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Wednesday, 21 June
22:09
De-dollarization and Emergence of Chinese Yuan "IndyWatch Feed War"
This month Pakistan has adopted a major departure from its long-standing reliance on the US dollar for export payments, as it utilized yuan to pay for its inaugural government-to-government purchase of 100,000 tons of Russian crude oil, which marks the countrys first international transactions in a currency other than the US dollar.
Similarly, Argentinas Secretary of State for Trade, Matias Tombolini, also revealed recently on social media that his country has settled transactions worth a staggering $2.721 billion with China, using the yuan as the main instrument of transaction. Interestingly, 19% of Argentinas imports were settled in yuan in the months of April and May, and Tombolini asserted that this strategic shift would fortify their foreign exchange reserves and enhance their control over the economic landscape. Consequently, on April 26, the Argentine government announced the adoption of the yuan for settling trade in Chinese-imported goods, symbolizing a potent blow to the dollars dominance. The emergence of parallel currencies in international trade has fueled the on-going heated debate over de-dollarization, with recent events providing additional ammunition to those critical of US dominance. These two examples serve as poignant reminders of the growing trend toward alternative currencies and the potential erosion of the US dollars hegemonic status. As countries like Pakistan and Argentina embrace non-dollar payment systems in major transactions, the allure of diversification and reduced reliance on the American currency becomes all the more apparent. The global financial landscape is undergoing a subtle but significant transformation, one that challenges the long-standing supremacy of the US dollar.
Recently, in a significant development, China and Brazil unveiled a momentous agreement to conduct trade using their domestic currencies, effectively sidestepping the dominant influence of the US dollar. This move underscores this new shift in trade links between the two economic powerhouses, with China holding the position of Brazils largest trading partner, as bilateral trade soared to a remarkable $150 billion in 2022. Furthermore, the yuan has secured a prominent place as Brazils second-largest international reserve currency. This strategic shift amplifies the expanding role of the yuan on the global stage. Chinas recent decision to maintain its imports of crude oil and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) from GCC countries, while conducting trade settlements in the yuan, has amplified this trend. China executed its inaugural cross-border settlement in yuan for LNG sourced from the UAE on March 28.
The trend of exploring alternative currencies to reduce dependence on the dollar is gaining momentum via transnational and regional organizations like BRICS and ASEAN actively considering such measures. Currency momentum in BRICS is already significant and enticing new countrie...
20:03
Thriving on Catastrophe "IndyWatch Feed Pacific"
Why the climate crisis and the global rise of fascism are inextricable.
By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 15th June 2023
Round the cycle turns. As millions are driven from their homes by climate disasters, the extreme right exploits their misery to extend its reach. As the extreme right gains power, climate programmes are shut down, heating accelerates and more people are driven from their homes. If we dont break this cycle soon, it will become the dominant story of our times.
A recent paper in Nature identifies the human climate niche: the range of temperatures and rainfall within which human societies thrive. We have clustered in the parts of the world with a climate that supports our flourishing, but in many of these places the niche is shrinking. Already, around 600 million people have been stranded in inhospitable conditions by global heating. Current global policies are likely to result in about 2.7C of heating by 2100. On this trajectory, some 2 billion people may be left outside the niche by 2030, and 3.7 billion by 2090. If governments limited heating to their agreed goal of 1.5C, the numbers exposed to extreme heat would be reduced fivefold. But if they abandon their climate policies, this would lead to around 4.4C of heating. In this case, by the end of the century around 5.3 billion people would face conditions that ranged from dangerous to impossible.
These conditions include extreme disruption, morbidity and death through heat-shock, water stress, crop failure and the spread of infectious disease. The figures do not take into account the effect of rising sea levels, which could displace hundreds of millions more.
