#Global credit risk

[chainreactionpodcast]

Managing Credit Risk in Global Supply Chains

with Josh Simon, Global Risk and Receivables Director with JAS Worldwide In the realm of global supply chain finance, credit risk management stands as a cornerstone, ensuring the financial health and operational resilience of companies engaged in international trade. The recent episode of the Chain Reaction Podcast features Josh Simon of JAS Worldwide, a seasoned professional with over three…

[timesofocean]

Turmoil in banking industry could be current biggest threat to global economy

New Post has been published on https://www.timesofocean.com/turmoil-in-banking-industry-could-be-current-biggest-threat-to-global-economy/

Turmoil in banking industry could be current biggest threat to global economy

London (The Times Groupe) – High interest rates, particularly in Europe, could pose the most immediate threat to the global economy due to turmoil in the banking sector.

Markets were shaken by the bankruptcy of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank in the US last month, as well as Saudi National Bank’s announcement that it would not be increasing its stake in Swiss-based Credit Suisse. interests interests  global economy

UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank, bought Credit Suisse with government assistance for 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.2 billion). times

As countries around the world struggle with a cost of living crisis and central banks have been raising interest rates to lower persistent inflation, the turmoil in the banking industry came at a bad time.

In an interview with Anadolu, Jon Danielsson, the director of the Systemic Risk Centre at the Department of Finance at the London School of Economics, explained that increasing interest rates to combat high inflation causes banks that have bonds and loans to lose value.

Early in March, SVB announced that it had sold its $21 billion bond portfolio at a loss of $1.8 billion. A discount of $16.5 billion was offered to First Citizens Bank for the deposit and loan portfolio of SVB after it was quickly closed by US regulators.

“When central banks raise interest rates, the aim is to slow growth. The fact that bond prices have fallen is part of the normal consequence when you raise interest rates a lot. That is a channel, the transmission of policy rates onto real activity,” Michael Saunders, a senior economic advisor at Oxford Economics and a former member of the Monetary Policy Committee at the Bank of England, told the Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu.

The US banks tightened lending standards before the recent strains in the banking system, reflecting higher interest rates and slower economic growth expectations, and those who failed had poor management.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

How finfluencers destroyed the housing and lives of thousands of people

For the rest of May, my bestselling solarpunk utopian novel THE LOST CAUSE (2023) is available as a $2.99, DRM-free ebook!

The crash of 2008 imparted many lessons to those of us who were only dimly aware of finance, especially the problems of complexity as a way of disguising fraud and recklessness. That was really the first lesson of 2008: "financial engineering" is mostly a way of obscuring crime behind a screen of technical jargon.

This is a vital principle to keep in mind, because obscenely well-resourced "financial engineers" are on a tireless, perennial search for opportunities to disguise fraud as innovation. As Riley Quinn says, "Any time you hear 'fintech,' substitute 'unlicensed bank'":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/01/usury/#tech-exceptionalism

But there's another important lesson to learn from the 2008 disaster, a lesson that's as old as the South Seas Bubble: "leverage" (that is, debt) is a force multiplier for fraud. Easy credit for financial speculation turns local scams into regional crime waves; it turns regional crime into national crises; it turns national crises into destabilizing global meltdowns.

When financial speculators have easy access to credit, they "lever up" their wagers. A speculator buys your house and uses it for collateral for a loan to buy another house, then they make a bet using that house as collateral and buy a third house, and so on. This is an obviously terrible practice and lenders who extend credit on this basis end up riddling the real economy with rot – a single default in the chain can ripple up and down it and take down a whole neighborhood, town or city. Any time you see this behavior in debt markets, you should batten your hatches for the coming collapse. Unsurprisingly, this is very common in crypto speculation, where it's obscured behind the bland, unpronounceable euphemism of "re-hypothecation":

https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2023/05/10/rehypothecation-may-be-common-in-traditional-finance-but-it-will-never-work-with-bitcoin/

Loose credit markets often originate with central banks. The dogma that holds that the only role the government has to play in tuning the economy is in setting interest rates at the Fed means the answer to a cooling economy is cranking down the prime rate, meaning that everyone earns less money on their savings and are therefore incentivized to go and risk their retirement playing at Wall Street's casino.

The "zero interest rate policy" shows what happens when this tactic is carried out for long enough. When the economy is built upon mountains of low-interest debt, when every business, every stick of physical plant, every car and every home is leveraged to the brim and cross-collateralized with one another, central bankers have to keep interest rates low. Raising them, even a little, could trigger waves of defaults and blow up the whole economy.

Holding interest rates at zero – or even flipping them to negative, so that your savings lose value every day you refuse to flush them into the finance casino – results in still more reckless betting, and that results in even more risk, which makes it even harder to put interest rates back up again.

This is a morally and economically complicated phenomenon. On the one hand, when the government provides risk-free bonds to investors (that is, when the Fed rate is over 0%), they're providing "universal basic income for people with money." If you have money, you can park it in T-Bills (Treasury bonds) and the US government will give you more money:

https://realprogressives.org/mmp-blog-34-responses/

On the other hand, while T-Bills exist and are foundational to the borrowing picture for speculators, ZIRP creates free debt for people with money – it allows for ever-greater, ever-deadlier forms of leverage, with ever-worsening consequences for turning off the tap. As 2008 forcibly reminded us, the vast mountains of complex derivatives and other forms of exotic debt only seems like an abstraction. In reality, these exotic financial instruments are directly tethered to real things in the real economy, and when the faery gold disappears, it takes down your home, your job, your community center, your schools, and your whole country's access to cancer medication:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jun/08/greek-drug-shortage-worsens

Being a billionaire automatically lowers your IQ by 30 points, as you are insulated from the consequences of your follies, lapses, prejudices and superstitions. As @pixelpusher220@dmv.community says, Elon Musk is what Howard Hughes would have turned into if he hadn't been a recluse:

https://mamot.fr/@pixelpusher220@dmv.community/112457199729198644

The same goes for financiers during periods of loose credit. Loose Fed money created an "everything bubble" that saw the prices of every asset explode, from housing to stocks, from wine to baseball cards. When every bet pays off, you win the game by betting on everything:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everything_bubble

That meant that the ZIRPocene was an era in which ever-stupider people were given ever-larger sums of money to gamble with. This was the golden age of the "finfluencer" – a Tiktok dolt with a surefire way for you to get rich by making reckless bets that endanger the livelihoods, homes and wellbeing of your neighbors.

Finfluencers are dolts, but they're also dangerous. Writing for The American Prospect, the always-amazing Maureen Tkacik describes how a small clutch of passive-income-brainworm gurus created a financial weapon of mass destruction, buying swathes of apartment buildings and then destroying them, ruining the lives of their tenants, and their investors:

https://prospect.org/infrastructure/housing/2024-05-22-hell-underwater-landlord/

Tcacik's main characters are Matt Picheny, Brent Ritchie and Koteswar “Jay” Gajavelli, who ran a scheme to flip apartment buildings, primarily in Houston, America's fastest growing metro, which also boasts some of America's weakest protections for tenants. These finance bros worked through Gajavelli's company Applesway Investment Group, which levered up his investors' money with massive loans from Arbor Realty Trust, who also originated loans to many other speculators and flippers.

