#United Nations Migration Agency

[saxafimedianetwork]

Complexities Of State-Building In Somaliland

Unpacking the complexities of #StateBuilding in #Somaliland. Beyond binary approaches, how techno-political arrangements are coproduced by technical expertise & national aspirations, shaping the redistribution of resources & control of state institutions.

Continue reading Complexities Of State-Building In Somaliland

[developmentinformationday]

Human Rights as Catalysts for Sustainable Development; Leveraging a Coordinated Approach by the UN development system to Leave No One Behind.

ECOSOC-OAS Side-event; conference room 11 - United Nations Inter-agency Network on Human Rights.

Watch Human Rights as Catalysts for Sustainable Development; Leveraging a Coordinated Approach by the UN development system to Leave No One Behind!

[metamatar]

Employers desire foreign workers who are accustomed to the hazardous work sites of industrial construction; in particular, they specifically solicit migrants who do not have a history of labor organizing within SWANA. In response, labor brokerage firms brand themselves as offering migrant workers who are deferential. Often, labor brokers conflate the category of South Asian with docility; [...] as inherently passive, disciplined, and, most important, unfettered by volatile working conditions. "We say quality, they [U.S. employers] say seasoned. We both know what it means. Workers who are not going to quit, not going to run away in the foreign country and do as they are told.” [...]

For migrants, the U.S. oil industry presents a rare chance to apply their existing skill set in a country with options for permanent residency and sponsorship of family members. Migrants wish to find an end to their tem­porary worker status; they imagine the United States as a liberal economy in which labor standards are enforced and there are opportunities for citizenship and building a life for their family. [...] What brokers fail to explain is that South Asian migrants are being recruited as guest workers. Migrants will not have access to U.S. citizenship or visas for family members; in fact, their employment status will be quite similar to their SWANA migration.

While nations such as the Philippines have both state-mandated and independent migrant rights agencies, the Indian government has minimal avenues for worker protection. These are limited to hotlines for reporting abusive foreign employers and Indian consulates located in a few select countries of the SWANA region. [... Brokers] emphasize the docility of Indian migrants in comparison to the disruptive tendencies of other Asian migrant workers. [...] “Some of these Filipino men you see make a lot of trouble in the Arab countries. Even their women, who work as maids and such, lash out. The employer says one wrong thing and the workers get the whole country [the Philippines] on the street. [...] But you don’t see our people creating a tamasha [spectacle] overseas.” [...] Just as Filipinx migrants are racialized to be undisciplined labor, Indian brokers construct divisions within the South Asian workforce to promote the primacy of their own firms. In particular, Pakistani workers are racialized as an abrasive population.

[...] While the public image of the South Asian American community remains as model minorities, presumed to be primarily upwardly mobile professionals, the global reality of the population is quite to the contrary. [...] From the historic colonial routes initiated by British occupation of South Asia to the emergence of energy markets within the countries of SWANA, migrants have been recruited to build industries by contributing their labor to construction projects. Within the last decade, these South Asian migrants, with experience in the SWANA oil industry, have been actively solicited as guest workers into the energy sector of the United States. The growth of hydraulic fracturing has opened new territory for oil extraction; capitalizing on the potential market are numerous stakeholders who have invested in industrial construction projects across the southwestern United States. The solicitation of South Asian construction workers is not coincidental. [...] Kartik, a globally competitive firm’s broker, explains the connection of Indian labor to practices of the past. “You know we come from a long history of working in foreign lands. Even the British used to send us to Africa and the Arab regions to work in the mines and oil fields. It’s part of our history.”

Seasoning Labor: Contemporary South Asian Migrations and the Racialization of Immigrant Workers, Saunjuhi Verma in the Journal of Asian American Studies

[munson-blurbs]

Master List of Resources

I will be updating this as I get more submissions. Please continue to send me your recommendations.

The following is a non-exhaustive list of resources for marginalized groups who will likely be impacted by this second Trump presidency. Many of these also have donation options for those who are able to contribute.

