Post No. 1,574 - In this week’s news

Stay safe - wash your hands, practice social distancing, and follow informed medical advice - and be considerate towards those at risk or in situations of vulnerability (including economic) while the COVID-19 pandemic is a problem.

This is a new, very cut down series of posts based on some observations on matters that struck a personal note: unlike the former “Gnwmythr’s News”, it is not trying to convey key events.

Content Warning: the linked articles and their descriptions here may be about violence, abuse, hate, and other problems.

Three issues stand out to me this week for the severity of the risk they pose to world peace:   the shooting deaths and other racist abuses of people of colour at the hands of police in the USA;   the stupidity of the USA’s racist Cretin-in-Chief, POTUS45;   and the threats of war or violence of an equivalent severity created by Israel’s plans to annex the West Bank. Other issues are also serious - such as the abuses committed by police elsewhere (now subject to legal action), the still ongoing genocide by burma against the Rohingya (the world is watching, has expressed formal disapproval, and burma is sensitive enough to this to make a token reply, but a reply nonetheless), and the pandemic, which is subject to a series of ongoing actions. Also, the climate crisis and threat of nuclear war remain ever present, and critical.

My articles this week include:   the evidence supporting meditation.

Reading I found interesting this week included:   how greed destroyed the ethics and claims for justice of workers in the banking industry (this also applies in other situations);   an opinion on art - good or bad - in “bad times”;   a woman’s three decades alone on  a mountain;   on self control.

In this week’s news:   a particularly pertinent review of events this week in the USA;   a device to help the NBN cope with growing Internet traffic;   an Australian ‘'fake genuine Russian choir” went viral in Russia;   the difference/overlap between mental health and mental illness;   the problems with economic modelling of wages growth;   some people - particularly women - are discovering something I’ve been saying and doing for decades: you can exercise at home;   a culturally tone deaf TV proposal;   “Africa's female journalists use radio to dispel coronavirus fake news and sexism”;   the pandemic has accelerated the tech transformation;   the parallels between preventing deaths from the pandemic and preventing deaths from guns (and see also this);   tips for keeping data safe and maintaining privacy online;   the loss of carbon storage from loss of forests.

In the environmental arena, where we have been fighting World War III for some time now:   as another call is made for use of Indigenous fire management practices (which will be used in my home state), we are entering the era of the Pyrocene . . . ;   high speed rail on Australia’s east coast would reportedly increase emissions for 36 years (because of construction emissions);   an assessment (another here) of the neoliberals’ emissions technology plan, and a criticism of our laws;   major concerns over warming of deeper layers of oceans;   a staggering admission of DECADES of major water theft in the Murray-Darling basin;   the effect of the climate crisis on the 15% of the world’s population who are people with disabilities;   Ethiopia.

On human and animal rights:
   as the 20^th anniversary of the walk across Sydney Harbour Bridge for reconciliation nears, and progress on constitutional recognition is urged, the lies told over the Uluru Statement from the Heart and the subsequent three years of inaction are a test of liberalism/liberality (not to mention the cold hearted, ideologically driven neoliberals, who are dragging their heels over allowing people to exit the cashless “welfare” card system);   more Aussie families are exploring their Indigenous heritage;   destruction of an Indigenous site;   a court decision in favour of an indigenous forest people in Kenya is being ignored;   a Uyghur American has been appointed to the USA’s Commission on International Religious Freedom;
   in a week when a call has been made for reparations for the massacre of hundreds of blacks by a white mob - which also used aircraft with police - in Tulsa in 1921, four US “police” have been sacked after killing a man they were allegedly “arresting” - and there were calls for charges to be laid (one has been charged [and at this point, the presumption of innocence - no matter how compelling the evidence - comes into operation] with murder), protests - and the live arrest of a COMPLIANT news crew - LED BY A BLACK PRESENTER (a white journalist was NOT arrested) - covering the protests -  and international condemnation, and seven people have been shot during protests over the death of a black woman who was shot by police while asleep in her apartment elsewhere in the USA;
   NSW “police” will be sued over their ABUSE AND BARBARIC - EQUIVALENT TO SEXUAL ASSAULT - OF STRIP SEARCHES;   South Australian “police” who committed three acts of battery - including a broken femur - during an alleged “arrest” of a South Australian man three years ago have resulted in award of $700,000 compensation to their victim;   Angolan police have killed a union official;   appalling brutality by police during Uganda’s lockdown;
   a gravely concerning case of child abuse in Australia raises questions about government intervention;
   a trans sensitive legal service;
   a Senatorial enquiry into domestic violence has gathered no evidence and delivered only questions - and received a scathing assessment;   a dishonourable murder of a woman in Iran has “sparked outrage” and a new law “to protect women”;   unbelievably, Mexico’s “campaign against” domestic violence showed no women victims;
   an Israeli court has ruled that a Palestinian house cannot be razed;   there may be legal jurisdiction issues for the ICC if the Palestinian Authority rejects the Oslo Accords;
   issues facing vulnerable students;
   land ideal for public housing is being sold for other purposes.
Immigration and refugee matters (good and bad) have occurred in:   Malta;   east Africa;
trafficking/slavery/child abuse matters (good and bad) have occurred in:   Yemen;   Israel (good news);   Nigeria;   Australia;   the Philippines;   Thailand;
LGBTIQ+ matters (good and bad) have occurred in:   an Australian tertiary institution;   Australia;   Costa Rica;   Kenya;   Zambia (good news);   USA (good news);   Malaysia (good news);
sexism, misogyny/misandry and domestic violence matters (good and bad) have occurred in:   DR Congo;   AirServices Australia;
other freedom of the press matters (good and bad) have occurred in:   Nigeria;
other repression/oppression / reduction of democracy and other civil & political rights matters (good and bad) have occurred in:   Israel;   Saudi Arabia;   Kazakhstan;   Ethiopia (torture); and
other human and animal rights matters (good and bad) have occurred in:   Burkina Faso.

