#exercise cooperation 2023 | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

beeseverywhen · 2 years ago

Link

Not in the US so can't speak for what's happening there, but I've def noticed here that healthcare workers are struggling with dealing with sicker patients than they felt they were getting before covid and lots of them are mentioning a lack of immunity thanks to lockdowns. every time I hear it I can't help but think that the increasing desperation thanks to years of underfunding that's really beginning to have an impact since covid (because the pandemic served as the last straw on the camels back there AND because it showed our government that they could neglect the vulnerable to the degree that they were dying by the thousands and still nobody bothered to blame them.) Is a contributing factor in this and I don't understand why nobody is mentioning it???

We're getting sick because we've spent decades being bled dry and now we're hungry, stressed and being worked to the bone. Meanwhile we aren't getting any kind of return on the money we're pumping in to the healthcare system and our governments aren't doing shit to address health inequalities or any of the factors contributing to everyone's poor health.

If you look at covid death statistics, if you look at which countries are currently suffering from supply problems; a job market bursting with unfilled vacancies, civil unrest and protests, strained healthcare systems, and all the rest; the countries at the top are those that have allowed capitalism to call the shots for the past century, more than the rest. That is why the UK and America have been so badly impacted. Its no accident that we are paying so heavily, this system started with us. We forced it on the rest of the world and now, we're the first to pay the price. There is a direct correlation between the impact being felt post covid and a countries wealth divide and I'm tired of everyone ignoring that.

I look around me and People are going hungry, the food they can afford to buy is lacking in basic nutrients, of course people are sicker! Even if you can afford them, the shops keep running out of vegetables! Our health system was already breaking and then, we were hit by a pandemic it was completely unprepared for (tho it should have been) and now, people are getting way more ill than they need to before they finally reach hospital. When they get there, the hospitals are understaffed (thanks to years of underfunded budgets and the extreme stress so many health care workers were put under), we keep having drug shortages because our country keep straight up refusing to pay how much things cost, and what they are willing to pay, goes to pay about ten profiteering middle men at each stage of the supply chain.

People are massively stressed thanks to the cumulative weight of a completely broken capitalist system and those in charge are more worried about lining their pockets for as long as they can until the whole thing collapses, rather than actually trying to address any problems. Stress IS something that's known to weaken immune systems so why are we blaming something that MAY affect them??? Extreme rises in energy costs have meant everyone's spent a winter without adequate heating (even those that can afford it are revolting at the increase and so are trying to cut costs by using less energy.) Again, insufficiently heated homes are also known to affect immunity. And that's just the people who still have safe homes! Masses of people have been made homeless recently thanks to rising rents and mortgages which were already unaffordable, our housing stock is largely dangerous, with homes falling in to disrepair because landlords are barely regulated and when they do break laws they go unprotected.

Is anyone surprised that so many people are getting so ill and not getting better? Cause I'm not.

It's startlingly obvious when you start looking at the health divide between those who have spent 40 years subject to the whims of poorly restricted capitalism and those able to opt out. Medical technology is improving, but healthy life expectancy is now dropping year on year, because there are more people living here without the capital to turn away from jobs that will break them, than there are those whose inherited wealth opens doors away from employers that'll ask you to pay the price of bodily health, so they might strengthen profit margins. Its just basic averages. 1% of our citizens are standing on the backs of 99% of us and wondering why more and more of that 99% are getting sicker and sicker. The labour market for working class people has been allowed to drain its workers dry for years now. The progress made in the early to mid 20th century has slowly been worn away at, with the labour laws we fought for, only being accessible for an ever decreasing number of people. The laws are still in place but no low wage employer bothers to follow them any more than they have to. Do you know how many people I know who've been working without breaks, going unpaid for extra hours, been forced to follow unsafe working practices that they know are illegal and then being forced to lie to protect the employer that put them in that position? The people being broken by companies raking in billions, as they flaunt labour laws, don't have any means to access justice! If you complain, you lose your job. If you take them to court that costs money and that company is willing to drag out proceedings for years till you run out of the money needed to keep things going.

When i look at how much money is being wasted in government budgets, while the people responsible for making that money, see little return; I can't help but think of various theories for why certain societies in history have collapsed. (If you want to be really worried about the state of things, read the Wikipedia page on societal collapse. Spoiler: most of the potential causes of societal collapse have already begun in America and the UK. That guy who wrote that article saying America was already past the point of collapse might have been right.) One theory behind the bronze age collapse is just that... societies became too complex. A society where the 1% are given too much power over the 99% becomes one great big pyramid scheme. Unnecessary burecracy at every level (designed to squeeze as much wealth possible for the person overseeing that level) results in those at the bottom, working themselves to death and still going hungry. The theory goes that there comes a point, in societies like that, where the workers look at how they are living and just...walk away. They decide that the security once offered by that society isn't worth what it's costing them and fuck off to become farmers, preferring a life of hard work and little security, to what they had been living. Without the workers, the system breaks down. The only people getting fed are the ones growing the food. All this stupid stratification. Allowing every supply chain, business and institution to become unnecessarily complex just so on each level the people in charge can let their mates get a foot in on the profits. All these middlemen. Business consultants. Supply chains allow for a product to be sent back and forth from country to country just so more people get a cut. Its no different to any other pyramid scheme so why the hell are we allowing it.

