STATE CAPITALI$M VS.MONOPOLY CAPITALI$M

Xi Warns China Officials to Avoid ‘Collusion’ With Big Business




 Mon, January 9, 2023

(Bloomberg) -- Chinese leader Xi Jinping warned officials against colluding with the business world, underscoring that his government’s crackdown on the private sector will remain a concern for investors despite efforts to boost the economy.

“Action should be taken to prevent leading officials from acting for any interest group or power group, and to forestall any collusion between officials and businesspeople,” Xi told a meeting of anti-corruption regulators on Monday, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

He also warned against “any infiltration of capital into politics that undermines the political ecosystem or the environment for economic development.”

Xi’s government has recently eased up on a regulatory crackdown on tech giants like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd., helping their shares rebound. Yet questions remain over how far that approach will go given Xi has also pledged to ensure “common prosperity,” in part by reining in wealthy special interests.

Xi has made reining in graft a central aspect of his leadership of the world’s second-biggest economy over the past decade. That approach has been popular with the public and also served to weed out potential threats to his rule.

Last year, the anti-corruption officials broke up what they called a “political clique” led by former police official Sun Lijun, who was sentenced to what amounts to life in prison for taking bribes and other crimes.

The message that graft cannot be allowed to thrive in the Chinese political system is one that Xi delivers regularly. In December, just after securing a third term in power, Xi said the country had achieved an “overwhelming victory” in its battle against corruption but added that the work was “far from over.”

Economic Measures

Xi’s latest call to continue with the campaign comes as his government abandons its Covid Zero approach toward the coronavirus. On Sunday, China opened borders that had been largely closed for nearly three years, after earlier doing away with quarantine camps, mass testing and snap lockdowns.

Those policies had led to public anger, with widespread protests erupting in late November, though the government has insisted its policy changes were underway before the demonstrations erupted.

With covid rules loosening, the government is stepping up efforts to bolster the economy. China is considering a record quota for local government bonds and widening the budget deficit. The economy is forecast to expand by 4.8% this year, compared with little growth in the US and a potential contraction in the Eurozone, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

U.S. Supreme Court lets Meta's WhatsApp pursue 'Pegasus' spyware suit

Illustration shows Whatsapp logo

Mon, January 9, 2023 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday let Meta Platforms Inc's WhatsApp pursue a lawsuit accusing Israel's NSO Group of exploiting a bug in the WhatsApp messaging app to install spy software allowing the surveillance of 1,400 people, including journalists, human rights activists and dissidents.

The justices turned away NSO's appeal of a lower court's decision that the lawsuit could move forward. NSO had argued that it is immune from being sued because it was acting as an agent for unidentified foreign governments when it installed the "Pegasus" spyware.

President Joe Biden's administration had urged the justices to reject NSO's appeal, noting that the U.S. State Department had never before recognized a private entity acting as an agent of a foreign state as being entitled to immunity.

Meta, the parent company of both WhatsApp and Facebook, in a statement welcomed the court's move to turn away NSO's "baseless" appeal.


"NSO's spyware has enabled cyberattacks targeting human rights activists, journalists and government officials," Meta said. "We firmly believe that their operations violate U.S. law and they must be held to account for their unlawful operations."

A lawyer for NSO did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

WhatsApp in 2019 sued NSO seeking an injunction and damages, accusing it of accessing WhatsApp servers without permission six months earlier to install the Pegasus software on victims' mobile devices.

NSO has argued that Pegasus helps law enforcement and intelligence agencies fight crime and protect national security and that its technology is intended to help catch terrorists, pedophiles and hardened criminals.

In court papers, NSO said that WhatsApp's notification to users scuttled a foreign government's investigation into an Islamic State militant who was using the app to plan an attack.

In one notorious case, NSO spyware was used - allegedly by the Saudi government - to target the inner circle of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi shortly before he was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

NSO appealed a trial judge's 2020 refusal to award it "conduct-based immunity," a common law doctrine protecting foreign officials acting in their official capacity.

Upholding that ruling in 2021, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals called it an "easy case" because NSO's mere licensing of Pegasus and offering technical support did not shield it from liability under a federal law called the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which took precedence over common law.

WhatsApp's lawyers said that private entities like NSO are "categorically ineligible" for foreign sovereign immunity.

