Towel sales serving as voter-preference gauge ahead of Brazil election

Online News EditorSeptember 23, 2022

 

By Carlos Meneses

Sao Paulo, Sep 23 (EFE).- Sales of towels with the images of rightist President Jair Bolsonaro and center-left former head of state Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are serving as an informal gauge of voter sentiment ahead of the Oct. 2 first round of Brazil’s general election.

Street stalls selling Lula and Bolsonaro beach towels have proliferated in recent weeks in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the country’s two largest cities, with some vendors keeping a running count of buyers’ preferences on blackboards.

Images of those scoreboards have been going viral on the Internet, causing towel sales to soar.

The phenomenon has become known as “DataToalha” (DataTowel), a reference to DataFolha, a prestigious Brazilian polling firm that on Thursday released a survey showing Lula in first place with 47 percent of voter preference and Bolsonaro trailing far behind in second place with 33 percent support.

Like all the other voter surveys, DataToalha also shows Lula with a comfortable lead.

One vendor on Sao Paulo’s Avenida Paulista, Fernando Lopes, set up his street stall near the headquarters of the Federação das Industrias do Estado de São Paulo, a powerful employers’ trade union, and says he is thrilled with the pace of sales.

“I’m taking advantage of the contest to earn some money. The one selling the most is Lula’s,” the 31-year-old said as a group of people took a photo of his blackboard.

In fact, the tally at that stall was extremely lopsided: “Bolsonaro 34-Lula 193.”

Each towel is selling for 40 reais ($7.60). Hats with the images of those same two candidates, meanwhile, are selling for 30 reais.

Lopes works seven days a week and says he sells between 15 and 20 towels a day, most of them with the image of the candidate of the center-left Workers’ Party (PT).

“The Bolsonaro voters complain a lot. They say the tally is a lie and that I’m campaigning for Lula,” he said. “It’s not true because I sell both of their towels.”

Lopes said people have tried unsuccessfully to alter the count through bribes. “One woman even offered me 700 reais, but I told her ‘no.'”

He recalled that another Bolsonaro supporter said he wanted to buy 100 towels with the image of the retired army captain.

But Lopes said the man changed his mind when told the scoreboard was merely keeping track of the number of Bolsonaro- and Lula-supporting customers and that the count would go up by just one regardless of how many towels he bought.

Lula’s supporters on Avenida Paulista showed equal enthusiasm for their candidate and expressed hope that he will win in the first round, as some polls suggest. If neither candidate receives more than 50 percent of the ballots, a runoff will be held on Oct. 30.

“If I were rich, I’d buy 1,000 Lula towels,” Julia Espindola, a 30-year-old nurse who visited Lopes’ stall after hearing about those sales on social media, told Efe.

A half-hour later, Lula’s count had gone up by two to 195, while Bolsonaro’s tally was stuck on 34.

Lopes, who saw his income evaporate due to pandemic-triggered social-distancing measures and was forced to live on the street with his wife and two-year-old daughter, hopes that all the formal and informal polling prove correct and the ex-president will emerge victorious.

“Lula hasn’t won the election yet and he’s already creating jobs,” Lopes joked, while at the same time accusing the incumbent president of “not caring about the poor.” EFE

Bolsonaro, military intensify antidemocratic conspiracies on eve of Brazil’s elections

Tomas Castanheira

WSWS.ORG

The antidemocratic conspiracies promoted by Brazil’s fascistic President Jair Bolsonaro and the military are advancing with the approach of the first round of presidential elections on October 2.

Brazilian special forces troops (Ministerio de Defensa)

As the president loudly proceeds with his plan to contest an increasingly likely defeat at the polls, the military has been elevated to the position of final arbiter of the political process, with the installation of the next president dependent on its approval.

Just two weeks before the election, the president has publicly reiterated that he will not accept a result other than victory. In an interview last Sunday on the SBT TV network, Bolsonaro declared that if he receives less than 60 percent of the vote, that is, if he is not declared elected in the first round, “something abnormal happened at the TSE [Superior Electoral Court].”

The claim that an electoral fraud is underway to remove him from power is the central argument of the Hitler-style “big lie” being systematically promoted by Bolsonaro. This coup narrative dismisses as fraudulent the results of all recent polls, pointing to the Workers Party (PT) candidate, Lula da Silva, beating him by a wide margin. The latest Datafolha poll, published on Thursday, showed Lula with 47 percent of the vote and Bolsonaro with only 33 percent.

