This Hamlet Looks Like Tolkien’s Shire, Believed 5,000 Years Old—And People Still Live Here Off-Grid
Just a glimpse here. Please go to The Epoch Times, Bright, for the full article.
It must be incredibly quiet!
Showing posts with label Switzerland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Switzerland. Show all posts
Monday, March 24, 2025
Friday, June 14, 2024
Military Madness > Swiss Ukrainian peace talks with only one side there
*Is it posible to have peace talks with only one side present? Of course not! Such a thing always ends up being a strategy to bully the other side. This is no surprise because that is what has been going on for years. Russia is not the bully here, it is NATO and the USA.
Putin offers peace talks if Kyiv's forces withdraw from annexed regions of Ukraine
June 14 (UPI) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday his price for entering peace talks with Ukraine was the complete withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions and the ditching any idea of joining NATO.
Putin pledged the "unhindered and safe withdrawal" of Ukrainian forces, pending Kyiv's acceptance of the proposal under which its troops would be required to vacate the "entire territory of these regions within their administrative borders that existed at the time of their entry into Ukraine," the state-run Tass news agency reported.
"As soon as Kyiv declares that it is ready for such a decision and begins a real withdrawal of troops from these regions, and also officially notifies of the abandonment of plans to join NATO, our side will immediately, at that very moment, an order to cease fire and begin negotiations," he told a meeting a meeting of Russian Foreign Ministry chiefs.
Russia annexed the four provinces in breach of international law in fall 2022, seven months after launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but the dogged resistance put up by Ukrainian armed forces has prevented it from establishing full control of them.
*In breach of international law, but in keeping with the Minsk Accords, if I'm not mistaken?
The proposal is likely a non-starter given Kyiv has been unwavering in its insistence there can be no peace until Ukrainian sovereignty is restored in full and its borders are restored to where they were in 2014, prior to Moscow's annexation of Crimea.
Putin's offer came as delegations from the G20 and more than 70 other countries, the U.N., OSCE and Council of Europe as well as the Vatican were headed to the southern shore of Lake Lucerne in Switzerland for a Ukraine peace summit Saturday through Sunday.
*Good timing by Putin, disrupting whatever program NATO and the USA had scheduled.
The Swiss foreign affairs ministry, which is hosting the gathering at the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said in a news release that the summit was a platform for dialogue on developing a framework toward a "comprehensive, just and lasting peace based on international law."
"The overarching objective of the summit is to inspire a future peace process," the ministry said in comments seen as managing expectations for a conference marked by the absence of both Russia and China.
*In other words, they are in no hurry for a cease-fire, even while Ukraine is losing. This is because NATO and America couldn't care less about how many tens of thousands of Ukrainians die, as long as the inventories of war keep moving. That's their job! That's the purpose of this war, that, and the minerals in north and east Ukraine.
"The summit will build on the discussions that have taken place in recent months, notably the Ukrainian peace formula and other peace proposals based on the U.N. Charter and key principles of international law."
The Swiss said Russia had not been invited because it had repeatedly indicated it had no interest in participating while China's position was that while it "attaches great importance" to the peace summit it felt Russia was integral to the process and that it would have liked to see countries from the Global South included.
Instead, the aim is to promote common agreement on a potential structure to achieve the goal; and then figure out what a consensus roadmap on how to bring both sides to the table might look like.
In a Thursday night post on X, Zelensky said: "The day after tomorrow, we will take the first step toward a just peace," adding that he had discussed final preparations, details of the final communique and how to bring countries in the Global South on board in a call with Swiss President Viola Amherd.
However, Switzerland's clout on the international stage from its 120-year tradition of neutrality and track record of persuading warring parties to talk failed to convince everyone with as many as 80 of the 160 countries invited not attending.
*Could it be that half the countries know that this is all just for show.
Sunday, June 18, 2023
Bits and Bites from around the World > Convenience Stores vending gold bars in Korea; Huge rockslide just misses Swiss village
..
Korean convenience stores selling gold bars in vending machines
By Kim Ji-woo & Kim Tae-gyu, UPI News Korea
A customer purchases a gold bar using a vending machine at a convenience store in Seoul.