We need to start telling our politicians to show some goddamn accountability for this shit. Stop accepting them skirting responsibility for being at best: Inept and at worst deliberately negligent. We all need to stop supporting a system that's hurting us all. In the hope that we might be one of the lucky ones. That's not the reality of things. We'll only get out of this hole we've inadvertently dug ourselves in to, if we stop fighting each other and work together to demand change.

You know how sometimes you catch someone in a lie, and so they tell an even bigger lie to try and cover up the first lie they told?

Well, that’s happening right now.

Last winter, a handful of celebrity doctors went on mainstream news networks to assure us that Omicron was “mild.” They carpet-bombed us with articles and tweets, doing their best to brainwash everyone.

They were wrong.

In the end, real science junked that idea. An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that Omicron killed more people than previous variants, even when adjusting for other factors. Another study by doctors at Massachusetts General and Harvard Medical found that Omicron was just as deadly. In fact, “the risks of hospitalization and mortality were nearly identical.” As it turns out, the entire idea of “mild” Omicron was based on an old, flawed idea known as the law of declining virulence, developed by a doctor who was studying tick-borne disease in cows. It was debunked decades ago.

Most epidemiologists know that viruses don’t magically evolve to become milder. Virus evolution is random and chaotic.

In some cases, viruses evolve to become more deadly.

A handful of actual scientists tried to explain all this last winter, including disease experts at Johns Hopkins. A handful of other established experts spoke out against this myth. As a microbiologist at Penn State told Politifact, “You can’t just say it’s going to become nicer.” They were largely ignored, because everyone already sort of believed the misinformation. If they knew it was based on a study about cows, they probably would’ve thought twice.

This year, the makers of “it’s mild” are back.

They’re selling “immunity debt.”

We should be skeptical.

Schools and daycares are sending letters home to parents talking about this “immunity debt.” They’re saying that healthy children are getting sicker, even dying, because they weren’t exposed to enough germs over the last two years. Newspapers and TV stations across the country are running with it, proposing it as a “possible reason” for this year’s explosion in pediatric hospitalizations. Meanwhile, major medical organizations have sent a letter to President Biden urging him to declare an emergency over an “alarming surge of pediatric hospitalizations” due to a range of respiratory viruses, including Covid.

A lot of people are drinking the “immunity debt” kool-aid.

After all, Americans have believed for generations that getting sick is “good for you.” We think our immune system behaves like a muscle. We worry that if we’re not giving it a workout, we’ll get weak.

It’s a myth, just like the law of declining virulence.

Here’s why.

#to be clear #i do not think that the answer is waiting for a violent revolution #this is far from the first time humans have found ourselves in this kind of mess. if we look at all the times this has happened in the past #well. on that scale the French revolution may as well have been yesterday and look what's literally happening in france rn #killing the 1% has absolutely no lasting impact and the cost to get there? is mostly shouldered by those that system was opressing #and no. i don't think we should all just walk away from society and become farmers.#i know the current system is breaking us but desperation does not account for logic. most workers do not have the ability to grow a steady #food supply. that's why we built societies in the first place. different people are good at different jobs #here's what i do think: the society we've built belongs to the workers. it's the fruit of our labour #not those who have drawn invisible lines so they might argue that they own our labour. we all need to think about that. when we vote #they are there because we put them there. they know it even if you don't. stop giving power to people without your best interests at heart #the reason workers in france have had a better time of things than in the US till now? their government are scared of them #until now. the French government have had little doubt in the fact that they are where they are. because their people are allowing it #they haven't pushed too hard because they know if they do. theyre gone.#lets bring a bit more of that energy to the rest of the world in 2023. exercise your vote and when they're pushing it. let them know.#our governments are getting militant and trying to prevent protest because they are scared. they know they have little power.#it's the equivalent of a schoolyard bully throwing a punch. in the moment. they seem unstoppable. but they aren't.#there are more of us than them and they need us to cooperate for any of this to work. if we walk away: they have nothing. they know that #there is only one way out of this. that is via slow incremental positive change and not giving any ground when it comes to #the value of human life. while we're fighting each other. we're too damned busy to consider fighting the 1% taking advantage of us all #stop fighting any of the 99% and start acknowledging that if you start helping the people in this with you where you can #(yes even if you don't like them)#the 1% are heavily outnumbered and there's no benefit to any politican who tries to serve them while the 99% know who holds the power #we let this happen. though we didn't know it. but we don't have to keep letting it happen. not if we remember who the real enemy is #start demanding accountability from those sacrificing the good of the many for the few. do what you can to help any one you can and start #expecting the same from everyone else. you don't need to like or agree with people to accept that their life has value and fight with them

17K notes · View notes

scorebetter · 2 years ago

Text

Varuna 2023: INDIA FRANCE NAVAL EXERCISE

Varuna 2023: On the Western Seaboard, the 21st iteration of the India-France bilateral naval exercise Varuna got underway on January 16. Although the two navies' joint exercise began in 1993, it was given the name "VARUNA" in 2001 and has since grown to r

