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newstfionline · 4 years

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Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Biden Team Prepares $3 Trillion in New Spending for the Economy (NYT) President Biden’s economic advisers are pulling together a sweeping $3 trillion package to boost the economy, reduce carbon emissions and narrow economic inequality, beginning with a giant infrastructure plan that may be financed in part through tax increases on corporations and the rich. The enormous scope of the proposal highlights the aggressive approach the Biden administration wants to take as it tries to harness the power of the federal government to make the economy more equitable, address climate change, and improve American manufacturing and high-technology industries in an escalating battle with China.

Hugs, at last: Nursing homes easing rules on visitors (AP) An 88-year-old woman in Ohio broke down in tears as her son hugged her for the first time in a year. Nursing home residents and staff in California sang “Over the Rainbow” as they resumed group activities and allowed visitors back in. A 5-year-old dove into the lap of her 94-year-old great-great-aunt for a long embrace in Rhode Island. Nursing homes, assisted living facilities and other kinds of elderly residences battered by COVID-19 are easing restrictions and opening their doors for the first time since the start of the pandemic, leading to joyous reunions around the country after a painful year of isolation, Zoom calls and greetings through windows. The vaccination drive, improved conditions inside nursing homes, and relaxed federal guidelines have paved the way for the reunions.

Miami’s South Beach confronts disastrous spring break (AP) Florida’s famed South Beach is desperately seeking a new image. With more than 1,000 arrests and nearly 100 gun seizures already during this year’s spring break season, officials are thinking it may finally be time to cleanse the hip neighborhood of its law-breaking, party-all-night vibe. The move comes after years of increasingly stringent measures—banning alcohol from beaches, canceling concerts and food festivals—have failed to stop the city from being overrun with out-of-control parties and anything-goes antics. This weekend alone, spring breakers and pandemic-weary tourists drawn by Florida’s loose virus-control rules gathered by the thousands along famed Ocean Drive, at times breaking into street fights, destroying restaurant property and causing several dangerous stampedes. The situation got so out of hand that Miami Beach Police brought in SWAT teams to disperse pepper bullets and called in law enforcement officers from at least four other agencies. Ultimately, the city decided to order an emergency 8 p.m. curfew that will likely extend well into April after the spring break season is over. Some tourists are angry about the curfew, which they say has put a damper on long-sought vacations for which they paid good money. Meanwhile, some officials say they should have enacted more stringent measures sooner—as was done in New Orleans prior to Mardi Gras last month—instead of reacting in the middle of the chaos.

England slaps 5,000 pound fine on most travel abroad (Reuters) Fines of 5,000 pounds ($6,900) will be introduced for people from England who try to travel abroad before the end of June in a tightening of the country’s border controls. Health minister Matt Hancock said the government’s original plan to review international travel in April and possibly permit it from May 17 still stood but the travel fines were included in legislation in case that would not be possible. In the UK, foreign holidays are currently banned. Europe’s airlines and travel sector are now bracing for a second lost summer. Having already racked up billions in debt to survive a year of travel restrictions, they are facing further strain and some may need fresh funds.

Tensions mount between Afghan government, powerful warlord (AP) Tensions are mounting between Afghanistan’s government and a powerful local warlord, with deadly clashes erupting in a rural province between his fighters and government troops. The government has launched an assault in central Maidan Wardak province, vowing to punish the warlord, Abdul Ghani Alipoor, after the defense minister accused his fighters of shooting down a military helicopter last week, killing nine personnel. Alipoor holds widespread loyalty among ethnic Hazaras, a mainly Shiite community who are a minority in Afghanistan but make up most of the population in Maidan Wardak. If Kabul considers warlords as agents of turmoil, their supporters see them as their only protection and support in the face of a notoriously corrupt government and violent insurgents. Many Hazaras, who face attacks by Sunni militants and discrimination by the government, see Alipoor as a hero, defending them against the Taliban and keeping local institutions running. “The government is incompetent, so people depend on Alipoor and support him,” said Mohammed Jan. “Alipoor serves his people. If our government would serve the people, everyone would support it and there wouldn’t be any need for an Alipoor.”

China Makes It A Crime To Question Military Casualties On The Internet (NPR) When China acknowledged this year that four of its soldiers had died fighting Indian forces on the two countries’ disputed mountain border eight months prior, the irreverent blogger Little Spicy Pen Ball had questions. “If the four [Chinese] soldiers died trying to rescue their fellow soldiers, then there must have been those who were not successfully rescued,” he wrote on Feb. 19 to his 2.5 million followers on Weibo, a Chinese social media site. “This means the fatalities could not have just been four.” The day after, Qiu Ziming, the 38-year-old former newspaper journalist behind the blog, was detained and criminally charged. If convicted, he faces a sentence of up to three years. “Little Spicy Pen Ball maliciously slandered and degraded the heroes defending our country and the border,” according to the annual work report published by the country’s chief prosecutor office this month. Qiu’s is the first case to be tried under a sweeping new criminal law that took effect March 1. The new law penalizes “infringing on the reputation and honor of revolutionary heroes.” At least six other people have been detained or charged with defaming “martyrs.” The government uses the terms “revolutionary heroes” and “martyrs” for anyone it memorializes for their sacrifice for the Communist Party. The detentions typify the stricter controls over online speech under Chinese leader Xi Jinping, which have deterred nearly all open dissent in the country. The new law even seeks to criminalize speech made outside China. Such is the case of Wang Jingyu, 19, who lives in the United States and is now a wanted man in his hometown of Chongqing, China. The authorities accuse him of slandering dead Chinese soldiers after Weibo reported him for a comment questioning the number of border fight casualties. “Cyberspace is not outside the law,” the Chongqing public security bureau said in an online notice after it declared Wang would be “pursued online” for his comments.

West sanctions China over Xinjiang abuses, Beijing hits back at EU (Reuters) The United States, the European Union, Britain and Canada imposed sanctions on Chinese officials on Monday for human rights abuses in Xinjiang, the first such coordinated Western action against Beijing under new U.S. President Joe Biden. Beijing hit back immediately with punitive measures against the EU that appeared broader, including European lawmakers, diplomats, institutes and families, and banning their businesses from trading with China. Western governments are seeking to hold Beijing accountable for mass detentions of Muslim Uighurs in northwestern China, where the United States says China is committing genocide. China denies all accusations of abuse.

Australian floods (AFP) Devastating flooding is ongoing across Australia, where an area the size of Alaska with some 10 million people is at risk for excessive rainfall and storminess. The flooding comes amid colliding weather systems gripping the country. Up to 35 inches of rain fell in just four days, and some places are seeing their worst flooding in 60 years. Nearly three times the average March rainfall has fallen in a number of locales, which Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology described as “phenomenal,” with additional rain and flooding expected in the days ahead.

Israel TV satirist says grateful to politicians but needs a break (AFP) As Israel heads into its fourth election in two years, the presenter of the country’s favourite satirical TV show has a request, and he’s only half joking. “I would like us to finally have a stable government and make a boring programme,” says Eyal Kitsis, frontman of the Channel 12 show “Eretz Nehederet” (“A Wonderful Country”). As much as Israel’s political turmoil may be straining the patience of the electorate, it has been television gold because “reality is crazy”, Kitsis told AFP. “Elections and politics have really become entertainment in this country. Our challenge as a satirical programme is to add a layer to it, to take it to the next level.”

Israel vote deadlock: Netanyahu appears short of majority (AP) Uncertainty hovered over the outcome of Israel’s parliamentary election Wednesday, with both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and sworn political rivals determined to depose him apparently lacking a clear path to a governing coalition. Deadlock in the 120-seat parliament was a real possibility a day after the election, which had been dominated by Netanyahu’s polarizing leadership. With about 87.5% of the vote counted by Wednesday morning, Netanyahu’s Likud party and its ultra-Orthodox and far-right allies fell short of a 61-seat majority.

