Congress-BJP spar over Modi, Rahul pics with controversial Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn

BJP leader and Law Minister Kiren Rijiju remarked that the UK MP advocates Kashmir’s secession

• Pramod Thomas
• 24 May, 2022

Rahul Gandhi with Sam Pitroda and UK MP Jeremy Corbyn (Photo: Twitter)

By: Pramod Thomas

INDIA’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday (24) questioned Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s meeting with former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. 

BJP’s Kapil Mishra slammed Gandhi and raised questions over the meaning of the meeting. Earlier, Corbyn was criticised for his ‘anti-semantic’ views and he has been a vocal supporter of Pakistan in the Jammu and Kashmir issue.

“What is Rahul Gandhi doing with Jeremy Corbyn in London? Jeremy Corbyn is infamous for Anti India Anti Hindu Stand Jeremy Corbyn is openly advocating separation of Kashmir from India,” Mishra tweeted.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala was quick to counter the BJP’s barrage of tweets with a photo of Jeremy Corbyn meeting prime minister Narendra Modi.

“Finally, may I also ask our media friends to identify the two men in the picture below and ask the same questions? Does it mean the PM has endorsed Jeremy Corbyn’s views on India?” Surjewala wrote. The image was taken during Modi’s maiden visit to the UK after becoming the prime minister.

Two years ago, Corbyn was ousted from the Labour party’s leadership for his ‘anti-semantic’ views. Under Corbyn, the Labour Party had also passed an emergency resolution advocating international intervention in Kashmir. The party was heavily criticised by sections of the Indian diaspora.

BJP leader Tom Vadakkan has also questioned why Gandhi has met a leader who has made several controversial comments on India in the past, Indian media reported.

“Corbyn has been known to be Anti-Indian. I think this is a group that is encouraging Rahul to speak what he speaks. I think these are the influencers influencing Rahul and more will be exposed in the future,” Vadakkan said.

BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala also attacked the Congress leader.

“Whether it is meeting with anti-India elements like Jeremy Corbyn, who echo Pak propaganda on Kashmir, or signing an MoU with the Chinese and taking Chinese money into the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, or meeting the Chinese during Doklam, Rahul stands steadfast with anti-India forces. Why oppose the country in an attempt to oppose PM Modi?”, Poonawalla tweeted.

Responding to these remarks, Surjewala attacked the ruling party and defended Gandhi in a series of tweets.

“If this is the criteria, our media friends should also debate: Why did PM take Nirav Modi to Davos and about their common photos? What about the video of the PM addressing Mehul Choksi as ‘Hamare Mehul Bhai’ at a public function? Why does the PM meet President Xi Jinping, when China has occupied our territory? Why did the PM go to Pak to meet the then PM, Nawaz Sharif? Will Govt promise it’ll never ever meet anyone having divergent views from us?” Surjewala asked.

Some Elephants Are Getting Too Much Plastic in Their Diets

In India, the large mammals see trash in village dumps as a buffet, but researchers found they are inadvertently consuming packaging and utensils.

An Asian elephant feeding in Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand, India. The animals have a penchant for eating garbage, which has led to an increase of consuming plastic.

Credit...Danita Delimont Creative/Alamy


By Joshua Rapp Learn
May 24, 2022

Some Asian elephants are a little shy about their eating habits. They sneak into dumps near human settlements at the edges of their forest habitats and quickly gobble up garbage — plastic utensils, packaging and all. But their guilty pleasure for fast food is traveling with them — elephants are transporting plastic and other human garbage deep into forests in parts of India.

“When they defecate, the plastic comes out of the dung and gets deposited in the forest,” said Gitanjali Katlam, an ecological researcher in India.

While a lot of research has been conducted on the spread of plastics from human pollution into the world’s oceans and seas, considerably less is known about how such waste moves with wildlife on land. But elephants are important seed dispersers, and research published this month in the Journal for Nature Conservation shows that the same process that keeps ecosystems functioning might carry human-made pollutants into national parks and other wild areas. This plastic could have negative effects on the health of elephants and other species that have consumed the material once it has passed through the large mammals’ digestive systems.

