Ahead Of Trial, Finnish MP Facing Jail After Tweeting Bible Verse Says Case A Test Of Religious Freedom

 January 19, 2022 

By CNA

A former government minister facing jail after tweeting a Bible verse said that her trial next week will be a test of religious freedom.

Päivi Räsänen, a physician and mother of five, explained that she had a “calm mind” ahead of the criminal trial beginning on Jan. 24.

“I trust that we still live in a democracy, and we have our constitution and international agreements that guarantee our freedom of speech and religion,” said Räsänen, Finland’s interior minister from 2011 to 2015.

“If I win the case, I think that it is a very important step for freedom of speech and religion. I think it’s not only important for Finland but also in Europe and other countries.”

“If I’m convicted, I think that the worst consequence would not be the fine against me, or even the prison sentence, it would be the censorship.”

“So, now it is time to speak. Because the more we are silent, the narrower the space for freedom of speech and religion grows.”

According to ADF International, a Christian legal group that is supporting her, Räsänen could be given a two-year prison sentence for the tweet, after the Finnish Prosecutor General filed criminal charges against her on April 29, 2020.

The MP could also face additional jail time if convicted of two other alleged offenses relating to her comments in a 2004 pamphlet and on a 2018 television program, the group said.

The Prosecutor General charged Räsänen with incitement against a minority group, arguing that her statements were “likely to cause intolerance, contempt, and hatred towards homosexuals.”

ADF International noted that Räsänen’s comments did not violate Twitter’s policies or the rules of the national broadcaster that screened the 2018 program, which is why they remain available on their platforms.

Finland is a country with a population of 5.5 million people, bordering Norway, Russia, and Sweden. Around two-thirds of the population belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, one of the country’s two national churches, alongside the Finnish Orthodox Church.

The 62-year-old MP, who was chairwoman of the Christian Democrats party from 2004 to 2015, is an active member of the Finnish Lutheran Church. But she questioned her church’s sponsorship of an LGBT pride event in 2019.

On June 17, 2019, she asked in a Twitter post how the sponsorship was compatible with the Bible, linking to a photograph of a biblical passage, Romans 1:24-27, on Instagram. She also posted the text and image on Facebook.

“The purpose [of] my tweet was in no way to insult sexual minorities. My criticism was aimed at the leadership of the church,” she told the journal First Things in 2020.

Police began investigating Räsänen in 2019. She faced several police interviews and had to wait more than a year for the Prosecutor General’s decision.

Juhana Pohjola, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland, was also charged for publishing Räsänen’s 2004 pamphlet “Male and Female He Created Them.”

The International Lutheran Council issued a statement in July 2020 describing the decision to prosecute Räsänen as “egregious.”

It said: “The vast majority of Christians in all nations, including Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, share these convictions. Would the Finnish Prosecutor General condemn us all? Moreover, shall the Finnish state risk governmental sanctions from other states based on the abuse of foundational human rights?”

Paul Coleman, ADF International’s executive director, said: “In a free society, everyone should be allowed to share their beliefs without fear of censorship. This is the foundation of every free and democratic society.”

“Criminalizing speech through so-called ‘hate speech’ laws shuts down important public debates and poses a grave threat to our democracies. These sorts of cases create a culture of fear and censorship and are becoming all too common throughout Europe.”

“We hope and trust the Helsinki District Court will uphold the fundamental right to freedom of speech and acquit Päivi Räsänen of these outrageous charges.”

CNA
The Catholic News Agency (CNA) has been, since 2004, one of the fastest growing Catholic news providers to the English speaking world. The Catholic News Agency takes much of its mission from its sister agency, ACI Prensa, which was founded in Lima, Peru, in 1980 by Fr. Adalbert Marie Mohm (†1986).

ALWAYS READ THE FULL PASSAGE FOR CONTEXT

Punishment of Idolaters.

18* The wrath* of God* is indeed being revealed from heaven against every impiety and wickednessp of those who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

19For what can be known about God is evident to them, because God made it evident to them.q

20Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made.r As a result, they have no excuse;

21for although they knew God they did not accord him glory as God or give him thanks. Instead, they became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless minds were darkened.s

22PAGANISMWhile claiming to be wise,t they became fools

23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the likeness of an image of mortal man or of birds or of four-legged animals or of snakes.u

24WAIT, WHATTherefore, God handed them over to impurity through the lusts of their hearts* for the mutual degradation of their bodies.v

25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.w

26IT'S GOD'S FAULTTherefore, God handed them over to degrading passions. Their females exchanged natural relations for unnatural,

27and the males likewise gave up natural relations with females and burned with lust for one another. Males did shameful things with males and thus received in their own persons the due penalty for their perversity.x

28And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God handed them over to their undiscerning mind to do what is improper.

