Lukashenko claims Poland is trying to annex Ukraine, Wagner troops want to invade

Adam Schrader
Sun, July 23, 2023 

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko shake hands during a meeting of the Union State in Moscow, Russia, in April. 

Photo by Mikhael Klimentyev/Sputnik/EPA-EFE

July 23 (UPI) -- Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko claimed Sunday that Poland is trying to annex Ukraine while he's had to restrain Wagner Group fighters from invading the country.

Lukashenko's comments were made in a transcript of a meeting with President Vladimir Putin in a meeting in St. Petersburg provided by the Kremlin and translated from Russian.

According to CNN, the Belarusian president is believed to have been largely joking with his Russian counterpart who smiled at his remarks about the Wagner Group.

"I told you a long time ago, we saw this six months ago and discussed it beforehand. Why did I say all this? For us, Vladimir Vladimirovich, this is unacceptable," Lukashenko said. "The detachment of Western Ukraine, the dismemberment of Ukraine and the transfer of land to Poland is unacceptable."

Lukashenko said the transfer of Ukrainian lands to Poland is "payment" for the country's help in the defense of Ukraine.

"The Americans support this," Lukashenko claimed.

Ukraine is "actively involving mercenaries" in the war and "started to involve Poland," Lukashenko said. He claimed Poland has stationed additional troops at the border of Union State -- the name of the supranational alliance of Russia and Belarus for economic and defense policy.

Poland's Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński announced earlier this month that 500 police officers would be sent to the Belarusian border to beef up security after a surge of migrants attempted to enter the country. Hundreds of people have tried entering Poland from Belarus in recent weeks.

"We can see that the ground is being prepared," Lukashenko claimed. "For example, one of the brigades found its place 40 kilometers (about 25 miles) from Brest."

Lukashenko said Poland has started repairing Leopards on their territory and "activated" an airfield in Rzeszów "where the Americans and others are moving equipment."

The Belarusian leader noted how there is a lot of talk about accepting Ukraine into NATO as he boldly claimed that Poland is trying to annex western Ukraine.

Lukashenko said mercenaries from the Wagner Group that have arrived in Belarus are starting to "stress" him because, he claimed, they want to invade Poland.

"They are asking to go to the West: 'Allow us,'" Lukashenko said. "I said, 'Why do you want to go west?' So they say, 'We control what happens: let's go on an excursion to Warsaw and Rzeszow.'"

Lukashenko said Saturday was a "difficult day" for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which lost 15 Leopards and more than 20 Bradleys in one battle.

"The United States estimates that since the beginning of the counter-terrorist operation, the Armed Forces of Ukraine's casualties, or whatever they are called, amounted to 26,000 people," Lukashenko said.

Putin chimed in, claiming the number of Ukrainian casualties was actually "more."

INDIA

Manipur video: India parliament disrupted by protests over violence-hit state

BBC
Mon, July 24, 2023 

A video of two women being paraded naked in Manipur has sparked national and global outrage

India's parliament was adjourned for a third day after opposition MPs demanded a debate on the violence in the north-eastern state of Manipur.

Angry MPs disrupted proceedings by shouting slogans and holding placards in both houses.

Home Minister Amit Shah said he was "ready to have a discussion" and blamed the Opposition for not allowing it.

But protesting MPs demanded that PM Narendra Modi should address the house on the issue.

Tensions have escalated in Manipur since May where ethnic clashes between the majority Meitei group and the tribal Kuki minority have killed more than 130 people and displaced nearly 60,000.


On Sunday, the US expressed concern over reports of a video that showed two women being paraded naked in the state.

The assault on the women took place almost three months ago but became public last week after the video went viral, sparking global outrage.

A US spokesperson called the incident "brutal" and "terrible", Reuters reported.

India is yet to comment on the statement. But earlier this month, the Indian government had responded sharply after a US official said that his country was "ready to assist" in resolving the crisis in Manipur.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that he had not seen the comments, made by US ambassador Eric Garcetti, personally but that foreign diplomats usually did not comment on India's "internal developments".

The video, which was first circulated on Thursday, shows two Kuki women being pushed around and groped by a mob from a village dominated by Meiteis.

India video shows how rape is weaponised in conflict


India police face scrutiny after women paraded naked


What is happening in Manipur and why?