Saudi Arabia offers cease-fire plan to Yemen rebels (AP) Saudi Arabia on Monday offered a cease-fire proposal to Yemen’s Houthi rebels that includes reopening their country’s main airport, the kingdom’s latest attempt to halt years of fighting in a war that has sparked the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The move comes after the rebels stepped up a campaign of drone and missile attacks on the kingdom’s oil sites, briefly shaking global energy prices amid the coronavirus pandemic. It also comes as Riyadh tries to rehabilitate its image with the U.S. under President Joe Biden. Saudi Arabia has drawn internationally criticism for airstrikes killing civilians and embargoes exacerbating hunger in a nation on the brink of famine. Whether the plan will take hold remains another question. A unilaterally declared Saudi cease-fire collapsed last year. Fighting rages around the crucial city of Marib and the Saudi-led coalition launched airstrikes as recently as Sunday targeting Yemen’s capital of Sanaa. A U.N. mission said another suspected airstrike hit a food-production company in the port city of Hodeida.

Rail and derailments (Vice) Freight rail is an essential vein of the transportation system in the U.S., moving 57 tons of goods per American each year. It’s also the safest way to move hazardous materials, but freight train derailments are more common than one might think: in 2019, there were 341 reported derailments on main line track, of which 24 were freight trains carrying 159 cars of hazardous materials. The labor unions in the rail industry have been calling this out as a symptom of a degrading safety culture, and warn that it’s only a matter of time before one of those derailments causes catastrophic damages.

#headlines #news

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tattooed-alchemist · 6 years

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It’s what happened to Jews in Germany in 1938 when their passports were declared invalid. That is what is beginning to happen here, now, to Hispanic citizens along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Oh, is it bad to compare the GOP to Nazis? Well, if members of the GOP do not like being compared to Nazis, they should consider not behaving exactly like Nazis.

Hispanic U.S. citizens, some of whom were in the U.S. military, are not being allowed to renew their passports. This is reportedly happening to “hundreds, even thousands” of Latinos, according to a report in the Washington Post. They’re getting letters from the State Department saying it does not believe they are citizens. The government claims their citizenships are fraudulent. “I’ve had probably 20 people who have been sent to the detention center—U.S. citizens,” Jaime Diez, an attorney in Brownsville, told The Washington Post.

The Washington Post also reports on ICE officials coming to citizens' homes and taking their passports away. This is an escalation from a few months ago, when Americans were detained by ICE officials just for speaking Spanish to one another.

The administration is currently launching an effort to take citizenship from people who they suspect of fraud in obtaining it. Fraud in these cases is exceedingly rare. The last time the government tried to strip people of their citizenship was, according to Columbia Professor Mae , during The Red Scare of the 1950s. As Ngai remarks, McCarthyism is not typically remembered as a good period in American history.

There is good reason to believe that this could portend still worse things to come for the U.S. Hispanic population, unless people begin to speak out loudly, and fast.

Edited to Add: English/Spanish legal advice for if you are a Latinx American citizen whose citizenship is being challenged.

And FLOOD YOUR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES WITH YOUR FEELINGS ON THIS SHIT! Here’s how to do it for free by text.

2nd Edit: Someone asked “What Can Be Done Abroad?”

Thank you for asking!

1) Get the word out in your home country’s print and broadcast media and internet. People in the USA really don’t get how suppressed our press has become and it’s only getting worse by the day. Part of it is getting any one topic to surface long enough above the churn, which is an intentional tactic being successfully used by the political party in power.

2) The one thing that no one is the USA is not seemingly able to do at all is get attention onto the Republican party as a whole for how complicit they are in all the illegal activity. If anyone can throw some weight in that direction, it’s an elephant in the room that we REALLY need to get lots of attention on.

3) Support sanctions against the US for our human rights violations.

4) Donate to US groups fighting in the trenches

https://www.aclu.org/

https://www.hrc.org/

https://www.plannedparenthood.org/

http://refusefascism.com/

https://www.splcenter.org/

https://resist.bot/

5) Check how your own country is doing on ethnic minorities and immigration. Some bad shit is going around.

Edited AGAIN On Sunday November 4, 2018:

1) Black activists are being murdered and no one is reporting it.

http://www.blacklivesmatter.com

2) More tent cities keep going up. Where do you really think this is going to end?

https://www.afsc.org/action/stop-ice-and-cbp

3) Anti-Semitism in the USA has gone up 60% over the last year.

https://www.adl.org/

4) Native American disenfranchisement ahead of the midterm elections is at an all-time high.

https://www.narf.org/cases/voting-rights/

NO MATTER WHAT THE RESULTS ARE OF THE 2018 USA MIDTERM ELECTIONS, NONE OF THESE PROBLEMS ARE GOING TO STOP UNLESS WE GET TO WORK STOPPING THEM.

Edited Nov 17, 2018:

More than 14,000 immigrant children are in U.S. custody, an all-time high

from the SF Chronicle

EDITED ON JULY 30, 2019

It’s now estimated there are upwards of 50,000 humans being held in American concentration camps. Here’s a map of how many there are now in the US.

https://concentrationcamps.us/

And they are dying. If history has taught us anything it’s that this is the point of a concentration camp. It’s very cheap and easy to allow people to die from neglect.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/24-immigrants-have-died-ice-custody-during-trump-administration-n1015291

Legal American citizens,with multiple forms of ID, who ICE spots and decides just don’t look white enough are starting to be arrested and detained with them. They aren’t allowed to contact anyone once they are picked up.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/25/us/us-citizen-detained-texas/index.html

WHAT TO DO, HOW TO HELP

https://www.neveragainaction.com/

http://www.notonemoredeportation.com/

https://www.raicestexas.org/

https://www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/raids-toolkit/

#citizens #passports #genocide #latinx americans #hispanic americans #as a descendent of German Jews I have to agree with this completely #ICE are the secret police #black lives matter #disenfranchisement

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antoine-roquentin · 5 years

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“Recent research suggests that human societies will experience disruptions to their basic functioning within less than ten years due to climate stress. Such disruptions include increased levels of malnutrition, starvation, disease, civil conflict and war – and will not avoid affluent nations.”

– Jem Bendell, professor of sustainability leadership, University of Cumbria, UK

“Perseverance porn goes hand in hand with the rise of a GoFundMe economy that relies on personal narrative over collective policy, emotional appeals over baseline human rights. $930 million out of the $2 billion raised on GoFundMe since its inception in 2010 was for healthcare expenses, while an estimated 45,000 people a year die a year due to a lack of medical treatment. Meanwhile, anchors across cable news insist that single-payer healthcare is “unaffordable,” browbeating guests who support it, while populating their broadcasts with these one-off tales of people heroically scraping by.”

– Adam Johnson, Media’s Grim Addiction to Perseverance Porn, (FAIR)

“The liberal class thus divides into two breakaway clans, those who limit themselves to lip-service monologues with which they publicize their sense of injustice over comfortable meals, wine glasses brandished as weapons to punctuate their outrage. Then there are the true thespians, who take to the streets, wielding placards filled with exclamations and chanting songs of resistance as their throngs progress clumsily down the avenue, thoughtfully cleared of traffic in advance by local authorities. On the one hand, gestural politics; on the other, theater.”

– Jason Hirthler, The Curious Malaise of the Middle Class, (Dissident Voice)

“This present momentism appears, at least on the surface, as a therapeutic solvent for all our problems, making our present situation more bearable. But this bearability of the status quo amounts to a permanent retreat to the psychic bomb shelter of now, a kind of bury-your-head in the sand mindfulness which acts as a sanitized palliative for neoliberal subjects who have lost hope for alternatives to capitalism.”

