EU votes in favor of minimum wage rules

China Daily - Europe Weekly - Yesterday 
By JONATHAN POWELL in London | China Daily Global | Updated: 2022-09-16 


The European Parliament has voted in favor of new legislation that aims to guarantee adequate minimum wages for workers across the 27-nation bloc and strengthen their collective bargaining powers.

Lawmakers in Strasbourg on Wednesday debated a deal that was negotiated with European Union member states in June. In voting, 505 members of Parliament were in favor, while 92 votes were against and there were 44 abstentions.

Agnes Jongerius, a lawmaker from the Socialists and Democrats group and co-rapporteur of the directive, welcomed the adoption of the bill, saying that it "sets the standards for what an adequate minimum wage should look like", reported the Associated Press news agency.

"Prices for groceries, energy bills and housing are exploding. People are really struggling to make ends meet. We have no time to waste, work must pay again," said Jongerius.

The directive will now be formally adopted, giving member states two years to implement it in national law.

Euractiv news website quoted Mounir Satouri, a Green member of European Parliament, or MEP, as saying that "thanks to this directive, 25 million workers will see their salary increase by 20 percent," and adding that this would also erode some of the gender pay gap between men and women in Europe.

AP noted data from the EU that showed across the bloc, the minimum wage varies, with the highest in Luxembourg, Ireland and Germany, and the lowest in Bulgaria, Latvia and Estonia.

The legislation will require member countries to guarantee "that their national minimum wages allow workers to lead a decent life, taking into account the cost of living and wider pay levels," the Parliament said in a statement, adding that it will apply to all EU workers who have an employment contract or employment relationship.

It said the new law also promotes collective bargaining for pay in countries where fewer than 80 percent of workers are covered by the process.

Most member states will now have to find ways to increase their collective bargaining coverage, which means strengthening trade unions, said Euractiv.

Hungarian socialist MEP, Klara Dobrev, said it is the "end of an era "in Europe.

"For decades, European countries have competed among themselves where workers are cheaper, where they are vulnerable, and that was a so-called advantage," Dobrev told Euronews. "And this is the end of an era when competitiveness is measured by a cheap and vulnerable labour force."

Green MEP and co-chair Ska Keller told Euronews that the introduction of the new law was vital in the current cost of living crisis.

"This directive is a very, very important step in order to tackle the structural poverty that we see in the European Union," Keller said.

She added: "There are so many people who struggle to make ends meet even before we talk about inflation, even before we talk about sky-rocketing energy prices. So, it's very important to get a structural change there into place. This will benefit millions of European citizens."

Violent threats halt Edmonton’s Pride Corner protests temporarily

Lauren Boothby -  Edmonton Journal



People dance and wave flags in front of street preachers at the corner of 104 Street and Jasper Avenue, in Edmonton Friday June 4, 2021.

Violent threats against youth and volunteers have prompted Pride Corner on Whyte Avenue to cancel its event this week, but organizers say they won’t be silenced.

Pride Corner is seeing an influx of hate, aggression and harassment against its 2SLGBTQ+ teenagers and adult volunteers, according to organizers. Two weeks ago on Sept. 2, they say a man with a bat walked through the crowd menacing them and making homophobic remarks. Last Friday, organizers got an anonymous message to their Instagram account allegedly saying they had a gun and are two kilometers away.

Volunteer Erynn Christie was there when the man with the bat arrived. He walked through the crowd in a “very poised, aggressive, puffed-out manner,” she said, adding the experience was traumatizing, especially for the youth. One volunteer told Christie the man said he wanted to “beat the gay” out of them. They separated the children from the man, told him to leave, and contacted police.

“I was very scared, to be honest. I’ve never dealt with something like that in my life. Even right now I want to cry about it,” she told Postmedia. “I don’t identify as queer but that doesn’t mean that I don’t see the pain and the struggles and the difficulties that these people and youth face just to be themselves. We’re in 2022 — I don’t know why this continues to happen. If you don’t like the way somebody lives their life, if they’re not hurting you, then it doesn’t affect you.

“To have it change into a gun threat the following week, we don’t want anything bad to happen to anybody, especially the kids on the corner.”

Related
Edmonton recognizes 'Pride Corner' on Whyte Avenue

Edmonton Pride Festival returns to Churchill Square this June

Around 50 to 100 people have been rallying and dancing at the intersection of Whyte Avenue and 104 Street for the last 18 months. It started as a protest against homophobic comments made by street preachers.

This week’s event was cancelled to assess the group’s safety plans. Rallies are expected to resume next week.

Christie said the youth are getting support, such as counselling, and they’re working with other organizations and activists to make sure the security plans are effective. They’re also asking local businesses nearby to install cameras facing the corner, and have filed reports with the police.

But Christie says they won’t let threats hold them back.

The space has become really important, especially for young queer youth, she said.

“The city really does love us. We’re not going anywhere … If anything, we’re kicking it into overdrive and Pride Corner is going to continue to grow and be better than ever,” she said.

“It is very important to the kids. It allowed a community to grow when we were stuck in a pandemic and they really didn’t have anybody. If you imagine a queer young person trying to discover themselves and find people like them, and they’re left at home … to come out to a corner and be able to meet other like-minded peers and be able to grow together is something that is indescribable to watch.”

Postmedia has reached out to Edmonton Police Service for comment.

