'Nation-building moment': Yukon eyes connection to B.C. electricity grid

The Canadian Press
Sat, August 19, 2023 



Yukon's energy minister says Canada's push for more green energy and a net-zero electricity grid should spark renewed interest in connecting the territory's power to British Columbia.

Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources John Streicker says linking the territory's power grid to the south would help with the national move to renewable energy, support the mineral extraction required for green projects, and improve northern energy and Arctic security.

"We're getting to the moment in time when we will want an electricity grid which stretches from coast to coast to coast. … I think that the moment is coming for this — it's sort of a nation-building moment. And I think that from the Yukon's perspective, we're very interested," Streicker said in an interview.

The idea of a link, originally proposed to span 763 kilometres between Whitehorse and Iskut, B.C., was first floated in 2016 but sat on the shelf after a viability study put the price tag at as much as $1.7 billion.

Two years later, Yukon's then-energy-minister Ranj Pillai — now premier — mused again about the possibility of connecting to power from B.C.'s Site C hydro dam.

The idea appeared to have been resurrected at this year's Western Premiers' Conference in June, with both Pillai and B.C. Premier David Eby publicly mentioning early conversations.

At the conference, Eby said British Columbia was fortunate to have the ability to support other jurisdictions with its hydro electricity.

"So certainly part of the conversation was how do we support each other in sharing our strength?" he said.

"And one of those that British Columbia was able to put on the table is if we can find ways to enter ties with, for example, with the Yukon, to support them in their efforts to access more electricity to grow their economy and decarbonize their electrical grid, then that's very good news for everybody."

The federal government has set a target of making the country's electricity grid net-zero by 2035.

Canada's grid is already nearly 85 per cent clean, but demand is expected to double by 2050 as things like cars, buses and trains become electric, and homes and buildings switch away from fossil-fuel heating sources.

In Yukon, all but four communities are connected to the same electricity network with about 93 per cent of electricity generated by hydro plants and wind and the remainder from diesel and liquefied natural gas.

Like the rest of the country, the territory's need for electricity is growing as its population expands and people have more interest in greener technology, Streicker said, adding that connecting to B.C. would also help stabilize the system when new mines come on and off the grid.

"I think ultimately … there's an opportunity for us to sell power," he said.

"I'm not saying that that's where we are today, but we do spill energy in the summer, and we do need energy in the winter. So that may be the type of future that we have."

In 2022 Canada released its critical mineral strategy proclaiming minerals the "building blocks for the green and digital economy" while acknowledging "gaps" in enabling energy infrastructure, which could be addressed through investments such as expanding transmission lines.

"One of the things that you will need to develop that transition away from fossil fuels is things like copper to help with more electric vehicles, or for transmission lines," Streicker said.

"And so you'll need some critical minerals, and the Yukon has that potential as well."

The pitch comes at a time when British Columbia is also on the hunt for new sources of electricity.

In June, BC Hydro said it was preparing a call for new independent power producers as forecasts suggest the province is going to need enough new power to run 270,000 homes starting as early as 2028.

In a statement, B.C.'s Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation said that while the province is open to sharing excess power, the "priority is to meet this growing demand at home."

“The possibility of creating a power grid connection between British Columbia and Yukon has long been discussed, however building the transmission infrastructure poses challenges and a potential cost of over $1 billion," the statement says. It says the idea will be a topic for the task force in charge of finding new sources of electricity.

The territories are often excluded when it comes to research on the future of Canada's electricity grid.

Brett Dolter, an assistant economics professor at the University of Regina who focuses on climate and energy policy, said studies on how provinces could get to net-zero found that transmission played a key role, particularly when connecting provinces with hydro assets, like B.C., to neighbouring provinces still relying on coal or natural gas.

"Connecting provinces together could help get to zero emissions for less cost than if we tried to operate each province as its own little fiefdom, operating only to meet its own domestic needs," he said.

The key question, he said, will be if connecting B.C. and Yukon will allow for cheaper electricity.

"B.C. has been a big exporter of electricity. So they might be looking to this project as an export opportunity. The Yukon would probably be happy if they can boost supply and maybe eliminate the use of some of those diesel generators, which don't run that much, but that's an expensive kind of power generation," he said.

"So if there's any way that buying B.C. power can offset diesel, I think that the Yukon is going to benefit. And then it'd be a further benefit if the Yukon can develop some of these renewables that might feed into B.C."

Lynne Couves, program director for the renewables in remote communities program at the Pembina Institute, said while the price tag is significant, the decision to go ahead or not is far from simple and needs to be considered with an eye on the future.

“When we consider long-term benefits of these projects, and the opportunity to electrify and decarbonize across sectors, I think that there's definitely some positives in looking at these numbers in a different way,” she said.

Couves said the fact that Yukon is not covered under the federal government's recently announced electricity regulations could be an obstacle to accessing funding.

At the same time, conversations around reconciliation, Indigenous rights to self-determination and energy sovereignty are common in the territories, she said.

"More opportunities for Indigenous-owned renewable energy development is really, really important."

Streicker said the territory will be promoting the idea of a link as part of its submission to Ottawa from energy roundtables set up around the country.

He said early conversations have taken place with Yukon First Nations governments that have expressed interest in a possible equity stake in this type of infrastructure.

Streicker said the cost of a project has likely grown since the $1.7-billion estimate from seven years ago and would have to include help from the federal government, but he believes the willingness to have the conversation is there.

Along with the benefits around Arctic sovereignty and critical minerals, he said Canadians understand the need for equity in smaller northern communities.

"There's a bit of a sense, for example, that if you're in British Columbia, and you're trying to develop, say, access to internet, you don't give up on small communities just because they're in the north," he said.