In the interview recorded in London, where he attended Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, Bolsonaro justified his certainty of victory on what he calls Data Povo (“Data People”), i.e., his subjective perception of the “popular will” based upon crowds attending his events, as opposed to data from institutes like Datafolha.

He said, “It’s pretty divided, you know, much more favorable to me. I say, if I get less than 60 percent of the vote, something abnormal has happened at the TSE in view obviously of the Data Povo that you measure by the amount of people who not only come to my events as well as welcome us along the way to get to the venue.”

Bolsonaro’s plan to contest the ballots widely mimics Donald Trump’s actions in the last US presidential elections, which culminated in the January 6 Capitol coup attempt. But much more than Trump, Bolsonaro has reasons to trust that a significant section of the Armed Forces will legitimize his attempt to hold on to state power.

Last week, the military clubs in Rio de Janeiro released a joint note calling for the “Rescue of the Green and Yellow” (the colors of Brazil’s flag) against what they claim to be “an explicit attempt to destroy the concepts of citizenship and patriotism.” Concluding with a passage from the Tamoio Song, by the Brazilian Romantic poet Gonçalves Dias, which says that “Life is combat, that slaughters the weak,” the document is an unequivocal call for a coup.

The demonstrations conducted by Bolsonaro on Independence Day, last September 7, had already confirmed these expectations. They were highly successful in merging, with the consent of the generals, a massive military parade with the demonstration of thousands of Bolsonaro’s far-right supporters.

The corrupt bourgeois opposition to Bolsonaro responded to this pivotal event in Brazil’s political history with new concessions to the military that put even more power into their hands.

On September 13, the TSE approved a reformulation of the “integrity test” of the electronic ballot boxes to meet demands from the military. The change, made on the eve of the electoral process, will introduce the use of biometrics in the inspection of the ballot boxes.

As admitted by the president of the TSE himself, Supreme Court (STF) Judge Alexandre de Moraes, this supposed “safety measure” lacks any technical justification. Moraes said that “there is no proof that the test [with biometrics] will or will not improve oversight [of the ballots].” In other words, the TSE accepted a requirement that is known to have the sole purpose of fomenting the distrust of the electoral process that underlies Bolsonaro’s conspiracy.

Moraes, who assumed the presidency of the TSE on August 17, has taken as his main task the fine tuning of the Electoral Court’s relations with the military, deepening the concessions made by his predecessors. He promptly set up exclusive TSE meetings with the military, behind closed doors and without minutes. His predecessor, Edson Fachin, had resisted accepting this anti-democratic demand made insistently by Defense Minister and Bolsonaro’s conspiracy collaborator, Gen. Paulo Sergio Oliveira.

The intimate relationship established by the PT and its pseudo-left ally, the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL), to these reactionary forces in the bourgeois state is highly revealing of the political bankruptcy of these parties.

The same Alexandre de Moraes was praised by the Brazilian pseudo-left as the great savior of democracy in the country. It has entrusted the STF judge with taking “all measures deemed appropriate to ensure that the result of the 2022 election is fully respected and fulfilled,” as stated in a document written by PSOL parliamentarians.

The “measures” taken by Moraes, with the criminal consent of the PT and the PSOL, are proving to be key pieces in the advance of military tutelage over the political regime.

In addition to the concessions taken from the TSE, the military is preparing to carry out, for the first time since the establishment of the bourgeois democratic regime in Brazil, a parallel check of the ballot boxes. Soldiers will be sent to hundreds of polling places around the country to personally check the “fairness” of the democratic process.

Whether the findings of this verification will serve to legitimize a political coup by Bolsonaro, or even an independent intervention by the military in the name of “political stabilization” of the country, remains a question to be answered. The degeneration of bourgeois democracy in Brazil, on the other hand, is a deepening process in which there is no turning back.

 

Ukraine’s Defense Industry And The Prospect Of A Long War – Analysis

 September 24, 2022 

By Published by the Foreign Policy Research Institute

By Thomas Laffitte*

(FPRI) — After more than six months of war, Russia and Ukraine are now preparing for a long period of hostilities, forcing each side to find long-term solutions for their military supplies. Without Western military and financial assistance, Ukraine would be unable to sustain its military or continue fighting. Although the West has pledged to provide Ukraine with equipment for as long as it takes to win the war, Kyiv wants to procure as much equipment as possible to avoid any policy changes or delays in delivery.

