The company didn’t comment on the fire.

It is among many industrial sites around Europe required to have additional security measures it handles dangerous substances.
 

The Federal Trade Commission is suing the parent company behind dating sites Match.com, Tinder, PlentyOfFish and OKCupid for fraudulently enticing people to subscribe to its service.

The FTC says Match Group allowed consumers who had created a profile for the sites but had not yet subscribed to receive emails expressing interest that Match Group knew were likely from fake accounts.

The emails told the reader that someone was interested in their profile and allowed them access to a link that led them to a subscription page.

“We believe that Match.com conned people into paying for subscriptions via messages the company knew were from scammers,” said Andrew Smith, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Nearly 500,000 people subscribed to Match.com after receiving fake messages between June 2016 and May 2018, the FTC complaint said.

It also accused the company of making it hard for consumers to cancel their subscriptions or dispute charges.

Match Group disputed the FTC’s charges.

“The FTC has misrepresented internal emails and relied on cherry-picked data to make outrageous claims,” the company said.

Commercial fisheries in seven U.S. states have suffered from catastrophic failures and disasters over the past two years, making them eligible for federal aid, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. 
 
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross blamed the problems in part on extreme flooding in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi from the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
Other fishing operations in Alaska, California, Georgia and South Carolina have also been affected by natural disasters and other conditions. 
 
“Fishing is the cornerstone of countless coastal economies and has been a way of life for generations of Americans,” Ross said. 
 
Ross said fisheries that have suffered since 2017 were eligible receive up to $165 million in federal relief. 

The U.S. Justice Department will open an antitrust investigation of Facebook Inc., a source familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

It will mark the fourth recent investigation of the social media company, which also faces probes by the Federal Trade Commission, a group of state attorneys general led by New York and the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee.

Reuters and others reported in June the agencies had divided up the companies being investigated, with Justice taking Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Apple Inc., while the FTC looked at Facebook and Amazon.com Inc.

The Justice Department later said it was opening a probe of online platforms without saying which ones. This led some industry observers to question whether the two federal investigations would overlap.

Lawmakers, in particular Sen. Mike Lee, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel, criticized the appearance of an overlap in a hearing last week.

The agencies generally have a practice of meeting to decide who will investigate which matter but the FTC cannot probe certain matters, for example price-fixing.

China President Xi Jinping on Wednesday inaugurated Beijing’s second international airport, which boasts the world’s largest single-building terminal. 

Beijing Daxing International Airport (BCIA) opened for business just days ahead of the 70th anniversary of Communist rule in China on October 1.

At the start, only domestic flights will use the airport, but it will offer 112 international destinations by next spring.

The airport, shaped like a starfish, was built in less than five years at the cost of nearly $17 billion. 

Designed by British Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, it has four runways. There are plans to build as many as three additional runways in the future. 

Even though the airport’s main terminal is 1 million square meters, or the size of 100 soccer fields, officials say travelers will have to walk no more than 600 meters to reach even the farthest gate. 

China is forecast to overtake the United States as the world’s largest air travel market by 2022. In preparation, Daxing is designed to accommodate up to 72 million passengers a year, eventually reaching 100 million.

Currently, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta (ATL) airport in Georgia is the world’s largest, with more than 107 million passengers per year. The existing Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK), the world’s second-busiest aviation hub, is at full capacity with 101 million passengers per year.

In Rwanda, there is an ongoing debate over the authenticity of poverty statistics. The government says poverty has dropped dramatically, but people who are destitute, and their advocates, are skeptical. Eugene Uwimana has more details from Rwanda.

President Trump took on globalism and Iran in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly. Plugged In with Greta Van Susteren is in New York to unpack the President’s speech. Joining Greta is VOA White House Bureau Chief Steve Herman, VOA UN Correspondent Margaret Besheer and Larry Brennan, a maritime law expert, who helps us navigate the dangerous currents in the Persian Gulf. Recorded September 25, 2019.

The United States is announcing new sanctions on Chinese entities for “knowingly transporting oil from Iran contrary to United States sanctions,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in New York on Wednesday.

The measures targeting five Chinese individuals and six entities, including two COSCO Shipping corporation Ltd. subsidiaries, are the latest move by the U.S. to intensify what it calls the maximum pressure campaign against Iran.

“We’re also imposing sanctions on the executive officers of those companies as well,” said Pompeo at a forum on the sidelines of United Nations General Assembly, adding “we will sanction every violation of sanctionable activity.”

The sanctions target COSCO Shipping Tanker (Dalian) Company and COSCO Shipping Tanker (Dalian) Seaman and Ship Management Company but do not apply to the parent company.