"And I think there's a similar sort of sense that Canadians have about the territories, and it's just the cost of having a country which has such a broad geography."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 19, 2023.

Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press

Planting roots: Quebec cemetery turns former golf course into forest for the deceased

The Canadian Press
Sun, August 20, 2023



SAINTE-SOPHIE, Que. — At a new ecological cemetery north of Montreal, there are no gravestones or plaques. Instead, people locate burial sites with the help of a cellphone app.

Cemetery Forêt de la Seconde Vie opened in Ste-Sophie, Que., on Aug. 7 with the goal of transforming a 232,000-square-metre ex-golf course into a dense forest. It plants trees along the former fairways and greens to mark the burial sites of cremated remains, a process it calls "planting roots."

Visitors can use the cemetery's application to find their loved one's tree. Once there, they're asked to scan the surrounding landscape with their cellphone camera until a virtual chest pops up on screen, revealing digital memorabilia within: photos, videos and even recipes belonging to the deceased.

The cemetery claims to be the first in North America to be an official forest producer, a certification that in Quebec involves consulting a registered forest engineer to develop a land management plan.

For Mylène Hébert, 27, the concept was a welcome alternative to a traditional burial for her father, a longtime resident of Ste-Sophie who died in 2021 at the age of 55. She rejected the idea of a graveyard interment, which she called "gloomy" and "negative," and she said she was immediately drawn to Forêt de la Seconde Vie when she heard about it. She plans to plant his tree on Oct 1.

"I think it's incredible," she said in a phone interview. "With paper photos, we can lose them," but with the cemetery app, "they will be recorded when we go visit ... I can't wait to see how it's going to look in 20 years, 30 years, 40 years."

In 2019, co-founders Ritchie Deraiche and Guillaume Marcoux bought the property that would become Forêt de la Seconde Vie. Both fathers of young children, they said they came up with the idea while reflecting on how to combine environmental stewardship with family legacy.

"We wondered what concrete difference we could actually make right now in terms of preserving the environment, preserving and creating an ecosystem, biodiversity, and then, what we can leave to the generations that follow us," Marcoux said in a recent interview.

The endeavour was especially personal for Deraiche. In June, his grandmother became the first person to have their ashes buried under a new tree on the site.

The founders hope their clients develop a similar, personal connection to the cemetery. Its very design is supposed to facilitate an emotional attachment to the land, allowing visitors to "immerse themselves in the forest and create a sense of belonging," Marcoux said.

An online map advertises five thematic zones — with names like the Woods of Sighs and the Nourishing Forest — each with five tree species from which customers can choose.

Though there's little to observe so far, around 20 spindly saplings — the first of 7,000 planned trees — stand as testaments to the cemetery's first clients. Elsewhere, wooden stakes poke out of expansive golf fairways to delineate future planting sites.

But there are other points of interest, including swings, a hammock and a large sculpture of outstretched fingers emerging from the Earth. These opportunities for amusement distinguish Forêt de la Seconde Vie from traditional, solemn burial grounds and foster visitors' bond with the property, Fannie Tremblay, its administrative director, said during a site visit.

The cemetery further achieves this by encouraging the living to invest — both financially and emotionally — in their own trees before their death. Tremblay is among them, with a fledgling oak tree in her name in the cemetery's northwest corner.

An 18-square-metre plot with a memorial tree and virtual chest starts at $3,750, according to the company website. At $14,999, the most expensive Forêt de la Seconde Vie package includes an additional 55 square metres and burial rights for the ashes of as many as eight other people.

The customizable tributes at Forêt de la Seconde Vie are part of a "major cultural shift" in attitudes about funerals in North America, explained Tanya Marsh, a law professor at Wake Forest University, in North Carolina, who studies the treatment of human remains.

Two trends are driving that shift, she said in a recent interview. The first, she noted, is "a greater interest in memorialization options and personalization," in contrast to the "prepackaged services and goods" one might find at a funeral home.

The second is what Marsh called an "increased interest in greening the funeral." She pointed to the rapidly growing popularity of cremation, a practice that consumes fuel but, she said, may be seen as more environmentally friendly than embalming and burial in coffins.

Cremation Association of North America data show the five-year average cremation rate was 57.5 per cent in the U.S. and 74.8 per cent in Canada in 2021, compared to 33.8 per cent and 55.8 per cent, respectively, in 2006.

Marsh expects alternative funeral practices to become more common in the years ahead.

"Death is the ultimate human problem. And we're always gonna have to deal with it," she said. "And so people are just gonna continue innovating and coming up with these new and interesting ways … (to) help us process grief."

"So it's an exciting time to be interested in death."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 20, 2023.

Thomas MacDonald, The Canadian Press

U$A

Tribal courts across the country are expanding holistic alternatives to the criminal justice system


Inside a jail cell at Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico, Albertyn Pino’s only plan was to finish the six-month sentence for public intoxication, along with other charges, and to return to her abusive boyfriend.

That’s when she was offered a lifeline: An invitation to the tribe’s Healing to Wellness Court. She would be released early if she agreed to attend alcohol treatment and counseling sessions, secure a bed at a shelter, get a job, undergo drug testing and regularly check in with a judge.

Pino, now 53, ultimately completed the requirements and, after about a year and a half, the charges were dropped. She looks back at that time, 15 years ago, and is grateful that people envisioned a better future for her when she struggled to see one for herself.

“It helped me start learning more about myself, about what made me tick, because I didn't know who I was,” said Pino, who is now a case manager and certified peer support worker. “I didn't know what to do.”

The concept of treating people in the criminal justice system holistically is not new in Indian Country, but there are new programs coming on board as well as expanded approaches. About one-third of the roughly 320 tribal court systems across the country have aspects of this healing and wellness approach, according to the National American Indian Court Judges Association.