What contributions could Kyiv expect from its homegrown defense industry? Ukraine inherited numerous defense enterprises from the Soviet era, so can these produce some of the wartime equipment Ukraine needs?

The fact that the Ukrainian Armed Forces destroyed the Russian flagship Moskva at the beginning of April using a missile designed and produced by the Ukrainian industry hints at an untapped potential. More recently, the announcement that Baykar, the Turkish manufacturer of the Bayraktar TB2 drones, intends to open a factory in Ukraine also propelled optimism about Ukraine’s military-industrial capacities.

The Ukrainian defense industry already fulfills an essential function with its ability to repair military equipment. Although only a marginal contributor to the country’s military supplies, Ukraine’s defense industry could prove significant if it manages to scale up. To do this, it will have to overcome many obstacles. No Ukrainian territory is spared from Russian strikes, and it is very difficult in these conditions to set up such strategic production lines. Above all, after years of underfunding and production problems, the Ukrainian military-industrial complex entered this war in a very poor condition.

The Slow Decline of the Ukrainian Defense Industry

A common mistake is to forget that Russia is not the sole heir to the Soviet Union. At the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukraine concentrated approximately 15 percent of both research, development, test and establishment, and factories of the former Soviet military production. This amounted to 700 dedicated plants and a workforce of approximately 500,000 people, making the defense industry one of the largest employers in the country.

Some of these enterprises were among the most strategic for the Soviet military. This was especially true for the navy, with the shipyards of Mykolaiv located on the Black Sea. These were the only ones able to accommodate an aircraft carrier, a severe loss for Moscow, which subsequently had to maintain its unique aircraft carrier in its northern ports, which freeze in winter.

Ukraine also inherited many assets in the aerospace industry. Pivdenne, based in Dnipro, was the heart of the Soviet intercontinental missile production; Motor Sich, based in Zaporizhzhia, equipped Soviet aircraft with its engines and gas turbines; and the most famous example certainly remains Antonov, the company behind the largest aircraft of all time, the Mriia A-225, which was destroyed in the first days of the war. In addition, the Malyushev factory in Kharkiv is the largest armor production center in the former Soviet Union and has been since World War II.

But as significant as it was in 1991, Ukraine’s defense sector faced massive economic headwinds following independence. Unlike Moscow’s ambition to remain a great power, Ukraine quickly chose neutrality. Perceiving no immediate security threat, the Ukrainian Armed Forces did not have a pressing need to acquire equipment, nor was it given the budget to do so. As a result, it purchased little from local producers, who had to rely on exports to stay alive. On top of that, lack of funding pushed away the country’s educated engineers, who were attracted by other, better-paid industries.

The Wake-Up Call of 2014

The annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the outbreak of the conflict in the Donbas was a wake-up call, forcing the Ukrainian army to re-equip itself, and in the process, place orders with local companies. Exports drastically decreased, to the benefit of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, who for example acquired a batch of T-64 and BTR-3 tanks originally ordered by Angola and Thailand.

But this sudden wave of orders came up against an industry that has lost its historical partners based in Russia, with whom the Ukrainian industry had until 2014 maintained vital links. The total disruption of trade has caused serial problems for these producers, who have suddenly had to find new suppliers. Often, they did not find any. Antonov, for example, has not produced a single plane since 2016.

In addition to the overall failure of the Ukrainian industry, there is the current damage caused by the invasion of Russia since February. Not surprisingly, Ukrainian production sites are targets for Russian strikes. Already by May, key facilities in Kyiv and Mykolaiv, as well as the giant Malyshev tank factory in Kharkiv, were destroyed or badly damaged. More recently, the Motor Sich factory in Zaporizhzhia was hit.

Limited Expectations 

What can be expected from the Ukrainian defense industry going forward? The sinking of the Russian flagship in the Black Sea, the Moskva, using surface-to-sea missile developed by the Luch Design Bureau in Kyiv, named “Neptune,” an update of a former Soviet technology that now equips the Ukrainian military, was a turning point in the war and a boost for the country’s defense sector. Luch, one of the few relatively successful Ukrainian producers, also builds the air-to-ground Stuhna missile, regularly used during the war. Nevertheless, procurement of high-tech weaponry remains overall very limited. In 2021, the general director of Luch, Oleh Korostelev, declared that his company was only able to provide “600 or 800” Neptune missiles to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which requested at least 2,000.