Photo courtesy of GS Retail
SEOUL, June 16 (UPI) -- The popularity of gold bars is surging at convenience stores around South Korea as the value appreciates amid strong inflationary pressure across the globe.
GS Retail confirmed Friday that sales of gold bars at its convenience stores totaled $19 million in the past nine months ending in May.
The gold bars, dispensed through vending machines, were introduced last September at five of its stores. The machines offer five sizes, weighing 0.13 ounces to 1.3 ounces.
Prices fluctuate daily in keeping with the international valuation for gold, according to GS Retail, which operates more than 10,000 convenience stores all over South Korea.
The popularity of gold bars at its stores has prompted the company to increase the number of outlets carrying them 29 with plans to hit 50 by year end.
"The most popular gold bar is the smallest, the 0.13-ounce one, which is currently priced at around $225," a GS Retail representative told UPI News Korea.
"People in their 20s and 30s appear to be the main buyers, purchasing physical gold as an investment vehicle, especially in times such as these, when its value is continuing to rise," he said.
The gold price started to jump in March amid Silicon Valley Bank's collapse and with people moving to gold as a safe haven.
"Niggling inflation and the SVB crisis seem to have caused more people to be interested in anti-inflationary assets such as gold," Inha University Professor Lee Eun-hee said in a phone interview.
"But a gold bar purchased at a convenience store seems more like something done in fun rather than as a means for serious investment. I believe the popularity of these gold bars is mainly due to its easy accessibility, at convenience stores no less," she said.
How long before banks get into this?
Massive rockfall narrowly misses Swiss village
By Patrick Hilsman
Residents were evacuated in May because of safety fears. Photo by Michael Buholzer/EPA-EFE
June 16 (UPI) -- A rockfall came dangerously close to the Swiss village of Brienz/Brinzauls, which was evacuated in May because of fears for the safety of residents.
"During the night, a large part of the insel towards Brienz/Brinzauls departed. The rock masses only just missed the village: they left a meter-high deposit on the main road near the schoolhouse," the Albula/Alvra and Brienz/Brinzauls municipality tweeted Friday.
"A large part of the insel fell off in a stream of debris during the night. So far no damage has been found in the village. The behavior of the surrounding rock masses is currently being observed," the municipality said.
The village is normally home to about 100 residents and is the location of a 16th century church. Images of the aftermath indicate the rockslide stopped just shy of the St. Calixtus church.
"There is no indication of damage in the village, with the rocks mass having stopped just in front of the village," local authorities said in a statement.
"In such cases you cannot exclude the fact that blocks of rock crash into other blocks creating stone splinters from the size of a fist to a football," said local community spokesperson Christian Gartmann.
Gartmann said such debris can "shoot through the air and can penetrate window panes or other building parts."
Climate change is believed to have contributed to similar rockfalls as the snowmelt has caused certain regions of mountains to weaken.
On Monday, the peak of Fluchthorn mountain in Austria collapsed.
In a video produced by local Austrian authorities explaining the collapse, state geologist Thomas Figl said, "We can be relatively sure about the cause of this incident: permafrost. The ice is the glue of the mountains and that ice has been thawing over a long period of time due to climate change. That then causes the results we see here."
The rockslide in Brienz is thought to have been the result of natural erosion as opposed to melting permafrost.
Saturday, March 18, 2023
Islam - Current Day > The Top 5 Terrorist Groups of 2022 were all Islamic; Muslim Migrant pushes Swiss family into traffic
..
The five most dangerous terror groups in 2022, and they are all Islamic
The Global Terrorism Index released on Tuesday found more than 3,500 deaths
caused by the groups last year
Al Shabaab fighters have struck at regular intervals even though their influence in the region has been waning. AP
The National, UAE
Mar 14, 2023
Four of the terrorist groups that killed the most people last year were ISIS affiliates, ending the lives of 1,833 people in 643 attacks worldwide, a new report has shown.
Those numbers are a drop from 2021, when 2,194 people were killed in 865 attacks.
The Global Terrorism Index (GTI) from the Institute of Economics and Peace released its annual report on Monday, detailing trends in terrorism around the world, including a list of the deadliest groups.