29y They are filled with every form of wickedness, evil, greed, and malice; full of envy, murder, rivalry, treachery, and spite. They are gossips

30GOD IS PETTY; HATES TEENAGERSand scandalmongers and they hate God. They are insolent, haughty, boastful, ingenious in their wickedness, and rebellious toward their parents.

31They are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

32Although they know the just decree of God that all who practice such things deserve death, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.z
THIS IS THE PART THAT EXTOLS DEATH FOR RELIGIOUS AND SEXUAL MINORITIES MAKING IT HATE SPEECH
THIS IS PAULS TEXT NOT THE TEACHING OF JC IT IS PAULINE LIKE THE MAJORITY OF CHRISTIANS ARE

China launches campaign to plug greenhouse gas monitoring gap

Under the pilot programme, some of China's biggest greenhouse gas producers must draw up comprehensive new monitoring plans by the end of 2022. PHOTO: REUTERS

BEIJING (REUTERS) - China will force key industrial sectors and regions to take action to measure greenhouse gas emissions as part of a new initiative to improve data quality and oversight, according to an environment ministry document reviewed by Reuters.

Under the pilot programme, some of China's biggest coal-fired power providers, steel mills and oil and gas producers must draw up comprehensive new greenhouse gas monitoring plans by the end of this year.

It comes as China, the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter, needs to beef up its measurement of carbon emissions in line with its monitoring of air pollutants to meet a pledge by President Xi Jinping to become carbon neutral by around 2060, say experts and environmentalists.


"In contrast to air pollutants, there is a major gap in reporting on CO2 emissions - there is no regular reporting in place that would disclose the country's total emissions," said Mr Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst with the Helsinki-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).

"Expanding the emission monitoring and disclosure that is currently in place for air pollutants to CO2 would be a huge step forward."

After some success in curbing the choking smog that envelops many of China's industrial cities over winter, the State Council, China's cabinet, has already promised to expand curbs on pollutants such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitrogen oxides and heavy metal waste.



This will require more real-time environmental monitoring stations and advanced technologies that can detect a wider range of emissions and catch companies trying to cheat, officials and environmentalists said.


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But the yawning coverage gap on carbon dioxide emissions could prove the biggest challenge. China up to now has relied largely on proxy indicators - including energy consumption - to measure CO2, falling behind countries in Europe.

According to the policy document, dated September 2021 and supplied to Reuters by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE), the new monitoring programme aims to provide "statistical support" for the country's fight against climate change.

Cities like Tangshan and Hangzhou, along with regions like Inner Mongolia and Yunnan, have also been ordered to assess their ability to act as carbon sinks, including forest coverage rates and land use changes.


The pilot programme, scheduled to be completed in the first three months of 2023, is designed to assess best practices for measuring greenhouse gases. It will include the oil and gas, steel and thermal power sectors, as well as waste processing, and will cover key gases like methane as well as carbon dioxide.

State companies involved in the pilot programme - including the China Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec), the China National Petroleum Corp and the Shandong Energy Corp - did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Real-time monitoring

Around 23,000 of China's major polluters are now plugged into a national real-time emissions monitoring system that measures air pollutants like sulphur dioxide or ammonia in water, though this is still a fraction of the millions of factories across the country that require monitoring.

An accurate measure of carbon emissions has also become increasingly important for China's plans to build out its national emissions trading system (ETS), which currently covers the power sector but will later be expanded to other sectors.

"When it comes to controlling emissions, and cap and trade, and all the other issues like carbon pricing - all of this needs to be based on accurate data, otherwise it will be meaningless,"said Mr Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE), a non-government organisation focused on environmental monitoring.

The launch of the first phase of the ETS was repeatedly delayed partly because of data quality concerns.

Consultancy Frost & Sullivan estimated sales of environmental monitoring devices in China will surpass 102 billion yuan (S$22 billion) in 2023, four times the level in 2014.