Dr. Katlam first noticed elephants feeding on garbage on trail cameras during her Ph.D. work at Jawaharlal Nehru University. She was studying which animals visited garbage dumps at the edge of villages in northern India. At the time, she and her colleagues also noticed plastic in the elephants’ dung. With the Nature Science Initiative, a nonprofit focused on ecological research in northern India, Dr. Katlam and her colleagues collected elephant dung in Uttarakhand state.

The researchers found plastic in all of the dung near village dumps and in the forest near the town of Kotdwar. They walked only a mile or two into the forest in their search for dung, but the elephants probably carried the plastic much farther, Dr. Katlam said. Asian elephants take about 50 hours to pass food and can walk six miles to 12 miles in a day. In the case of Kotdwar, this is concerning because the town is only a few miles from a national park.

“This adds evidence to the fact that plastic pollution is ubiquitous,” said Agustina Malizia, an independent researcher with the National Scientific and Technical Research Council of Argentina who was not involved in this research but studied the effects of plastic on land ecosystems. She says the study is “extremely necessary,” as it might be one of the first reports of a very large land animal ingesting plastic.

Plastic comprised 85 percent of the waste found in the elephant dung from Kotdwar. The bulk of this came from food containers and cutlery, followed by plastic bags and packaging. But the researchers also found glass, rubber, fabric and other waste. Dr. Katlam said the elephants were likely to have been seeking out containers and plastic bags because they still had leftover food inside. The utensils probably were eaten in the process.

While trash passes through their digestive systems, the elephants may be ingesting chemicals like polystyrene, polyethylene, bisphenol A and phthalates. It is uncertain what damage these substances can cause, but Dr. Katlam worries that they may contribute to declines in elephant population numbers and survival rates.

“It is known from other animals that their stomachs may get filled with plastics, causing mechanical damage,” said Carolina Monmany Garzia, who works with Dr. Malizia in Argentina and was not involved in Dr. Katlam’s study.

Other animals may consume the plastic again once it is transported into the forest through the elephants’ dung. “It has a cascading effect,” Dr. Katlam said.

Dr. Katlam said that governments in India should take steps to manage their solid waste to avoid these kinds of issues. But individuals can help, too, by separating their food waste from the containers so that plastic does not end up getting eaten so much by accident.

“This is a very simple step, but a very important step,” she said.

“We need to realize and understand how the overuse of plastics is affecting the environment and the organisms that inhabit them,” Dr. Mealizia said.

Opinion: The world's richest country has no concept of wealth

MARK GONGLOFF/BLOOMBERG OPINION

Stock market information on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., on Friday, April 29, 2022. Technology stocks extended losses Friday as shares of what were once market darlings at the height of the pandemic headed for their worst monthly drop since the great financial crisis. 

Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

How much money would it take to make you feel wealthy? What is wealth? What is money? These are just some of the mind-bending questions raised by the results of a new Charles Schwab Corp. survey taken way back in Ye Olden Times of February.

In a bit of a head-scratcher, the survey found that people think it takes $2.2 million in net worth to be "wealthy," down from $2.6 million in 2020, just before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Survey respondents think it takes $774,000 to be "comfortable," which is down from $934,000.

Given that consumer price inflation has soared from about 2% year-over-year before the pandemic to roughly 8% now, you might think people would need more cash to feel "wealthy," "comfortable" or "able to buy milk." Then again, maybe the pandemic has made us lower our sights a bit. Perhaps all it takes to feel wealthy now is an RV, a pleasant Zoom background, maybe a home office on the French Riviera.

In fact, the Schwab survey also found many respondents highly value, uh, values when considering employment. More than half said they'd take a lower-paying job for a company that "better represents personal values or interests." Of course, my personal values and interests include a home office on the French Riviera, so your mileage may vary here.

Still, 89% of respondents said they wanted fulfilling work, 85% said they wanted the respect of their colleagues and 84% said values guided their career. Lest you think such numbers merely reflect the attitudes of so many woke millennials, consider that Gen X and baby boomers together made up 56% of survey respondents.

So maybe money really is slightly less important these days. And from a global perspective, you could say $2.2 million is still exorbitant, considering the median global income is roughly $12,000. Teen grocery clerks — or at least the ones not yet replaced by self-checkout machines — in America might be considered wealthy, or at least comfortable, by such standards.