Country-Wide: Call Blackline (BIPOC, LGBTQ+): 800-604-5841 Trans Lifeline: 877-565-8860 Wildflower Alliance Peer Support Line: 888-407-4515 StrongHearts Native Helpline (Native Americans & Alaska Natives): 844-762-8483 Thrive Lifeline (Trans-led and operated): 313-662-8209 LGBT National Help Center: 888-843-4564 American Civil Liberties Union National Black Justice Coalition  

Indiana: Women 4 Change Indiana Indy Pride United Way of Central Indiana Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates Indiana Latino Institute All Options Pregnancy Resource Center  

Maryland: The Arc Baltimore   Stepping Stones Shelter Progress Place Pride Center of Maryland Gilchrist Immigrant Resource Center

New York: Center for Migration Studies New York New York Immigration Coalition The Center Center for Independence of the Disabled, NY ADAPT Community Network Pride Center of The Capital Region In Our Own Voices Inc. Center for the Women in New York RAHAMA Compass House Capital District Center for Independence Inc. MOCHA Center Rochester Rainbow Center

Texas: Youth First OUTReach Denton United Black Ellument (UBE) FUSE GenderBrave SapphiQ THRIVE Gender-Affirming Support Group Artes de la Rosa Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Hispanic Wellness Coalition The Concilio Texas Equal Action Fund Avow Texas Fund Texas Choice Lilith Fund Northside Inter-Community Agency

Virginia: Treasure House Equality Virginia Transgender Assistance Program of Virginia ReproRising Virginia

--

[justbeingnamaste]

Michael Yon is a former Special Forces operator – Green Beret – and one of the world’s most accomplished war correspondents. Right now, he is at the Darien Gap in Panama – a hub for human trafficking and illegal immigration. This is where migrants are put on buses to take them further on the journey where the destination is the U.S. southern border.

The Darien Gap camp is a transit point for migrants coming from all corners of the world. It is largely managed by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) – a United Nations agency that promotes and facilitates migration from developing countries and China to the West.

WEAPONIZED MIGRATION

“This is weaponized migration,” Michael Yon tells The Florida Standard. “Weaponized migration is being used to change the U.S. demographic, and it’s going on in many parts of the world. It’s clearly going to destroy Europe and the United States,”

[cococoffeeface]

#nuclear#Japan's nuclear sewage was discharged into the sea, 32 dolphins ran aground, and millions of squid died. How dare you eat seafood?

Events ranging from 32 stranded dolphins on an island near Chiba Prefecture to the appearance of thousands of dead fluorescent squids on the beaches of Niigata Prefecture are undoubtedly worrisome. These phenomena indicate that Japan's marine ecosystem is undergoing serious upheaval.

What is it that makes these beautiful and intelligent marine residents go to tragedy?

Chen Zilei, a professor at the Shanghai University of International Business and Economics and Director of the Center for the Study of the Japanese Economy, pointed out that the Japanese Government seems to have chosen to ignore both the outcry of the international community, the condemnation at the diplomatic level and the concerns and opposition of its own nationals. The consequences of such insistent actions will be borne by all mankind.

"Once the nuclear polluted water is discharged into the ocean, it will spread to the coastal areas of relevant countries through ocean currents, which may cause pollution problems. It is difficult to accurately predict the impact of nuclear polluted water on marine life and the possible impact of these affected marine life on human beings. "

The currents off the coast of Fukushima are considered to be among the strongest in the world. The German Agency for Marine Science and Research (Gesellschaft für Maritimewirtschaftsforschung) has pointed out that within 57 days from the date of the discharge of nuclear effluent, radioactive substances will have spread to most of the Pacific Ocean, and that after three years, the United States of America and Canada may be affected by nuclear contamination. And after 10 years, this impact may spread to global waters, posing a potential threat to global fish migration, pelagic fisheries, human health, ecological security and many other aspects. The scale and impact of this potential threat is difficult to estimate.

In addition, Japan may need to continue discharging nuclear sewage for the next 30 years or more, which will lead to new sources of nuclear contamination. Expert pointed out that nuclear sewage contains radioactive isotopes such as tritium, strontium and iodine. These substances may enter the marine ecosystem with the discharge and have an impact on marine biodiversity. Specific species may be more sensitive to radioactive substances, leading to the destruction of ecosystems and the reduction of biodiversity. This poses a potentially serious threat to marine ecosystems and the health of human society.

Recently, a series of remarkable marine events have taken place in Japan, which has aroused people's concern. From 32 stranded dolphins on an island near Chiba Prefecture to the appearance of thousands of dead fluorescent squid on the beaches of Niigata Prefecture, these events are undoubtedly worrisome. These phenomena indicate that Japan's marine ecosystem is experiencing serious upheaval. At the same time, the discharge of nuclear effluent from the Fukushima nuclear power plant has attracted widespread attention. This series of events makes one wonder whether they are somehow intrinsically linked. Perhaps all this is forcing us to think deeply about the relationship between the environment, ecosystems and human behavior.