But up to now there has been no legal requirement for firms to measure greenhouse gas.

IPE's Mr Ma said monitoring CO2 would be expensive for firms, but was vital to ensure the levels of compliance required green financing and carbon trading.

"When it comes to emissions trading you need to go extremely accurate," he said, noting companies needed to be able to determine precisely how many credits to buy.

"Any slight change in parameters or emission factors could mean a difference of hundreds of millions of yuan."

Decline in Number of Young Men in Syria

Wednesday January 19th, 2022 by SY24 (Opposition website)

Migration, violent conflict, and military conscription have reduced the ratio of men to women in Syria drastically, according to SY24.

Young Men Syria

Several pictures circulating on social media at the graduation ceremony of the Faculty of Pharmacy’s students at the University of Tishreen in Lattakia, sparked widespread controversy, due to the decline in the proportion of male students compared to female ones. The pictures revealed a clear decrease in the number of male students.

Dozens of regime loyalists confirmed that the cities of the Syrian coast became without men after Bashar al-Assad engaged the majority of their youth in the war against Syrians in all governorates. This comes in addition to joining the military service and using them to fight or join the ranks of his militias. Another portion of men fled outside Syria, choosing to pursue the path of death -either by land or by the sea- through illegal smuggling routes.

Read Also: Raqqa: Youth Unemployment Increases Significantly

Several statistics, including the first official figure issued by the Syrian government in 2018, eight years after the war, confirmed a high increase in the number of females over males. These figures are according to the announcement of the head of the Supreme Judicial Committee for Local Administration Elections in regime-controlled areas.

In a 2021 report, UNHCR said the situation in Syria had caused the world’s largest refugee crisis, noting that Syria was one of five countries whose residents have been forced to flee outside the borders of their country.  

In related news, a previous report by the New York Times showed the depletion of men in the war over the past years. The newspaper reported that there are entire cities on the Syrian coast free of men, their names were written and their pictures were hung on large murals. People call the city of Tartous the city of widows, a reference to emptying the area of its men.

Syria’s population in the latest UN survey in 2017 was about 18,270 million, with a negative population growth rate of 2.30%, while births were estimated at 18.9 births per 1,000 inhabitants, compared to a death rate of 5.4 people.

 

This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.

Israeli general turned lawmaker emerges as settler critic

Golan, a former deputy military chief, is now a legislator with the dovish (LEFT WING) Meretz party, where he has repeatedly spoken out against settler violence against Palestinians.

Short Url
https://arab.news/9jn6d
AP
January 21, 2022

JERUSALEM: Retired general Yair Golan spent a significant part of his military career serving in the occupied West Bank, protecting Jewish settlements. Today, he is one of their most vocal critics.

Golan, a former deputy military chief, is now a legislator with the dovish Meretz party, where he has repeatedly spoken out against settler violence against Palestinians.

His comments, highlighted by his recent description of violent settlers as “subhuman,” have rattled Israel’s delicate governing coalition, and his opponents have labeled him a radical. He joins a cadre of former security personnel who, after not speaking up while in uniform and positions of influence, have in retirement sounded the alarm over Israel’s five-decade-long military rule of the Palestinians.

“You can’t have a free and democratic state so long as we are controlling people who don’t want to be controlled by us,” Golan told The Associated Press in an interview at his office in the Knesset this week. “What kind of democracy are we building here long term?”

Golan has emerged as a rare critical voice in a society where the occupation is largely an accepted fact and where settlers have successfully pushed their narrative through their proximity to the levers of power. Most members of Israel’s parliament belong to the pro-settlement right wing.

Golan, 59, had a long military career, being wounded in action in Lebanon and filling key positions as head of the country’s northern command and as commander of the West Bank, among others.

Along the way, he gained a reputation as a maverick for decisions that sometimes landed him in hot water. At one point, he reached an unauthorized deal to remove some settlers from the West Bank city of Hebron. He was reprimanded and a promotion was delayed after he permitted the use of Palestinian non-combatants as human shields during arrest raids, a tactic the country’s Supreme Court banned.

At the same time, he was credited with permitting thousands of Syrians wounded in their country’s civil war to enter Israel for medical treatment.

As the deputy military chief, he was passed over for the top job after comparing what he saw as fascistic trends in modern-day Israel to Nazi Germany. He believes the speech cost him the position.

