Thousands of Nestlé staff at risk of being drafted to fight in Ukraine war

Alexa Phillips
Sun, July 23, 2023 

Questions have been raised following rival Unilever’s admission that it would allow Russian staff to be conscripted - ALEXEY PAVLISHAK/REUTERS

More than 7,000 Nestlé workers in Russia are at risk of being conscripted into the Ukraine war as the company comes under pressure to withdraw from the country.

The food giant, which has six factories in Russia, refused to say whether it would intervene to stop staff being called up to fight in Ukraine.

Questions have been raised following rival Unilever’s admission that it would allow Russian staff to be conscripted.

The Swiss business said it is closely monitoring developments in Russia and would “act to safeguard the wellbeing” of its employees and “protect their fundamental rights”.

However, when pressed further, Nestlé declined to say it would take action to stop the conscription of its staff.

Russian law requires any company operating in the country to allow the conscription of workers should they be called upon.

Nestlé and Unilever are among a handful of Western businesses that have remained in Russia following the outbreak of war in Ukraine.

Both have cut back operations in the country and argue that they are providing vital goods to ordinary people who are not involved in the war.

Nestlé said it continues to sell “essential and basic foods”. Products available in Russian supermarkets reportedly include chocolate bars, Nescafé, Purina pet food and Bystrow breakfast cereals.

However, Western businesses are under growing pressure to exit Russia altogether as the war in Ukraine drags on.

Valeriia Voshchevska, of the Ukraine Solidarity Project, a campaign group, said: “Companies basically gamble with the lives of their staff and with their reputation by staying there.

“It’s not like operating in any other country. It’s operating in a country that has basically thrown out any rules and any kind of laws through the window.”

Reginaldo Ecclissato, Unilever’s chief business operations and supply chain officer, has said continuing to run its Russian business with strict constraints was better than selling it with a potential benefit to the Kremlin, or closing down and seeing operations appropriated by the Russian state.

Protesters carry placards 'Boycott Nestle' as they take part in a demonstration against the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year - Shuttershock

Eddy Hargreaves, an equity research analyst at wealth manager Investec, said this defence was starting to become implausible.

Mr Hargreaves said: “Those arguments don’t hold much water now, because it’s not really stopping the Russians doing whatever they want.”


He pointed out that the Russian Government expropriated assets from Carlsberg and Danone last week under a decree aimed at companies from “unfriendly” countries.

Mr Hargreaves said Unilever, Nestlé and other businesses are “being blackmailed into allowing their employees to be conscripted” because if they did not, they would be shut down or have their assets expropriated.

He said: “By staying on it would risk losing more in reputation globally than they might save short term in monetary terms and continuing in Russia.

“At the same time, they can’t really say that they’re safeguarding their employees or their well-being anymore.”

A Nestlé spokesman said: “Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, we have implemented the actions we committed to take last year concerning our operations in Russia, and drastically reduced our portfolio in the country to refocus our efforts on continuing to provide access to essential and basic foods for the local people.

“We continue to closely monitor developments in Russia, and act to safeguard the wellbeing of all our employees and to protect their fundamental rights. We have been clear that our employees in Russia should be considered essential workers given the critical nature of our sector: producing food.

“Of course, we are fully complying with all applicable international sanctions on Russia.”

Unilever is not against company's employees being conscripted into Russian army


2
Ukrainska Pravda
Sun, July 23, 2023

The Anglo-Dutch company Unilever, widely represented in the global food products and household chemicals markets, has said that it will comply with Russian legislation on conscription if its Russian employees are conscripted into the army.

Source: BBC

Details: Answering a request from the B4Ukraine group, which is campaigning for companies to stop operating in Russia, Reginaldo Ecclissato, Unilever's Chief Business Operations and Supply Chain Officer, wrote that the company was "aware of the law requiring any company operating in Russia to permit the conscription of employees should they be called. We always comply with all the laws of the countries we operate in," the BBC reported.

Meanwhile, Unilever said it "condemns the war in Ukraine".

"We would like to reiterate that Unilever absolutely condemns the war in Ukraine as a brutal, senseless act by the Russian state and we continue to join the international community in calling for stability and peace in the region," the company's response said.

At the same time, the company stated that it continues to operate in Russia because "exiting is not straightforward" and "to avoid the risk of our business ending up in the hands of the Russian state, either directly or indirectly, and to help protect our people".

In addition, in a letter to B4Ukraine, Unilever reported that it paid 3.8 billion roubles (about $41,769,714) in taxes to the Russian budget in 2022.

