Renowned author Isabel Allende turns 80

One of the world's most widely read Spanish-language authors, Allende continues to fight for women's rights and write novels with strong female characters.

She has written over 25 books, which have been sold some 70 million times and translated into many languages. She has received 60 awards in 15 countries for her work, and two international film productions have been based on her novels.

Those are some of the hard facts about Isabel Allende, Chile's most internationally successful writer. But, as she writes on her own website, they don't tell the whole story.

"It is very strange to write one's biography because it is just a list of dates, events and achievements," she writes. "In reality, the most important things about my life happened in the secret chambers of my heart and have no place in a biography."

In fact, she doesn't even consider her books to be her biggest success, but rather the love she shares with her family and the opportunities she's had to help others. She did just that, for example, during August Pinochet's military dictatorship in Chile when she spoke out for those who were politically persecuted, and continues to help others with her Isabel Allende Foundation, which seeks to empower women.

Allende turns 80 on August 2. 

Isabel Allende in her house in Caracas in 1985

Read more: Berlin bookstore shuts down after leftist boycott

An unforgettable first novel

Nevertheless, it is the Chilean author's books that have made her world-famous — in particular, her 1982 debut novel, "The House of the Spirits." The partially autobiographical drama is about the upper-middle-class family Trueba, which suffers under the thumb of violent patriarch Esteban Trueba.

When a military coup removes the socialist president from power, Trueba puts his hopes in the new government — but is quickly disappointed. Terror and persecution sweep across the country, and the Trueba family is not spared.

Former Chilean President Salvador Allende was ousted by a military coup

When Isabel Allende wrote her family drama in 1982, she had already left Chile and was living in exile in Venezuela. Her father's cousin, Salvador Allende, was the president of Chile, but was ousted by Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship in 1973 and subsequently committed suicide.

At that point, Isabel Allende no longer felt safe in Chile.

Empowering women

Allende was born on August 2, 1942, in Lima as the oldest daughter of a Chilean diplomat. Her parents separated, and she spent a good part of her childhood living with her grandfather.

She later lived in Bolivia and Lebanon before returning to Chile, where she worked as a journalist, got married and had two children, daughter Paula and son Nicolas.

Her daughter Paula died of a metabolic disorder in 1992 at the young age of 29. In 1994, Allende dealt with her daughter's death in a very personal book called "Paula." In 1996, she established her Isabel Allende Foundation in Paula's honor, dedicated to empowering women and girls.

Allende has actively supported women's rights for many years. In 1968, she was one of founding editors of the feminist magazine "Paula" with the support of her relation Salvador Allende.

Glenn Close (left) and Meryl Streep (right) starred in the film version of Allende's "The House of the Spirits"

She also wrote stage plays and made a name for herself as a television presenter before emigrating to Venezuela.

Read more: Spiegel removes far-right book from bestseller list

Life in exile

While in exile, she began writing an imaginary letter to her deceased grandfather. She later developed the text into her novel "The House of the Spirits," which was filmed in 1993, starring Meryl Streep and Winona Ryder.

Right from the beginning, Allende's unique way of weaving together fiction and reality became apparent — a style called magical realism. She mixed the horrors of reality with a fantasy world full of magic that was always full of hope.

Critics have accused her of copying the works of Columbian Nobel Prize-winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who developed magical realism. Nevertheless, her epic tales of strong women won her the Chilean National Prize for Literature in 2010. 

Allende is seen presenting her new book, "In the Midst of Winter," in Spain in June

'I still feel like a Chilean'

Allende has lived in the United States,  where she married for the second time, for more than two decades now,. But, as she told DW, Chile remains her home. "I still feel like a Chilean. My parents are Chilean, my family is Chilean and I spent the first years of my life — important, shaping years — in Chile."

Regardless, Allende's work remains globally relevant. Her latest novel, "Violeta," is a plea to those who need to assert themselves in a macho world. It is a biography of her mother Panchita, with whom the author was very close until her mother’s death in 2018.

The book is hardly a biography, but rather wishful thinking on Allende’s part. While the protagonist in the novel gains independence and freedom because of her business sense, Allende’s mother was dependent on her two successive spouses. Then again, Violeta in the novel is strong and combative, but not very emancipated when it comes to love.

The novel, which spans a century, is astonishingly contemporary. It begins with Violeta’s birth in 1920 and ends with the COVID pandemic a hundred years later. 

The octogenarian, however, has no plans to stop writing. "I enjoy writing so much. People tell me: 'You shouldn't have to write anymore, you're getting too old for that,'" the author told news agency AFP, adding, "But I love it. Why would I want to stop?"

Pakistan election commission says Imran Khan's party accepted illegal donations

Tue, August 2, 2022 

Pakistan's ex-premier Imran Khan's party accepted millions of dollars in illegal funds from foreign individuals and groups, the election commission ruled Tuesday.

The case dates back to 2014 when a disgruntled founding member of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) filed a case against his party leadership accusing it of financial irregularities.