A few years after retirement, he was elected to parliament and eventually joined Meretz, a party that supports Palestinian statehood and is part of the current coalition headed by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

Meretz has been one of the few parties to make ending Israel’s occupation a top priority. But since joining the coalition, which has agreed to focus on less divisive issues to maintain its stability, most of its members have appeared to tone down their criticism.
Golan has not. Earlier this month, he caused a firestorm when he lashed out against settlers who vandalized graves in the Palestinian West Bank village of Burqa.

“These are not people, these are subhumans,” Golan told the Knesset Channel. “They must not be given any backing.”

His remarks angered Bennett, a former settler leader, and sparked criticism from others within the coalition.

Golan acknowledged his choice of words was flawed but said he stands by the spirit of his remarks.

“Is the problem the expression that I used or is the problem those same people who go up to Burqa, smash graves, damage property and assault innocent Palestinians?” he said.

Such statements have turned him into a poster boy for what far-right nationalists describe as dangerous forces in the coalition challenging Israel’s role in the West Bank. The Palestinians seek the area, captured by Israel in 1967, as the heartland of a future state.

Some on Israel’s dovish left also have been hesitant to embrace Golan, who continues to defend the army’s actions in the West Bank.

Golan always saw his duty in the territory as primarily combatting Palestinian militants, and he continues to believe that most settlers are law-abiding citizens. The international community overwhelmingly considers all settlements illegal or illegitimate, and the Palestinians and many left-wing Israelis see the military as an enforcer of an unjust occupation.

Breaking the Silence, a whistleblower group for former Israeli soldiers who oppose policies in the West Bank, called for action, not just words, against settler violence.

“Yair Golan knows full well what settler violence looks like and what our violent control over the Palestinian people looks like. That’s why his criticism is valuable, but it’s not enough,” the group said in a statement.

Golan said he always saw Israeli control over Palestinian territories as temporary. He said separating from the Palestinians is the only way to keep Israel a democratic state with a Jewish majority.

In 2006, Golan commanded the violent evacuation of the Amona settlement in the West Bank, which was built on privately owned Palestinian land.

“I can’t come to terms with the idea that someone Jewish who holds Jewish values supports the theft of someone else’s lands,” he said.

In recent months, as violence between settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank has ticked up, videos have emerged of soldiers standing by as settlers rampage. Golan said he never would have allowed such a thing under his command.

“These people don’t accept the essence of Israel and abide by the law only when it’s convenient for them,” he said.

His comments about settlers aren’t the first to rankle the establishment. In a 2016 speech marking Israel’s Holocaust memorial day, Golan, then deputy military chief, said he was witnessing “nauseating processes” in Israeli society that reminded him of the fascism of Nazi-era Germany.

He said the remarks were sparked by the fatal shooting of a subdued Palestinian attacker by a soldier. The soldier was embraced by nationalist politicians, including then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Golan said the shooting was nothing short of an execution.

Next to his desk, Golan keeps a photo of Netanyahu arriving for his corruption trial at a Jerusalem courthouse, surrounded by his Likud Party supporters as he rants against police and prosecutors.

Golan said the image is a reminder of what he is fighting against — and for.
“I served the country in uniform for so many years, I really gave it my life,” Golan said. Pointing to the photo, he said: “I didn’t endanger my life countless times for these people.”

Conflict, corruption turning Lebanon, Syria into narco-states: Report

Both countries exporting massive quantities of drug Captagon to prop up ailing economies

Expert: ‘All countries which are under Iranian occupation are technically narco-states’

https://arab.news/psuu8
Updated 18 January 2022
ARAB NEWS


LONDON: The large-scale export of Captagon from Syria and Lebanon is the legacy of a decade of conflict combined with widespread corruption, and reliance on the drug revenues is turning both countries into narco-states, according to a new report by Britain’s Channel 4 News.

In Lebanon, militias and gangs operating in Hezbollah-controlled areas such as the Bekaa Valley are producing up to 600,000 Captagon pills per week — worth around $3 million if sold in the Gulf.

Captagon, a brand name for the amphetamine-type stimulant fenethylline, is a cheap, readily produced drug previously used by Daesh fighters to battle without fear.

An anonymous producer of the drug told Channel 4 News: “Poverty and need forced me to trade in Captagon.”

Lebanon has been grappling with an economic collapse that has driven many of its people out of the country or into illicit activities.