More to come…

GEMOLOGY

The Controversial History Of The Cullinan Diamond Used In The Queen's Crown

 Placed on Coffin During Funeral

Dylan Hofer - Yesterday 

In the wake of Queen Elizabeth II's death, controversy about some of the Royal Family's most prized jewels has begun to arise once again. Some argue that the jewels represent the Royal Family's legacy with imperialism and colonialism, and to put them on exhibit at Her Majesty's funeral would be an insult to people around the world who have been oppressed by the British Empire and subsequently the royals themselves. One of these controversial diamonds is the Cullinan diamond that is implanted inside the queen's coffin crown.


Cullinan Diamond inside Imperial State Crown© Max Mumby/indigo/Getty Images

The gem that is integrated into the queen's coffin crown is known as the Second Star of Africa. It comes from a South African mine that was once owned by Thomas Cullinan (hence the name) and is the second-largest cut gem from the diamond, according to ABC. But what was the largest cut gem then? Well, the British royal family actually possesses this one as well, and is known as the Great Star of Africa, and is the largest diamond-cut gem in the world, weighing a whopping 530.2 carats, per Snopes. But the history of the Cullinan diamond is shrouded in war and violence.

The Origin Of The Diamond


Man holding Uncut Cullinan Diamond© Fox Photos/Getty Images

The Cullinan diamond was discovered in 1905 and weighed 3,106 carats in its uncut form per Britannica -- or 1.33 pounds as Natural Diamonds explains. Before its discovery, the largest uncut diamond that had ever been discovered was the Excelsior diamond, which had also been discovered from a South African mine in the province of Orange Free State on June 3rd, 1893, by a worker who had been loading a truck (via Britannica). The Excelsior diamond weighed 995 carats when it was found and was sold to the famous I.J. Asscher and Company of Amsterdam for cutting, the same company that was also responsible for cutting the Cullinan diamond.

After the Cullinan diamond was discovered in 1905, it was sold to the local Transvaal government before being presented to the king of England at the time, King Edward VII. The diamond was given to the British as a way to make amends for the bloody Boer War which had just taken place a few years earlier, according to ABC.

Imperialism In South Africa


Cape of good hope and ships© Hulton Archive/Getty Images

In order to understand the origins of the Boer War, context is needed. The first European to discover South Africa was Bartolomeu Dias in 1488, when the Portuguese sailor went around an area he named the Cape of Good Hope. The land was originally inhabited by nomadic people groups known as the San and Khoikhoi people who were often referred to as Khoisan people by the Europeans, according to Encyclopedia. In 1652, the Dutch East India Company made a permanent settlement known as Cape Town, which was used as a supply station from the Netherlands to the colonies in the East.

Due to the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, British forces were occupying the Cape Town colony in 1795 and officially ruled the colony 11 years later, in 1806. With it, the British brought their own way of life and abolished slavery, and the Boers, which were descendants of Dutch and French colonists, went north to escape the British colony and established their own independent governments known as the Boer republics, according to Encyclopedia.

The Transvaal People


Boer family© Boer Family

In the 1830s, a group of 12,000 Boers left Cape Town and ventured into the northern part of South Africa. After warring with the local Ndebele people, the Boers were able to claim sovereignty over all the land between the Limpopo and Vaal river, hence where the name "Transvaal" comes from, literally meaning across the Vaal, according to Britannica. However, infighting within the Transvaal government made it hard to have good leadership, but when the British invaded the Boer Republic of Natal, more and more Boers left Cape Town and emigrated to the Transvaal.

Discoveries of gold and diamonds made the British interested in the Transvaal republic, and in 1877 Sir Theophilus Shepstone conquered the republic for Great Britain. In 1881, the Boers revolted against their British rulers and established a new Transvaal government, known as the South African Republic. A new problem arose for the Boers in 1886, when large gold deposits attracted more and more Europeans, dubbed Uitlanders who were mostly Germans and Englishmen, to emigrate to the Transvaal region in hopes of becoming rich. Soon, Europeans outnumbered the local Boers by double, which led to internal conflicts within the republic, and eventually the Boer War.

The Boer War


Map of Transvaal and Orange River Colony© Print Collector/Getty Images

Eventually, the bubble burst between the local Boers and the European immigrants, when Dr. Leander Starr Jameson attempted to start an uprising by the new Uitlanders, but it failed dramatically. This only heightened tensions between the two groups and as a result of the failed coup, Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain appointed Sir Alfred Milner, a staunch imperialist, as High Commissioner in 1897, according to National Army Museum. This coup also led to the reelection of Paul Kruger as president of the new South African Republic in 1898, the same man who opposed giving the European immigrants political power.

Kruger then proposed that the South African Republic would give the European immigrants more power, and in return, the British government would stop claiming they ruled the SAR. Chamberlain declined this proposal, and so the SAR invaded Cape Town and other British colonies, culminating in a war between the two nations, and the Boers proved to be a powerful force to be dealt with. It's estimated 400,000 soldiers were involved in the Boer War, according to National Army Museum. The British also created concentration camps for the Boers and local Africans, but in 1902 the war finally came to an end, and the nations attempted to make amends.