The Election Commission Pakistan found that Khan's party concealed 16 bank accounts and accepted donations from foreigners or foreign groups based in Australia, Canada, the UAE and the Cayman Islands.

Pakistani law bars political parties from receiving funds and donations from foreign individuals and companies.

The commission also said that financial details submitted by Khan were "found to be grossly inaccurate".

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif -- who came into power in April after Khan's ouster -- said the commission's verdict showed "yet again that he (Khan) is a certified liar".

"(The) Nation should ponder over the implications of his politics funded by foreigners," Sharif said in a tweet Tuesday.

The party has denied the accusations.

Responding to the decision, senior PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry said the party had taken funds from "overseas Pakistanis", not foreign nationals.

"Overseas Pakistanis are the backbone of Pakistan's economy, and we would continue to rely on them for funding," Chaudhry told reporters.

Cricket star-turned-politician Khan swept into power in 2018 thanks to an electorate weary of the dynastic politics of the country's two major parties, with the popular former sports star promising to sweep away decades of entrenched corruption and cronyism.

But in April, he was kicked out following a no-confidence vote -- brought down in part by his failure to rectify the country's dire economic situation, including its crippling debt, shrinking foreign currency reserves and soaring inflation.

He also reportedly fell out with the country's powerful military.

Khan has since staged a series of rallies, touting a claim he was pushed out of office in a "foreign conspiracy" and heaping pressure on a coalition of former opposition parties now in power.

PTI has been sent a notice to explain the prohibited funds, or it can challenge the order in court.

The commission meanwhile could pursue confiscating the prohibited funds, while the government could take the case to the Supreme Court to ban Khan's PTI party.

However, legal expert Osama Malik said: "Politically it would not be an ideal precedent for one group of political parties to ban their rivals."

The commission is also investigating a foreign funding case against two other major political parties -- Sharif's ruling PML-N and its coalition partner Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

Both parties deny the claims.

zz/ecl/dhc

Pakistan tribunal: Imran Khan's PTI received illegal funding

The Election Commission of Pakistan has ruled that the party of former Prime Minister Imran Khan received illegal funds from abroad. The decision could see the cricket icon and his party being banned from politics.


As the Oxford-educated son of a wealthy Lahore family, Khan had a reputation as a playboy before politics

Former Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Tuesday said it would challenge the commission's ruling that could see it disqualified from any upcoming election.

Since he was forced from office after losing a confidence vote, Khan has been rallying his supporters to demand a new election. The country's new Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has rejected that demand.
What did the ruling say?

Khan's party has faced accusations of receiving funds from abroad, which is illegal in Pakistan, in a case that has lasted years.

According to Pakistani media, a three-member commission tribunal found that the PTI received funding from 34 foreigners or foreign companies.

The body said the party had submitted a fake affidavit about its bank accounts. It determined that the party had hidden 13 bank accounts that it should have declared.

The commission asked the party to submit an explanation as to why its funds should not be seized, media said.

The PTI itself says the funds in question were received from Pakistanis based overseas, which would not be illegal.

How does it mean he can be banned?

Legal expert Osama Malik told DW the decision could be used by the Pakistani government to declare the PTI a foreign aided political party.

However, a reference would have to be sent to the country's Supreme Court — which would make a final decision on this matter — within 15 days.

Malik said the PTI could respond to the possible seizure of funds or challenge the order itself in a court of law.
What was the reaction?

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Khan's predecessor and one of his political opponents, said the matter should now be settled.

"It has been proved that Imran Khan is involved in the foreign prohibited funding which is illegal according to the Pakistani law and the law will take its course on this matter," he said.

The PTI's founder and Khan's former close associate Akbar S. Baba, who filed the complaint about the funding with the commission, hailed the ruling.

"All the accusations against Imran Khan have been proven," Babar told reporters, adding that Khan should step down from the party.

However, PTI spokesman Fawad Chaudhry denied that the party was guilty of wrongdoing.

"We will challenge this verdict in the court, these funds were received from overseas Pakistanis and they are patriotic people and they will continue to support our party and we have not [hidden] the funds."

Big promises turn sour

As the Oxford-educated son of a wealthy Lahore family, Khan had a reputation as a playboy before he retired from international cricket.

He was prime minister from 2018 until April of this year when he was forced to step down after the confidence vote, which he claimed was the precipitated by a US conspiracy. Washington has denied those claims.

Khan, 69, had promised sweeping reforms to eliminate corruption and cronyism. But he was accused by his detractors of economic mismanagement and foreign-policy mistakes.

Rapid inflation, rising unemployment, a weak currency and a heavy debt burden also hurt his popularity.

While Khan's supporters viewed him as the last hope for Pakistani politics, opponents chastized him for his willingness to accommodate Islamists and antagonize the West.

With reporting from Haroon Janjua in Islamabad

rc/msh (Reuters, dpa)

In Latin America, synthetic drugs becoming more popular than cocaine and marijuana

Drug cartels in Latin America are now making more money from synthetic drugs like fentanyl than the illicit substances the continent is best known for, like cocaine and marijuana.



