Russia-Ukraine war has killed 'several thousand dolphins' and harmed the marine ecosystem, say Black Sea scientists

Bethany Dawson
Sat, June 4, 2022

A dolphin is seen in the Black Sea, Lazurne urban-type settlement, Kherson Region, southern Ukraine (September 22, 2020)Volodymyr Tarasov/ Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images

Scientists who study the Black Sea warn that dolphins are being killed in the Russia-Ukraine war.

One Ukrainian ecologist has said that "several thousands of dolphins have already died."

The Turkish Marine Research Foundation has said the war is causing a "crisis in biodiversity."

Scientists are reporting many dolphin deaths, with Putin's invasion of Ukraine blamed for the spike.

Dolphins are washing up on the coastline of the Black Sea (which borders Ukraine, Bulgaria, Turkey, Russia, Georgia, Romania, and Moldova), showing war-related injuries, including burn marks from bombs.

Ivan Rusev, research director at Ukraine's Tuzla Estuaries National Nature Park, has been documenting the 101 days of the war on his Facebook page, using his platform to raise awareness of the ecological effects of the invasion.

Writing on Facebook, Rusev explains how dolphins are washing up on shore with burns from bombs and landmines, internal injuries, and showing signs of not eating for days.

The ecologist states that the data collected by him and his team and other researchers around Europe show that "several thousand dolphins have already died."

"Barbarians kill not only civilized people but smart dolphins," Rusev wrote on Facebook.

Also raising the alarm on the mounting dolphin death toll is the Turkish Marine Research Foundation, which reported that the war is having "devastating effects" on the marine environment.

In a press release, the research foundation outlined the "crisis in biodiversity" caused by the war. It included the destruction of endangered red algae (which acts as a "living ground" for many marine species) and feeding grounds for fish — including dolphins — transformed into a maritime war zone.

The Russian missile cruiser Moskva sank on April 14 after it was struck by Ukrainian missiles.Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP

It also highlighted the danger of oil and gas leaking into the sea from sunken military ships.

Before the war, 100 scientists from a Conservation group for the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and contiguous Atlantic Sea surveyed marine life to determine the number of dolphins within these areas.


Their study found that over 253,000 healthy dolphins lived in the Black Sea, the New York Times reports, with this being a sign of a well-functioning ecological system.


With the war raging on and tampering efforts for data collection, it is unknown precisely how many of these quarter of a million dolphins will survive.

Biden Administration should be embracing refugees, not limiting their acceptance | Opinion


Mihir Ram
Sat, June 4, 2022

The Tennessean

The refugee crisis has long been a problem worldwide, and the recent conflict between Russia and Ukraine has only worsened it. President Biden needs to help alleviate the crisis by accepting more refugees into the United States.

In the past decade, the global refugee population has more than doubled. Currently, there are estimated to be over 22.6 million refugees worldwide, and this number does not include the millions of new refugees coming from Ukraine.

Of these millions of people, only a small fraction of them are resettled, and an even smaller fraction are resettled into the United States. This seems like the case because the conversation about refugee admission into the United States always seems to create conflict.

More: What happened to Rafi Sherzad and his family after they fled Afghanistan? | Plazas

Refugee admission into the U.S. by the numbers

The president controls the refugee cap in the U.S. through a power officially known as Presidential Determination, and for the fiscal year of 2022 that cap was set to a total of 125,000 refugees.

Sarwar Hawez helps newly arrived Afghan refugees check in to a Motel in Nashville, Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021.

This cap is quite the increase from the one set during the Trump administration, which was the lowest number in U.S. history at 18,000 refugees during the 2020 fiscal year.

However, the increase in cap size has not seen an increase in refugee admissions. Since 2017, there has only been one year, 2019, in which the cap was met, but that cap was quite low at only 30,000 refugees.

In the fiscal year of 2021, only 11,411 refugees were accepted with a cap of 62,500. Similarly, in the six months in which data has been collected for the 2022 fiscal year, the number of accepted refugees is only 8,758. The Biden administration needs to put in a greater effort towards accepting more refugees into the United States.

The argument for refugees

Despite all of the debate around refugee acceptance, studies have consistently concluded that refugees are a net-positive for the United States, no matter how you look at it.

At a press conference Wednesday, Nashville Deputy Mayor Brenda Haywood highlights the city's partnership with local faith-based nonprofits to welcome Afghan refugees in the city.

First, refugees do not pose a security risk to the U.S. All accepted refugees have undergone a vetting process from both the United Nations and the U.S. federal government that typically lasts anywhere from 18 to 24 months. So they are very unlikely to pose a risk.