Already, weather stations in the Persian Gulf have recorded wetbulb measurements a combination of heat and humidity beyond the point (35C at 100% humidity) at which most human beings can survive. At other stations, on the shores of the Red Sea, the Gulf of Oman, the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of California and the western side of south Asia, measurements have come close. In large parts of Africa there is almost no monitoring of extreme heat events. People are likely to have been dying of heat stress in high numbers already, but their cause of death has not been registered.
India, Nigeria, Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea, Sudan, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and central America face extreme risk. Weather events such as massive floods and intensified cyclones and hurricanes will...
18:08
Why Is U.S. Media Blind to Washingtons War Atrocities? "IndyWatch Feed War"
Human Wrongs Watch
By Norman Solomon | Globetrotter TRANSCEND Media Service*
On the first day of March 2022, visitors to the New York Times homepage saw a headline across the top
Norman Solomon
their screens in huge capital letters:
ROCKET BARRAGE KILLS CIVILIANS
It was the kind of breaking-news banner headline that could have referred to countless U.S. missile attacks and other military assaults during the previous two decades, telling of civilian deaths in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere.
But those war on terror killings did not qualify for huge banner headlines.
What stirred the Times to quickly publish one about civilian deaths wasas reported on the front page of its print editiona deadly Russian rocket assault on Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest city, that raised new alarms about how far the Kremlin was willing to go to subjugate its smaller neighbor....
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Tuesday, 20 June
23:37
If its any consolation, we also treat people horribly "IndyWatch Feed Nthamerica"
Traffickers are overloading boats to enable people to flee terrible conditions in North Africa and the Middle East, with disastrous results.
In the early hours of Wednesday, 14 June, an old fishing vessel carrying up to 750 people capsized and sank 47 miles off the Greek coast.
So far 79 people have been confirmed as dead. Only 104 had been rescued by the time the search was called off, so its possible that more than 600 people have been lost in total. Survivors report that the boat sank in minutes in a place where the sea is four kilometres deep. It is unlikely the bodies, including up to 100 children, will ever be found.
The battered fishing vessel left from Tobruk, eastern Libya, and was heading for Italy despite Greece being a closer destination. The reason why is clear. In the past three years, Greece has enacted an increasingly harsh policy of pushbacks, making it almost impossible for asylum-seekers to arrive safely on Greek territory.
Many of the victims were Pakistani. Youve got to wonder how bad life is in Pakistan that they would risk drowning or Greece, where the survivors have now been thrown into barren warehouses under armed guard. They must have been hoping to reach civilized Great Britain, that land of prosperity and liberty that would treat them with dignity and respect.
Im joking, of course.
If any of the survivors of the shipwreck make it to Calais, and brave another crossing over the English Channel, their reception will be no better than in Greece. Starting later this month, the Home Office plans to house people seeking asylum in the UK onboard a barge that has been likened to a floating prison by multiple organisations, including MSF UK.
The Bibby Stockholm is a barge that has been designed for 220 people. Is currently being refitted in Falmouth to accommodate 500 asylum seekers. It has been the target of an ongoing resistance campaign led by local groups, with regular protests and actions linking up to the #NoFloatingPrisons campaign launched by my refugee support organisation Reclaim The Sea.
Prison hulks are a long and dishonorable tradition in English history. Respect history!
Dont forget or forgive America, either were pretty casual about wrecking countries outside our borders, creating the refugees that are fleeing to their oppressors.
10:31
AFTINET updated briefing paper calls for the urgent review and removal of ISDS in existing trade agreements "IndyWatch Feed National"
June 20, 2023 : AFTINET has produced an updated briefing paper on Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) with the latest case studies.
Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) is a mechanism within some trade agreements which enables foreign (but not local) investors to sue governments for millions and even billions of dollars of compensation if they can argue that a change in domestic law or policy has reduced the value of their investment, and/or that they were not consulted fairly about the change, and/or that it did not meet their expectations of the regulatory environment at the time of their investment.
