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toiletpotato · 4 months

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the caption for the picture in the article states "NZ Prime Minister Chris Luxon's office has confirmed taxpayers paid for his Māori language classes."

article transcription below "keep reading"! (emphasis mine)

written by Ben McKay, last updated at 2.15 am on 18 Dec 2023

As New Zealand grapples with a new style of government and approach to the Māori language, Prime Minister Chris Luxon has fallen foul of his advice to the public service.

Mr Luxon appears guilty of a double standard after scolding bureaucrats for taking cash bonuses for understanding the Māori language, te reo, while using taxpayer funds to learn it himself.

Mr Luxon recently confirmed his government would axe payments to te reo-speaking public servants and criticised those who took the bonuses.

"People are completely free to learn for themselves," he said.

"That's what happens out there in the real world, in corporate life, or any other community life across New Zealand.

"I've got a number of MPs, for example, that have made a big effort to learn te reo ... they've driven that learning themselves because they want to do it.

"In the real world outside of Wellington and outside the bubble of MPs, people who want to learn te reo or want to learn any other education actually pay for it themselves."

However, Mr Luxon did not follow his advice.

After repeated requests, the prime minister's office confirmed taxpayers paid for Mr Luxon's classes through a budget offered to the leader of the opposition, saying it was "highly relevant" to his role.

"I think it makes me a better prime minister," he said on Monday.

Opposition Leader Chris Hipkins said te reo was "a national treasure" and learning it should be incentivised.

"Christopher Luxon should be commended for learning Māori, but it's absolute hypocrisy for his government to then set about cancelling the taxpayer subsidies he used to do so, thus denying others that same opportunity," he said.

Waste watchdog the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union called on Mr Luxon to pay back the tuition costs.

Mr Luxon's right-leaning coalition of the National, ACT and NZ First parties has already strained relations with many in Māoridom, particularly over plans to wind back te reo use as championed by the Labour government.

Public servants have been told to communicate in English while public bodies - such as Waka Kotahi for the New Zealand Transport Agency - must revert to using their English-language name first.

Detractors say the government is bashing a minority and inflaming a culture war while the government argues changes have confused non-te reo speakers.

Te reo use is on the rise in NZ but remains a second language.

Competent speakers have grown from six to eight per cent from 2016 to 2021, including 23 per cent of Maori, up from 17 per cent.

Assimilationist governments banned the language in schools for much of the 20th century, causing trauma for many Māori.

Some government members are hostile to te reo use, with Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters believing Aotearoa, the Māori term for NZ, is illegitimate.

In parliament last week, the 78-year-old declined to answer a question in te reo from Rawiri Waititi, the Māori Party co-leader who has mobilised thousands to protest the new government.

Mr Luxon insisted he supported the language and wanted others to learn too.

"It's a fantastic language," he said.

"I wish I had learned as a younger person ... I'm trying to learn.

"I've found it actually very hard."

Mr Luxon had a chequered record with the Indigenous language in his former role as Air New Zealand's chief executive.

Under his leadership, stewards began using te reo greetings such as "kia ora" for hello and "ma te wa" for see you soon.

In September 2019, the airline sought to trademark "kia ora" - the name of its in-flight magazine.

After consultation with Māori leaders, and a local and international backlash, Air New Zealand abandoned the bid a week later.

#nzpol #aotearoa #new zealand #makes no sense!!!

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mariacallous · 1 year

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As Russia ramps up its second offensive, a debate has erupted over whether Moscow or Kyiv will have the upper hand in 2023. While important, such discourse also misses a larger point related to the conflict’s longer-term consequences. In the long run, the true loser of the war is already clear; Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine will be remembered as a historic folly that left Russia economically, demographically, and geopolitically worse off.

Start with the lynchpin of Russia’s economy: energy. In contrast to Europe’s (very real) dependence on Russia for fossil fuels, Russia’s economic dependence on Europe has largely gone unremarked upon. As late as 2021, for example, Russia exported 32 percent of its coal, 49 percent of its oil, and a staggering 74 percent of its gas to OECD Europe alone. Add in Japan, South Korea, and non-OECD European countries that have joined Western sanctions against Russia, and the figure is even higher. A trickle of Russian energy continues to flow into Europe, but as the European Union makes good on its commitment to phase out Russian oil and gas, Moscow may soon find itself shut out of its most lucrative export market.

In a petrostate like Russia that derives 45 percent of its federal budget from fossil fuels, the impact of this market isolation is hard to overstate. Oil and coal exports are fungible, and Moscow has indeed been able to redirect them to countries such as India and China (albeit at discounted rates, higher costs, and lower profits). Gas, however, is much harder to reroute because of the infrastructure needed to transport it. With its $400 billion gas pipeline to China, Russia has managed some progress on this front, but it will take years to match current capacity to the EU. In any case, China’s leverage as a single buyer makes it a poor substitute for Europe, where Russia can bid countries against one another.