Some tribes are incorporating these aspects into more specialized juvenile and family courts, said Kristina Pacheco, Tribal Healing to Wellness Court specialist for the California-based Tribal Law and Policy Institute. The court judges association is also working on pilot projects for holistic defense — which combine legal advocacy and support — with tribes in Alaska, Nevada and Oklahoma, modeled after a successful initiative at the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in Montana.

“The thought and the concept will be different from tribe to tribe,” said Pacheco. “But ultimately, we all want our tribal people ... to not hurt, not suffer.”

People in the program typically are facing nonviolent misdemeanors, such as a DUI, public intoxication or burglary, she said. Some courts, like in the case of Pino, drop the charges once participants complete the program.

A program at the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe in Washington state applies restorative principles, and assigns wellness coaches to serve Native Americans and non-Natives in the local county jail, a report released earlier this year by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation outlined. The Muscogee (Creek) Nation in Oklahoma has a reintegration program that includes financial support and housing services, as well as cultural programming, career development and legal counsel. In Alaska, the Kenaitze Indian Tribe’s wellness court helps adults in tribal and state court who are battling substance abuse and incorporates elements of their tribe's culture.

“There’s a lot of shame and guilt when you’re arrested," said Mary Rodriguez, staff attorney for the court judges association. “You don’t reach out to those resources, you feel that you aren’t entitled to those resources, that those are for somebody who isn’t in trouble with the law.”

“The idea of holistic defense is opening that up and reclaiming you are our community member, we understand there are issues,” Rodriguez said. "You are better than the worst thing you’ve done.”

The MacArthur Foundation report outlined a series of inequities, including a complicated jurisdictional maze in Indian Country that can result in multiple courts charging Native Americans for the same offense. The report also listed historical trauma and a lack of access to free, legal counsel within tribes as factors that contribute to disproportionate representation of Native Americans in federal and state prisons.

Advocates of tribal healing to wellness initiatives see the approaches as a way to shift the narrative of someone's life and address the underlying causes of criminal activity.

There isn't clear data that shows how holistic alternatives to harsh penalization have influenced incarceration rates. Narrative outcomes might be a better measure of success, including regaining custody of one's children and maintaining a driver's license, said Johanna Farmer, an enrolled citizen of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota and a program attorney for the court judges association.

Some tribes have incorporated specific cultural and community elements into healing, such as requiring participants to interview their own family members to establish a sense of rootedness and belonging.

“You have the narratives, the stories, the qualitative data showing that healing to wellness court, the holistic defense practices are more in line with a lot of traditional tribal community practices,” Farmer said. "And when your justice systems align with your traditional values or the values you have in your community, the more likely you’re going to see better results.”

While not all of these tribal healing to wellness programs have received federal funding, some have.

Between 2020 and 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice distributed more than a dozen awards that totaled about $9.4 million for tribal healing to wellness courts.

This year, the Quapaw Nation in Oklahoma started working on a holistic defense program after seeing a sharp increase in cases following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said a large area of eastern Oklahoma remains a Native American reservation.

So far this year, about 70 cases have been filed, up from nearly a dozen in all of 2020, said Corissa Millard, tribal court administrator.

“When we look at holistic approaches, we think, what’s going to better help the community in long term?” she said. “Is sending someone away for a three-year punishment going to be it? Will they reoffend once they get out? Or do you want to try to fix the problem before it escalates?”

For Pino, the journey through Laguna Pueblo's wellness court wasn't smooth. She struggled through relapses and a brief stint on the run before she found a job and an apartment to live in with her son nearby in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her daughters live close by.

She largely credits the wellness court staff for her ability to turnaround her life, she said.

“They were the ones that stood by me, regardless of what I was choosing to do; that was the part that brought me a lot of hope,” she said. “And now where I’m at, just to see them happy, it gets emotional, because they never let go. They never gave up on me.” ___

Associated Press writer Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Arizona, contributed.

Hallie Golden, The Associated Press

CANADA

Federal underfunding Indigenous housing leads to years-long wait-lists, frustration

The Canadian Press
Sat, August 19, 2023 



OTTAWA — Stefania Giesbrecht was hoping that by the time she finished her studies, she could move back to her community of Saugeen First Nation.

But after nine years on a wait-list, the single mother of three said she has no idea when she will be able to make the move to the community on the shores of Lake Huron near Owen Sound, Ont.

"I put myself onto the waiting list, and my mother went on the waiting list and my sister went on the waiting list," she said.

"And none of us have got any updates."

Giesbrecht said she wants to live on-reserve to immerse her children in their culture. That is something her mother couldn't do as a child of the '60s Scoop, when Indigenous children were forcefully removed from their families and placed in foster homes by child-welfare authorities.

Giesbrecht said she doesn't blame the community leadership, often referred to as band office officials, for the lengthy wait.

But she does hold the federal government accountable for chronic underfunding that has affected generations, and makes it difficult for First Nations communities to grow in size.

"When the Canadian government intended to assimilate Indigenous people into the body politic, they had no intention of providing us housing for a bigger populace," she said.

Canada's housing shortage has become a major issue in federal politics as people struggle to afford home prices and rent.

But in some Indigenous communities, inadequate housing is nothing new.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government has put an emphasis on advancing reconciliation, which is the language it uses when highlighting federal investments in Indigenous housing.

Expectations were high when the confidence-and-supply agreement between the Liberals and the NDP listed a "significant additional investment in Indigenous housing in 2022" as a shared commitment.

The Assembly of First Nations had said there was a need for $44 billion to address current on-reserve housing needs alone, plus another $16 billion to account for projected population growth to 2040. Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu noted that figure when told the Globe and Mail ahead of last year's budget that she had made an "ambitious" request, although she did not detail the specific amount she had wanted to see.