China Concord Petroleum Co., Kunlun Shipping Company Ltd., Kunlun Holding Company Ltd and Pegasus 88 Limited, are also targeted.

Last week, President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to “substantially increase” sanctions on Iran, following missile and drone strikes against the world’s largest crude-processing plant and oils field in Saudi Arabia. U.S. officials have accused Iran of carrying out the attacks. Tehran has denied the claim.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is fighting for his political survival following a ruling from Britain’s Supreme Court Tuesday that his decision to suspend Parliament earlier this month was unlawful. 

The ruling means British lawmakers will return to Parliament Wednesday, as calls grow for Johnson’s resignation. Britain is still due to leave the European Union Oct. 31, although that so-called  Brexit process has now been thrown into further doubt.

The 11 Supreme Court judges ruled unanimously against Johnson, a decision they described as “a judgment on the boundaries of government power.” 

“The decision to advise her majesty to prorogue Parliament was unlawful, because it had the effect of frustrating or preventing the ability of Parliament to carry out its constitutional functions without reasonable justification,” Brenda Hale, head of the Supreme Court, said Tuesday morning.

The Supreme Court’s decision that Johnson acted illegally in advising the queen to suspend Parliament is a political earthquake that has shaken the pillars of British democracy.

Meeting U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York Tuesday, Johnson remained defiant.

“We respect the judiciary in our country. We respect the court. I disagree profoundly with what they had to say. And frankly, I think we need to get on with Brexit,” Johnson said.

Trump offered words of support. 

“The results will start to show in November. But it looks to me like he is making great progress,” Trump told reporters in New York.

Johnson is due back in London on Wednesday. So are British lawmakers who will return to Parliament Wednesday morning, ready to resume battle with the government. 

Opposition party leaders have called for Johnson to step down.

“There’s been some suggestion Johnson should resign. He has lied to the queen, and could there be a greater offense of the prime minister than that? I don’t think he will resign. He doesn’t strike me as the resigning type. So, I think we are talking about a vote of no confidence, and I would be surprised if there wasn’t one in the coming weeks,” said David Henig, an analyst at the European Center for International Political Economy.

Such a vote of no confidence could force a general election, something that Johnson’s Conservatives also want.

 “The Conservatives are ahead in the polls. If they run a good campaign, there’s no reason why they couldn’t strengthen their position. And potentially many of the MPs on their own side who have caused problems in the last few years wouldn’t be around in the new Parliament,” said Henig.

Further court battles may lie ahead. Johnson says he will refuse to ask the EU for a Brexit extension, despite legislation mandating him to do so if they can’t agree to a deal. However, any backsliding on Brexit would likely see the Conservatives lose votes to Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party.

If nothing is done to improve food production and land use, the world may face unrest and conflict, according to a landmark report. The study by a coalition of universities and environmental organizations says current farming practices contribute to food shortages and global warming. One proposed solution is to rely more on insects as a food source.  Some farmers in Kenya are already doing that by raising crickets to sell as food.

At a farm in Kisumu, Kenya there’s bread that was baked with flour derived from crickets.

54-year-old Charles Odira a farmer. Odira rears the insects that usually are known for their chirping. He says he got the idea to raise them for food after visiting a farming fair in Thailand.

“When I went there and I saw how they were rearing crickets there. How it was helping the poor, the malnourished. How it was bringing income to the farmers. Then when I came back, I came back a cricket farmer,” Odira said.

Odira started with 50 crickets he trapped in the wild. Now a few years later, he has a colony of up to 300,000 insects. They live in pens and thrive on chicken feed and plant leftovers.

According to scientists at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Nairobi, or ICIPE, crickets are good for human consumption. Tanga Chrystantus is one of the scientists. He shows the trays in which the crickets mature and are studied.

“Crickets are very rich in proteins. Ranging from 60 to 65 per cent, which is superior to that of meat, which is usually between 25 to 30 per cent. Insect proteins are very good for lactating mothers as well as children under 5 years,” Chrysantus said.

Odira has built a network of 100 cricket farmers, but there is a threat. A bacterial infection nearly obliterated the colonies in the whole region, and farmers had to start again from scratch.  They are recovering with support of ICIPE.

The benefits of crickets farming prompted the Food and Land Usage Coalition to propose raising insects as a way to tackle food shortages. Scientists at ICIPE agree, with some conditions, says researcher Subramanian Sevan.

“The traditional food systems which were built on wild harvesting has to be enhanced and improved with the new mass rearing techniques with a better understanding of the safety of these insects. So that it can be taken by large communities,” Sevan said.