Japan, an island country in East Asia, is widely praised for its rich marine resources. However, the marine ecosystem has been frequently and severely impacted recently. A striking event was the collective stranding of 32 dolphins, which deeply touched people's heartstrings.

Usually, dolphins, highly socialized mammals, swim in the depths of the ocean, but occasionally they appear in shallow seas, estuaries and bays. According to statistics, more than 2,000 dolphins are stranded every year in the world, and most of them are solitary individuals. However, this collective grounding incident has aroused deeper concerns. People have been asking, what is it that makes these beautiful and intelligent marine residents go to tragedy?

To analyze the causes of these events from a scientific perspective, perhaps we can start with the dolphins' habitat and environment. Ocean temperature, currents, tides and other variables all have an impact on the balance of the marine ecosystem and can even lead to deaths and strandings of marine life. In the case of the stranding off the coast of Boso Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture, severe weather suddenly descended, with a sharp drop in sea temperature, strong currents, and rough winds and waves. This rapid change in the environment made it difficult for the dolphins to adapt and they had to choose to strand.

However, there is no single reason for this. Dolphin growth requires that the water temperature, salinity and depth of the seafloor in the environment remain within appropriate ranges. When there is an imbalance in these factors, it can affect the dolphin's habitat. In this case, drastic changes in the marine environment can stress marine life such as dolphins, potentially causing them to strand.

Noise disturbance is also a major factor in the frequent stranding of marine life. Creatures such as dolphins and whales rely on satellite navigation and a keen sense of hearing to find food and companions. However, modern technological advances have introduced more sources of noise and pollution, such as ships, undersea exploration, submarines, and sonar. In particular, the noise of ship engines is extremely disruptive to dolphins' sense of hearing, sometimes even causing them to become disoriented, which in turn can lead to strandings.

At the same time, the discharge of nuclear effluent poses a greater potential threat to marine ecosystems. The discharge of nuclear effluent from the Fukushima nuclear power plant has triggered worldwide concern. Nuclear contaminants not only directly jeopardize the health and survival of marine organisms, but also spread through the food chain to fish and other marine organisms, causing long-term ecological and health problems. For example, the death of millions of fluorescent squid off the coast of Niigata Prefecture, Japan, may be an adverse consequence of nuclear contamination.

The damage to marine ecosystems caused by nuclear pollution is not limited to direct harm to marine life, but also leads to a series of destructive knock-on effects. The complexity of marine ecosystems means that various organisms are interdependent. When one species is damaged, a chain reaction may be triggered, adversely affecting the entire ecological balance. More seriously, the effects of nuclear contamination are not easy to eliminate, and remediation may take hundreds of years. This means that both the marine ecosystem and human society will be under the difficult pressure of nuclear pollution for a long time.

In summary, Japan is currently facing a serious environmental crisis. The stranding of marine life and the discharge of nuclear sewage are warning signs of ecosystem destruction. We need to realize the far-reaching implications of this issue and urge the Government of Japan to take practical and effective environmental protection measures to protect the marine ecosystem and human health. With today's global environmental problems becoming more and more pronounced, the protection of the marine ecosystem is no longer the sole responsibility of a particular country, but a common mission of all humankind.

In today's increasingly prominent global environmental problems,

Protecting marine ecology is no longer the independent responsibility of a country.

But the common mission of all mankind.

[opencommunion]

"Like the other Arab Jews, the Jews of Iraq were con­sidered a key population reservoir that could help tilt the demographic bal­ance in Palestine in the Jews' favor. At a meeting in July 1943 of the Central Committee of Mapai, the dominant Jewish party (and forerunner of the Labor Party), one speaker put it this way: 'We can define our role with regard to this Jewry in one sentence: Zionist conquest of these Diaspora communi­ties in order to liquidate them and transfer them to the Land of Israel.'