Synthetic drugs such as crystal meth, shown in production above, are becoming increasingly prevalent in Mexico


In early February this year, a number of people were hospitalized in Buenos Aires, left in life-threatening condition after taking adulterated cocaine. As a result, 24 of them died.

The Argentine authorities were forced to launch a media appeal, warning anyone who had recently purchased cocaine not to consume it under any circumstances. They subsequently discovered that the cocaine had been cut with another drug: carfentanil.

Carfentanil, which is a derivative of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl, is usually used to anesthetize large wild animals, like elephants. Just two milligrams — a few grains — is enough to kill a human being.

Fentanyl, on the other hand, is "only" 50 times stronger than heroin, and 100 times stronger than morphine. And in recent years, this synthetic drug has become a hugely lucrative export for Mexican drug cartels.

Cheap production, big profits

One of the reasons for this is that it costs much less to produce than traditional drugs. Reports in the Mexican media suggest that the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel now seems to be making bigger profits from fentanyl than from cocaine or any other drug.

In early July, Mexican soldiers seized a record 543 kilograms (1,200 pounds) of fentanyl in the city of Culiacan. "This is the largest seizure of this deadly drug in Mexico's history," the undersecretary of state for public security, Ricardo Mejía, announced proudly after the operation.


War on drugs: Just three weeks after the fentanyl seizure, police in Mexico City found 1.5 tonnes of cocaine hidden in a truck

Mejía had given a press conference in May in which he detailed why fentanyl was so lucrative for Mexican drug cartels. It takes only two hours to produce one kilogram, he explained, and in Mexico, a kilogram of fentanyl would fetch an average price of $5,000 (about €4,900).

In US cities like Los Angeles, the same amount would sell for $200,000.
Mexico: A lucrative market

Against the backdrop of the ongoing opioid crisis in the United States, with more than 107,000 deaths in 2021 alone, the Mexican and US presidents, Manuel López Obrador and Joe Biden, have also been addressing the issue. On July 13, at their meeting in Washington, they agreed to increase their efforts and cooperation in the fight against synthetic drugs.


At their meeting earlier this month, the Mexican and US presidents agreed to increase joint efforts to combat the opioid crisis

From being a transit country for drugs produced in Andean countries, Mexico has now become a burgeoning consumer market. According to the latest United Nations' World Drug Report, published every year on June 26 — the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking — between 2013 and 2020, Mexico saw a 218% increase in the number of people in treatment for synthetic drug use.

At the presentation of the World Drug Report 2022, Sofia Diaz, who is the country coordinator for Mexico at the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), stated: "Mexico is the only country on the American continent where amphetamine-type stimulants have become the leading cause of health problems requiring medical treatment."

She pointed out that, in addition to fentanyl and opioids, amphetamine-type stimulants and other synthetic drugs are also included, such as crystal meth and ecstasy.

COVID-19 and drug use

The rise of synthetic drugs in Mexico is striking on a continent that the UNODC says is characterized by the use of cannabis and cocaine. Marijuana is the main drug being treated for in Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela and almost all of Central America; whereas in Canada, Chile, Uruguay, and Paraguay, cocaine is the primarily culprit.

Until recently, marijuana and cocaine were the main drugs of choice in Latin America

The production and trafficking of synthetic drugs in Latin America is increasing much faster than that of naturally occurring drugs, Diaz warned. A January 2022 report from the Mexican ministry of health confirms this assessment. It found that overall drug use in Mexico increased 22% between 2010 and 2019, and that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused it to increase further.

Several Mexican institutions recently collaborated on a major study called VoCes-19. After surveying 55,000 adolescents in the fall of 2021, they concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic — and the resulting depression and anxiety among adolescents — had led this group to take more drugs.

According to its data, opioid and marijuana use among young people increased by 18% to 21% during pandemic times in Mexico.

Living in fear: The corporate staff exposed to corruption by their employers

Mining corporations are leaving employees without support in countries where corruption is endemic, according to activists. One former executive is now in hiding in the Philippines, fearing for his life.


Corruption is a 'chronic risk" that business employees have to face when they operate abroad

Dominic French* has barely been outside for over two years. The world that he occupies with his Filipino wife and three children is a house with a small garden in a remote region of the Philippines. "We've become pretty good at hiding," he told DW via a video call.

The house is registered in his wife's name, their children only attend online classes, and the family's only trip beyond the gates in the last few months was a dash to get booster vaccinations in May, when they wore masks and rode in a car with tinted windows. Depression and exhaustion have set in. One psychologist has diagnosed his wife and children with post-traumatic stress disorder. "We can't continue to live this way," French said. "It is not living."

A complex story has led him here, but the main reason for these precautions is simple: French is convinced his life is in danger because he is the only witness to a bribe his former employer, the Australian mining giant BHP Billiton, allegedly offered in 2008.

That crime could implicate a well-connected Filipino politician and a powerful businessman. Both of these people were named by French to DW, but are not mentioned here to protect his safety. French also provided corroborating evidence that other associates feared this particular businessman, and though contacted for comment, none were willing to go on the record for this article. The politician, meanwhile, has gained a national profile in the country.