It sparked widespread condemnation, leading to the arrest of six men. According to a police complaint, one of the women was gang raped. The complaint added that a third woman was also forced to strip but she is not seen in the video.

Questions are being raised about why it took police so long to act - the complaint had been lodged just days after the incident and many of the men are clearly identifiable in the footage.

After the video went viral, Mr Modi condemned the assault as "shameful" and promised tough action but he is yet to make a statement in parliament.

Protests also erupted in Manipur, where thousands gathered over the weekend demanding the arrest of men involved in the assault.

There have also been reports of Meities living in the neighbouring Mizoram state leaving for Manipur and Assam state after an organisation of former insurgents issued a "warning" about their safety.

However, the Mizoram government has assured the Meitei community of their security in the state.

On Sunday, the organisation also clarified that its statement was not a warning, but an "advisory requesting Meities living in Mizoram to exercise caution in the light of the public sentiments".

Manipur assault video emboldens women to speak out

Divya Arya - BBC World Service, Manipur
Mon, July 24, 2023 

Kuki nursing student Chiin Sianching was dragged out of her room, beaten and left for dead

New allegations of violence against women are emerging in the north-east Indian state of Manipur, as the response to a viral video showing two women being paraded naked by a mob encourages others to speak.

Warning: This article contains details some readers may find distressing.

For more than two months, Mary (not her real name), a Kuki woman, could not find the courage to go to the police.

Her 18-year-old daughter had been abducted from outside their home, gang-raped overnight and left badly beaten on their doorstep.

"The attackers threatened that they'd kill my daughter if she spoke about it," Mary told me when I met her outside the relief camp where they have been living since ethnic clashes broke out between the Meitei and Kuki communities in Manipur in May, claiming more than 130 lives.

Then something changed.

A video of two Kuki women being paraded naked by a mob emerged last week on social media.

There was widespread outrage and condemnation, leading to the arrest of six men.

This prompted Mary to make a police complaint.

"I thought if I don't do this now, I won't get another chance." she says. "I will always regret that I didn't even try to get my daughter's attackers punished."

Mary says that her daughter now talks about killing herself, but that she reassures her she can still make something of her life.

Nineteen-year-old Chiin Sianching fears she could easily have met a similar fate.

She and a friend were singled out for belonging to the Kuki community, she says, and attacked in the hostel they lived in while studying nursing in the state capital, Imphal.

"The mob kept banging the door of the room we were hiding in, shouting that your men have raped our women, now we will do the same to you," she says.

She called her mother to say that it could be the last time that she would speak to her. Minutes later the two young women were dragged out on to the street and beaten unconscious - Ms Sianching thinks the mob thought they were dead, so ran away.

Police who found their bodies only realised they were alive after checking their pulses.
Honour and shame

Fake news on social media, purporting to show women being sexually assaulted by Kuki men were fuelling this mob of Meitei men against Chiin and her friend.

Early in the conflict a photo of a dead woman was circulated, apparently showing a Meitei nurse who had been raped and killed by Kuki men. Later, many news outlets debunked this.

Faultlines quickly deepened after the conflict flared up, causing a complete separation of two communities who had previously lived alongside one another. Both now have barricades at village entry points and there are continuing reports of overnight clashes.

Meitei groups have told the BBC that women from the community also faced sexual assault - the BBC has not been able to confirm this. But the video of the two Kuki women being paraded naked united Meitei women in protest too.

Sinam Surnalata Leima, a Meitei women's leader, condemns the attack on the Kuki women as a "heinous crime"

Manipur has a longstanding tradition of women playing a powerful role in civil society, among them the Meira Peibis, or torch-bearers - also known as the mothers of Manipur - who have protested against abuses of power by the state and the army, and human rights violations.

Sinam Surnalata Leima, who leads the Meira Peibis in a group of villages where the two Kuki women in the video were attacked, says that villagers themselves handed over the main suspect to police.

Then the local members of Meira Peibis got together and burned his house.

"The burning is a symbol of the community's condemnation of the heinous crime that those men committed, their actions cannot tarnish the whole Meitei community's honour," says Ms Leima.

The accused's wife and three children have been banished from the village.

But why did the mob act the way it did, in a society that regards its women highly?