However, high-tech weaponry is not the only field where the defense industry matters. Steven Zaloga, defense specialist and consultant at TEAL Group, explains that “the Ukrainian army [is] well provided with modern uniforms, small arms, and soldiers’ gear and a lot of this seems to be indigenous.” He also notes that “in the armored vehicle field, there seems to be a fair number of BTR-3/BTR-4 in use.” It is hard to know in more detail the contribution of the homegrown industry, he notes, as “Ukrainians are tight-lipped about their production capacity at the moment,” for fear of seeing them suffer air strikes.

This fear also casts doubt on the announcement of a future opening of a factory to build Bayraktar drones in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the arrival of the Turkish company and its joint production with Ukrainian manufacturers. The land has reportedly already been purchased, but its location remains unknown. On the other hand, the Ukrainian drone maker UkrSpecSystems announced plans to relocate production to neighboring Poland. Considering this news, it is hard to imagine the Turkish producer investing in a new facility in Ukraine.

The Need for Maintenance

Given the challenges Ukraine faces in procuring weapons, it has no choice but to rely partly on domestic manufacturing. Talking to Ukrinform, Vladyslav Belbas, chief executive officer of the Ukrainian manufacturer UAV, summarized the situation:

Without waiting for lend lease, Ukraine is obliged to place orders with domestic producers. Will there be negative consequences for the Ukrainian defense industry from lend lease? Yes, there will, but the key word here is ‘Ukrainian.’ Because if there is no lend lease, then there will be no Ukrainian defense industry. There needs to be a healthy balance between import supplies capabilities and domestic manufacturing capabilities.

Given the state of Ukrainian finances, there is little hope that Kyiv will overload its local producers with orders. On the other hand, maintaining production lines capable of repairing equipment seems to be a more achievable goal. “Ukraine has a significant armored vehicle rebuild facilities, so this may account for their ability to recycle damaged/captured armored vehicles,” reminds Steven Zaloga. This aspect is also underscored by Vladyslav Belbas: “[the indigenous industry] should not stand aside and watch this process, because without domestic manufacturers, none of the equipment supplied to us will be promptly repaired. We cannot take, for example, an American howitzer to the USA for repairs.”

Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, echoed these concerns in one of his rare public interventions. “Ukraine can consider acquiring the relevant weapons systems from partners only as a solution for the transition period. From the first days of the Russian full-scale aggression, the Ukrainian side has faced the acute problem of restoring and establishing its own design and production capacities to manufacture high-tech weapon systems,” says Zaluzhny. He added that “Ukraine’s national efforts to this end open up unlimited opportunities for international military-technical cooperation with partner countries.”

Despite its challenges, the Ukrainian defense industry still can play a decisive role in the war, if only through its ability to repair equipment. In the immediate future, Western arms deliveries will have the greatest impact, but if Ukraine can save its industry, both by protecting it from Russian strikes and by providing it with sufficient financing, it could make a valuable contribution.  

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a non-partisan organization that seeks to publish well-argued, policy-oriented articles on American foreign policy and national security priorities.

*About the author: Thomas Laffitte is a Fellow in the Eurasia Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and a Ph.D. candidate enrolled in a double degree between Sciences Po, Paris and the Central European University, Vienna.

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY 

 

Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Samarkand, Uzbekistan 2022. Photo Credit: President.az

Wall St. Journal Columnist Too Easily Dismisses An Eastern-Led World Order – OpEd

 September 24, 2022  Eurasia Review  

By David C. Speedie

In his latest broadside in the Wall Street Journal, Walter Russell Meade takes aim at a body that most Americans have never heard of – the Shanghai Cooperation Organization [SCO] — and its annual summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

Mead’s core message seems to be twofold: first, “the Eurasian power balance is shifting,” he argues— that is to say, China’s support for its friend and fellow charter SCO member, Russia is waning. To illustrate this he draws a head-scratching comparison between Presidents XI and Putin on the one hand and Hitler and Mussolini on the other.  Second, he damns the SCO with faint praise, noting that with the addition of India and Pakistan “the organization has become more significant”; but proceeding then to suggest why the opposite is the case: “Russia, China and Iran seek a new global system but propose no positive agenda.”