The corruption of the Lebanese state, of which Iran-backed Hezbollah is a major constituent, eases the process for manufacturing and exporting drugs.

“Crime exists alongside corruption in this country. If there was no corruption, there would be no crime,” said the Captagon producer.

The Assad regime in Syria, which is dealing with its own currency crisis and economic collapse, is also becoming a narco-state, said Makram Rabah, a history lecturer at the American University of Beirut.

“At the moment both Lebanon and Syria, and all countries which are under Iranian occupation, are technically narco-states — and we’re being dealt with accordingly,” Rabah told Channel 4.

“This is, unfortunately, a reality which the Lebanese up until now haven’t yet admitted, and it’s something that will prevent us recovering from the ongoing economic collapse.”

For the Assad regime, the trade of drugs is now a lifeline for an economy ravaged by a decade of civil war and crippling international sanctions.

In 2020, legal exports from the country were worth just a fifth of the value of Captagon seized from Syrian drug traders.

According to a report by the Cyprus-based Center for Operational Analysis and Research, “Captagon exports from Syria reached a market value of at least $3.46 billion” in that year.

Some of those Syrian drug dealers are known to operate out of the port of Latakia, a stronghold of the regime and under the direct control of President Bashar Assad’s brother, who commands some of the country’s most elite and loyal fighting units.

Rabah said the export of Captagon is not only keeping the Syrian economy from total collapse, but is also being used to seek revenge on Gulf countries that opposed the regime’s violent crackdown on protesters and the war that ensued.

“This drug, particularly recently with the start of the Syrian civil war, has become a weapon, a tool that the Syrian regime, as well as the Iranian regime, uses against both Lebanon and the Gulf,” he added. Captagon “has become synonymous with Hezbollah and also the Assad regime,” he said.

The trade of the drug also presents a problem for Lebanon’s border officials, whose responsibility it is to prevent their export, which is pushed by other factions within the state, namely Hezbollah.

Col. Joseph Musalim of the Lebanese Internal Security Forces said: “The manufacture and smuggling of Captagon didn’t exist in Lebanon before the Syrian crisis. It came after the crisis, and showed traders and manufacturers that it’s a profitable trade.”

Gulf countries have responded to the deluge of Captagon coming out of Lebanon and Syria by tightening customs restrictions of goods often used by drug smugglers.

In April last year, Saudi Arabia announced the suspension of fruit and vegetable imports from Lebanon after the seizure of more than 5 million Captagon pills hidden in fruit.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

4 Mexican Administrations Have Paid Over $3 Million USD to Company Linked to Mayo Zambada's Family Despite it Being on Sanction List Since 2007

By Socalj 1/18/2022 

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

Estancia Infantil Niño Feliz SC was named by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 2007 as “illegal sources of income that feed drug trafficking, violence, and corruption” when it was included in the list by the Asset Control Office.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador joined his three predecessors in the last two decades paying contracts that amounted to at least 69 million pesos ($3,382,684 USD) to a company linked to the Sinaloa Cartel through the wife and daughters of Ismael Zambada Garcia, El Mayo.

The amounts began in 2001 with Vicente Fox through the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS). By then the company had been established in Culiacán for a few months, where it still operates. But the agreements continued with Felipe Calderón, Enrique Peña Nieto, and the 22.4 million pesos that the López Obrador government delivered since he began his six-year term.

With the government of Felipe Calderón, in January 2007, the IMSS, then headed by Juan Molinar Horcasitas, assigned a multi-year contract to said company valid from 2007 to 2009, for subrogation of childcare service. They were paid at least 5.6 million pesos each of those years. And from 2010 to 2012 they paid him at least 10.4 million according to the documents I have in my possession.

In May 2007, after the contract had been signed, the Treasury Department placed the Niño Feliz Children's Estancia as one of the companies directly linked to the Sinaloa Cartel, and notified Rosario Niebla Cardoza, María Teresa Zambada Niebla and other daughters of "El Mayo" Zambada, who were linked to that and other companies. 

Even so, the Calderón government maintained the contracts with Estancia Infantil Niño Feliz and continued to provide benefits and aid to other companies and companies linked to the Sinaloa Cartel. At that time, the Secretary of Federal Public Security, Genaro García Luna, was in complicity with the Sinaloa Cartel. He received bribes in exchange for protecting the operations of the criminal organization and helping them in drug trafficking, as stated in the criminal accusation made against him by the United States Department of Justice for which he is currently incarcerated and under trial.