Studies have also confirmed that refugees are not a risk and are less likely to commit crimes than natural-born U.S. citizens. Oftentimes, introducing refugees into communities lowers the crime rate.

Furthermore, refugees have been shown to be an economic positive. The amount of revenue a refugee provides to the U.S. is greater than the government costs of resettling and providing aid for the refugee in the long-term.

The U.S. is currently facing a labor shortage. Studies have shown that refugees do not steal jobs from the American worker, but rather they fill labor shortages, and in the long-term they create more jobs.

The United States needs refugees now more than ever, and we could look like heroes helping alleviate the refugee crisis as we solve our own problems.

Mihir Ram is a political science student at Vanderbilt University

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Refugee resettlement: Why we must embrace more newcomers in America

PRO-LIFE TILL BIRTH
Republicans Won't Renew Free School Meal Program Which Could Hurt Millions of Children

Murjani Rawls
Fri, June 3, 2022

A student picks up a free individually bagged lunch in the cafeteria during the first day of school at Stamford High School on September 08, 2020, in Stamford, Connecticut.

A pandemic program allowing waivers for schools to provide free breakfast and lunch to up to 10 million additional students is set to expire on June 30. Currently, Congress has not provided a solution to extend the program to the dismay of many advocated, Salon reports.

The waivers gave the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) authority to lift regulatory obstacles to universal school meals, such as income-based eligibility requirements. With that new flexibility, millions of families were able to discard paperwork and red tape for kids to get fed. The National School Lunch program feeds 22.6 million school children daily.

However, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and other Republicans killed a temporary program extension in March – saying they did not see “pandemic-era flexibilities as necessary anymore.”

From Salon:
“There is no urgency and political appetite to even have this conversation,” Jillien Meier, director of the No Kid Hungry campaign, told Vox’s Rachel Cohen on Wednesday. “Frankly this is not a priority for Congress and the White House. People are really focused on having a ‘return to normal’... folks aren’t talking about it and they have no clue that this crisis is looming.

Some states around the country are taking measures into their own hands to extend the lunch program themselves. These efforts come with a high cost, given higher food prices, supply chain breaks, and staffing issues.

From Vox:
“Without them, schools will face financial penalties for not meeting federal nutrition requirements, even though they have no choice,” said Davis. “They will have fewer financial resources to meet higher prices for food and other goods, staffing, and transportation. Summer — already the hungriest time of year — will be particularly hard for kids when many summer sites will be unable to open.”

“Children in rural communities,” Davis added, “will face more barriers to accessing summer meals when important flexibilities like multiple meal pickup and delivery options disappear.”

It would only cost Congress $11 billion to reauthorize the program. Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich) introduced the Support Kids Not Red Tape Act to extend the waivers, but only has support from all Senate Democrats and two lone Republicans, Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins.

Some representatives like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn) want a permanent solution. Last year, they introduced a bill to enact a permanent, universal, and nationwide free school meals program, guaranteeing free breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack to all school children, regardless of their family income. That proposal has not received a vote in the House or Senate.

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/06/disaster-for-millions-of-kids-looms-as.html

Mike Pompeo summoned by court to explain alleged US government plot to assassinate Julian Assange, say Spanish media reports

Alia Shoaib
Sat, June 4, 2022

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (L), WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (R).Jack Taylor/Getty Images (L), Leah Millis/Reuters (R).

Mike Pompeo has been summoned by a Spanish court to explain an alleged CIA plot to assassinate Julian Assange.

A court is probing whether a Spanish security firm spied on Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy.

Pompeo is being asked to testify whether the US received information from the firm.

Mike Pompeo, former Secretary of State under President Donald Trump, has been summoned by a Spanish court to explain an alleged US government plot to assassinate WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, according to ABC Spain.

The alleged plot was first revealed by Yahoo News in September, which reported that senior CIA and Trump administration officials discussed possibly kidnapping or killing Assange after being angered by Wikileaks' publication of sensitive CIA hacking tools.

The discussions took place "at the highest levels" of the Trump administration, a former senior counterintelligence official told the outlet, with officials even requesting "sketches" or "options" for how to assassinate Assange.

Pompeo has been called to appear in the Spanish court in connection with a probe into whether Spanish security firm UC Global spied on Assange while providing security for the Ecuadorian embassy in London, sources close to the case told ABC Spain.

Assange sought political asylum to live in the embassy for seven years before being ousted in 2019.

Spanish National High Court Judge Santiago Pedraz summoned Pompeo and former US counterintelligence official William Evanina as witnesses to explain the alleged assassination plot and whether they received information through the security firm.

Evanina allegedly previously confessed to having access to security camera footage and audio recordings from inside the Ecuadorian Embassy, Assange's lawyers claimed in letters seen by Spanish outlet The Objective.