For investors, the scheme was a classic heads-I-win/tails-you-lose: Gajavelli paid himself a percentage of the price of every building he bought, a percentage of monthly rental income, and a percentage of the resale price. This is typical of the "syndicating" sector, which raised $111 billion on this basis:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-housing-bust-comes-for-thousands-of-small-time-investors-3934beb3

Gajavelli and co bought up whole swathes of Houston and other cities, apartment blocks both modest and luxurious, including buildings that had already been looted by previous speculators. As interest rates crept up and the payments for the adjustable-rate loans supporting these investments exploded, Gajavell's Applesway and its subsidiary LLCs started to stiff their suppliers. Garbage collection dwindled, then ceased. Water outages became common – first weekly, then daily. Community rooms and pools shuttered. Lawns grew to waist-high gardens of weeds, fouled with mounds of fossil dogshit. Crime ran rampant, including murders. Buildings filled with rats and bedbugs. Ceilings caved in. Toilets backed up. Hallways filled with raw sewage:

https://pluralistic.net/timberridge

Meanwhile, the value of these buildings was plummeting, and not just because of their terrible condition – the whole market was cooling off, in part thanks to those same interest-rate hikes. Because the loans were daisy-chained, problems with a single building threatened every building in the portfolio – and there were problems with a lot more than one building.

This ruination wasn't limited to Gajavelli's holdings. Arbor lent to multiple finfluencer grifters, providing the leverage for every Tiktok dolt to ruin a neighborhood of their choosing. Arbor's founder, the "flamboyant" Ivan Kaufman, is associated with a long list of bizarre pop-culture and financial freak incidents. These have somehow eclipsed his scandals, involving – you guessed it – buying up apartment buildings and turning them into dangerous slums. Two of his buildings in Hyattsville, MD accumulated 2,162 violations in less than three years.

Arbor graduated from owning slums to creating them, lending out money to grifters via a "crowdfunding" platform that rooked retail investors into the scam, taking advantage of Obama-era deregulation of "qualified investor" restrictions to sucker unsophisticated savers into handing over money that was funneled to dolts like Gajavelli. Arbor ran the loosest book in town, originating mortgages that wouldn't pass the (relatively lax) criteria of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This created an ever-enlarging pool of apartments run by dolts, without the benefit of federal insurance. As one short-seller's report on Arbor put it, they were the origin of an epidemic of "Slumlord Millionaires":

https://viceroyresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Arbor-Slumlord-Millionaires-Jan-8-2023.pdf

The private equity grift is hard to understand from the outside, because it appears that a bunch of sober-sided, responsible institutions lose out big when PE firms default on their loans. But the story of the Slumlord Millionaires shows how such a scam could be durable over such long timescales: remember that the "syndicating" sector pays itself giant amounts of money whether it wins or loses. The consider that they finance this with investor capital from "crowdfunding" platforms that rope in naive investors. The owners of these crowdfunding platforms are conduits for the money to make the loans to make the bets – but it's not their money. Quite the contrary: they get a fee on every loan they originate, and a share of the interest payments, but they're not on the hook for loans that default. Heads they win, tails we lose.

In other words, these crooks are intermediaries – they're platforms. When you're on the customer side of the platform, it's easy to think that your misery benefits the sellers on the platform's other side. For example, it's easy to believe that as your Facebook feed becomes enshittified with ads, that advertisers are the beneficiaries of this enshittification.

But the reason you're seeing so many ads in your feed is that Facebook is also ripping off advertisers: charging them more, spending less to police ad-fraud, being sloppier with ad-targeting. If you're not paying for the product, you're the product. But if you are paying for the product? You're still the product:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/04/how-to-truth/#adfraud

In the same way: the private equity slumlord who raises your rent, loads up on junk fees, and lets your building disintegrate into a crime-riddled, sewage-tainted, rat-infested literal pile of garbage is absolutely fucking you over. But they're also fucking over their investors. They didn't buy the building with their own money, so they're not on the hook when it's condemned or when there's a forced sale. They got a share of the initial sale price, they get a percentage of your rental payments, so any upside they miss out on from a successful sale is just a little extra they're not getting. If they squeeze you hard enough, they can probably make up the difference.

The fact that this criminal playbook has wormed its way into every corner of the housing market makes it especially urgent and visible. Housing – shelter – is a human right, and no person can thrive without a stable home. The conversion of housing, from human right to speculative asset, has been a catastrophe:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/06/the-rents-too-damned-high/

Of course, that's not the only "asset class" that has been enshittified by private equity looters. They love any kind of business that you must patronize. Capitalists hate capitalism, so they love a captive audience, which is why PE took over your local nursing home and murdered your gran:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/23/acceptable-losses/#disposable-olds

Homes are the last asset of the middle class, and the grifter class know it, so they're coming for your house. Willie Sutton robbed banks because "that's where the money is" and We Buy Ugly Houses defrauds your parents out of their family home because that's where their money is:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/11/ugly-houses-ugly-truth/#homevestor

The plague of housing speculation isn't a US-only phenomenon. We have allies in Spain who are fighting our Wall Street landlords:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/11/24/no-puedo-pagar-no-pagara/#fuckin-aardvarks

Also in Berlin:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/16/die-miete-ist-zu-hoch/#assets-v-human-rights

The fight for decent housing is the fight for a decent world. That's why unions have joined the fight for better, de-financialized housing. When a union member spends two hours commuting every day from a black-mold-filled apartment that costs 50% of their paycheck, they suffer just as surely as if their boss cut their wage:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/13/i-want-a-roof-over-my-head/#and-bread-on-the-table

The solutions to our housing crises aren't all that complicated – they just run counter to the interests of speculators and the ruling class. Rent control, which neoliberal economists have long dismissed as an impossible, inevitable disaster, actually works very well:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/16/mortgages-are-rent-control/#housing-is-a-human-right-not-an-asset

As does public housing:

https://jacobin.com/2023/10/red-vienna-public-affordable-housing-homelessness-matthew-yglesias

There are ways to have a decent home and a decent life without being burdened with debt, and without being a pawn in someone else's highly leveraged casino bet.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/22/koteswar-jay-gajavelli/#if-you-ever-go-to-houston

Image: Boy G/Google Maps (modified) https://pluralistic.net/timberridge

[warframestuff]

PRIDE 2024

CELEBRATING INCLUSIVITY AND DIVERSITY THROUGHOUT THE ORIGIN SYSTEM!

There are wondrous vibes aplenty in the Origin System this month as we reach Pride 2024! Join us in celebrating the vibrant LGBTQIA2S+ community in Warframe! We are thrilled to honor and support our incredibly inclusive and diverse player base this Pride month and all year-round.

There are many ways for you to join in on Pride throughout June and onwards. Pick up in-game Pride items, support Warframe Creators, and so much more!

RAINBOW RAILROAD AND TRANS LIFELINE

In honor of Pride 2024, Digital Extremes is immensely proud to support not one, but two organizations offering aid to LGBTQIA2S+ people around the world.

Rainbow Railroad is a global not-for-profit that assists at-risk LGBTQIA+ people worldwide in reaching safety. Their mission is to protect vulnerable communities facing persecution based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics from systemic, state-enabled homophobia and transphobia.

Trans Lifeline is a grassroots hotline and nonprofit organization offering direct financial and emotional support for trans people in crisis. Their mission is to connect trans people with their community and provide the resources everyone needs to survive and thrive.

Both Rainbow Railroad and Trans Lifeline have received $10,000 CAD donations from Digital Extremes, respectively, to kick off Pride 2024! If you’re interested in supporting both organizations yourself, check out the donation pages for Rainbow Railroad and Trans Lifeline!