For reference. Unilever is one of the world leaders in the food products and household chemicals markets. It owns over 400 brands and manufactures products at 280 factories. These include Domestos, Axe, Rexona, Dove, Calve, Rama, Brooke Bond, Lipton, Crème Bonjour, CIF, Knorr, Sunsilk, Timotei, CLEAR, Chista Liniya and others.

Background: Ukraine’s National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) has added Unilever to its list of international sponsors of war.

Unilever to allow its 3,000 Russian workers to be conscripted

Hannah Boland
Sat, July 22, 2023

Unilever employees conscripted by the Russian army would not be paid their wages, it is understood - MOSCOW NEWS AGENCY/Reuters

Unilever will allow its thousands of Russian workers to be conscripted into the Ukraine war as the row deepens over its decision to keep selling in the country.

The food giant, which prides itself on its “social purpose”, confirmed it was aware of the Russian law “requiring any company operating in Russia to permit the conscription of employees should they be called”, in a letter to campaign group B4Ukraine.

Reginaldo Ecclissato, Unilever’s chief business operations and supply chain officer, added: “We always comply with all the laws of the countries we operate in.”

It will fuel criticism over Unilever’s decision to keep selling food and hygiene products in Russia, while rivals have exited in response to the war in Ukraine.

The company, which owns Marmite and Dove soap said last year it would review its operations in Russia, but is still selling what it deems is “everyday essential food” in the country, including ice cream.

Unilever was named as a sponsor of war by the Ukrainian government, after continuing to pay taxes in Russia,

Executives from the company have argued “exiting is not straightforward”.

In the letter, issued in response to questions submitted by B4Ukraine, a coalition of more than 80 nonprofits who are urging multinationals to leave Russia, Mr Ecclissato said none of the options it had were “desirable”.

He said there was a risk that by selling the business, the Russian state could potentially “gain further benefit”.

If it closed the business down, Unilever said its business and brands in the country would be “appropriated - and then operated - by the Russian state”.

Mr Ecclissato wrote: “The third option is to allow the business to run with those strict constraints that we put in place last March... We believe the third remains the best option, both to avoid the risk of our business ending up in the hands of the Russian state, either directly or indirectly, and to help protect our people. We will of course continue to keep this position under close review.”

It is understood that if Unilever employees were to be conscripted by the Russian army, their employment contracts would be suspended and wages would not be paid.

Ukraine Solidarity Project named Unilever a ‘sponsor of war’ in a billboard at its London headquarters -

Earlier this month, Unilever was named as a sponsor of war by the Ukrainian government, after continuing to pay taxes in Russia, totalling RUB 3.8bn (£33m) last year.

The accusations were made by the Ukraine Solidarity Project, a group of veterans and international activists, who installed a billboard outside of Unilever’s London headquarters which depicted images of Ukrainian soldiers in the style of the company’s Dove adverts.

Valeriia Voshchevska, of the Ukraine Solidarity Project, described Unilever’s stance as “jaw-dropping”.

She said: “When people see Unilever products in the shops – like Hellman’s Mayonnaise, Marmite, Magnum and Dove – they now know that this company is prepared to conscript thousands of its workers for Russia’s war effort. It’s hard to get your head around.

“Unilever’s out of excuses. It needs to do the right thing and stop doing business in Russia now.”

Unilever has historically been known for positioning itself as a “social purpose” company, with its Ben & Jerry’s brand in particular adopting hardline stances on social issues and geopolitics. Last year, the ice cream brand criticised Joe Biden for “fanning the flames of war” in Ukraine.

On Twitter, Ben & Jerry’s said: “You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.

“We call on President Biden to de-escalate tensions and work for peace rather than prepare for war.

“Sending thousands more US troops to Europe in response to Russia’s threats against Ukraine only fans the flame of war.”

ECOCIDE

Garbage Dump Fire Heats Up Polish Politics Before Election



Wojciech Moskwa
Sun, July 23, 2023 

(Bloomberg) -- A fire raging in a garbage dump in western Poland has ignited a political blame game, three months before the country is due to hold a tightly contested election.

Opposition leader Donald Tusk said the government has overseen a surge in imports of trash into Poland, fueling the creation of illegal dumps. He said the “stench of corruption” was in the air near Zielona Gora, where a hall storing trash and chemicals caught fire on Saturday.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Tusk was using the incident to divide his compatriots and damage the government, while his environment minister blamed the incident on Tusk’s Civic Platform party for agreeing to allow trash imports when in power a decade ago.

“Disgusting,” Morawiecki said on his Twitter account about Tusk’s comments. “The joker from the Civic Platform - the Party of Fraudsters — even wants to use the fire for his black PR.”