What is happening in Manipur and why?

"It was grief and revenge for the Meitei women who had been attacked by Kuki men," Ms Leima reasons.

She does not personally know of any such attacks, but says Meitei women would not discuss a crime of this kind, as it would be considered shameful.

State police said soon after the start of the clashes that they had not received reports of violence against Meitei women, but a spokesman for the Meitei community told me there had been many unreported attacks.

Khuraijam Athouba, who represents a Meitei organisation called Cocomi, said that Meitei women had chosen not to speak about the "violations they faced".

In his view the focus should remain on the issue of killings and displaced people, rather than sexual violence.
Justice

The brother of one of the Kuki women who was seen paraded in the video is tormented by all of these issues.

The mob that stripped and sexually assaulted his sister, also killed their father and their younger brother - he and his mother were saved as they were visiting family in another village when the clashes started.

The 23-year-old man has a blank expression for most of the time when I meet him in a small room in the home of one of his relatives.

I ask him what he would like the government and police to do?

"Arrest each person in that mob, especially those who killed my father and brother," he says.

"And treat both communities with fairness."

Gracy Haokip: "If it wasn't for this video, we wouldn't have got so much attention"

Faith in the federal and state government seems lacking in both communities.

The Chief Minister of Manipur, N Biren Singh, who belongs to the Meitei community, promised the "harshest punishment to the accused, including capital punishment". But when asked about the calls for his resignation for failure to resolve the conflict, he said, "Don't want to go into this, my job is to bring peace to the state and punish miscreants."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke his silence on the conflict only after the video of the two women sparked national outrage.

"What happened with the daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven," he said, adding that no guilty person would be spared.

But for Ms Leima, that statement painted her community in a bad light and ignored the violence that has raged since May, causing 60,000 people to be displaced.

"The prime minister spoke when Kuki women were attacked. What about everything we have been facing, are we Meitei women not citizens of India?" she asks.

The video has put the spotlight back on the continuing Manipur conflict.

"If it wasn't for this video, we would have not got so much attention from the government and other political parties," says Gracy Haokip, a researcher supporting victims of the clashes, including the nursing student, Chiin Sianching.

She says it will help the survivors who have courageously shared their experiences while trying to rebuild their lives.

Chiin tells me about the speech she gave to the women in her community, when she told them that she had enrolled into another nursing institute situated in her local area.

"My mother told me that God has kept me alive for a reason, so I have decided I will not give up my dreams."

Powerful Indian women seek reprisals over 'heinous' abuse video

Aishwarya KUMAR
Sun, July 23, 2023 

Women from the Meira Paibis group of the Meitei community in India's Manipur state gather in front of the partially burned house of a man accused of abusing two Kuki women after a video of the incident emerged 

(Arun SANKAR)

Gender trumped tribe for a group of furious Indian mothers who torched the homes of two men from their own community who were accused of abusing women in a video that sparked outrage.

At least 120 people have been killed during months of ethnic conflict between the predominantly Hindu Meitei majority and the mainly Christian Kuki in India's troubled northeastern state of Manipur.

The women from the Meitei community decided to show their anger after the humiliating video surfaced on Wednesday, which reportedly shows two Kuki women being forced to strip naked and then jeered at and harassed by Meitei men in May.

Police arrested four suspects on Thursday but, on the same day, a powerful group of Meitei women known as the "Meira Paibis", or the Mothers of Manipur, set out to burn the homes of two of the accused.

"We condemn the violence against the women and that is why we want capital punishment," Sumati, who gave only her first name, told AFP.

"That is why we destroyed his house."

India is generally traditionalist, conservative and patriarchal but the Meitei have a history of women's activism, with women having a more prominent role in society than elsewhere.

Tens of thousands of people have fled to government-run camps since the violence erupted in May but the video clip has shone a spotlight on the conflict.

- 'Shamed India' -

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said after the video clip emerged that the incident had "shamed India".

Manipur's state government is led by Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and has said it is investigating the "heinous" incident.

"Both communities are condemning this event," said Suchitra Rajkumari, 42, a local activist. "At least in one point they are agreeing."

The Meira Paibis smashed down the walls of the homes of two of the accused before stuffing bales of hay inside and setting them on fire.