PRIDE IN-GAME

There are three all-new items available for Pride 2024! Add dazzling Customization like the Pride Glyph III designed by NimkeArts (He/They) and the Pride Display III designed by RoboMythos (She/Her) to your Arsenal via the in-game Market for only 1 Credit each!

Fill your Orbiter with neon Pride! The brand new Neon Pride Wings Decoration is also available in the in-game Market for 25,000 Credits. There is no limit to how many you can purchase, so that your Orbiter, Dormizone and Dojo can all be elevated with dazzling colors.

If you couldn’t pick up any Pride items from previous years — good news! We’ve also brought back the Pride Display I, Pride Glyph I, Pride Display II, Pride Glyph II, and Pride Celebration Color Palette back to the in-game Market for 1 Credit apiece!

These new and returning Pride items are available in the in-game Market until June 30 at 11:59 p.m. ET. If you missed out on the Pride III Glyph and Display, a code will be shared on July 1st for you to claim them both all the way until next June 2025.

FEATURED CREATOR STREAMS

Featured Warframe Creators will be celebrating Pride all throughout June! Watch these streams for 45 minutes each this month and receive Twitch Drops to even further enhance your Arsenal. Just don’t forget to link your Warframe and Twitch accounts ahead of time!

June 1 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET - Miabyte (She/Her)

Drop: Ordis Reified Statue

Twitch: twitch.tv/miabyte

June 1 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET - Nerdtured (He/Him)

Drop: Xaku Prex

Twitch: twitch.tv/nerdtured

June 8 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET - Tibetansun (He/Him)

Drop: Fibonacci Floof

Twitch: twitch.tv/tibetansun

June 8 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. ET - AuntieTan (She/Her)

Drop: Domestik Chapp Drone

Twitch: twitch.tv/AuntieTan

June 15 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET - LadyTheLaddy (They/She)

Drop: Panzer Vulpaphyla Floof

Twitch: twitch.tv/ladytheladdy

June 16 from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET - MjikThize (She/They)

Drop: Solaris Food Can Decoration

Twitch: twitch.tv/MjikThize

June 22 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET - JamieVoiceOver (She/Her)

Drop: Corbu Shawzin

Twitch: twitch.tv/JamieVoiceOver

June 22 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. ET - SiejoUmbra (He/Him)

Drop: Warframe Articula

Twitch: twitch.tv/SiejoUmbra

MAKESHIP KALYMOS PLUSHIE

If you’re keen on making a feline friend, Makeship has your back! They’ve brought Albrecht Entrati’s elegant companion Kalymos to life!

The Kalymos plushie campaign is part of Makeship’s Pride event, with 100 percent of Digital Extremes’ net proceeds from sales going towards the Trevor Project, a not-for-profit organization committed to suicide prevention for LGTBQ+ youth. As part of the event, Kalymos will arrive with a Pride Flag cape, based on the flag design by Valentino Vecchietti. You can purchase the Kalymos Plushie today and help make this limited item a reality!

Please note that this is not a charity item associated with the nonprofit organizations mentioned above.

NEW TWITCH & DISCORD EMOTES

Enjoy new Discord and Twitch Emotes to celebrate Pride 2024 via BTTV! Flaunt sensational flair in chat with the Pride Citrine, Pride Limbo, Neon Pride Wings Emote (right), and Neon Pride Wings Emote (left) created by our very own Community artist TadaCharly!

PRIDE TIME STREAMS

Our weekly Prime Time streams are all about celebrating Pride throughout the month of June! So tune in every Thursday at 6 p.m. ET on Warframe’s Twitch channel to hang out with the community team, play Warframe and celebrate Pride!

[bearcapitalventureslimited]

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Bear Capital Ventures Limited is dedicated to educating clients about international trade and business transactions, ensuring they are well-informed and equipped to make strategic decisions. It is important to note that the company’s role is solely to educate and provide financial instruments and does not offer investment advice.

Our goal is to support individuals, businesses, and governments in achieving their financial objectives by providing them with the necessary tools and expertise," said Anthony Kerr, CEO of Bear Capital Ventures Limited. "Our financial instruments, such as Bank Guarantee and Standby Letter of Credit, are designed to mitigate risks and provide security for our clients' transactions."

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For more information about Bear Capital Ventures Limited and its financial solutions, please contact:

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[centrally-unplanned]

So I am a pretty on-the-record critic of modern protesting. Not in some abstract way, I have no conceptual objection to it, but in practice the individual protests that I observe (in the US+, this doesn't apply globally) are poorly considered for the goal of actually effecting change. In particular they tend to lack goals aligned with their ends - their objective is often vague, huge, and multifactorial, with no clear or achievable actionable steps to take and no organizational commitment to the levers that could effect that change.

The "Columbia protests", which I call them even though of course they spread elsewhere, I want to credit for not making this mistake. Now they 30% made this mistake, they had tons of mission creep from just being leaderless and too open to the cooky strains of leftism. I could pull up some of the published "manifestos" and point to a dozen ridiculous additions. But you don't need to do that, because like we all know what their actual demand was - university divestment from Israel. Yeah demanding the university divest from index funds was amateur hour, but it was never gonna happen anyway and every knows that if Columbia cancelled the Tel Aviv program it would be a win for the protest faction. They did a good job managing the social media side to make sure everyone knew the priority list.

This is a good goal to choose because the protesters are university community members, with leverage over their targets; as students individually, and as a brand/reputational risk for the university collectively. They weren't protesting "Israel" or "Biden" at their core. And what they also knew - and did a good job of baiting the admin into exacerbating - was that a lot of faculty, the governing body of a university, were sympathetic to them, and choose the right time to garner their support. There was an actual plan here! Long odds but still - embarrass the school and get enough faculty on your side that leadership feels like they gotta give you some concessions. Like what happened at Brown! It can work.

I think the lack of leadership showed - taking Hamilton Hall for example was a huge mistake, tilted the "adults in the room" against them - but I am trying to recognize accomplishments here. If I am going to be someone who is always hammering protestors saying "have reasonable, concrete goals pressuring the actors with actual agency & willingness to act on them", and then someone does literally that, then I should acknowledge it.

[justxtalking]

the shooting star

I'm sure this observation was pointed out before, but I can't find it anywhere to quote it. Original post, you take all the credit. I just needed to express my thoughts because I can't stop thinking about it.

I feel like it's been a hot minute since the last time I've made one of these, but here I go.

the scenes

In chapter 64, Gon and Killua promise to stay together under the stars and they have a heart-to-heart. When the scene ends, we see a shooting star in the sky.

English Translation: VIZ Media

In chapter 286, Killua talks about commiting "shinjū" with Gon (translated as "I'll go down with flames with him") to Meleoron, tries to make it seem like a joke and Meleoron's inner monologue makes us understand there's more to the story than what Killua is saying out loud. When the scene ends, we again see a shooting star in the sky (and move to Gon and Pitou's scene.)

English Translation: VIZ Media

side-note

Do I really think that this detail has a bigger meaning than it has? No, Togashi most probably just likes shooting stars and thought this was a good transition between scenes. However, I think it would make a nice analysis if I connect the concept of the shooting star with certain aspects that are present in both scenes and the story in general. I just couldn't help myself, I find it so interesting and beautiful.

my brief and informal analysis

To begin with, what does it mean to see a shooting star? There's three popular and mostly global beliefs I would like to point out.

1) Wishes: Shooting stars have always been associated with dreams, wishes and promises. Many believe that if you make a wish on the shooting star, it will come true.