In the related human rights arena of employment:   some dinosaurs are still struggling to trust their staff;   an analysis of the neoliberal PM’s ordered pseudo-consensus.

Risks or occurrences of atrocities, mass violence and/or war(s) this week in:   Somalia;   Burkina Faso;   joint Ivory Coast-Burkina Faso action against violent extremists - and in Egypt;   Israel;   the so-called “incel” movement;   reports of a war crime by an Australian SAA trooper;   despite their success, peacekeeping operations are being cut back;   an overview of populations at risk;   South Sudan;   DR Congo;   DR Congo;   Nigeria;   Libya;   Mali;   Burkina Faso;   Mozambique;
and   burma has submitted a report on some matters to the ICJ - update on court case here - in response to orders to stop committing its still continuing genocide;   a tertiary institute in my home state has removed information about war crimes during the Bosnian war from a course;   more stupidity from the USA on the ICC;   Sudan has stated the perpetrators of a recent massacre will be held accountable;   victims of the former Chad dictator who was convicted of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and torture, including sexual violence and rape, are still waiting for reparations;   a call for the UN to keep peacekeepers in Sudan.

In the governance, politics, public ethics, and society arena:   in a test of the nation’s democracy, Israel’s PM has appeared in court in front of a strong judge - the first to do so (with reminders of Italy’s former PM);   more allegations of pork barrelling - this time in an Australian state;   protests  in and outside (including Taiwan) Hong Kong - and calls for more and a suggestion that the UN Security Council review the matter - over a “ ’flagrant breach’ of the Chinese-British Joint Declaration that returned Hong Kong to China in 1997” (the USA has decided Hong Kong is no longer autonomous);   misogyny and religious bias (and attack on the separation of church and state) in the USA;   a whistleblower-driven crackdown in the USA;   criticism of my home state’s family violence hubs scheme for a rushed delivery that rendered them ineffective, with “some people waiting months for support”;   more on the victims - 470,000 of whom will get some sort of refund - of the neoliberals idiotic robodebt scheme;   the 1975 “palace letters” are finally where they should have been all along: in Australian hands;   more warnings - including from Jordan and the USA - over the unprecedented risk of annexing the West Bank (and Palestinians there would be denied Israeli citizenship - and see here for an assessment of what this could do to a two state solution [if we do wind up with a single state, it would destroy the ethical foundation for Israel existing as a Jewish nation, in my opinion] );   questions over a changed approach to unmasking of a spy in the USA;
other governance, politics, public ethics, and society matters have occurred in:   France.

On disasters this week:   floods in Uganda;   a cyclone in Western Australia;   floods in Kenya have drowned rice supplies;   the need to  build resilience to extreme weather events.

