news

Integrating LGBTI citizens could add $360mn to economies of Serbia and North Macedonia

The reports highlight that if barriers to entry in the labour market for LGBTI individuals were reduced, leading to decreased discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics, the annual GDP of North Macedonia and Serbia would rise by an average of 0.6%. This positive development would translate to an additional $64mn for North Macedonia and $293mn for Serbia.

“This research shows that LGBTI inclusion is not only the right thing to do but also sound economics.” he stated.

While both North Macedonia and Serbia have implemented significant reforms to safeguard the rights of LGBTI individuals, the reports indicate that discrimination and exclusion persist. In Serbia, LGBTI individuals are still more likely to face economic disadvantages compared to the general population. Additionally, one in seven LGBTI individuals in North Macedonia continues to encounter workplace discrimination in hiring, termination, and career advancement.

Migration crisis; state of emergency in Costa Rica to deal with massive influx of people heading for US

Costa Rica in Central America intends to declare a state of emergency due to an increased wave of migrants on their way to Mexico and later cross to the United States. “I have instructed the security ministry to take a firm stance with anyone who takes Costa Rica's kindness for weakness,” Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves said at a media briefing, referring to recent riots by migrants crossing the nation.

Since January, more than 386,000 migrants have passed through the border from Panama into Costa Rica.

An article on the absolutely atrocious European/British refugee system:

“Are we delivering safe and legal routes in an efficient and effective manner?” This is what Suella Braverman has been asking other European countries, she said today, during a speech that accused the international refugee system of being too generous.

Addressing an exclusive audience at the American Enterprise Institute, a shadowy libertarian think tank in Washington, DC, the UK home secretary said there had been “an interpretative shift” lowering the bar for the award of refugee status. It was time, she said, for an international debate on reform of asylum laws.

When the Home Office claims to offer a “safe and legal route” to refugees around the world, it is in reference to a resettlement scheme run by the United Nations refugee agency. Braverman has repeatedly pointed to the existence of the scheme as justification for barring those who arrive to the UK by irregular means, such as on a small boat, from having their asylum claim heard.

Earlier this year, I spent weeks speaking to a group of 20 Iraqi families who were registered on the scheme by the UN in Turkey – individuals cannot apply on their own behalf – after fleeing death threats at home. When British troops withdrew from Iraq in 2011, they left a country brought to its knees by the invasion to quash an insurgency by the so-called Islamic State. Tens of thousands of civilians would be killed in the conflict that followed.

One woman told me her family left after their home was bombed by the Islamic State. Her niece burned to death in the attack, something which she said haunts her every day. Others spoke of being targeted because they were from religious minorities or employees of the local government. All the families I spoke to shared documents that showed they had been waiting for almost a decade for anyone to resettle them.

Once refugees are registered by the UN, the agency assesses cases and eventually, if they are successful, one of 18 countries (including the UK) accepts a request to resettle them. Some of the Iraqi families I spoke to had British relatives and wished to join them in the UK, though none are afforded a say over where they are resetted by the UN. They had endured years in limbo as they waited for news from the UN. One family told me their youngest child had died during that time because they had not been able to get him the medical support he needed in Turkey. They believed he might have survived if they had been resettled. A widow told me her husband had died of a stroke in the nine years they had spent waiting. She blamed the stress of years of uncertainty.

Many regretted their decision to place their trust in the UN and wished they had tried to seek asylum in the UK by other means, even small boats. A spokesperson for the UN refugee agency did not deny that refugees could be waiting for as long as a decade to be resettled. They pointed out that the scheme was meant to complement, not replace, countries’ own programmes for refugee resettlement.

New IEA net zero report leaves big polluters less room to hide

The walls are closing in for fossil fuel industries!

The influential energy watchdog has downgraded the role of technofixes such as carbon capture and hydrogen in meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement. As their development is failing to live up to expectations – the IEA argues – countries should instead focus on the “most cost-effective” solutions, like ramping up renewables, energy efficiency and electrification.

The updated scenarios give less cover to the oil and gas industry and petrostates to promote these technologies for prolonging the use of fossil fuels. “Removing carbon from the atmosphere is very costly. We must do everything possible to stop putting it there in the first place,” said IEA executive director Fatih Birol in a statement.

The IEA is also calling on all countries to bring forward their net zero plans. It says rich nations should reach net zero emissions by 2045 under an “equitable pathway” that sees historical polluters take the lead. Only a handful of European countries, including Germany, are aiming to achieve that target.

In regards to that first paragraph, there's this additional article: How Carbon Capture and Storage Projects Are Driving New Oil and Gas Extraction Globally

It is a trend reflected across the sector: Of the 32 commercial CCS facilities operating worldwide, 22 use most, or all, of their captured CO2 to push more oil out of already tapped reservoirs. This fleet accounts for approximately 31 million tonnes of the world’s roughly 42 million tonnes of operational carbon capture capacity, according to figures published by the industry-backed Global CCS Institute, U.S. Energy Information Administration and other sources.

But the fact that existing carbon capture projects are mostly used to bring more oil to the surface has not stopped oil and gas companies championing the technology as a climate solution in the run-up to COP28.