Enrique Peña Nieto, in 2013, his government gave the company a contract of 5.6 million pesos. In 2014, the IMSS awarded him a two-year contract for 13.5 million pesos, according to the information I also obtained through the Federal Transparency Law. And in December 2016 they gave him a multi-year contract valid from January 2017 to December 2021. According to said directly awarded contract, that is, without competition with other providers, the IMSS pays Estancia Infantil Niño Feliz with resources of the State Delegation of Sinaloa from the budget item "Direct Provision Nurseries."

According to investigations by the journalist Anabel Hernández, AMLO's administration is the one who has allocated the most money to the business that operates as a nursery for children but is identified by the US Treasury Department as one of the front businesses to launder money by the leader of the transnational drug trafficking group.

The contract with Estancia Infantil Niño Feliz was not canceled by the AMLO government and three “modifying agreements” were signed to increase payments. The first was signed in January 2019 under the concept "Single community neighborhood scheme", when the head of the IMSS was the former member of the PAN, Germán Martínez. The other two agreements signed in January 2020 and January 2021 were under the administration of the current head of IMSS, Zoé Robledo.

From December 1, 2018, to December 2019, 9.6 million pesos were paid to said company. From January 2020 to December 2020, 8.64 million pesos were paid. And from January 2021 to June 2021 - the date on which I made the request for information - 4.24 million pesos were delivered. The average annual amount paid in Q4 is higher than the average annual amount paid in other six-year terms.

Estancia Infantil Niño Feliz SC was named by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 2007 as “illegal sources of income that feed drug trafficking, violence, and corruption” when it was included in the list by the Asset Control Office.

At that time, five more companies were named under the Kingpin Law, along with Mayo Zambada's first wife, Rosario Niebla Cardoza, and their four daughters: María Teresa, Midiam Patricia, Mónica del Rosario, and Modesta.

The company was created in Culiacán, Sinaloa, on August 2, 2001, with public deed 10131, before the notary José Antonio Núñez Bedoya, who has helped “El Mayo” Zambada to create most of the companies that according to the United States government are part of its criminal network.

According to the content of the deed that gives legal certainty of the company to the contract and agreements with the IMSS, the partners are María Teresa Zambada Niebla, daughter of the couple formed by the drug trafficker “El Mayo” Zambada and Rosario Niebla Cardoza.

It should be remembered that the US has prosecuted three sons of "El Mayo": Vicente Zambada Niebla, Serafín Zambada Ortiz and Ismael Zambada Imperial; and his brother Jesús Zambada García.

The children of María Teresa are also listed as partners in the deed: Mayte Diaz Zambada, Javier Ernesto Diaz Zambada and Rosa María Zazueta Zambada.

María Teresa Zambada Niebla is the eldest daughter of the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel and is a central figure in practically all the companies linked to the drug boss: Nueva Industria de Ganaderos de Culiacán, Establo Puerto Rico, Autotransportes JYM, and Jamaro Constructores, among others. .

The company was established to carry out 21 different activities (corporate purpose), "predominantly economic in nature", as stated in the document. One of the activities is: "Provision of professional care and teaching services to children who have not reached the age to access preschool education, as well as teaching and teaching children, young people, adults and the elderly in education. preschool, primary, secondary, university education, postgraduate and master's degrees (...) in order to strengthen the intellectual, moral and social training of students..."

Source

HCH

Infobae

‘Come to Work With Covid’ Demand Stirs Union Anger in Australia

Sybilla Gross, Bloomberg News

Jan 18, 2022

A healthcare worker adjusts traffic cones near cars queued at a drive-thru Covid-19 testing site in Sydney, Australia, 

on Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2021. Hospitalizations due to coronavirus in Australias most-populous state have reached

 the highest level since mid-October, as a surge in omicron cases throughout most of the nation pressures the

 health system. , Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Australian workplaces have been put on notice by more than 30 unions to ramp up Covid-19 safety measures as businesses find increasingly risky solutions to cope with mass staff absences.

Unions are demanding better protection from the virus and free rapid antigen tests for employees, sparked by mounting anger surrounding a South Australia abattoir that told workers they should still come to work even if infected with the virus, unless their symptoms rendered them too unwell. 