Here's what you need to know:
1. ISIS
ISIS continues to be the world's deadliest terrorist group with its main arm and affiliates responsible for 27 per cent of terrorism deaths last year.
Although the number of attacks fell compared to 2021, the group struck in five of the world's nine regions: South Asia, Mena, sub-Saharan Africa, Russia and Eurasia, and Asia-Pacific.
Iraq and Syria recorded the most attacks by the group. In northern Syria, the Al Sina'a attack involved 100 members of the group storming a prison holding 3,500 inmates, many of whom were members of the group. A week-long battle to regain control of the area and capture the escaped members killed more than 370 ISIS fighters in the Ghwayran neighbourhood of Hasakah.
2. Al Shabaab
Police and military officials comb the scene of an Al Shabaab militant attack, in Mogadishu, Somalia. Reuters
Al Qaeda-affiliate Al Shabaab killed 784 people and injured 1,016 in East Africa last year. Based mainly in Kenya and Somalia, the group predominantly uses bombing tactics, the GTI found.
In 2022, the group made efforts to gain a foothold in Ethiopia's Tigray region, subject of a recently resolved civil war between the government and Tigray People's Liberation Front. The only two attacks by the group in the area had no injuries or deaths.
3. ISIS — Khorasan Province (ISIS-K)
Taliban inspect the scene of an operation against the ISIS militants at a hideout on the outskirts of Kabul. EPA
ISIS is expanding outside of Iraq and Syria. Its Afghan affiliate ISIS Khorasan Province killed 498 people and injured 832 — the most of any arm of the group — in 2022.
Recruiting from the eighth-deadliest group, Tahrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and a weakened Al Qaeda, the group has exchanged its main enemies of the Afghan military and US troops to the Taliban group, who took over in 2021.
ISIS-K has repeatedly attacked minorities in Afghanistan, including the Hazara people, at mosques, schools and public institutions.
4. Jamaat Nusrat Al Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM)
JNIM, formed in 2017 in the Sahel, killed 279 people in 2022, and injured 215 — a 28 per cent drop compared to 2021.
The GTI says it is a coalition of Salafi extremist groups Ansar Dine, the Macina Liberation Front, Al-Mourabitoun and the Saharan branch of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The group is rapidly expanding outside of the Sahel, taking advantage of grievances against various governments to recruit and attack in Benin and Togo last year.
The GTI report warned that the fastest growth in terrorist groups is taking place in the Sahel.
5. Balochistan Liberation Army
Pakistani Army soldiers and relatives attend the funeral of Cpt Dr Bilal Khalil, who was killed in a gunfight with the BLA in Balochistan. EPA
Operating mostly in Pakistan, the Balochistan Liberation Army emerged in 2000 with the aim of independence for the province.
In April 2022, a suicide attack claimed by the group killed three Chinese citizens and a Pakistani driver — part of a supposed policy to target China as its economic and security interests in Pakistan. Explosives and grenades are the weapons of choice for the group, GTI found.
Unlike many of the groups on this list, the amount of killings attributed to the group are at their highest for 20 years, with 233 deaths recorded last year. Only 26 were killed by the group in 2021.
Included somewhere in the top ten would be Boko Haram and The Fulani Herdsmen. Both operate in and around Nigeria. Both kill hundreds, mainly Christians and mostly farmers and fishermen, and kidnap hundreds of women, girls, and boys every year. The Muslim government of Nigeria does little to disturb their slaughtering.
"For well over a millennium, Islam's message of peace, compassion, and grace has inspired people the world over. Every great faith and tradition summons the imperatives of tolerance, respect, and mutual understanding" Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary General.
Can one of the most powerful people in the world be so stupid? Don't answer that - I forgot about Biden.
============================================================================================
Switzerland: Muslim migrant pushes mother and children in front of car,
says he’s not violent, assaults translator
MAR 17, 2023 4:00 PM
BY ROBERT SPENCER
Jihad Watch
What happens when you bring people over from a culture that glorifies and sanctifies violence and make no attempt to require them to accept the mores of the welcoming country?