ISDS is a flawed system which gives additional legal rights to international investors which already have enormous market power. ISDS cases have been used to claim compensation for legitimate public interest laws and policies on health, environment, indigenous land rights, minimum wages and government action to reduce carbon emissions. This has a freezing effect on essential regulation and undermines the democratic right of governments to regulate in the public interest. Even if governments win ISDS cases, they cost tens of millions to defend.
ISDS flawed processes include: use of ad hoc tribunals, a lack of transparency; lengthy proceedings; high legal and arbitration costs and inconsistent decisions caused by the lack of precedents and appeals. Arbitrators are not independent judges, but instead remain practising advocates with potential or actual conflicts of interest.
Clive Palmer's claim to be a Singaporean investor in order to use ISDS in the Australia-New Zealand ASEAN FTA to sue the Australian government is just the latest example of international investors manipulation of ISDS in trade and investment agreements. The US Philip Morris tobacco company in 2012 also moved assets to Hong Kong and used ISDS in an Australia-Hong Kong investment agreement to sue Australia over our plain packaging laws. Australias large number of previous agreements with ISDS have also enabled international mining companies to use Australian subsidiaries in forum shopping exercises.
ISDS also enables excessively high awards based on dubious and inconsistent calculations of expected future profits, which can reduce significantly government funds for essential services, as occurred with the US $5.8 billion award against Pakistan. Third-party funding for cases as speculative investments which receive a percentage of the award encourages excessive claims, which are more about making money than obtaining justice.
Governments are responding to global movements against ISDS by...
Monday, 19 June
14:00
Taliban, China discuss banking cooperation "IndyWatch Feed World"
Although Beijing does not have formal diplomatic ties with the Taliban government, China is among the few countries that have maintained a diplomatic presence in Kabul since the Taliban took back the country following the US disastrous withdrawal in 2021.
13:53
Statement at the 53rd Session of the UN Human Rights Council "IndyWatch Feed National"
June 2023
Item 2: Enhanced interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan and the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
Statement by the Human Rights Law Centre, Australia
Thank you, Mr President. I am Sitarah Mohammadi.
Since the Talibans return in 2021, they have launched a systematic campaign against human rights in Afghanistan that affects all liberal groups, women, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras, Pashtuns, and minorities.
While Afghanistan is a land of ethnic minorities among the various victims of the Talibans repressive rule, it is important to recognise the genocidal and systematic persecution endured by the Hazara people, a religious minority. Recognising the systematic persecution of Hazaras should lead to meaningful steps to document these abuses and protect the Hazaras from further repression, dispossession, and marginalisation.
The systematic persecution of the Hazara people illustrates a complex combination of factors such as ethnicity, religion, predominantly Shia Muslims, and the suppression of democratic and progressive values. Consequently, the situation of Hazaras further reflects the broader human rights violations and atrocities committed by Taliban rule.
At the national level, Hazaras are excluded entirely from the Talibans governance system. The systematic and structural discrimination against the Hazaras at the micro and local levels is deeply concerning. The Taliban actively divert international humanitarian aid from Hazara areas to reward their supporters in other areas.
Several Hazara communities in several provinces have been forcefully displaced from their ancestral lands.
This is genocidal displacement.
Hazaras face active discrimination in the judicial system at the administrative and district levels. Locally, the return of the Taliban has created a situation whereby one group, primarily the Pashtun people, completely dominates the Hazaras politically, economically, and culturally.
The Taliban have entirely removed all Hazaras from the courts across Afghanistan, including in areas where the Hazaras form the majority of the population.
Hazara women experience extra layers of vulnerability due to the intersectional factors of gender, religion, and ethnicity.
Hazaras face widespread and all-encompassing discrimination that affects them in various aspects of their lives.
The mandate of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) was renewed by UN Security Council Resolution 2678 on March 16, 2023. On the same day, the Council approved Resolution 2679, mandating an ongoing human rights assessment of Afghanistan.
The UN must go beyond tepid ver...