Aitor Martinez, a lawyer for Assange, previously claimed in court documents that the alleged spying plot "would have been orchestrated from the United States," Reuters reported.

Judge Pedraz agreed to summon Pompeo and Evanina at the urging of Assange's lawyers, the ABC Spain report says.

They have been asked to appear in the Spanish court in June and can testify via videoconference, according to the outlet.

Pompeo is yet to comment on the case and confirm whether he will appear in court.

Pompeo was the director of the CIA from 2017 to 2018 and then was appointed Trump's secretary of state in April 2018.

A Uvalde Mom Who Ran Into The School To Save Her Sons From The Shooting Spoke Out About How Police Tried To Stop Her



Steffi Cao
Sat, June 4, 2022

A Uvalde mom who says she was handcuffed by law enforcement while trying to rescue her sons from the school shooting, has claimed that authorities warned her not to speak to the media about her experience.

Angeli Gomez, a farmworker in Uvalde, spoke to CBS News on Thursday, describing how she was able to rush into Robb Elementary School and save her kids during the shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers, despite law enforcements’ attempts to stop her.

Gomez, who previously spoke to the Wall Street Journal about her experience, said she had just gone back to work after her children's graduation ceremony when she first received news about the shooting. She quickly drove 40 miles back to the school, but said that she was prevented from going inside.

“Right away, as soon as I parked my car, US Marshals started coming towards my car saying I wasn’t allowed to be parked there,” Gomez told CBS News. “He said, ‘We’re going to have to arrest you because you’re being very uncooperative,’ and I said, ‘Well, you’re going to have to arrest me because I’m going in there, and I’m telling you right now — I don’t see none of y’all in there.’”

Gomez alleged that the US Marshals handcuffed her to stop her from rushing toward the school.

"I told one of the officers, 'I don't need you to protect me. Get away from me. I don't need your protection. If anything, I need you to go in with me to go protect my kids,'" she told CBS News.

The US Marshals have previously denied handcuffing parents, telling WSJ that their deputy marshals “maintained order and peace in the midst of the grief-stricken community that was gathering around the school.”



CBS News also reported that Gomez, who is reportedly on probation for previous charges against her, claimed that she had received a call from “someone in law enforcement” telling her that if she kept talking to the media and sharing her story she might face some kind of violation for obstruction of justice.

According to CBS News, Gomez said she was able to speak out after a judge called her “brave” and told her that her probation would be shortened.

Uvalde police did not respond to requests for comment and BuzzFeed News could not independently verify Gomez’s account about the call and her probation.

Gomez said that she was able to convince local police to uncuff her, and as soon as she was free, she jumped over a fence and rushed into the building to grab her two sons, who are in the second and third grade, from inside. According to her account, police chased her while she ran towards the building.

Gomez claimed that she did not see officers inside the building while she was in there, but that she could hear gunshots coming from somewhere in the school. When she knocked on the door of her first son’s classroom, she recalled finding teachers and students hiding inside.

Gomez said the teacher asked her if they had time to get out and she replied, “Yeah you have time, I’m going to run and get my other son.’”

She said that authorities tried to escort her out of the building when she approached her other son’s classroom door, but that when she saw them opening the door, she ran back to get her child.

Gomez was captured on camera holding her sons’ hands while running out of the school.

“Nothing was being done,” she told CBS News. “If anything, [law enforcement] were being more aggressive on us parents that were willing to go in there.”

Several videos widely shared on social media showed authorities confronting desperate parents who were angrily asking why armed police officers were not rushing in to save their children during the shooting.

In one video, an officer who was seen pushing parents back, was asked by a parent why police weren’t trying to save their kids.

“Because I'm having to deal with you!" the officer replied.

The mishandling of the shooting by law enforcement has sparked national outcry after it was revealed that police did not enter the classroom to confront the shooter for more than an hour after the shooting began, and have reportedly ignored requests for follow-up interviews by Texas state investigators. The Justice Department has opened an investigation to review the police response to the attack after authorities admitted that mistakes were made.

Even as Gomez recounted being able to rescue her own children, she broke down in tears, thinking about how many other kids’ lives could have been saved if not for police inaction.

"They could have saved many more lives," Gomez said. "They could have gone into the classroom and maybe two or three would have been gone but they could have saved the whole, more, the whole class. They could have done something, gone through the window, sniped him through the window. Something, but nothing was being done."