“Afghan (26) pushes a mother with two small children
in front of a moving car,”
Translated from “Afghane (26) stößt Mutter mit zwei kleinen Kindern vor fahrendes Auto,”
by Michael Koch, Exxpress,
March 16, 2023
In his opening statement, the public prosecutor called for the law to be fully harsh on the accused Afghan. It was pure luck that the mother and the two children (5, 7), who were walking on a sidewalk in Biel, survived the attack with only minor injuries. Out of frustration and without any prior warning, the asylum seeker pushed passers-by onto the road. It was only thanks to the quick reactions of a BMW driver that the deadly tragedy did not occur. With an emergency stop he saved the mother and the children.
As a witness in court, the BMW driver was still under the influence of the dramatic events. “I couldn’t avoid it at all, a bus was coming towards me on the opposite lane. That I still managed to brake is a miracle. I’m so grateful,” he said.
The accused came to Switzerland with the wave of refugees in 2015 and has drifted further and further since then, addicted to alcohol. He had no explanation for his baseless attack on the defenseless family, as he explained in the dock with the help of an interpreter in Farsi: “It went silly, I just pushed someone aside.”
I don't think 'silly' is the appropriate word here.
And he’s not a violent person at all. Which may be doubted after the course of the process so far. After a short interruption of the trial, the trial day had to be called off. During the break, the accused had physically attacked his translator. The Afghan, who is facing a long prison sentence, was led away in handcuffs.
The verdict is expected to be handed down on Friday.
Wednesday, February 23, 2022
Corruption is Everywhere > Would you believe Credit-Suisse? How about the King of Jordan? Swiss could be blacklisted by EU
..
Credit Suisse faces charges in cocaine trafficking trial
The drug money laundering case centers on the bank’s ties with a criminal ring
A Swiss criminal court opened trial proceedings on Monday against Credit Suisse, accusing the bank of failing to do enough to stop money laundering linked to drug trafficking by a Bulgarian criminal organization. Associated Press reports that the gang employed a wrestler who once hauled millions in currency by car to Switzerland.
The names of the defendants have not been made public, to protect their privacy, but Swiss prosecutors identified Credit Suisse by name in an indictment announced in December 2020.
The charge, which centers on a former manager at the Swiss bank and two members of the criminal ring, follows a years-long investigation into allegations of wrongdoing that apparently took place between 2004 and 2008.
According to AP, the case against the bank revolves around charges that it “did not take all necessary measures to halt the infraction of money laundering” by one of its employees.
Credit Suisse has denied any wrongdoing, saying during the hearing on Monday that it “unreservedly rejects as meritless all allegations in this legacy matter raised against it and is convinced that its former employee is innocent.” The bank added that it “will defend itself vigorously in court.”
The Swiss attorney general’s office said that, after the fall of communism, top-level athletes in Bulgaria “turned towards other sources of income, and numerous wrestlers received approaches from mafia clans.” Thus, one unnamed wrestler aimed to cash in by trafficking tons of cocaine through “mules” from South America to Europe by air and sea and then laundering the profits.
The proceeds from the drug sales entered Swiss bank accounts from 2004 to at least 2007 and were used to buy real estate in Bulgaria and Switzerland in particular, court proceedings show.
Prosecutors said that the wrestler’s “main offense was committed in February 2006, when he transported the equivalent of more than four million Swiss francs (over $4 million) in small denomination notes hidden in his car from Barcelona to Switzerland.”
They also said that a former Credit Suisse executive in charge of business relations with the criminal organization carried out transactions for the ring despite “strong indications that the funds were of criminal origin.”
The executive is accused of preventing the identification of the origin of the funds, which ultimately involved transactions of more than 140 million Swiss francs (about $150 million).
Credit Suisse has consistently rejected the allegations and has said the court could order the “disgorgement of profits” and a maximum fine of about $5 million.
Credit Suisse ignored murders while laundering cocaine cash,
banker testifies
Bank management accused at trial of knowingly accepting money from criminal activities
A former Credit Suisse banker, who had been previously accused of money laundering, has reportedly told a Swiss court that top management at the bank knew about murders and cocaine smuggling connected to a Bulgarian gang, but continued managing cash that is now at the center of a criminal trial.
The Zurich-based banking giant and one of its former employees are facing charges for failing to tackle money-laundering practices connected to drug trafficking by a Bulgarian criminal syndicate. The gang allegedly managed to launder millions of euros, with some of it delivered to the bank in suitcases stuffed with cash.