– Ronald Purser, The Faux Revolution of Mindfulness, Open Democracy, author of McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality

“Empires are death cults, and death cults, on a subliminal basis, long for their own demise. Paradoxically, the collective mindset of imperium, even as it thrusts across the expanse of the world, renders itself insular, cut off from culturally enhancing novelty, as all the while, the homeland descends into a psychical swamp of churning madness.”

– Phil Rochstroh, 2 or 3 Things I Know About Capitalism, Counterpunch

In the waning days of the American Empire a sort of collective madness has seemed to take hold of its ruling class. It is perhaps most clear in the unhinged and incessant decrees of the bloated emperor via tweet. But it is also in the idiotic ramblings of his minions redefining fossil fuels as “freedom gas” or rapidly melting Arctic seas as an economic “opportunity.” It can also be seen in the reactionary and warmongering responses of the so-called resistance in the corrupt Democratic Party establishment and corporate media regarding Russiagate. Or Bolton and Pompeo inventing evidence to justify more imperial wars just years after the disastrous assault on Iraq and during the longest ongoing US war in Afghanistan. It extends to the incredulous claims of Michele Bachmann that Trump is “godly and biblical” and televangelist Kenneth Copeland, who described his aversion to flying commercial airlines as getting in “a long tube with demons,” calling for a national day of prayer for the orange-tinted tyrant. It is truly staggering to behold.

Amidst all this madness, crimes and atrocities are being committed in broad daylight by that same ruling class both domestically and abroad. In the Middle-East the ruling class, via their corporations General Dynamics, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Boeing, is aiding and benefiting from outright genocide in Yemen by the most brutal and criminal of America’s colonies: Saudi Arabia. Similar profits are garnished from backing the apartheid regime in Israel and the military junta in Egypt. In Brazil the ruling class has only just begun to see the dollars roll in from Bolsonaro’s further opening up of the Amazon, the planet’s proverbial lungs. In Modi’s India, they are salivating at the chance to despoil more of the sub-continents riches. And around the world corporations and the fossil fuel industry continues its mad and blind dash toward species extinction.

Back in the US police violence against people of color remains steady and the prison industry is still booming. Along the southern border, migrants from Central America are seeking legal asylum, scores of them young children. Their only “crime” is fleeing their homelands which have been ruthlessly torn up by US foreign policy for at least a century. But they are being rounded up by militias and sent to concentration camps. LGBT and mentally ill migrants are being tortured in solitary confinement. Families are being separated, children caged, violated, dying from preventable diseases.

In the era of social media all of this information is readily available for those interested. Even those uninterested are exposed to what is happening via the ubiquitous social media newsfeed. Indeed, a subdued disquiet among the bourgeoisie has become undeniable. But endless imperialistic wars, rampant corruption, human rights abuses, waning economic advancement, and mass species extinction hasn’t yet prodded most of them from their homes to shut down the machinery of this cult of death, even though it threatens the very futures of their own children. When the bourgeoisie in the US do get out to protest the events are generally scripted, scheduled, sanctioned and televised by the establishment itself. The appropriate permits are obtained. No traffic is stopped. No building is occupied. The status quo remains intact and the necessary steam of middle-class angst is let off until the next event. In the meantime, the war, prison and surveillance industry expand, police militarization continues apace, the environment continues to be raped and pillaged, and fundamental freedoms like speech and reproductive rights are systematically dismantled. By comparison, any actual dissent is met with swift authoritarian violence by the corporate state; Standing Rock Sioux and BLM as stark examples.

Perpetually harried and fearful of losing the tenuous privilege afforded to them by the ruling class, the white middle class in the US has little time to focus on anything outside their prescribed bubble of experience. They inhabit a world constructed by the capricious and cynical designers of the free market. A place devoid of the words “ruling class,” where the mantra of “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” reigns supreme in an era of neoliberal barbarism. Where even if one is working fulltime they may still not have access to basic healthcare coverage. Where they are saddled with enormous debt that can never really be paid off in anyone’s lifetime. Peering at the world through the lens of glowing, hand sized screens, connecting algorithmically to the pulse of a commercially constructed world, most essentially exist in a pixelated prison of suspended and unconnected moments, reinforced by procedural programs which have been meticulously written in the posh and sterile board rooms of Madison Avenue and in the Silicon Valley. History is extinguished here, as are agency and imagination. It is a consumerist world that conforms to the dictatorship of money.

Americans have been socially conditioned for decades to accept these contradictions of their economic, social and political arrangement. Meanwhile suicide is rampant, punctuated by mass shootings. Opioid abuse is taking many more lives. Indeed, the pharmaceutical industry has thrived off this angst, convincing millions that their psychic and social maladies are all due to a personal or chemical defect, not the system itself. That working people barely stave off homelessness and middle class families are increasingly separated from their loved ones and communities by having to travel long hours to a job (or jobs) which hardly covers daily expenses, is a struggle not considered telegenic enough, unless it is cast in the heroic light of “personal responsibility.”

Indeed, Hollywood and corporate media reinforce the mythology of American greatness while its populace becomes ever more weighted down by the late stage capitalist nightmare. Whether it be CNN or MSNBC, distraction from issues related to class or economic disenfranchisement rule the day. Russiagate, the “scary” (and non-existent) migrant caravan, or Trump’s latest outlandish or absurd tweet dominate the news cycles. Catastrophic climate change, the staggering loss of biodiversity, burgeoning suicides among youth, the elderly or veterans, the never-ending and expanding war machine of the Pentagon, growing police violence and a bursting prison industrial complex, corporate and banking corruption, increased economic disparity and hardship? Not so much.

Movies and programs about dystopia have been ubiquitous for many years now, but the factors that contribute to these apocalyptic futures have nothing to do with the actual existential threats we are now facing. Zombies and terrorists dominate the themes presented, and this reflects back on the enormous influence of the Pentagon, Department of Defense, CIA, et al. on mass media. Even video games mirror the warped and expansionist aspirations of the American establishment and its bellicose foreign policy. For decades, these agencies have sought to steer the narrative of American angst toward conformity with the capitalist status quo. And they have been largely successful thanks to many attributes of American life itself. Suburbia and automobile culture after WW 2 erased the commons to create a sort of facsimile of community, often devoid of central spaces, character or originality, and connected by ribbons of featureless highway. Vast dead spaces that are simultaneously everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

But even relatively innocuous programs and movies are divorced from lived reality. I was watching one recently at a friend’s house about a group of friends taking a trip to the wine country. With some mild and typically safe humor to garnish a few chuckles, it was rife with convention and contrivance. The most glaring thing of all, though, was the lack of any class reflected in the character’s diverse lives. All were of the American middle-class in one form or another. Some single mothers, others working highly paid jobs. But none of them facing what the majority of Americans actually face. None of them living pay check to pay check, lacking basic healthcare coverage, paying exorbitant rents or mortgages, or saddled with perpetual debt. But as long as their character’s clothing and surroundings were furnished by Zara, Williams-Sonoma and Pier One, the circumstances of reality were easily eclipsed. Forgotten.

Indeed, the Age of Trump, which is the product of decades of capitalist rot, has demonstrated that the American bourgeoisie have been largely inured to their continually degraded status. They cannot see class oppression because those words are not in the lexicon. Corporate capitalism has created an insular world of sterile detachment from the real world in which it inhabits. “Human resource” departments, situated in nearly every workplace, effectively erase class and context by enforcing optimism and encouraging a kind of self-policed dialogue. Outside this world, mass media manages “threats” by externalizing and otherizing. So little has really changed in the narrative. Once upon a time it was the communists, Jews, Khrushchev, the Vietcong, the sexually “deviant,” people of color, Russia. Now it is migrants, Muslims, Julian Assange, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, LGBTQ, people of color, Russia. All scapegoats for the country’s failures and abysmal state. All psychic projections of animus and angst for a bourgeoisie in America that never understood the machinations of its ruling class or shook itself free of the “exceptionalism” of its Calvinist puritanical roots.