2) Positive Change: They are typically considered to be signs or messages from the Universe. They tend to symbolize new beginnings, transformations, and spiritual development.

In relation to these two, I believe it would be also connected to the meaning of encouragement. It can serve as encouragement to take risks or make important life decisions.

3) A Sign of Love: Seeing a shooting star can represent the love and connection between two people.

Then, which of these meanings are actually related to these scenes? The three of them, but let me explain a bit more.

In the first scene, Gon and Killua promise to stay together and continue their journey. As shooting stars are often associated with wishes or promises, in this context, it could symbolize the sincerity and earnestness of their promise to each other. By including the shooting star at the end of the scene, it seals their promise and it also marks a new beginning for them. At that moment, they are making an important decision in their lives, it's a new and positive change for them.

For the next meaning, I would like to point out first what scenes with two people under the stars at night usually mean. As we probably know, those type of scenes are ideal for characters to share their feelings and even secrets. The darkness and the soft lighting of the stars allow this space of intimacy to just talk to someone, which is what Gon and Killua do. They are already friends, but it's at that moment that they talk about what they are going to do and speak about topics such as Mito. The shooting star marks a significant bond between Gon and Killua. It represents their connection and love (platonic or not) for each other, as shooting stars can also symbolize a new love. This is related to the hope we have when seeing a shooting star, which is connected to that hope (and excitement) we feel when we start a new relationship. Using the shooting star could work as a narrative device to highlight the importance of this moment and the bond between Gon and Killua.

In the second scene, Killua discusses the possibility of a double suicide if something were to happen. Again, the shooting star appears at the end before transitioning to the next scene.

As I said before, shooting stars commonly symbolize wishes and promises. In this context, it could symbolize Killua's inner turmoil and/or even his determination to protect Gon (and be with him), possibly hinting at a resolution or decision he has made internally. Because of his words, we can guess he made the decision to die with Gon if that's what is needed. What he says can even foreshadow significant events or intense emotions, such as the ones that follow in the story. For example, Killua running to reach Gon and save him. It could even be related to other characters, such as Meruem and Komugi committing double suicide.

Killua's statement about a double suicide is a serious and intense moment, and the shooting star might emphasize the gravity of the situation. In this case, I wouldn't say this is a "positive change," though we could argue that for Killua maybe it would have been because Gon would have included him.

However, it is a moment in which Killua makes a big decision, one that would take to risk practically his life just to stay with Gon or protect him.

In addition to this, it could also bring us back to the first scene, in which they promise to stay together, symbolizing their strong bond. This is emphasized by the fact that the next scene is about Gon and Pitou. However, in this case, both Gon and Killua seem to be in different head-spaces. On one hand, Killua is worried he could lose Gon to the darkness, as he feels their bond is wavering and he can't reach him no matter how much he tries. On the other hand, Gon is too focused on his goal to save Kite. He is in too much pain and despair while trying to control the situation on his own terms.

In both instances, the shooting stars seem to add a layer of emotional depth and narrative emphasis to the scenes. They highlight the sincerity of promises, the intensity of emotions, and the transient nature of crucial moments in Gon and Killua's lives.

side-note

Something that adds to my delusional mind to all of these and I think it's really interesting is the following:

The fourth ending Nagareboshi Kirari seems to mean "sparkling shooting star". The song is an exploration of longing and hope, entrusting wishes to the stars, unanswered thoughts and unspoken feelings. It delves into the theme of connection, particularly the emotional bond between the narrator and a distant loved one. There's a lot to say about this song and its lyrics, but that should be a whole new post.

I think the song speaks perfectly about Gon and Killua's situation in general (not only about what I mention here, of course) and I think it's a good way to finish this post.

Thank you so much for reading! Have a good day or night, whichever the time is when you're seeing this.

[gothhabiba]

people are still in my inbox about how supposedly calling attention to the global material realities underpinning the concept of the global south "scammer" is the same thing as "defending scammers" or saying that western or whatever people "deserve" to be scammed

meanwhile my perspective on "scams" is currently being heavily shaped by the experience of trying again and again to send a money transfer to someone who's becoming increasingly frantic on the phone because my government is bombing them & they're worried they're not going to have access to the money they sacrificed and put themselves at risk to collect and both of my bank accounts (different companies) and all my debit and credit cards keep declining the transaction for "fraud protection" or "scam prevention" reasons, presumably for the reason that the address is in Egypt

[reasonandempathy]

It is truly absolutely insane seeing exactly how much Zionism continues to be a prevalent and major, supported ideology, especially in and around Israel's current behavior of the ethnic cleansing/genocide in Gaza and even the saber-rattling about Iran, which Netanyahu has been trying to start a war with for decades now. This war is in nobody's interest, at all, period, unless that person is Bibi Netanyahu, a direct political ally of his, or is so committed to enacting violence (on either side) that they will almost happily see Israel and Palestine as a whole turn into a literally bloody wasteland.

Even limiting every other article/source to just Israeli press, Israel's attack on Iran is delegitimizing everything it's saying or proposing about attacking Rafah.

Taking over the Gaza Strip, the great "ground operation" that has left more than 34,000 Palestinian dead, was born in a diplomatic and strategic vacuum, with no plan for the "day after," no exit plan, and conducted by improvisation, with daily events replacing the empty square called "strategy" and dictating its content. The same is true for the killing of the Al Quds Force commander in Syria and Lebanon, Hassan Mahdavi (also known as Mohammad Reza Zahedi), which was not based on an understanding or recognition of the expected Iranian response, and which forced Israel to hurriedly built a response to the response – which also is not anchored in a strategy that takes into account the global and regional repercussions, especially the repercussions on Israel's own security.

The war and IDF are carrying out what is best for Netanyahu's political interests, not for Israel itself.

But history has shown us that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a world champion in missing opportunities. There have been so many since the first week after the atrocities of October 7. That's the problem with a striker who plays for himself. He's only concerned about the glory from scoring goals. He doesn't care if his team suffers a stinging loss. That's how it is when your eyes are constantly on the wrong ball – political survival, not Israel's interest. ... The Bibi-ist social media was beaming with unabashed pride on Sunday: If only Netanyahu had been woken up in time on October 7, Israel would have been protected from its enemies and everything would be beautiful.

Bibi's actions and escalation are actively endangering Israel as a whole.

Israel is facing a historic defeat, the bitter fruit of years of disastrous policies. If the country now prioritizes vengeance over its own best interests, it will put itself and the entire region in grave danger Unfortunately, Benjamin Netanyahu and his political partners have repeatedly proven that they are unfit to make such decisions. The policies they pursued for many years have brought Israel to the brink of destruction. So far, they have shown no regret for their past mistakes, and no inclination to change direction. If they continue to shape policy, they will lead us and the whole Middle East to perdition. Instead of rushing into a new war with Iran, we should first learn the lessons of Israel's failures over the past six months of war.

The war and escalation are actively harming the Israeli economy on the long-term

Ratings agency S&P Global cut Israel's long-term ratings to A-plus from AA-minus overnight into Friday, the confrontation with Iran heightened last weekend and amidst the already elevated geopolitical risks for Israel. In addition to the downgrade, S&P also published a negative outlook, meaning the agency believes it's likely there will be an additional downgrade in the future. S&P typically updates credit ratings on predetermined dates, with the exception being if an urgent update is needed. Israel's update was due to be published on May 10, and the agency said the political and security situation led to the urgent update. "We forecast that Israel's general government deficit will widen to 8 percent of GDP in 2024, mostly as a result of increased defense spending," S&P Global said in its statement.