This market isolation, however, would be survivable were it not for the gravest unintended consequence of Russia’s war—an accelerated transition toward decarbonization. It took a gross violation of international law, but Putin managed to convince Western leaders to finally treat independence from fossil fuels as a national security issue and not just an environmental one.

This is best seen in Europe’s turbocharged transition toward renewable energy, where permitting processes that used to take years are being pushed up. A few months after the invasion, for example, Germany jump-started construction on what will soon be Europe’s largest solar plant. Around the same time, Britain accelerated progress on Hornsea 3, slated to become the world’s largest offshore wind farm upon completion. The results already speak for themselves; for the first time ever last year, wind and solar combined for a higher share of electrical generation in Europe than oil and gas. And this says nothing of other decarbonization efforts such as subsidies for heat pumps in the EU, incentives for clean energy in the United States, and higher electric vehicle uptake everywhere.

The cumulative effect for Russia could not be worse. Sooner or later, lower demand for fossil fuels will dramatically and permanently lower the price for oil and gas—an existential threat to Russia’s economy. When increased U.S. shale production depressed oil prices in 2014, for example, Russia experienced a financial crisis. Lower global demand for fossil fuels will play out over a longer timeline, but the result for Russia will be much graver. With its invasion, Russia hastened the arrival of an energy transition that promises to unravel its economy.

Beyond a smaller and less efficient economy, Putin’s war in Ukraine will also leave Russia with a smaller and less dynamic population. Russia’s demographic problems are well-documented, and Putin had intended to start reversing the country’s long-running population decline in 2022. In a morbid twist, the year is likelier to mark the start of its irrevocable fall. The confluence of COVID and an inverted demographic pyramid already made Russia’s demographic outlook dire. The addition of war has made it catastrophic.

To understand why, it’s important to understand the demographic scar left by the 1990s. In the chaos that followed the Soviet Union’s dissolution, Russia’s birthrate plunged to 1.2 children per woman, far below the 2.1 needed for a population to remain stable. The effects can still be seen today; while there are 12 million Russians aged 30-34 (born just before the breakup of the Soviet Union), there are just 7 million aged 20-24 (born during the chaos that followed it). That deficit meant Russia’s population was already poised to fall, simply because a smaller number of people would be able to have children in the first place.

Russia’s invasion has made this bad demographic hand cataclysmic. At least 120,000 Russian soldiers have died so far—many in their 20s and from the same small generation Russia can scarcely afford to lose. Many more have emigrated, if they can, or simply fled to other countries to try to wait out the war; exact numbers are hard to calculate, but the 32,000 Russians who have immigrated to Israel alone suggest the total number approaches a million.

Disastrously, the planning horizons of Russian families have been upended; it is projected that fewer than 1.2 million Russian babies may be born next year, , which would leave Russia with its lowest birthrate since 2000. A spike in violent crime, a rise in alcohol consumption, and other factors that collude against a family’s decision to have children may depress the birthrate further still. Ironically, over the last decade Putin managed to slow (if not reverse) Russia’s population decline through lavish payoffs for new mothers. Increased military spending and the debt needed to finance it will make such generous natalist policies harder.

The invasion has left Russia even worse off geopolitically. Unlike hard numbers and demographic data, such lost influence is hard to measure. But it can be seen everywhere, from public opinion polls across the West to United Nations votes that the Kremlin has lost by margins as high as 141 to 5. It can also be seen in Russia’s own backyard; while an emboldened NATO could soon include Sweden and Finland, Russia’s own Collective Security Treaty Organization is tearing at the seams as traditional allies such as Kazakhstan and Armenia realize the Kremlin’s impotence and look to China for security.

Perhaps most important of all, Russia has reinvigorated the cause of liberal democracy. In the year after its invasion, French President Emmanuel Macron won a rare second term in France, the far-right AfD lost ground in three successive elections in Germany, and “Make America Great Again” Republicans paid an electoral penalty in the U.S. midterms. (The far right did sweep into power in both Sweden and Italy, but such wins have so far failed to dent Western unity and appear more motivated by immigration.) And this says nothing of the wave of democratic consolidation playing out across Eastern Europe, where voters have thrown out illiberal populists in Slovenia and Czechia in the last year alone. It is impossible to attribute any of these outcomes to just one factor (U.S. Democrats also got a boost from the overturn of Roe v. Wade and election denialism, for example), but Russia’s invasion—and the clear choice between liberalism and autocracy it presented—no doubt helped.

Nowhere, however, has Russia’s invasion backfired more than in Ukraine. Contrary to Putin’s historical revisionism, Ukraine has long had a national identity distinct from Russia’s. But it’s also long been fractured along linguistic lines, with many of its elites intent on maintaining close relations with the Kremlin and even the public unsure about greater alignment with the West.

No longer. Ninety-one percent of Ukrainians now favor joining NATO, a figure unthinkable just a decade ago. Eighty-five percent of Ukrainians consider themselves Ukrainian above all else, a marker of civic identity that has grown by double digits since Russia’s invasion. Far from protecting the Russian language in Ukraine, Putin appears to have hastened its demise as native Russian speakers (Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky included) switch to Ukrainian en masse. Putin launched his invasion to bring Ukraine back into Moscow’s orbit. He has instead anchored its future in the West.