Poland’s election is expected to be held in October, although a date hasn’t been announced. Opinion polls show support for the ruling Law & Justice party is just ahead of the Civic Platform, with both likely to need coalition partners to govern following the election. The government has been on the back foot over a cost-of-living crisis and struggles to gain European Union aid due to the bloc’s concerns over democratic backsliding, while the opposition has been trying to motivate its electorate by focusing on women’s rights as well as graft allegations against public officials.

There are about 7,000 cubic meters (247,200 cubic feet) of dangerous substances in the privately operated garbage dump in Zielona Gora, a city of about 140,000 located about 60 km (37 miles) from the German border, the news portal Interia.pl reported.

The government’s representative to the region where the dump is located said the fire is under control and poses no threat to residents. It should be fully extinguished within hours, Wladyslaw Dajczak said after a crisis-staff meeting on Sunday, according to public radio.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

CRIMINAL MONOPOLY CAPITALI$M
UBS to Pay $387 Million in Credit Suisse-Tied Archegos Fines

Katanga Johnson
Mon, July 24, 2023


(Bloomberg) -- UBS Group AG will pay a total of about $387 million in fines related to misconduct by Credit Suisse Group AG in its dealings with Archegos Capital Management as the new owner of the collapsed Swiss rival starts picking up its legal tab.

In a consent order with the Federal Reserve, UBS agreed to pay $268.5 million for “unsafe and unsound counterparty credit-risk management practices” at Credit Suisse, which UBS acquired in June. The Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority fined the bank £87 million ($112 million), which it said was its largest penalty to date.

Credit Suisse “failed to learn from past similar experiences and had insufficiently addressed concerns previously raised by the PRA,” the UK regulator said in a statement Monday.

UBS’s acquisition of its stricken rival closed last month, handing Chief Executive Officer Sergio Ermotti a potential windfall gain in the tens of billions of dollars after the government-brokered rescue. At the same time, UBS has previously guided that legal liabilities related to Credit Suisse could run to as much as $4 billion over 12 months, and asset mark-downs could come in at some $13 billion.

The Fed said Credit Suisse “lacked adequate governance, experienced staff with sufficient stature, and sufficient data quality and model-risk management to ensure that activities conducted with counterparties were properly risk managed.”

In addition to paying the fine, the bank must submit to regulators a plan for sustainable governance and a risk-management framework, among other things.

Unlike other banks working with the family office that managed Bill Hwang’s fortune, Credit Suisse was slow to unwind its positions and ended up with $5.5 billion in losses related to that business in 2021. UBS suffered a much smaller loss.

UBS said that Credit Suisse would record a provision tied to the matter in its second-quarter results, which UBS would reflect in its purchase accounting for the deal. UBS is set to announce the combined firm’s second-quarter earnings next month.

UBS “has already begun implementing its risk framework, including actions addressing these regulatory findings, across Credit Suisse,” the bank said in a statement Monday.


The Swiss financial regulator, Finma, also ordered corrective measures for UBS as the regulator concluded that Credit Suisse had violated financial-market law in its relationship with Archegos.

“The bank was unable to adequately identify, limit and monitor the significant risks associated with Archegos,” Finma said in a statement. The regulator doesn’t have the authority to impose fines.

--With assistance from Myriam Balezou.

NBCUniversal cut down the tree branches that striking actors and writers used for shade, and got just a $250 fine

Chris Morris
Mon, July 24, 2023 

Chris Pizzello—AP Images

Universal Studios faced backlash last week after heavily pruning a row of trees outside its studios. But the real-world consequences will prove a mere blip on the company’s financial radar.

The City of Los Angeles has fined the studio $250 for trimming trees without a city permit. The trees in dispute are managed by the city, and Universal acted without any warning.

Striking members of SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America had used the shade from those trees to get a respite from the brutal heat wave as they picketed company executives. NBCUniversal had previously denied the action was related to the strike, however.

“We understand that the safety tree trimming of the ficus trees we did on Barham Boulevard has created unintended challenges for demonstrators; that was not our intention,” the company said in a statement. “In partnership with licensed arborists, we have pruned these trees annually at this time of year to ensure that the canopies are light ahead of the high wind season.”

The fine doesn’t even amount to a slap on the wrist for the entertainment giant, but L.A. City Controller Kenneth Mejia noted that “outdated laws” limited the penalties that the city could impose. The studio also benefited from this being its first offense, which lowered the fine.

Mejia expressed frustration with the amount, saying his office was recommending the city upgrade laws surrounding illegal tree trimmings.

“Based on our findings, the system isn’t working as intended,” he wrote.

Any change, though, would take time and wouldn’t impact NBCUniversal’s penalty.