The 2022 federal budget ended up committing $4 billion over seven years for building and repairing housing in Indigenous communities, including $2.4 billion over five years for housing on First Nations reserves.

The investments fall far short of what communities say they need.

Only a few thousand people live on-reserve in Peguis First Nation, north of Winnipeg, but there is a shortage of 800 homes.

Chief Stan Bird said families are forced to live in overcrowded homes and the situation is becoming more dire.

One family of 11 is sharing a three-bedroom home, he said. Two of the people living there have chronic health conditions.

"We're in a housing crisis," said Bird. "We've been in this position for a number of years."

That is leading to mental-health challenges and tensions in the community as families become increasingly desperate.

Bird said people in his community have tried to make do.

"Our people have been subjected to things that most families in Canada would not even begin to think is possible in someone's life," he said.

He said he also wonders how the existing houses can be improved structurally to prevent mould, which is becoming more common with flooding in the community.

"People are tired — I'm tired," Bird said. "People are growing angry."

Cindy Woodhouse, the Manitoba regional chief for the Assembly of First Nations, said the housing crises on reserves is the result of "decades of underfunding."

Still, the advocacy organization is hoping it can close the gap before 2030.

The AFN is working with the federal government to co-develop and implement a national strategy for First Nations housing and related infrastructure. As of August, the estimated cost to bring housing and infrastructure on reserves up to general Canadian standards is more than $342 billion, with housing alone accounting for $135 billion of that.

Those numbers will continue to rise unless the problem is addressed now, she said. And the solutions go beyond more shovels in the ground and more renovations.

In some cases, it means the re-appropriation of land to increase the boundaries of reserves and make space for homes.

"We don't want anything more than any other Canadian wants," said Woodhouse. "We want to have good water, a good home, a safe home."

"And not be super overcrowded with 30 people in a house."

But problems persist, including with intergovernmental relations. Many First Nations leaders worry their concerns are not taken as seriously as they should be by federal and provincial governments.

The lack of adequate federal investment in Indigenous housing is also a concern off-reserve.

Margaret Pfoh, the CEO of the Aboriginal Housing Management Association, said whether the focus is on urban Indigenous populations or a distinction-based approach, which means working with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit tailored to their different needs, "most of what we're seeing happen right now … is really by and large performative in nature."

That's because funding announcements have yet to lead to adequate results, she said.

A report by the parliamentary budget officer in 2021 found that after taking into account current programs, there was a $636-million annual gap between what Indigenous households in urban, rural and Northern areas can afford to pay for adequate shelter, and the cost of obtaining it.

This year's federal budget earmarked $4 billion over seven years, starting in 2024-25, to implement an urban, rural and northern Indigenous housing strategy through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. that is co-developed with First Nations, Inuit and Métis. That was on top of the $300 million over five years in the 2022 budget.

But that is less than what the National Housing Council, an advisory body to the federal government, had said was needed. The council had recommended at least $6.3 billion over two years beginning in 2022-23.

In June, the federal government also announced $287.1 million of "immediate funding" to address the critical need for safe and affordable Indigenous housing projects.

Nunavut MP Lori Idlout, the Indigenous critic for the NDP, said that is "just a drop in the bucket."

"What we were able to get through the supply-and-confidence agreement, while it wasn't enough, was more than what had been invested the last few years. So we know that the need is greater than what's being provided," she said.

Idlout said the housing conditions on-reserve often lead people to leave for urban centres. But many of those who leave end up homeless elsewhere, she said.

She said she hopes to see the federal government recognize the need for other infrastructure as well.

"Many communities ask for shelters, they ask for transition homes, they ask for wellness, recovery or treatment centres. These are the solutions that Indigenous Peoples have been saying they've been needing for years."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 19, 2023.

Nojoud Al Mallees and Alessia Passafiume, The Canadian Press

Trudeau Cabinet to Meet as More Canadians Blame Government for Inflation

 22% blame businesses for increasing their prices

Laura Dhillon Kane

Bloomberg
Mon, August 21, 2023



(Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is set to huddle with his new cabinet on how to address the soaring cost of living, a growing vulnerability for his government as more Canadians blame it for their rising bills.

Trudeau overhauled his front bench last month to focus on affordability, especially housing. A three-day retreat in the eastern province of Prince Edward Island will be the first opportunity for the new cast to hammer out potential solutions and messaging together.

Pressure is mounting. Three in 10 Canadians blame government spending over other factors for the rise in consumer prices, according to a Nanos Research poll for Bloomberg News. Another 22% blame businesses for increasing their prices, while 10% point the finger at the Bank of Canada.

“For the average person, it is like an inflationary spiral one cannot escape,” pollster Nik Nanos said by email. “Government spending increases inflation, the Bank of Canada increases rates and businesses then increase prices to cover rising inputs into goods and services.”

While headline inflation was 3.3% in July, food prices were up 7.8% and the central bank’s aggressive hikes mean mortgage interest costs have spiked 30.6%. Record levels of immigration have exacerbated a housing supply shortage, helping boost the benchmark home price to C$754,800 (about $558,000).

Meanwhile, federal spending is still above pre-pandemic levels, with the government projecting a C$40.1-billion deficit this year. Last week, Trudeau’s former finance minister, Bill Morneau, blamed the government’s extension of Covid-19 financial relief programs into late 2021 for helping juice inflation.

Trudeau has begun to send a message of belt-tightening. Treasury Board President Anita Anand, the former defense minister, recently sent a letter to cabinet colleagues giving them an October deadline to find areas to cut C$14.1 billion in spending by 2028 and C$4.1 billion in the years that follow.