But the angst of the American bourgeoisie is demonstrated more by what it doesn’t speak about than what it does. It is a disquiet which is at once terrified of the collapse that looms ahead and horrified at the idea of losing the status quo arrangement, even though that status quo is benefiting fewer and fewer people. It stands simultaneously aghast and paralyzed before the obvious madness of its rulers, and yet continually grasps at failed “lesser evilism” as a solution. And it largely still buys into the noxious mythology of it being the “greatest country on earth.” The corporate elite, having stripped down civic education over decades, robbed them of their political agency and resistance and replaced it with a sanitized history and demoralizing optimism, or “positive thinking,” which places all blame for their collective state and its inadequacies on the individual. That it has been so lauded by Wall Street should cause anyone to wonder why it has been so internalized by the disenfranchised masses.

To be sure, this arrangement is rapidly meeting its end. Banking and corporate corruption, never really having been dealt with in the last “Great Recession” or its notorious state funded “bailout,” has only become more blind and reckless. The membrane of the bubble created after that fiasco, born in avarice, is thinning in plain sight. It is about to burst again, and this time it will be far more catastrophic. The endless imperialistic wars that the US has engaged in for the last decades are also creating a financial strain. Coupled with climate breakdown those expensive bases of aggression around the world will begin to cost more than they bring in profit. In the US itself biblical floods are wiping clean the soil graded for agriculture throughout the Midwest and causing tremendous economic hardship for scores of rural and commercial farmers. Droughts offer a grim alternative to this increasingly chaotic climate pattern. Food prices will undoubtedly rise in the future thanks to a capitalist system which creates artificial shortages and surpluses.

Indeed, around the world the climate is shifting dramatically between drought and deluge affecting huge swaths of habitat. Already countless species have succumbed to this ramification of a warming world. But also to industrial pollution, defilement of the oceans, misuse of land and extraction of minerals and fossil fuels: the excesses of capitalism. According to a recent study, a million more species are being marched down the halls of extinction today. Trash is filling the world’s oceans, with birds, turtles and whales washing up by the thousands with bloated bellies full of plastic detritus. It’s literally raining plastic particles now in many places. And all the while the beneficiaries of this pernicious and omnicidal system are dwindling to a select few who are incapable of grasping the quietus of all life on the planet, let alone their own. But without a doubt, this small segment of society will fight ferociously for their continued privilege no matter how untenable, absurd or suicidal it is.

The concurrent madness of the ruling class and the angst of the bourgeoisie in our age isn’t anything surprising. Like the phenomenon of Trump, it has been an unholy union in the making for a long time. The product of empire itself. Social media and the death throes of capitalism have only made it more visible to the general public as of late. But it should be understood that while the ruling class are moneyed and powerful, they are not omnipotent, nor are they more intelligent than the rest of us. On the contrary, even as it sees the demise of the biosphere on which it depends, this “elite” class can do nothing else but marshal the language in an attempt to save its failing economic trajectory. Thus, it is militarizing our collective existential moment: not to save the planet, but to save capitalism itself. And it will do this by deflection, brutally punishing or even eradicating those who have the least impact: the poor, the working class, and the global south.

Under a darkening, climate changed sky, created by the avarice of a few and their ceaseless wars and atrocities, an imperiled and disappearing biosphere lies before us all. Therefore, remaining silent and accepting the status quo in the face of ruling class folly, cruelty and madness, should only be interpreted as complicity to the crime.

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olko71 · 3 years

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New Post has been published on All about business online

New Post has been published on http://yaroreviews.info/2021/05/china-disappeared-hm-from-its-internet-splitting-fashion-industry-group

China Disappeared H&M From Its Internet, Splitting Fashion Industry Group

LONDON—A debate over how much to push back against the Chinese government has set off a conflict inside a prominent coalition that guides much of the world’s cotton production.

The Better Cotton Initiative, a collaboration among big brands like Nike Inc. NKE -0.46% and Gap Inc., GPS -0.12% environmental groups, farmers and human-rights organizations, has for years worked to bolster the global apparel industry’s access to sustainably produced cotton.

But the Chinese government’s recent attacks on the group and one of its leading members, fast-fashion giant H&M Hennes & Mauritz HM.B 0.45% AB, have raised concerns about whether BCI’s fashion brands can continue selling clothes in China—a huge and fast-growing consumer market—if the group challenges Beijing again.

In March, Beijing all but erased H&M’s internet presence in the country after the company and BCI raised concerns about allegations of forced labor in the cotton-rich Chinese region of Xinjiang.

Following the online blocking of H&M and Chinese social-media users calling for boycotts of members Nike and Adidas AG , BCI deleted from its website a months-old statement about concerns that cotton was being produced by forced labor in Xinjiang.

A worker at a railway station in Jiujiang, in central China, unloads cotton picked from Xinjiang, the source of one-fifth of the world’s cotton.

Photo: str/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Some nongovernmental-organization members have said that BCI’s deleting of the statement and silence during the backlash in China suggest the group bowed to pressure at the behest of retail members, say people familiar with the organization. They feel BCI’s reaction undermines the initiative’s mission of bettering the lives of cotton farmers, the people said.

Some NGO members are urging the group to cease operations in China altogether and are pushing their representatives on its board—the environmental group Pesticide Action Network and Solidaridad, an organization advocating for responsible supply chains—to restore the Xinjiang-related statement online and push back against the Chinese media attacks, the people said.

At the same time, some retailer members and nongovernmental organizations say that BCI should instead quietly engage with Beijing, the people said.

A spokesman for BCI declined to comment.

Western businesses with supply chains in Xinjiang walk a fine line. Companies are trying to avoid Beijing’s ire and at the same time take seriously allegations from human-rights groups and the U.S. and U.K. governments that authorities are committing genocide against ethnic Uyghurs and using forced labor in the northwestern Chinese region.

Nike was among the fashion retailers targeted by Chinese social-media users.

Photo: Liau Chung-ren/Zuma Press

The Chinese government has called the allegations lies, saying it is combating terrorism and improving livelihoods in Xinjiang. It has lashed out at those raising concerns about the region. No industry is more ensnared in the issue than fashion: Xinjiang accounts for four-fifths of China’s cotton output and a fifth of the world’s.

The Better Cotton Initiative began as a World Wildlife Fund project in 2005 and became its own organization in 2009. The nonprofit group trains farmers and gives its seal of approval to those that meet standards on water usage, chemical usage and labor rights.

Members had an incentive to join. Farmers learned how to reduce expenses and improve cotton quality. Nongovernmental organizations got to lobby the fashion industry on environmental protection and labor rights. And brands, such as founding members Gap Inc., H&M and IKEA, could boast to customers and shareholders that they were part of a planet-helping initiative.

“Brands were making commitments for their cotton to be 100% from sustainable sources by 2025,” said Lise Melvin, BCI’s chief executive from 2006 to 2013. “They saw the Better Cotton Initiative as a way to meet that goal.”

Beijing is beating back international criticism of its treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang with a propaganda push on Facebook, Twitter and the big screen. Here’s how China’s campaign against Western brands is aimed at audiences at home and abroad. Photo: Thomas Peter/Reuters

The group set a target for having 30% of the world’s cotton output come from BCI-licensed farmers by 2020. That ambition made it hard to ignore China, where BCI opened an office in 2012.

Tensions with Beijing began after BCI increased attention on labor rights world-wide last year. In October, the group stopped training and licensing farmers in Xinjiang, citing “sustained allegations of forced labor and other human-rights abuses.” A BCI committee on forced labor later cited, among other concerns, that Xinjiang farmers couldn’t speak candidly about their situation.

