Category: Uncategorized

About half of the state has been lifted out of drought conditions by a series of storms that have drenched the region.

Gathering of world’s biggest economies overshadowed by war in Ukraine rather than what was on host India’s agenda.

Constance Marten and Mark Gordon have been charged after a baby’s remains were found in woodland.

Russia Shrinks Bakhmut Exit Route, Ukraine Argues Over Bakhmut; China Greets Lukashenko, Edges Towards Anti US Alliance
Topic 775

Refugees staying in Poland’s state shelters for more than four months will now have to pay 50% for their accommodation

Warsaw has changed its policy on Ukrainians fleeing the conflict between Moscow and Kiev who are staying in Poland. Under a regulation that came into force on Wednesday, they will now have to cover some of the costs of their own accommodation if they stay in state-run shelters for more than four months.

Ukrainians living in group accommodation facilities must pay for half of the expenditures from March, according to amendments made to the Ukrainian Citizens Assistance Act signed by President Andrzej Duda in late January. That amounts to up to 40 zlotys ($9) per person per day, the document published by the Polish parliament says.

Those who stay in the state-run facilities for more than 180 days will have to cover 75% of the costs starting from May 1, meaning the sum they pay will be around 60 zlotys ($13.6) per person per day, the legislation says.

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German minister urges equal distribution of Ukrainian refugees

Minors under 18, people with disabilities, people of retirement age, pregnant women, and those raising a child up to the age of one or taking care of three or more minors, will be exempted from the new rules.

The move was taken to “balance expenses” and encourage Ukrainian refugees to become more “independent,” Deputy Interior Minister Pawel Szefernaker told Polish media. “It is not the role of the state to rent apartments,” he told Poland’s RMF24 radio, adding that “we are coordinating activities aimed at ensuring that those [Ukrainians] who have not become independent in Poland become independent as soon as possible.”

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Polish general proposes ‘mobilizing’ Ukrainian refugees

Some refugee aid programs in Poland are to be taken over by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Szefernaker said. According to the deputy minister, Warsaw spent 6 billion zlotys ($1.36 billion) on helping Ukrainian refugees in the first six months of 2022.

Brussels only provided Poland with an additional 900 million zlotys ($203.55 million) of aid in 2022, he said, calling it a “drop in the ocean” of what is needed.

“We keep pointing out that a fund is needed [to support] countries like Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria and Romania, which have accepted the largest number of [Ukrainian] refugees. These are the only funds we have received from the European Union,” Szefernaker told RMF24.

According to Poland’s PAP news agency, half a million people have stayed in Poland’s state-run accommodation centers since the start of the military operation in Ukraine. Some 80,000 are still living there now, the agency added.

Sirhan Sirhan’s lawyer blames the decision on the California governor’s influence

A California parole board panel refused to release Sirhan Sirhan, the man who killed Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, his lawyer said on Wednesday. The board argued that the assassin still lacked an awareness of what he had done.

The 78-year-old prisoner was previously recommended for parole two years ago by a different board. However, in January 2022, California Governor Gavin Newsom rejected the suggestion that Sirhan be freed. The politician called Kennedy a personal hero and wrote an LA Times op-ed explaining his decision.

Newsom claimed that Sirhan “refuses to accept responsibility” for what he did and has not “developed the accountability and insight” that would allow his release. He argues that the killer initially admitted to the crime, but in 2016 he said he “believed he did not kill Kennedy, based on what he had read in his attorney’s legal briefs.”

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FBI and CIA sued over assassination of civil rights icon

The governor added that Sirhan remains a “potent symbol of political violence” even decades after the murder.

Sirhan’s lawyer Angela Berry argued that Newsom’s words from back then affected the board hearing on Wednesday. “I do feel the board bent to the political whim of the governor,” she said, as quoted by AP. Berry insists that her client has obtained insight into the deed and that his psychiatrists agree that he does not present a danger to society.

Robert F. Kennedy, a New York senator and brother of assassinated US President John F. Kennedy, was shot in 1968. The crime occurred at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles moments after the politician won California’s Democratic presidential primary. Sirhan opened fire from a crowd, killing Kennedy and wounding five others. He claimed that he was motivated by strong anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian beliefs. Sirhan was sentenced to life in prison and his request for parole has now been denied 16 times.

California has deployed the National Guard to assist residents trapped in their homes under seven feet of snow

California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on Wednesday in 13 counties following a severe snowstorm that trapped people in their homes and took out power for tens of thousands of residents. 

The governor also deployed the National Guard to work alongside the Office of Emergency Services, California Highway Patrol and Caltrans to assist in the emergency response in the stricken counties, which include Los Angeles, Nevada, San Bernardino and Santa Barbara.

In San Bernardino county, many people have been trapped in their houses for days due to the unusually forceful storm, which delivered as much as seven feet (2.13 meters) of snow in some places. Images posted to social media show houses with their doors open confronting solid walls of snow.

The highly unusual weather forced the closure of Highway 18, a major artery, with motorists allowed only using police and transit authority escorts. With food and water supplies running low, residents have begged Newsom for help.

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Brutal snowstorm grounds over 1,000 flights in US

“There are roofs collapsing everywhere, people are needing assistance and rescues,” Lake Arrowhead resident Miyah Nelson told local news station KTLA. “All of the stores are running low on food and water supplies. The gas stations barely have any gas,” she said. 