TC Sells Pipeline Stake to GIP for $3.9 Billion to Cut Debt

Kevin Orland and Sophie Caronello
Mon, July 24, 2023 at 8:18 AM MDT·2 min read


(Bloomberg) -- TC Energy Corp. agreed to sell a 40% stake in two US natural gas pipeline networks for $3.9 billion (C$5.2 billion) in cash, a deal that will allow the Canadian company to meet a goal of reducing its debt ahead of schedule.

The transaction with private equity firm Global Infrastructure Partners will put the assets — the Columbia Gas Transmission and Columbia Gulf Transmission networks in the US — in a joint venture between TC and GIP, with TC continuing to operate the systems.

TC Energy has met its target of reducing debt by C$5 billion or more this year ahead of time, Chief Executive Officer Francois Poirier said Monday in a statement. The company has grappled with a major cost overrun at its Coastal GasLink pipeline, which it’s building to supply LNG Canada, a gas export project in British Columbia. The asset-sale program also is intended to help TC Energy keep its dividend growing by 3% to 5% per year.

“We like the move to take a sizable chunk out of TC Energy’s ‘$5+ billion’ asset monetization program and the reduction in the go-forward capital intensity for the company via a transaction with a well-regarded partner,” Robert Kwan, an analyst with Royal Bank of Canada, said in a note. Still, the sale’s valuation is “very slightly below what we had previously embedded in our existing assumptions for the entire asset monetization program.”

TC Energy shares fell 3.3% to C$50.53 at 10:13 a.m. in Toronto, the biggest decline in the 40-company S&P/TSX Energy Index. The shares are down 6.4% this year, compared with a 2% drop for the index.

The Columbia Gas and Columbia Gulf pipelines cover more than 15,000 miles (24,000 kilometers) and account for about 20% of US liquefied natural gas export supply.

Opinion

California has more than 35,000 idle oil wells. Taxpayers should not have to pay for cleanup

Cesar Aguirre and Hollin Kretzmann
Mon, July 24, 2023 

Central California residents once again found themselves blindsided and alarmed last month when a state task force found more than two dozen idle oil wells leaking methane in Kern County – some close to schools. Compounding shock into outrage, many oil companies admitted they have no intention of repairing the leaking wells, more than a dozen of which are gushing methane at explosive levels.

It’s the latest stunning example of oil companies’ impunity when it comes to the costs – and dangers – of more than 35,000 idle wells in California.

As the state’s oil industry dies out, operators often leave wells unsealed and unattended. Surveys last year found dozens of these idle or orphan wells leaking methane near Bakersfield. These methane leaks revealed how rarely state regulators actually inspect idle wells near homes, schools and churches. Only a tiny fraction of these wells have been tested, and many have gone unchecked for more than a decade.

This negligence is dangerous because, in addition to methane, new research found that many abandoned oil and gas wells leak harmful chemicals like benzene, classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as a known human carcinogen with no safe level of exposure.


Oil companies’ idle wells are not only a public health and climate hazard, but a ticking financial timebomb for California taxpayers. According to a recent report by Carbon Tracker, it will cost at least $21.5 billion to properly clean up California’s existing oil and gas wells. Yet the oil industry has set aside a mere $106 million – peanuts compared to the total cost of cleanup.

The report also reveals that oil companies in California can’t possibly generate enough cash to cover their own astronomical cleanup costs, even if they produce and sell every last drop of oil they claim to have access to.

What’s more, over half of the industry’s remaining potential profits will be generated in the next two years. The clock is ticking for the state to make sure the oil industry is saving for its cleanup obligations. Instead, companies are showering executives and shareholders with lavish payouts.

Before these corporations bilk taxpayers for billions to clean up thousands of their dangerous, polluting wells, Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers need to act fast. There are several steps they can take.

The governor and state regulators can start by halting new oil and gas permit approvals. Drilling new wells will only compound this crisis. Regulators must also redouble efforts to identify leaking wells, especially those close to homes and schools, and force operators to fix them immediately.

The Legislature must overhaul California’s oil and gas laws that allow operators to keep dangerous wells idle indefinitely.

The state should require oil companies to put up bonds that cover the entire amount of cleanup costs so that the industry – not the public – has enough money put aside to pay for them. The industry’s current bonding amounts to less than 1% of its cleanup obligations. That’s unacceptable.

California leaders should also set a firm deadline for plugging wells that become idle, ensure idle wells near communities are prioritized for cleanup, and require operators to plug 10% of their existing idle wells per year so that all of their wells are plugged within the next 10 years.

Finally, the state should increase fees to ensure the industry pays for wells that are abandoned by insolvent operators. We can’t keep repeating what happened last year, when the public picked up the tab for cleanup when one oil company failed to plug its leaking wells near neighborhoods.