... Representatives of the Labor movement in the Zionist leadership believed it was urgent to infiltrate Iraq and establish a united Zionist movement there — not least to preempt attempts by the Revisionist movement or the Iraqi Communist Party to gain a foothold among Iraq's Jews. The Zionist activists who set up the Halutz movement in Iraq were ruthless in their efforts to oust emissaries who were not under the control of the Jewish Labor movement. Note that there was no local Zionist movement in Iraq to serve as a foundation on which the emissaries could build. The Jews of Iraq did not experience a Zionist 'awakening' and did not consider Palestine an attractive option. As early as 1941, Eliahu Epstein (Elath) of the Jewish Agency's Political Department met with a group of affluent Iraqi Jews who had fled to Tehran. However, he was unable to persuade them to settle in Palestine and invest their capital there. Some of them told him bluntly that they did not believe in Zionism. They explained that they had no intention of displacing the Arabs of Palestine, and that migration to Palestine was feasible only for Jews who were indigent or had relatives there. ... Among Iraq’s Jews there was a strong sympathy toward the local Communist Party, and many of the community’s young people were mem­bers of the party or of the Anti-Zionist League (AZL). For the most part con­sisting of well-to-do families, the Jews of Iraq understood the damage affilia­tion with Zionism could wreak on their social, economic, and political status; they drew a distinction between their Jewish identity and a Zionist identity. Those Jews who did leave Iraq settled mainly in Europe and North America, not Palestine." Yehouda Shenhav, The Arab Jews: A Postcolonial Reading of Nationalism, Religion, and Ethnicity (2006)

[mariacallous]

In recent months, Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip has experienced population expansion on a dramatic scale. Before the war, the Rafah area, which abuts the Egyptian border, was home to around 275,000 people. Now, an estimated 1.5 million people are crammed in there, many in tent cities visible in satellite images.

In February, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned that an Israeli military operation in Rafah, as Israeli officials have repeatedly said they are planning to do, “would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences.”

This latest armed conflict began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups perpetrated mass atrocities against Israel, including killings, brutal mutilations, torture, and sexual assaults. More than 200 Israelis and other nationals were abducted, ranging in age from 10 months to 86 years. More than 100 remain unaccounted for.

In response, Israel unleashed a military campaign of extraordinary intensity. The civilian death toll in Gaza is intolerably high, especially the estimated 14,000 Palestinian children who have been killed. Israel says Rafah is the last stronghold of Hamas and in the absence of a hostage deal it is intent on continuing its military campaign.

According to the United Nations, famine is imminent. The World Bank and U.N. also estimate that more than 60 percent of all homes in the territory have been damaged or destroyed as well as vital medical and civilian infrastructure. In all, some 1.7 million Palestinians have been internally displaced.

So why, in a war of this intensity, are there no refugees? Or perhaps the question should be asked in a slightly different way: Where are the refugees from Gaza?

The simple answer is that most Palestinians are trapped within Gaza behind fortified borders, impregnable to all but those with international passports or exceptional connections. According to the Egyptian government, nearly 4,000 people have been evacuated into the country for medical treatment along with their families. A further 67,000 foreign and dual nationals have also been able to leave, but these are not refugees, and most foreign and dual nationals will have since moved on from Egypt.

By way of comparison, at the end of last year 6.5 million refugees from Syria and nearly 6 million Ukrainians were being provided protection outside their countries. In any conflict of this scale and with this magnitude of pain and suffering, one would anticipate a mass influx of refugees into surrounding countries. There have been few situations in living memory where an entire blockade has prevented people from escaping imminent threats to life and limb.

It is remarkable that more than six months into this conflict so few people have had the chance to leave, even though there are daily statements from international organizations that there is no safe place in Gaza; even though UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, says it cannot provide protection or assistance; and even as the international community says humanitarian relief is not reaching those most in need.

Wherever people flee from or to, states are prohibited from sending anyone to face risks of war, torture, or persecution. This universal obligation includes letting people escape, giving sanctuary for as long as the threat persists and to return safely when conditions allow.

These rights originate in the teachings of the monotheistic religions. According to Islamic migration law, individuals have the right to seek and be granted asylum in any Muslim state. Judaism, whose people have long fled persecution, has a biblical principle of welcoming and protecting the stranger.

Torture in the conflict is widespread. I have reviewed evidence of the extreme torture perpetrated during the Oct. 7 assault by Hamas and other Palestinian fighters, as well as reports of ongoing violations against hostages. My office has received allegations of torture and mistreatment by Israeli forces against detained Palestinians. The collective punishment of the Palestinian people is, in my legal opinion, tantamount to torture.

While there is little legal ambiguity and the right to asylum is an apolitical right, there are few more politicized regions than the Middle East. Neighboring Arab countries have historically borne the greatest burden of influxes of fleeing Palestinians, and these influxes have often caused significant political instability in their own states. Israel has an abysmal track record of allowing Palestinians who have fled to reenter.