Those actions didn’t cause ripples in China until March, when the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and European Union sanctioned Chinese officials over alleged human-rights violations in the region. Chinese state-controlled media outlets criticized those sanctions and blasted BCI and member brands, in particular Sweden’s H&M. H&M disappeared from Chinese e-commerce sites, while Chinese celebrities dropped their sponsorships with the company.

In a recent earnings call, H&M said it wanted to remain a “responsible buyer” in China. It declined to quantify the backlash’s cost, saying only that landlords closed a few H&M outlets in China. In total, 20 out of about 500 stores were closed, the company has said.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

Do you think Western brands like Nike and H&M should call out countries that tolerate forced labor in their cotton industry? Join the conversation below.

In the days after Chinese media outlets and social-media users began attacking BCI and its members in late March, China’s state television broadcaster aired an interview with the head of BCI’s Shanghai office, who said her office found no evidence of forced labor in Xinjiang. The group deleted its October online statement about the Xinjiang concerns without explanation.

The actions, seen inside China as an about-face, drew a taunt from a youth branch of the ruling Communist Party in a social-media post last month: “Your face must be hurting!”

BCI hasn’t publicly addressed the situation, saying a response could threaten the personal safety of its dozen or so staffers in China, the people close to the organization said. While BCI has backtracked on its public statements, it has maintained its position on halting training and licensing of farmers in Xinjiang.

One person close to BCI said the group’s presence in China, and the brands it represents, give it clout to influence Beijing, even if it must do so quietly, the person said. Not-for-profit organizations can operate in China only if they are invited by Beijing and play by its rules, the person added.

Ms. Melvin, the former CEO, says the group faces a Catch-22.

“How does anybody choose whether to avoid working in problem areas,” she said, “or to work in them to improve them, even though there are risks in doing that?”

—Qianwei Zhang in Beijing contributed to this article.

Write to Stu Woo at [email protected]

#PAID

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glitterypeanutmugnickel · 3 years

Text

April 26, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

Apr 27

Comment

In his first major speech as Secretary of State, Antony Blinken laid out the principles of the Biden administration in foreign policy, emphasizing that this administration believed foreign and domestic policy to be profoundly linked. Biden’s people would support democracy at home and abroad to combat the authoritarianism rising around the world… including in the U.S.

“The more we and other democracies can show the world that we can deliver, not only for our people, but also for each other, the more we can refute the lie that authoritarian countries love to tell, that theirs is the better way to meet people’s fundamental needs and hopes. It’s on us to prove them wrong,” Blinken said. “So the question isn’t if we will support democracy around the world, but how.” He answered: “We will use the power of our example. We will encourage others to make key reforms, overturn bad laws, fight corruption, and stop unjust practices. We will incentivize democratic behavior.”

President Joe Biden has set out a foreign policy that focuses on human rights and reaches out more to foreign peoples than to their governments, heartening protesters in authoritarian countries.

On Saturday, Biden issued a document declaring that the displacement and slaughter of 1.5 million ethnic Armenians at the hands of the Ottomans in 1915 was a “genocide.” The U.S. had previously refused to recognize the ethnic cleansing for what it was because of the strategic importance of Turkey to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO (among other things, Turkey holds the straits that control access to the Black Sea, on which Russia and Ukraine, as well as other countries, sit).

Biden’s recognition of the Armenian genocide is a reflection of the fact that Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is increasingly close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Taliban, and appears to be abandoning democracy in his own country, giving Biden the room to take a step popular in America but previously too undiplomatic to undertake. (Remember when Erdogan’s security staff beat up protesters in Washington, D.C., in 2017 and prosecutors dropped the charges?)

Erdogan greeted Biden’s announcement with anger, demanding he retract it, but he also said he expected to discuss all of the disputes between the U.S. and Turkey at the June NATO summit. Geopolitics in Erdogan’s part of the world are changing, as Putin is struggling at home with protests against his treatment of opposition leader Alexey Navalny and with the new U.S. sanctions that, by making it hard for him to float government bonds, could weaken his economy further. It is looking more and more likely that Biden and Putin will also have a summit early this summer.

Biden’s emphasis on ordinary people and his attempt to illustrate the power of democracy showed today, too, when the Biden administration announced it would share as many as 60 million doses of our stockpiled AstraZeneca shots with the world once they pass safety reviews.

But the news shows that Biden’s concerns about the rise of authoritarianism at home are well founded. Republican pundits and lawmakers are rallying their supporters to a world that is based not in reality, but rather in what they consider to be fundamental truths: a hallmark of authoritarians.

The ridiculous idea that Biden’s climate proposals would mean that Biden was banning meat swept through the right-wing echo chamber this weekend. It appears to have originated in an entirely unrelated academic paper from 2020 that explored how changing the American diet might affect greenhouse gas emissions. Still, the Fox News Channel (FNC) claimed that Biden was cutting “90% of red meat from diet,” and restricting people to “one burger per month," and lawmakers joined the chorus.

The right seems increasingly detached from reality, but it is a detachment with a purpose.

Right-wing pundits are fantasizing about being afraid of the left. After the guilty verdict in the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin, who knelt on George Floyd’s neck until he died, Fox News personality Tucker Carlson and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) both implied that the nation’s cities are boarded up and people are cowering in fear from protesters against police brutality. They seem to be saying that imagined excesses of the left justify extreme behavior from the right. That is, in their telling, left-wing protesters are so out of control, their actions justify any sort of a crackdown they bring upon themselves.

On Twitter, lawyer and political writer Teri Kanefield did a deeper dive on the way lies serve the authoritarian government of fascism. Stories like that about meat, or about the inhabitants of the nation’s capital being afraid to go outside, or the idea that the January 6 insurrectionists were Biden supporters are not true, and those who tell them know it. But those lies illuminate what those who tell them see as a higher truth, doing so in a way that ordinary people can understand. People challenging the lie prove they do not accept the higher truth, and thus are enemies.

History suggests we’re in dangerous territory.

Last week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law the “Combatting Public Disorder Act,” designed, as he said, to “stand for the rule of law and public safety.” Recalling the summer’s protests, he said, “We are holding those who incite violence in our communities accountable, supporting our law enforcement officers who risk their lives every day to keep us safe and protecting Floridians from the chaos of mob violence. We’re also putting an end to the bullying and intimidation tactics of the radical left by criminalizing doxing and requiring restitution for damaging memorials and monuments by rioters.”

The new law lowers a “riot” to three people and dramatically increases punishments for “rioting,” including the loss of the right to vote. It also makes local governments financially liable if they do not respond aggressively enough to “unlawful assembly,” and it protects people who happen to injure or kill a protester during a riot, including by driving a car into them.

But a study by The Guardian, released earlier this month, suggests that the summer’s mass arrests were an attempt to control crowds, silence protests, and turn observers against the protesters by portraying them as violent and lawbreaking. Law enforcement dropped, dismissed, or never filed the vast majority of citations and charges it issued to Black Lives Matter protesters.

Guardian reporter Tom Perkins looked at 12 different jurisdictions and found that in most of them, including in Minneapolis where Floyd was killed, at least 90% of the cases were dropped or dismissed. In Dallas and Philadelphia, 95% of the cases were dropped. In San Francisco, 100% of the cases related to peaceful protest were dismissed. In Detroit, most of the tickets were written by officers who were not themselves at the protests.

Tonight, FNC personality Carlson called for his audience to start direct action. He told them to confront people wearing masks, which he says are signs of “political obedience.” He maintained that 64% of white Americans who called themselves “liberal” or “very liberal” “have been diagnosed with an actual mental health condition.” He called them “aggressors” and told supporters, “it’s our job to brush them back and restore the society we were born in.” He said to call the police immediately if they see children wearing masks and keep calling until someone arrives: it is child abuse, he says, and his audience is “morally obligated to prevent it.”