The Legacy Of The Cullinan Diamond


The Great Star of Africa© Print Collector/Getty Images

After the Boer War ended, the South African Republic gradually became integrated into Britain's colony, and three years after the war ended was when the Cullinan Diamond had been discovered. Since it was given to the royal family in 1907, the Cullinan diamond has been used in royal regalia. The Great Star of Africa, also known as Cullinan I, was integrated into the Sovereign's Sceptre with Cross, which was used for a coronation in 1910, according to ABC. The Second Star of Africa, or Cullinan II, the second-largest gem cut from the Cullinan diamond was added to the Imperial State Crown for KingGeorge VI's coronation in 1937. This crown was laid atop Queen Elizabeth II's coffin in preparation for her funeral.

Given the legacy of the diamonds, dating back to the dark Boer war, many have criticized the royal family for utilizing these jewels, claiming that the British empire stole them from colonial Africa. But, it is still a matter of debate if the British monarchy actually stole the Cullinan diamond, or if it is their rightful property. Nevertheless, the diamond carries with it a legacy of bloodshed that continues to follow the monarchy to this day.

 

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What the British Monarchy Actually Does—And How Hard It Would Be To Abolish It

Yasmeen Serhan/London - Yesterday

If the outpour of grief—or public polling—in the aftermath of Queen Elizabeth II’s death is anything to go by, it is clear that Britain is still largely a nation of royalists. 

But as anti-monarchy sentiment attracts more attention, and as some protesters even get arrested for voicing such views, it’s worth revisiting what role the monarchy plays in Britain’s constitutional system and just how complicated it would be to abolish the institution.


The Imperial State Crown is driven down The Mall, in a Rolls Royce Phantom VI, en route to the Houses of Parliament where Queen Elizabeth II is to deliver The Queen's Speech in the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament on May 11, 2021 in London, England.© Max Mumby—Indigo/Getty

Contrary to conventional wisdom, the power to abolish the monarchy doesn’t lie with the monarch alone. In fact, there isn’t a whole lot that British Kings and Queens can actually do beyond the bounds of their constitutionally-defined mandate—one that primarily involves tasks such as appointing prime ministers, approving new laws, receiving foreign dignitaries, and presiding over the opening and dissolving of parliament. Over the course of Queen Elizabeth II’s 70-year reign, she would have likely held thousands of meetings with the 15 prime ministers she worked with, appointed hundreds of ministers, and given her ascent to an untold number of laws, all while having virtually zero say in who those ministers were or what their legislative agenda ought to have been. As the English poet Tennyson once noted, Britain is a crowned republic—one in which the monarch reigns, but does not rule. The Queen acknowledged these limits in her first televised address to the country in 1957. “I do not give you laws or administer justice. But I can do something else. I can give you my heart and my devotion to these old islands and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations,” she said.

While the lack of political power doesn’t overshadow the Royal Family’s enormous privilege—especially when it comes to its vast wealth and financial arrangements—it does help explain how such a seemingly outdated institution has persisted for so long. While the pomp, tradition, and sense of history undoubtedly play a part in the monarchy’s continued appeal, so too does the fact that the monarch is seen as an apolitical figure whose entire existence is devoted to service, and therefore above the compromises inherent to electoral politics. Constitutionally-speaking, “the monarch, in almost everything they do, has no choice,” says Robert Hazell, a professor of government and the constitution at University College London. In the case of Queen Elizabeth II, this was perhaps best illustrated by the many times in which she had to play host to authoritarian leaders such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, and Romania’s Nicolae Ceaușescu. Such was the Queen’s lack of autonomy that, as one story goes, she once resorted to hiding in a bush in the Buckingham Palace gardens in order to avoid having another conversation with Ceaușescu, who at the time was her houseguest.

If Britain ever did decide to get rid of the monarchy, it would be a constitutional matter requiring legislation from parliament. Even before that, it would need to be endorsed by the British public through a referendum, which would have to be called for by the government (just as the Brexit referendum was). If such a vote were held today, polling from June suggests that the country would opt to keep the monarchy by a significant margin. And Britain wouldn’t be alone in doing so. Although previous referendums have led to the abolition of the monarchy in Italy and Greece, they have also reaffirmed support for the institution in Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway, and Spain.

Getting rid of the monarchy, or simply rescinding it of its ceremonial duties, would constitute “a huge change,” says Hazell, in large part because it would require a complete shakeup of the way the British state is governed. Unlike in the U.S., where the elected President acts as both the country’s head of state and its head of government, Britain’s parliamentary system splits those responsibilities between the monarch, whose role as head of state is inherited at birth, and the Prime Minister, whose role as head of government is decided by the British public (or, in the case of the current occupant of 10 Downing Street, a select group of Conservative Party members).

With the monarch gone, Britain would need a new head of state, as is required in almost all parliamentary systems. This would most likely be in the form of a President, a role that already exists in parliamentary systems such as Germany and Italy. This person would have most of the existing responsibilities of the monarch, such as certifying laws, going on state visits, and speaking to the nation in times of national crisis. But an elected head of state would also likely have the responsibility of acting as “a kind of constitutional umpire,” says Hazell—something that a monarch could never be.

Republicanism isn’t a strong force in Britain at the moment, which makes the abolition of the monarchy unlikely for the foreseeable future. But that could change if the institution does, or if it fails to attract the support of the younger British population. Among those aged 18 to 24, support for the monarchy has fallen from 59% in 2011 to just 33% today.

The Queen's death may open a new chapter in the Caribbean and force crucial conversations about colonialism
Brandon Tensley - Yesterday 

Since the death of Queen Elizabeth II last week, Kris Manjapra has been thinking a lot about a peculiar moment from his childhood.