Of course, one can argue that, however much the war has cost Russia, it has cost Ukraine exponentially more. This is true. Ukraine’s economy shrank by more than 30 percent last year, while Russia’s economy contracted by just about 3 percent. And this says nothing of the human toll Ukraine has suffered. But, like Brexit, Western sanctions on Russia will play out as a slow burn, not an immediate collapse. And while Russia enters a protracted period of economic and demographic decline, once peace comes, Ukraine will have the combined industrial capacity of the EU, United States, and United Kingdom to support it as the West’s newest institutional member—precisely the outcome Putin hoped to avoid. Russia may yet make new territorial gains in the Donbas. But in the long run, such gains are immaterial—Russia has already lost.

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 21 days

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This political cartoon by Louis Dalrymple appeared in Judge magazine in 1903. It depicts European immigrants as rats. Nativism and anti-immigration have a long and sordid history in the United States.

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

March 28, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

MAR 29, 2024

Yesterday the National Economic Council called a meeting of the Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force, which the Biden-Harris administration launched in 2021, to discuss the impact of the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge and the partial closure of the Port of Baltimore on regional and national supply chains. The task force draws members from the White House and the departments of Transportation, Commerce, Agriculture, Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, Energy, and Homeland Security. It is focused on coordinating efforts to divert ships to other ports and to minimize impacts to employers and workers, making sure, for example, that dock workers stay on payrolls.

Today, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg convened a meeting of port, labor, and industry partners—ocean carriers, truckers, local business owners, unions, railroads, and so on—to mitigate disruption from the bridge collapse. Representatives came from 40 organizations including American Roll-on Roll-off Carrier; the Georgia Ports Authority; the International Longshoremen’s Association, the International Organization of Masters, Mates and Pilots; John Deere; Maersk; Mercedes-Benz North America Operations; Seabulk Tankers; Under Armour; and the World Shipping Council.

Today the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration announced it would make $60 million available immediately to be used as a down payment toward initial costs. Already, though, some Republicans are balking at the idea of using new federal money to rebuild the bridge, saying that lawmakers should simply take the money that has been appropriated for things like electric vehicles, or wait until insurance money comes in from the shipping companies.

In 2007, when a bridge across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis suddenly collapsed, Congress passed funding to rebuild it in days and then-president George W. Bush signed the measure into law within a week of the accident.

In the past days, we have learned that the six maintenance workers killed when the bridge collapsed were all immigrants, natives of Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Around 39% of the workforce in the construction industry around Baltimore and Washington, D.C., about 130,000 people, are immigrants, Scott Dance and María Luisa Paúl reported in the Washington Post yesterday.

Some of the men were undocumented, and all of them were family men who sent money back to their home countries, as well. From Honduras, the nephew of one of the men killed told the Associated Press, “The kind of work he did is what people born in the U.S. won’t do. People like him travel there with a dream. They don’t want to break anything or take anything.”

In the Philadelphia Inquirer today, journalist Will Bunch castigated the right-wing lawmakers and pundits who have whipped up native-born Americans over immigration, calling immigrants sex traffickers and fentanyl dealers, and even “animals.” Bunch illustrated that the reality of what was happening on the Francis Scott Key Bridge when it collapsed creates an opportunity to reframe the immigration debate in the United States.

Last month, Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post noted that immigration is a key reason that the United States experienced greater economic growth than any other nation in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The surge of immigration that began in 2022 brought to the U.S. working-age people who, Director Phill Swagel of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office wrote, are expected to make the U.S. gross domestic product about $7 trillion larger over the ten years from 2023 to 2034 than it would have been otherwise. Those workers will account for about $1 trillion dollars in revenues.

Curiously, while Republican leaders today are working to outdo each other in their harsh opposition to immigration, it was actually the leaders of the original Republican Party who recognized the power of immigrants to build the country and articulated an economic justification for increased immigration during the nation’s first major anti-immigrant period.

The United States had always been a nation of immigrants, but in the 1840s the failure of the potato crop in Ireland sent at least half a million Irish immigrants to the United States. As they moved into urban ports on the East Coast, especially in Massachusetts and New York, native-born Americans turned against them as competitors for jobs.

The 1850s saw a similar anti-immigrant fury in the new state of California. After the discovery of gold there in 1848, native-born Americans—the so-called Forty Niners—moved to the West Coast. They had no intention of sharing the riches they expected to find. The Indigenous people who lived there had no right to the land under which gold lay, native-born men thought; nor did the Mexicans whose government had sold the land to the U.S. in 1848; nor did the Chileans, who came with mining skills that made them powerful competitors. Above all, native-born Americans resented the Chinese miners who came to work in order to send money home to a land devastated by the first Opium War.