The chyron under his monologue read: “THIS ISN’T ABOUT SCIENCE. IT’S ABOUT POWER.”

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 3 years

Link

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

April 26, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

President Joe Biden has set out a foreign policy that focuses on human rights and reaches out more to foreign peoples than to their governments, heartening protesters in authoritarian countries.

The right seems increasingly detached from reality, but it is a detachment with a purpose.

History suggests we’re in dangerous territory.

The chyron under his monologue read: “THIS ISN’T ABOUT SCIENCE. IT’S ABOUT POWER.”

—-

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#quotes #political #right wing radicals #corrupt GOP #criminal GOP #police state #mass arrests #undemocratic #foreign policuy #Letters From An American #Heather Cox Richardson

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worldwideopinionnetworkllc-blog · 5 years

Text

US president says war would be 'end' of Iran as tensions rise - BBC News

New Post has been published on https://worldwideopinionnetwork.com/us-president-says-war-would-be-end-of-iran-as-tensions-rise-bbc-news/

US president says war would be 'end' of Iran as tensions rise - BBC News

US president says war would be ‘end’ of Iran as tensions rise – BBC News

US president says war would be ‘end’ of Iran as tensions rise 20 May 2019 These are external links and will open in a new window Close share panel Image copyright Reuters Image caption Tensions have risen between Iran under President Hassan Rouhani and the US under President Donald Trump US President Donald Trump has issued a stern warning to Iran, suggesting it will be destroyed if a conflict breaks out between the two countries. “If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran,” he said in a tweet on Sunday. “Never threaten the United States again!” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted in response that such “genocidal taunts won’t ‘end Iran'”. The US has deployed additional warships and planes to the Gulf in recent days. But Mr Trump’s tweet marks a shift in tone after recent attempts to downplay the possibility of military conflict. In an interview with Fox News broadcast on Sunday, the president vowed that he would not let Iran develop nuclear weapons but said he did not want a conflict. “I’m not somebody that wants to go into war, because war hurts economies, war kills people most importantly – by far most importantly,” he said. Iran travel warning for dual nationals Iran has also moved to talk down concerns over the escalating tensions. On Saturday, its foreign minister insisted there was no appetite for war. “There will not be a war since neither we want a war nor does anyone have the illusion they can confront Iran in the region,” Mr Zarif told state news agency Irna. On Monday he dismissed Mr Trump’s tweet, saying the president “hopes to achieve what Alexander [the Great], Genghis [Khan] & other aggressors failed to do.” “Iranians have stood tall for millennia while aggressors all gone. #EconomicTerrorism & genocidal taunts won’t ‘end Iran’,” he added. “#NeverThreatenAnIranian. Try respect—it works!” President Trump, after appearing to dial down the tensions with Iran, has now seemingly threatened catastrophic consequences if there is any attack against US interests or facilities. It underscores the mercurial approach of the US president to world affairs – restraint one moment and bluster the next. Such an approach is hugely destabilising and could contribute to Tehran misjudging US intentions. All of the ingredients for a confrontation are there: a lack of clarity in the US approach; the potential desire by Iran to push matters to the brink; and a series of incidents in the region itself (the recent sabotage against a small number of oil tankers and the rocket attack near the US compound in Baghdad) which demonstrate that there are elements on the ground eager to inflame tensions and test the US administration’s resolve. Why are there tensions? The latest frictions come after Iran suspended its commitments under the 2015 international nuclear deal , and threatened to resume production of enriched uranium which is used to make reactor fuel and nuclear weapons. The deal aimed to cut sanctions on Iran in exchange for an end to its nuclear programme, but the US unilaterally withdrew from the agreement last year. Calling the deal “defective”, Mr Trump then re-imposed sanctions. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC’s Paul Adams looks at the recent developments behind the US-Iran tensions Tehran has allegedly placed missiles on boats in the Gulf, and US investigators reportedly believe the country damaged four tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, claims Iran has denied. What’s the latest in the Gulf? On Sunday, the Iraqi military said a rocket had been fired into Baghdad’s heavily-fortified Green Zone, which houses government buildings and foreign embassies. It reportedly hit an abandoned building near to the US embassy. There were no casualties and it is not yet clear who was behind the attack. A State Department spokesman however said the US will hold Iran responsible “if any such attacks are conducted by its proxy militia forces”. Mr Trump’s threats on Twitter came hours after the first reports of the rocket attack. President Trump ‘behaving like a mafia boss’ In recent days, the US has deployed the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier to the region and reportedly drawn up plans to send 120,000 troops to the Middle East . Diplomatic staff have been ordered to leave Iraq , and the US military have raised the threat level in the region because of alleged intelligence about Iran-backed forces – contradicting a British general who had said there was “no increased threat” . Dutch and German soldiers said they had suspended their military training programmes in the country. Separately, Saudi Arabia accused Tehran of a drone attack on a pipeline on Friday. It alleged that Houthi rebels in Yemen conducted the strike on Iran’s orders. A state-aligned Saudi newspaper called for the US to launch attacks on the country. Iran denies the allegations.

Nigel Farage hit by milkshake during Newcastle walkabout – BBC News

Nigel Farage hit by milkshake during Newcastle walkabout 20 May 2019 These are external links and will open in a new window Close share panel Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The Brexit Party leader was campaigning in Newcastle Nigel Farage had milkshake thrown at him during a campaign walkabout. The Brexit Party leader had just given a short speech in Newcastle as part of a tour of the country ahead of the European elections. A man was dragged away by a police community support officer and later seen in handcuffs. Paul Crowther, 32, from Throckley, Newcastle, said it was a £5.25 Five Guys banana and salted caramel milkshake. Mr Farage was campaigning in the North East ahead of polling day on Thursday. A Northumbria Police spokesperson said: “A 32-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of common assault and remains in police custody.” Image copyright Reuters Image caption Mr Farage’s security team tackled Mr Crowther before he was arrested Mr Crowther said: “I didn’t know he [Mr Farage] was in town, I thought this is my only chance. “It’s a right of protest against people like him. “The bile and the racism he spouts out in this country is far more damaging than a bit of milkshake to his front.” Image copyright PA Image caption The politician had just given a speech at the city’s Monument when he was splatted Standing in handcuffs outside a branch of Waterstones, Mr Crowther said he did not regret his actions. He denied an allegation that someone was cut, saying he only threw liquid on the politician. Of his milkshake, he added: “I was quite looking forward to it, but I think it went on a better purpose.” Image copyright PA Image caption Paul Crowther was held in handcuffs by police Image copyright PA Image caption The cup that held the £5.25 shake was left on the street Mr Farage is the the latest victim of a protest which has seen other European election candidates such as Ukip’s Carl Benjamin and ex-English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson suffer similar attacks. He was heard to comment “complete failure… I could have spotted that a mile off” and “how did you not stop that?”as he was ushered away by his security staff. One of his team was also heard to say “sorry” as Mr Farage was walked to his taxi and then driven away from the event, where he had met voters by the city’s Grey’s Monument. He later tweeted: “Sadly some remainers have become radicalised, to the extent that normal campaigning is becoming impossible. “For a civilised democracy to work you need the losers’ consent, politicians not accepting the referendum result have led us to this.” You may also like:

Homes being evacuated in central Alberta after wildfire jumps highway | CBC News

Homes evacuated in central Alberta after wildfire jumps highway Social Sharing Calgary Homes evacuated in central Alberta after wildfire jumps highway Homes near the hamlet of Marlboro in central Alberta were evacuated as an out-of-control wildfire encroaches on the community. Social Sharing Posted: May 19, 2019 6:43 PM MT | Last Updated: May 20 Smoke fills the sky from a wildfire near Marlboro, Alta.( Stephanie Pollard) comments For the latest on this story, read: Evacuation order lifted as central Alberta wildfire held The hamlet of Marlboro in central Alberta and nearby homes were being evacuated Sunday as an out-of-control wildfire encroached on the community. RCMP said homes were being evacuated on both the north and south sides of Highway 16, as several homes were at risk. The wildfire jumped the highway — which became impassable, RCMP said — and was burning on both sides. A reception centre had been set up for those who have to flee their homes at the Best Western Hotel in Edson at 300 52nd Street. The wildfire near Marlboro, Alta., has jumped Highway 16, according to RCMP.(Stephanie Pollard) Drivers were being advised to avoid the area due to smoke and zero visibility. Susan Longmore, of the Medicine Lodge Rodeo west of Marlboro, says they opened up space in their arena and back pens for animals that need shelter. According to the Alberta wildfire website, the blaze covered 15 hectares as of 4:45 p.m. MT on Sunday. Hwy16 at RR 195, west of Edson – CLOSED due to wildfire – Expect major delays. Use extreme caution in the area. (5:39pm) #ABRoads — @511Alberta Marlboro is a hamlet located 25 kilometres west of Edson, and 225 kilometres west of Edmonton, on the Yellowhead Highway. The wildfire danger in much of northern Alberta was rated as extreme on Sunday, with the risk rated as high to very high in the central-west part of the province. Fire bans were in place in northern Alberta, and the Edson forest area was under a fire advisory as winds and dry conditions were expected to cause the risk of wildfire to increase. Another out-of-control fire was raging west of High Level. The fire covered 25,000 hectares, and was expected to grow Sunday.

Commodity news: Oil price spikes on OPEC cuts, Trump tweets ‘end of Iran’ – Business Insider

34m REUTERS/Essam Al-Sudani Crude oil jumped after Trump threatened Iran and oil producers signaled they would maintain supply cuts. “If Iran wants to fight, that wil be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again!” Trump tweeted. OPEC plans to reduce inventories “gently” with an eye on the needs of a “fragile” market. Crude-oil prices jumped by as much as 1.6% on Monday after US President Trump threatened the “official end of Iran” and oil producers signaled they would maintain supply cuts. Responding to Iran’s suspension of its commitments to the nuclear deal it signed in 2015 and its threats to resume production of enriched uranium, Trump tweeted , “If Iran wants to fight, that wil be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again!” Meanwhile, Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said there was consensus among the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other oil producers to reduce crude inventories “gently” while remaining responsive to the needs of a “fragile market,” according to Reuters. “Oil has already rallied around 40% since the start of the year, thanks mainly to OPEC limiting supply,” said Jasper Lawler, head of research at London Capital Group. “Add into the equation rising Middle-Eastern tensions as Iran retaliates to US measures, and oil looks well supported at these levels.” Stock markets were muted as traders waited for the next twist in the US-China trade war. Following the Trump administration’s blacklisting of Huawei last week, Google has suspended most of its business with the Chinese telecoms giant , meaning future Android phones won’t have access to apps such as Gmail, YouTube, or Google Maps. China dismissed the US sanctions on Huawei as ” petty tricks ” last week, suggesting retaliation isn’t out of the question. Here’s the market roundup as of 10.40 a.m. (5.40 a.m. ET): Asian indexes closed lower with the Shanghai Composite down 0.4%, the SZSE Component down 0.9%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 0.6%. European equities dropped with Germany’s DAX down 0.7%, the Euro Stoxx 50 down 0.8%, and Britain’s FTSE 100 down 0.5%. US stocks are set to open lower. Futures underlying the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 were down about 0.2%, while Nasdaq futures were down 0.5%. Oil pared earlier gains. Brent crude rose about 0.5% to $72.60, while WTI crude rose about 0.4% to $63.20. Get the latest Oil WTI price here.

Billionaire Robert F Smith to pay entire US class’s student debt

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The moment a billionaire cleared a whole class’s student debt A billionaire technology investor has shocked graduating students in Atlanta, Georgia, by telling them he will pay off all of their student loans. Robert F Smith, one of America’s most prominent black philanthropists, was giving an address at Morehouse College, a historically all-male black college. Nearly 400 students will benefit at a cost of tens of millions of dollars. The class of 2019 and their teachers were stunned at the news before breaking into applause. Image Copyright @JoseMallabo @JoseMallabo Report Image Copyright @JoseMallabo @JoseMallabo Report Mr Smith, 56, founded private equity firm Vista Equity Partners in 2000 to invest in software companies, and has a personal net worth of $5bn, according to Forbes. “On behalf of the eight generations of my family that have been in this country, we’re gonna put a little fuel in your bus,” Mr Smith told the graduates on Sunday. Free tuition for all NYU medical students ‘I feared not living to pay off my debt’ “This is my class, 2019. And my family is making a grant to eliminate their student loans.” The billionaire was at the college to receive an honorary doctorate and had already announced a donation of $1.5m to Morehouse. The exact cost of Mr Smith’s latest act of generosity is unclear, as the college has yet to calculate the total debt of the students who will benefit, but it is estimated to be at least $10m (£7.7m) and could be significantly higher. How did they react? Aaron Mitchom, 22, wept at the news that he would not have to pay back $200,000 in loans he had taken out to fund his finance studies, AP news agency reports. “I was shocked,” he said. “My heart dropped. We all cried. In the moment it was like a burden had been taken off.” Morehouse College president David A Thomas was quoted by CNN as saying: ” When you have to service debt, the choices about what you can go do in the world are constrained . “[The grant] gives them the liberty to follow their dreams, their passions.”

#latest News #Latest News

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nityarawal · 1 year

Text

10/10/2023

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Seeing Red

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Anymore

You Been Sanctioned

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melindarowens · 7 years

Text

U.N. Security Council imposes new sanctions on North Korea over missile test

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley votes among other members of the United Nations Security Council to impose new sanctions on North Korea, in New York, U.S., December 22, 2017. REUTERS/Amr Alfiky

December 23, 2017

By Rodrigo Campos and Hyonhee Shin

UNITED NATIONS/SEOUL (Reuters) – The U.N. Security Council unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea on Friday for its Nov. 29 intercontinental ballistic missile test, seeking to limit its access to refined petroleum products and crude oil and its earnings from workers abroad.

A Security Council resolution adopted 15-0 seeks to ban nearly 90 percent of refined petroleum product exports to North Korea by capping them at 500,000 barrels a year and, in a last-minute change, demands the repatriation of North Koreans working abroad within 24 months, instead of 12 months as first proposed.

The U.S.-drafted resolution also caps crude oil supplies to North Korea at 4 million barrels a year and commits the Council to further reductions if Pyongyang were to conduct another nuclear test or launch another ICBM.

North Korea on Nov. 29 said it successfully tested a new ICBM in a “breakthrough” that puts the U.S. mainland within range of its nuclear weapons whose warheads could withstand re-entry to the Earth’s atmosphere.

Tensions have been rising over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, which it pursues in defiance of years of U.N. Security Council resolutions, with bellicose rhetoric coming from both Pyongyang and the White House.

In November, North Korea demanded a halt to what it called “brutal sanctions,” saying a previous round imposed after its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3 constituted genocide.

U.S. diplomats have made clear they are seeking a diplomatic solution but proposed the new, tougher sanctions resolution to ratchet up pressure on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

“It sends the unambiguous message to Pyongyang that further defiance will invite further punishments and isolation,” Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said after the vote.

The North Korean mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the vote.

Wu Haitao, China’s deputy U.N. ambassador, said tensions on the Korean peninsula risk “spiralling out of control” and he repeated Beijing’s call for talks.

“Only by meeting each other halfway and through dialogue and consultations can a peaceful settlement be found,” he said.