The gift to the politician, which was brokered by the businessman, consisted of a luxury hospitality trip to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The bribe potentially gave BHP an advantage in a legal dispute over a mining license. The company eventually retracted the bribe, but not until after it had been accepted and the court decision had been made in the company's favor.

French has good reason to be scared. During his work at BHP in 2007, he was called in by an Australian embassy security adviser, who told him there had been credible "kidnap for ransom" threats against him and other BHP expats — possibly orchestrated by a rival company. He personally knew a Canadian mining executive, John Ridsdel, who was kidnapped and murdered in the country in 2016. So it was unsurprising that after the bribery scheme became public in 2015, French became worried when suspicious white vans and unfamiliar motorcyclists appeared at his gate.

Exposure to corruption

Such dangers remain well-known in the Philippines to this day. The US government's 2021 human rights report on the country says kidnappings are "common and predominantly for criminal purposes."

BHP says it is well-aware of these concerns and insists that the safety of its employees is its "highest priority."

"We have dedicated compliance, safety and security teams across our global operations that support all of our employees, providing advice and guidance across a multitude of issues including bribery and corruption," the company told DW in a statement. "We also have multiple channels in place — including an anonymous reporting line — that encourage and help raise any concerns."

But according to Serena Lillywhite, CEO of Transparency International Australia, executives like French are often poorly equipped to deal with these issues. "There's a disconnect between: 'Oh, we want to protect our staff, but we don't necessarily want to talk about the fact that we're being tapped on the shoulder to pay bribes in so many countries where we operate,'," she told DW. "They don't want that out there. So it's always easier to throw an individual under the bus."

Multinational corporations like BHP often work in jurisdictions that are prone to corruption

French believes he is one of those employees thrown under a bus. He describes corruption as a "chronic" risk that all multinationals have to face if they operate in certain countries. "Corporations have dealt with the management of the threat in a hit and miss style, perhaps because they don't understand what is required to mitigate or manage the risk," he said.

In this kind of environment, Lillywhite added, there is an unspoken reality that everyone knows: "Bribes are paid."

"They are often hidden through expenses that look legitimate — such as consultancy fees," she added.

Western companies are caught in a dilemma: They maintain compliance standards and must — if they also want to operate in the US — refrain from bribery in foreign countries, under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. But on the other hand, companies also want to do business in certain countries where corruption is an endemic reality. And executives like French are often left on the front line of that gap because of their day-to-day challenges.

"This is where it's a very, very murky area," said Lillywhite. "Often, just one or two executives are left to go into a country to secure a license to operate."

Inexperience often leaves Western company executives reliant on a third-party agent, or fixer, and these are likely to be people with political connections. That makes companies particularly vulnerable to facilitating bribery. "Companies are not providing enough information to their staff to protect them from the risks of bribery," she said.

Old crime with new consequences

French's story began in 2007, when he had to undertake due diligence on one such fixer in the Philippines — the above-mentioned businessman who conveyed one of the Olympics bribes that BHP was allegedly engaged in. "He specifically said to me, in a very stern voice: People get killed in the Philippines for asking the kind of questions you're asking," French remembers. "He wasn't joking around. He was very frustrated."

French said he did not know at the time that BHP was involved in an alleged continent-wide bribery scheme of government officials in the whole Southeast Asian region — by gifting them hospitality packages for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Those gifts would eventually be investigated by the United States Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), which implemented cease-and-desist proceedings in 2015.

"BHP Billiton footed the bill for foreign government officials to attend the Olympics while they were in a position to help the company with its business or regulatory endeavors," Andrew Ceresney, director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement, said at the time. In the ensuing settlement, when the company paid the SEC a $25 million (€24.4 million) penalty, BHP neither admitted nor denied the findings.

French believes that the accompanying news reports put him at risk — the bribery scheme was now known publicly, which meant Philippine prosecutors could decide at any time to begin investigating both the fixer and the politician. It was time to leave the country.

Though he was no longer employed by BHP, the firm took his concerns seriously and offered him an evacuation deal in July 2019. This stated that the company would provide "assistance with obtaining the necessary visas and immigration permits including payment for associated costs." That, according to French, meant a "golden visa," including the required €500,000 ($511,400) investment in the country they chose, which was Spain.

But a few months later, in September 2019, while French and his family were already in transit and had little choice but to continue, BHP altered the deal, and instead of offering him its help, the company gave him $45,000 as a lump sum payment. With that, the matter would be over — at least that's how the company saw it.

But it left French in a bind: Though he says he did not sign the second agreement, he did take the $45,000, which he needed to cover the several months' cost of moving for his family. On arrival in Spain, the changed deal meant he was left effectively as an illegal immigrant, with no way to attain the visas that had initially been promised. The upshot was: he felt he had no choice but to take his family back to the Philippines and go into hiding.