He told CNN that, in 1990, when he was 12 years old and living with his family in Calgary, Canada, the Queen visited the city. The students at his school were instructed to assemble along the side of the road so that they could behold her cavalcade and receive her wave.

“I was an immigrant child in a very White city with my parents. We were struggling as new immigrants,” said Manjapra, a history professor at Tufts University in Massachusetts, where his research focuses on, among other things, the critical study of race and colonialism. “And I remember thinking how odd it was that we (the students) were being used as props in a kind of pageant.”

Manjapra, who’s of mixed African and Indian parentage, was born in The Bahamas in 1978, one year after the Queen made her Silver Jubilee tour to the country. And like many others in the US with roots in Britain’s former Caribbean colonies, he’s had a complicated reaction to the death of the Queen – of someone indelibly linked to a history of empire. For them, the past week has been marked less by grief than by frustration over how there seems to be little room in the narrative for engagement with the often overlooked legacy of British colonialism in the region.

“What’s striking to me is how so much energy seems to be available to feel sorrow for the loss of one individual,” Manjapra said. “Certainly, the loss of a person should be mourned, especially by her family. But why is it so inaccessible to feel remorse and sorrow for all the damage that was done in the name of this very same person?”

Marcia Bartlett, who was born in Jamaica in 1956 and grew up under British colonial rule, echoed some of Manjapra’s sentiments. She lived on the island for almost 30 years before she moved to New York, one of the states with the most Caribbean immigrants, and said that she’s interrogated Britain and Jamaica’s relationship since she was a curious high schooler.

“From then on, I’ve had seeds of resentment toward these people governing my island,” Bartlett told CNN.

Many former British colonies are tethered to one another in the Commonwealth of Nations, a loose and voluntary association of 56 countries. Most members are republics. But 14, including The Bahamas and Jamaica, recognize the British monarch as their official head of state. In November 2021, Barbados became the first realm since 1992 to cast off the crown.

Like many others in the US with ties to the Caribbean, Bartlett was deeply moved by Barbados’ decision to jettison the monarchy, and hopes that the remaining former imperial possessions in the region will follow suit.

“I was cheering,” she said. “I think that it (transitioning to a republic) is going to come up in a referendum at some point in Jamaica. There are still people with the mindset that it’s good to be led by the Brits. But as far as I’m concerned, Jamaica needs to sink or swim on its own.”

Long-simmering animosity

To understand the Queen’s mixed legacy in the eyes of many Caribbean people and their descendants, let’s revisit some of the region’s history.

By the 18th century, the Caribbean was a crown jewel of the British imperial economy; according to the SlaveVoyages database, north of 2 million enslaved people disembarked in the empire’s Caribbean colonies by the time the British slave trade was abolished in 1807.

Yet “after slavery, freed people were denied access to land and expected to work for low wages,” the University of Toronto history professor Padraic Scanlan wrote for the Washington Post last year. “Emancipation policies also proved to be a useful justification for imperialism.”

Social and political challenges have persisted even since the middle of the 20th century, a groundbreaking time when many British colonies declared their independence.

“The British left a mess behind when formal colonization began to end in the 1960s,” Manjapra explained. “During the Queen’s first speech while in Jamaica in 1966, however, she spoke only of the ‘loyalty and kindness’ of the people of the Commonwealth. She never acknowledged the harm caused by the plunder, massacres, deprivation and racism of British rule.”

Manjapra underlined the irresponsibility Britain demonstrated in the Caribbean during the decade.

“There was this kind of walking away from the mess that colonialism had created, leaving the Caribbean in deep debt, with no resources, with very weak institutions – things people there still suffer from today,” he said.

Further, there’s the issue of slavery’s legacy – the Queen’s relative silence around it. After Britain formally abolished the practice of human bondage in its colonies in the 1830s, it took out a loan of 20 million pounds to compensate slave owners.

“Up until 2015, the British state was paying off this debt,” Manjapra said. “A deeply immoral practice was taking place and finally came to light a few years ago. But the Queen stayed silent. The silence of the Queen on so many matters related to justice for people of color in Britain and in former colonies – I can’t read it as duty or dignity or being ‘apolitical.’ That silence was a very political act, and essential to the mechanism of the British state.”

The Royal Family has acknowledged, but has stopped short of apologizing for, Britain’s numerous imperial crimes and their lingering effects.

“An apology would be nice, but – nothing,” Bartlett said.

Frayed relationships were on full display this past March, when Prince William and Kate toured the Caribbean and were met by anti-colonial protests.

‘Denial won’t make anything go away’

The Queen’s death may well open a new chapter in the Caribbean.

The New York University law professor Melissa Murray, whose family is from Jamaica, recently noted on Twitter that the Queen’s passing could rekindle crucial discussions about the role of Commonwealth ties in the region.

“I imagine that her death will accelerate debates about colonialism, reparations and the future of the Commonwealth,” Murray wrote. “We’re likely overdue for the difficult conversation that will inevitably come from reckoning with our past. And even for those who respect and revere the Queen, the residue of colonialism shadows day-to-day life in Jamaica and other parts of the Caribbean.”

Manjapra, who’s the author of the 2022 book “Black Ghost of Empire: The Long Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation,” shared Murray’s sentiments. In particular, he stressed that paving a path forward hinges on not obscuring Britain’s egregious legacy of colonial violence.