Varuna 2023: On the Western Seaboard, the 21st iteration of the India-France bilateral naval exercise Varuna got underway on January 16. Although the two navies’ joint exercise began in 1993, it was given the name “VARUNA” in 2001 and has since grown to represent the two countries’ strategic bilateral cooperation. Varuna 2023: Important Points The 1993-founded bilateral exercise was renamed…

View On WordPress

#INDIA FRANCE BILATERAL NAVAL EXERCISE #INDIA FRANCE NAVAL EXERCISE #India-France Defense Cooperation #India-France Defense Exercises #Rafale fighter jets #Varuna 2023 #Varuna 2023 Exercise #Varuna Exercise

0 notes

cartoonistcoop · 2 months ago

Text

ShortBox Comics Member Interview: Sloane Hong

Throughout the month of October, the Cartoonist Cooperative will be sharing interviews with members of the Co-op who have a new comic available at the ShortBox Comics Fair 2024!

NOTE: The Cartoonist Cooperative is not affiliated, associated, authorized, endorsed by, or in any way formally connected with ShortBox.

Today’s spotlight is Sloane Hong ( @plaest2k ) and their new comic for ShortBox, Expiry Date.

We’d love it if you could introduce yourself and tell us about your background in comics.

Sloane Hong: Kia ora, my name is Sloane Hong (she/her), I’m a Korean-tauiwi illustrator, comic artist and tattooer based in Aotearoa, New Zealand. I only started making comics professionally about five years ago but they’ve always been a significant part of my life for as long as I can remember.

Tell us more about your new comic?

SH: Expiry Date is an erotic, body horror, sci-fi short story about coming home from a long day at your shitty, minimum-wage job, crashing on your couch and fantasizing about how fucking good it would feel to just die.

I mean, it’s also about transness, labour rights, our relationship with our bodies and death under capitalism, etc but it’s mostly about shitty jobs.

My friend described it as “what if David Cronenberg was a transsexual dyke who grew up reading ero-guro”.

What are some early experiences as a cartoonist that shaped you or your process?

SH: My brother’s also an artist, probably better than I could ever be, and I basically owe any good taste I might have to him. Growing up, I always got home from school first so I’d sneak into his room to admire his drawings and read his comics. He had most of the usual stuff you’d find on any Korean kid’s shelf in the 90’s: Akira Toriyama, Masamune Shirow, Yoshito Usui, etc, and a couple of Korean manhwa that are all now damn-near impossible to find. As he got older, he started getting into American comics and brought home stuff like R. Crumb, Daniel Clowes, Fletcher Hanks, etc from the library.

But it’s not just that I had someone to introduce me to all this stuff, it’s the fact I’m six years younger than him and he was already reading this stuff earlier than most. So I think I started looking at all those misanthropic underground comics by horny white men when I was, like, what… about 10 years old?

Besides my brother, the trauma of working shitty jobs for years on end, The Terrible Boredom of Paradise, and this weird and fucked up miracle we call life are probably the wellsprings of both my inspiration and ceaseless burnout.

Tell us about your creative process; how did you develop this comic and what are the steps you took to bring it to the final stage?

SH: I did something really stupid for the 2023 ShortBox Comics Fair. I have ADHD and one of the many ways it manifests is that I have a debilitating habit of overthinking my stories. “Are the themes too obvious? Is it too heavy handed? Are the motivations for this character clear enough? Is this the right way to phrase this? Is this the right word? Is this the right letter? Is this the right punctuation?” etc, etc.

On paper, it probably sounds like something every writer goes through but when I say debilitating, I mean interferes-with-my-ability-to-live-a-normal-life-kind of debilitating. It’s kind of impossible to articulate how bad it was but it got to a point where I was so sick of myself and all the stories I never finished that I said fuck it–maybe if I just jump into a comic with nothing but a stupid premise, no planning and an impending deadline, I won’t have time to think about all these inconsequential details. So I sat down and forced myself to write, pencil and ink a comic, page-by-page.

It was essentially an exercise in automatism: I was still thinking about draftsmanship, composition, flow and everything but I kinda just let the story tell itself by writing/ drawing whatever felt like a natural progression for the narrative.

That was how I ended up with Marrow, which was kinda funny because the whole point was to make a goofy, low-stakes comic about nothing to circumvent the pressure of having to write anything good. Instead I’d inadvertently made something that was layered and deeply intimate and won the sci-fi category in the 2024 Minicomic Awards. But, more importantly, the whole process helped bring everything together. It reminded me of something I used to tell young artists: developing a style isn’t something you really set out to do, it’s something that just happens. You don’t practice drawing to get better at drawing; you do it to better channel your voice. It’s only when you can stop thinking about how to move your hand that your heart can take the lead.

I’d forgotten my own advice. I was so concerned about the technical details of how to write a story that I was basically assembling components rather than writing anything at all. Marrow helped me realize I’d already internalized everything I needed to write long ago. I just needed to stop thinking.

Expiry Date was a continuation of that process and made in basically the same way. There was just significantly less stress involved now that I knew I could trust myself.

Mostly.

Read the rest of the interview HERE! And dont forget to check out the Shortbox Comics Fair to support these lovely creators!!