There follows a checklist of current crises across the extended SCO region that, for Mead, illustrate the SCO’s relevance vacuum: the “humanitarian nightmare” of Afghanistan (and at whose feet do we lay that?); the disastrous floods in Pakistan; food and energy deprivation “from Turkey to Kazakhstan,” collateral victims of US and EU-imposed sanctions on Russia.  This incongruous balance of natural disaster and Russian culpability  as somehow the fault of SCO is followed by a swipe at China, whose “saber rattling over Taiwan has galvanized a stronger alliance against it.” Does he mean NATO? On a recent trip to northern Europe I heard rumblings of intra-alliance discord over future conflict with China.

Mead’s central argument is that SCO’s agenda is clumsy and insubstantial: in a rather weak final paragraph he sums up the Samarkand summit thus: “If SCO nations seriously want a new international system, they will have to do better than this.”   This makes one wonder if Mead actually read, for instance, President  Xi’s keynote address to the summit.  In addition to some broad general principles: “consultation and cooperation for shared benefit”; “consensus-based decision making”; “commitment to the purposes and principles of the UN charter” and the like, the Chinese leader outlined specific SCO measures, ongoing or planned: joint anti-terrorism exercises; China’s commitment to train 2000 law-enforcement personnel in fellow SCO countries on counter-terrorism, drug and human trafficking; an SCO-Afghan contact group to address humanitarian needs, and pledging 1.5 billion remnimbi ($215 million) in emergency assistance; a regional development initiative and a five-year Treaty of Cooperation on trade and investment, infrastructure building and scientific/technical innovation; and a series of SCO forums on poverty reduction and sustainable development.  Finally, he proposed a series of “people to people and cultural exchanges on education, health, and science and technology.”

Lest all this be dismissed as cavalierly as Mead intends, let us remember that: SCO is the world’s largest regional organization, whose eight permanent members, including Russia, China and India, with Iran and Turkey in the wings, represent 40% of the world’s population over an area 60% of global geography and with 30% of global GDP.  While there are intra-group tensions, it is a forum for historic rival members such as Armenia and Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia.  To quote Churchill: better to jaw-jaw than war-war.

In February 2010 I wrote an article on the SCO. I cautioned against dismissing the organization: “The conclusion is that the SCO, far from an empty vessel, is a regional force to be reckoned with … a neighborhood watch over some of the world’s most insecure places.”  Twelve years and several influential new members on, this seems all the more obvious.  One wonders if the reference in Walter Russell Mead’s title to “disrupting the world order” stems from an indignation over an institution that reflects a new world order and operates independently of the West?

David C. Speedie, a board member of ACURA, was the former chair on International Peace and Security at Carnegie Corporation. This article was produced by Globetrotter in partnership with the American Committee for U.S.-Russia Accord.

Argentine VP blames corruption trial for assassination attempt

This handout photo released by Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s Press Office shows Argentina’s Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner during a meeting with representatives of the Catholic Church who work in poor neighbourhoods, on September 15, 2022, at the National Congress, in Buenos Aires, during her first public appearance after an attempted murder against her on September 1 at the door of her house. 

— Charo Larisgoitia/Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s Press service/AFP pic

Saturday, 24 Sep 2022

BUENOS AIRES, Sept 24 — Argentina Vice President Cristina Kirchner on Friday blamed what she implied was a hostile environment created by her ongoing corruption trial for an assassination attempt against her earlier this month.

Kirchner is among 13 people accused of fraud and corruption that occurred during her two terms as president as well as her late husband Nestor’s term.

On September 1, Kirchner, 69, survived an assassination attempt as she mingled with supporters outside her home, when a gun brandished by a man in the crowd failed to fire.

Speaking by video link at her trial Kirchner said that before the attack she thought the procedure, which opened in August, was to “stigmatise” her “and to bar me” from politics.

The case involves bribes alleged to have been paid in her Patagonian political stronghold.

“But after September 1,” she said “I realised there could be something more.”

Kirchner, who is also implicated in several other corruption investigations, has always claimed to be the victim of political persecution.

“This is creating an environment,” she added. “I feel very vulnerable, worried.”

Four people have been arrested over the assassination attempt but only the 35-year-old man who pointed the gun and his 23-year-old girlfriend have been officially charged with aggravated attempted murder.