Speaking in Alberta last week, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said the savings are essential to maintain a fiscally responsible position so her government can deliver programs such as a temporary tax rebate and clean-energy tax credits for businesses. The cuts were first promised in her March budget.

“We understood then, and we understand now, that inflation has been really challenging for Canadians. And we understood that the federal government had a responsibility not to pour fuel on the flames of inflation,” Freeland said.

At the retreat, the cabinet will have to wrestle with two competing priorities: boosting affordability and exercising fiscal restraint, said Marci Surkes, who formerly worked as Trudeau’s policy director and is now an adviser to Ottawa-based consultancy Compass Rose Group.

“I expect that Freeland is going to have a very tough message to ministers,” she said. “It’ll be interesting to see if this comes out of the room, but I would anticipate that she is going to deliver a message around restraint and prudence.” At the same time, the government must signal that it has a plan to address cost-of-living, she said.

In an interview, Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said ministers will spend the retreat examining how they can support Canadians with their short-term challenges, but also keeping an eye on the longer term. He pointed to recent investments by automakers including Volkswagen AG, Stellantis NV and Ford Motor Co. — all subsidized by governments — as key to its economic vision.

“Canadians elected us to make a difference, to help them. We have demonstrated time and time again that we have their back,” Champagne said. “This time is going to be no different.”

The Nanos poll suggests government messaging hasn’t been effective so far. The 30% share of Canadians who blame federal spending for the cost of living has increased since July 2022, when it was 26%. The numbers blaming the central bank and businesses have also risen, while a decreasing number say pandemic supply chains are at fault, down to 17% from 31% last year.

The survey of 1,081 people was conducted by phone and online between July 30 and Aug. 3. It’s considered accurate within 3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

HIP HOP CAPITALI$M
How hip-hop spurred the growth in Black businesses and financial empowerment

REVOLT COMMODIFIED

Ronda Lee
Sun, August 20, 2023

The 50th anniversary of hip-hop coincides with the national Black business month in August, and the former has been a driver of growth and empowerment for the latter, according to leaders in the music genre’s industry.

Hip-hop is an industry with an economic impact of $16 billion and has launched Black-owned businesses in music, film, fashion, and advertising for creatives that curated the culture.

Rappers have turned into entrepreneurs, spurring growth for other Black-owned businesses, building generational wealth, and investing in the communities that nurtured them.

"Hip-hop went from being a fad to commercialized and monetized in technology, fashion, sports and business," Detavio Samuels, CEO of REVOLT, told Yahoo Finance. "In the beginning, we weren’t owners, just brand ambassadors, not accumulating wealth from a genre and culture that we created. We’ve gone from making others rich to wealth accumulators."

Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings of Earn Your Leisure, host REVOLT's Assets Over Liabilities, with the premiere episode featuring entrepreneur, producer, and artist Swizz Beatz.

Overall, there are around 3 million Black-owned businesses in America now, generating about $206 billion in annual revenue with 36% of those led by Black women. But the road to these successes was far from easy.

The history of Black businesses in the US is rife with violence and racism.

In what was known as the Red Summers of 1917-1919, many Black-owned businesses in Washington, D.C., Chicago, St. Louis, Houston, Tulsa, and Omaha were decimated during mob violence and racial terrorism.

In the decades that followed, many Black-owned businesses closed due to racially biased eminent domain proceedings, with the government taking land in Black business districts like Bruce’s Beach in Los Angeles and Beale Street in Memphis.

Hip-hop itself was its own economic battleground. When the genre was born, recording studios — more often owned by white executives — controlled the process from radio air time, marketing, ownership interests, and rights.

But they did not control the culture, which spawned more and more businesses.

For instance, Dapper Dan and 5001 FLAVORS were favorite designers for hip-hop artists that disrupted the fashion industry. Some of 5001 FLAVORS clients include Salt-n-Pepa, Heavy D, Sean P. Diddy Combs, Dr. Dre, DMX, Tupac, The Notorious BIG, Jay-Z, Beyonce, and Blue Ivy.

"Hip-hop allowed Black creatives and artists to create brands that wouldn’t have existed without hip-hop and allowed us to engage in collective economics, supporting other Black businesses," Sharene Wood, president and CEO of 5001 FLAVORS and Harlem Haberdashery, told Yahoo Finance. "Hip-hop opened the door to a lot of Black brands, like 5001 FLAVORS."

August 5, 2023. Ashlee Muhammad, Guy Wood Sr., Sharene Wood, Kells Barnett, and Guy Wood Jr. are featured at New York Public Library's "The Rap-Up" celebrating 50 years of hip-hop featuring Harlem Haberdashery and 5001 FLAVORS.

What started with $600 in Wood’s college dorm room has expanded 30 years later into a family business with a retail store (Harlem Haberdashery), a bespoke spirits line (HH Bespoke Spirits), and a 501(c)(3) that gives back to the community that raised them — #TakeCareofHarlem.

Designs by 5001 FLAVORS are archived at the Smithsonian, Grammy museum, and the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame museum honoring hip-hop.

"People wanted to build their own economy, and Biggie said it best: 'Never thought hip-hop would take us this far,'" Wood said. "Hip-hop creatives and the businesses that sprung from them didn’t have corporate grooming or business degrees when we started, but now Queen Latifah, LL COOL J, and Diddy are multi-hyphenates — rappers, actors, and entrepreneurs."

Sean "Diddy" Combs went from rapper-producer to CEO of Bad Boy Entertainment, owning a fashion line, and founder and chairman of REVOLT. This year is Bad Boy Entertainment’s 35th anniversary and the 10th anniversary of REVOLT.

REVOLT originally started as music video television in response to MTV’s embrace of reality television over music videos. However, when none of the genres outside of hip-hop showed up for the platform, REVOLT decided to embrace hip-hop culture as the storytelling agent.