Credit Suisse has denied any wrongdoing and stood by its former bankers accused. The trial began last week and is scheduled to end in early March.
The case hinges on illegal relations established between Switzerland’s second-largest bank and former Bulgarian wrestler Evelin Banev and multiple associates, two of whom are also charged in the case. The Bulgarian cocaine trafficking gang allegedly employed Banev, who is accused of hauling millions in currency by car to Switzerland. The events reportedly unfolded between 2004 and 2008.
In an email from June 2005 read out in court last week, the banker played down press reports linking the murder of one of Banev’s associates a month earlier with drug trafficking.
“After the homicide we have decided to continue the business relationships,” the banker wrote in the email. “The said (short and imprecise) article linking the murder to Spanish cocaine… has not been confirmed.”
Last week, Banev’s attorney said in Sofia that his client denied any involvement in laundering money from drug trafficking through Credit Suisse. Meanwhile, the former wrestler was convicted of drug trafficking in Italy in 2017 and money laundering in Bulgaria in 2018. Banev was detained in September in Ukraine after Bulgaria and Romania sought his arrest.
The banker accused of helping conceal the criminal origins of the money, totaling more than 146 million Swiss francs in transactions, appeared in Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona with her managers, who gave evidence. The banker’s identity cannot be reported under Swiss privacy rules.
Credit Suisse disputes the illegal origin of the money, according to a source close to the bank quoted by Reuters. The source also claims that Banev and his circle operated legitimate businesses in construction, leasing, and hotels.
King hid personal wealth in Credit Suisse accounts – media
Leaked data from the Swiss bank show King of Jordan Abdullah II
placed his personal funds in at least six accounts
Jordan’s monarch, King Abdullah II, has been named in the leaked trove of data from Credit Suisse bank, as the holder of at least six accounts where he has housed millions of dollars in personal wealth, The Guardian reported on Monday. Alongside Abdullah’s own accounts, his wife, Queen Rania, allegedly had another.
The leaked data about the Credit Suisse accounts comes months after the monarch was featured in the Pandora papers, another leak of data which revealed King Abdullah’s property portfolio, including premises in California and central London.
A spokesperson for Jordan’s king and queen stated there has been no wrongdoing on behalf of the pair, claiming that the source of their funds was entirely compliant with the relevant tax legislation. Under Jordanian law, King Abdullah is exempt from paying taxes.
According to the monarch’s lawyers, a large proportion of the funds held within his Credit Suisse accounts were derived from the inheritance he received from his father, King Hussein. The law in Jordan exempts the king from paying inheritance tax as well.
During the release of the Pandora papers, the UK media claimed that Jordanian intelligence forces had sought to block access to online stories about the monarch’s wealth. King Abdullah’s lawyers have denied this suggestion. It is not known if any similar attempts have or are set to be made in the wake of the latest revelations.
King Abdullah’s lawyers stated that only one of the monarch’s Credit Suisse accounts remains open, comprising investment companies established to serve as a trust fund for their children, as well as using the bank to hold proceeds from the sale of a “large wide body aircraft.”
Switzerland could be blacklisted as money-laundering state
The financial hub is dealing with the fallout from a huge leak
of Credit Suisse banking data
The European People’s Party (EPP), the largest political grouping in the European Parliament, called for a review of Switzerland’s banking practices on Monday, and for the country to be included on the EU’s dirty-money blacklist after leaked Credit Suisse documents revealed the bank’s dealings with shady clientele.
The Swiss banking giant has reportedly served a motley client roster for decades, which included heads of state and spy chiefs, as well as human rights abusers and sanctioned individuals.
“The ‘Swiss Secrets’ findings point to massive shortcomings of Swiss banks when it comes to the prevention of money laundering,” the EPP’s coordinator on economic affairs Markus Ferber said, adding: “When Swiss banks fail to apply international anti-money-laundering standards properly, Switzerland itself becomes a high-risk jurisdiction.”
The EPP released the proposal following media reports on Monday on the results of investigations into the leak of data on thousands of accounts held at the bank during recent decades. The investigation, called Suisse Secrets, identified clients of the Swiss bank who had been involved in torture, drug trafficking, money laundering, corruption, and other serious crimes.