BHP disputes that any help was retracted, and claims that French's decision was his own: "BHP did not renege on any agreement with Mr [French]. Together, we agreed on a package to provide immigration and relocation assistance for Mr [French] and his family — that assistance was delivered in full," the company said in a statement. "When Mr [French] chose to take on direct responsibility for his and his family's relocation, we also provided an additional lump sum payment to assist with his decision."

Prone to corruption

Whatever happens to French now, this issue, in general, is not going away. As BHP and other mining companies pivot away from fossil fuels to rare metals essential for renewable energy, they are increasingly finding themselves contending with countries where bribery is the price of doing business. The Democratic Republic of Congo, to name one example, supplies 70% of the world's cobalt, necessary for the batteries in electric cars.

"Most of the world's critical minerals needed for the energy transition are located in corrupt jurisdictions," said Lillywhite. "You've got 34% of lithium, which is going to be needed for batteries, in corruption-prone jurisdictions. Ninety-four percent of all rare earth deposits that we currently know of are in a corruption-prone jurisdiction."

This trend, she concluded, "raises questions about how well the CEOs of those companies are at preparing and protecting their staff to operate in high-risk jurisdictions."

*Dominic French is the person's legal name in Australia, though not the one he is generally known by. At his request, that name has not been used in this article to protect his safety.

Edited by: Uwe Hessler

German lawmaker says Roma community is 'again being marginalized'

Europe's largest minority group is often subjected to "racism and the denial of rights," Bodo Ramelow said in a speech to mark the European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

Half a million Sinti and Roma were killed during the Holocaust

German lawmaker and premier for the state of Thuringer Bodo Ramelow (Left Party) called for an end to the exclusion of Sinti and Roma people on Tuesday.

"We are here today, to look the horror in the face and thereby make it visible," the president of the Bundesrat, the parliamentary chamber that represents Germany's 16 states, said in a speech to mark the European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day at the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

Europe's largest minority group still experiences racism, says Ramelow

With an estimated population of 10 million people, the Roma community is Europe's largest ethnic minority. "And yet, in many places, they are once again being marginalized," Ramelow said. "They experience hatred, exclusion, racism, violence and the denial of civil and social rights in many countries."

Ramelow and Romani Rose, the chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, both laid wreaths.

Wreaths were laid by both Ramelow (pictured) and the chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, Romani Rose

On August 2, 1944, some 4,300 Sinti and Roma were killed in gas chambers at the death camp in Nazi-occupied southern Poland.

In 2015, the European Parliament declared the anniversary European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day to commemorate the 500,000 Roma — representing at least a quarter of their total population at that time — murdered in Nazi-occupied Europe.

'Sinti and Roma were persecuted to their deaths'

"Half a million Sinti and Roma were murdered during the Nazi dictatorship," Ramelow said. "Just like Jews and other minorities, Sinti and Roma were persecuted to their deaths because a racist ideology denied them the right to live."

It wasn't until 1982 that the Nazi mass-murder of the Sinti, a subgroup of Romani people mostly found in Germany and Central Europe, and Roma people became recognized as genocide. 

VIDEO: Postwar persecution - The plight of West German Sinti and Roma

With Threat at Historic High, Nuclear Powers Urged to Stop Violating Global Treaty

The head of ICAN said that as "tensions between nuclear-armed states are increasing, hiding behind vague affirmations and empty promises is not enough," and all nations should "join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as the pathway to save the NPT."


U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a review conference for parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons at the United Nations in New York City on August 1, 2022. (Photo: Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images)

JESSICA CORBETT

COMMON DREAMS

August 1, 2022

As a treaty review conference kicked off in New York City, anti-war groups on Monday called out nuclear-armed countries—particularly the United States—for not complying with the decades-old agreement, especially as global tensions escalate.

"Nuclear-armed states are violating their disarmament obligations under the treaty and increasing the risk of catastrophic nuclear war."

Five of the nine nations with nuclear weapons—China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States—are parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which entered into force in 1970. North Korea ditched the deal in 2003 and India, Israel, and Pakistan have not signed on to it.

In a joint statement Monday, CodePink and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom U.S. Section (WILPF U.S.) urged the Biden administration "to remove its nuclear weapons from NATO countries and its anti-ballistic missiles from Romania and Poland, to dismantle its land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), to take all nuclear-armed missiles off hair-trigger alert, and reverse course on nuclear rearmament."

CodePink and WILPF U.S. demanded the declassification of the Biden administration's nuclear policy document and noted that leaders use the term "modernization" for arsenal updates—which the groups called "a euphemism designed to disguise violations" of the NPT. They also acknowledged how Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the response by the United States and other NATO nations have heightened global fears of nuclear war.

While the pair objected to the deployment of American nuclear weapons to several nations—including Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, and the U.K.—they specifically pointed out that anti-ballistic missiles in Poland and Romania "escalate the arms race, sending a message that the U.S. and its NATO allies could launch a first strike on Russia protected from retaliation."

"At this tenuous time, the U.S. government is engaged in a protracted proxy war with Russia," the organizations said. "We at CodePink and WILPF U.S. raise our voices in thunderous protest at this warmongering and say steps must be taken to de-escalate the crisis."