And because of less intensive farming methods, crickets help reduce global warming, according to the Food and Land Usage Coalition.

The crickets in Odira’s farm are eaten or end up in bread and cookies. Fred Odhiambo is a regular customer, and has various reasons for buying it.

“He says he loves this bread because it gives him more energy than normal bread. Also he believes it increases his potency for lovemaking,” Odhiambo said.

A former U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency officer who admitted he betrayed his country for financial gain was sentenced on Tuesday to 10 years in federal prison for attempted espionage on behalf of China, the U.S. Justice Department said.

Ron Rockwell Hansen, 60, of Syracuse, Utah, pleaded guilty in March to trying to pass classified U.S. national defense information to China, and admitted to receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars as an agent for the Beijing government.

FBI agents arrested Hansen in June 2018 as he was on his way to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to board a flight to China, the Justice Department said.

As part of his guilty plea, Hansen acknowledged soliciting U.S. national security information that he knew China would find valuable from a fellow Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) case officer, and agreeing to sell that information to the Chinese.

The documents he received from the DIA officer related to U.S. military readiness. Hansen also admitted to having advised the DIA case officer how to record and transmit the documents without detection, and how to hide and launder any funds received as payment for those secrets.

Unbeknownst to Hansen, the case officer reported his conduct to the DIA and acted as an FBI informant in the case.

Hansen, who is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and Russian, was hired by the DIA as a civilian case officer in 2006 following his retirement from the U.S. Army as a warrant officer with an intelligence background, according to court records.

Chinese intelligence agents recruited him in 2014, he admitted.

Hansen, who was sentenced by a federal judge in Salt Lake City, is one of three former American intelligence officers convicted in recent months on charges of espionage on behalf of China.

One of them, Kevin Patrick Mallory, a former CIA agent, was sentenced in May to 20 years in prison for conspiracy to transmit U.S. defense secrets to China. Another, former CIA officer Jerry Chun Shing Lee, pleaded guilty to charges of spying for China and is awaiting sentencing.

“These cases show the breadth of the Chinese government’s espionage efforts and the threat they pose to our national security,” Assistant Attorney General John Demurs said in a statement.

U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts, speaking at a New York synagogue on Tuesday night, lamented the perception that the Supreme Court is becoming politicized and that the justices’ decisions are guided primarily by their partisan affiliation.

Roberts’ concerns about the impression of the court comes during a highly-charged political moment when the judiciary is getting hit from all sides. President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized federal courts and judges who have blocked his policies, while some Democratic politicians have implied that the court’s conservative majority is motivated mainly by politics instead of interpreting the law.

“When you live in a polarized political environment, people tend to see everything in those terms. That’s not how we at the court function and the results in our cases do not suggest otherwise,” said Roberts before hundreds in attendance at the Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center in Manhattan.

Roberts in November rebuked Trump after the Republican president called a judge who ruled against his policy barring asylum for certain immigrants an “Obama judge.”

In August, a handful of Democratic senators filed a brief in a firearms case the justices had agreed to hear, suggesting the high court was too influenced by politics. “The Supreme Court is not well. And the people know it,” the brief said.

The nine-member court, which begins its next term on Oct. 7, has a 5-4 conservative majority.

Roberts, 64, a conservative appointed by Republican President George W. Bush in 2005, said the justices do not work in a political manner. “A lot of criticism is based on a misperception of the court,” he said.

Roberts pointed out that of the court’s 19 decisions last term that split 5-4, only seven rulings divided along ideological lines.

Roberts has emerged as the court’s ideological center since the retirement last year of conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy, who sometimes joined the liberal justices in major rulings, including over gay rights and abortion.

Last term, some liberal justices also publicly raised the alarm over the pace at which the conservative majority was overruling precedents, a fear shared by abortion rights advocates and Democratic politicians over whether the court may overrule Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.

On Tuesday, Roberts said the court must respect precedent.

There is “no reason to suppose that I and my eight colleagues are any better at discerning the meaning of the constitution than members of the courts that went before us,” he said.

Roberts also drew laughs and cheers from the crowd when, in a nod to liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s growing celebrity, he called her a “rock star.”

The Trump administration on Tuesday escalated its fight with California over environmental issues by threatening to withdraw billions of dollars in federal highway funds because of poor air quality in the state.

In a letter to California Air Resource Board chief Mary Nichols, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler said the state “has failed to carry out its most basic tasks under the Clean Air Act,” and not produced timely plans to meet targets for ambient air quality goals.