Credit Suisse has strongly rejected any allegations of wrongdoing, saying that the media reports were based on “selective information taken out of context, resulting in tendentious interpretations of the bank’s business conduct.”
If Switzerland is added to the blacklist, it would face the kind of enhanced due diligence applied to transactions linked to nations including Iran, Myanmar, Syria and North Korea. The EU money-laundering blacklist currently comprises 21 countries, none of which are European.
Switzerland is not part of the EU.
Friday, February 11, 2022
European Politics > Another Swiss head-shaker; Energy costs affecting homes and businesses across Europe; And Another Swiss head-shaker
..
Swiss to vote on fundamental rights for apes
Citizens in the Basel-Stadt canton will decide whether their fundamental rights
should be extended to non-human primates
On Sunday, residents in the northern Swiss region of Basel-Stadt will take to the polls to decide whether non-human anthropoids should enjoy the same basic rights as their human cousins.
The vote has been instigated by campaign group Sentience under Switzerland’s direct democracy system after amassing more than 100,000 signatures.
The country's supreme court gave it the go-ahead after cantonal and city governments claimed the vote would violate federal law.
Sentience, which launched the campaign in 2016, said it was “thrilled at this historic decision,” after the supreme court threw out the regional government’s objections.
Basel-Stadt’s residents will vote on whether to give primates the right to life, as well as the right to “mental and physical integrity.”
“This will mark the first time worldwide that people can vote on fundamental rights for non-human animals,” the group claims.
The group says that all primates are highly intelligent and experience human-like feelings and emotions, such as pain, grief, and compassion. It adds that they also maintain an active social life.
“Non-human primates have a fundamental interest in their life and physical and mental integrity,” Sentience stated, adding: “However, this is hardly taken into account by the Swiss animal welfare legislation.”
According to Sentience, some 150 primates live in the canton, which borders France and Germany. Some experts have raised objections to the vote. Basel Zoo board member Olivier Pagan noted concerns around euthanasia.
“If the initiative was adopted, the scrutiny of their well-being and safety would no longer be the responsibility of experienced biologists, veterinarians and experienced caregivers, but of a mediator... or even unqualified lawyers,” he told AFP.
Zoo veterinarian Fabia Wyss concurred, noting that, under the proposals, if she put an animal to sleep, she would be putting herself beyond the law.
Again, the once very sensible Swiss have yielded to the absurd. When there are children being aborted every day, when there are children being sexually abused every day, Switzerland has turned away from such horrors toward the rights of animals. Are there no animal protection laws in Switzerland?
Perhaps they should bestow voting rights on apes, that would surely improve the chances of far-left lunatics being in control of Switzerland.
Perhaps they should bestow voting rights on apes, that would surely improve the chances of far-left lunatics being in control of Switzerland.
High energy prices send Europe’s businesses, homes reeling
By AYSE WIETING and SUZAN FRASER
today
Kazim Iscen, a painter and decorator shows his bill in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022, saying he already has fallen behind on his utility costs and would not be able to pay his electricity bill, which came in "two or three times higher" this month. Spiking energy prices are raising utility bills from Poland to the United Kingdom, leaving people struggling to make ends meet and small businesses uncertain about much longer they can stay afloat. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)
ISTANBUL (AP) — Mehmet Bogday says his jaw dropped when he saw his electricity bill — it was higher than the rent he pays for his Istanbul restaurant selling traditional Turkish wraps, and more than double what he paid a month ago.
“This is unsustainable,” said Bogday, who owns the Asmali Mescit Durumcusu restaurant. “If it continues this way, we will have to lay off staff. If it continues this way, we won’t be able to make this work. We’ll either downsize, or close and go sit at home.”
Spiking energy prices are raising utility bills from Poland to the United Kingdom, leaving people struggling to make ends meet and small businesses uncertain about how much longer they can stay afloat. In response, governments across Europe are rushing to pass aid to ease the hit as energy prices drive a record rise in inflation.
Nowhere is that squeeze felt more acutely than in Turkey, where inflation has soared to nearly 50% and exorbitant electricity bills are stirring protests and fears about how small businesses, like Bogday’s restaurant, can survive.