The Biden administration in a filing in November said the 9th Circuit reached the right result, even though the government was not ready to endorse the circuit court's conclusion that FSIA entirely forecloses any form of immunity under common law.

According to court papers, the accounts of 1,400 WhatsApp users were accessed using the Pegasus tracking software, secretly using their smartphones as surveillance devices.

An investigation published in 2021 by 17 media organizations, led by the Paris-based non-profit journalism group Forbidden Stories, found that the spyware had been used in attempted and successful hacks of smartphones belonging to journalists, government officials and human rights activists on a global scale.

The U.S. government in November 2021 blacklisted NSO and Israel's Candiru, accusing them of providing spyware to governments that used it to "maliciously target" journalists, activists and others.

NSO also is being sued by iPhone maker Apple Inc, accused of violating its user terms and services agreement.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Will Dunham)

Big week for US-Mexico ties going into North American summit





President Joe Biden looks to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a meeting of G7 and NATO leaders in Bali, Indonesia, Nov. 16, 2022. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Biden and Trudeau, will gather in Mexico City on Monday, Jan. 9, 2023, and Tuesday, Jan. 10, for a North American leaders summit. (Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP, Pool, File)


COLLEEN LONG and MARIA VERZA
Sat, January 7, 2023 

WASHINGTON (AP) — It's been a big week for U.S.-Mexico relations, and that was even before President Joe Biden becomes the first U.S. leader to visit Mexico in nearly a decade.

In the lead-up to that trip, Biden announced a major border policy shift, with Mexico's blessing, that will result in the United States sending 30,000 migrants from four other countries per month back across the border. In Mexico, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's security forces nabbed one of the sons of imprisoned former Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, touching off violence that left 30 dead and dozens injured. The son, Ovidio Guzmán, is a reputed drug trafficker wanted by the United States.

The two presidents, along with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, will gather in Mexico City on Monday and Tuesday for a North American leaders summit. Even with progress on the migration issue, there is much to discuss: climate change, manufacturing, trade, the economy and the potential global clout of a more collaborative North America.

Biden arrives at the Palacio Nacional in Mexico City on Monday afternoon and the presidents will meet before Trudeau joins them for dinner. Biden and Trudeau will hold talks Tuesday and then the three will gather for discussions. It will be the first time since 2014 that Mexico has hosted a U.S. president.


Biden hopes to use the summit "to keep driving North America's economic competitiveness and help promote inclusive growth and prosperity,” said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.

For the U.S., the major talking points are migration, drug trafficking and building on Biden's push on electric vehicles and manufacturing.

Lopez Obrador is focused on economic integration for North America, supporting the poor in the Americas and regional relationships that put all governments on equal footing.

The U.S. and Mexico are expected to continue discussions about ending a dispute over U.S. corn after Mexico announced it would ban imports of genetically modified corn. In addition, Mexico is seeking money to boost solar energy projects.

As for Canada, the goal is simply "to carve some attention and space in this summit,” said Louise Blais, a longtime Canadian diplomat.

Mexico sees the event as a chance to advance its economic interests.

It stands to benefit as U.S. companies reconsider their relationships with China after supply chain disruptions, coronavirus outbreaks and changes in federal policy. Both Mexico’s proximity to the U.S. and existing trade agreements would be incentives for American factories to relocate south of the border. The U.S. imported more than $380 billion worth of goods from Mexico through the first 10 months of 2022 — the third-largest source of imports after China and the European Union, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Canada is the fourth-largest U.S. partner by imports, with the State Department calling it “the world’s most comprehensive trading relationship.” The U.S. and Canada are each other’s largest market for exports, and Canada is the largest foreign supplier of energy products to the U.S.

The U.S., Mexico and Canada are already in a long-standing trade agreement that was updated in 2020. When U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai met last month with Mexico’s secretary of the economy, Raquel Buenrostro, they discussed further economic integration as well as energy, fisheries and the trade agreement’s ban on importing goods made by forced labor — a subject that is among the tensions with China.

Analysts at Bank of America estimated in October that Mexico could increase its trade by as much as 30% if more supply chains returned to North America. Their report notes there had already been a bump in Mexican manufacturing as U.S. policymakers and businesses increasingly focus on bringing more trade to allied countries that are near American consumers.