During her deposition, Kirchner said “no one could believe this gang came up with and planned this attack” alone, without explicitly pointing the finger at anyone in particular.

The attack has proved fertile breeding ground for Argentina’s polarised politics.

Those on the center-left government’s side have insisted the four young people must have been financed and directed by others, while liberal former president Mauricio Macri has dismissed any “political orchestration.”

As for her own trial, Kirchner accused prosecutors, who have requested she be jailed for 12 years and banned from politics for life, of “lies, slander and defamation.”

A verdict is due at the end of the year. — AFP

Argentina's vice president defends herself over corruption allegations

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner denounces ‘incredible lies’ by federal prosecutors who want 12-year prison sentence

Bala Chambers |24.09.2022


LONDON

Argentina's Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner defended herself Friday against alleged graft charges in awarding public works and criticized the "incredible lies" by federal prosecutors.

De Kirchner spoke to the court via Zoom for an hour and 20 minutes from her office in the Senate as she raised questions about the "arbitrariness" of the trial and labeled the allegations "nonsense."

The vice-president also hit out at federal prosecutors, accusing them of lying and described the allegations as "profoundly unconstitutional, anti-republican and anti-federal. "She described the trial as "a clear case of malfeasance" and rebuffed claims of criminality during her and her husband's presidency.

"The people elected the governments, the three governments, the one headed by Nestor Kirchner and those headed by me -- we were elected by the people. We cannot be an illicit association," she said.

De Kirchner previously argued that the trial is a political witch-hunt and on Friday appeared to cast doubts on the judiciary. "From Sept. 1 (the day of the attempted assassination) I realized that there may be another thing behind all the stigmatization and attempts to ban me," said de Kirchner. "Suddenly, it's as if the judicial sphere is giving social license so that anyone can think and do anything."

Federal prosecutors accuse de Kirchner of awarding fraudulent and overpriced public works contracts in the southern province of Santa Cruz during her two-term tenure as president from 2007 - 2015 and have been pushing for a 12-year jail sentence and a lifetime ban from holding public office.

Many of the contracts allegedly benefitted close allies of the Kirchner family, with some already convicted of corruption.

The sentence against Kirchner is expected in months, although some say she could appeal to higher courts, which would likely extend the time considerably in reaching a final verdict.

HINDUTVA FEAR MONGERING
India warns nationals living in Canada of rising hate crimes, ‘sectarian violence’
By Camille Bains The Canadian Press
Posted September 23, 2022 

India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar answers a question from a reporter during a press conference in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2022. India's government is warning its citizens in Canada of a sharp increase in hate crimes, sectarian violence and anti-India activities. 

THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Sakchai Lalit.

The government of India is warning its citizens in Canada about what it calls a sharp increase in hate crimes, sectarian violence and “anti-India activities.”


But the head of a Sikh group based in Mississauga, Ont., said the allegations in a statement issued Friday by India’s External Affairs Ministry were directed at peaceful Sikh political activism in Canada, and were baseless.

The Indian government said in the statement that it has taken up the alleged incidents with Canadian authorities and requested an investigation.

“The perpetrators of these crimes have not been brought to justice so far in Canada,” said the statement, which does not provide information on where the alleged incidents occurred.

READ MORE: Police investigating after Hindu temple in Toronto reportedly vandalized

It said that in view of the “increasing incidences of crimes,” Indian nationals and students in Canada are advised to exercise due caution and remain vigilant.

No one from Global Affairs Canada was available to respond to a request for comment on the claim from India’s government, and RCMP headquarters in Ottawa did not immediately provide a response.

Balpreet Singh, spokesman for the World Sikh Organization, said the statement is “completely political” and there is no evidence of any rise in sectarian violence or extremism targeting Indian nationals or students in Canada.

He said a Hindu temple was vandalized with graffiti in Toronto last week, but police there have so far not linked that incident to “anti-India activities.”

“My organization and other organizations condemn any vandalism of any place of worship. It’s unacceptable, so we hope that whoever is responsible is brought to justice,” Singh said.

Sikh Canadians celebrate Sikh Heritage Month – Apr 10, 2022

He said the Indian government’s claims may be in response to a so-called “Khalistan referendum” held in Brampton, Ont., on the creation of an independent Sikh homeland.

Singh said tens of thousands of Sikhs cast their votes in that effort, organized by Sikhs for Justice.

