https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/19/health/microplastics-human-penises-study-scli-intl-scn-wellness/index.html

Link to the article here

“We were elected to implement an aggressive reform program. And that is what we are doing now. We now have three years without further elections ahead of us, our performance will be assessed in 2027.”

It almost sounds like a threat from the conservative Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. His centre-right party Nea Dimokratia With 28.3 percent of the vote, it easily took first place in the European elections, almost twice as many as the left-wing opposition party Syriza (14.9 percent). However, it remained far below the 33 percent target set by Mitsotakis.

The reason given was the currently largest It rises of the Greeks: the high Cost of living,According to the Bank of Greece, 27 percent of the Greek population spends more than 40 percent of their income on housing costs.

Mitsotakis wants to counteract this – and focuses on employer-friendly measureswhich, however, causes the unions and left-wing politicians to cry out.

Employees must be informed 24 hours in advance

From 1 July Employers may invite their employees to Six-day week This will make Greece the first country in the EU to introduce a 41-hour working week. Previously, this was only possible in the tourism and food industries, but now the arrangement of a sixth working day is permitted for all private and publicly controlled industries (but not civil servants). The employee must have at least 24 hours before For the sixth working day, a Surcharge von 40 percent of the daily wage; 115 percent if the day falls on a public holiday.

Overtime is not possible. The day must be entered into a system that is to be controlled by the state.

This is intended to ensure that “industrial companies with rotating shift work and highly specialised staff do not have to interrupt their processes,” quotes the HE DOES the Greek Ministry of Labour. Furthermore, every employee also has the right to eleven consecutive hours off work per day or night and to 24 hours every seven days.

Up to two jobs

But critics stress that workers are already under a lot of pressure: wages are too low, and many Greeks are forced to work two jobs to cover the cost of living – about eight hours a day in one job and up to five hours a day in the other.

Also that the Right of termination to be relaxed, will tighten working conditions: employers are to be first year can dismiss the employee at any time. Mitsotakis wants to encourage companies to hire more people: The Unemployment rate in Greece is twice as high as the Eurozone average (2023: 10.9 percent). Social security contributions employers should be reduced. A reduction in the VATwhich is often seen by left-wing economists as an effective measure to combat inflation, the Prime Minister vehemently rules out.

Protest by trade unions in September of last year when the law passed parliament.

Many working hours, but little productivity:

Economists have long complained about the low labour productivity in Greece – one of the lowest in the EU, while Greek workers already have the longest working hours in Europe compared to the EU. The German Federal Statistical Office According to 2022, an average of 41 hours per week, the European average was 37 hours per week. In Austria The average working hours per week were 35.7. The lowest value was reported for the Netherlands at 31.3 hours per week – due to the high proportion of employed people in part-time employment (43.4 percent).

We need to focus on increasing productivity and automating processes, otherwise the competitiveness of the country is not sustainable. This could also be achieved with a Reduction of working hours cites the HE DOES the head of the German-Greek Chamber of Industry and CommerceAthanassios Kelemis.

The government has tried various incentives to help entice families to have children over the past decade, but a number of factors, including expensive housing prices, education costs and long working hours, have made young people reluctant to start families and have babies.

Yoon outlined three main areas focused on balancing work and life, improving child care and providing better housing to address the complex issues.

The measures include increasing parental leave allowances and extending leave for fathers, aiming to raise the usage rate of paternity leave from the current 6.8 percent to 50 percent during Yoon's term.

They also include implementing flexible work hours, extending the age limit for reduced working hours for parents of young children and providing subsidies for employers who hire temporary replacements for employees on parental leave.

Imagine doing capitalism so well you have to revert to socdemery

get the fuck out of louisiana

Link to the article

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana has become the first state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom under a bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry on Wednesday.

The GOP-drafted legislation mandates that a poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in “large, easily readable font” be required in all public classrooms, from kindergarten to state-funded universities. Although the bill did not receive final approval from Landry, the time for gubernatorial action — to sign or veto the bill — has lapsed.

Opponents question the law’s constitutionality, warning that lawsuits are likely to follow. Proponents say the purpose of the measure is not solely religious, but that it has historical significance. In the law’s language, the Ten Commandments are described as “foundational documents of our state and national government.”

The displays, which will be paired with a four-paragraph “context statement” describing how the Ten Commandments “were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries,” must be in place in classrooms by the start of 2025.

The posters would be paid for through donations. State funds will not be used to implement the mandate, based on language in the legislation.

The law also “authorizes” — but does not require — the display of the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence and the Northwest Ordinance in K-12 public schools.

Similar bills requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in classrooms have been proposed in other states including Texas, Oklahoma and Utah. However, with threats of legal battles over the constitutionality of such measures, no state besides Louisiana has had success in making the bills law.

Legal battles over the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms are not new.

In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a similar Kentucky law was unconstitutional and violated the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says Congress can “make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” The high court found that the law had no secular purpose but rather served a plainly religious purpose.