“Every country is arriving with different priorities, but there is common ground,” said Enrique Perret, managing director of the U.S.-Mexico Foundation, a think tank focused on cooperation between the two nations. “It’s competitiveness, it’s economy, it’s education, it’s labor mobility.”

But it's not all rosy.

The leaders of Canada and Mexico have voiced concerns over Biden's “Buy America” plan. And while Biden's push toward electric vehicles is a boon to both nations because of the tax credits for North American batteries, there's concern the U.S. allies will be left behind.

Meantime, the U.S. and Canada accuse López Obrador of trying to favor Mexico’s state-owned utility over power plants built by foreign and private investors, something that is forbidden under the three countries' free trade pact.

The leaders did meet in Washington last November, but until then, there hadn't been a summit in five years and many of the current disputes have festered despite constant discussion. They include fentanyl trafficking, corn production, automobile rules of origin and Mexican energy laws.

"These topics are really complicated issues and they will not be solved in a two-day summit," said Carin Zissis of the Americas Society, a nonprofit dedicated to education, debate and dialogue in the Americas.

The chemistry between Biden and Lopez Obrador is tricky, too. Their relationship is highly transactional and absent any of the warmth and camaraderie Biden has with other world leaders.

Lopez Obrador has made no secret of his admiration of Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump. Lopez Obrador did not recognize Biden’s election victory from November 2020 until after the formal Electoral College vote a month later.

Biden has raised concerns over security and drug trafficking in Mexico and the deaths of journalists there. The U.S. took issue with Lopez Obrador for boycotting the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles last year over Biden's decision not to invite the leaders of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

Biden plans to stop in El Paso, Texas, on Sunday for his first visit as president to the U.S.-Mexico border, just days after announcing that the U.S. will immediately begin turning away Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans who illegally cross into the U.S. from Mexico. The new policy is an effort to manage the spiraling numbers of migrants arriving at the border.

Mexico agreed each month to take 30,000 Cubans, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans and Haitians who walk or swim to the U.S. and are turned back, and the U.S. each month will offer 30,000 people from those four nations work permits for two years and a legal path if they come to the U.S. by plane, have eligible sponsors and pass background checks. People from those four countries now make up the most migrants crossing the border.

Biden's attempt to tackle border security issues has drawn considerable criticism from immigrant advocates and refugee rights groups ,who say the changes are inhumane and reminiscent of Trump's hard-line approach.

___

Verza reported from Mexico City. Associated Press writer Josh Boak contributed to this report.

Wagner Boss Thinks Military Brass Are Out to Get Him

Allison Quinn
Sat, January 7, 2023 

Yevgeny Prigozhin  -- Russian restaurateur and businessman

Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Kremlin-connected businessman who deployed his private army to help Vladimir Putin terrorize Ukraine, says “people in uniform” connected to Russia’s military may be out to get him because his mercenaries are outshining regular Russian troops on the battlefield.

In response to a question from local media Friday about social media posts that appear aimed at “discrediting” him, Prigozhin, through his press service, suggested that oligarchs may be targeting him as revenge for his criticism of their “negative influence on the future of Russia.”

Or, he said, “People in uniform could be discrediting me. Chiefly those close to the military. Because many of them can’t achieve the same effectiveness that Wagner has.”


He also floated the idea that Ukrainian intelligence or the CIA could be trash-talking him to “slow down” Wagner on the frontline. But in the end he admitted that since all the negative claims about him were “ordered” for placement on Russian Telegram channels, “most likely neither the CIA nor the SBU has anything to do with it.”

“So I would like to apologize to them for the baseless criticism and suspicion,” he said.

As Prigozhin has seen his public profile soar after he began recruiting thousands of Russian prison inmates to prop up Putin’s fledgling war machine in Ukraine, rumors have circulated on Russian social media channels that appear aimed at taking him down a notch—including humiliating sex claims about a prison sentence in the 1980s.

‘Putin’s Chef’ Suddenly Has a Lot to Say About Twisted New War Effort

Independent Russian media outlets have reported that Prigozhin has managed to make quite a few enemies among those in Putin’s inner circle by making himself the public face of the war against Ukraine and bashing top military officials.

The Telegram channel General SVR, an anonymous channel that claims to be run by a former member of the security services, reported Friday that the innermost members of Putin’s circle are disgusted with Prigozhin’s tone in his interactions with the Russian leader.