“We don’t deal with painful histories by ignoring them or denying them, or even by trying to immediately find a resolution,” he said. “We deal with painful histories by acknowledging their presence with us in our lives and in our world, and then by engaging in discussion, by creating opportunities for meaningful conversation on what a future of healing can look like.”

Doing all this, of course, takes time and effort and investment.

“Frankly, it’s the conversation on reparations,” Manjapra said. “Reparations are on the table, and need to be on the table to deal with what happened and what continues to unfold.”

Put a little bit more bluntly, he added, “colonial conditions aren’t in the past – they persist, and continue to buttress the racial caste system.”

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Germany takes control of 3 Russian-owned oil refineries

By FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press - Yesterday 

BERLIN (AP) — Germany is taking control of three Russian-owned refineries in the country to ensure energy security before an embargo on oil from Russia takes effect next year, officials said Friday.


The facilities of the oil refinery on the industrial site of PCK-Raffinerie GmbH, jointly owned by Rosneft, are illuminated in the evening in Schwedt, Germany, on May 4, 2022. The German government says it is taking control of Russian oil giant Rosneft’s subsidiary in Germany, citing the need to ensure continued operations at three oil refineries in the country. The Economy Min
As a result, the agency will also control the companies’ shares in the refineries PCK Schwedt, MiRo and Bayernoil, located in the east and south of Germany.

“This is a far-reaching energy policy decision to protect our country,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said. “We've long known that Russia isn't a reliable supplier of energy anymore.”



German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) speaks at the 2022 Bundeswehr Conference in Berlin, Friday, Sept. 16, 2022. Germany is taking control of three Russian-owned refineries in the country to ensure energy security before an embargo on oil from Russia takes effect next year. The Economy Ministry said in a statement Friday that Rosneft Deutschland GmbH and RN Refining & Marketing GmbH will be put under the administration of Germany’s Federal Network Agency. (Carsten Koall/dpa via AP)© Provided by Associated Press

“With today's decision, we're ensuring that Germany is supplied with oil in the medium- and long-term as well,” Scholz said. “That is particularly true for the Schwedt refinery.”

Related video: Germany takes control of Russia-owned refinery

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The facility provides petroleum products to much of northeastern Germany, including Berlin.

Rosneft accounts for about 12% of Germany’s oil refining capacity, importing oil worth several hundred million euros (dollars) every month, the ministry said.

It said the move would help ensure continued energy supplies and was initially due to last for six months.

Rosneft had previously made clear it had no intention to stop imports of oil via the Druzhba pipeline, which runs from Russia through Ukraine to refineries in central Europe, despite a looming EU embargo coming into force on Jan 1, 2023.



German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, centre, joins Robert Habeck, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection, left and Dietmar Woidke, Minister President of Brandenburg, at a press conference, in Berlin, Friday, Sept. 16, 2022. Germany is taking control of three Russian-owned refineries in the country to ensure energy security before an embargo on oil from Russia takes effect next year. The Economy Ministry said in a statement Friday that Rosneft Deutschland GmbH and RN Refining & Marketing GmbH will be put under the administration of Germany’s Federal Network Agency. 

(Michael Kappeler/dpa via AP)© Provided by Associated Press

Scholz said a 1-billion-euro (dollar) aid package would secure jobs for about 1,200 people currently working at the PCK refinery in Schwedt and help with its long-term transformation as part of the transition toward a green economy.

Economy Minister Robert Habeck said the refinery would in the future receive oil through a pipeline from the port city of Rostock and via neighboring Poland, which had refused to provide supplies as long as there was a risk that Rosneft might profit from them.



German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, centre, joins Robert Habeck, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection, left and Dietmar Woidke, Minister President of Brandenburg, at a press conference, in Berlin, Friday, Sept. 16, 2022. Germany is taking control of three Russian-owned refineries in the country to ensure energy security before an embargo on oil from Russia takes effect next year. The Economy Ministry said in a statement Friday that Rosneft Deutschland GmbH and RN Refining & Marketing GmbH will be put under the administration of Germany’s Federal Network Agency.

 (Michael Kappeler/dpa via AP)© 

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

'One of Europe's biggest money launderers' in court

Yesterday 





An Irishman accused of being "one of Europe's biggest money launderers" and a member of the Kinahan crime cartel has been remanded in custody in Spain.

The suspect is understood to be Johnny Morrissey, a 62-year-old Irish passport holder, who was arrested in Malaga on Monday.

He was in court in Spain on Wednesday in relation to money laundering.

But the hearing was held in private as is usual for Spanish pre-trial cases, according to Irish broadcaster RTÉ.

It reported that six international law enforcement agencies were involved in the investigation that led to Mr Morrissey's arrest this week.

Those included Spain's Guardia Civil, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (US DEA) and An Garda Síochána (the Irish police force).

The Kinahan crime cartel was originally based in the Republic of Ireland, where some members were involved in a high-profile feud with a rival crime gang which has claimed several lives since 2015.

Kinahan cartel suspects operate in several countries and some alleged members have recently been hit with international financial sanctions from law enforcement agencies in the US, the UK and Ireland.

'Laundered €200m'

Europol - the European Union's police agency - released a statement after the arrest operation on Monday.

It did not name any suspect but it hailed the arrest of a man it described as "one of Europe's biggest money launderers".