Democrats and the new anti-immigrant American Party (more popularly known as the “Know Nothings” because members claimed to know nothing about the party) turned against the new immigrants, seeing them as competition that would drive down wages. In the 1850s, Know Nothing officials in Massachusetts persecuted Catholics and deported Irish immigrants they believed were paupers. In California the state legislature placed a monthly tax on Mexican and Chinese miners, made unemployment a crime, took from Chinese men the right to testify in court, and finally tried to stop Chinese immigration altogether by taxing shipmasters $50 for each Chinese immigrant they brought.

When the Republicans organized in the 1850s, they saw society differently than the Democrats and the Know Nothings. They argued that society was not made up of a struggle over a limited economic pie, but rather that hardworking individuals would create more than they could consume, thus producing capital that would make the economy grow. The more people a nation had, the stronger it would be.

In 1860 the new party took a stand against the new laws that discriminated against immigrants. Immigrants’ rights should not be “abridged or impaired,” the delegates to its convention declared, adding that they were “in favor of giving a full and efficient protection to the rights of all classes of citizens, whether native or naturalized, both at home and abroad.”

Republicans’ support for immigration only increased during the Civil War. In contrast to the southern enslavers, they wanted to fill the land with people who supported freedom. As one poorly educated man wrote to his senator, “Protect Emegration and that will protect the Territories to Freedom.”

Republicans also wanted to bring as many workers to the country as possible to increase economic development. The war created a huge demand for agricultural products to feed the troops. At the same time, a terrible drought in Europe meant there was money to be made exporting grain. But the war was draining men to the battlefields of Stones River and Gettysburg and to the growing U.S. Navy, leaving farmers with fewer and fewer hands to work the land.

By 1864, Republicans were so strongly in favor of immigration that Congress passed “an Act to Encourage Immigration.” The law permitted immigrants to borrow against future homesteads to fund their voyage to the U.S., appropriated money to provide for impoverished immigrants upon their arrival, and, to undercut Democrats’ accusations that they were simply trying to find men to throw into the grinding war, guaranteed that no immigrant could be drafted until he announced his intention of becoming a citizen.

Support for immigration has waxed and waned repeatedly since then, but as recently as 1989, Republican president Ronald Reagan said: “We lead the world because, unique among nations, we draw our people—our strength—from every country and every corner of the world. And by doing so we continuously renew and enrich our nation…. Thanks to each wave of new arrivals to this land of opportunity, we're a nation forever young, forever bursting with energy and new ideas, and always on the cutting edge, always leading the world to the next frontier. This quality is vital to our future as a nation. If we ever closed the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost.”

The workers who died in the bridge collapse on Tuesday “were not ‘poisoning the blood of our country,’” Will Bunch wrote, quoting Trump; “they were replenishing it…. They may have been born all over the continent, but when these men plunged into our waters on Tuesday, they died as Americans.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#immigration #history #Letters From An American #Heather Cox Richardson #Know Nothings #supply chains #economic growth

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beardedmrbean · 6 months

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Oct. 9 (UPI) -- The European Union announced on Monday it was suspending millions in aid to the Palestinian Authority following attack by Hamas against Israel.

The bloc's Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi, of Hungary, said on social media it would suspend the payments immediately, putting $728.5 million in a development portfolio under review.

Additionally, budget proposals, including for the remainder of 2023 would be placed on hold "until further notice."

"The foundations for peace, tolerance and co-existence must now be addressed," Várhelyi said. "Incitement to hatred, violence and glorification of terror have poisoned the minds of too many. We need action and we need it now."

Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky calls for global action against terror in Israel conflict

Last year, the EU provided about $316 million in 2022 and promised $1.9 billion overall from 2021-2024 including funding to pay civil servants, complete projects and aid refugees.

Ana Pisonero, the EU Commission spokesperson for enlargement and neighborhood policy said Monday the budget did not include "direct or indirect" funding for Hamas.

"All recipients of EU funding are required to ensure that these funds are not made available, either directly or indirectly to entities, individuals or groups which have been designed under EU restrictive measures or to their representatives," said Pisonero.

The announcement comes on the heels of Germany and Austria announcing the suspension of aid to the Palestinians.

The EU's foreign policy head Josep Borrell condemned the attack in a statement on Sunday.

"The EU calls for an immediate cessation of these senseless attacks and violence, which will only further increase tensions on the ground and seriously undermine Palestinian people's aspirations for peace," the statement said.

"The EU stands in solidarity with Israel, which has the right to defend itself in line with international law, in the face of such violent and indiscriminate attacks."

Nine U.S. citizens have been counted among those killed in the conflict as Ron Dermer, Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs, said more than 800 people were killed in the Hamas rocket attacks and Israeli officials said more than 100 people have been taken captive by Hamas.

Palestine's Health Ministry said Monday that 560 Palestinians have been killed and another 2,900 have been injured.

#nunyas news

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nando161mando · 7 months

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In early 2021, 7 out of 10 people backed increasing income support: . After Budget 2021 60% of ppl thought benefits should have been lifted further: . National wants to drag the public back & against people who are in need of support.