When the Wagner boss wished Putin a happy new year over the holidays, the conversation was on speaker phone, allowing “several people” to overhear as Prigozhin spoke to the president in an overly familiar manner, the channel reported.

“Putin did not shut Prigozhin down, but, embarrassed, just thanked him in response and ended the conversation.”

A first for reclaimed Kyiv cathedral: Christmas in Ukrainian

People gather for the Christmas service in the Assumption Cathedral in Lavra, the Monastery of the Caves, Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023. Saturday service was conducted by Ukrainian patriarchate for the first time after Lavra had been under Russia's influence for hundreds of years and was subordinated to Russia. 

(AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

HANNA ARHIROVA
Sat, January 7, 2023 

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Packing a cathedral for Orthodox Christmas, hundreds of worshippers heard the service in that church in the Ukrainian language for the first time in decades, a demonstration of independence from the Russian Orthodox Church.

Richly decorated with golden icons and panels, the cathedral — part of the complex known as the Monastery of the Caves and a UNESCO World Heritage Site — put up a video screen outside for the overflow of worshipers, despite the frigid temperatures of -10 Celsius (14 F).

Overlooking the right bank of the Dnieper River, the cathedral and monastery complex has been a pilgrimage site for centuries. And for the first time in the 31 years of Ukraine’s independence, the service there was held in the Ukrainian language. Ukrainian army troops in uniform were among those singing well-known Ukrainian carols.

Ukraine's government on Thursday took over the administration of the Dormition Cathedral at the Kyiv-Pechersk monastery and allowed the Orthodox Church of Ukraine to use it for the Orthodox Christmas service. The move highlights the long-running tensions between the two churches exacerbated by Russia’s war in Ukraine.


The cathedral. built about 1,000 years ago then rebuilt in the 1990s after being ruined in World War II, had been under control of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which formerly had ties with the Russian Orthodox Church.

“It’s a first victory” for Ukraine, said Oksana Abu-Akel who hailed it as a significant step for Orthodox believers to cut ties with Russia after it started the war more than 10 months ago. “This is the first time in 300 years that there is really our own service here. Every person feels this joy. It is a victory for all Ukrainians.”

Ukrainian Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko said Thursday that the cathedral had been taken over by the state after the lease of the Moscow-affiliated church expired on Dec. 31. Tkachenko attended the service Saturday.

“It’s an amazing moment. Previously this place — on Ukrainian territory, within Kyiv — has been linked to Moscow. Now we feel this is ours, this is Ukrainian. This is part of the Ukrainian nation,” said Alex Fesiak, who attended the service.

In 2019, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine received recognition from the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. Moscow’s and most other Orthodox patriarchs refused to accept that designation that formalized a split with the Russian church.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which remained loyal to the Moscow patriarch since the 17th century, declared independence from Moscow’s Patriarchate after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The UOC gave Moscow a liturgical cold shoulder by dropping the commemoration of Moscow Patriarch Kirill as its leader in public worship and blessing its own sacramental oil rather than use Moscow’s supply.

Metropolitan Epiphanius, the primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, spoke not just about Christmas but delivered a political message about the war.

“As a nation, we sought to live peacefully, having a good understanding with all our neighbors. But the enemy meanly and treacherously broke the peace and invaded our land, shedding blood, sowing death and wanting to destroy our statehood and our very Ukrainian identity,” he said during the service.

“Those who held us in captivity could not endure our achievements and our success," he said. "The devil’s malice and envy prompted them to make war, but they are sure to be defeated. After all, the truth is on our side.”

Natalia Levshyna said her husband couldn’t come to the Christmas service as he is fighting on the front line, but she will send him photos of the service as it's very important to him. Originally from Donbas, she said she stopped attending the church of the Moscow Patriarchate in 2014, when Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula and supported the conflict in the eastern part of Ukraine.

"Our emotions are running high,” she said, barely holding back tears, describing her conviction that the Ukrainian church on Ukrainian soil should be independent from the Russian Orthodox Church.

“Our church must be synchronized with state policy. They must be one,” Levshyna said.

Others in Ukraine have decided to distance themselves from the Russian Orthodox Church by celebrating Christmas on Dec. 25.