The EPA said California must withdraw inactive plans that would most likely be denied. If the EPA rejects a plan, it could trigger “highway funding sanctions, which could result in a prohibition on federal transportation projects and grants in certain parts of California,” Wheeler said.

California is set to receive just over $4 billion in federal highway funding in the budget year that starts Oct. 1.

Governor Gavin Newsom described the EPA’s position as a “threat of pure retaliation. While the White House tries to bully us and concoct new ways to make our air dirtier, California is defending our state’s clean air laws from President (Donald) Trump’s attacks.”

California has imposed strict state limits on vehicle emissions in defiance of Trump’s attempts to roll back regulations. Those tailpipe emissions are regulated separately from ambient air pollutants, but California argues the vehicle rules are essential to meeting those goals.

Tuesday’s move was the latest flashpoint in conflicts between the state and federal governments. The Trump administration this year withheld $929 million from California’s high-speed rail project awarded in 2010, prompting the state to sue.

The Justice Department has opened a probe into four automakers that struck a voluntary emissions deal with California. Trump has promised EPA action against San Francisco over its homelessness problem and attendant pollution.

EPA officials denied the letter was politically motivated.

They say California has the largest backlog of state implementation plans to address ambient air quality standards.

Last week, the EPA said it was taking the unprecedented step of revoking California’s ability to set tailpipe emissions standards and require zero emission vehicles.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, said the “threat to withhold California’s highway funding over clean air quality reports is the height of hypocrisy.”

Sierra Club Global Climate Policy Director John Coequyt said blocking the state’s tailpipe emissions limits will make it harder to improve air quality.

On Tuesday, the state of California filed its 29th environmental lawsuit against the Trump administration, challenging the EPA’s determination that 1,365 acres (552 hectares) of salt ponds in Redwood City are not “waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act.

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tries to lure Canadian voters with climate and tax-related policy changes ahead of a national election in October, the fallout of the blackface scandal continues to dog him, and some polls showed Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer taking the lead on Tuesday.

During a campaign stop on Tuesday in Burnaby, British Columbia, Trudeau pledged to halve the corporate tax paid by companies that develop zero-emissions technologies and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

“Years from now, I want to look my kids in the eyes and say we stepped up on climate change,” Trudeau said.

The Liberal leader has recently promised also to ban military-style assault weapons and to introduce a national prescription drug plan, in an attempt to get his campaign back on track as blackface photos of him from the past emerged last week and threatened his re-election bid.

While one poll suggests that strategy might be working, others showed the Conservatives taking the lead, with less than four weeks to go before the Oct. 21 vote.

The two leaders had been running neck-and-neck until Time magazine published a picture of Trudeau in dark makeup at a 2001 “Arabian Nights” party, when he was a 29-year-old teacher. Two other images and a video of him in blackface later emerged.

Now, Scheer is the clear front-runner with as much as a 5-percentage-point lead, according to three different polls conducted after the images were published and released between late Monday and early Tuesday.

“Right now, the election has become a referendum on Justin Trudeau,” Ipsos pollster Darrell Bricker said in an interview. “Is he trustworthy? Is he competent?”

Old blackface pictures of the prime minister have taken over the campaign narrative ahead of the vote and are “blotting out the sun,” Bricker said.

Conservatives would win 36% of the vote compared with 32% for the Liberals, the Ipsos poll for Global News showed, while the Angus Reid Institute puts Scheer’s party at 35% versus 30% for Trudeau’s Liberals. Ekos Politics has the Conservatives at 35.3% and Liberals at 32%.

On the flip side, the Nanos Research poll for CTV and the Globe and Mail, which is conducted daily, has the Liberals taking back the lead with 35.1% against 33.5% for the Conservatives after the policy announcements in recent days.

Trudeau made Tuesday’s announcement in B.C., on the west coast, where his party is battling against the Green Party for several seats and in the riding now held by left-wing New Democrat party leader Jagmeet Singh, who’s party has climbed in the polls since the blackface scandal.

It is also the province where his government is moving ahead with the expansion of the Trans Mountain oil pipeline, a project that could be considered anathema to fighting climate change.

Singh, who promoted his own climate plan in Manitoba, described Trudeau’s new climate policies as “pretty words, empty promises, but no action.”

“Instead of addressing climate change, the Liberals spent billions of taxpayer dollars buying an oil pipeline that will threaten our environment and violate Indigenous rights — and the Conservatives don’t believe we’re in a climate crisis at all,” Singh said.

Scheer criticized the lack of detail in Trudeau’s recent announcements.