Israeli courts are calling bullshit on the government's claims that they're taking steps to address the famine.

"This is the opposite of how people see the High Court of Justice. People think the state comes to court trembling with the fear of being reprimanded. But actually the court is very careful not to intervene." But the Supreme Court – serving as the High Court of Justice because it was responding to a petition – found a way to intervene. It didn't lash out at the state, it opted for soft activism. "The court, in its wisdom, entered through the opening that the state gave it," says Eyal Benvenisti, an international law professor at Cambridge University. "The justices told the state, 'You're saying you're taking steps; let's hear what you're really doing. And what you can do more of." ... Cohen-Lifshitz wondered why the state was so proud of its coordination with the aid agencies if in the same breath it rejected their reports about the acute humanitarian crisis in northern Gaza, arguing that these reports are based on Hamas' phony numbers.

Israeli claims that they're not going to takeover Gaza are laughably at face value, especially since the IDF is actively building fortifications in Gaza.

Satellite images and photographs shared on social media show extensive development and construction at two outposts the Israel Defense Forces is building on the strategic road that divides the Gaza Strip into two. The army calls the construction of these outposts in what it calls the "Netzarim Corridor" as a long-term achievement. The whole corridor is referred to as something that is here to stay. The Netzarim Road, in the heart of this corridor, bisects the Gaza Strip. The outposts were built along this road, which is intended to enable the IDF to control the movement of Palestinians from the south to the north and launch operations in different parts of the Strip.

And, of course, it isn't actually about Gaza or Hamas at all. Israel is still building new, Jewish communities in Jerusalem. There are many more to come.

A report by Ir Amim and Bimkom nonprofits, said that since October 7, planning agencies have advanced 17 master plans for Jews in East Jerusalem that encompass 8,434 apartments. The plans for almost 3,000 of these apartments have been submitted by the custodian general, which is responsible for managing Jewish assets abandoned when Jews were forced out of eastern Jerusalem during the 1948 War of Independence. Some other plans would expand large Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, like Gilo and Pisgat Ze'ev, by replacing low-rise buildings with high-rise ones. According to the Peace Now nonprofit, the invitation to bid shows that "Israel is advancing new settlements in East Jerusalem at top speed, and thereby perpetuating the bloody conflict with the Palestinians and the countries of the region."

And of course they're still speeding along any and every action to kick more Palestinians out of their homes, legal opinions be damned.

A court ruled that the Palestinian family's home is owned by a right-wing Jewish group that acquired the interests of a Jewish trust that bought the site prior to Israel's establishment in 1948. The Israeli justice who ordered the eviction stated he's not waiting for the attorney general's legal opinion

[notwiselybuttoowell]

The election of Donald Trump as president for a second time and the Republican takeback of the U.S. Senate could undo many of the national climate policies that are most reducing planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, according to climate solutions experts. When they list measures that are making the most difference, it lines up with policies Trump has said he’ll target. These rollbacks will come as more lives are being lost in heat waves, record amounts of climate pollution are accumulating in the atmosphere, the United States has been hit with what may be two of its most expensive hurricanes, and nations, which will meet in Baku, Azerbaijan next week for climate negotiations, have failed to take strong action to change these realities. [at time of posting COP29 has begun] Here are some of the measures.

The Inflation Reduction Act, the nation’s landmark climate law This law is significant because it is expected to reduce U.S. emissions by about 40% by 2030, if it unfolds as planned in the coming years. It funnels money to measures that substitute clean energy for dirty. One major way it does so is by giving credits to businesses people who build new solar and wind farms. But it’s not limited to that. It encourages developers of geothermal energy and businesses that separate the carbon dioxide from their smokestacks and bury it underground. It incentivizes the next generation of nuclear power. It gives a $7,500 tax credit to people who buy electric cars. People who buy their cars used can get a credit too, as long as they don’t earn too much to qualify. Trump, by contrast, has summed up his energy policy as “drill, baby, drill” and pledged to dismantle what he calls Democrats’ “green new scam” in favor of boosting production of fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal, the main causes of climate change. He vows to end subsidies for wind power that were included in the landmark 2022 climate law. If Trump does target the climate law, there are provisions that are likely safe. One is a credit for companies in advanced manufacturing, because it is perceived as “America first and pro-U.S. business,” said David Shepheard, partner and energy expert at the global consultant Baringa. Incentives for electric vehicles are likely most at risk, he added. In a call Wednesday morning, Scott Segal, head of a communications group at the law firm Bracewell LLP, which represents the energy industry, said the climate law is not likely to be repealed. Dan Jasper, a senior policy advisor at Project Drawdown, said repealing parts of the climate law could backfire because most of the investments and jobs are in Republican congressional districts.

Pollution from electric power plants The main U.S. rule aimed at reducing the climate change that comes from making electricity at power plants that burn coal is also considered vulnerable. This rule from the Environmental Protection Agency, announced in April, would force many coal-fired plants to capture 90% of their carbon emissions or shut down within eight years, Shepheard said. It was projected to reduce roughly 1.38 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide through 2047, along with tens of thousands of tons of other harmful air pollutants. Industry groups and Republican-controlled states have filed legal challenges to a host of EPA rules including this one and Trump’s victory means the Justice Department is unlikely to defend it. Under a Trump presidency, it is unlikely to survive, Shepheard said. The United States has been reducing carbon dioxide emissions primarily by replacing coal-fired power plants with clean, renewable power, said Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson, who chairs the Global Carbon Project, a group of scientists that tracks countries’ carbon dioxide emissions. “I hope that we don’t lose sight of the benefits of clean energy,” he said. “It’s not just about the climate. It’s about our lives and our health.”

Limiting leaks from damaging methane, or natural gas The Biden administration was under pressure to reduce one of the main pollutants contributing to drought, heat waves, flooding and stronger hurricanes — methane or natural gas. It leaks out of oil and gas equipment, sometimes deliberately when companies consider it too expensive to transport. The Biden administration issued the first national rules on this. Industry groups and Republican-leaning states have challenged the rule in court. They say the Environmental Protection Agency overstepped its authority and set unattainable standards. The EPA said the rules are squarely within its legal responsibilities and would protect the public.

Fuel-efficient vehicles The Environmental Protection Agency has issued its strongest rules on tailpipe emissions from cars and trucks under the Biden administration. While it is unclear who will head the EPA under Trump, the agency is considered likely to begin a lengthy process to repeal and replace a host of standards including the one on tailpipe emissions, which Trump falsely calls an electric vehicle “mandate.″ Trump rolled back more than 100 environmental laws as president and that number is likely to grow in a second term. Trump has said EV manufacturing will destroy jobs in the auto industry and has falsely claimed that battery-powered cars don’t work in cold weather and aren’t able to travel long distances. Trump softened his rhetoric in recent months after Tesla CEO Elon Musk endorsed him and campaigned heavily for his election. Even so, industry officials expect Trump to try to slow a shift to electric cars.

Drilling in Alaska refuge Trump is almost certain to reinstate oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, continuing a partisan battle that has persisted for decades. Biden and other Democratic presidents have blocked drilling in the sprawling refuge, which is home to polar bears, caribou and other wildlife. Trump opened the area to drilling in a 2017 tax cut law enacted by congressional Republicans. No drilling has occurred in the refuge, although the U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Wednesday proposed a lease sale by the end of December that could lead to oil drilling. The sale is required under the 2017 law.