#comics #comic artist #cartoonist #cartoonist cooperative #comic recommendations #illustration #comic #comic art #shortbox #digital comics fair #sbcf2024 #original comics #online comics fair #shortboxcomicsfair

85 notes · View notes

reasonsforhope · 1 year ago

Text

"California will begin paying for free legal help with immigration for undocumented farmworkers who are involved in state investigations of wage theft or other labor violations, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced this week.

The $4.5 million pilot program will provide qualifying farmworkers with referrals for legal help with their immigration status.

Roughly half of California’s farmworker population is believed to be undocumented. Fear of deportation and difficulties finding jobs can discourage workers from filing labor complaints or serving as witnesses in cases alleging unsafe work temperatures, wage theft, or employer retaliation for unionizing, officials said...

Respecting immigrant rights

Farmworkers in labor investigations who qualify for the new state program will receive a direct referral to legal services organizations that already offer immigration services, such as the Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County or the United Farm Workers Foundation, which spoke in support of the program.

The free legal services workers could receive include case review, legal advice and representation by an attorney, according to Newsom’s office...

Deferred deportation

State officials said the pilot program aligns with a new Biden administration policy that makes it easier for undocumented workers who are victims of labor rights violations to request deferred action from deportation. Because the federal Department of Homeland Security can’t respond to all immigration violations, it exercises “prosecutorial discretion” to decide who to try to deport.

State officials said they won’t ask for workers’ immigration status, but noncitizens granted this deferred action may be eligible for work authorization.

This year, California labor department officials began supporting undocumented workers’ requests for prosecutorial discretion or deferred action from federal immigration officials, including when employers threaten workers with immigration enforcement to prevent workers from cooperating with state investigators.

“The Department of Industrial Relations’ Labor Commissioner’s Office … was the first state agency to request deferred action from DHS for employees in an active investigation, and that request was successful,” Hickey said. “This is an important process for undocumented workers to be aware of.”"

-via CalMatters, July 21, 2023

157 notes · View notes

tj-dragonblade · 2 years ago

Text

FLUFFBRUARY 2023: Feb 14

Prompts: idea teach fruit

"Hob."

"…Yes?"

"I have been. Considering your words, and I…will concede, that your concerns are valid."

"Thank you."

"I would remedy the oversight, with your. Cooperation."

"…We're not talking about getting you a mobile phone, are we."

"No."

"Alright then. What?"

"I would. Teach you the means to summon me—"

"Whoa, hold on. Summoning? No. No, I know what I said, but absolutely not. I'm not just yanking you willy-nilly from whatever you're in the middle of when you've got no say in it. Thanks anyway."

"It is not that sort of summon, Hob. I would not be. Compelled, to answer. Only…made aware, that you wish to speak with me."

"…You're free to answer me or ignore me, then? I can't accidentally drag you here against your will?"

"Yes. And. I will not. Ignore you, should you call me in this manner."

"Alright then. But only if you're sure. Look I know I was whinging about it but I understand the…the differences between us and that you can't be here—"

"Hob."

"…"

"There is little reason to deny you the means to contact me from the waking world, and I am. Disinclined, to heed it. I would make myself accessible to you. Allow me to. Treat you, with the favor you are due."

"Silver-tongued—alright. Alright. Tell me how this works."

"You need only write my name, with intent, on something which may be burned."

"And then I burn it to call you?"

"If need be. Or speak my name, with intent, while touching what was written. Burning will indicate. A particular urgency."

"Fire's for emergencies, got it. Which name, specifically?"

"Summon me by Dream. My other names do not hold the same power."

"The whole thing, Dream of the Endless, or just Dream?"

"Dream is sufficient."

"Good, good. Shorter in emergencies, too."

"…Do you anticipate the need to reach me under duress?"

"Hopefully not! Just considering all possibilities. Can I prep a calling card ahead of time, something I'd carry with me that I could grab and call you if needed?"

"Yes."

"And if I had no other options, I could…I don't know, write it in blood on my own skin? I mean, I'll burn, if it comes down to it—"

"HOB."

"Well it's like you said, not that it has to be burnt, just that it could be."

"Do NOT. Set fire to yourself."

"I wouldn't. Not unless I was out of options."

"HOB."

"Dream."

"You are being difficult. On purpose."

"Maybe. A little. Mostly I just want to be sure I know all the ins and outs of how this works so I don't call you by accident or accidentally let someone else get ahold of your calling card or—I don't want you to have any doubt—you can trust me, with this. I won't abuse it. I won't be careless with it."

"…I know. And. I thank you."

"…"

"My name, written with your intent, cannot be used by another to summon me. Any burnable surface will do in dire circumstances."

"And setting myself on fire is strongly discouraged."

"Very strongly."

"It's not like it would kill me."

"Hob."

"I'll stop. I'll stop. Thank you for this, truly. It really…it means a lot."

"You…mean. A great deal, to me. I would not cause you distress, not when I have means to soothe it. Forgive me, for not doing so sooner."

"Of course. Now. Tea?"

"…Yes. Thank you."

===== All-dialogue is a good exercise in capturing voice. Ultimately that's all this is. I've seen a few variations of 'burn Dream's name to call him' across the fandom, but special shout-out to @pellaaearien bc this heavily resembles the method and mechanics described in chapter 10 of Another Word for Ache.