CASINO CAPITALI$M

Crypto winter has come, and Coinbase is in trouble

Emma Roth - THE VERGE


Coinbase is pulling back on its hiring efforts. In a memo posted to Coinbase’s site, chief people officer L.J. Brock announced that Coinbase is putting a pause on hiring new employees, as well as rescinding several job offers already accepted by prospective workers, citing “current market conditions and ongoing business prioritization efforts.”


© Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeCrypto winter has come, and Coinbase is in trouble

The shift comes as the cryptocurrency market continues to trend downwards, dragging the supposedly immovable stablecoins, which are pegged to a fiat currency or commodity, with it. Coinbase started to slow hiring in mid-May to make sure the company is “best positioned to succeed during and after the current downturn,” but this move halts hiring completely. Brock notes that the freeze will also affect backfills, or the employees hired to replace workers leaving the company. It excludes those hired to fill roles in “security and compliance,” however.

Coinbase is also contending with a lackluster response to the social NFT marketplace it launched widely in May. According to data from Dune Analytics viewed by The Motley Fool, 4,132 people purchased an NFT on the platform within 19 days of its launch, and gross sales amounted to $875,000, or an average of $46,000 per day. It doesn’t help that NFT sales are declining as a whole, dipping to about 19,000 sales per week at the beginning of May, as opposed to the 225,000 NFT sales made in September.
Coinbase’s hiring freeze is an indication of chillier conditions for the cryptocurrency market

It’s unclear how many job offers Coinbase rescinded, and the company didn’t immediately reply to The Verge’s request for comment. Brock says affected individuals will benefit from Coinbase’s “generous severance policy” and will gain access to a talent hub with various career resources, including interview coaching, resume review, and networking opportunities.

The changeup at Coinbase has left some prospective employees struggling. At least two individuals set to be hired by Coinbase say they may lose their OPT (Optional Practical Training) Visa due to the rescinded offer. Others say they received an email reassuring them that they won’t lose their newly-accepted job due to the company’s hiring slowdown, only to receive an impersonal email notifying them of a rescinded offer weeks later.

“You may have seen this week that Coinbase posted an external blog post announcing our intentions to slow down hiring so that we can reprioritize our hiring needs against our highest-priority business goals,” Coinbase’s initial email to new hires reads. “First and foremost, I wanted to communicate that we are still extremely excited about having you join Coinbase and we will not be rescinding the offers of any employees who have already signed or have received an offer from us.”

Coinbase beefed up its staff as part of its plan to hire 2,000 employees in 2022, saying it foresaw “enormous product opportunities ahead for the future of Web3” at the time. Its most recent earnings report reveals that Coinbase added 1,218 employees in the first quarter of 2022 alone, bringing its total headcount to 4,948.

“While we did not make this decision lightly, it is the prudent one given market conditions,” Brock stated in the letter. “We will continue to evaluate all of our options to responsibly navigate Coinbase through the current cycle.”

Coinbase’s hiring freeze is an indication of chillier conditions for the cryptocurrency market, and so are the layoffs made at other companies on the blockchain. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the twins behind the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange, also announced that they’re cutting 10 percent of staff. The same goes for Rain, a large crypto exchange based in the Middle East, which also laid off dozens of employees.

Last week, famed short-seller Jim Chanos called Coinbase “tremendously overvalued” on the Crypto Critics Corner podcast (via Fortune), and predicts the price of its stock will sit “in the mid-teens” by the end of this year. Coinbase shares dipped 9.7 percent after news of the hiring freeze went public on Friday.

Crypto SPACs Brace for Cruel Summer With Lower Valuations, SEC Scrutiny

Michael Bellusci

COINDESK
Sat, June 4, 2022


Special purpose acquisition companies (SPAC) were Wall Street’s hottest way to hit the public market, but the craze has cooled amid an overall market downturn along with added Securities and Exchange Commission regulations.

If parties involved in existing deals want to proceed, they’re going to need to reprice them to reflect current market comps, Peter Stoneberg, managing director at M&A firm Architect Partners, told CoinDesk. “SPACs overall have been very volatile and on a downward trajectory,” Stoneberg said.

Last Wednesday, media outlet Forbes scrapped its plans to go public via a SPAC at a $630 million valuation through a merger with Hong Kong-based Magnum Opus Acquisition Ltd. (OPA). Crypto exchange Binance had previously provided a $200 million strategic investment in Forbes in conjunction with the proposed deal.

Regulation

To enhance investor protection, the SEC recently said that it would propose “specialized disclosure requirements with respect to, among other things, compensation paid to sponsors, conflicts of interest, dilution, and the fairness of these business combination transactions.”

The SEC’s report noted that SPACs nearly doubled the amount they raised from over $83 billion in such offerings in 2020 to more than $160 billion last year. The SEC added that in those years over half of all initial public offerings were conducted using a SPAC.