"Linked to the Kinahan clan, the suspect is believed to have laundered €200m (£173m) in just over one year," said Europol.

"Two of his associates were also arrested in Spain, and one in the United Kingdom, with 11 property searches being carried out in both countries."

Selling vodka

Europol claimed that an 18-month international investigation had led to the discovery that €200m had been laundered through the Hawala underground banking system, which it described as "an informal method of transferring money without any physical money actually moving".

It revealed that some suspects had laundered money by creating a brand of vodka that was being sold in nightclubs and restaurants in Spain's Costa del Sol "to disguise the source of their earnings".

Europol also said that companies had been founded in the UK and Gibraltar to help launder illegal profits.

Two other suspects - a man and a woman - were also in court in Spain on Wednesday.

The man was also remanded in custody while the woman was released on bail.

Nakate: Leaders are missing the human face of climate change

Yesterday 

NEW YORK (AP) — Vanessa Nakate's climate activism over the past three years has propelled her to the world stage.

Climate activist Vanessa Nakate of Uganda poses for a portrait in New York outside the United Nations headquarters, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022. Nakate was appointed to serve as this year's UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. (AP Photo/Robert Bumsted)© 

Since 2019, Nakate has worked to amplify the voices of African climate activists through a platform she created called Rise Up Movement, spearheaded an initiative to stop the deforestation of African rainforests and launched the Vash Greens Schools Project, which aims to install solar panels in remote areas of her home country, Uganda.

These endeavors led UNICEF to announce her as their new goodwill ambassador this week, with UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell saying Nakate's appointment to the role "will help ensure that the voices of children and young people are never cut out of the conversation on climate change — and always included in decisions that affect their lives.”

Despite the global recognition, Nakate says it’s not enough — not enough to save the planet or to save the people in the global south she says are suffering significantly from the effects of climate disasters.

“For so long the world has ignored what happens in the global south," the 25-year-old Ugandan native told the Associated Press on Wednesday.

Fresh off a week-long trip to Turkana County, Kenya with UNICEF, Nakate saw the effects of food and water insecurity caused by the worst drought in eastern Africa in four decades.

“To go back to the horn of Africa — where I was in Turkana — there was a time people talked about it, but now people have forgotten,” she said. “It’s no longer being talked about, but does that mean that situation has come to an end? No. The drought situation is much worse and many people are suffering right now.”

Earlier this year, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development warned that higher temperatures and less than normal rainfall were recorded across the African continent by weather agencies, and rains were further expected to fail — indicating that countries in East Africa, as well as the Horn of Africa, could be facing the most severe drought in 40 years. Over the years, droughts have led to crop failure, livestock deaths and millions of cases of malnutrition.

Countries like Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya could see current famine conditions intensify.

“When it comes to the climate crisis, it has different, horrible realities. One of them is that those being impacted the most right now, they are the ones the least responsible,” she said.

According to the Global Carbon Project, a team of scientists that monitor countries’ carbon dioxide emissions, Africa — which accounts for about 16% of the world’s population — is responsible for only 3.2% of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere since 1959.

Carbon dioxide is the primary contributor to climate change. As a natural greenhouse gas, it traps heat in the atmosphere, which in turn causes global temperatures to rise. Where the African continent is a minor contributor to global carbon dioxide emissions, more industrialized countries such as the United States, Russia and China are greater contributors.


Climate activist Vanessa Nakate of Uganda speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in New York on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022. Nakate was appointed to serve as this year's UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. (AP Photo/Robert Bumsted)© Provided by Associated Press

For activists like Nakate, tackling the climate crisis isn't just about raising awareness or urging global leaders to make swift policy changes addressing climate change that is devastating countries like Pakistan and Kenya — it also requires amplifying the voices of nonwestern climate activists, who she said are largely ignored in international conversations about climate change.

Looking ahead to COP27 — the United Nations' annual climate summit — which is being held in Egypt this November, Nakate said she notices a significant deficit during these global discussions: the lack of real human experience.

“I think what really misses in these conversations is the human face of the climate crisis and I think its really the human face that tells the story that, tells the experiences of what communities are going through,” she said. “It’s what also tells the solutions that communities need because many times there’s a disconnect between what is being discussed and between what communities are saying.”

To Nakate, that is a failure of global leadership. She believes that leaders, specifically western leaders, would take immediate action if they understood and saw the hardships people experienced as a result of the climate crisis.

Ultimately, she said, the responsibility and burden of tackling climate change and ensuring the numerous, nameless faces of the climate crisis are not ignored needs to fall on global leaders — not solely the youth that have built a global movement.

“The question should be like, what should the leaders do? What should governments do? Because this whole time I’ve done activism, I have realized the youth have done everything,” Nakate said.

Still, she tries to look for hope in the situation.

"In all this, you try to look for the hope because it's in that hope that you find the strength to keep saying we want this or we don't want this," she said.

Biden will soon meet with Brittney Griner's wife, but experts say Russia has already 'embarrassed' the US by waiting so long to free her

esnodgrass@insider.com (Erin Snodgrass) -

Brittney Griner.

 Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool/AP Photo

President Joe Biden is set to meet with Brittney Griner's wife on Friday, the White House said.

Griner is being detained in a Russian prison after pleading guilty to drug charges.

The White House in July announced a proposed prisoner exchange, but few details have emerged since.