Transition to cleaner energy, transport will continue Trump, who has cast climate change as a “hoax,” has said he will also eliminate regulations by the Biden administration to increase the energy efficiency of lightbulbs, stoves, dishwashers and shower heads. Dan Jasper, a senior policy advisor at Project Drawdown said climate action will continue to move forward at the state and local level. Zara Ahmed, who leads policy analysis and science strategy at Carbon Direct, agreed. While there may be an abdication of leadership at the federal level on climate, she’s optimistic that states including California will continue to lead. Clean Air Task Force Executive Director Armond Cohen said on Wednesday that states, cities, utilities and businesses that have committed to net zero emissions will keep working toward those goals, driving record installations of wind and solar energy. Governors of both parties are also interested in ramping up nuclear energy as a carbon-free source of electricity, Cohen said. Trump has said he, too, is interested in developing the next generation of nuclear reactors that are smaller than traditional reactors. Gina McCarthy, a former EPA administrator who was Biden’s first national climate adviser, said Trump will be unable to stop clean energy such as wind, solar and geothermal power. “No matter what Trump may say, the shift to clean energy is unstoppable and our country is not turning back,″ McCarthy said. Advocates for clean energy are bipartisan, well-organized “and fully prepared to deliver climate solutions, boost local economies, and drive climate ambition,′ she said.

[zvaigzdelasas]

The global market for carbon offsets is worth about $2 billion today and projected to grow to as much as $1 trillion in 15 years even as it faces fundamental questions about credibility and effectiveness. Add government appropriation to the list of risks for this climate solution. A shock announcement this week that Zimbabwe will take half of all revenues generated from offsets projects developed on its territory is a harbinger of an uncertain future in the carbon trade. The African nation is the world’s 12th largest creator of offsets, with 4.2 million credits from 30 registered projects last year, according to BloombergNEF.

Zimbabwe’s move gives the government control of carbon credit production and cancels all past agreements with international organizations. That means more revenue generated from credits tied to protecting forests and other efforts to cut emissions will flow into national coffers rather than going to project developers. There’s now risk that other countries might follow suit, creating new uncertainties for businesses that develop and sell offsets, corporations that purchase offsets as a way to counterbalance their greenhouse gas pollution and the cohort of traders who invest in this emerging asset class. [...]

The move “blindsided” CO2balance, a company that runs five carbon offset projects in Zimbabwe. “Everyone knew changes were happening but we weren’t expecting this — it wasn’t on the horizon,” said Paul Chiplen, head of sales, in an interview on Thursday. “It does put a question mark in investors’ minds when you’re not quite sure of what level of return you’re getting.” [...]

“I think it is an entirely understandable thing for Zimbabwe to want to take a proportion of the funds from any exports of carbon from its territory,” said Edward Hanrahan, director at carbon project developer Climate Impact Partners. “But the issue is they acted rapidly and without prior notice.”[...]

Each credit represents one ton of carbon dioxide and can be bought and sold many times before being used. The unregulated structure of the market involving companies, traders and governments creates risk of double counting. What if a government seeks to benefit by trading a credit produced in its territory after its been sold to an investor or used in a corporate sustainability plan?[...]

Treating carbon credits as just another export commodity underscores an imbalance at the heart of this global trade: Efforts to develop credits are usually funded by firms from wealthy countries and sold to corporate buyers in Europe and the US, yet most of the projects are located in emerging economies. This setup has been derided as a form of carbon colonialism that strips developing countries of an increasingly valuable resource. “Rushing to frame the decision by Zimbabwe as ‘nationalization risk’ exposes a sense of entitlement to access those resources by the global North,” said Rich Gilmore, chief executive officer at investment manager Carbon Growth Partners in Melbourne. “We need to acknowledge that the past 200 years of resource extraction have miserably failed people and the planet. And if we want the carbon market to scale, we need to respect the right of the nations of the south to determine their own rules.”[...]

Developers and investors might start to prioritize countries where governments have been transparent about their future carbon policies. Plus, if governments follow Zimbabwe in taking half of the project revenues, that will create a barrier to carbon projects that are the most costly to implement.[...]

It’s “entirely appropriate” for countries to seek a larger share from their carbon resources but they must “carefully consider the economics,” said Martijn Wilder, chief executive officer of Pollination, a climate advisory and investment firm. “If what’s left for a project developer is not sufficient to cover an investible rate of return, the project simply won’t happen.”

21 May 23

[depressedgarbages-stuff]

All posts of the situation of 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸 I saw today (Sun, Apr 14.):

https://www.tumblr.com/sayruq/747682536155660288/never-forget-that-this-would-not-be-happening-had?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/i-am-aprl/747664824776982528/palestinian-activists-get-their-message-across-on?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/cavalierzee/745173745001431040/hunger-or-bombs?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/kaapstadgirly/746305989840633856/genocide-before-our-eyes-and-we-can-do-nothing?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/longlivepalestina/747365248534822912/i-just-saw-someone-say-yeah-but-the-palestinians?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/the-eyespy/747474218717970432/children-in-northern-gaza-spend-the-first-days?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/archive-pl/747682059828543488?source=share

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeuWPevG/

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeuW63EK/

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeuW6uab/

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeuWLPw8/

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeuWkkmv/

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeuWd9aA/

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeuWBGmy/

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeuWeUU7/

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeunErtf/

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeuWAoPB/

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeuWreST/

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeuWMo6d/

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeuWUyjT/

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeuWJLgS/

https://www.tumblr.com/sayruq/747691312508190720/its-actually-crazy-talking-to-friends-and?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/i-am-aprl/747692145413095424/all-apartheid-walls-must-fall?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/sayruq/747694988417253376?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/memingursa/747613974073393152/really-this-is-trump-level-shit-all-to-support-a?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/i-am-aprl/747622661379801088/heartbreaking-scenes-captured-by-ferasnader99?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/nezreblogz/747549208741036032?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/sayruq/747685859422339072?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/sayruq/747688430570471424/credit-to-caniscathexis-for-showing-me-this?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/tamarrud/747672785907793920/when-i-say-there-are-things-that-israel-will-never?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/ghostingghosty/747682895181824001/iran-has-launched-a-retaliation-against-israel-for?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/adropofhumanity/746789149350182912?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/sayruq/747684936476246016/this-is-from-hours-ago-israeli-settlers-have?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/catshinji/747367784302919680/monday-april-15th-a-day-of-global-economic?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/sayruq/747685050585350144?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/fashionfrenzyspot/747753376366886912/click-me?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/sugas6thtooth/745884861510844416/please-follow-dr-sara-on-tiktok-and-watch-this?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/sayruq/746605684493254656/al-shifa-iraqi-resistance?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/reesepiece2/747681295321251840/twitter-and-yet-the-mainstream-media-has-been?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/sayruq/747687894124249088?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/i-am-aprl/747617889573634048/you-cant-kill-their-spirit-beautiful-smile?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/fairuzfan/745976567084318720?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/shifa-ameen/747632537345638400/kuwait-goes-hard-on-israel?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/sayruq/746602082978627584?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/fairuzfan/747590750485839872/germany-detains-gaza-surgeon-ghassan-abu-sittah?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/soon-palestine/747548372270972928/german-police-zionists-and-politicians-have?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/i-am-aprl/747687083862261760/people-trying-to-blame-iran-for-this-measured?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/alexi-01/747685535315804160?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/memingursa/747685938767986688/joe-biden-would-rather-risk-full-on-war-than-stop?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/intersectionalpraxis/747696649149857792/long-live-the-resistance-free-palestine?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/mostly-funnytwittertweets/747766455036215296?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/babiesarelazy/747700577157431296?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/workersolidarity/747760666793902080?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/000marie198/747366186157735936/do-not-forget-about-palestinians-on-this-eid-do?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/longlivepalestina/747529970651463680/israelis-who-have-berger-berg-weiss-man?source=share