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rudrjobdesk · 2 years

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बजट 2021: हेल्थकेयर इंफ्रास्ट्रक्चर और मेडिकल रिसर्च पर खर्च बढ़ाए सरकार, कोरोनाकाल ने बताई जरूरत

आगामी केंद्रीय बजट की तैयारियां जोरों पर हैं। वित्त वर्ष 2021-22 का केंद्रीय बजट एक फरवरी को पेश होने वाला है। साल 2020 में कोरोना ने हेल्थकेयर सेक्टर के इंफ्रास्ट्रक्चर में बजट आवंटन बढ़ाने की मांग तेज होने लगी है। कोरोनाकाल ने यह अहसास कराया है कि देश के हेल्थकेयर इन्फ्रास्ट्रक्चर को और बेहतर करने की सख्त जरूरत है। हेल्थ इंफ्रास्ट्रक्चर में बढ़े आवंटनहेल्थ सेक्टर सरकार से इस बार बजट में…

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ukrainenews · 1 year

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Daily Wrap Up March 8, 2023

Under the cut:

European Union defense ministers have agreed to supply Ukraine with one billion euros worth of ammunition from their stocks, EU top diplomat Josep Borrell said on March 8, cited by Ukrinform news outlet. The immediate delivery would be reimbursed from the European Peace Facility defense fund, according to Borrell's plan he proposed at an informal meeting of EU defense ministers.

Ukraine's president and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Wednesday for the extension of a deal with Moscow that has allowed Ukraine to export grain via Black Sea ports during Russia's invasion.

The head of Nato has said that it was still uncertain who carried out the attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines in September last year, and that national investigations needed to be allowed to finish.

Ukraine will receive 18 Leopard 2A6 tanks from Germany and three from Portugal by the end of March, German magazine Der Spiegel reported, citing DPA News Agency. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius confirmed the news today at an ongoing meeting of EU defense ministers in Stockholm, as reported by Der Spiegel, adding that the tanks would be arriving with trained crews and ready to go straight to the front lines.

“European Union defense ministers have agreed to supply Ukraine with one billion euros worth of ammunition from their stocks, EU top diplomat Josep Borrell said on March 8, cited by Ukrinform news outlet.

The immediate delivery would be reimbursed from the European Peace Facility defense fund, according to Borrell's plan he proposed at an informal meeting of EU defense ministers.

European Peace Facility is an off-budget fund established in 2021 the EU has used to provide Ukraine with its critically needed military equipment to defend itself from Russia's full-scale invasion.

Another one billion euros would be allocated to order the production of additional 155 mm ammunition to replenish the national stocks and continue helping Ukraine, Borrell said at a press conference following the summit.

EU member states are supposed to place an order collectively which should reduce costs and fasten production, Ukrinform wrote.

"Member states willing to participate have to agree on the terms of the procedure. Once we decide the total amount, then it's a negotiation between the 15 European firms that can produce this kind of weaponry to fix a price and a timely delivery," Borrell said, as quoted by Euronews.

"It's not going to be short, but the sooner we start, the better," the EU top diplomat added. "I hope that by the end of the month, we can arrange with member states who are willing to participate."

The third pillar of Borrell's plan on ramping up military assistance to Ukraine is designed for a long-term perspective and involves increasing the production potential of the European defense industry.

EU foreign and defense ministers are expected to reach a "concrete and formal decision" on the proposed aid package for Ukraine when they gather in Brussels on March 20, according to the union's top diplomat. The final decision on this issue will remain with the European Parliament.

"Unfortunately, we are in wartime, and we have to form a war mentality. I would like to talk about peace and peace talks, but I have to talk about ammunition," Borrell added, according to Ukrinform.

"We should keep the door open for peace negotiations, but think about increasing the production of ammunition and reducing the time for their production."”-via Kyiv Independent

“Ukraine's president and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Wednesday for the extension of a deal with Moscow that has allowed Ukraine to export grain via Black Sea ports during Russia's invasion.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said after talks with Guterres in Kyiv that the Black Sea Grain Initiative was "critically necessary" for the world, and the U.N. chief underlined its importance to global food security and food prices.

The 120-day deal, initially brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last July and extended in November, will be renewed on March 18 if no party objects.

Russia's demands, however, have not yet been met, a Turkish diplomatic source said, adding that Ankara was "working very hard" to ensure the deal continues.

Top U.N. trade official Rebeca Grynspan, who travelled with Guterres to the Ukrainian capital, will meet senior Russian officials in Geneva next week to discuss extending the deal, a U.N. spokesperson said.

"I want to underscore the critical importance of rolling over the Black Sea Grain Initiative on 18th March and working to create the conditions to enable the greatest possible use of export infrastructure through the Black Sea in line with the objectives of the initiative," Guterres told reporters in Kyiv.

Russia, which lifted a blockade of three Ukrainian Black Sea ports under the deal, has signalled that obstacles to its own agricultural exports need to be removed before it lets the agreement continue.