On AO3

#Dreamling #Fluffbruary 2023 #TJs Fluffbruary #TJs Fics #Sandman

342 notes · View notes

mariacallous · 15 days ago

Text

When Russia started to prepare for its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Europe unambiguously told Russian President Vladimir Putin that, were he to invade the country, there would be serious consequences. Sanctions have been one of these main consequences: We at the European Union have already adopted 14 sanctions packages against Russia since February 2022.

Putin’s Russia is behaving with a 19th-century style imperialist mindset, threatening its neighbors—most notably in Europe. However, this is not just about an existential threat to Europe’s security. Russia’s blatant violation of the United Nations Charter also threatens global peace.

From energy and food security threats and the violation of the U.N.’s arms embargo on North Korea to military cooperation with Iran and the use of brutal paramilitary groups in African countries, Russia’s actions deliberately destabilize the global architecture for peace. If Russia were to succeed in Ukraine, it would open the door to the return of imperialist wars of aggression against weaker neighbors on every continent.

That is exactly what an overwhelming majority of U.N. member states understood back in March 2022 and again in February 2023, when they demanded Russia to withdraw all military forces from the territory of Ukraine. That is the mandate that our sanctions are enforcing. When other alternatives cannot work, sanctions are a responsible and effective tool to protect international peace and security.

For us, sanctions are not an end in themselves. Whether adopted by the U.N. Security Council or autonomously by us within Europe, sanctions are, in our view, always a measure of last resort when other diplomatic efforts have failed to achieve a positive result.

U.N. sanctions are and will always be the best option. Yet at a time when Russia, both aggressor and judge, is blocking the U.N. Security Council’s collective response to many global security challenges, autonomous EU sanctions are an effective way to strengthen the U.N.’s mandate on peace and security.

The European Union counts on the support of several partners in our use of sanctions on Russia. Around a quarter of the world’s nations have also imposed such sanctions. Admittedly, not everyone is willing or capable to follow suit. We understand that. However, circumvention of our sanctions would affect all countries by helping Russia to continue its blatant violation of the U.N. Charter. Therefore, we are asking all countries to help prevent the circumvention of these sanctions. By doing so, they will actively contribute to a more peaceful and secure world.

We are also asking all U.N. members to help ensure that the weapons and the technologies needed to wage Putin’s illegal war do not end up in the battlefields of Ukraine, destroying its schools and killing its civilians. If countries are delivering weapons to help Russia wage its illegal war—as North Korea did with ammunition, other weapon systems, and now even soldiers, and Iran is believed to have done with the delivery of drones and more recently, ballistic missiles—then the EU and other countries will respond with the imposition of specific sanctions.

Some of the loudest critics of our sanctions are often the most prominent transgressors of international law. Most of them, such as North Korea, have long been the targets of U.N. sanctions themselves. The campaign spread by Russia and its supporters to label autonomous sanctions as illegitimate “unilateral coercive measures” is a politically motivated attempt to divert attention away from the reasons why these sanctions have been imposed. This campaign is also based on massive disinformation—for example, the claim that that sanctions would hurt human rights and cause food and medical shortages.

EU sanctions only apply within the jurisdiction of the EU. They therefore represent an exercise of sovereign right, embedded in international law and in line with the U.N. Charter’s goals to protect international peace and security. These sanctions respect the listed persons’ legal rights, including due process and the scrutiny of the Court of Justice of the European Union, whereby listed individuals and entities can challenge their designation.

That contrasts with Russia and other states that adopt sanctions against individuals with an absolute lack of transparency and without any right for due process, in a context where the rule of law and people’s rights are not respected anyway.

We are, of course, always alert to unintended consequences that sanctions could have for the civilian population. The delivery of humanitarian aid, food, medicine, or other emergency supplies are always exempted from our sanctions legislation. And sanctions have never prevented us from supporting the U.N.’s efforts to alleviate human suffering and ensuring that help arrives to those who are in most need, including in countries where sanctions are in place, such as Syria.

In this respect, the adoption of U.N. Security Council Resolution 2664 in December 2022 increased legal clarity by providing a standing humanitarian exemption to U.N. sanctions. The EU and its member states moved quickly to include exemptions based on the U.N. model in our sanctions regimes.

This resolution has helped put the spotlight on dictators who block humanitarian access to vulnerable populations and use it as a bargaining chip to maintain power. Thanks to this resolution, they have no shelter anymore to blame sanctions for their own atrocities and corruption. We hear from leading humanitarian organizations that this resolution has already had a positive impact on the ground.

Transborder terrorism, threats to the territorial integrity of nations, nuclear proliferation, human rights violations, genocide—there are many challenges where a global response is needed. Not surprisingly, it is frequently human rights defenders and civil society entities that call for sanctions to be imposed to address a deteriorating situation, such as the war in Sudan, various conflicts in the Middle East, or to prevent interferences with the electoral process in Guatemala. When states, individuals, or entities engage in widespread and systematic human rights violations, sanctions become a powerful tool to put offenders on the spotlight and press them to cease in their offenses.