Protests over electricity price hikes broke out across Turkey this week, including some where police fired tear gas to disperse crowds. People are posting their electricity bills on social media to show how costs are untenable. Shopkeepers are displaying notices decrying high bills on shop windows, while others have gathered outside electric companies and set their bills on fire.
Like the rest of Europe, electricity generation in Turkey requires energy sources that have surged in price, including natural gas, whose supply is low. A huge drop in the value of Turkey’s currency is driving the price spike in imported gas.
As Europe’s energy demand roared back from the depths of the coronavirus pandemic, it ran up against gas reserves sapped by a cold winter last year, a lack of renewable energy generation over the summer and Russia not selling as much gas as usual to Europe.
Utilities are passing the costs along to customers, and people are getting hit twice: with higher bills at home and rising prices from businesses also paying more for energy.
It’s led to a cost-of-living crisis in some places, but especially in Turkey, where households and businesses were already reeling from eye-watering inflation and a currency that lost some 44% of its value last year, eating away savings and making it difficult to buy even basics like food. Authorities then raised electricity tariffs on Jan. 1, spiking prices by 50% for many people and as much as 127% for businesses and high-consumption households.
The leader of Turkey’s main opposition party this week joined a torrent of demands to withdraw the price hikes, saying he would not pay his electricity bill until the tariffs are lowered. Kemal Kilicdaroglu also called for reducing taxes on electricity rates.
Faced with mounting criticism, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made changes this month so the price rises kick in when households use more energy, but it’s failed to provide relief. With price hikes threatening to hurt Erdogan ahead of elections next year, his administration has said it’s working on a possible readjustment or other measures to help people.
It’s something that governments through Europe are doing as rising utility costs draw widespread outcry.
In Britain, energy prices are set to go up by a record 54% — some 700 pounds ($940) per year — starting in April. The government says customers will get a discount on their bills to be paid back in small installments over the next few years, and most also will get money off another local tax. In total, the government said most people will get about half of the extra cost shaved off.
Likewise, Italian households are bracing for a record 55% increase in electricity and 42% in gas in coming weeks, energy regulators say.
To draw attention to the issue, mayors plunged the historic city halls of Rome and Florence into darkness Thursday night. The Italian mayors’ association said the government’s response so far has been insufficient to help cities confront hundreds of millions in additional energy costs, making them choose between balancing budgets or cutting services.
Premier Mario Draghi this week said Italy’s government was determined to draw up broad measures soon that will provide relief to families and businesses.
Polish regulators approved energy prices going up by 37% this year, pinching bakeries and other businesses to the point many had to close.
The right-wing government temporarily lowered taxes on electricity, gas, engine fuels, some food staples and fertilizer. That’s expected to cut energy costs for a family of four by some 120 zlotys (26.5 euros) this year. The government also is introducing a bonus to households, ranging from 20 to 1,450 zlotys (4.5 to 320 euros) annually, depending on income.
Businesses say it’s not enough to balance their increased costs.
A majority of left-leaning lawmakers in Denmark agreed Friday to spend 1 billion kroner ($153 million) for a temporary program to help the most affected households cope with high electricity bills. Roughly 320,000 households in Denmark will be eligible for 3,750 kroner ($576).
In Turkey, energy woes are aggravated by the president’s policies. Erdogan has shunned conventional economic thinking and pressured the central bank to lower interest rates despite inflation at a 20-year high, further pushing up prices.
Numan Kurtulmus, a deputy leader of Erdogan’s ruling party, said government support for energy placed “an extraordinary burden” on the treasury, making the price hikes inevitable.
“It has been a heavy bill, we are aware of this,” he said, adding that the government was working to bring down inflation.
Kazim Iscen, a painter and decorator in Ankara, said he already has fallen behind on his utility costs and would not be able to pay his electricity bill, which came in “two or three times higher” this month. “I call on the government to have mercy on us,” he said.
Cengiz Sur, owner of a bar and restaurant in Istanbul, said he has been unplugging refrigerators and heaters and turning off lights after his power bill this month surpassed his rent.
“We’ve forgotten about rent and are now trying to figure out how to deal with our electricity bills,” he said.