The groups blasted not only President Joe Biden and others in his administration, but also members of Congress who are backing an $839 billion military budget. As they put it: "Instead of pursuing world peace and climate preservation for our children and their children, leaders of the U.S. are chasing a reckless and provocative foreign policy that pits the two most heavily armed nuclear nations, the U.S. and Russia, against each other, in an existential threat to humankind."

"Much as we condemn Russia's horrific invasion and brutal occupation of Ukraine, we acknowledge our part in this—with U.S. and NATO provocations—and we protest our government's decision to escalate the war with billions of dollars in weapons and military training rather than efforts to reach a negotiated settlement to build a new security architecture for Europe that will guarantee security to all in the region," CodePink and WILPF U.S. added.

Meanwhile, "Russia is threatening to deploy new strategic systems, including a nuclear-armed torpedo," and Russian President Vladimir Putin "recently suggested he might put nuclear weapons-capable missiles and aircraft in Belarus," the pair also highlighted. Additionally, other nuclear powers—specifically China and the U.K.—are dumping money into replacing and upgrading "their deadly arsenals."

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) on Monday similarly called out multiple countries, emphasizing in a statement that the United Nations conference in NYC "takes place amid a rapidly deteriorating international security environment," with nuclear-armed nations "increasing risks of use and proliferation of nuclear weapons."

"Russia's invasion of Ukraine under cover of the threat to use nuclear weapons has fractured the NPT community, heightened the risks of nuclear weapons being used, and increased the likelihood of nuclear proliferation," said ICAN executive director Beatrice Fihn. "At the same time, all five nuclear-armed states are violating their disarmament obligations under the treaty and increasing the risk of catastrophic nuclear war."

"Russia's nuclear threats have shown us the true nature of nuclear 'deterrence': intimidation, coercion, and facilitating illegal aggression," she continued. "This could drive other countries to consider nuclear weapons to defend themselves against nuclear-armed aggressors."

ICAN noted with alarm developments involving three countries that have no nukes of their own but are party to the NPT: Belarus offering to host Russian arms, and Sweden and Finland stating "publicly that they now support these weapons of mass destruction as a crucial part of their security policy and would be willing to participate in using them as part of their NATO membership application."

"These developments are extremely dangerous and undermine confidence in the NPT as a tool for enhancing global security," Fihn asserted, warning that "if Russia or any other nuclear-armed state were to use nuclear weapons, it would have catastrophic humanitarian consequences that would harm people all over the world."

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Finn also flagged that "since the last NPT review conference, nuclear weapons, like chemical and biological weapons, are now comprehensively prohibited by international law."

ICAN received the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its work on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which entered into force last year. While that agreement has widespread support globally, it still lacks the backing of any of the nine nuclear powers.

"The NPT review conference must harness the energy and build on the achievements of the TPNW," Fihn argued. "At a time where tensions between nuclear-armed states are increasing, hiding behind vague affirmations and empty promises is not enough. It's time for all states to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as the pathway to save the NPT."

After opening on Monday with a stark warning from U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres that "humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation, away from nuclear annihilation," and speeches from other key leaders including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the NPT's 10th review conference is slated to run through August 26.

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Can UN summit reduce the risk of nuclear crises?

Progress toward a world without nuclear weapons has stalled for years. A month-long UN conference on nuclear nonproliferation aims to kickstart it as Russia's war in Ukraine stirs fears of nuclear confrontation.


North Korea has continued its nuclear weapons program despite international condemnation


A major summit convenes in New York on Monday with the aim of putting nuclear nonproliferation back on track, as the war in Ukraine and escalating tensions between major powers threaten to undo decades of work to prevent the outbreak of a catastrophic nuclear war.

The 10th review of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) will feature representatives from almost every nation, including US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Nations attending the four-week conference, which was delayed for more than two years by the COVID-19 pandemic, will seek to evaluate the treaty's progress and take measures to strengthen it, with the ultimate goal of achieving a world without nuclear weapons. But that aim looks increasingly far from reality.

"We have seen the international arms control architecture crumble over the past decade," Rafael Loss, a nuclear policy researcher at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told DW.

"Western diplomats haven't quite given up yet on the idea of coming to some sort of final agreement, but things have not gotten easier since 2015."

Nuclear bombs may also be deployed from submarines, such as this French vessel 'Le Vigilant'

Growing discontent among non-nuclear nations

The NPT, effective from 1970, was conceived with the aim of forestalling the rapid proliferation of nuclear weapons around the world. Under the agreement, non-nuclear states would refrain from seeking nuclear weapons; and the five states which do possess weapons would promote the spread of peaceful nuclear technology and make efforts to reduce their nuclear weapons stockpiles.

The treaty, which has 191 signatory states, recognizes the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and China as nuclear-weapon states. India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea are also known to possess nuclear weapons but are not signatories to the treaty, with Pyongyang having left in 2003.

Growing discontent among non-nuclear nations has been increasingly evident among members of the NPT, which hold a review conference every five years. The organization has so far failed to make progress on the goal it set out in 2000 to "accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals."