“He is proposing plans with no details, he’s making up policy on the fly,” Scheer said at a campaign stop in Thorold, Ontario. “So excuse me if I don’t have any confidence in Justin Trudeau’s proposals.”

Speaking at Cracker Jack’s Bar and Grill, Scheer pledged a series of measures for small businesses if elected, including lower taxes.

Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry into U.S. President Donald Trump and allegations he sought a foreign government’s help into his 2020 re-election bid.

After months of caution, Speaker Pelosi became convinced that Trump’s reported actions, and his administration’s refusal to share details, left the House no alternative but to move forward with an inquiry.

The move has the potential to reshape his presidency and further divide the nation just a year before he plans to stand for re-election.

A recent wave of abductions in Nigeria is raising fear across the country.  Unlike kidnappings involving oil militants in the south or Boko Haram in the north, which often take on political dimensions, this crime wave spans through every region, and is driven largely by economic hardship, experts say.  The government is trying to address the problem by setting up an kidnapping response team. Timothy Obiezu has this report from Abuja

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday questioned a decision by his top trade negotiators to ask Chinese officials to delay a planned trip to U.S. farming regions after trade talks last week, saying he wanted China to buy more American farm products.

Trump, speaking alongside Mnuchin, questioned his Treasury chief about the request that the Chinese delay a trip to meet with U.S. farmers in Montana and Nebraska. Mnuchin had said the trip was delayed at the administration’s request to avoid confusion over the talks.

“Why was that our request, just out of curiosity?” Trump asked.

Mnuchin explained again that the U.S. side “didn’t want confusion around the trade issues.”

Trump then interjected: “Yeah, but I want them to buy farm products.”

“There was no confusion,” Mnuchin replied. “We want them to buy agriculture. They have committed to buy agriculture. And they’re doing that”

Trump added that China had “committed to buy a lot of agriculture” and the United States should ship the products as fast as possible.

The exchange came after Chicago grain traders said Chinese importers on Monday had bought about 10 boatloads of U.S. soybeans — around 600,000 tons — to be shipped from Pacific Northwest ports from October through December. News of the deals sent soybean futures prices higher.

Cancellation of the planned trip cast a pall over conclusion of two days of U.S.-China trade talks last week, sending U.S. stocks lower. People familiar with the talks said that there were no new substantive offers made, but both the U.S. and Chinese sides said the talks were productive, and that minister-level talks would take place in early October.

Mnuchin stressed that the Chinese purchases of U.S. agriculture were “good news” in an interview with Fox Business Network and downplayed any significance to the delay of the Chinese officials’ visit to U.S. farming regions.

“It’s a sign of good gesture that they are back at the table buying agriculture,” Mnuchin told Fox Business Network.

“We just decided the timing of the trip wasn’t necessarily the perfect timing, so they’ll be rescheduling that to after our trade meetings,” he added.

Mnuchin said in the television interview that trade talks with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer were set to resume in two weeks.

“It’s actually, I think, it’s not next week, but the following week we’ll be having those talks,” Mnuchin said.

Earlier on Monday, Mnuchin told reporters at the United Nations General Assembly that the trade talks would resume next week.

Mediterranean resort town Cannes, France’s fourth-biggest cruise ship port, will ban the most polluting cruise ships from next year in a bid to boost air quality in the city.

The ban will target ships that do not respect a 0.1% cap on sulphur in their fuel and could stop some passengers from disembarking in the city famous for its film festival.

“It’s not about being against cruise ships. It’s about being against pollution,” Cannes Mayor David Lisnard told Reuters Television in an interview.

Under the European Union’s clean air policy, the cap is already enforced in Baltic, North Sea and Channel ports and it may be extended to the Mediterranean.

Cruise ships run on fuel oil which contains about 2,000 times more sulphur oxide than ordinary diesel, according to German pollution analyst Axel Friedrich.

“We will no longer accept cruise ship passengers coming from polluting cruise ships,” Lisnard said.

The exponential growth of the cruise ship industry is often criticized by residents of tourist towns but it is also increasingly considered a threat to the environment.

Three months ago, Italy’s main conservation group said Venice should be put on the United Nations’ list of endangered cities and cruise ships should be banned from its fragile lagoon to prevent an ecological disaster.

According to figures from the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), the industry’s main trade association, 30 million passengers are expected to cruise on almost 300 ships this year, up from 17.8 million 10 years ago.

In July, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, which represents 40 percent of Cannes’ maritime traffic, signed a Cruise Charter agreement with the city of Cannes, promising to make its ships more environmentally friendly.