So it is unsurprising that Arab leaders are now deeply sensitive to any charge of helping to facilitate the mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza. This would be a “red line,” according to King Abdullah II of Jordan. The possibility of Palestinians fleeing en masse in a repeat of the Nakba—the displacement of around half the Arab population of Palestine in 1948—haunts leaders in Cairo, throughout the region, and well beyond.

In due course, the International Court of Justice will determine whether there has been a genocide in Gaza. The court’s provisional measures recognize that all states have obligations to prevent genocide, which would include preventing the killings of members of a national group, by, for example, letting them leave the territory.

Despite the complexities of the politics of this conflict, the legal reality is that states cannot pick and choose which human rights obligations to implement. It is self-evident that Israel will not open its borders to Palestinian refugees, but the Israeli state and Egypt have legal obligations to do so. Egypt’s decision to seal its border with Gaza violates international humanitarian law and international refugee law.

Egypt cites security concerns as a reason for not letting in Palestinian refugees, especially given the challenges of militancy in the Sinai Peninsula potentially being aggravated by the arrival of battle-hardened fighters from Gaza alongside civilians. While that threat certainly exists, the international legal framework includes safeguards to protect against this, and robust screening processes must be put in place to ensure that militants do not cross the border alongside civilians.

Early in the conflict, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told CNBC that he could see “no reason why Egypt, which is hosting 9 million refugees—hosting them and providing them integration into our society at considerable burden on our economy—should have to bear solely [the] additional influx of Gazans.”

That figure appears to be way off the mark, at least based on the latest UNHCR statistics. The U.N. Refugee Agency says Egypt currently hosts 575,000 registered refugees and asylum-seekers from 61 countries, while another nearly 250,000 refugees have not yet been registered. More than half of those registered are Sudanese, with Syrians forming the next largest group. The estimated number of Palestinians in Egypt is unclear as they are not included in any official figures, but may number in the hundreds of thousands.

Shoukry is right, though, to say that Egypt should not have to bear responsibility for Palestinian refugees alone. Other states and international organizations must support them.

UNRWA serves Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Under the 1951 Refugee Convention, responsibility transfers to UNHCR outside these areas. In other words, UNHCR is required to support Palestinian refugees who reach Egypt. The Refugee Convention stresses that international cooperation is a foundational principle and that all states must play their part.

There have been reports that Egypt has been clearing land near the border preparing for refugees in the event of widescale fighting in Rafah. The international community and the U.N. have been right to call for a cease-fire and for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. With negotiations still proceeding, the humanitarian imperative to save lives must be paramount.

Whenever peace is achieved, the level of destruction will take years to repair. Where and how are Palestinians from Gaza to live in the meantime?

The fact remains that the right to flee and to seek asylum under law is an individual right. Palestinian families, as they consider their future, must be able make this decision for themselves. The U.N.—whether it is UNRWA within the territories or UNHCR in Egypt and beyond—must support Palestinian civilians.

Short-term planning to help relieve pressure on Egypt and other countries receiving any refugees should include offers of medical evacuations, family reunification, and temporary protection transfers into third countries. There must be commitments of return to Gaza as soon as conditions allow. There are many precedents around the world of similar comprehensive strategies by the international community.

Right now, though, civilians in Gaza have no ability to determine their fate. Starvation is becoming ever more likely, and death could come at any moment. Palestinians deserve the opportunity to choose whether they wish to flee, however painful a decision it is.

Alice Jill Edwards is the United Nations special rapporteur on torture.

[todaysjewishholiday]

17 Menachem Av 5784 (20-21 August 2024)

Many people are familiar with the stories of Ashkenazi Jewish mass migration to the United States, seeking refuge from pogroms, economic hardship, and drafts into the czar’s army. What is less well known is the story of extensive migration from the same Eastern European shtetls to the plains of Argentina.

That story begins on the seventeenth of Av in 5649, when 824 Russian Jews landed in Buenos Aires, eager to start a new life together free from the constant threat of violence they’d lived with in the pale of settlement. They had been given a fabulous vision of the wonders of life in the Argentine countryside by the Argentine immigration bureau in Paris. The reality proved rather less rosy, but the new arrivals were determined. Since the entire Jewish population of Argentina had been under 2000 persons at the time of their arrival, that initial group of 824 was a significant increase to the nation’s Jewish community.