On Friday, the Church of Moscow Patriarchate condemned the Ukrainian plans to hold a service in the Kyiv cathedral as ”an attempt to forcefully seize ... the cathedral by means of blackmail and misinformation of society.”

In 2019, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine received recognition from the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, but the Moscow’s patriarch refused to accept that.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church declared independence from Moscow’s Patriarchate after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, ending the Ukrainian church's loyalty to the Moscow patriarch which dated back to the 17th century. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church removed Moscow Patriarch Kirill as its leader in public worship and now uses its own sacramental oil for blessings rather than oil supplied by Moscow.

But Ukrainian security agencies have claimed that some in the Ukrainian church have maintained close ties with Moscow. They've raided numerous holy sites of the church and later posted photos of rubles, Russian passports and leaflets with messages from the Moscow patriarch as proof that some church officials have been loyal to Moscow.

Prominent Ukrainian Orthodox Church leaders have rejected the allegations of ties with Moscow, insisting that they have loyally supported Ukraine from the start of the war and that a government crackdown will only hand a propaganda coup to Russia.

DOUBLE STANDARD
‘Death to Khamenei’ Posts Don’t Violate Policies, Meta Oversight Board Declares

Mack DeGeurin
Mon, January 9, 2023 

A demonstrator holds a scarf like a noose around her neck during a One Law for All dance protest at Piccadilly Circus on December 17, 2022 in London, England

Meta’s “Supreme Court” says posts calling for the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader do not violate the company’s policies against violent threats and should remain online. The “death to Khamenei” posts, the independent Oversight Board argues, should be viewed as a form of political expression rather than a direct call for violence. Meta’s decision to abide by the Oversight Board’s ruling could have far-reaching implications for politically contentious speech in other regions that are currently adrift in a policy morass.

The debate involves a July 2022 Facebook post of a cartoon version of Khamenei where his animated beard grasps hold of a chained and blindfolded woman wearing a hijab with the words “marg bar... Khamenei” appearing underneath. Though the flagged phrase literally translates to “death to Khamenei,” the Oversight Board says that narrow reading misses important context. Often, the group writes, protesters and political dissenters will evoke the slogan to mean, “down with Khamenei.” The Oversight Board, which operates independently of Meta but relies on the company to sign its checks, ultimately overturned Meta’s decision and called on the company to improve its respect for freedom of expression amid political protests.

“The Board is concerned that Meta has not taken action to allow use of ‘marg bar Khamenei’ at scale during the current protests in Iran, despite its assessment in this case that the slogan did not pose a risk of harm,’ The Oversight Board wrote in its ruling.

Khamenei, who assumed power in 1979, has led a brutal crackdown against Iranian protesters following the September death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman detained by the country’s morality police for not wearing a hijab while visiting Tehran. As enraged Iranians flooded the streets, government officials moved to block major internet services like WhatsApp and Instagram, limiting the outside world’s peek behind the curtain.

In that context, the Oversight Board says Meta should have done more to prepare moderators for politically sensitive speech and should have “anticipated” issues likely to occur around removal requests for content including the “marg bar Khamenei” phrase. Meta’s unpreparedness here, the Oversight Board argues, may have, “led to the silencing of political speech aimed at protecting women’s rights,” since the removed phrases were widely used during the ensuing protests. Meta did eventually bring the post back online with a “newsworthiness” label attached to it, but the Oversight Board says that label was unnecessary since the posts didn’t violate Meta’s rules regarding violence and incitement in the first place.

“In the Board’s view, in contexts of widespread protests, Meta should be less reluctant to scale allowances,” The Oversight Board wrote. “This would help to protect voice where there are minimal risks to safety. This is particularly important where systematic violations of human rights have been documented, and avenues for exercising the right to freedom of expression are limited, as in Iran.”

At the same time, the ruling’s authors find it unlikely any “universal” approach to other “death to_____”-style posts on the platform can be established. Death threats directed towards high-risk individuals like writer Salman Rushdie, for example, likely would violate the company’s policies. So too would posts calling for death during the January 6 attack on the U.S. capitol. It’s unclear, however, how Meta would respond to other phrases like “Death to America,” which gained prominence in recent decades, in some cases, as a political response to U.S. involvement in the Middle East.

In a statement following the board’s decision, Meta said it plans to conduct a review of “identical content with parallel context.”