On the other hand, again, have you seen prices lately? One rule of thumb for what a person might need to retire comfortably is 10 times their retirement-age income. The median household income of Schwab survey respondents was $68,000, meaning the median retiree would need $680,000. Make a little or a lot more than the median, and you can quickly see how even the $774,000 the Schwab survey considers "comfortable" can get uncomfortable in a hurry, particularly with inflation chewing through it.

The sad fact is that most Americans don't have enough to survive in retirement, much less live comfortably or extravagantly. A separate survey out this week from the investment firm Schroders — also taken in February, back when the S&P 500 Index was about 500 points higher — finds Americans think they'll need $1.1 million to retire comfortably. But less than a quarter actually expect to hit that mark.

Terrifyingly, more than half of the Schroders survey respondents in or nearing retirement say they have less than $250,000 saved. Again, everything is relative, and in most contexts $250,000 is a lot of money. But a lot of us are in for a rude awakening about how truly expensive it is to be "comfortable" in America in 2022.

UK

Neo-Nazi who spread antisemitism won’t face extra jail time for child abuse images

Hitler-obsessed autistic influencer was sentenced for counter-terrorism offences and spreading anti-semitism - but won't have to face longer in jail for storing child abuse images

May 24, 2022, 1

• 
  

L:uke Hunter. PIcture: Counter Terrorism Policing North East

The Hitler-obsessed son of an anti-terror cop jailed for right wing terrorism offences will serve no extra time in prison for making child abuse images.

Police found abuse pictures and videos on Luke Huntere’s hard drive at his home in the village of High Callerton, eight miles north-west of Newcastle, in October 2019

Anti-terror officers had executed a warrant at the house, where he was living alone, and also found white supremacist texts, along with military training manuals and guides on surveillance, guerrilla warfare, weapons and explosives.

Hunter, whose father was an anti-terror detective in the Metropolitan Police, had created content and established his own website – using an alias – with white supremacist, antisemitic and homophobic views. It promoted terrorist handbooks and instructional materials.

Hunter in December 2020 admitted seven charges of encouraging terrorism and disseminating terrorist publications. He was sentenced to four years and two months in prison, with an extended licence of an extra year, at Leeds Crown Court – but will now get no extra sentence for the child abuse material.

Indecent images had been found in a chat featuring 35 people on the Kik platform, during which 90 messages were exchanged, with 21 attachments.

Abuse images and videos were also on his hard drive. Of the indecent images, there were 22 of the most serious, category A images, 11 category B and 39 category C. Material was put around one child’s neck in which she appears to be being strangled while being sexually abused.

High Callerton. Picture: Google Streetview

The search in his home in the quiet hamlet had revealed he had an obsession with Hitler and neo-Nazism and had a large number of white supremacist texts, along with military training manuals and guides on surveillance, guerrilla warfare, weapons and explosives.

Hunter, 24 – who is autistic – pleaded guilty last week, 16 May, to three offences of making indecent images. He was sentenced to 14 months imprisonment but was told the term will run concurrently to the sentence he is already serving.

He will also have to sign the sex offenders register and be subject to a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years.

Hunter had a significant online reach, particularly among young people, with his Telegram channel alone having more than 1,200 subscribers.

He was arrested as part of an investigation into right-wing terrorism, led by Counter Terrorism Policing North East.

Officers recovered Nazi memorabilia and a machete from his bedroom. Hunter’s media devices were found to contain thousands of documents, videos and audio files of extreme right-wing material. There were also manifestos of mass murderers and recordings of Hunter expressing his neo-Nazi views.

Officers said he was “persistent and prolific” in his efforts to promote right-wing terrorism, using different platforms and accounts to disseminate hate.

 

Movie chiefs producing first translation of seminal history of Warsaw Ghetto

Rachel Auerbach's chronicle of the uprising against Nazi oppressors to be made into book, audio and website - and you could help ensure it is funded

By TOBY PORTERMay 24, 2022, 

Rachel Auerbach

A group of filmmakers and Holocaust chroniclers have appealed for support to publish the seminal work on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943.

Rachel Auerbach’s essay Yizkor and her book The Jewish Revolt have been translated from into English for a book, online resource and audio book.

Historian Professor Antony Polonsky is to write the introduction to the book. And if the war ends in Ukraine, the publishers aim to ask Volodymyr Zelenskyy to write the forward – Auerbach was born in what is now present-day Ukraine.