President Joe Biden will meet with Brittney Griner's wife on Friday as the WNBA player marks her seventh month detained in Russia, the White House said Thursday, with the president set to demonstrate his "continuing commitment" to secure Griner's release after weeks with few public updates on the progress.

The planned meeting will be Biden's first in-person visit with the athlete's wife, Cherelle Griner, since Brittney Griner was arrested in February when officials alleged they discovered vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage at the Moscow airport.

Griner, in July, pleaded guilty to drug smuggling charges and was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison in early August. Legal experts told Insider at the time that Griner's guilty plea was a strategic move in order to try and speed up the process of her return.

The State Department moved her case to the Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs in May, reclassifying her detention as "wrongful."

The basketball player's wife, friends, and teammates have been increasingly vocal in trying to secure Griner's release, calling upon the White House to do more in their efforts to bring her home.

The administration in July said it made a proposal to swap Griner and Paul Whelan, a former Marine who has also been wrongfully detained in Russia for nearly four years, in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who is serving a 25-year sentence in the US.

Recent reporting, however, suggests a deal still may be a ways away after a White House official said in August that Russia was trying to tack on an additional convict to the proposed prisoner exchange. The Biden administration hasn't provided any official updates since its July statements.

"We have followed up on that offer repeatedly and will continue to pursue every avenue to bring them home safely," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday.

But whether or not the White House has privately made any headway in securing Griner's release, public perception of the situation doesn't look particularly good for the US.

Dani Gilbert, a Fellow in US Foreign Policy and International Security at Dartmouth, told The New Yorker this month that the Russians "have already won."

Russia's initial control of relevant information related to Griner's case allowed the country to take charge of the narrative, leaving the US looking weak, experts told the outlet.

"They have embarrassed the US government. They have put the White House in a particularly difficult position because of a political prisoner, and they're tapping into cultural conflict," Jason Rezaian, a Washington Post writer who was wrongfully detained in Iran for more than five hundred days, told The New Yorker. "The fallout here in America — Russia loves it."

Biden is also set to meet with Whelan's sister in a separate meeting, Jean-Pierre announced this week.

How St. Louis churches are revealing the disparities in the air we breathe

Congregations in St. Louis are working with local scientists to monitor the air quality in communities affected by industrial pollution.

DeAndress Green, left, debriefs with leaders of Metro Congregations United after a meeting of the Missouri Air Conservation Commission in St. Louis. 

Photo by Britny Cordera

September 15, 2022
By  Britny Cordera


(RNS) — A few weeks before speaking at a rally pushing for solutions to improve air quality in St. Louis, DeAndress Green was in the hospital, feeling like she was unable to breathe.

Green had suddenly begun feeling short of breath after spending some time in an industrialized north St. Louis neighborhood, where she was delivering food through DoorDash to families who lack transportation to grocery stores. When Green went to the hospital, doctors found blood clots in her lungs.

“I was in the hospital for a few days before the doctors figured out what was wrong,” she said at the July 23 rally, organized by Metropolitan Congregations United, a coalition of about 60 religious communities around St. Louis. Green works with MCU in its ongoing activism around local environmental crises. “That whole week, I lived in fear, planning for the worst.”

But for Green, a Black urban farmer and small business owner who had grown up in north St. Louis, this was but the latest in a lifetime of chronic respiratory problems — for her and for her family. All her family members suffer from asthma. She says she’s always known the cause: her neighborhood’s poor air quality.

Green grew up in the College Hill neighborhood, in government housing that was less than a mile from Procter & Gamble’s factory along the north St. Louis riverfront and other industrial facilities that burn metals or chemicals producing pollutants in the air. Trees were few and far between. The apartments in which she lived were plagued with bl Photo by Britny Cordera

Earlier this year, the multifaith coalition launched a new online air quality monitoring tool, tracking pollutants in the city in partnership with scientists at The Nature Conservancy; the Jay Turner Group, part of Washington University’s Department of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering; and the university’s environmental studies program.

The community-based air quality monitoring initiative, AirWatch St. Louis, has been keeping track of what’s in the city’s air since December 2021. Low-cost sensors are placed on the roofs of Matter, a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets found in the air. Through the new digital map, the data collected by these sensors is publicly viewable.

MCU organizers say they see their efforts to collect and publish data on air quality as part of their spiritual commitment to racial and environmental justice. Since many religions believe that the Earth is sacred, created by a divine being, the effort to protect the environment brings congregations of varying backgrounds together to fight against climate change, according to Kentaro Kumanomido, an environmental justice organizer with United Congregations of the Metro East, another faith-based organization that worked closely with MCU on the air quality rally.


Beth Gutzler. Photo by Britny Cordera

Beth Gutzler, who has lived in houses with lead paint and currently lives near West Lake Landfill, where locals are concerned that trash smoldering underground is dangerously close to buried nuclear waste, leads MCU’s environmental justice team. She believes this project is critical to empower people in faith-based communities who are affected by industrial pollution, giving them the tools to take control of the fate of their neighborhoods through legislative action.

>“Our goal is to bring people of multiple faiths together to work towards a common goal of changing policy for social and environmental justice,” she says.

According to Tyler Cargill, a doctoral student with the Turner Group, the spatial variety and community connection MCU churches offer have been central to this project. Some of the churches are in downtown St. Louis, while others are in Webster Groves, a suburb. Some churches are in areas with a high density of roads. Some are near parks. And others are near industries that release particulate matter into the air.