Thangjam Lata Devi, the mother of one of the accused, was told she had given birth to a "spoilt" son. Her home was also torched.

"If they decide to exile you, then that's it," she said.

The Meira Paibis said the homes were burned to send a message.

"We condemn what happened to the women," said Sumati, who helped set fire to one of the houses.

"The accused and their family will not be able to live in their village. That is why we destroyed the house."

The Kuki oppose Meitei demands for reserved public job quotas and college admissions as a form of affirmative action, stoking fears that they might also be allowed to acquire land in areas currently reserved for tribal groups.

Human Rights Watch alleges the policies "promote Hindu majoritarianism".

- Vigilante justice -

But just as Meira Paibis vigilantes administer their form of justice, they have also protected their men.

Some 500 women blocked roads to stop about 100 armed police arresting another suspect linked to the video on Saturday, jeering at security forces in a three-hour standoff.

"Kill us! Take us all!" the women screamed, brandishing burning torches. Their faces were smeared in toothpaste, which they say helps protect against tear gas.

This time, they alleged the men the police wanted to arrest were not responsible and the officers left empty-handed.

The group has blocked roads to bar security forces multiple times during the unrest, accusing the army of being biased towards the Kuki.

"We have a legacy of protecting our people and that gives us inner strength," said Meira Paibis member Matouleibi Chanu.

The Meira Paibis launched dusk-till-dawn patrols after the violence erupted, hammering on electricity poles to raise the alarm.

The army said in June they were forced to release 12 Meitei militia members after troops were surrounded by a 1,500-strong "mob" of women.

"We will do everything to protect our people," said 60-year-old Chongtham Thopi Devi, another Meira Paibis member.

Police said in a statement on Saturday that six arrests had been made in connection with the video and they were conducting "raids" for other suspects.

"We can't use the same force as we do in dispersing men," a senior police officer said, asking not to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to reporters.

"We often find men hiding behind these women in protests and marches... the women lead always."

ash/pjm/pbt

Chevron Extends CEO’s Tenure as Permian Output Surges to Record

Kevin Crowley and David Wethe
Mon, July 24, 2023 



(Bloomberg) -- Chevron Corp.’s board is waiving the mandatory retirement age for Chief Executive Officer Mike Wirth, giving the company more time to find a successor as it notches record production from the world’s most prolific shale basin.

The oil giant, which typically requires CEOs to step down at age 65, made the announcement Sunday as Chevron posted better-than-expected earnings driven by surging output from the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico. Though Wirth turns 63 later this year, he’ll now be able to stay at the company beyond 2025.

As Chevron’s top boss for the past five years, Wirth has overseen its push into shale production and helped the company narrow its valuation gap with rival Exxon Mobil Corp. While Chevron’s earnings have declined from an all-time high last year, its net income is still more than double the average from 2015 to 2019.

The man who joined Chevron as a design engineer in 1982 plans to grow its Permian output to more than 1 million barrels a day by the middle of this decade and hold it steady through at least 2040. While its recent acquisition of PDC Energy Inc. will allow Chevron to expand in Colorado, Wirth rejected the suggestion that the Permian has become too expensive.

“The Permian is a tremendous asset for our company and for our country,” Wirth said Monday on CNBC. “It is the best place for us to be investing our dollars. It’s the largest single destination for investment.”

Chevron’s second-quarter earnings, originally set to be posted July 28, come as the company heads for record shareholder returns this year. Other management changes in the surprise announcement included the retirement next year of Chief Financial Officer Pierre Breber.

Chevron shares rose 2.2% to $162.14 at 10:40 a.m. in New York.

Though adjusted earnings of $3.08 per share were higher than the Bloomberg consensus, net income dropped to $6 billion, according to a statement Sunday. It’s the fourth straight quarter of lower results for Chevron, which have fallen to almost half the level of a year earlier when oil prices surged after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Chevron maintained its elevated share buyback despite lower commodity prices. At a rate of $17.5 billion a year, Chevron’s buyback — which it’s boosted several times over the past 18 months — is equal to that of Exxon Mobil Corp., which has a 40% bigger market value.