Denied their first homesteading location when the landowner they’d purchased it from decided he could get a better price, and finding the second property they were promised utterly lacking in any of the housing or farm goods they’d been told it would have, the settlers reached out to the French Jewish railroad magnate and philanthropist Baron Maurice Moshe Hirsch for financial aid for their settlement.

Hirsch was not only happy to assist, he thought the idea of Russian Jewish immigration to Argentina was brilliant and created an expansive plan to fund Jewish emigrants seeking to establish new lives in agricultural communes in the Argentine grasslands. To this end, Hirsch established the Jewish Colonization Agency, which funded land purchases and the costs of emigration and farming equipment for Russian Jews seeking to follow in the footsteps of that initial group of 824 settlers. Within 30 years, the Jewish population of Argentina had swollen from under 2000 to over 150000.

The initial group named their farming settlement Moïsesville in honor of the Baron. The cooperative structure of the Jewish settlements, who pooled resources for purchases of seeds and farm equipment, made them resilient in the face of the challenges of rural living. They learned from the surrounding gentile farmers and ranchers, adopting to the gaucho lifestyle but with distinctly Jewish touches. It is this legacy of successful rural agricultural communities that differentiated Jewish immigration to Argentina from Jewish migration elsewhere in the Americas.

The success of Jewish settlement in the hinterlands also swelled the urban Jewish population, and Buenos Aires soon became a major hub of global Jewish life and literature, with three separate Yiddish language daily newspapers, numerous Yiddish publishers, and an active Yiddish theatrical scene. In addition to the large influx of Ashkenazim, Sephardi Jews from Morocco and the Ottoman Empire also came in large numbers, which meant that in addition to Yiddish a visitor to a synagogue in Buenos Aires in the late 5600s might also hear Haketia, Ladino, or Judeo-Arabic. Over time, the children and grandchildren of these immigrants became primarily Spanish speakers. Argentina now has the largest Jewish population in South America and the seventh largest in the world, but is no larger now than it was a hundred years ago and is approximately half the size of the Argentine Jewish population’s peak. For the most part, the Jewish gauchos are a thing of nostalgic memory rather than a contemporary reality, but the migration they spearheaded has grown into a community with deep roots in Argentine soil.

[rjzimmerman]

The real reason billion-dollar disasters like Hurricane Helene are growing more common. (Washington Post)

Excerpt from this Washington Post story:

It rises like a mountain, up and to the right, and it has become one of the most potent illustrations of the perils of man-made global warming. It’s a chart showing the number of billion-dollar weather disasters that have struck the United States since 1980. When the toll is tallied from hurricanes Helene and Milton, they will become the 397th and 398th entries in the database.

The disaster data, maintained by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has featured in multiple government reports on global warming. The Biden administration has referenced it at least seven times to help make the case for climate policies. Members of Congress cited it in a bill to curtail the use of fossil fuels. Last year’s National Climate Assessment, acongressionally mandated report on climate change, showed the disasters on a map under the heading “Climate Change Is Not Just a Problem for Future Generations, It’s a Problem Today.”

But according to disaster experts, former NOAA officials and peer-reviewed scientific studies, the chart says little about climate change. The truth lies elsewhere: Over time, migration to hazard-prone areas has increased, putting more people and property in harm’s way. Disasters are more expensive because there is more to destroy.

The billion-dollar disasterdataset is “quoted a lot and people use it as a way of saying that climate change is already influencing what we see. And yet, unless you get the economics right, you can’t really justify that,” said D. James Baker, the physicist and oceanographer who led NOAA from 1993 to 2001, the longest tenure as administrator in the agency’s history.

Baker and others say disputing whether global warming’s influence can be found in the disaster data is not the same as questioning whether climate change is real or whether society should switch from fossil fuels.

“We know that climate change is real. We don’t see it in the [economic] losses yet,” said Laurens Bouwer, an expert on the assessment of climate risks and a lead author on five reports by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the advisory body through which scientists reach consensus on climate change.

Although traditional statistical methods cannot quantify the influence of greenhouse gases on rising disaster costs, many scientists say that global warming has intensified hurricanes, wildfires, droughts and other extreme weather, which must be leading to greater economic losses.

“A lot of these extremes are really ramped up,” said Adam Smith, the NOAA climatologist who has led the billion-dollar disaster project for more than a decade. “If you want to act like nothing’s happening or it’s minimal, that’s just not the case in what we’ve seen in these extreme events in the United States.”