North Korea regularly threatens to destroy South Korea, the United States and Japan, and says its weapons programs are necessary to counter U.S. aggression. The United States stations 28,500 troops in the South, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.

On Friday, a spokesperson for North Korea’s foreign ministry called U.S. President Donald Trump’s recently released national security strategy the latest American policy seeking to “stifle our country and turn the entire Korean peninsula” into an outpost of American hegemony.

He said Trump was seeking “total subordination of the whole world”.

INCREASING PRESSURE

Speaking before the Security Council vote, analysts said the new sanctions could have a major effect on the North’s economy.

“If they were enforced, the cap on oil would be devastating for North Korea’s haulage industry, for North Koreans who use generators at home or for productive activities, and for (state-owned enterprises) that do the same,” said Peter Ward, a columnist for NK News, a website that tracks North Korea.

The forced repatriation of foreign workers would also cut off vital sources of foreign currency and investment not only for the government but also for North Korea’s emerging market economy, he said.

China, which supplies most of North Korea’s oil, has backed successive rounds of U.N. sanctions but had resisted past U.S. calls to cut off supplies to its neighbor.

The move to curb Chinese fuel exports to North Korea may have limited impact after China National Petroleum Corp <CNPET.UL> suspended diesel and gasoline sales to its northern neighbor in June over concerns it would not get paid.

Business has slowed steadily since then, with zero shipments of diesel, gasoline and other fuel from China in October. November data will be released on Monday.

Russia quietly boosted economic support for North Korea earlier this year, and last week Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov said Moscow was not ready to sign up to sanctions that would strangle the country economically.

In a bid to further choke North Korea’s external sources of funding, the resolution also seeks to ban North Korean exports of food products, machinery, electrical equipment, earth and stone, including magnesite and magnesia, wood and vessels.

It also bans exports to North Korea of industrial equipment, machinery, transportation vehicles, and industrial metals as well as subjecting 15 North Koreans and the Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces to a global asset freeze and travel ban.

It also seeks to allow countries to seize, inspect and freeze any vessel in their ports or territorial waters that they believe was carrying banned cargo or involved in prohibited activities.

Even if the proposed sanctions have an economic effect, it is not clear whether that would push Pyongyang to negotiate or stop its weapons development, said Kim Sung-han, a former South Korean vice foreign minister.

“We have had numerous – sometimes so-called toughest – sanctions against North Korea over the past 25 years,” he said. “Almost none have worked effectively to halt the regime’s military and nuclear ambitions.”

(Additional reporting by Christian Shepherd in Beijing, Warren Strobel in Washington and Michelle Nichols; Writing by Josh Smith and Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Nick Macfie and James Dalgleish)

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everettwilkinson · 7 years

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U.N. Security Council imposes new sanctions on North Korea over missile test

December 23, 2017

By Rodrigo Campos and Hyonhee Shin

In November, North Korea demanded a halt to what it called “brutal sanctions,” saying a previous round imposed after its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3 constituted genocide.

U.S. diplomats have made clear they are seeking a diplomatic solution but proposed the new, tougher sanctions resolution to ratchet up pressure on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

“It sends the unambiguous message to Pyongyang that further defiance will invite further punishments and isolation,” Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said after the vote.

The North Korean mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the vote.

Wu Haitao, China’s deputy U.N. ambassador, said tensions on the Korean peninsula risk “spiralling out of control” and he repeated Beijing’s call for talks.

“Only by meeting each other halfway and through dialogue and consultations can a peaceful settlement be found,” he said.

He said Trump was seeking “total subordination of the whole world”.

INCREASING PRESSURE

Speaking before the Security Council vote, analysts said the new sanctions could have a major effect on the North’s economy.

China, which supplies most of North Korea’s oil, has backed successive rounds of U.N. sanctions but had resisted past U.S. calls to cut off supplies to its neighbor.

Business has slowed steadily since then, with zero shipments of diesel, gasoline and other fuel from China in October. November data will be released on Monday.

It also seeks to allow countries to seize, inspect and freeze any vessel in their ports or territorial waters that they believe was carrying banned cargo or involved in prohibited activities.

(Additional reporting by Christian Shepherd in Beijing, Warren Strobel in Washington and Michelle Nichols; Writing by Josh Smith and Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Nick Macfie and James Dalgleish)

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wionews · 7 years

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Myanmar's Suu Kyi meets Tillerson in Manila

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi faced rising global pressure Tuesday to solve the crisis for her nation's displaced Rohingya Muslim minority, meeting the UN chief and America's top diplomat in the Philippines.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Nobel laureate that hundreds of thousands of displaced Muslims who had fled to Bangladesh should be allowed to return to their homes in Myanmar.

"The Secretary-General highlighted that strengthened efforts to ensure humanitarian access, safe, dignified, voluntary and sustained returns, as well as true reconciliation between communities, would be essential," a UN statement said, summarising comments to Suu Kyi.

Guterres' comments came hours before Suu Kyi sat down with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Manila.

Washington has been cautious in its statements on the situation in Rakhine and has avoided outright criticism of Suu Kyi.

Supporters say she must navigate a path between outrage abroad and popular feeling in a majority Buddhist country where most people believe the Rohingya are interlopers.

At a photo opportunity at the top of her meeting with Tillerson, Suu Kyi ignored a journalist who asked if the Rohingya were citizens of Myanmar.

At a later appearance after the meeting, Tillerson-who is headed to Myanmar on Wednesday-was asked by reporters if he "had a message for Burmese leaders".

He apparently ignored the question, replying only: "Thank you", according to a pool report of the encounter.

A senior US State Department official later said the top diplomat would press Myanmar's powerful army chief on Wednesday to halt the violence in Rakhine and make it safe for Rohingya to return.

The official did not comment on whether Tillerson would raise the threat of military sanctions, which US lawmakers have pushed for.

Canada's Justin Trudeau said he had spoken to Myanmar's de facto leader.

"I had an extended conversation with... Aung San Suu Kyi, about the plight of the Muslim refugees in Rakhine state," he told a press conference.

"This is of tremendous concern to Canada and many, many other countries around the world.

"We are always looking at... how we can help, how we can move forward in a way that reduces violence, that emphasises the rule of law and that ensures protection for all citizens," he said.

'Ethnic cleansing'

More than 600,000 Rohingya have flooded into Bangladesh since late August, and now live in the squalor of the world's biggest refugee camp.

The crisis erupted after Rohingya rebels attacked police posts in Myanmar's Rakhine state, triggering a military crackdown that saw hundreds of villages reduced to ashes and sparked a massive exodus.

The UN says the Myanmar military is engaged in a "coordinated and systematic" attempt to purge the region of Rohingya in what amounts to a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing".

The stream of desperate refugees who escape across the riverine border bring with them stories of rape, murder and the torching of villages by soldiers and Buddhist mobs.

The Burmese government insists military action in Rakhine is a proportionate response to violence by militants.

Following its first official investigation into the crisis, the army published a report this week in which it cleared itself of any abuses.

However, it heavily restricts access to the region by independent journalists and aid groups, and verification of events on the ground is virtually impossible.

Suu Kyi, a former democracy activist, has been lambasted by rights groups for failing to speak up for the Rohingya or condemn festering anti-Muslim sentiment in the country.

Musician and campaigner Bob Geldof on Monday slammed Suu Kyi as a "murderer" and a "handmaiden to genocide", becoming the latest in a growing line of global figures to disavow the one-time darling of the human rights community.

Supporters say she does not have the power to stop the powerful military, which ruled the country for decades until her party came to power following 2015 elections.

In a summit on Monday night with leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Myanmar is a member, Guterres also voiced concern about the Rohingya.

He said the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya was a "worrying escalation in a protracted tragedy," according to the UN statement.

He described the situation as a potential source of instability in the region, as well as radicalisation .

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