"The narrative others tell about hip-hop is sex, love, drugs, and materialism," Samuels said. "REVOLT isn’t a media company, but an engine for transformative change for Black people to build generational wealth with culturally relevant information to turn financial whispers into shouts as to how Black billionaires have done it."

This resonates with the Black community. A Pew Research study found that 58% of Black adults say supporting Black businesses, or "buying Black" is an effective strategy for moving Black people toward equality in the United States.

"Social justice and empowerment has always been part of the DNA of hip-hop culture," Samuels said.

Financial empowerment

In another effort to empower the Black community and businesses, REVOLT partnered with Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings, founders of the viral platform Earn Your Leisure (EYL) that turned into a TV network on financial literacy, to host Assets Over Liabilities, a television series that bridges the gap between the world of finance and the hip-hop community, making financial literacy a focal point.

This season’s premiere episode is a sit-down with producer Swizz Beatz discussing his investment in Black artwork, selling his company Verzuz for $28 million, and his investment strategy for building generational wealth.

"Partnering with REVOLT to integrate hip-hop into the conversation removes stigmas and increases accessibility to financial literacy," Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings, co-hosts and co-founders of Earn Your Leisure, said. "We're empowering the community to break down financial walls and master their money with knowledge."

REVOLT is using its platform to highlight Black businesses and marketplace disruptors like Assets over Liabilities and Bet on Black.

Hip-hop’s influence on Black businesses and the idea of collective economics is rooted in empowering Black communities.

"Collective economics is not just about money, it’s a social responsibility to invest in the community because you can’t just consume from the community, you need to nurture it in order for business to thrive," Wood said. "Companies like the Fearless Fund exist because we’ve been historically underrepresented, underfunded, and systematically shut out of opportunities."

Ronda is a personal finance senior reporter for Yahoo Finance and attorney with experience in law, insurance, education, and government. Follow her on Twitter @writesronda

Russian soldiers are fighting Ukraine high on amphetamines, a report claims. The Nazis did it first.

Erin Snodgrass
Fri, August 18, 2023 

Adolf Hitler arrived at Kroll Opera in Berlin, April 28, 1939 to address the Reichstag.

AP Photo

Ukrainian soldiers have speculated that Russian troops are fighting while high on amphetamines.


Militaries throughout history have drugged soldiers to enhance their performance on the battlefield.


Nazi troops were given methamphetamines during World War II to decrease fear and increase aggression.

The Russian military may be taking a page from the Third Reich's playbook as the brutal war in Ukraine drags on.

A May report from the Royal United Service Institute cited Ukrainian military personnel who said Russian soldiers they encounter often appear to be "under the influence of amphetamines or other narcotic substances," an observation various Ukrainian soldiers have made several times over the last year.

But supposedly drugged-up Russian troops in Ukraine are only the most recent installment in a long, global history of militaries seeking to boost their armies' performance on the battlefield by any chemical means necessary — a tactic most infamously deployed by Nazi Germany during World War II.

Norman Ohler, author of "Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich," studied rare archival documents and spoke to first-hand witnesses to argue the thesis of his 2015 book: That drugs — more specifically, a low-dose pharmaceutical pill akin to modern-day meth — fueled the Third Reich and played a major role in the German army's early-war blitzkrieg success across Europe.

"Drugs have often played a role," Ohler told Insider of wartime strategy. "But the Nazis took it to another level and really had successes because of the drug use, which they otherwise probably would not have had."

The Third Reich was fueled, in part, by methamphetamine

The "miracle" meth pill, as Nazi Germany touted it, was developed in the country in the late 1930s and hit the market as Pervitin, an over-the-counter pharmaceutical that quickly took the nation by storm. The small dosage, which is equivalent to about three milligrams of modern-day meth, according to Ohler, made people more alert and happier, he said.

Pervitin was already popular among civil society when Dr. Otto Ranke, the director of the Institute for General and Defense Physiology, who was tasked with improving the capabilities of the country's soldiers, began to envision what the drug might do for Germany's boys headed toward war.

The drug decreased fear, increased aggression, reduced the need for sleep, and improved performance of simple tasks, Ranke found. Many soldiers had even brought it with them when the war started, Ohler said.

"They said it makes it easier for them to do their job, killing people or invading a foreign country," Ohler told Insider.

Adolf Hitler at the Western Front on May 14, 1940

AP Photo/Hoffman

Soldiers were stocked with Pervitin as the drug stood its "first real military test" when Germany invaded Poland in 1939, according to a TIME report. The rapid overrun in Poland cemented Pervitin's success and introduced a new form of Nazi warfare known as blitzkrieg, which was characterized by quick, surprising, and mechanized attacks on unsuspecting enemy troops.

"It enabled the German army to do blitzkrieg in the West. They didn't need to sleep once they started attacking," Ohler said. "They were charging through France and Belgium and Holland, unafraid, not stopping, while the British and French troops were sleeping."

The German army cited Pervitin as a decisive factor in the winning campaign, Ohler said, and it supplied its troops with millions of pills ahead of the army's attack on the Soviet Union. Even the magic drug, however, could not win Germany that 1941 battle.

As the war dragged on for another four years, Pervitin continued to be deployed to soldiers, Ohler said, but the one-time miracle drug began to cause dependency issues and depression among users. Germany even organized a rehab program for "overflown" pilots, or those who were addicted to the drug, Ohler said.

After the Nazis were defeated, production of Pervitin continued in Germany, moving to the black market, according to Ohler. Decades later, the drug was used by East German border troops seeking to stay awake as they manned the Berlin Wall, he said. The drug wouldn't be made illegal until the 1980s, Ohler told Insider.