In this context, EU member states have been supportive of my recent proposals in crises other than Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, including in Sudan and the Middle East, where we adopted sanctions against Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and against violent Israeli settlers for serious human rights abuses against Palestinians.

By taking decisive action against its financing, the global fight against terrorism has made great strides. In disrupting the financial networks that terrorists rely on, sanctions have made the world a safer place, making it difficult for them to finance their operations.

Sanctions also help defend democratic institutions. The international community’s support to Guatemala’s political transition in early 2024, including through sanctions, was successful in deterring individuals from undermining the democratic process in the country. Sanctions can also help nations to recover their sovereign wealth from the plundering of previous leaders. That is what we did following the popular revolts of the Arab Spring in 2011, when—at the request of the new democratic Tunisian authorities—the EU swiftly froze the assets of individuals who had illegally misappropriated Tunisian state funds.

We are not naive. We are well aware that, by themselves, sanctions are not a silver bullet, and they will not stop Putin from continuing his neoimperialistic aggression against Ukraine. Yet they have significantly weakened Russia’s war machine and made the continuation of the war more costly to the Kremlin. Sanctions impose a huge reputational cost for the countries and actors who violate them. In many places, they have demonstrated that actions against peace have consequences.

All 193 U.N. member states have the obligation to preserve the international order based on the U.N. Charter. Faced with clear breaches of international law, the EU is ready to bear its share of responsibility for a just and orderly world by imposing sanctions on those who try to undermine it.

17 notes · View notes

beardedmrbean · 3 months ago

Text

North Korea has issued a fresh nuclear warning to the U.S. over its activities on the Korean Peninsula, interpreting them as rehearsals for an armed conflict.

The statement, issued by Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry, was in response to ongoing bilateral military exercises involving South Korea and the U.S.

On Monday, state-run news agency KNCA released a statement from the North Korean Foreign Ministry taking aim at exercise "Ulchi Freedom Shield," which it called "large-scale provocative joint military exercises."

"The current exercises, including a drill simulating a nuclear confrontation with the DPRK, bring to light clearer the provocative nature of Ulji Freedom Shield as a prelude to a nuclear war," the ministry said.

Newsweek has contacted the United States Indo-Pacific Command for comment on North Korea's claims.

On Monday, the US began its annual joint military drills with South Korea, with this year's exercises focused on improving their capabilities to deal with growing threats posed by North Korea.

The drills, set to continue through August 29, will involve over 40 types of field exercises, as well as drills intended to simulate missile attacks, GPS jamming and cyberattacks.

According to a spokesperson for South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, quoted by Reuters, the alliance's bilateral exercises will also "further strengthen its capability and posture to deter and defend against weapons of mass destruction."

However, Pyongyang said that these defensive exercises resemble the historical behavior of countries preparing for conflict, and accused the two states of rehearsing a "beheading operation" against the Kim Jong Un regime.

"It is clearly recorded in the world history of wars that in preparation for a war, aggressor states followed a series of procedures, including adoption of war policy and military operation plan for its execution, advance deployment of forces, ceaseless simulated and actual war drills and war provocation," the ministry's statement read.

These annual drills have consistently drawn the ire of Pyongyang, as has the increasing presence and activity of the U.S. in the Indo-Pacific.

North Korea responded to last year's Freedom Shield drills by carrying out tests of a strategic cruise missile, overseen by Kim Jong Un, according to KNCA.

In June, following the conclusion of the first "multi-domain" trilateral exercises involving the U.S., South Korea and Japan, Pyongyang condemned the three countries' "reckless and provocative" actions, and warned that these would be met with "fatal consequences."

In its Monday statement, North Korea's Foreign Ministry also criticized America's "nuclear confrontation policy against the DPRK," which it said was evidenced by the creation of the U.S.-South Korean "Nuclear Consultative Group" in April 2023.

According to a joint statement from Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in July, after the pair signed their first guidelines on nuclear deterrence on the Korean Peninsula, this group has "directly strengthened U.S.-ROK cooperation on extended deterrence, and managed the threat to the nonproliferation regime posed by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea."

Since the consultative group was launched in 2023, U.S. nuclear ballistic missile submarines have been sent to South Korean waters, which North Korea has warned "may fall under the conditions of the use of nuclear weapons."

#nunyas news

8 notes · View notes

ashwin-the-artless · 4 months ago

Text

Here's a bunch of press release style description of my novel and its sequels, complete with release dates. If you are trans, autistic, and/or plural, and into science fiction, you may appreciate what we've made.

The Tunnel Apparati Diaries Book Release

With the guidance of Mau (a.k.a. Phage), Ashwin Pember, recently ascended Ancestor of the Sunspot, projects their mind to Earth via the Tunnel Apparatus. Only, they do this to become the new headmate of the twenty-seven year old autistic transgender plural system of Sarah and Goreth Ampersand of Portland, OR, who think that Phage is their old imaginary friend.

Unfortunately, Sarah and Goreth struggle to manage their already difficult life.

They’ve been leaning on their housemates and friends for support, but playing host to an alien being challenges them all.

Furthermore, there's an important reason Phage came to Earth in the first place, and it needs Sarah and Goreth to cooperate with Ashwin in order to achieve its goals.