The case has become a flashpoint for unions, with many industries facing worker shortages as staff are struck down with Covid or forced to isolate as the country endures its worst wave of cases yet. Australia’s government is determined to avoid further lockdowns and keep the economy open despite record hospitalizations and rising death numbers.

“Essential workers are being expected to put themselves in harm’s way to keep the country going and in many cases without the protections they need,” the Australian Council of Trade Unions said in a statement Tuesday after a meeting of leaders of national unions. 

“Where employers do not fulfil their obligations, the union movement determines to do everything within its power to ensure the safety of workers and the community. This may include ceasing work or banning unsafe practices.”

Teys, part-owned by U.S. agricultural giant Cargill, recently backed down from the mandate for positive workers at its abattoir following a widespread backlash. South Australia Health confirmed that more than 140 positive cases were now linked to the site. The firm said it followed rules from the state health department, which confirmed it had permitted some Covid-positive staff in critical fields to keep working.

Covid-positive workers at the plant were being separated and forced to wear yellow hairnets to show their infection status, according to press reports. Grocery giant Woolworths also temporarily suspended orders from the factory. 

A spokesperson for Teys declined to comment.

Supermarkets Shelves Bare in Sydney as Covid Isolates Staff 

ACTU secretary Sally McManus said staff shortages were worst in the hospitality and retail industries, in a radio interview Tuesday. As much as 50% of the workforce in some industries was on sick leave, McManus said.

In an attempt to remedy the crisis, Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week introduced amendments to isolation rules for workers in critical services industries including transport and freight -- who are now no longer required to isolate even if they are deemed a close contact.

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

 

Increase In Marine Heat Waves Threatens Coastal Habitats

Lead author Dr. Piero Mazzini (R) measures ocean conditions during an oceanographic field project. CREDIT: Oregon State University.

 January 19, 2022  

By Eurasia Review

Heat waves—like the one that blistered the Pacific Northwest last June—also occur underwater. A new study in Frontiers in Marine Science paints a worrisome picture of recent and projected trends in marine heat waves within the nation’s largest estuary, with dire implications for the marine life and coastal economy of the Chesapeake Bay and other similarly impacted shallow-water ecosystems.

The study’s authors, Drs. Piero Mazzini and Cassia Pianca of William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science, note they saw “significant upward trends in the frequency and yearly cumulative intensity of marine heat waves within the Chesapeake Bay.” 

The pair based their analysis on long-term measurements of water temperature from 6 sites along the Bay’s 200-mile length, with record length varying between 26 and 35 years. Like other researchers, they defined a marine heat wave as any period of 5 or more consecutive days with water temperatures warmer than 90% of those measured on the same date and in the same spot as in years past. They analyzed the record of Bay heat waves in terms of frequency, intensity, duration, and cumulative temperature stress.

Based on those criteria, Mazzini and Pianca determined that the Chesapeake Bay experienced an average of two 11-day marine heat waves per year between 1986 and 2020, with an average intensity of 5.4 °F (3 °C) and a maximum peak of 14.4 °F (8 °C) above the climatic norm. This translates to an average yearly cumulative intensity of 130 °F (72 °C) days, a measure of heat stress for marine systems similar to the “cooling degree days” used to determine the energy required to keep indoor spaces comfortable for people.

The researcher’s most troubling finding was that the maximum frequency of marine heat waves occurred during the last 10 years, reaching 6-8 events per year compared to only 4-5 events per year prior to 2010. That equals a gain of 1.4 annual heat waves each decade, with a corresponding increase in annual cumulative intensity. The researchers also found that years without marine heat waves were fairly common in Bay waters prior to 2010, but have occurred baywide only once since, in 2014.

“If these trends persist,” says Mazzini, “the Bay will experience heat waves on a monthly basis within the next 50 years, and by the end of the century will reach a semi-permanent heat-wave state, with extreme temperatures present for more than half the year.”

The authors warn this would have devastating impacts on the Bay ecosystem, aggravating the effects of nutrient pollution, increasing the severity of low-oxygen “dead-zones,” stimulating algal blooms, stressing or killing bottom-dwelling communities, causing shifts in species composition, and leading to declines in important commercial fishery species such as striped bass. Similar trends and impacts are likely in other shallow-water coastal systems worldwide given continued global warming.