Rampant drug use flew in the face of Nazi ideology

The German army's dependence on methamphetamines during World War II stood in stark contrast to the Nazi's clean-cut, anti-drug image. The use of Pervitin among soldiers prompted resistance from high-ranking Nazi leaders, who were concerned with maintaining the party's ideals, Ohler said.

German military leaders, however, were focused first and foremost on trying to win a war.

"The army is the army. In the field, it has to fight. It doesn't care about ideology," Ohler said.

Ohler found evidence that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was aware of the fact soldiers were using Pervitin, but never publicly acknowledged his feelings toward the drug. The dictator himself was abusing opioids near the end of his life, including an early form of OxyContin, according to medical records reviewed by Ohler.

Many other militaries have relied on chemical help amid wartime

As Insider reported earlier this year, several countries have a history of supplying their soldiers with performance-enhancing drugs. British stores used to sell syringes of heroin as gifts for troops during World War I; the British and American armies both relied on other amphetamines and stimulants during the Second World War after witnessing the drugs' success for the Germans, Ohler said, and the US military distributed painkillers and "pep pills" — also known as speed — to soldiers headed toward long-range reconnaissance missions during the Vietnam War.

Alcohol has also been a common battle bedfellow throughout history. The Russian military gave its soldiers vodka rations to get through World War II; France opted for red wine; and alcohol remained the "number one" drug for Germans during the war, Ohler said.

Amid the life-or-death stakes of war, performance-enhancing drugs, despite their numerous and notable downsides, maybe too enticing a boost to pass up.

"I would be surprised if drugs were not being used in the Ukrainian-Russian war," Ohler said. "It's too good for an army."

Putin's invasion of Ukraine was his 'greatest intelligence fiasco,' spy expert says


Nathan Rennolds

Business Insider
Sun, August 20, 2023 

Russiam President Vladimir Putin.LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images

Russia's invasion of Ukraine was an "intelligence fiasco," an intelligence expert wrote in The Times.

Calder Walton is a scholar at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

He said that Russia's FSB had failed to adequately prepare for the invasion of Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine was his "greatest intelligence fiasco," an intelligence expert has claimed.

Writing in The Sunday Times, Calder Walton, a scholar at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and author of "Spies: The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West," said that Russia's FSB intelligence agency had failed to prepare for the country's invasion of Ukraine.

Walton said that due to Putin's tendency to run his intelligence operations with "crippling sycophancy," he was likely not given accurate information as staff sought to confirm the president's views rather than risk going against him.

It likely played a role in the FSB's failure to establish well-placed recruits to act as saboteurs and help Russian forces during the invasion, Walton wrote.

Walton says the FSB, Russia's security service, is more criminal than professional.

"The FSB, which Putin ran in 1998, facilitates massive, systemic, state-run money laundering schemes for his personal enrichment and for Russian oligarchs," he wrote.

A man checks the turret of destroyed Russian tank near a village in Ukraine's Kherson province in November 2022.Celestino Arce/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Changing tactics

Putin's campaign to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election was a remarkable operation, wrote Walton, but the shortcomings of Moscow's espionage operations emerged over the last year, with seemingly ordinary people accused of being Russian spies in the UK, Slovenia, and Greece.

Before the invasion of Ukraine, Putin had relied heavily on undercover diplomats to carry out clandestine work overseas, but the expulsion of many of these forced the president into a change of plan.

During the first three months of the war, over 450 Russian diplomats were sent packing from Russian embassies, the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated last year.

The Russian president has since had to employ far riskier tactics to gather foreign intelligence, using unofficial spies and sleeper cells to carry out the work, including the so-called "illegals" — sleeper agents in foreign countries.

But over the last year, at least seven of these agents have been uncovered in Brazil, Greece, Norway, the Netherlands, and Slovenia, The Guardian reported.

"The time after the war, with all the expulsions, was a fateful time for the Russian intelligence system," a European intelligence official told the outlet.
Putin was merely a KGB "errand boy"

Putin has made much of his KGB past stationed in Dresden, in 1980s East Germany, and it shaped his worldview, said Walton. But the Russian president's intelligence credentials are not what he might claim.

Putin was likely never the elite Soviet spy that the world has been led to believe, an investigation by the German news outlet Der Spiegel revealed.

Many stories have painted him as a heroic figure who, among other things, single-handedly defended the KGB's offices from looters and carried out top-secret secret missions such as meeting with members of the Red Army Faction, a terrorist group that wreaked havoc in West Germany and committed a series of kidnappings and assassinations.

But according to Der Spiegel's report, the majority of Putin's work was actually limited to "banal" administrative tasks.

Horst Jehmlich, a former Stasi officer who worked in Dresden, told Der Spiegel that Putin was nothing more than an "errand boy."

Thaksin Returns From Exile After Deal With Former Thai Enemies

Patpicha Tanakasempipat
Mon, August 21, 2023 



(Bloomberg) -- Back in 2008, the last time Thaksin Shinawatra stepped foot in Thailand, he was adored among the nation’s poorer masses and widely despised by the royalist elite who backed his removal in a coup two years earlier.

On Tuesday, the former prime minister returned to Thailand after his political allies cut a deal with the same military-backed establishment that spent years overturning his party’s election victories through coups and court decisions. He bowed before a portrait of Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn and then waved to hundreds of supporters at Bangkok’s Don Mueang airport, with some chanting “We Love Thaksin!” and “Thaksin, Keep Fighting!”

Thaksin, who was found guilty in absentia in four corruption cases and still faces 10 years in prison, will be taken to the Supreme Court immediately after landing and then go to prison. It’s unclear at this point how much time he will serve.

Prior to taking off on a private jet from Singapore, Thaksin hugged his sister, Yingluck Shinawatra — a former prime minister ousted in a 2014 coup who is also living in exile.