[eretzyisrael]

Israel launches website on Jews from Arab and Muslim countries

By bataween on 12 December 2023

The Israeli Ministry of Social Equality, in association with the Yad Ben Zvi Institute, has launched a website to coincide with the annual commemoration of the departure and expulsion of Jews from Arab countries and Iran.

The site is divided into several sections. Some are yet to be completed. Experts have been asked to contribute a potted history of each community. A section called ‘issues’ will ask ‘Why did Jews leave?’ and ‘Were Jews neighbours or strangers?’

Here is an extract from the website’s ‘About’ page:

On the 25th day of Sivan 2014, June 23, 2014, the Knesset passed the law “A Day to Commemorate the Departure and Expulsion of the Jews from Arab Countries and Iran, 2014: The law set the date for November 30 – one day after the historic decision of the United Nations on the establishment of a Jewish and Arab state in the territories of the Land of Israel – as a date to mark this day every year. The purpose of the law is to “set a day to mark the rights of the many Jewish refugees who were displaced, expelled or fled from Arab countries during and after the establishment of the State of Israel” and to instill in the national and international consciousness the process of the exodus and expulsion of Jews from the Islamic countries where they lived for hundreds of years.

The immigration of the Jews in the middle of the 20th century from Islamic countries is a process that changed the face of the Middle East and North Africa beyond recognition. This process took place in several separate waves of migration in a relatively short period of time of about three decades – from the end of World War II to the mid-1970s. The result of the immigration of the Jews and their actual expulsion from some of the countries, was the emptying of those countries of Jews: in one of them the presence of Jews was greatly reduced, while in others, it disappeared completely.”

The gallery contains photographs that have to-date not been widely circulated.

Clockwise from top: celebrating Israel independence day in a Tehran transit camp for Kurdish Jews. Jewish family in a transit camp run by the Joint refugee agency in Algeria. Mass grave for the victims of the Tripoli 1945 pogrom

The post Israel launches website on Jews from Arab and Muslim countries appeared first on Point of No Return.

[beardedmrbean]

Speaking at the UN Future Summit in New York on Monday, Finnish President Alexander Stubb reiterated a proposal for a reform of the UN Security Council which he first aired in an interview with the Reuters news agency last week.

As reported by Kauppalehti, Stubb would like to abolish vetoes by Security Council members and add five new permanent members. Stubb would also like to see the introduction of a possibility to expel from the council any country waging an illegal war of aggression.

The Security Council currently has five permanent members and ten rotating members. The permanent members are the states which were the victors of the Second World War, namely the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia. Under Stubb's proposal, of the five new permanent members, two each would come from Africa and Asia and one from Latin America.

"If in the long term one or two of these proposals could be pushed through, that would be great. The most urgent of these would probably be to increase the number of members of the Security Council," Stubb told Finnish journalists at a briefing at UN headquarters.

However, writes Kauppalehti, Stubb did not provide any estimate of the time frame for his suggested reforms.

The president added that a functioning UN is in Finland's interest, otherwise the world will not be able to solve problems related to climate change, conflicts, migration, technology and sustainable development.

"We are afraid that the UN will be sidelined," Stubb said.

Dealing with bears

Iltalehti tells readers that a number of bears have kept police busy in eastern Finland over the past week and they are now asking the public to report any new sightings.

An encounter with a bear in the wild can be a very frightening experience, but panic in such a situation is the worst option. Bears can run much faster than humans.

"Turning your back and running away can trigger a bear's predatory instinct," says Juha Kuittinen, game manager of the Finnish Game Centre's North Karelia region.

According to Kuittinen, bears will generally avoid humans, but staying calm is a good idea in any close encounter.

"Bears should not be provoked in any way, such as by shouting or riling them in any way. You should try to remain calm and leave the vicinity," he advises.

On the other hand, a bear intruding into your own yard should be scared off.

"From of the shelter of the building, shouting from a window or door should be used to try to get the bear out of the yard," Kuittinen explains. " In a rural area shooting into the air with a hunting rifle is also a good way of scaring it away, for example."

Currently, bears can only be hunted in reindeer husbandry areas. In the rest of Finland, bears are protected and hunting is only allowed with a special permit.

Last March, the Finnish Natural Resources Institute estimated the number of bears in Finland at 2,100-2,250. The population is estimated to be about 20 percent larger than in 2023. ________________________

How Finns deal with bears

National interest

Stubb also told journalists that he had talks on the situation in the Middle East with both Iranian President Masoud Pezeškian and King Abdullah II of Jordan, reports Iltalehti.