The Tunnel Apparati Diaries tell the story of how the Sunspot Chronicles came to be translated and published on Earth, but what does this mean for humanity?

Because there’s a probe full of construction nanites left somewhere in the mountains of Washington State and someone needs to take responsibility for it before it falls into the wrong hands.

—

Release Dates for the Tunnel Apparati Diaries:

Book One: The End of the Tunnel - July 31, 2024

Book Two: The Sun Also Hatches - October 21, 2024

Book Three: The Dragon in the Dining Room - November 27, 2024

Available at http://www.sunspot.world or http://www.lulu.com

—

The Tunnel Apparati Diaries take place on Earth between the years of 2023 and 2025, in Portland Oregon, and follow the lives of Sarah and Goreth Ampersand, Erik, and the Audreys – a friends group of transgender plural systems – after they make contact with an alien visitor to Sarah and Goreth’s psyche, Ashwin Pember.

Soon it becomes clear that this is not a product of their trauma or mental illness. It is a real event, actual first contact, and the fate of the Earth is on the line. But the personal impacts of this contact end up taking priority.

Their personal accounts, each book written by a different system member (Ashwin, Goreth, and then Sarah), explore the challenges of building community and relationships while being multiply disabled, transgender, queer, autistic, and experiencing a consensus reality that does not match that of most of the rest of the world.

It is a sequel and a possible entry point to reading the Sunspot Chronicles, and the two series together combine themes of plurality, neurodiversity, biodiversity, and the exercise and protection of personal consent and autonomy in the face of past and rising fascism. Every book has its own unique focus and take on building and keeping found family and community here on Earth and out amongst the stars. And what it means to be person, whether human or otherwise.

Written by different members of the Inmara Fenumera, an autistic transgender plurality living in the Pacific Northwest, the Tunnel Apparati Diaries offer genuine personal insight into the lived experiences of diverse plural systems (people living with DID, OSDD, and other forms of plurality), but with a strong dash of wish fulfillment, light romance, and adventure.

The Future is Plural. It deserves good plural fiction.

#writeblr #plural fiction #the future is plural #plural gang #science fiction #Sunspot Chronicles #The Tunnel Apparati Diaries #The End of the Tunnel #The Sun Also Hatches #The Dragon in the Dining Room #bookblr

7 notes · View notes

hd-wireless · 1 year ago

Text

📻🎶 H/D WIRELESS 2023 - WEEKLY WRAP-UP #5

Five weeks of Wireless posting have passed. What a time to be alive!

After this we have roughly half a week of posting waiting for us and then that’s it! Are you already excited for reveals?

We will have one small wrap-up left to do and then it’s time for the guessing game!

Here’s a timeline for the rest of the fest:

Final wrap-up: Friday, August 11th

Anon masterpost and guessing game: Saturday, August 12th

Reveals and game winner announced: Saturday, August 19th

Until then, check out what you've missed in our round up for week five.

As always you can listen to the prompted songs for the works we post on two playlists:

Click here for Spotify (many thanks to @evaeleanor for helping us out there) ❤️

And here for the YouTube playlist.

Please enjoy this week’s entries below the cut:

🎶 H/D Wireless Art 🎶

📻 Shivers and Cold Champagne [T, Digital Art]

🎵 Song Prompt: Padam Padam by Kylie Minogue

🎵 Summary:

"Padam, padam, I hear it and I know..."

Sometimes, you meet someone in the club, and you just know...

...they’re all in.

🎶 H/D Wireless Fic and Art 🎶

📻 The Waiting [E, 43,494, Digital Art]

🎵 Song Prompt: 'this tornado loves you' by 'neko case'

🎵 Summary:

It’s been almost ten years since Draco Malfoy disappeared during a routine Curse Breaker training exercise. Harry, his partner in more ways than one, is determined to figure out why. As the past resurfaces and the present fades into confusion, Harry discovers the only thing more unreliable than memory is love.

🎶 H/D Wireless Fic 🎶

📻 Sun Thief [E, 28,228]

🎵 Song Prompt: ‘Anti-Hero’ by ‘Taylor Swift’

🎵 Summary:

“You’re stunning,” Harry blurts out, because Draco is pink-cheeked and his mouth is bitten and plump. Gasping beneath Harry, working his cock in his fist. “Say my name when you come?”

It’s 2005, and Draco Malfoy says, “Fuck the Ministry,” Harry works as a handyman in muggle London, and Draco should really stop pissing off the Squib gangs.

Or: Harry beats up a pimp and isn’t sorry about it, Draco deals black market potions, and they’re shagging. Again.

📻 Better not Touch (Don't Touch) [E, 8,945]

🎵 Song Prompt: Poison by Alice Cooper

🎵 Summary:

Harry is happy with his life, running a shop in Diagon Alley and spending plenty of time with his husband. When he is cursed, his and Draco’s relationship is put to the test. Can they move forwards together even if they have to put distance between them?

📻 Stars By the Pocketful [T, 2,151]

🎵 Song Prompt: 'Snow On the Beach' by Taylor Swift (feat. Lana Del Rey)

🎵 Summary:

Draco arrives first, to scope out the place and pick the best bed before Potter can beat him to it.