Stoneberg noted headwinds for SPAC participants. The SEC is now being more cautious on the overall SPAC process, particularly crypto-linked deals, he added.
Crypto miners and capital

Cryptocurrency miners require plenty of capital for data centers and rigs, but capital is scarce now, Stoneberg said.

“There’s not a lot of capital out there for mining companies right now or for SPACs,” he said. The private investment in the public equity (PIPE) market was “very active, but today it's pretty much dead.”

Here are crypto SPAC deals investors are watching:

Circle, the backer of the USDC stablecoin, and its combination with Concord Acquisition Corp. (CND). The parties reached a new agreement with an initial outside date of Dec. 8, with the potential to extend to Jan. 31, 2023, under “certain circumstances.”

Miner PrimeBlock with 10X Capital Venture Acquisition Corp. II (VCXA), in a deal expected to close in the second half of the year.

Miner Bitdeer and Blue Safari Group Acquisition Corp. (BSGA), in a deal that was recently extended.

Bitmain-backed miner BitFuFu and Arisz Acquisition Corp. (ARIZ), which is expected to list on the Nasdaq in Q3.

Miner Griid Infrastructure and Adit EdTech Acquisition Corp. (ADEX), originally expected to close in Q1.

Coincheck, one of Japan's largest crypto exchanges, with Thunder Bridge Capital Partners IV. The deal is expected to be completed in the second half of this year.

Investing platform eToro Group and FinTech Acquisition Corp. V (FTCV). The deal has a June 30 termination date.

Crypto investment platform Bullish and Far Peak Acquisition Corp. (FPAC), with an outside termination date that was recently extended to July 8.

Digital asset trading network Apifiny Group and Abri SPAC I, expected to close in Q3.

#KASHMIR IS #INDIA'S #GAZA

‘Fear is increasing’: Hindus flee Kashmir amid spate of targeted killings

Aakash Hassan In Srinagar - THE GUARDIAN

Hundreds of minority Hindus have fled from Indian-administered Kashmir, and many more are preparing to leave, after a fresh spate of targeted killings stoked tensions in the disputed Himalayan region.


Photograph: Mukhtar Khan/AP

Three Hindus have been killed by militants in Kashmir this week alone, including a teacher and migrant workers, prompting mass protests and the largest exodus of Hindu families from the Muslim-majority region in two decades.

Sanjay Tickoo, a Kashmiri Pandit activist, said: “Some 3,500 people have left and more will be leaving in coming days.”

Many Hindu families said they were waiting to get discharge certificates for their children from schools and then would leave as soon as possible. “Fear is increasing with each new killing,” said Tickoo. “The minorities are facing the worst situation in Kashmir.”

On Thursday morning, suspected rebels killed Vijay Kumar, a bank manager from Rajasthan state, in southern Kulgam district. CCTV footage showed a masked man walking into Kumar’s office and firing a pistol at him.

Later in the evening, two Hindu migrant workers were shot at in Budgam by two masked gunmen. One among them, identified as Dilkhush from Bihar, died from his injuries on the way to the hospital.

Two days before that, Rajni Bala, a Hindu school teacher, was killed by suspected militants, also in Kulgam. On 12 May, Rahul Bhat, a Hindu man, was killed when assailants barged into his office and fired bullets at him.

At least 19 civilians have been killed this year in similar targeted attacks in the region, including minority Hindus, government employees and a woman who was known for her Instagram videos.
Police have blamed Pakistan-backed militant groups for the killings. Kashmir has been a disputed territory between India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947. While both countries control the region in parts, they both lay claim over it in its entirety, and since the 1980s, Indian-controlled Kashmir has been rocked by a violent militant insurgency loyal to Pakistan.

After the string of attacks, Hindus say they being driven out of the region. These include Kashmiri Hindus, commonly referred to as Pandits, 65,000 of whom first fled from the valley in a mass exodus in the 1990s, when a violent pro-Pakistan insurgency broke out in the region and they began to be targeted.

By 2010, a few thousand Kashmiri Hindus had returned to the Muslim-majority region, enticed by a government rehabilitation policy that provided jobs and guarded accommodation to about 4,000 people. But in recent weeks, those who returned have been protesting against the killings and demanding more security. Hindu employees have been abstaining from their duties, urging the government to relocate them to safer locations.

“We are in a 1990s-like situation,” said Pyarai Lal, 65, who lives in Sheikhpora Budgam, in one of the seven guarded housing facilities provided to Hindus. “My son is a teacher and he has not attended his duty for the last two weeks. We are afraid to even leave our home. Who knows when a gunman will attack?”