Without these critical changes, Californians risk paying for the harms to our health, our climate and our budget while the industry walks away with the profits.

Cesar Aguirre is the oil and gas director at Central California Environmental Justice Network. Hollin Kretzmann is an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: California taxpayers should not have to pay for idle oil well cleanup

Opinion
70 years have passed since Korean cease-fire. It's time to end American's longest war.

Christine Ahn
Mon, July 24, 202

As a daughter of South Korean immigrants, I was raised to be apolitical.

My parents, like many of their generation who lived through Japanese occupation and the devastating Korean War, came to the conclusion that in order to survive, it was best to stay silent. As a result, I knew almost nothing about my birth country or the forces that shaped it.

It wasn’t until graduate school at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.,that I started learning about the Korean Peninsula and the U.S. legacy in the region. I was stunned to learn that the United States proposed (and the Soviet Union agreed) to divide the peninsula at the end of World War II – circumstances that led to war between North Korea (backed by China) and South Korea (supported by the United States and the United Nations), leading to the Korean War.

Though an armistice halted active fighting in 1953, a peace agreement was never signed. This state of unended war – which marks 70 years on July 27 – has irrevocably shaped not only the lives of those living on the Korean Peninsula but all of us in the United States.

Christine Ahn, the future founder of Women Cross DMZ, with her father, Suk Kyun Ahn, in Seoul, South Korea, in 1974.

It's time to sign a peace agreement with North Korea

After decades of failed U.S. policy, the only pathway to resolve the impasse is for the United States to sign a peace agreement with North Korea. An accord would reduce the risk of renewed conflict between North Korea and the United States and build trust in order to better negotiate on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

The threat is real: Our nuclear weapons are much more powerful than Oppenheimer's atomic bomb

Women, in particular, have a crucial role to play in building lasting peace. Not only is there a rich history of women organizing for peace in Korea, but research shows that the involvement of women in peace processes leads to better outcomes.

Yet thus far, few women have been involved in the Korea peace process.

In 2015, Women Cross DMZ crossed the Demilitarized Zone from South Korea to North Korea. In front from left, Vana Kim, Una Kim, feminist icon Gloria Steinem, group leader Christine Ahn, Hyun-Kyung Chung, Nobel Peace laureates Leymah Gbowee and Mairead Maguire, and Medea Benjamin.

That’s why in 2015 I organized a women’s peace walk from North Korea to South Korea – across the Demilitarized Zone – with American feminist icon Gloria Steinem and Nobel Peace laureates Leymah Gbowee and Mairead Maguire. We walked with thousands of Korean women on both sides of the DMZ to show that women are united in their desire for peace in Korea. We continue to advocate for ending the Korean War, reuniting Korean families and including women in the peace process.

Our journey is documented in the film "Crossings," which is now airing on public television.
The 'Forgotten War' is America's longest-running war

While much public attention is paid to North Korea’s nuclear weapons development, we rarely consider how the continued U.S. military presence on the Korean Peninsula helps fuel tensions: 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea, and the United States and South Korea routinely hold joint military exercises to rehearse war with North Korea.

The United States also maintains operational control of South Korea’s military during wartime.

North Korea routinely cites this context as justification for its nuclear weapons program – key to self-defense against a potential attack from the United States.

Ukraine shouldn't use cluster bombs: Biden is wrong to send cluster bombs to Ukraine. 50 years later, they're still killing in Laos.

Because the United States and North Korea have never replaced the armistice with a peace agreement, any accidental or intentional escalation could rapidly devolve into renewed fighting. Such a war could involve nuclear weapons, which would likely result in the deaths of millions.

Yet pointing out these facts has led me to be labeled naive at best and, at worst, a North Korean apologist.

Christine Ahn celebrates her graduate school commencement ceremony at Georgetown University in 2001 with her mother, Byong Ok Ahn.

Thankfully, more and more people are now speaking out in favor of peace with North Korea. Many of them are Korean Americans who come from divided families and long to return to their hometowns. Some, like me, have considered the human costs of this war and can remain silent no longer.

Other supporters include Harvard neurosurgeon Dr. Kee Park, who has witnessed the impact of sanctions on health care in North Korea; Dan Leaf, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant general who believes that the risk of nuclear war is highest in Korea; and Siegfried Hecker, a nuclear scientist who emphasizes the need for peace as a foundation for denuclearization.

Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store.

The risks and costs of the Korean War might be hidden from view, but Americans and Koreans alike can only gain from finally resolving America’s longest standing war.

Christine Ahn is the founder and executive director of Women Cross DMZ, an organization of women mobilizing for peace in Korea.