To help convince Russia to allow Ukraine to resume its Black Sea grain exports, a three-year deal was struck last year in which the U.N. agreed to help facilitate Russian food and fertilizer exports.”-via Reuters

“The Ukrainian military has acknowledged that Russian forces continue to advance in the battered eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, its General Staff said in an evening update Wednesday.

“The enemy continues to advance in the Bakhmut sector. They do not stop storming the city of Bakhmut,” according to the update.

The Ukrainian military also said it had been able to hold Moscow’s forces in several areas in and around the city.

“Our defenders repelled attacks in the areas of Orikhovo-Vasylivka, Dubovo-Vasylivka, Bakhmut and Ivanivske,” it said.

According to Ukraine, Russia continues to rely heavily on artillery, supported by multiple launch rocket systems and some air power.

“During the day, the enemy carried out 22 air strikes and fired 29 times from multiple launch rocket systems. In particular, the enemy used 1 Shahed-136 UAV. The drone was eliminated,” it said.

What Russia said: Earlier Wednesday, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian private military company Wagner, claimed that the eastern part of Bakhmut is now under its control. CNN cannot independently confirm Prigozhin’s claim.”-via CNN

“The head of Nato has said that it was still uncertain who carried out the attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines in September last year, and that national investigations needed to be allowed to finish.

The secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, told journalists outside an EU defence ministers’ meeting in Stockholm: “What we do know is that there was an attack against the Nord Stream pipelines, but we have not been able to determine who was behind it.

“There are ongoing national investigations and I think it’s right to wait until those are finalised before we say anything more about who was behind it.”

He added that given the continuing fighting in Bakhmut, there was a chance it could fall in the next few days.

“We must ensure that this does not turn out to be turning point in the war.

“It just highlights that we should not underestimate Russia, we must continue to provide support to Ukraine and Nato allies have over the last year supported Ukraine with military and financial and economic support worth close to €150bn.””-via The Guardian

“Ukraine will receive 18 Leopard 2A6 tanks from Germany and three from Portugal by the end of March, German magazine Der Spiegel reported, citing DPA News Agency.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius confirmed the news today at an ongoing meeting of EU defense ministers in Stockholm, as reported by Der Spiegel, adding that the tanks would be arriving with trained crews and ready to go straight to the front lines.

On March 1, Germany also pledged to increase ammunition production and weapons repair capacity for Ukraine.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz met with U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington, D.C. on March 3 to discuss ongoing support for Ukraine. Scholz, as cited by Reuters, said that it was important to continue supporting Ukraine "as long as it takes and as long as is necessary."”-via Kyiv Independent

“For the first time since the start of the full-scale invasion on Feb. 24 of last year, no civilians injuries were recorded in Donetsk Oblast, according to Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko. However, the governor acknowledged that the situation remains "tense."

This information applies to the Ukrainian-controlled parts of Donetsk Oblast, as some parts of it are under Russian occupation.

Attacks were launched at multiple villages, towns and cities in the directions of Donetsk, Horlivka, and Lysychansk, resulting in property damage.

Yesterday, the Cabinet of Minister approved the mandatory evacuation of families with children from active combat zones. Currently, this criteria only applies to the city of Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast, which has seen some of the heaviest fighting since the start of the war.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on March 7 that 38 children remain in Bakhmut, which was once a prosperous industrial city that 70,000 people (including 12,000 children) called home.”-via Kyiv Independent

#Daily Update #Ukraine #Russia #War in Ukraine #bakhmut #donetsk #Germany #Portugal #NATO #Black Sea #EU

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mwebber · 8 months

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heyyy i was wondering if u saw marks story around .. 10 hours ago, before he deleted it. it was this reel https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvLWrV3vOr3/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

and obvs he must’ve seen how stupid it was to post that to his story or something but he still liked the post and idk …

i didn’t because i don’t check instagram lmao but ahh hm. how do i address this in a nuanced way.

for context, the vid is a clip of polish european parliament member dominik tarczyński from 2021 in the middle of a debate on the rule of law conditionality mechanism, which to my understanding (in incredibly dummy terms) was the european commission trying to find a way to penalize increasingly conservative places hungary and poland by taking away budget in the condition that such places violated their articles and whatnot. tarczyński obviously goes on the defensive and says that poland rejects the commission’s “leftist ideals” and to focus instead on sweden and germany who have uhhhh allegedly an increased crime rate because of [checks notes] illegal migrants. you can read the whole thing here.

now, mark agreeing with this isn’t like… surprising? our boy literally simped for jordan peterson at one point. but from having grown up conservative, i can tell you that the line of thinking here probably isn’t “i am islamophobic and racist and think all immigration is bad!” it’s more likely that mark subscribes to the rhetoric that immigration needs to be “selective” so that countries can let in the “right quality” of person. this of course is directly tied to the notion that nonwhite people (plus or minus east asians depending on what benefits white supremacy more) aren’t qualified people (or people at all), not even getting into the question of whether the concept of citizenship should even exist. but deconstructing that idea, especially when it’s something that seems so fundamentally innocent and basic—à la “yeah, you shouldn’t let everyone into a country, there should be some regulation”—requires a level of effort and prompting that i’m not sure mark is equipped to tackle, at least not in the communities he’s in/with the people he publicly surrounds himself by.