Still, Chevron stock has languished this year, down 12% through Friday compared with a 4% decline in the S&P 500 Energy Index. Wirth has struggled to persuade investors that Chevron has enough fossil-fuel projects in its locker to maintain targeted annual production growth rates of about 3%. Further, the company was forced to redraw its drilling plan in the Permian Basin earlier this year as wells under-performed expectations. By contrast, rival Exxon has a plethora of growth opportunities.

Wirth attempted to ease some of these concerns by agreeing to buy Colorado-based PDC for $6.3 billion in stock in May. The goal is to expand Chevron’s operations in the DJ Basin, which Wirth believes can offer high returns with low risk.

Breber, who was 58 as of February, will retire March 1, 2024, and be succeeded as CFO by Eimear Bonner, 49, currently the vice president and chief technology officer, the company said.

In an interview with Bloomberg News on Sunday, With said the board asked him to stay during a “turbulent time” in the markets. There’s “more that I want to do,” he said, adding that he’s “excited to continue.”

Chevron produced the equivalent of 772,000 barrels of oil per day in the Permian, it said Sunday, registering a new quarterly record for the company in the world’s busiest shale patch.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

Japan has made it even tougher for asylum seekers to stay

Joseph Coleman
Mon, July 24, 2023

In Tokyo, people protest in April against the government's immigration controls, demanding rights for refugees. 

(David Mareuil / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Iranian asylum seeker Afshin had hoped he'd be spending the final decades of his career contributing to a Japanese economy desperate for workers.

Instead, the former construction worker has been sidelined from Japan's shrinking labor force while battling immigration officials. He has endured years of detention.

At one point, he said he was saved from deportation only by a scuffle with officials that left his clothes so bloody that when he arrived at the airport the airline refused to allow him to board.

When he hasn't been in detention in recent years, he has been banned from seeking work or government support.


"It makes no sense," said Afshin, 57, who was a political activist in Iran and spoke on condition that he be identified by only his childhood nickname to protect family there. "They won't let you work, so you can't make money, but they also won't let you sign up for unemployment."

The world's third-largest economy is struggling to repair a labor force cratered by rapid aging. Fertility rates are stubbornly low, and forecasts show the already shrinking population could drop from 124 million to 104 million by midcentury as the proportion of people 65 and older approaches 40%, deepening crises in the labor market, pensions and healthcare.

Mask-wearing commuters make their way through Shinagawa Station in Tokyo. To boost the waning labor force, Japan's government is expanding a foreign skilled-worker system and loosening visa rules for ethnic Japanese born abroad. 

(Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)

Read more: One sign of South Korea's population crisis: Rural elementary schools are running out of children

But Japan has been slow to open to foreign labor, stymied by a historical skittishness about foreigners and fears that significant immigration would lead to crime and instability. The number of foreign-born residents in Japan — mostly from Asia — hit a record high last year of 3 million, or 2.4% of the population, well short of the 13.6% in the United States.

To boost the waning labor force, the government is expanding a foreign skilled-worker system and loosening visa rules for ethnic Japanese born abroad. Tokyo last year launched an overhaul of a foreign trainee program that brings hundreds of thousands of people to Japan temporarily for agriculture, factory work and other jobs. Now it is pushing a plan to hike childcare benefits, hoping to increase birthrates.

But Japan refuses to make it easier for some of the world's millions of refugees to settle here and join the workforce. Instead, the parliament in June passed legislation that could fast-track thousands of asylum seekers to deportation.

Jobless and homeless Vietnamese migrant workers prepare to sleep at a Buddhist temple in Honjo, Japan. 

(Carl Court / Getty Images)

Refugees pose specific challenges to Japan’s foreign worker ambitions. They can show up without any particular skills and sometimes with political baggage at odds with Japan’s foreign policy positions. And Japan is loath to grant residency to foreigners who could require government support or benefits.

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"Refugees for Japan mean difficult people,” said Gracia Liu-Farrer, a sociologist at Tokyo’s Waseda University who studies the plight of the country's immigrants. “So ‘refugee’ does not have a good reputation — it has a social stigma to it.”

Japan grants asylum to only a few dozen of the thousands of applicants each year.

Amid protests in Tokyo and tumult in parliament, lawmakers in June voted to make it easier to forcibly deport unsuccessful asylum applicants. Under the new rules, anyone who has applied more than twice for asylum — such as Afshin — can be sent home.