📻 Lover, Where Do You Live? [E, 38,079]

🎵 Song Prompt: 'Lover, Where Do You Live?' by 'Highasakite'

🎵 Summary:

Harry Potter has been running away since the War, disappearing into his job as a freelance curse-breaker. Work is his life. Home doesn't exist.

He's about to disappear again when he runs into Death Eater-turned-Healer Draco Malfoy.

It's supposed to be a one-night-stand. They're not supposed to pine for each other. Harry's not supposed to sleep with Draco a second time.

Or a third.

Or a fourth.

But when a nasty curse sends Harry back into Draco's arms, he might be forced to admit that home's been waiting for him all along…

📻 as it was [M, 6,476]

🎵 Song Prompt: As It Was by Harry Styles

🎵 Summary:

'in this world, it's just us. you know it's not the same as it was.'

📻 What is this feeling? [E, 4,734]

🎵 Song Prompt: What is this feeling? By Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth

🎵 Summary:

New auror candidates are required to spend their first six months of training living in ministry dorms. While Draco requested a single dorm he finds himself sharing a room with the savior of the wizarding world. It’s loathing at first sight, or is it?

📻 the eighth sin [E, 16,834]

🎵 Song Prompt: 'Seven Devils' by 'Florence and the Machine'

🎵 Summary:

When Draco is sentenced to five years of house arrest, without magic, alone, the only person to visit him is Potter. But Draco’s beginning to doubt whether Potter is really there at all.

📻 Wrong in all the Right Ways [E, 3,951]

🎵 Song Prompt: 'Raise Your Glass' by 'P!nk'

🎵 Summary:

Draco is pretty sure that Potter is trying to kill him.

Not in, like a murdery sort of way. There’s been too much atonement and forgiveness and redemption for that. Too many difficult conversations that ended, more than once, with awkward hugs. Maybe even some tears. They’re not friends obviously, but at the very least, they’ve moved past the past. (Mostly.) So no, Potter’s definitely not trying to kill him in a permanent death sort of way, but more like…

In a horny sort of way.

#HD Wireless #hd wireless 2023 #drarry #drarry fic #drarry art #drarry fic and art #weekly wrap up no 5

35 notes · View notes

usafphantom2 · 9 months ago

Text

IMAGES: USAF F-35 jets are the first 5ª generation fighters to land on the ally Brunei

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 05/03/2024 - 23:55in Military

The U.S. Air Force (USAF) F-35A fighters paid a visit to Brunei on March 1º, the first time that fifth-generation stealth jets landed in the small Pacific island nation.

Two F-35s made the journey from Eielson Air Base, Alaska, to Rimba Air Base, Brunei, a visit that coincided with a diplomatic visit by the Deputy Deputy Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs, Jedidiah Royal. The trip was also made by Major General Mark Weber, assistant to the National Air Guard of the PACAF commander.

Members of the Royal Air Force of Brunei, including Commander Brig. General Dato Sharif saw the aircraft, which was on static display, and asked the USAF aviators questions. The aircraft left for its return flight on March 2.

The F-35 visit took place 40 years after the U.S. officially recognized Brunei, after its independence from the United Kingdom, which took control after World War II, when the nation was occupied by Japanese imperial forces. The visit takes place at a time when the United States intends to strengthen cooperation with a wide range of allies in the Indo-Pacific.

Brunei and the U.S. signed a memorandum of understanding on defense cooperation in 1994 and have been conducting joint exercises regularly since then. The air forces of the two countries worked together in September 2023 as part of exercise Pacific Angel 23-3, focused on humanitarian assistance and humanitarian aid in disasters. As part of this exercise, the U.S. Air Force unfolded an HC130-J Combat King II, an HH-60G Pave Hawk and a C-17 Globemaster III to Brunei.

— PACAF (@PACAF) March 4, 2024

In December 2023, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command received Brunei officials for bilateral talks that included the signing of a "Section 505 agreement," a prerequisite for the granting of military training or equipment to a foreign nation.

Although it has only 5,765 square kilometers - a little smaller than the state of Delaware in the USA - Brunei claims a slice of the South China Sea that is less than 1,600 kilometers from China. As China is its largest trading partner and foreign investor, according to the U.S. Peace Institute, Brunei has sought to "protect" its dependence on China by building a stronger relationship with the U.S., wrote researcher Sufrizul Husseini.

However, in the growing competition of great powers between the two, the U.S. wants to build ties with countries throughout the region and has used the visits of USAF fighters and bombers as one of the ways to demonstrate its commitment to the allies.

Just a year ago, for example, the U.S. Air Force F-22s were sent to the Philippines, becoming the first fifth-generation fighters in that country. In April, two B-1B Lancers bombers participated for the first time in an exercise with the Indian Air Force. And in June, a B-52 landed in Indonesia, another novelty. And in October, a B-52 landed in South Korea, the first landing of its kind in more than 30 years.

These strategic visits send a message about security cooperation and partnership aimed at deterring China from risking a broader conflict through expansion into neighboring territories.

Photos: USAF / Tech. Sgt. Eric Summers Jr.

Tags: Military AviationF-35 Lightning IIUSAF - United States Air Force / U.S. Air ForceWar Zones - Indo-Asia-Pacific

Sharing

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.