i will say that instagram/socmed activity isn’t a complete measure of someone’s political or moral compass. like, the chance that mark watched the reel without any of the context, thought it was poland sticking up for itself, posted to his story, and someone else pointed out that it was a stupid racist nonsensical take so he took it down… is not non-zero. alternatively, he could have googled it and thought hm, maybe i don’t want to put in my two cents on european union politics. who knows! only he does.

but i think that all brings me to my main gripe with fandomization of a real person, and the whole thing where we treat these men like fictional characters. it’s easy to fall into the whole fanon thing and think that mark’s offenses are just, y’know, being a “proud heterosexual” and that his laundry list of crimes ends at a couple of stupid misconstrued tweets. and we can add all the context we like of rising transphobia/the phenomenon of trans people as a scapegoat for the right/etc, but i don’t think anything excuses this man for his ignorance and the very real pain he has brought on the community time and time again.

that said, he’s not evil personified. yes, he double tapped a reel on a polish mep scapegoating immigrants. yes, he said jordan peterson’s bullshit book was good. yes, he made a distasteful jab at trans people. he’s still also just a guy who likes animals. he’s still also the bitchy freak we fell for. he’s still also human with family he clearly adores and a compelling life story.

the bigger question is, where do you, personally, draw the line? when do his wrongdoings exceed your tolerance?

to be frank, i’m not entirely sure why you came to me with this—whether you were looking for validation, or for me to jump on demonizing him, or whatever. i have laid out my personal and everchanging opinion of him in painstaking detail on this account, but they’re my opinions based on what i can stand to tolerate. if you vibe with that, cool! but if this has pushed you over your line, that’s equally valid and okay. i’d support anybody saying they’ve decided to stop being a fan, i get it.

bottom line is this: he’s a real person. he’s not going to be someone you like 100% of the time, because nobody ever is. you need to make your own choices here, and whatever you’re comfy with, that’s your path.

#inbox

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maaarine · 5 months

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Far-right party set to win most seats in Dutch elections, exit polls show (Jon Henley and Pjotr Sauer and Senay Boztas, The Guardian, Nov 22 2023)

"Geert Wilders’ far-right, anti-Islam Party for Freedom (PVV) is on course to be the largest party in the Dutch parliament, according to exit polls, in a major electoral upset whose reverberations will be felt around Europe.

The PVV, whose manifesto includes calls for bans on mosques, the Qur’an and Islamic headscarves in government buildings, was predicted to win 37 seats in the 150-seat parliament, more than double the number it won in the previous ballot in 2021.

However, it is unclear whether Wilders – whose party has finished second and third in previous elections, but always been shut out of government – will be able to win enough support to form a coalition with a working parliamentary majority. (…)

Although the party that wins the most seats traditionally provides the next prime minister, it is by no means guaranteed to do so.

Rutte will remain in a caretaker role until a new government is installed, which might not be before next spring.

The outcome of the election, set to usher in the Netherlands’ first new prime minister in 13 years after four consecutive Rutte-led coalitions, could lead to “constitutional stalemate”, said Kate Parker of the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Analysts have predicted that coalition negotiations could prove even longer and more complex than after the previous 2021 election, when four coalition partners took a record 271 days to hammer out an agreement.

The shape of the new coalition could have a major impact on the Netherlands’ immigration and climate policies, as well as relations with its European partners.

The country was a founding EU member and punches above its weight in the bloc.

Rutte’s fourth and final coalition resigned in July after failing to agree on measures to rein in migration, one of the key issues of the campaign, along with a housing crisis that especially affects Dutch youth, the cost of living, and voter trust in politicians.

Wilders is an outspoken Eurosceptic and has long campaigned for the Dutch government to take back control of the country’s borders to reduce immigration, slash payments into the union’s budget and veto any further expansion of the EU.

He has also demanded the Netherlands stop sending arms to Ukraine."

#article #geert wilders #politics

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musiconanironingboard · 3 months

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15 April 2023: The Men That God Forgot, Waco Brothers. (Plenty Tuff, 2023)

I was a rabid Mekons fan at one point, and while that British group does occasionally play in Chicago where I and several of them live it is far more common to see Jon Langford, one of the Mekons frontpeople, perform with his band Waco Brothers. I was never a rabid Wacos fan; they were fun to see live from time to time, but I didn't worry about obtaining their albums. During pandemic sequestering I obtained a copy of the Wacos' "hits" album Resist! and when I played that a couple of years after buying it I wound up convincing myself I should buy the band's forthcoming new album. Forget that by that time I was sick of the Wacos, Jon Langford's presence in my general scene had become so constant that I hit my life's quota of his projects, and the band's new violinist Jean Cook (who had already been playing in Langford groups for quite a few years before becoming an official Waco) somehow rubbed me the wrong way. It would have been a perfect time to break off any intentions of buying new Waco Brothers material, not to mention that their drummer Joe Camarillo died in January 2021. I could have stopped with the hits album, but habits and greed led me to obtaining this new album that I barely wanted. The album is fine, I've got no beef with the material, but a collector needs to have limits and I'm irritated that I ignored my own with this purchase. (I do think the cover art is abysmal; considering Langford's visual-arts talent this seems like a budget rush job.)