Louisiana’s controversial law, in a state ensconced in the Bible Belt, comes during a new era of conservative leadership in the state under Landry, who replaced two-term Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards in January.

The GOP also has a two-thirds supermajority in the Legislature, and Republicans hold every statewide elected position, paving the way for lawmakers to push through a conservative agenda during the legislative session that concluded earlier this month.

The Senate voted 130-4 to pass the law in its final reading with 18 abstentions.

The bill will be forwarded to the cabinet and then submitted for royal endorsement.

It will take effect within 120 days of being published in the Royal Gazette, making Thailand the third country in Asia to recognise same-sex marriages after Nepal and Taiwan.

The adults are in charge

Historic Meeting to Be Specially Recorded in Great Heyday of DPRK-Russia Friendship

President of Russian Federation Arrives in Pyongyang to Pay State Visit to DPRK

Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un Warmly Receives President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin

Pyongyang, June 19 (KCNA) -- At a crucial time when the friendly relations between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation have emerged as a strong strategic fortress for preserving international justice, peace and security and an engine for accelerating the building of a new multi-polar world, another meeting of the top leaders of the two countries took place in Pyongyang, amply demonstrating once again the invincibility and durability of the DPRK-Russia friendship and unity.

Pyongyang International Airport was decked in a festive attire to warmly welcome as the highest state guest President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of the Russian Federation who will pay a state visit to the DPRK at the invitation of Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the DPRK.

The national flags of the DPRK and the Russian Federation were fluttering at the top of flagstaffs.

Seen at the airport were Alexandr Matsegora, Russian ambassador to the DPRK, and his embassy members.

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un came to the airport to greet Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.

A private plane of the president of the Russian Federation landed on Pyongyang International Airport.

Kim Jong Un met with Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin in an exciting atmosphere.

Kim Jong Un shook hands with Putin and embraced him warmly, expressing his joy and gladness to meet him again in Pyongyang 270-odd days after the meeting at the Vostochny Spaceport in September 2023.

Being pleased that his Pyongyang visit was realized, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin expressed deep thanks to Kim Jong Un for coming to the airport to greet him warmly.

Putin was presented with a bouquet by a woman worker.

Among his entourage were Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Mantrov, Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Nobak, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration and concurrently President's Press Secretary Dmitri Peskov, Aide to the President of Russia for Foreign Policy Yuri Ushakov, Minister of Defense Andrei Beloussov, Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology and concurrently Chairman of the Russian Side of the Russia-DPRK Inter-Governmental Committee for Cooperation in Trade, Economy, Science and Technology Alexandr Kozlov , Minister of Health Mikhail Murashuko and Minister of Transport Roman Starovoyt.

Kim Jong Un took Putin's private car to guide him to his lodging quarters.

Passing through charmingly lit streets of Pyongyang at night, the top leaders exchanged their pent-up inmost thoughts and opened their minds to more surely develop the DPRK-Russia relations in conformity with the common desire and will of the peoples of the two countries with the meeting as a momentum.

They arrived at the lodging quarters Kumsusan State Guest House.

Kim Jong Un personally guided Putin, having a friendly chat with him.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin's visit to the DPRK at a remarkable time, when the traditional relations of friendship and cooperation between the DPRK and Russia have surely entered a course of new comprehensive development, is of great importance in reliably promoting the strategic and future-oriented development of the DPRK-Russia relations consolidated in the trials of history generation after generation and century after century and powerfully propelling the cause of building a powerful country, a desire common to the peoples of the two countries. -0-
www.kcna.kp (Juche113.6.19.)

source http://kcna.kp/en/article/q/3eeaa20032734eae74c010c8575fc925.kcmsf
(includes 14 photos with Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un)
mirror https://kcnawatch.org/newstream/1718748518-628025217/historic-meeting-to-be-specially-recorded-in-great-heyday-of-dprk-russia-friendship-president-of-russian-federation-arrives-in-pyongyang-to-pay-state-visit-to-dprk-respected-comrade-kim-jong-un-warmly

https://www.reuters.com/world/putin-vows-take-north-korea-ties-higher-level-2024-06-17/

edit: sources are unconfirmed - the Brazilian link I had up originally was taken down

edit2: sources now say he is alive

As of 3:21PM local time the cause remains unknown. There is still no ETA on when 911 will return.

As of 3:48PM local time service has been restored.

Two key Democratic holdouts in the House and Senate signed off on a major arms sale to Israel, including 50 F-15 fighter jets worth more than $18 billion, after facing intense pressure from the Biden administration and pro-Israel advocates to allow the transaction to move forward, said three U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

Defenders of the administration’s approach point out that Israel’s offensive in Rafah was more restrained than initially feared as a result of U.S. pressure. Despite several recent mass-casualty events involving U.S. weapons, the Biden administration is considering whether to unpause the delivery of a shipment of 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs, officials familiar with the matter said.

mass-casualty event

linky

what can biden do indeed

linky to middleeasteye (cause haaretz don't work)

Big labor news for those who were afraid the Amazon labor union would affiliate with a union more hesitant to take labor action.

⬅️ link to the tweet