“I hope the day you’ve been waiting for to be with your family comes fast,” she wrote on Twitter. “Good luck, brother. Always love you.”

Thaksin’s arrival coincides with a vote for prime minister later in the day, after his party officially joined forces with conservative groups previously aligned with former Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha, an ex-army chief who had led the coup against Yingluck and served as the nation’s leader ever since. The bloc’s candidate to become prime minister is Srettha Thavisin, a member of the Thaksin-backed Pheu Thai party who spent years in the real estate industry.

The awkward 11-party alliance emerged after both camps saw their interests align in the wake of a May election that produced a stunning win for Move Forward, a party that advocated changes to a law forbidding criticism of King Maha Vajiralongkorn and other top royals. The royalist parties wanted to keep Move Forward out of power, while Thaksin sought to strike a deal that would allow him to return to Thailand after 15 years of shuttling between Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai and London.

“Pheu Thai is the most powerful party to battle the emergence of Move Forward, after the electoral defeat of the conservative parties,” said Yuttaporn Issarachai, a political scientist at Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University. “As the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

Political Drama

Thaksin’s return will mark a full-circle moment in Thailand’s political drama, which has seen a cycle of coups and deadly street protests erodes the nation’s competitiveness as a Southeast Asian manufacturing destination since the turn of the century. Foreign investors have dumped about $3.8 billion of Thai stocks this year, triggering an almost 9% slump in the main stock index to rank it among Asia’s worst performers.

It’s unclear how much Thailand’s outlook will change after a new government is formed, assuming the coalition doesn’t fall apart at the last minute. On Monday, the group pledged a mix of cash handouts and fiscal measures to stimulate an economy that expanded 1.8% in the second quarter, well below a consensus forecast of 3% growth.

In May, he said he would go through the judicial process and also asked for permission to return, without providing more details on the request. King Maha Vajiralongkorn has the power to pardon any criminals.

“It’s all my own decision for the love and bond I have for my family, homeland, and our master,” Thaksin said at the time.

Thaksin, a former telecom billionaire, first rose to power in 2001 after pledging to revive Thai growth in the wake of the Asian financial crisis and help poorer citizens with cheap healthcare and debt relief measures. His party won 75% of seats up for grabs in a 2005 election, spooking a royalist establishment that had allowed only limited democracy since Thailand abolished absolute monarchy in 1932.

Change of Guard

Thaksin was ousted in a coup the following year, kicking off a power struggle lasting almost two decades in which his political allies would win elections only to see unelected generals, bureaucrats and judges overturn them, using a variety of methods.

This year’s election, however, saw Pheu Thai finish in second place despite being led by Thaksin’s youngest daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who turned 37 on Monday. That marked a changing of the guard, as younger Thais become more disillusioned with an establishment that has restricted democracy.

Suddenly the most popular politician in Thailand wasn’t affiliated with Thaksin. Harvard-educated Pita Limjaroenrat, 42, proved both more democratic and ideological, willing to talk about sensitive issues related to the monarchy — something Thaksin had always resisted.

The establishment quickly moved to block Pita from taking power, with the military-appointed Senate — mandated by a constitution written after the 2014 coup — preventing him from becoming prime minister. That paved the way for Thaksin’s Pheu Thai to cut a deal with the military, cementing his return and helping conservatives defuse what they perceive to be the biggest threat to the monarchy.

“This election has been about Thaksin from the beginning,” said Titipol Phakdeewanich, dean of political science at Ubon Ratchathani University. “His return will strengthen the conservative establishment that was already weakened by the election process. This will delay the democratic process in Thailand.”

Russian oil still relies heavily on Western-backed ships despite breaching the price cap


Filip De Mott
Mon, August 21, 2023

papa1266/Getty Images

Russia's flagship crude breached the G7's $60 price cap in mid-July.


But there's been little decline in the amount of Western-backed vessels servicing Russia, Bloomberg reports.


That's as it's difficult for servicing firms to validate the price at which crude is purchased.

Western-backed vessels have largely remained involved in Russia's oil trade, even after the country's flagship crude breached the $60 price cap imposed on it by the G7.

In recent days, the Urals crude oil price has eased from a $73-per-barrel peak, but still remains significantly above the West's threshold. The measure, implemented in December, was meant to limit Moscow's energy revenue, without denting global oil supply.

Under the restriction, the Kremlin should not be able to rely on G7, EU, or US services when the price cap is surpassed. But despite a mid-July price breach, Western-owned and insured vessels continue to service Russia's energy trade, Bloomberg reported.

40% of oil tankers subject to the cap have continued to load Russian crude since the Urals price surpassed $60 on July 12. It's a small decline from 50% of vessels that operated in Russia ahead of the threshold's breach.

Meanwhile, the amount of ships covered by Western insurance dropped from 60% to 45% in the same timeframe. While a large dip, these insurers still account for a significant portion of vessels working in Russia.

Part of the issue stems from how the price cap is designed to work in practice, Bloomberg said. To comply with the G7's regulation, servicing firms involved with Russian cargo must receive an attestation, or a written pledge, which establishes that the commodity was purchased below the cap.

This leaves servicing firms to place full faith in a piece of paper, often with questionable validity. Though the G7 expects companies to also pursue their own due diligence, many don't, given difficulties in comparing long-term deals with immediate market prices.

Of course, the price cap only applies to firms within the G7, EU, and US coalition, and Russia is free to trade at higher prices with outside partners. And while the country's economy suffers from labor shortages and a crashing ruble, it could gain from the commodity's higher price.

The country may have also profited in other ways through the price cap. According to The Financial Times, that's as Russia could have taken advantage of a loophole that allowed it to inflate its shipping costs, bringing in $1.2 billion.