Internationally:   the risk of a new “Cold War” between the USA and China arising out of a “cauldron of panic”;   split messaging from the USA about Australia;   the G20 debt relief plan has been ignored in Africa;   Singapore is looking to move beyond being an oil trader;   Canada, which already has a citizen being held as a hostage, is vulnerable to further retaliation from sanctions-breaking China (which is also putting the wellbeing, livelihood, and even the lives, and the environment of billions of people at severe risk by abusing Tibet’s environment) following a court ruling that an arrested Chinese citizen can be extradited to the USA;   tensions are growing between India and China at the Tibet-India border;   for Australia, India may be an economic alternative to China (and don’t forget Africa);   Algeria has its nose out of joint over documentaries on its recent protest movement shown in France;   border tensions and conflict between Sudan and Ethiopia;.

In Africa:   “climate-related security risks and the African Union”;   civil society in Chad;   Burundi has held its election, and the conduct of the election has been criticised and result will be contested;   corruption in South Sudan;   the pandemic is hampering the fight against malaria and TB.

On the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus (there are other novel coronaviruses) (seven major risks to watch here, and seven sins of thought to avoid here):
   another call for a better world - including continuing with home grown veggies -  after the pandemic;   the danger of complacency;   conspiracy nutjobs are moving offline;   attacks on hundreds of health care workers in 13 nations;

   medical aspects:   health risks have stopped trial - one nation has banned it - of a malaria drug touted by the USA’s misogynistic and now being fact checked on social media (which has led to retaliation [and that platform has not acted on an antisemitic account from Iran, but also flagged an account from China] and another platform showing how evil that particular platform is) cretin-in-chief POTUS45 - who has pulled the USA out of the WHO;   concerns about length of incubation/infectivity periods;   better masks have been developed;   the medical risks asymptomatic patients may face;

   resources:   how to cover rent with no job;   what to do if subjected to racism in Australia;

   human rights aspects (crisis . . . running summary of impacts on elections here):   the vitally important and overlooked issue of consent around physical closeness;   Bangladesh will ban Western companies that refuse to pay bills or otherwise exploit Bangladeshi garment workers;   global concerns over continuing and increased surveillance - especially in China;   the evidence is that political protests are continuing - despite the pandemic;   Malaysian xenophobes are targeting Rohingya;   widows;   migrant workers in Lebanon;
   also including
   increased opportunistic repression/oppression / reduction of democracy in:   Sri Lanka;   burma;

   environmental impacts:   Egypt wants to keep the clean air;   pressure on forests is increasing;

   Australia:   a couple of disreputable newspapers misrepresented an informal US document as being from US intelligence;   suggestions on what to do with the extra cash from a budgetary estimate error (mistake?);   an opinion that the much vaunted tracking app has become largely irrelevant;   women are worse off than men again;   an assessment that Australia did relatively well despite the PM, not because of him;   public transport has to be properly managed after the pandemic;   the neoliberals lack of understanding on arts jobs;   a shortage of period products;   some schools are in areas with no Internet access;   citizenship applications are being held up;   after the pandemic, more Australians might move to regional areas (they would have to get over their homophobia/transphobia for that to be an option for me);   electricity retailers could get help;   the RBA governor has said that the JobKeeper program may need to be extended;   a breach of isolation rules has led to students being expelled;   “more than one-third of single mothers . . . live in poverty, according to a new report from the Australian Council of Social Services” - and they are more affected by the lockdown both now and in the future;   my home state has emphasised continuing to work at home while can;

   internationally:   powerful journalism in the USA on the death toll;   recommendations for better stockpiling in the USA;   concerns over Venezuela’s health system;   the Maldives;   South and Central American slums;   the homeless (rough sleepers) in the USA;   legal action in the USA over failing to protect workers;   xenophobic/racist Singapore’s forced consideration of “migrant workers” appears to be working - almost;   a village in Colombia is, despite civil war violence, successfully organising to manage the pandemic;   Syria;   concerns over “unlicensed” (illegal?!) retirement homes in Mexico;   policy suggestions for South and Central America;   South Korea has reimposed lockdown;   easing of lockdown in the Philippines, France, and no spike in Finland or Denmark after schools reopened;   tensions between Taiwan and mainland China (which has threatened to physical invade Taiwan) may have helped keep Taiwan safe;   Israel is walking back some of the easing of lockdown after a spike;   Singapore has joined the nations considering travel bubbles;

   Africa:   Madagascar is responding to an outbreak;   Sudan will protect health workers;   problems at borders;   west African food trade is under strain;   hundreds have fled quarantine in Zimbabwe and Malawi;   a suspected outbreak in Darfur, Sudan;

   globally:   water scarcity is a factor;   migrant workers are vulnerable;

   stupidity:   UK;   UK;   Kenya;

   blame games:   a call for the world to not allow China to buy the world’s silence;   Sweden.