Latest news with #R644
The Citizen
21-07-2025
- Business
- The Citizen
Here's how much FlySafair pilots are earning as increase offer rejected
An increase of 5.7% offered by FlySafair was rejected by the majority of pilots as union Solidarity are demanding 10.5%. FlySafair have revealed how much their captains earn as the airline suffers scheduling disruptions due to a pilot strike. Wage negotiations stalled last week and the airline made public that their captains are among the nation's highest earners. Solidarity, the union representing the pilots, set the desired wage increase at 10.5% plus additional benefits, but FlySafair said the increase amounted to 'an unsustainable escalation'. Salaries in excess of R2m FlySafair on Sunday reiterated that it had tabled a 5.7% increase, accompanied by additional benefits and a bonus. The airline said that Solidarity's demands amounted to a 20% increase in the overall cost to the company, and that their current position takes into consideration the effect the increase would have on the airline's other 1 700 employees. FlySafair chief marketing officer Kirby Gordon said that the airline's pilots were already among the highest paid in the country. 'Our captains earn between R1.8 and R2.3 million annually. Many pilots earn more than members of FlySafair's executive committee,' Gordon said. The proposed increase in above inflation but the South African Revenue Service forces citizens earning over R1.81 million per annum to pay a fixed amount of R644 000 in tax plus 45% of taxable income over R1.81 million. Escalating dispute Solidarity deputy general secretary Helgard Cronje said last week that flight schedules were leaving pilots exhausted. Gordon responded by saying the International Air Transport Association and International Civil Aviation Organization capped flight duty at 100 hours per month. 'In terms of workload, FlySafair captains spent an average of 63 hours last month in the cockpit flying passengers,' said Gordon. Solidarity initially issued a notice to strike for just one day, but the airline retaliated with a seven-day lockout notice. In turn, Solidarity dug their heals in and issued a notice to double the airline's lockout with a 14-day strike. 'Solidarity's one-day notice was aimed at forcing the company back to the negotiating table, but FlySafair has now escalated the dispute, which could last for weeks,' Cronje added. NOW READ: FlySafair pilots down tools, travellers warned of delays and cancellations
IOL News
17-07-2025
- IOL News
AI-powered 'nudify' apps are driving a deadly wave of digital blackmail, and children are particularly at risk
AI tools that digitally strip off clothing or generate sexualised imagery are being used in extortion scams. After a Kentucky teenager died by suicide this year, his parents discovered he had received threatening texts demanding $3,000 to suppress an AI-generated nude image of him. The tragedy underscores how so-called sextortion scams targeting children are growing around the world, particularly with the rapid proliferation of "nudify" apps - AI tools that digitally strip off clothing or generate sexualised imagery. Elijah Heacock, 16, was just one of thousands of American minors targeted by such digital blackmail, which has spurred calls for more action from tech platforms and regulators. His parents told US media that the text messages ordered him to pay up or an apparently AI-generated nude photo would be sent to his family and friends. "The people that are after our children are well organised," John Burnett, the boy's father, said in a CBS News interview. "They are well financed, and they are relentless. They don't need the photos to be real, they can generate whatever they want, and then they use it to blackmail the child." US investigators were looking into the case, which comes as nudify apps - which rose to prominence targeting celebrities - are being increasingly weaponised against children. The FBI has reported a "horrific increase" in sextortion cases targeting US minors, with victims typically males between the ages of 14 and 17. The threat has led to an "alarming number of suicides," the agency warned. Instruments of abuse In a recent survey, Thorn, a non-profit focused on preventing online child exploitation, found that six percent of American teens have been a direct victim of deepfake nudes. "Reports of fakes and deepfakes - many of which are generated using these 'nudifying' services - seem to be closely linked with reports of financial sextortion, or blackmail with sexually explicit images," the British watchdog Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said in a report last year. "Perpetrators no longer need to source intimate images from children because images that are convincing enough to be harmful - maybe even as harmful as real images in some cases - can be produced using generative AI." The IWF identified one "pedophile guide" developed by predators that explicitly encouraged perpetrators to use nudifying tools to generate material to blackmail children. The author of the guide claimed to have successfully blackmailed some 13-year-old girls. The tools are a lucrative business. A new analysis of 85 websites selling nudify services found they may be collectively worth up to $36 million (R644 million) a year. The analysis from Indicator, a US publication investigating digital deception, estimates that 18 of the sites made between $2.6 million and $18.4 million over the six months to May. Most of the sites rely on tech infrastructure from Google, Amazon, and Cloudflare to operate, and remain profitable despite crackdowns by platforms and regulators, Indicator said. 'Whack-a-mole' The proliferation of AI tools has led to new forms of abuse impacting children, including pornography scandals at universities and schools worldwide, where teenagers created sexualised images of their own classmates. A recent Save the Children survey found that one in five young people in Spain have been victims of deepfake nudes, with those images shared online without their consent. Earlier this year, Spanish prosecutors said they were investigating three minors in the town of Puertollano for allegedly targeting their classmates and teachers with AI-generated pornographic content and distributing it in their school. In the United Kingdom, the government this year made creating sexually explicit deepfakes a criminal offense, with perpetrators facing up to two years in jail. And in May, US President Donald Trump signed the bipartisan "Take It Down Act," which criminalises the non-consensual publication of intimate images, while also mandating their removal from online platforms. Meta also recently announced it was filing a lawsuit against a Hong Kong company behind a nudify app called Crush AI, which it said repeatedly circumvented the tech giant's rules to post ads on its platforms. But despite such measures, researchers say AI nudifying sites remain resilient. "To date, the fight against AI nudifiers has been a game of whack-a-mole," Indicator said, calling the apps and sites "persistent and malicious adversaries." AFP