[probablyasocialecologist]

Verra is a major proponent of the UN-backed scheme Redd+, which stands for “reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries”. It is designed to protect areas at risk of being deforested. Companies can buy carbon credits from these projects to discount their own emissions. Critics have long raised concerns about weak quality control of this kind of project. An investigation published by The Guardian and Die Zeit earlier this year alleged more than 90% of Verra’s Redd+ projects were not driving emission reductions, largely because developers exaggerated the threat forests were facing. Verra disputed the findings. Climate Home and Unearthed found that, in addition to inflated baselines, underreporting of forest loss throughout a project’s lifetime and light-touch regulation can lead to far too many credits being generated. “The findings point out deep flaws in the forest carbon offset mechanism”, said Souparna Lahiri, a climate adviser for the Global Forest Coalition. The fact deforestation is increasing, instead of going down, “is deeply concerning” and “strengthens our conviction that the mechanism of offsetting cannot be fixed”, he added.

[gacha-incels]

[Exclusive] “Deep Impact on Korean Women’s Movement… ‘Deepfake Scandal’ Naturally Leads to Global Solidarity”

published sept 18th 2024

this article has been mtl and edited from the original Korean into english. it’s not going to be 1:1 but the basic facts should be there. If you happen to notice any discrepancies please lmk and I’ll edit it asap. Thanks everyone for your help and continued patience. I thought it was interesting to hear from the Chinese feminists who organized the protest in London and learn how they think about the deepfake issue so I decided to post this here.

Chinese Women’s Exclusive Interview after Organizing UK Protest against ‘Korean Deepfake Porn Scandal’

“It broke my heart when I saw two Korean high school girls translating the ‘Deepfake Porn Scandal’ into Chinese online to seek help. It was clear that, just as the Chinese government ignores us, the Korean government was doing the same to them, which made me feel even sadder.”

Nana, a Chinese feminist who organized a protest in London condemning the Telegram deepfake porn crimes in Korea, described her initial emotions upon hearing about the recent deepfake incident in Korea. The sadness she felt was not only from empathizing with the suffering of the many female victims. It also stemmed from a deep sense of sympathy and shared struggle with the women living under state and societal systems that remained indifferent to their pain.

Feeling an instinctive urge to “do something,” Nana quickly organized a protest march from London’s Trafalgar Square to the Korean Embassy. What she initially expected to be a small gathering of just a few Korean activists exceeded her expectations. Within just a few days, more than 100 women from various countries, including Korea, China, and Japan, took to the streets on the evening of September 3 (local time). The protest also drew significant attention on social media, becoming the first overseas demonstration following the incident.

Around ten days after the protest, Segye Ilbo was able to meet three Chinese women in the UK who organized and led the event. Given the risks that Chinese protesters face, both at home and abroad, the women requested to use pseudonyms.

On September 3 (local time), women from various nationalities gathered in London to protest against the recent illegal deepfake porn crimes in South Korea. The protest was a call for justice regarding the widespread deepfake sexual exploitation incident.

Protest in the UK Against the Korean Deepfake Scandal

In an interview at a café in central London on September 12, Nana, Axolotl, and Mochi revealed that they have been involved in women’s rights activism since 2022 through their Instagram account, “We Are All Chained Women (@weareallchainedwomen).” While women had always participated in protests, they noticed that men often took credit for their contributions. This inspired them to create an account to document women’s activism firsthand. Their pre-existing community of women living abroad became the foundation for their collective efforts. Despite having no prior experience in organizing protests, they learned the ropes by directly engaging in street activism, including how to organize marches and the symbolic importance of protesting in front of embassies.

Over the years, they have organized around 20 protests, addressing issues like sexual assault in India, women’s rights in Palestine, and human rights for women in Afghanistan. However, the protest in early September against the Korean deepfake scandal felt particularly special to them. Typically, they communicated only in Chinese, but this protest plan was quickly translated into English and spread to women from various countries, resulting in an unprecedented level of diversity and participation.

Nana said, “I wanted to protest alongside Korean feminists, but I hadn’t had the chance to connect with any in real life. It was so meaningful to finally meet Korean women through the spread of this protest.” Following advice from many Korean women on how to prepare for the protest, they stayed up late, making banners just three days before the event. They also learned the importance of having legal observers and safety personnel.

Axolotl emphasized the significance of this protest, saying, “Unlike previous, more relaxed gatherings, this was a truly official protest organized as a formal entity. It was also the first time we met women of various nationalities on the streets, not just Koreans.”

Recalling the day of the protest, Mochi said, “It was my first time going to the Korean embassy, and we got a bit lost, so there were some bumps along the way. Despite our inexperience, thanks to the courage and solidarity of women from various countries who chanted slogans in Korean and English, we successfully completed the protest.” In London, slogans such as “My life is not your porn” and “Deepfake is murder” echoed throughout the protest.

When asked about the reaction of the Korean embassy, Mochi explained, “Two men were watching us from behind the curtains, filming the protest, and embassy security guards came out to record what we were saying. If this were the Chinese embassy, they might have responded more discreetly, but the Korean embassy seemed shocked, likely because they hadn’t encountered such protests before. Soon after, they called the police.” However, the police merely asked when the protest would end and then left.

As embassy staff left the building, protesters chanted, “Punish everyone who creates, watches, and trades in illegal deepfake content!” According to Mochi, the embassy representatives quickly retreated back inside.

The Influence of Korean Women's Feminism

"Girls' Generation's 'Into the New World'? Of course, I know it. I also know it’s used at protest sites. I believe every woman in China our age should know this song."

These women all agreed that Korean feminism has already made a significant impact in China. They were well aware of the “Uncomfortable Courage” (2018) protests, which criticized biased investigations into illegal filming crimes in South Korea. They explained that “Into the New World,” sung by Korean women at various protest sites, is not only famous in China but also known and sung by feminists in many other countries.

One movement that particularly caught their attention was South Korea’s “4B Movement.” The term “4B” combines the Chinese character for “no” (非) and the letter “B,” referring to a lifestyle that rejects four traditional roles: sexual relationships, childbirth, dating, and marriage with men. Never before had there been such a collective movement questioning and voluntarily rejecting life tasks that were considered natural for women to follow.

When Nana first heard about the 4B Movement, she was deeply impressed. “While it’s dangerous to openly oppose the government, it’s remarkable how women have found ways to resist on an individual level in their daily lives,” she said. “I think it’s an effective way for individuals to resist being reduced to birth machines by the state.”

She also introduced the “boy sober” trend, which has become popular on the video platform TikTok. The term “sober” refers to being mentally clear, and the trend encourages women to stop relying on men in order to maintain emotional independence. This trend is thought to have been significantly influenced by South Korea’s 4B Movement and events like the U.S. abortion ban ruling.

Nana emphasized the importance of young women experiencing the freedom to enjoy their lives and spaces as individuals, rather than being dependent on men.

Axolotl pointed out that even in Western countries, many women are still "chasing false dreams." She explained that while there is a societal atmosphere that makes people believe gender equality has already been achieved and that women are equal to men, it’s crucial to expose the reality that this is not the case. “We must not be deceived by the small comforts offered by patriarchal systems and governments,” she said, stressing the need to uproot the deep-seated roots of gender inequality.