Critics say the crackdown on refugees is pointless when Japan needs to import labor.

"Nobody's looking at the big picture," said Koichi Kodama, a leading immigration and foreigners' rights attorney. "Instead, it's just a patchwork. Now they're trying to deport a bunch of people, but at the same time they want people to come. There's no balance at all."

Japanese officials say the new rules are aimed at protecting those directly threatened by persecution in their home countries — and quickly deporting those who are not. The measure also closed a loophole that officials said encouraged unsuccessful applicants to keep applying repeatedly just to stay in Japan.

Justice Minister Ken Saito recently asserted in parliament that a third of rejected asylum seekers who had resisted deportation were guilty of non-immigration-related crimes, including violent offenses.

Japanese opposition lawmaker Taro Yamamoto, top left, tries to jump toward Hisatake Sugi, seated, as ruling coalition lawmakers push a controversial immigration bill to a vote in June. 

(JIJI Press / AFP via Getty Images)

Read more: Afghan refugees in U.S. face uncertainty as legislation stalls

"Deportation refusal and long-term detention are urgent problems that need to be dealt with quickly," he said earlier this year. "Unfortunately, there are those who misuse or abuse refugee recognition applications as a means of avoiding deportation."

The Justice Ministry says more than 4,000 rejected asylum seekers are still in Japan after defying deportation orders, and an additional 1,400 on provisional release from detention have gone missing.

The sometimes raucous parliamentary debate over the measure shed further light on a system widely criticized by human rights groups, citing tactics — such as banning many asylum applicants from lawful work — that seem to be aimed at encouraging asylum seekers to give up or never come to Japan in the first place.

"The system makes it so difficult to live in Japan that people just want to go home," said Atsuko Nishiyama, an immigration lawyer.

The harshest criticism has been directed at Japan's feared immigration detention centers, where inmates can be held indefinitely while their cases are adjudicated. Former detainees say at best they are treated like criminals; at worst, they can be denied critical medical care and subject to physical and emotional abuse. Since 2007, 17 detainees have died in custody, including several by suicide. Hunger strikes are not uncommon.

Recent protesters have rallied around the case of a 33-year-old Sri Lankan woman, Wishma Sandamali, who died in 2021 after officials dismissed her repeated requests to be sent to a hospital. A criminal case against officials is stalled, but the family is pursuing a civil lawsuit.

People protest against Japanese immigration policies in April. 

(David Mareuil / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Once asylum seekers make their applications, the chances of approval are razor-thin. Japan joined the U.N. Refugee Convention in 1982 but has historically rejected about 99% of applications.

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Attention has focused on what critics say is Japan's overly strict interpretation of the definition of refugee in international law: somebody with "a well-founded fear" of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political beliefs or membership in a particular social group.

Saito has repeatedly defended Japan's selection system, pointing out that from 2018 until 2022, the government's rejection of refugee applicants had been upheld by courts in 104 of 109 lawsuits.

"I believe that we must always put our hands on our hearts to ensure that there are no mistakes in our own judgments and the judgments of government offices," he told reporters in June. "But I don't think that means we have to change our system now."

The total of 202 people granted asylum last year was a record high spurred by an influx of former Japanese Embassy employees who fled Afghanistan amid the Taliban takeover. The countries with the most applicants were Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Myanmar.

By comparison, both Germany and the United States recognized some 45,000 refugees each in 2022, the United Nations reported. Even the tiny Netherlands recognized more than 14,000 asylum seekers that year.

Japan has responded to allies' demands for help in handling global crises by accepting outsiders under other legal categories separate from refugees. The country, for instance, has taken in 121 Syrians fleeing war by the end of last year, but as international students. A couple of thousand Ukrainians have been welcomed at least temporarily as "evacuees" and given work permits and government support.

The refugee recognition system operates largely out of public view, and activists and human rights lawyers regularly refer to it as a "black box," arguing that immigration officials issue verdicts without explanation, make unreasonable demands for evidence of persecution and hand out recognition and work permissions — or prohibitions — arbitrarily and with scant oversight.

"In most countries, the question is who is eligible to be accepted," Afshin said on the sidelines of a protest outside parliament in June. "But in Japan, the question is who is eligible to be rejected."