“We welcome the Oversight Board’s decision today on this case,” Meta wrote. “The board overturned Meta’s original decision to remove the content from the platform for violating our Violence and Incitement Policy, deeming the newsworthiness allowance unnecessary. Meta previously reinstated this content so no further action will be taken on it.”

Meta’s decision to use certain politically evocative speech can have real effects on the company’s operations. In Russia, for example, Meta quickly found itself booted out of the country entirely and labeled an extremist organization after it tweaked its hate speech policies to temporarily allow calls for violence against president Vladamir Putin following his invasion of Ukraine. Those rule changes only applied to a handful of countries near Russia, Ukraine among them.


Update 1/9/2022 12:05 P.M.: Added statement a from Meta.

LGBTQ Group Shut Down by Putin Is Back From the Dead

Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty Images
Ankush Kumar
Sat, January 7, 2023


























Russia’s biggest LGBTQ organization is back, less than a year since Vladimir Putin’s government forced it to close, suing it for acting under “foreign influence” as part of a crackdown on gay rights.

The organization’s head, Dilya Gafurova, told The Daily Beast that the Sphere Foundation, the legal entity that operated the Russian LGBT Network, is now back up and running. She says it will have to operate unlicensed or the government would refuse to register the group, which was established as a new body on Jan. 1.

“As a consequence of our legal entity’s liquidation, we faced a choice: we could either go our separate ways or buckle up and look for solutions,” Gafurova told The Daily Beast. “As somebody heading Sphere, I really would not have blamed anyone at the time who’d wanted to leave—we already had put up a good fight, had a good run while we could; I mean, we were the ones who supported the LGBT+ movement across Russia for over 11 years, and some members of our team had been public, doing advocacy and awareness-raising work, and therefore were running high personal risks. But very few did leave, our core team is preserving itself.”

Despite the inability to pay salaries for the last three months and having an uncertain future, Dilya and her team have continued their work under the radar since September. In a blow to Putin’s homophobic agenda, the Sphere Foundation is now expanding once again with all of its previous programs and projects intact. The organization has been supporting LGBTQ movements in Russia for many years and it will now include feminist initiatives, too.

On Dec. 5, Putin signed a law that expanded Russia’s restrictions on what it calls “LGBT propaganda.” According to the new law, any action or spreading of any information which is considered an attempt to promote homosexuality in public, online, or in films, books, or advertising, could result in a heavy fine.

Revamped Russian LGBTQ organization, Sphere Foundation, is ready to take the fight against the new law. “Bring it on, we say,” Gafurova said.

The LGBTQ community in Russia feels incredibly vulnerable as Putin’s regime has given a green light to hatred towards the community.

“We were the ones that had been running a campaign against the previously existing ban on ‘LGBT propaganda’ among minors. The previous law was not used much, wasn’t really applied—mostly to curb activism and the work of such organizations as ours on Awareness-raising,” said Gafurova. “We see the new legislation as an expanded version of that—the wording is so vague, the government may use it as it pleases them if they’re willing to target one’s activity. What is ‘LGBT propaganda’ anyways? They have this set of bills that now touches upon so many spheres, like media, book publishing, streaming platforms, stores and e-commerce, and yet ‘propaganda’ isn’t even clearly defined.”

Sphere Foundation has already been working against the new legislation and encouraged people from different regions to write to their members of parliament (MPs) asking not to pass the bill. Over 15,000 letters went out to Russian lawmakers and 84,000 people signed a petition before Putin’s LGBT propaganda law was adopted anyway.

“We want to continue encouraging people to voice their discontent over this, to make it known that the queer community in Russia cannot be muzzled—and that the way the government perceives LGBT+ people and the way that the actual Russian society does are very different,” Gafurova said. “Many are asking us why the Russian government would pass such legislation now, when it’s grappling with enough issues as is. In fact, it makes a lot of sense—it’s a part of an ideological confrontation with the West. Being LGBT+, in the eyes of Russian MPs, is the result of harmful Western influence, a ‘hybrid war,’ as they call it.”

According to Gafurova, the new law does not prohibit the Sphere Foundation from providing psychological and legal assistance to the LGBT+ community in Russia. But she expressed concern while talking to The Daily Beast that without spreading awareness on its social media about their work, nobody would come to the organization asking for help. She is concerned that the organization is public and they could label its very existence as “propaganda.”