State agencies are coordinating to obtain extra snow plows and road crews, with San Bernadino County Supervisor Dawn Rowe reassuring residents on Wednesday that “plowing of the roads is continuing 24/7.” Local personnel have likely never encountered such extreme weather before, given the typically sunny climate of southern California. Anaheim, famous as the location of the Disneyland theme park, had not experienced snow since 1882.

Officials are reportedly opening two shelters for needy or stranded residents and working on escorting power companies into the area. Some 100,000 residents were without power as of Wednesday. 

The governor’s emergency declaration allows selected agencies to override local authority and disregard normal restrictions on spending and procurement, lest red tape hinder the time-sensitive storm response.

‘Gas station masquerading as a country,’ must be running out of ammo
The Duran: Episode 1522

In their first face-to-face encounter in more than a year, the US’ top diplomat asked his Russian counterpart to return to a nuclear treaty

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi on Thursday. Blinken said he urged Russia to return to the New START arms control treaty, but Moscow has already insisted that Washington’s “hybrid war” on Russia makes serious discussions impossible.

The two diplomats met for around ten minutes. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters that Blinken “asked for contact” with Lavrov. However, the brief encounter was conducted on the fly and could not be considered “negotiations,” she added.

In his own press conference after the meeting, Blinken said that he reaffirmed the US’ support for Ukraine, raised the possibility of a prisoner exchange for captured American Paul Whelan, and “urged Russia to reverse its irresponsible decision and return to implementing the New START treaty.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law this week to suspend the treaty, which was the last remaining nuclear arms agreement between the US and Russia. The treaty placed limits on the number of deployed missiles, bombers, launchers, and warheads each side could possess, and allowed both countries to inspect each others’ nuclear sites.

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G20 foreign ministers’ meeting likely to end in deadlock with the body’s relevance under threat

Earlier this week, Russia’s ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, said that “Washington must reconsider its hostile anti-Russian policy” before Moscow would contemplate a return to the agreement. Given that the US has “launched and dragged its European allies into a large-scale hybrid war against Russia,” and insists on inspecting the same Russian bases that its Ukrainian proxies are attacking “with the help of the Pentagon,” the deal would remain suspended.

Antonov also accused the US of violating the treaty long before Russia’s withdrawal, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a day later that Washington’s actions prior to the outbreak of conflict in Ukraine – which included rejecting all of Russia’s security requests – showed that “they were not ready to talk about anything with us.”

The US has also accused Russia of breaching the treaty by preventing American inspectors from traveling to its bases.

Blinken and Lavrov last met in Geneva last January, and spoke by phone in July. Throughout the intervening time, Blinken has maintained that the US will keep up its military support for Ukraine “for as long as it takes,” and Lavrov said in January that a subsequent message he received from Blinken offered no “serious proposals” for resolving the conflict.

The US has for a long time been “in favor of the escalation of conflicts,” Zakharova said on Thursday. “Diplomacy, unfortunately, has been relegated to the background.”

Ecuador has indicted three Furukawa executives for human trafficking for the purpose of labor exploitation  

Executives of a Japanese banana harvesting company are facing legal action in Ecuador for allegedly practicing modern slavery. This comes after the firm was ordered last month to compensate former workers and their families for generations of exploitation.  

On Monday, an Ecuadorian court formally announced charges of human trafficking and labor exploitation against three senior employees of Furukawa Plantaciones C.A., a Japanese entity that markets and exports abaca, a banana species used to make tea bags, rope, paper, and banknotes. 

The three are also being accused of child and adolescent labor violations. 

The lawsuit marks the first time the South American nation has ever indicted a company and its executives for practicing modern slavery. The judge presiding over the case, Susana Sotomayor, stressed the significance of the indictments, noting that several government ministries had tried to intervene in the lawsuit before it went to trial.  

“I ask myself: what was the involvement of the public institutions before the beginning of the criminal process?” asked Sotomayor, stating that the country’s government is supposed to protect its citizens. The issue of the government’s potential involvement in the labor exploitation scheme is set to be addressed in a separate trial.   

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Island nation demands reparations from Benedict Cumberbatch

Furukawa, which has operated in Ecuador for almost 60 years, was first brought into the spotlight in 2018 when the Ecuadorian ombudsman office published a report accusing the company of providing its employees with “subhuman” housing conditions, employing adolescent and child labor, and disregarding labor rights. It was also revealed that many of the plantation workers had to pay out of their own pocket for equipment such as machetes and gloves, as well as medicine and healthcare, while barely making enough to cover the cost of food.  

Last month, a court found that the Furukawa workers, many of whom are Afro-Ecuadorian, had suffered racial discrimination and were victims of servitude. The company was ordered to pay out compensation to 123 employees.  

The company along with several government ministries were also ordered to issue an apology in local media and on their websites, listing all 123 workers by name.  

Furukawa has yet to issue a comment on the lawsuit, but Marcelo Almeida, the ex-head of Furukawa in Ecuador, had previously insisted that he was unaware of any violations on the plantations. He explained that Furukawa had rented out land to contract workers and that it was they who were responsible for the laborers’ living conditions.