Worth noting that even 42 million tonnes of captured carbon is basically nothing even if it was all going into long-term storage. Annual CO2 emissions are something like 35 billion tonnes, to say nothing of the hundreds of billions of tonnes of CO2 that is already in the atmosphere that also needs to be removed, and the future CO2 emissions before carbon capture could even hypothetically become a widespread industry (decades, probably).

Carbon capture is completely implausible in economies based on corporations seeking profit. I still think it has a potential role in removing CO2 from the atmosphere, but it'll only be functional post-revolution, it won't save us from the ongoing climate catastrophe.

Anti-Government Protests in Southern Peru To Resume in October

Social leaders from the regions of Apurimac, Puno, Tacna, Moquegua, Arequipa and Ayacucho confirmed their support for the strike.

According to the Departmental Federation of Workers of Cusco, protests in Peru against the government will resume in October, as agreed by several social organizations.

The secretary general of one of the Federation's factions Juan Castillo said that "future measures of force will be approved next weekend, for now there is the proposal to abide by a 48-hour strike, mobilizations and others that will be implemented."

Castillo urged the population to join the mobilization as "we cannot continue to put up with indifference and abuse of power. We have to assert our rights and defend our natural resources," the secretary general said.

Social leaders from the regions of Apurimac, Puno, Tacna, Moquegua, Arequipa and Ayacucho confirmed their support for the strike. Among their demands are the rejection of the high cost of living and the defense of gas.

On Tuesday, the Departmental Federation of Workers of Cusco, the Civil Construction union, the Association of Agricultural Producers, teachers, merchants and farmers marched against the Government of President Dina Boluarte to demand attention to the demands.

The day before, residents of the Tambo Valley, in the department of Arequipa, took to the streets to express their rejection to the Tia Maria mining project and to the current administration for the attempt to reactivate it.

This territory is going through 15 years of resistance to this initiative. A 2009 citizen consultation showed the environmental impact of such a project, with a threat to agriculture and water.

Boluarte refuses to answer before Prosecutor's Office

Peruvian President Boluarte refused on Wednesday to answer questions before the Prosecutor's Office about the crimes of aggravated homicide and genocide for the deaths registered during the protests.

Faced with the refusal of Boluarte to answer, the lawyer of the president Joseph Campos said that "regarding the facts, which could have occurred anywhere in Peru, the answer is only one: we gave statements that the situation is controlled, of public order, respecting the fundamental rights."

Campos reiterated that "at this moment of the investigation, there are no victims or responsible parties. This is being investigated at the corresponding times and places. But the President of the Republic has been responsible and cannot even at the level of perception create a responsibility that she does not have."

Human rights platforms indicate that in the demonstrations between the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, 67 deaths were registered, of which 49 were the result of the action of police and military forces.

Russia to Monitor Plans to Deploy INF-Banned Weapons in Europe

"We are closely monitoring any U.S. steps to implement destabilizing plans," Russian diplomat Zakharova said.

On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that her country will closely monitor U.S. steps to deploy weapons systems previously banned by the arms-control Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in Europe.

"We are closely monitoring any U.S. steps to implement destabilizing plans that involve the deployment of these weapons," Zakharova said during her weekly press briefing.

She noted that this was particularly significant, considering Russia's moratorium on deploying intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles.

"I would like to remind you that the viability of the Russian moratorium is directly linked to the emergence of these U.S. missiles... in the relevant regions," Zakharova said.

She clarified that the weapon system under discussion was the containerized MK-70 launcher. The system, not only used for SM-6 missiles, has been adapted and can be used to fire long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles.

She said that Washington has begun preparing to transfer these missile systems, previously prohibited under the INF treaty, to Europe.

In 2019, Washington officially announced its withdrawal from the INF Treaty. The U.S. and the former Soviet Union signed the INF Treaty in 1987, which prohibited possessing, developing and testing ground-launched missiles with a range of 500-5,500 km.

https://mronline.org/2022/05/07/russia-and-the-ukraine-crisis-the-eurasian-project-in-conflict-with-the-triad-imperialist-policies/

Think the entire article is a pretty good summary of the left wing stance on the issue of the Ukraine war

👀 comment on this Yasha Levine podcast interviewing Alex Boykowich about Ukrainian nazi diaspora in Canada

https://yasha.substack.com/p/episode-1-alex-boykowich-the-ukrainian#details

An Albertan friend (also a member of the Communist Party) informed me a few years ago that Freeland's mom (Chomiak's daughter) went off the fascist rails and became a Trot. Chrystia must have therefore been Grandpa Mike's favorite for her adherence. [I see Chrystia's mother got further mention in the interview.]

I didn't know this at the time but was quite angered by Foreign Minister Stephané Dion's dismissal in favor of Freeland---it was something at the time I assumed was D.C.-inspired and still do---but only recently I came to find out that Bill Browder took credit for Dion's dismissal for Dion's not snapping into line for Browder's Canadian Magnitsky Act. A point Browder made in threatening European pols with later on.

BTW, this was the final post I made on FB before being permanently banned 4 months + ago.

Weird community standards they have, hmm...?

https://readpassage.com/canadian-support-for-ukrainian-nazi-collaborators-goes-beyond-statues/