Gafurova said that the organization wants to preserve its advocacy work and raise awareness about the harmful aspects of the “LGBT propaganda” legislation—that certainly qualifies as “propagandizing non-traditional relations.”

“We made our peace with it,” said Gafurova. “We will not change a thing, so the LGBT+ people will not be made feel as if they are on their own with what’s happening.”

This Russian Gay Couple Hopes Their Wedding Will Help Change Minds

LGBTQ Russians Fight to Survive Putin’s Campaign of Hate

Sphere Foundation was established in 2011 and soon grew to become Russia’s biggest LGBTQ organization. With its partner organizations and activists, it focused on helping the queer community in the North Caucasus, who came under attack from the repressive regime of Chechnya in particular. Sphere also led the campaign against the nationwide “2013 propaganda law,” which outlawed homosexuality being treated as normal or “promoted” to minors.

Since 2014, Sphere has also been providing emergency support to the LGBTQ community and their families in life-threatening situations across Russia.

Gafurova told The Daily Beast that for the Russian government Sphere’s liquidation was almost like cutting off the dragon’s head as much of the support to the LGBT+ movement in Russia across the regions came from Sphere over many years.

“We were also behind assisting queer people in the North Caucasus after 2017 until 2022,” said Gafurova. “They definitely had an ax to grind with us. Maybe they thought it’d be enough. But it’s now becoming apparent it wasn’t.”

As the organization moves to support LGBTQ Russians against Putin’s homophobic law, it is cautious as the government may watch its activity very closely. Deteriorating human rights conditions in Russia and concerns raised by anyone could leave them facing harsh punishments and fines. Gafurova also talked about Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and said she doesn’t believe it’s possible to be a human rights activist and condone such actions by the Russian government.

I R O N I C

Canada finalizes deal for Lockheed's F-35 fighter jets in C$19 bln project


01/09/2023

OTTAWA, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Canada has finalized a deal to buy 88 F-35 fighter jets from U.S. defence giant Lockheed Martin Corp in a C$19 billion ($14.2 billion) project to replace its aging fleet of fighter aircraft, the Canadian government said on Monday.

Canada expects first F-35s to be delivered in 2026 and the fleet's full operational capability is anticipated between 2032 and 2034.

The purchase would mark the largest investment in the Canadian Air Force in more than 30 years.

Canada finalizes agreement to buy 88 US F-35 fighter jets

By Rob Gillies | AP
January 9, 2023

TORONTO — Canada has finalized an agreement with Lockheed Martin Corp and the United States government to purchase 88 F-35 fighter jets, government officials said Monday.

The first four aircraft are anticipated to be delivered in 2026 with full operational capacity for the fleet expected between 2032 and 2034.

The government has budgeted about $19 billion Canadian (US$15 billion) for the purchase in what is the largest investment in the Royal Canadian Air Force in more than 30 years. Each jet costs about US$85 million. The full life cycle of the program is expected to cost $70 billion (US$52 billion).

Canada has a close defense relationship with the United States, which includes using fighter jets together to defend North American air space.

The announcement comes as Trudeau is set to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden at the North American Leaders’ Summit in Mexico

The government said last year Lockheed Martin’s F-35 was deemed to be the top-ranked bidder for a new fighter jet to replace aging F-18s, deciding against Boeing’s Super Hornet. Meanwhile Canada purchased some Australian F-18s to help extend the life of the Canadian F-18 program until 2032.

Before becoming prime minister, Trudeau had said Canada wouldn’t buy the F-35. A former Conservative Canadian government had announced the purchase of the F-35 but Trudeau’s Liberal government delayed that purchase and opened up the bidding to competition.

“As our world grows darker with Russia’s illegal and unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine, and China’s increasingly assertive behavior in the Indo-Pacific, this project has taken on heightened significance especially the importance of interoperability with our allies,” Defense Minister Anita Anand.

“We need to ensure that especially in this changing global strategic environment we are that we are fulfilling our obligations to NORAD and to NATO.”

This just in: We don't know what UFOs are

UFOs are real, and the government is aware. But that doesn't mean we know what they are and that they are signs of alien technology. Read more: https://wapo.st/3X40HtG.

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