SS soldiers near the ghetto wall February 1943

Auerbach’s work is a vital work recounting the history of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943.

Born in Lanovtsy, she was a prolific Jewish writer, historian and essayist.

She was one of three surviving members of the covert Oyneg Shabes group, led by Emanuel Ringelblum, who were responsible for chronicling life in the Ghetto during the German occupation in the Ringelblum Archive.

Auerbach (1903-1976) led the effort to excavate the buried archive after the war, and later, after emigrating to Israel, she directed the Yad Vashem Department for the Collection of Witness Testimony, from 1954 to 1968.

The book with a series of photographs, starting with Jewish children and families in pre-war Poland, when life was settled and relatively safe.

Pictures will also document the war and subsequent deterioration of Jewish life, showing the construction of the Ghetto and re-settlement there.

Typhus, starvation and finally deportations left the Ghetto nearly empty.

The book will also have Yizkor, Auerbach’s powerful Remembrance of the Jews who were destroyed, with pictures.

The text of the Jewish Revolt, which runs to 94 pages, also with photos, is designed to speak to readers who know little or nothing about the Warsaw Ghetto.

Among those leading the project are Neil Blair, JK Rowling’s agent and a Warner Bros executive who worked on movies Band of Brothers and Eyes Wide Shut.

Also involved are film producer Mark Forstater (Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Cannes official selection movie  Between the Devil and The Deep Blue Sea) and Nathan Neuman (The Man with Four Legs, Swipe Fever).

Simon Bentley, for 10 years chairman of Yad Vashem UK Foundation, is also a consulting partner.

To donate, email Mark@dreambird.co

Africans are changing how they consume music and even taking on international streaming giants

African-based streaming startups are challenging international streaming giants

Written byNjeri Wangari

Posted 24 May 2022 

Photo by Muhammadtaha Ibrahim Ma'aji. Used under the Unsplash License

Following global trends, compact disc (CDs) sales in three key markets on the African continent, South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria have been on a steady decline for the last two decades as music lovers ditch the discs for digital downloads. More Africans are gaining access to the internet as smartphones become ubiquitous, which has also spurred new innovations in the technology sector within the financial tech markets and media industry. With these innovations, music is becoming more accessible to the local market and platforms are seeing new streaming potential in a region that was once seen as inconsequential within the international music market.

This is part one of a two-part article series exploring how music is consumed in Africa.

According to Statista, revenue from the music streaming sector is projected to reach USD 297 million in 2022 and by 2026, Africa is anticipated to have around 55.8 million users. 

At the end of 2020, the continent’s mobile subscription reached 495 million people representing 46 percent of the region's population — an increase of almost 20 million from 2019.

But the move online has not been without its fair share of challenges. Mobile data costs are still prohibitive for most. A report by the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) found that, based on their income, consumers in African countries are paying some of the highest rates in the world for internet access. This has spurred a battle among streaming companies for the African market, as they compete to shift their strategy to fit these market dynamics.

Taking on Spotify

Beyond data costs, artists the world over have decried the stingy royalty payout model adopted by global streaming giants such as Spotify. That, coupled with their inability to penetrate global billboard charts and the fact that many artists and creatives want to maintain full control of their music distribution and product bundles, has created room for African music streaming platforms to flourish.

In 2018, Spotify, a pioneer in music streaming and arguably the best-known streaming platform in the world, expanded to more than 40 African countries, thus offering Africa’s predominantly young population an additional music streaming option. However, African-based streaming startups are beginning to challenge Spotify's market dominance.

Boomplay and Mdundo are two platforms that have become formidable contenders with impressive growth over the last few years. 

With 60 million active users, Boomplay is the most popular music streaming service in Africa. Leading the pack, it is one of a bevy of homegrown music streaming and content platforms that are offering alternatives to the on-demand global streaming model.

Looking at their strategy, it's easy to see why the Chinese-owned, Africa-focused company has beaten global streaming giants such as Spotify and Apple Music to become the continent’s best alternative.

The Boomplay App comes preinstalled on every smartphone sold by Transsion, the manufacturers of Tecno, Infinix, and itel — Africa’s top-selling phone brands. 