Similar referendums are being held around the world, he said, with votes expected to take place in Vancouver and Calgary.

Singh said the referendums were a threat to the Indian government as Sikhs gathered to support their goal of an independent homeland.

“Jews in America played a key role in the formation and support of Israel,” he said, adding that India broke from British rule following activism that involved people in North America in the early 1900s.

Singh said other recent gatherings organized by Sikhs have been maligned.

In June, members of Ottawa’s Sikh community called for an investigation after Parliament Hill was evacuated and two men were arrested at an event to commemorate the 1984 massacre of Sikhs in India.

Police apologized and released the members of a group that organized the event after concluding no public safety threat had been made.

The massacre of Sikhs in India was linked to the assassination of prime minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards, after the Indian army raided the Golden Temple in Amritsar, where militants had occupied Sikhism’s holiest shrine.

 

Republicans unveil 90s-throwback midterm election agenda

By David Smith in Washington

THE GUARDIAN

September 23, 2022

Republican Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, unveiled his party’s "Commitment to America" agenda on 23 September. Photograph: Barry Reeger/AP

Republicans have unveiled a midterm election agenda heavy on critiques of Joe Biden but light on specific policies – and with a throwback theme to the mid-1990s.

After a primary season dominated by extremist “Make America great again” (Maga) candidates and deniers of the 2020 election result, Friday’s launch also represented an effort to tone down rhetoric and win back independent voters.

Kevin McCarthy, minority leader in the House of Representatives, introduced the party’s “Commitment to America” at an event near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a crucial battleground in November’s vote.

The memo of principles underlined how Republicans are hoping to make the midterms a referendum on the presidency of Biden rather than his predecessor, Donald Trump, who continues to suck up media oxygen as a target of several criminal and civil investigations.

“I challenge the president to join with us – let’s go across the country and let’s debate what his policies have done to America and our plan for a new direction,” McCarthy told supporters. “And let’s let America make the decision for the best way for this country to go forward.”

The one-page commitment carried unavoidable echoes of the “Contract With America”, a statement of intent in 1994 that helped Newt Gingrich’s Republicans gain the House majority during Bill Clinton’s presidency, for the first time in more than four decades. But McCarthy’s version offered less detail and, critics said, less ambition.

Its defining message was that Democrats have failed the American people. McCarthy, who hopes to replace Nancy Pelosi as House speaker, said: “The Democrats, they control Washington. They control the House, the Senate, the White House. They control the committees, they control the agencies. It’s their plan but they have no plan to fix all the problems they’ve created.”

Taking a leaflet from his jacket pocket, McCarthy added: “So you know what? We’ve created a commitment to America.”

The four pillars are “an economy that’s strong”, “a nation that’s safe”, “a future that’s free” and “a government that’s accountable”.

The first point reflects Republicans’ hope that stubbornly high inflation will lead voters to punish Democrats on election day.

McCarthy said a strong economy means “you can fill up your tank, you can buy the groceries, you have enough money left over to go to Disneyland and save for a future – that the pay cheques grow; they no longer shrink”.

A safe nation, he added, “means your community will be protected, your law enforcement will be respected, your criminals will be prosecuted”.

McCarthy also emphasised the scourge of the opioid fentanyl and the need to secure the US-Mexico border, an issue recently dominated by a stunt in which the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, relocated migrants to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.

Indeed, Friday’s launch was notable for what McCarthy did not talk about: abortion rights, voting rights and the climate crisis, all of which are seen as political liabilities for his party. Democrats have been energised by June’s supreme court decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion.

McCarthy sought to project party unity despite the uneasy coalition that makes up the House minority. It remains uncertain whether the House Freedom Caucus, including far-right members loyal to Trump, will support McCarthy for speaker.

Democrats dismissed the Commitment to America as a Trump platform in disguise. Pelosi said: “Today’s rollout is the latest evidence of House Republicans’ wholehearted commitment to Maga: going all in on an extremist agenda designed to greatly diminish Americans’ health, freedom and security.”

The House majority leader, Steny Hoyer, distributed a list of eight questions Democrats have for Republicans about their platform. It took aim at many House members’ staunch defence of Trump.

“Who won the 2020 Presidential Election?” the list asks. “Like President Trump, do you believe that the January 6 insurrectionists were engaged in ‘legitimate political discourse’ and should not be prosecuted for their violent actions? … Do you support defunding the FBI in retaliation for executing a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago?”