There is a path forward, should our lawmakers be brave enough to take it. Passing the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act, which calls for diplomacy in pursuit of a binding peace agreement to formally end the war, would go a long way toward resuscitating this issue from the murky depths of history.

While the Korean War is often referred to as America’s “Forgotten War,” Koreans and Korean Americans have not forgotten. Americans of every background must come together to demand an end to our nation’s longest-running war.

Christine Ahn is the founder and executive director of Women Cross DMZ, an organization of women mobilizing for peace in Korea.

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Korean Armistice Agreement isn't enough. Let's end our 'Forgotten War'

Texas is using disaster declarations to install buoys and razor wire on the US-Mexico border



2/ 20
Kayak outfitter Jessie Fuentes stands above the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass , Texas, Thursday, July 6, 2023, where concertina wire lines the banks of the river that has been recently bulldozed. Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has escalated measures to keep migrants from entering the U.S. He's pushing legal boundaries along the border with Mexico to install razor wire, deploy massive buoys on the Rio Grande and bulldozing border islands in the river. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

VALERIE GONZALEZ and ACACIA CORONADO
Sun, July 23, 2023 

EAGLE PASS, Texas (AP) — Wrecking ball-sized buoys on the Rio Grande. Razor wire strung across private property without permission. Bulldozers changing the very terrain of America's southern border.

For more than two years, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has escalated measures to keep migrants from entering the U.S., pushing legal boundaries with a go-it-alone bravado along the state's 1,200-mile (1,930-kilometer) border with Mexico. Now blowback over the tactics is widening, including from within Texas.

A state trooper's account of officers denying migrants water in 100-degree Fahrenheit (37.7 Celsius) temperatures and razor wire leaving asylum-seekers bloodied has prompted renewed criticism. The Mexican government, the Biden administration and some residents are pushing back.

Abbott, who cruised to a third term in November while promising tougher border crackdowns, has used disaster declarations as the legal bedrock for some measures.

Critics call that a warped view.

“There are so many ways that what Texas is doing right now is just flagrantly illegal,” said David Donatti, an attorney for the Texas American Civil Liberties Union.

Abbott did not respond to requests for comment. He has repeatedly attacked President Joe Biden's border policies, tweeting Friday that they "encourage migrants to risk their lives crossing illegally through the Rio Grande, instead of safely and legally over a bridge.”

The Biden administration said illegal border crossings have declined significantly since new immigration rules took effect in May.

ALTERED BORDER

Under the international bridge connecting Eagle Pass, Texas, with Piedras Negras, Mexico, protesters gathered at Shelby Park this month, chanting “save the river" and blowing a conch shell in a ceremony. A few yards away, crews unloaded neon-orange buoys from trailers parked by a boat ramp off the Rio Grande.

Jessie Fuentes stood with the environmental advocates, watching as state troopers restricted access to the water where he holds an annual kayak race. Shipping containers and layers of concertina wire lined the riverbank.

The experienced kayaker often took clients and race participants into the water through a shallow channel formed by a border island covered in verdant brush. That has been replaced by a bulldozed stretch of barren land connected to the mainland and fortified with razor wire.

“The river is a federally protected river by so many federal agencies, and I just don’t know how it happened,” Fuentes told the Eagle Pass City Council the night before.

Neither did the city council.

“I feel like the state government has kind of bypassed local government in a lot of different ways. And so I felt powerless at times,” council member Elias Diaz told The Associated Press.

The International Boundary of Water Commission says it was not notified when Texas modified several islands or deployed the massive buoys to create a barrier covering 1,000 feet (305 meters) of the middle of the Rio Grande, with anchors in the riverbed.

The Justice Department has warned Texas that the buoy wall is unlawful and the Biden administration will sue if the state doesn't remove the wall. Abbott tweeted Friday that the state “has the sovereign authority to defend our border."

The floating barrier also provoked tension with Mexico, which says it violates treaties. Mexico's secretary of foreign relations asked the U.S. government to remove the buoys and razor wire in a June letter.

Fuentes sued over the buoys, arguing that border crossings are not covered by the Texas Disaster Act.

As for the river islands, the Texas General Land Office gave the state Department of Public Safety access starting in April “to curb the ongoing border crisis."

“Additionally, the General Land Office will also permit vegetation management, provided compliance with all applicable state and federal regulations is upheld,” said a letter from the office's commissioner, Dawn Buckingham.

The Texas Military Department cleared out carrizo cane, which Buckingham's office called an “invasive plant” in its response to questions from the AP, and changed the landscape, affecting the river's flow.

Environmental experts are concerned.