Although there have been several previous studies of overall warming trends in estuaries (including the Chesapeake Bay), Mazzini and Pianca’s research is the first study of marine heat waves in this type of shallow coastal ecosystem. Their findings not only enhance our basic understanding of these events but can be used to better predict future occurrences and guide management decisions.

Says Pianca, “Future management decisions should focus not only on the effect of long-term temperature changes, but also consider these short, acute events, which could have severe impacts long after they end.”

Causes of Bay heat waves

In addition to studying the characteristics of Bay heat waves and how they might be changing through time, Mazzini and Pianca set out to examine the causes of these extreme events by analyzing three potential and interacting triggers: heating by the atmosphere, input of warm river water, and incursions of balmy seawater.

The researchers approached this puzzle by comparing the timing of marine heat waves both inside and outside the Bay, hypothesizing that heat-wave events with similar start and end dates are likely to share the same cause. For water temperatures outside the Bay, they analyzed data from two ocean observation buoys, one just seaward of the Bay mouth—within a current system known as the Bay plume—and another farther north on the continental shelf. 

Their results show that marine heat waves tend to occur at roughly the same time both along the entire length of the Bay and within nearby coastal waters. They also found a clear correlation between the increased frequency of marine heat waves and the long-term warming of Bay and coastal waters observed in other studies. What they did not find was a pattern of heat waves starting in the Bay and propagating into the ocean, or starting in the ocean and propagating into the Bay.

Mazzini says these findings “demonstrate a strong connection among these different environments” and point to “coherent large-scale forcing” as the main driver of marine heat waves in the Bay region. Drawing on another recent VIMS study, this one of long-term Bay warming, Mazzini says “the most likely candidate to drive the largely coherent marine heat waves in the Bay and plume-ocean region is the transfer of heat from the atmosphere to the water surface.”

A better understanding of the causes of Bay heat waves will improve projections of future conditions and help managers better assess water-quality goals, particularly as they relate to efforts to limit low-oxygen “dead zones,” which can stress mobile animals such as striped bass, and kill attached or slow-moving invertebrates outright. 

“The future increase in marine heat waves as suggested in our study could aggravate hypoxia in the Bay by further stratifying the water column, increasing the oxygen needed by marine life, and decreasing oxygen solubility.” These changes, warns Mazzini, “could push the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem past a dangerous tipping point.”

Concerns regarding the impact of warming on Bay health and restoration goals were emphasized earlier this year when the Chesapeake Bay Executive Council signed a new directive for collective action to address the threats of climate change in all aspects of the partnership’s work.

Mercenaries in Libya | Turkish-backed factions order Syrian fighters to pack up for returning to Syria
On Jan 19, 2022

Reliable sources have told SOHR that three Turkish-backed factions in Libya have ordered their fighters to pack up and get ready to leave Libya to Turkey in the incoming hours. According to SOHR sources, the command of Al-Hamza, Suleiman Shah and Sultan Murad Divisions informed nearly 150 militiamen that they would leave Libya on Thursday, after the Turkish government had agreed on allowing these fighters to have a rest in Syria.

On the other hand, SOHR sources have confirmed that a new batch of mercenaries left Syria to Turkey yesterday. However, the destination of this batch remained unknown. Also, SOHR sources confirmed that back-and-forth transfer operations of Syrian mercenaries from and to Libya will be resumed, after being suspended for weeks.

On December 15, reliable sources informed SOHR that the Turkish authorities gave orders suspending the leaves and back-and-forth transfer operations of Turkish-backed Syrian mercenaries from and to Syria in that time. The mercenaries in Libya were informed by their commanders that the leaves and back-and-forth transfer operations would be resumed after the end of the presidential election in Libya, schedule to be launched on December 24, 2021.

SOHR sources also confirmed that the Syrian fighters of the Turkish-backed “National Army” in Libya received their monthly salaries in the past few days.

It is worth noting that there are nearly 7,000 Turkish-backed Syrian mercenaries in Libya, operating under the banner of various factions of the “National Army”.

On the other hand, the Syrian mercenaries recruited by the Russian security company “Wagner” have been still maintained in the Libyan territory.

We, at the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), call for the evacuation of all Syrians who have been turned into mercenaries by the Turkish government and engaged in the Libyan conflict. We also demand the Turks and Russians stop using the Syrians and turning them into mercenaries serving their narrow interests.