Lal shifted to southern Jammu city in 1987 with his family and returned in 2010 after the government gave his son a teaching job. But now, he and his family are again preparing to leave. “It seems the situation is going to get worse and we are going to leave soon to Jammu,” said Lal.

Authorities have promised the employees they will be posted to safer locations, and police made assurances they were increasing security by intensifying counter-insurgency operations, surveillance and using drones.

But many Kashmiri Pandits have accused authorities of barring them from leaving and allege that police and paramilitary forces have been deployed at the gates of their government provided accommodations to stop them.

“It seems the government is waiting to get us all killed,” said Rinku Bhat, a Kashmiri Pandit. “Or they are trying to show false normalcy by forcibly holding us at a place where every minute is unsafe for us.”

On Wednesday, the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Simiti, an organisation that tracks the minority community in the region, wrote a letter to the region’s chief justice raising concern for their safety and accused the government of playing with their lives by preventing them from relocation, seeking high court intervention.

The targeted attacks against Hindus pose a great political challenge to prime minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) government, which has made repeated promises to look after the interests of Kashmiri Pandits. On Friday, India’s home minister, Amit Shah, held a high-level review meeting on the security situation in the region, but no government statement has been made on the issue.

In 2019, Modi unilaterally revoked Kashmir’s autonomy, and enforced a military crackdown under the guise of greater security for Kashmir. The government introduced a slew of laws allowing non-locals to buy property in the region, in the hope of enticing Hindus to settle in the state, a move many locals feared was Delhi’s attempt to bring about demographic changes in the Muslim-majority region.

Many see the removal of Kashmir’s autonomy in 2019, as well as Hindu nationalist policies of the Modi government, which have driven an increase in attacks against Muslims in India, as a driving force behind the growing surge of violence in Kashmir.

“Kashmiri Muslims feel their religion and identity is in the danger and [the attacks] definitely seems in reaction to that,” said Tickoo.

Fate of Métis scrip lawsuit in doubt after 17 Alberta plaintiffs ask to withdraw


The future of a lawsuit seeking to hold Canada accountable for the loss of Métis lands is in doubt after about a third of the plaintiffs asked to withdraw from the action when their legitimacy was questioned.


© Provided by The Canadian Press

METIS FLAG, LOUIS RIEL (L) GABRIEL DUMONT(RIGHT) 

The Métis Nation of Alberta says the move proves that it speaks for Alberta's Métis and that the provincial government's dealings with breakaway groups should stop.

"These are the same groups that the current provincial government props up and consults with to the exclusion of the vast majority of Métis in Alberta," vice-president Dan Cardinal said in a release.

The so-called Durocher case, filed in 2019, was brought by 17 Métis groups and individuals in Alberta and another 39 similar plaintiffs from Saskatchewan on behalf of all Métis in the area. It sought compensation for the loss of a vast amount of land in the northern reaches of the two provinces through the issuance of scrip certificates to Métis around the turn of the last century.

The scrip was supposed to be redeemable for land.

The available land, however, was far from the Métis homelands. Much scrip was bought by speculators for pennies on the dollar from people who didn't understand the deal they were making.

The lawsuit sought damages, a declaration that Métis still hold title to the land and negotiations toward a land claim.

But that lawsuit is now on hold. The Alberta plaintiffs have asked to be removed from it after the Métis Nation of Alberta and the federal government challenged the legitimacy of their claim to represent all Métis.

In addition to 10 individuals, the groups withdrawing from the legal action are the Métis associations in Athabasca Landing, Fort McKay, Lakeland, Willow Lake, Owl River and Conklin. The 17th plaintiff, Chard Métis Dene Inc., has been dissolved.

"When the light of scrutiny is on them, it's telling that they say we'll just withdraw," said Jason Madden, lawyer for the Métis Nation.


Métis Nation president Audrey Poitras said in a news release that any scrip settlement must be negotiated with representatives of all Métis.

"Justice requires that any benefits that come from litigation or a negotiated settlement will be for the benefit of all of the descendants of Métis scrip, not just a few self-appointed individuals and private corporations they control."

The groups that brought the claim are only a few years old, said Madden. The Métis Nation of Alberta was founded in 1928.

The fate of the case is now uncertain, Madden said.

"All the parties have agreed to a three-month adjournment to give the Saskatchewan parties a chance to decide what they're going to do next."

Madden said the withdrawal of the 17 plaintiffs now makes it clear that the Métis Nation of Alberta has the right to speak for Métis in the province. He pointed out the United Conservative Party government has been eager to consult and work with the breakaway groups who have now backed off from Durocher.

That relationship should end, said Cardinal.