“As far as I know, if there’s flooding in the river, it’s much more severe in Piedras Negras than it is in Eagle Pass because that’s the lower side of the river. And so next time the river really gets up, it’s going to push a lot of water over on the Mexican side, it looks like to me,” said Tom Vaughan, a retired professor and co-founder of the Rio Grande International Study Center.

Fuentes recently sought special permission from the city and DPS to navigate through his familiar kayaking route.

“Since they rerouted the water on the island, the water is flowing differently,” Fuentes said. “I can feel it.”

The state declined to release any records that might detail the environmental impacts of the buoys or changes to the landscape.

Victor Escalon, a DPS regional director overseeing Del Rio down to Brownsville, pointed to the governor's emergency disaster declaration. “We do everything we can to prevent crime, period. And that’s the job,” he added.

Workers assemble large buoys to be used as a border barrier along the banks of the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas, Tuesday, July 11, 2023. Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has escalated measures to keep migrants from entering the U.S. He's pushing legal boundaries along the border with Mexico to install razor wire, deploy massive buoys on the Rio Grande and bulldozing border islands in the river. 

(AP Photo/Eric Gay)

TRESPASSING TO STOP TRESPASSERS

For one property owner, the DPS mission cut him out of his land.

In 2021, as Eagle Pass became the preferred route by migrants crossing into the U.S., Magali and Hugo Urbina bought a pecan orchard by the river that they called Heavenly Farms.

Hugo Urbina worked with DPS when the agency built a fence on his property and arrested migrants for trespassing. But the relationship turned acrimonious a year later after DPS asked to put up concertina wire on riverfront property that the Urbinas were leasing to the U.S. Border Patrol to process immigrants.

Hugo Urbina wanted DPS to sign a lease releasing him from liability if the wire caused injuries. DPS declined but still installed concertina wire, moved vehicles onto the property and shut the Urbinas' gates. That cut off the Border Patrol's access to the river, though it still leases land from Urbina.

“They do whatever it is that they want,” Urbina said this month.

The farmer, a Republican, calls it “poison politics.” Critics call it déjà vu.

“I also really see a very strong correlation to the Trump and post-Trump era in which most of the Trump administration’s immigration policy was aggressive and extreme and very violative of people’s rights, and very focused on making the political point,” said Aron Thorn, an attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project.

“The design of this is the optics and the amount of things that they sacrifice for those optics now is quite extraordinary,” Thorn said.

DPS works with 300 landowners, according to Escalon. He said it is unusual for the department to take over a property without the landowner’s consent, but the agency says the Disaster Act provides the authority.

Urbina said he supports the governor’s efforts, “but not in this way."

"You don’t go out there and start breaking the law and start making your citizens feel like they’re second-hand citizens,” he added.

Jade McGlynn: Russians cannot perpetuate their myth of Russia if they lose control over Ukraine



CIUS
Sun, July 23, 2023 

Editor's Note: The Kyiv Independent is exclusively re-publishing an interview with Yuliya Kovaliv prepared by Forum for Ukrainian Studies, a research publication for experts, practitioners, and academics. This platform is run by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) of the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Canada).

Jade McGlynn is a Leverhulme EC Researcher in the War Studies department at King’s College London.

CIUS: Your book is titled Russia’s War — not Putin’s War, as many frame it in the West. You examine the role of ordinary Russians in the aggression against Ukraine. What is the main message you are trying to convey in your book by exploring this dimension?

Jade McGlynn: I would like to emphasize two points when answering this question. One is that the aggression against Ukraine is not Putin’s venture only. And if we—we being the West—believe that the catastrophic genocidal war will be easily solved if we get rid of one person, then we are going to fall victim to misconceptions and design wrong policies. The second point is that we need to understand what kind of war the Russians are watching; we need to look at the propaganda. I do not like the argument that people back the war because they are zombified. It does not make any sense. There are 60 million daily users of Telegram [social media] who have access to all forms of channels, including oppositional, and yet of the top 30 political channels an overwhelming majority of 24 are very pro-war.


In my book I wanted to make the argument that the Kremlin’s propaganda functions not only because it has a platform. Of course the situation in the media is rigged, to put it mildly, in favour of advocating the war effort, but such narratives also need resonance. Above all, the narratives are about meaning-making. They need to make sense and resonate with how people view their lives, the world, themselves as Russians, Russia’s history, Russia’s international role, and, of course, Ukraine and the West. And that is why the propaganda works.

CIUS: You write about Russia’s liberal opposition and the reaction of some of its representatives to the aggression. What are your main conclusions about their stance on Russia’s war against Ukraine?

McGlynn: One of the first things to say is that typifying the Russian liberal opposition is a difficult task because they are really incoherent. There is, for example, the feminist anti-war resistance, who I think are incredible. The work they do is incredible. They seem to “get” the calamity behind the war, to put it bluntly. But others—in particular, certain members of the Alexei Navalny team—are less supportive. They remove Ukraine from the narrative almost entirely. That was something else that came out of my research.