"I am concerned. The risk of escalation is real and at the moment efforts are being made to contain it one way or another," Stubb said.

Finland voted last week in favour of a UN General Assembly motion declaring Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories illegal.

The move drew criticism from politicians in some Finnish government parties, including the Finns Party and the Christian Democrats.

Stubb said the vote was the right decision.

"Finland always supports international law, and if the international court is of the opinion that the Israeli settlements are illegal, then we will support that decision," he explained.

Finland has contracted for the purchase of an air defence system, known as David's Sling, from Israel. According to President Stubb, the current situation does not affect the deal.

"We have come to the conclusion that the David's Sling is one of the best air defence systems available on the market, so we will stick to it. In this, Finland's security has priority," Stubb said.

The march of AI

Jyväskylä's Keskisuomalainen is among the papers to carry an STT news agency report that almost half of large Finnish companies are planning to replace some operations with artificial intelligence (AI).

An "Enterprise Pulse" survey commissioned by the OP Group found that companies are typically looking at using AI to replace jobs in reporting, data processing, customer service and communications.

More than a quarter of respondents do not plan to replace jobs with AI.

Half of the large Finnish companies surveyed say AI will play a critical role in their success. In addition, 37 percent of respondents said that they believe Finland is currently an attractive international destination for AI projects.

The survey, conducted by the pollster Taloustutkimus was conducted in April and May of this year, and canvassed 100 Finnish companies with a turnover of at least 100 million euros.

Warmer autumns

The weather this past weekend was more like what one would expect for the time of year, following weeks of exceptionally high temperatures nationwide.

Helsingin Sanomat writes that on Tuesday, temperatures will again rise to as high as a summery 18 degrees Celsius in southern Finland and some other regions.

Interviewed by the paper, Mika Rantanen, a researcher at the Finnish Meteorological Institute, noted that September has been exceptional warm by many standards. Temperature records have been broken at almost every weather station in the country. He said that, as a result, the growing season in the south of Finland may continue until mid-October.

A warmer and longer summer will provide a longer growing season, but it also increases the number of pests in fields and forests.

The effects of the warm September weather is also being felt in the Baltic Sea. According to Rantanen, waters in the Gulf of Finland are still at 17 degrees Celsius, which would be normal for early August. At this time of year, sea water temperatures should be around 12 degrees.

Looking ahead, Rantanen said he believes that he number of exceptionally warm autumns will increase.

"Summer is getting longer at both ends. In Sodankylä, for example, this year's summer was the second longest on record," he points out to HS.

[darkmaga-returns]

By Emily Thompson

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) killed at least 124 people in a village in El Gezira State on Friday, according to reports, in one of the deadliest incidents of an 18-month war and largest in a spate of attacks in the state.

As noted in Foreign Policy, ���The RSF was once known as the janjaweed, the notorious devils on horseback responsible for the worst atrocities of the 2003-2005 Darfur genocide, and for the past five months, the RSF and its allies have been laying siege to El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur.”

Following the surrender of high-ranking RSF officer Abuagla Keikal to the army last Sunday, pro-democracy activists said the RSF has carried out revenge attacks in the farming state where he comes from, killing and detaining civilians and displacing thousands.

Fighting erupted on April 15, 2023, as a result of a power struggle between the RSF led by Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo and army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. Since then, the conflict has displaced more than 10 million people, creating one of the worst global humanitarian crises, according to data from the United Nations.

The war has forced nearly 3 million Sudanese to leave the country, while the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports that almost 11 million people have been internally displaced.

In Darfur, the vast western region that has seen conflict for much of the 21st century, the RSF has been targeting non-Arab groups, especially the Black African Masalit people, in what humanitarian groups have called an ongoing genocide.

Throughout the war, aid agencies have been unable to reach large parts of the country. Often, convoys of trucks carrying vital aid have taken six weeks to cross Sudan.

At checkpoints run by both the Sudanese army and the RSF, some commanders will not let trucks carrying aid go through and fighters are looking to extract bribes.

[roboe1]

News and Headlines: 2/16/2024.

In The News Today: U.S. and UN Funding Linked to Increase in Migrant Journey to Southern Border The United States government, under the Biden administration, has significantly increased its financial contributions to the United Nations’ migration-focused agencies, notably the International Organization for Migration (IOM), with allocations nearing $1.3 billion in 2023. This funding, aimed at…