Launched in 2013, Mdundo offers free downloads of millions of songs mainly from Africa. It also has a global music catalogue available using a freemium and subscription-based model. Its primary source of revenue is advertisements through display banners and audio advertisements embedded into its music tracks.

Mdundo has a unique, artist-centered financial model. Artists who sign to the platform take a 50 percent cut of all advertising revenue on their songs. This has proved attractive to African artists, as over 80,000 musicians have registered with the company, generating a collective catalogue of 1.5 million songs according to Quartz Africa.

In the last quarter of 2021, the Pan-African music streaming service announced a 22 percent growth in its user base, up to 20 million users from 16.3 million the previous year.

While revenue potential on the continent, as it stands, remains unattractive to global companies, the region will produce the majority of music subscribers in the coming decade. It is highly likely that local players which have been cultivating deeper relationships with the industry, artists, music community, and media might just take the largest share of the streaming segment from global platforms.

Top Republicans query FBI on warrantless wiretapping of Americans

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two top Republican members of Congress, Jim Jordan and Michael Turner, wrote to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday to ask for information about the nearly 3.4 million queries the agency made to a database of information collected without warrants.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in late April the FBI had made nearly triple the queries between December 2020 and November 2021 as the previous year, with some 1.9 million queries done as part of investigations into attempts by foreign cyber attackers to compromise U.S. critical infrastructure, like U.S. power plants.

The queries were made to a database that contains information collected under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which does not require a warrant.

"As Congress continues to evaluate the potential reauthorization of Section 702, we must have all necessary information to assess the executive branch's use of the existing authorities," wrote Jordan, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, and Turner, the top Republican on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Jordan and Turner asked Wray for a "full accounting of the approximately 3,394,053 U.S. persons queries" and the number of preliminary or full investigations into any U.S. citizens that the FBI initiated as a result of the queries.

The lawmakers also asked for more information about the alleged Russian hackers, including how many U.S. victims were identified and informed that they were compromised.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Chris Reese)

ITUC’s Gender-transformative Agenda For Recovery And Resilience

Wednesday, 25 May 2022, 6:08 am
Press Release: ITUC

The International Trade Union Confederation has published the outcomes of the 4th ITUC World Women’s Conference that will act as a “milestone” for future work and a blueprint for unions to drive change.

The document contains concrete recommendations to build recovery and resilience with a new social contract grounded in equality and equity, including:

• a commitment to 50% representation of women on the decision-making bodies of all ITUC affiliates by the time of the 6th ITUC World Congress;
• the adoption of pro-employment and gender-responsive macroeconomic frameworks, including fiscal, monetary, industrial, sectoral and inclusive labour market policies;
• the implementation of comprehensive care economy frameworks, such as rewards for all care work and representation of care workers through collective bargaining and social dialogue;
• an intersectional approach to the universal ratification and implementation of C190 and R206 – for the right of everyone to a world of work free from violence and harassment, including gender-based violence;
• equal pay and anti-discrimination legislation, quotas and/or initiatives to train, recruit and retain women in under-represented sectors and jobs;
• specific policies to close the gender gap in social protection;
• gender-transformative just transition plans, including public investments in the care economy, green infrastructure and access for women to STEM-related education and jobs; and
• free and quality education as a prerequisite to lifelong learning.
• ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow said: “This is a milestone that will inform debates at the 5th ITUC World Congress and our future engagement in making equality and equity a reality for all working people.

“We all need to use this document and its recommendations with our leadership and governments to influence and drive change around these priority areas.

“I look forward to seeing what we can achieve as we build this transformative agenda set out by the 4th ITUC World Women’s Conference.”

© Scoop Media

MORE GOOD NEWS FROM DAVOS

Ukraine invasion may be start of ‘third world war’, says George Soros

Veteran philanthropist tells World Economic Forum civilisation ‘may not survive’ what is coming

01:23'Our civilisation may not survive' Ukraine invasion, says George Soros – video

Larry Elliott

THE GUARDIAN

Economics editor

Tue 24 May 2022 


Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatens to be the “beginning of the third world war” that could spell the end of civilisation, the veteran philanthropist and former financier George Soros has warned.

In a ferocious attack on Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Soros warned that autocratic regimes were in the ascendant and the global economy was heading for a depression.

Soros, who has become a hate figure for the hard right in the US, also heavily criticised the former German chancellor Angela Merkel for cosying up to Moscow and Beijing.