The last review in 2015 failed to reach a consensus on several key issues, as major parties remained at odds over the establishment of a Weapons of Mass Destruction-free zone in the Middle East, and introducing effective measures towards nuclear disarmament.

India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea possess nuclear weapons, but have not signed on to the NPT; an Indian missile is on display here

Alarm bells ringing over Russia's war in Ukraine

In June, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) warned in a major report that the risk of a nuclear war was the highest since the height of the Cold War; and that nonproliferation was failing as nuclear-armed states, particularly China, sought to modernize their arsenals.

The organization estimates that there are still 12,705 nuclear warheads worldwide, with 90% of them belonging to Russia and the US.

"There are clear indications that the reductions that have characterized global nuclear arsenals since the end of the Cold War have ended," said SIPRI researcher Hans M. Kristensen.

In January of this year, the five recognized nuclear-weapons states, including Russia, issued a statement that "a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought." Yet Russia's invasion of Ukraine the following month brought a swift end to this unified rhetoric.

On Monday, in a letter adressed to participants of the conference in New York, Putin said there could be no winners in a nuclear war and no such war should ever be started.

"We proceed from the fact that there can be no winners in a nuclear war and it should never be unleashed, and we stand for equal and indivisible security for all members of the world community," he said.

Those comments contrasted sharply with previous statements by Russian leaders on their willingness to deploy nuclear weapons, a strategy that the US calls "escalating to de-escalate." President Vladimir Putin's spokesperson Dmitri Peskov said in March that only a "threat to the existence" of Russia would prompt a nuclear attack, but that has not allayed fears that a desperate Putin might deploy a smaller, tactical nuclear weapon if the tide of war turns sharply against him.

The breakdown in relations between the US and Russia also jeopardizes the future of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), the only bilateral agreement to reduce nuclear arsenals between the two nations. It was extended for five years in 2021.

A memorial takes place each year in Hiroshima, Japan on August 6,

 the anniversary of the world's first nuclear bombing

The imperilled future of the Iran nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), is also a major source of concern, particularly for Europe. Former president Donald Trump's decision to unilaterally pull the US out of the deal and reapply economic sanctions to Iran has not been reversed by Joe Biden, and Iran has once again resumed enriching uranium over the pact's restrictions.

World leaders have also called for measures to rein in North Korea, whose leader Kim Jong-un last week said he was "ready to mobilize'' its nuclear deterrent against any US aggression.

The US has warned of Pyongyang's intention to conduct another nuclear test imminently, but its nonproliferation representative has said he does not think any actions taken at the NPT review could influence North Korea's nuclear strategy.
A critical moment

This year's NPT review will be critical to reversing the backsliding in nonproliferation efforts over the last few years, with senior diplomatic figures even warning that a continued failure to make meaningful progress could fundamentally undermine the NPT itself.

"It is abundantly clear that nuclear states have conspicuously failed to live up to their disarmament responsibilities," former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon wrote in an opinion piece for Foreign Policy last week.

"There is a wider risk of more nuclear proliferation if the international community no longer sees the NPT as fit for purpose and if other agreements are undermined," he added, referring to the US decision to leave the JCPOA.

The UN is hoping to advance its Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, effective from 2021. It is the first legally binding treaty with a framework for completely eliminating nuclear weapons and has 86 signatory states, but includes no nuclear-armed nations.

Rafael Loss said this growing schism between the haves and have-nots "could very well also suggest that the NPT regime's normative glue is slowly eroding, and the ban treaty is seen as a more viable path.”

The appearance of Japan's Kishida, the first Japanese prime minister to attend a NPT review, is a sign of the increasing sense of urgency felt among world leaders to return to disarmament.

Japan, the only nation to be attacked with nuclear weapons, plans to host next year's G7 summit in Hiroshima, where around 135,000 people were killed or injured when the US dropped a nuclear bomb in 1945.

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More than 100 AI experts have written to the UN asking them to ban lethal autonomous weapons — those that use AI to act independently. No so-called "killer robots" currently exist, but advances in artificial intelligence have made them a real possibility. Experts said these weapons could be "the third revolution in warfare," after gunpowder and nuclear arms.
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Edited by: Sonia Phalnikar

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Cannabis investment platform hit with Spain lawsuit

Mon, August 1, 2022 

Nearly 1,200 investors have filed a class-action lawsuit in Spain against a medicinal cannabis investment platform operating worldwide, accusing it of fraud, embezzlement and money laundering, their lawyers said Monday.

JuicyFields, which is based in the Netherlands, promised high returns to invest online in medicinal cannabis plants, said Norberto Martinez from the Martinez-Blanco law firm that filed the case.

A spokesman with Spain's National Court, the country's top criminal court, confirmed the lawsuit was filed over the weekend.

This is believed to be the first class-action lawsuit against JuicyFields, which according to media investigations allegedly scammed investors around the world.

Established in 2020, JuicyFields offered investors the chance to participate in the cultivation, harvesting and sale of cannabis plants, promising returns of between 29 percent and 66 percent, according to the law firm.