Above are the front and back covers.

Below is the left side of the opened CD package. This is a Langford painting and shows what he's truly capable of.

Below is the entirety of the opened package with the disc removed to show the design under the tray, a design for "Plenty Tuff Records," an entity likely made up by the Wacos for this project; it harkens to their 1995 song "Plenty Tough—Union Made." I've no doubt that Langford banged out that Plenty Tuff logo, but my goodness that's got to be one of the least attractive things he's drawn.

Here we have the CD in the tray, using graphic elements from the front cover and looking far more appealing than the front's beige and blue.

This is the final post of purchases I made in 2023. Roughly 300 additional acquisitions made between April 15 and December 31 thus get abandoned as I restart my efforts in the next post with the first purchase of 2024. I hope to not fall so behind this new year, but I have no doubt life will get in the way once again.

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newengen · 8 months

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Update: On July 25th, UPS avoided a workers' strike by reaching a labor deal with the Teamsters Union.

Background

Negotiations between UPS and Teamsters-represented workers have stalled, with both sides accusing each other of abandoning talks. If the current contract expires on July 31st without a new agreement, a strike involving 340,000 unionized UPS workers is highly likely. This potential 10-day strike is projected to be one of the costliest in a century, with estimated losses of $4 billion for UPS customers, according to the Anderson Economic Group. The last UPS Teamsters strike occurred in 1997 and had significant economic consequences. Since then, package shipment volume has surged, with an average of 59 million daily packages sent in the US in 2021. With a 24% market share, a walkout by UPS workers could cause substantial delays affecting millions of shipments. Competitors like FedEx are urging UPS customers to switch, but experts doubt their capacity to handle the resulting backlog. Although UPS has started training its nonunion workforce (around 100,000 employees in the US) to manage operations during a strike, it remains inadequate for handling UPS's entire volume.

What Does It Mean for Brands?

A strike will cause significant disruptions for businesses relying on UPS for inbound shipping and order fulfillment. While there is some indication that consumers are becoming less fixated on fast shipping and prioritizing factors like Free Shipping and Easy/Free Returns, it's important to note that nearly all customers (91%) still expect their orders to arrive within 7 days. Furthermore, 70% of customers expressed discontent if their orders failed to arrive on time. In situations of fulfillment disruptions, effective communication is crucial.

Businesses affected by the strike should consider the following actions:

Explore alternative shipping providers, giving preference to regional or local options to avoid overwhelming major competitors who may experience a surge in volume. Recognize that 58% of consumers prefer retailers offering flexible delivery options (such as varied shipping speeds, in-store pickup, curbside delivery, etc.). Thus, even in the absence of a strike, providing multiple options will remain important.

Plan for appropriate messaging on order checkout and shipping pages, such as informing customers that their orders may be impacted by labor disruptions. If multiple shipping options are available, consider highlighting non-UPS fulfillment options on the order page.

Develop a strategy for handling return windows if customers attempt to return products during the strike.

For Marketing Teams:

If you anticipate being unable to fulfill orders, consider pausing or reallocating marketing budgets. Focus on upper-funnel activities such as audience growth and engagement to generate momentum for lower-funnel spending once normal operations resume.

Narrow your targeting to markets where you have physical stores and emphasize options like BOPIS (Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store) or in-store shopping. Monitor and analyze changes in sales volume across offline channels during this period.

Similar to high-volume sales periods or holidays, closely monitor inventory levels. Keep a close eye on out-of-stock items and be prepared to prioritize products that are available, adjusting your creative to feature them. Collaborate with your agency or internal team to develop playbooks for how to respond to out-of-stock products.

If you sell wholesale and your retail partners are capable of fulfilling orders faster than your direct-to-consumer (DTC) e-commerce business, consider prioritizing retail media spending.

Prepare email campaigns for affected customers, maintaining transparency about the status of their orders and keeping them informed about any additional delays. Consider sending proactive email campaigns specifically for loyal customers, addressing the potential for delayed shipping. This is particularly important for brands offering auto-replenish or subscription-based products that may be impacted.

Temporarily adjust loyalty incentives for customers willing to tolerate delays, expressing gratitude for their patience and loyalty with a message like "Thanks for riding with us."

This is a developing story. Stay on top of the news by following us on LinkedIn and subscribing to our newsletter.

#ups #ups strike #digital marketing #advertising #seo

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