With the mood in Davos already downbeat due to the war in Ukraine, Soros ramped up the gloomy rhetoric to new heights.

“The invasion may have been the beginning of the third world war and our civilisation may not survive it,” he said.

“The invasion of Ukraine didn’t come out of the blue. The world has been increasingly engaged in a struggle between two systems of governance that are diametrically opposed to each other: open society and closed society.”

The 91-year-old former hedge fund owner said the tide had started to turn against open societies in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the US in 2001. “Repressive regimes are now in the ascendant and open societies are under siege. Today China and Russia present the greatest threat to open society.”

Soros, who led the speculative financial attack that drove the pound out of the European exchange rate mechanism 30 years ago, said Europe had responded well to the crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion.

“It will take a long time to work out the details, but Europe seems to be moving in the right direction. It has responded to the invasion of Ukraine with greater speed, unity and vigour than ever before in its history.”

He added: “But Europe’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels remains excessive, due largely to the mercantilist policies pursued by former chancellor Angela Merkel. She had made special deals with Russia for the supply of gas and made China Germany’s largest export market. That made Germany the best performing economy in Europe but now there is a heavy price to pay. Germany’s economy needs to be reoriented. And that will take a long time.”

Soros said Putin had won Xi’s agreement to the Russian invasion at the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics in early February. But he insisted the Chinese leader was not as strong as he believed.

“Xi harbours a guilty secret. He never told the Chinese people that they had been inoculated with a vaccine that was designed for the original Wuhan variant and offers very little protection against new variants.”

Soros said Xi was unable to “come clean” because he was at a delicate moment in his career. “His second term in office expires in the fall of 2022 and he wants to be appointed to an unprecedented third term, eventually making him ruler for life.”

China’s lockdowns to combat Covid-19 had pushed the economy into freefall but Xi was unable to admit he had made a mistake, he said.

“Coming on top of the real estate crisis the damage will be so great that it will affect the global economy. With the disruption of supply chains, global inflation is liable to turn into global depression.”
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Contrary to general expectations, Xi may not get his coveted third term because of the mistakes he had made, Soros predicted.

“While the war rages, the fight against climate change has to take second place. Yet the experts tell us that we have already fallen far behind, and climate change is on the verge of becoming irreversible. That could be the end of our civilisation.

“Therefore, we must mobilise all our resources to bring the war to an early end. The best and perhaps only way to preserve our civilisation is to defeat Putin as soon as possible. That’s the bottom line.”

Russian state TV suggests 'things will end badly for all of humanity' if Russia loses war in Ukraine - Independent.ie

ALBA-TCP Summit To Be Held in Havana on May 27

President Nicolas Maduro (C) and other Latin American presidents at the 20th ALBA-TCP summit, Havana, Cuba, 2021. | Photo: Twitter/ @periodicocubanoPrevious

Published 24 May 2022 

This regional integration block was born in 2004 with the signing of a "Joint Declaration" by Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro.

The 21st Summit of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America - People's Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP) will meet on Friday in Havana, Cuba.

RELATED:
ALBA-TCP Condemns Killing of Palestinian Journalist by Israel

On Tuesday, the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) announced the date of the meeting of the members of this Latin American and Caribbean integration platform.

“The nations that make up our Alliance will share common development strategies and analyze the regional political situation,” the MINREX tweeted.

This meeting will have special importance since it will be held before the 2022 Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, where Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua will not be present because they were not invited by President Joe Biden's administration.

The ALBA-TCP, which brings together ten member states and three invited countries, held its 20th summit in December 2021 in Havana.

This regional integration block was born in 2004 in Havana with the signing of the "Joint Declaration and the Agreement for the Application of ALBA" by Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, and the President of the Council of State of Cuba, Fidel Castro.

ALBA-TCP emerged as an alternative to the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) promoted by the United States at the beginning of the century. Its founding members were Cuba and Venezuela (2004).

Later, they were joined by Bolivia (2006), Nicaragua (2007), Dominica (2008), Antigua & Barbuda (2009), Saint Vincent & the Grenadines (2009), Saint Kitts & Nevis, and Grenada (2014). Ecuador and Honduras withdrew from the Alliance when those countries were led by right-wing governments.