The list also seizes on other Republican policies. Hoyer asked:“Will Republicans pursue a nationwide abortion ban? … If given the chance, will you try again to repeal the Affordable Care Act and strip health-care access away from millions of Americans?”

Others joined the criticism. Reed Galen, co-founder of the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group, said: “This agenda is meaningless. Kevin McCarthy wants everyone to think he has a positive agenda for America – which nothing could be further from the truth.

“The ultra-Maga has total control of the party and is only interested in a national abortion ban and impeaching Joe Biden. The GOP is no longer interested in governing, they just want to obtain power and use it to destroy their enemies.”

McCarthy’s initiative contrasts with the Senate, where the minority leader, Mitch McConnell, has declined to put forward an agenda, preferring to simply run against Biden.

Republicans remain the favourites to win back the House and have history on their side: since the second world war, the president’s party has on average lost 29 House seats in each president’s first midterm election, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

ICYMI

World markets plunge on growing recession fears

September 23, 2022

The pound fell to a 37-year low against the dollar. ©AFP

London (AFP) - Stock markets tumbled, the pound crashed against the dollar and oil prices slumped Friday on growing recession fears after central banks this week ramped up interest rates to fight decades-high inflation.

With price rises showing no solid sign of letting up, monetary policymakers have gone on the offensive, warning that short-term hits to economies are less painful than the long-term effects of not acting.

The Federal Reserve's decision Wednesday to lift borrowing costs by 0.75 percentage points for a third successive meeting was followed by a warning that more big rises were in the pipeline and that rates would likely come down only in 2024.

There were similar moves by central banks in other countries including Britain, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, the Philippines and Indonesia -- all pointing to a dark outlook for markets.

Wall Street extended losses Friday while European equities sank in afternoon deals and Asia finished lower.

"A negative end to the week in Asia, and Europe has quickly followed as the prospect of much more tightening and a recession weighs on sentiment," said Craig Erlam, analyst at trading platform OANDA.

In a sign that recession expectations are rising, the 10-year US Treasury yield jumped to its highest level in a decade.

"It's a messy situation in the Treasury market to be sure and that is creating a messy situation for stocks.However, it's not just a US situation.Things are messy elsewhere," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare.

The UK 10-year yield struck an 11-year high on Friday.

The British pound tumbled to a 37-year low under $1.10 as a tax-cutting budget sparked public finance concerns while recession fears mounted.

"Equity markets are also plunging on concerns that this (UK) package could further push inflation even higher, and thus make it more difficult to bring back down," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.

In the eurozone, recession fears deepened as data showed its economic activity fell once again in September.

The S&P eurozone PMI dropped to 48.2 in September -- with a score under 50 representing economic contraction.

The euro hit a new two-decade low at $0.9751.

"A eurozone recession is on the cards as companies report worsening business conditions and intensifying price pressures linked to soaring energy costs," said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

He added that falling UK business activity this month indicates that the British economy is likely already in recession.

Recession fears also caused oil prices to fall, with the main US contract, WTI, falling below $80 for the first time since January.

Traders were keeping a close eye as well on developments following the Japanese finance ministry's intervention to support the yen, after it hit a new 24-year low of 146 against the dollar.

The first such intervention since 1998 helped strengthen the yen but it remained above 140.

Analysts warned the move was unlikely to have much long-term impact and the yen remained vulnerable owing to the Bank of Japan's refusal to tighten policy -- citing a need to boost the economy.

Key figures at around 1435 GMT

New York - Dow: DOWN 1.4 percent at 29,644.98 points

London - FTSE 100: DOWN 2.3 percent at 6,997.50 

Frankfurt - DAX: DOWN 1.9 percent at 12,294.22

Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 2.3 percent at 5,782.79

EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 2.3 percent at 3,349.75

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.2 percent at 17,933.27 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.7 percent at 3,088.77 (close)

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: Closed for a holiday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.0972 from $1.1252 Thursday

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $0.9726 from $0.9839

Euro/pound: UP at 88.65 pence from 87.40 pence 

Dollar/yen: UP at 143.12 yen from 142.35 yen

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 4.9 percent at $78.61 per barrel

Brent North Sea crude: DOWN 4.6 percent at $84.95 per barrel

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