If you look for references to Ukraine on the Navalny Telegram channel there were very few, much less than is the average for other Russian Telegram channels, during the first three months of the invasion. They removed Ukraine from communication or tried to insert themselves into the war.

In March 2022 there was a moment when the opposition used the negotiations around Ukraine to try to ask Western governments to include releasing Navalny from prison as one of the Kremlin’s concessions. As much as I would like to see him released—someone who should have not been imprisoned in the first place—Navalny’s case cannot be inserted into such discussions on Ukraine.

Such actions by some of the Russian democratic opposition replicates the Kremlin’s denial of Ukrainian agency, demonstrating Ukrainophobia, solipsism, and a kind of self-obsession. They invariably present themselves as friends of Ukraine but that isn’t always the case. Moreover, it is incredibly offensive to see some aggressively rejecting criticism from Ukrainians using arguments like “Oh, well, you must be Putin bots, because you are fighting us and we are anti-Putin.” But Ukrainians are literally fighting.

Having said all that, I do not want to condemn the Russian opposition. They are not a monolith and many have made incredible sacrifices to undermine Putin’s regime. I do not think I would have the bravery to protest in Putin’s Russia. I would not also have a smidgen of the bravery that Ukrainians have shown. This is more about some of the Russian opposition getting a sense of perspective. Their struggles—as awful as they may be—are not comparable to the struggles that Ukrainians are enduring.

CIUS: You have been following Russia’s media narratives about Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. Is it true that the media outlets outside the capital are practically silent about the war? How can you explain this?

McGlynn: The relative silence of the regional media about the war is not really my finding. I have mostly looked at the federal broadcast channels and Telegram. The regional media is something that Paul Goode at Carleton University examined. And what he found was that the war—obviously, they call it a “special military operation”—did not come up very much in the local news; they obviously tried to avoid it.

I just finished a small research project, looking at what media and news outlets wrote about and what kind of information Russians consume from television. I have observed—and it is very interesting—that since October 2022 a major shift has happened from political discussion programs to a variety of series [serialy] and films. I have observed a lot of escapism on the television, but news and real-time events are no longer in the focus.

I think that the war has not gone how the Russians wanted it to. Clearly, there is an awful lot of cognitive dissonance about the fact that the Ukrainians did not meet the Russians as liberators, to put it mildly. There also seems to be a large element of avoidance. Because if you have to start facing questions about the poor progress of the invasion in Ukraine, you need then to find the answers to why. And to be fair, for the majority of ordinary Russians there is not really any benefit in facing those questions. They would have to do something with that information afterwards. Finding answers and accepting them are not pleasant prospects for Russians.

Read the rest of the interview here.

CONSTITUTIONAL TYRANNY

Assimi Goïta: President gets sweeping powers in new Mali constitution

BBC
Sun, July 23, 2023

Col Assimi Goïta now has the power to dictate government policy and dissolve parliament

The military government in Mali has adopted a new constitution that enhances the powers of the president and the armed forces.

It also creates a senate and demotes French from an official to a working language.

Mali has been ruled by a junta since 2020.

The opposition movement has denounced the reforms, which the electoral commission says were backed by 97% of votes cast in last month's referendum.

The official body said turnout was 38%.

Critics fear these changes make it easier for generals to break their promise of handing power back to civilian leaders after a presidential election in February 2024.

The new constitution means Interim President Col Assimi Goïta can now dictate government policy and has the power to dissolve parliament.

A legal case to have the referendum results annulled, because the vote was not held in all parts of Mali, was rejected by the constitutional court.

"Numerous irregularities" and "violations of the law" also meant the referendum result should be thrown out, according to Mali's opposition movement - made up of political parties and civil society organisations.

It has been labelled "a plot on democracy" by Ismaël Sacko - the leader of the Social Democratic Party which was last month dissolved by the junta. He told Mali's judiciary "to get its act together", AFP reports.

There was huge popular support for the military junta when it seized power after mass protests against then-President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta three years ago. People were fed up with economic uncertainty, a disputed election and chronic insecurity.

Since then, data suggests Mali's military government has made little progress in its fightback against Islamists who control parts of the country.

But the government says the new constitution will stop the spread of the 11-year jihadist insurgency.

Mali recently decided to kick out all 12,000 UN peacekeepers in the country and is thought to employ 1,000 Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group for security back-up.

France's soldiers were ordered to leave last year and there has been rising resentment of the former colonial power and its present-day relationship with Mali, and West Africa more broadly.