In this process, Axolotl believes, “We must question the policies and laws of every institution and government.” She explained that encountering immediate backlash when addressing systems of oppression—like patriarchy intertwined with capitalism—demonstrates why this work is necessary. “For a long time, we’ve struggled with political depression, feeling helpless that nothing could change,” she added. “But now, at least, we know we can do something, and through connections, we can draw strength from one another.”

Mochi shared a similar sentiment, reflecting on the meaning of all this activism. “I used to ask myself what the point of all this was, but then I realized that it wasn’t about changing the world immediately. I have to do this for my own mental health,” she said. Finding a way to channel incomprehensible anger and break free from long-standing feelings of helplessness provided her with a personal, practical solution.

She added, “If you focus solely on how much the world has changed, in some ways, it can feel very unrealistic. But when you concentrate on your own emotions and the powerful sense of connection you feel when meeting more like-minded friends, that’s where you find the motivation to keep going.” They said that since they began organizing protests, their group has continued to grow, giving them hope for the future.

Hiding Women’s Rights and Domestic Violence Issues

Nana reflected on the longstanding societal strategy of concealing issues such as women’s rights and domestic violence and trying to stop women from exposing these problems in other languages by accusing them of “disgracing the nation.” She noted, “In this sense, Korean feminists and we are so alike that it feels like looking in a mirror.”

Nana mentioned that when she heard from Korean women that “we do not trust the Korean government or the Korean media,” she realized it was similar to how Chinese women couldn’t find trustworthy media in China. This is why the slogan “Woman is our nationality” was created. She explained, “Regardless of background or country, being women unites us, and it’s the perfect slogan to show solidarity among feminists of various nationalities.” She emphasized that it also carries the message, “We will eventually win.”

They stressed the importance of connection between women from East Asian countries, which share common traits such as Confucianism and patriarchal governments. The women, who were well-versed in the history of digital sex crimes in Korea—from illegal filming to the Telegram Nth Room exploitation and deepfake sexual violence—asserted, “Turning women’s everyday lives into pornography is not just a problem in Korean society.” They expressed anticipation for the large protest related to deepfake crimes set to take place in Seoul on September 21.

The women repeatedly mentioned the courage of Korean feminists and the awakening it sparked among women of various nationalities. Nana asked, “Do Korean women know how much Chinese feminists have been influenced by the 4B movement and literature from Korea?”

She continued, “There are many works of ‘Korean women’s literature’ translated into Chinese. Classics like Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, The Vegetarian, and Summer Outside. Writers like Kim Ae-ran, Kim Cho-yeop, and Han Kang are famous among Chinese feminists.”

London correspondent: Ji-hye Jeong

[leighlew3]

Hey I'm interested in how the industry works and how it's slowing down atm, could you give some insights?

Welp. Buckle up...

Between tech bros and tech bro appeasers taking over the industry, the streaming model (an initially positive thing that's been twisted into something obviously not always so great), the pandemic, and the strike, plus the ever present political and global upheaval which has investors/banks biting nails -- Hollywood is not in a good place, and it's being run further and further into the ground by people afraid to take any risks or spend any money -- worse than ever.

That means less specs being bought, less movies being made, less shows being greenlit, and so on. Productions in LA have fallen to historic lows (because what IS being made is increasingly being taken elsewhere for tax credits and lower cost). Output and employment is just not great. And of course fans have become more selective and most studios and executives are simply not remotely on the same page with audiences and viewers anymore and relying too much on algorithms and skewed data (and allowing hateful anti-“woke” mobs to review bomb and doom anything fresh) and then wondering why even their big blockbusters are flopping now as well.

This was supposed to be the year the industry started to bounce back after the pandemic and strike, and while it's gotten better than it was when it was completely at a standstill, and yes movies and tv are still being made, it's just not good. It's not remotely where it should be, let alone anywhere near the level it was pre-pandemic. And even pre-pandemic, we were already seeing a lot of these problems starting to rear their heads...

I mean in the 90s and early 2000s a straight white guy could give a one line pitch to a studio and be handed a million bucks to write it. Or write the most basic ass spec and make a cool couple million for the sale. But now, even the straight white guys have to have a project locked and loaded already with attachments (talent, director, producers) already on board. No one want to develop anything. Everyone wants everyone else to do all the work (aka spend all the time and money) first and then maybe they'll buy the package and make the movie, or distribute a finished product. Imagine what that means for mid to lower level projects entirely. And imagine what that especially means for women/POC/LGBTQ creatives.

Anyway, agencies and reps all thought things would start to really get back on track this year, but it hasn't, really. The town-wide motto being said to writers, actors, directors, etc by Spring/Summer was "survive 'til 25". Now, the new motto is "survive through 25". Now everyone is hoping, somehow 2025 will be a solid recovery year and 2026 might be a genuinely good year again. But it just keeps getting pushed back and looking more and more bleak. A lot of writers, showrunners, etc -- successful ones and newbies alike, are just flat out leaving or preparing to leave the industry entirely, if they haven't already.

And people who are considering making writing, acting, or crew work a career are being flat out told "now is not the time, don't come to Hollywood, don't try to make this a career because there's just not enough work right now, and the career might not exist at all soon". And that's... pretty yikes.

Look, Hollywood has ALWAYS endured. It survived the Great Depression, global wars, technological revolutions -- and I actually believe it will survive this era as well.

I'm just not sure what comes out the other side of it...

And that's not even taking into account the role AI will play.

[warframestuff]

Pride 2023 has begun in the Origin System once again, this year you can expect a bevy of new and returning items to celebrate your pride. Celebrate LGBTQIA2S+ inclusion and diversity with new in-game Display and Glyph, and support featured Warframe creators all month long!

RAINBOW RAILROAD

Digital Extremes is proud to support Rainbow Railroad, a global organization dedicated to helping at-risk LGBTQIA2S+ people around the world get to safety. Their mission helps protect vulnerable communities from systemic, state-enabled homophobia and transphobia that displace them in their own country or prevent them from escaping harm.

Digital Extremes is making a $20,000 CAD donation in support of Rainbow Railroad to kick off Pride 2023. If you have the means and feel compelled to contribute as well, we encourage you to join your fellow Tenno and check out the Warframe Tiltify to further support Rainbow Railroad.

You and your own community can also join in on the fundraising for Rainbow Railroad! Here’s how: 1. Create or login to your Tiltify account. If you’re signing up for the first time, be sure to select “Fundraiser/Donor” 2. Head to our The Warframe Community In Support Of Rainbow Railroad campaign page. Once there, hit “Support This Campaign” 3. Enter details like campaign name, details, and goal until it’s set to your liking! 4. Create and share your campaign URL with your community! The funds you raise will be credited to you and your community, but will also contribute to the larger goal of The Warframe Community In Support Of Rainbow Railroad.

If you are not able to donate, consider sharing Pride 2023 in Warframe and Rainbow Railroad’s mission with friends OR join our team and fundraise on your own under the Warframe umbrella!

PRIDE IN-GAME

New items designed by community fan artists are available for you to customize your Orbiter and Profile! Find the new Pride Display 2023 (designed by ViperMenace) and the Pride Glyph 2023 (designed by Irisllych) are available now in the in-game Market for only 1 Credit.

You can also find the return of the Pride Celebration Color Palette in the in-game Market for 1 Credit as well!