But JuicyFields suddenly stopped operations in mid-July, froze cash withdrawals and vanished from the internet, according to several investors.

The lawsuit accuses JuicyFields of operating like a Ponzi scheme, in which early investors are paid out by receipts from later investors.

It estimates that there are nearly 4,500 victims in Spain alone, who each lost an average of 6,500 euros ($6,645). Some individuals lost as much as 200,000 euros.

The minimum investment was 50 euros, and the money could be deposited and withdrawn via bank transfer or cryptocurrencies.

The overall scale of JuicyFields' alleged fraud is unclear. A woman has already filed a police complaint against the firm in France's northern city of Tourcoing.

The 58-year-old woman, who did not want to be identified, said she started by investing 50 euros in December 2021 and in just three and a half months she earned a profit of 25 euros.

"This gave me confidence so I immediately reinjected the money and I invested larger sums," she told AFP, adding she had lost 3,600 euros.

She is part of a group on mobile messaging service Telegram in France for people who want to take legal action against JuicyFields which has over 1,600 members.

A class-action lawsuit against JuicyFields is expected to be filed in a French court before the end of the year, according to Arnaud Delomel, a lawyer who represents hundreds of investors.

AFP was unable to contact JuicyFields for comment and the company has issued no official statement.

vab-zl/ds/lth

Brazil: Petition in 'defense of democracy' receives 500,000 signatures

A presidential election is just two months away, and some fear President Jair Bolsonaro's utterances mean he might not accept the result if he loses.

Bolsonaro, who came to power in 2019, has regularly attacked the electronic voting system in use since 1996

More than half a million people have signed a petition in "defense of democracy" in Brazil by Sunday in response to President Jair Bolsonaro's attacks on the country's electoral system.

"We are going through a moment of great peril for normal democracy, a risk for the republic's institutions and insinuations about not respecting the election results," the petition's authors wrote, without ever mentioning Bolsonaro.

Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva maintains a wide lead over Bolsonaro ahead of October's presidential election.

Bolsonaro has repeatedly attacked the country's electronic voting system, questioned the nation's top electoral court, and insisted that he will only lose re-election if there is mass voter fraud.

So earlier in the week, members of the faculty of law at the University of Sao Paulo drew up the petition to voice concern that "unfounded and unproven attacks have brought into question the electoral process and the democratic state of law achieved with such a great struggle by Brazilian society."

The petition does not directly mention Bolsonaro but stated "threats against other powers ... incitement to violence and institutional rupture are intolerable."

Lula callled on supporters to take to streets to win the October presidential vote

Rival petition supports Bolsonaro's views

Bolsonaro said he did not understand the petition, "Who is against democracy in Brazil? We are for transparency, legality, we respect the constitution," he wrote on Facebook.

His supporters launched their own petition with the goal of gathering one million signatures "to declare that without freedom, there is no democracy."

Their petition in "defense of freedoms" also said Brazilians should avoid "the consolidation of the dictatorship of single thought." 

Meanwhile, Lula said he would continue campaigning in the open despite threats to his safety.

Lula urged his supporters to avoid provocations.

"We will win by having courage. We have to go to the streets to show that the Brazilian people really want democracy. We cannot give in to this bully," he said, referring to Bolsonaro.

lo/sri (AFP, EFE, Lusa, Reuters)

Fires increase in Brazilian Amazon in July


Issued on: 01/08/2022 - 

Greenpeace picture showing smoke billowing from a fire in the Amazon forest in the municipality of Porto Velho, Rondonia State, Brazil, on July 27, 2022 

Christian BRAGA GREENPEACE/AFP


Rio de Janeiro (AFP) – The number of forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon increased by eight percent last month compared with July 2021, according to official figures released Monday, the latest alarm bell for the world's biggest rainforest.

Satellite monitoring detected 5,373 fires last month, up from 4,977 in July last year, according to the Brazilian space agency, INPE.

However, the number was well short of the worst July on record: 19,364 fires in 2005.

July is typically the start of the Amazon "fire season," when drier weather fuels more fires -- mostly set by farmers and speculators clearing land for agriculture, according to experts.

The increase in the Amazon came as major fires raged in California, France and Portugal amid rising temperatures.

This has been a worrying year for fires in the Amazon, a key resource in the race to curb global warming: INPE has detected 12,906 so far, up 13 percent from the same period last year.

"It's only the beginning of the Amazon dry season, when the number of criminal forest fires unfortunately explodes," said Romulo Batista of Greenpeace Brazil.

"In addition to decimating the forest and its biodiversity, those fires and destruction also affect the local population's health due to smoke inhalation," he said in a statement.

President Jair Bolsonaro, who comes up for reelection in October, is facing scrutiny for his government's controversial stewardship of Brazil's 60-percent share of the Amazon, where there has been a surge of fires and deforestation on his watch.

Since the far-right agribusiness ally took office in 2019, average annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has increased by 75 percent compared to the previous decade.

© 2022 AFP