"We hope that the same judicial scrutiny will be applied to the backroom deals between the Kenney government and these self-appointed individuals and groups to ensure that all negotiations represent the interests of all Métis citizens."

Neither the lawyer for the breakaway groups nor their representatives could be immediately reached for comment.

In the release, Poitras acknowledges the issue of compensation for loss of land through the scrip program needs more urgency. She said her group signed a deal with Ottawa in 2019 that included negotiations over scrip, but little has happened since then.

"Little progress has been made with Canada," she said. "We will be consulting with our citizens as well as our democratic governance structures at the local and regional levels on what we should do next.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 4, 2022.

-- Follow Bob Weber on Twitter at @row1960

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press

Adam Zivo: Ukraine’s defeat would be a huge blow to LGBTQ rights

Adam Zivo - NATIONAL POST


Unbeknownst to most of the world, Ukraine has made significant progress on LGBTQ rights over the past decade. The progress in Ukraine contrasts starkly with the harsh curtailments of LGBTQ rights in neighbouring countries, such as Russia , Belarus and Hungary . If Russia were to conquer Ukraine, it would be a terrible blow to LGBTQ Ukrainians and to gay activists throughout the region.


© Provided by National PostLenny Emson, executive director of KyivPride.

LGBTQ activism has existed in Ukraine since the early 1990s, when homosexuality was decriminalized, but activists only started making themselves more visible in the early 2010s. At that time, Ukraine was ruled by Viktor Yanukovych, a pro-Russia sycophant, who, in 2012, proposed legislation banning LGBTQ rights advocacy under the pretext of stopping “gay propaganda.” The ban copied a similar anti-gay law that Russia had proposed and would later pass in 2013.

In response, a handful of veteran activists founded KyivPride . In 2012, they tried to hold a Pride parade but were met with threats of severe violence. Approximately 100 marchers faced off against thousands of counter-protesters, according to Lenny Emson, the executive director of KyivPride. When the police refused to intervene, the event was cancelled.

In 2014, the Euromaidan revolution ousted Yanukovych and decisively shifted Ukraine away from Russia and towards Europe. Yanukovych’s anti-gay bill was aborted and never revived. Ukraine’s post-revolution governments have since consistently passed pro-LGBTQ laws — such as an anti-discrimination employment law in 2015, liberalization of legal gender changes for trans Ukrainians in 2016 and ending a ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men in 2021.

This succession of pro-LGBTQ legislation partially reflects shifting attitudes among the Ukrainian public, but there is also a realpolitik angle: Ukraine wants to be admitted into the European Union and, for that to happen, it needs to meet certain conditions, which include robust human rights protections.

This year, Ukraine was on track to pass a comprehensive anti-hate crime law that would have protected gender and sexual minorities, but, according to Ukrainian LGBTQ activists, its passage through parliament was interrupted by the Russian invasion.

Prior to the war, the main challenge facing LGBTQ Ukrainians was a rise in hate crimes by some far-right groups. When I interviewed several of Ukraine’s leading LGBTQ activists, representing four different organizations, in KyivPride’s office last month, they shared their suspicion that these groups, which seemed well-funded, were being supported by Russia.

However, despite this rise in hate crimes, Ukraine’s LGBTQ activists were optimistic about the future. KyivPride has consistently grown and, last year, 7,000 people marched in support of LGBTQ rights and faced only a few hundred counter-protesters. Today, Kyiv’s LGBTQ community is thriving, despite some violent attacks .

Ten years ago, it was near-impossible to live as an openly LGBTQ person in Ukraine. Today, being LGBTQ is relatively accepted among youth and in major urban centres, though obviously there is still huge room for improvement. This is, at least, the opinion of the dozens of LGBTQ Ukrainians (both activists and everyday community members) I’ve engaged with over the past nine weeks.

But all of this progress will be erased if Russia conquers the country or turns it into a puppet state. Ukraine’s LGBTQ activists have already heard reports that gay Ukrainians in Russian-controlled areas — such as Crimea, Donbas and Kherson — are experiencing persecution similar to Russia’s 2017 anti-gay purge in Chechnya.


These activists also believe that if Russia occupies their homeland, they will be hunted and killed. They spoke about “ kill lists ” of human rights activists that have been floating around online and are allegedly in the hands of Russian security forces. Some of these activists have spotted themselves and their colleagues on these lists, their names accompanied by addresses and photos.

“We know that they will come for us and they will do everything to make us non-existent. Literally, they will kill us,” said Emson.

None of this is surprising. Russian state media has adopted genocidal language towards Ukraine, with an infamous Russian state media op-ed arguing in April that Ukrainian elites “must be liquidated as they cannot be reeducated and the social swamp that backed them must be subject to the terror of war and made to pay for their crimes.”

If Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to liquidate Ukraine’s intelligentsia, would it really be so surprising if he wanted to liquidate LGBTQ Ukrainians, as well?

The LGBTQ activists I spoke to pleaded for the international community’s help, as they believe their lives depend on it, as does their hope for a future in which LGBTQ eastern Europeans can live free from violence and harassment.

Putin has made upholding “ traditional values ” a central plank of his government’s agenda, and has exported anti-LGBTQ legislation elsewhere within his sphere of influence. Ukraine’s existence as a democratic, increasingly pro-LGBTQ country on Russia’s doorstep is a thorn in Russia’s side — a challenge to its vision of dominating eastern Europe, both politically and culturally.

Unfortunately, according to Ukrainian LGBTQ activists, attempts to call attention to the plight of Ukraine’s LGBTQ community have been undermined by Russian propaganda claiming that Ukraine is governed by fascists and Nazis — a narrative that Putin used to justify his recent invasion.

The narrative has legs because, yes, some far-right elements exist in Ukraine, but these LGBTQ activists argue that the far right is no more powerful in Ukraine than it is in other European countries — and in many cases, it is less influential.

Since the 2014 revolution (when Putin alleges that Nazis took over Ukraine), Ukraine’s far-right parties have consistently failed to secure more than five per cent of the vote in national elections. They hold no parliamentary seats. In contrast, Germany’s main far-right party controls 11 per cent of parliament; while, in France, far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen secured 41.5 per cent of the 2022 presidential vote.

Ukrainians have generally been frustrated by the fact that Russia, abetted by some more gullible members of the international press, has exaggerated the influence of Ukraine’s far right to undermine international support for its resistance against Russian conquest.

In a cruel twist, some people have even invoked the well-being of LGBTQ Ukrainians when arguing against international aid for Ukraine. From their perspective, if far right elements within Ukraine attack LGBTQ people, then Ukraine does not deserve aid.

This misguided belief not only puts LGBTQ Ukrainians at risk if the country comes under Russian control, it also directly contradicts the direct military support that Ukrainian LGBTQ activists have consistently asked for. But Putin’s enablers will gladly speak over Ukrainian LGBTQ activists, and assiduously avoid actually speaking with them, while pretending to care about their interests.

“Listen to us. Ask us. Talk to us. Follow our social media. Look at what we are posting and you can talk to us anytime. You can address us. You can ask all questions. Do not just follow Russian propaganda. Do not just believe. Ask us, because we exist here,” said Emson.

National Post

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M; GAMING

Retro game collecter suspected of selling more than $100,000 worth of forged copies of games

MobileSyrup - Thursday

The retro gaming community is accusing a fairly active member of selling fake copies of classic games. Evidence has come forward to show many of the floppy disks, boxes and even art may be forgeries.


© Provided by MobileSyrup

Enrico Ricciardi has been an active member of the Big Box PC Game Collectors retro game Facebook community. Ricciardi is a moderator and is a known seller of classic games. However, the community has come forward after one member received a game from Ricciardi that had more than a few discrepancies.

One member of the retro game community named Kevin purchased a copy of 1979’s Akalabeth: World of Doom from Ricciardi. This game comes from the mind of Richard Garriott. It is a rare title as it is one of the first RPGs. Upon receiving the game, Kevin began discussing his concerns with his copy with other members of the community. Together, they put together an investigation into Riccardi and found a number of games sold were fakes.

This used to be the center pieces of my collection. Rare and expensive old games.

Now it turns out I‘ve been scammed and sold forgeries by a well known figure in the Ultima and tetrogames community. Along with many others#ultima #akalabeth @RichardGarriott pic.twitter.com/wuiAQPSuG2

— Dominus of Exult (@Dominus_Exult) May 30, 2022

Labels for the games did not appear to be in line with the printing process from the time. At times the dirt and cosmetic markings on the labels looked as if they were printed on. Tests of some of the games conclude that no game data is on the disk. The group also accuses Ricciardi of handmaking disk labels. The retro game community believes “there is at least one black box Ultima 1 that we think may be fake that was graded by WATA.”

What’s most shocking is how long Ricciardi has been doing this and the amount of money he has earned. The group estimate that he’s been conducting “at least €100K in transactions of suspected counterfeit game items.” If correct, that equates to roughly $134,000 CAD.

Ricciardi is since banned from the retro game community. The group continues to build a case against him and urges anyone who has purchased a game to “check them very carefully.” The group also suspects that this case will result in police involvement and litigation against Ricciardi.

Image credit: GOG

Source: Kotaku