“By having a variety of placements of these sensors, we do get to see if the urban planning of St. Louis makes any difference for what we’re seeing with our air pollution,” Cargill said.

A 2019 report on environmental racism in the city, published by the Washington University School of Law, found that most St. Louis’ air pollution sources are in predominantly Black neighborhoods.

According to the report, Black children in the city of St. Louis are 2.4 times more likely than white children to test positive for lead in their blood. They also account for more than 70% of children suffering from lead poisoning, researchers found, and make about 10 times more emergency room visits for asthma each year than white children. Majority-Black neighborhoods are more likely to be near highways and to see more building demolitions, which creates dust that may contain asbestos and lead.

“There are too few air pollution monitoring stations in St. Louis to allow for comparisons of air pollution in different neighborhoods,” the report noted. “However, the locations of air pollution sources, vehicle emissions, and demolitions all indicate that minority communities in St. Louis are being disproportionately exposed to harmful air pollution.”

From left, David Yeom, intern with Washington University; Tyler Cargill, Washington University doctoral student with the Jay Turner Lab; and Li Zhiyao, also a doctoral student with the Jay Turner Lab, work with the Rev. Nick Winker to set up an air pollution monitor at St. Ann Catholic Church in St. Louis. 

Photo by Beth Gutzler

A national study published in 2019 found that people of color bear a disproportionate “pollution burden,” with Black Americans being exposed to 56% more pollutants in the air than they themselves create. This has deadly consequences: A study of nine deadly health conditions, including lung cancer, kidney disease and hypertension, linked with such exposure concluded that pollution kills about 200,000 Americans a year.

For MCU, working to improve air quality for vulnerable communities is a matter of faith.

The Rev. Kevin Anthony, who serves at Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ and as a member of MCU’s interfaith environmental justice task force, points to the biblical narrative of creation, in which God breathed “the breath of life” into man’s nostrils.

“I want us to imagine … each and every one of us having that same posture, leaning over one of our neighbors to breathe life into them,” he said during the rally. “In order for us to have life, we need to have good quality air to breathe.”

On Broadway, only a few blocks away from Green’s childhood home, neighborhoods are filled with abandoned buildings and illegal dumping. A sweet smell fills the air.

DeAndress Green. Photo by Britny Cordera

“I just assumed it was Hostess baking Twinkies, but the adults knew better,” she recalls. Her mother later told her the smell was an indication of industrial pollutants. “Broadway to the water is prime real estate for pollution industries.”

Whenever the sweet air filled the inside of the home, Green’s mother would take her and her siblings south to Tower Grove Park to get fresh air. “The difference in the environment in north St. Louis and south in St. Louis is unmistakable,” Green says. “There are trees, green spaces, businesses, and communities who want to be outside in south St. Louis.”

When Green moved out of government housing at 18, she was struck by how she could immediately breathe better.

Today, Green uses urban farming to heal her lungs and reconnect with the outdoors. But for many people of color in St. Louis and beyond, simply stepping outside is a potential health risk for environmental reasons. Families who live in so-called sacrifice zones, areas around the country where rates of cancer caused by air pollution exceed the U.S. definition of acceptable risk, are not being informed of the risks of industrial or Superfund sites — federally recognized hazardous waste sites — near their homes and are not given the resources to change their neighborhoods.

Community air quality monitoring programs, AirWatch St. Louis coordinators say, can arm those most affected with the knowledge to make informed decisions.

For Cargill, the project’s goal is to increase transparency. His lab gives periodic updates to the congregations and to the public. At these meetings, information is shared about air quality problems in general, what the Turner Group is doing with that research and what initiatives the community can take to advocate on its own behalf.

Action is even more urgent now that the White House’s Inflation Reduction Act gives $315.5 million for air monitoring so at-risk communities can be properly informed of what is in the air they breathe, offering an avenue toward legislation and reparations.

The particulate matter sensors on the church roofs, manufactured by QuantAQ, are a low-cost version of the EPA’s sensors, which cost tens of thousands of dollars. But even the monitors MCU is using cost $1,500.

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Someday, Green would like to have her own air monitoring device. But even an at-home outdoor monitor from Purple Air costs nearly $300. She believes AirWatchSTL is helpful, but not everyone in her community has access to a smartphone or computer or has time to check the website to assess their risk.

“One of the things that I’d love to see happen is that maybe smaller devices are made available to communities,” says Green. “So we are allowed to see for ourselves how to navigate that environment.”

Organizers say solutions need to go beyond just making these sensors widely available. For Green, who was uninsured during her hospitalization and has been left with a pile of medical bills, real solutions must take the form of reparations.

That would look like Black families being allowed to dictate what will happen in their own communities, instead of nonprofits or think tanks coming in and implementing what they think will work, she says.

Green envisions a north St. Louis filled with trees, orchards, community gardens and native plants growing everywhere, cleaning the air she breathes.

“I want my community to feel like they can escape to north St. Louis and feel safe, not run from it because of racism and hate embedded in the land,” she says. “Solutions look like Black families being able to build their dreams in their front yards and provide food for their family from their own yard. Solutions look like families being able to breathe.”

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This story was published in partnership with Next City, a nonprofit news organization covering solutions for just and equitable cities, as part of an ongoing series on how faith drives communities to work against urban injustices.