Afshin has witnessed the vagaries of the system firsthand over the last three decades.

He arrived in Tokyo on a short-term visa in 1990 to flee death threats as a member of a group opposed to Iran's Islamic government, he said, joining a stream of Iranians taking advantage of Japan's then-relaxed attitude toward visitors from the oil-rich nation.

Afshin said he, like many other Iranians at the time, worked illegally with no problem for about 10 years, until he was arrested in a crackdown on people who had overstayed their visas. He applied for asylum in 2002.

When he went in for an interview at Immigration, he told officials he had been threatened at gunpoint in Iran. The officer, he said, asked for a photo. "I laughed," Afshin said. "Who is going to take a photo at that moment?"

Since then, he has been detained a total of four years as appeal after appeal was turned down.

He was paroled from detention but banned from work and national health insurance, though he worked on the sly until about eight years ago, when the government started to tighten controls over parolees.

Afshin's fourth application for asylum was rejected this year and he was given a one-year visa on humanitarian grounds, but the document still bans him from working or applying for unemployment insurance.

The stress has taken its toll. He downs handfuls of prescription pills for a heart condition and PTSD he blames on his attempted deportation. Over the past year, he had to raise thousands of dollars through an aid organization to pay full-price for an angioplasty to remove plaque from his arteries. He said his doctor has advised another round may be necessary.

Afshin said he fears he still could be deported at any time.

"I first went into immigration detention 22 years ago and I haven't gotten anything from them," he said. "Why do I have to be grateful for this residence card? Maybe 20% of what I feel is appreciation, but the other 80% is resentment."

Not all asylum seekers are denied a work visa. Myo Kyaw Kyaw, 38, a member of the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority from Myanmar, arrived in Japan in 2006 with a visa. He said he’d been targeted for his pro-democracy activism.

But his applications for asylum have been rejected three times, and he has been detained for about 2½ years. His third application was rejected in February, but instead of being deported, Japanese officials issued him a six-month visa allowing him to work 28 hours a week. The visa, which is good until mid-August, has allowed him to work for the first time since 2013. He is appealing the February decision.

Now he's employed by the Anti-Poverty Network, a nonprofit that supports asylum seekers, and is a regular at pro-refugee rallies in Tokyo. But he is tormented by uncertainty.

"I don't know how long I can do this," he said, adding that he'd prefer death in Japan to being sent home, where his presence could endanger his family. "I'm going to die here. I don't want to die in Myanmar."

Many asylum seekers privately concede they work on the side despite the ban, particularly in construction and demolition work, though they say employers fearful of prosecution are reluctant to offer steady gigs, and pay is lower than for those with official work authorization.

Nishiyama, the attorney, said some employers come to rely on such workers to do punishing labor most Japanese are unwilling to perform.

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"It would be much better for Japan to give those people special permission to stay here," she said. "Immigration makes them out to be criminals, but from my experience, most of those people would live stable lives here if they had visas."

Meanwhile, many of Japan's would-be refugees are dependent on handouts like the bags of food and other necessities distributed every Sunday at St. Alban's Anglican-Episcopal Church.

The volunteer operation is run by American filmmaker Thomas Ash, director of "Ushiku," a 2021 documentary about detainees at a center north of Tokyo. The film, which Ash shot with hidden cameras to get around the center's photography ban, features the anguished stories of several refugees — including a hunger striker — as they grappled with the physical and emotional abuse of detention.

Ash said the idea of documenting the refugees' plight came when he started visiting detainees at the center a few years ago as part of a volunteer church group and was disturbed by their condition.

"I prayed about what I could do and I felt that I should preserve evidence in case someone died," he said.

On a recent Sunday, Ash and other volunteers hosted a coffee and pastry hour for refugees and handed out plastic bags of rice, coffee, soy milk, curry, candy and other foods.

One of the men gathered there, Julius Nde, 53, said he came to Japan in 2018 because of fighting in his native Cameroon. He'd lived in Japan previously for three years but was forced to leave for overstaying his visa in 2007.

He said he was frustrated by immigration officials' refusal to give him refugee status or permission to work legally.

"Sometimes I visit my friends where they work and ask for money," he said. "They give me an allowance. That's how I live my life in Japan."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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