Bendevi Palandoken, head of the Turkey Tradesmen and Artisans Confederation, warned that many businesses will shut down unless the price hikes are withdrawn and special tariffs are set help small businesses.
“I think there will be some retreat from the price hikes,” said economist Ozlem Derici Sengul, founder of the Istanbul-based Spinn Consultancy. “I think that to curb the public tension, we may see some action from” government officials.
Fraser reported from Ankara. Burhan Ozbilici in Ankara; Sylvia Hui in London; Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland; Colleen Barry in Milan; and Joseph Wilson in Barcelona, Spain; and Karel Janicek in Prague contributed.
Switzerland rules against swastika ban
Despite pressure from politicians and Jewish groups, Switzerland’s Federal Council
refuses to ban Nazi symbols
© AP Photo / Elaine Thompson
The Federal Council of Switzerland has refused a motion to ban the public display of Nazi symbols, arguing that “prevention is better suited than criminal repression” in curbing the spread of extremism. Jewish activists called the decision “incomprehensible.”
The seven-member board, which serves as Switzerland’s collective head of state, published its decision last week. The council argued that, while “shocking” and “very distressing,” displaying hate symbols in public can “only indirectly affect human dignity and public peace,” Tagblatt reported.
The council said that such images could be illegal if displayed for “propaganda purposes,” a term that can be decided by authorities on a case-by-case basis, but maintained that prevention was the better approach in dealing with most incidents.
It also pointed to Federal Supreme Court case law, which finds it acceptable "that objectionable views are also represented, even if they are untenable for the majority."
The ruling angered the Swiss Federation of Israelite Communities (SIG), which represents Switzerland’s 20,000 or so Jews. “This attitude of the Federal Council is incomprehensible,” read a statement from SIG on Monday, which argued that because “People who give the Hitler salute in public or use a swastika already represent a well-established anti-Semitic ideology … To believe that they could be dissuaded by a prevention program is a massive misjudgment.”
The council’s decision came after it received three separate motions requesting criminal publishment for the display of “Nazi,” “racist,” and “extremist” symbols. The council’s final verdict was not the first of its kind, as it has shot down multiple motions to make the swastika illegal over the last decade.
Switzerland’s neighbors maintain much tougher policies on Nazi symbols. Germany and Austria prohibit the display of such icons, with offenders in both countries facing fines or prison sentences. France bans the display of Nazi flags, uniforms and insignia in public, along with the symbols of other criminal groups.
Sunday, September 26, 2021
European Politics > Serbia - Kosovo Tension Rises; Iceland's Young Girlie Parliament; Swiss Approve Same-Sex Marriage
..
Serbia’s president blasts world’s ‘thunderous silence’ over ‘occupation’
of northern Kosovo as tensions in breakaway region soar
26 Sep, 2021 21:57
Kosovo police officers near a border crossing in Jarinje, September 21, 2021. © Marjan Vucetic / AP
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic says foreign partners are turning a blind eye to a security crackdown in Serb-majority areas of Kosovo, where the breakaway region’s forces have brought essential cross-border traffic to a halt.
“The complete occupation of northern Kosovo and Metohija with armored vehicles by Pristina (Capital of Kosovo) has been going on for the past seven days, and everyone in the international community stays thunderously silent,” Vucic said on Sunday, referring to the region by its Serbian name.
The statement refers to the ongoing crisis in northern Kosovo, involving several crossings into inner Serbia, which have been effectively blocked by the partially recognized authorities of Kosovo after the government in Pristina banned cars with Serbian license plates from entering the region.
Accompanied by a ramped-up security presence, Kosovo police proceeded to seize license plates from the locals, saying they had to be replaced by Republic of Kosovo plates. They banned drivers with Serbian plates from entering Kosovo unless they paid a tax and acquired the newly mandated plates before crossing the border, creating kilometers-long traffic jams.
The situation has disrupted food and medication deliveries to local communities, which, despite now living in the breakaway province, are dependent on supplies from inner Serbia. Attempts by ethnic Serbs to protest at border crossings against what they view as Pristina’s occupation and a crackdown on their local autonomy, have been quelled by tear-gas-firing Kosovo police. On Friday, Reuters cited the police as having said that two government offices were attacked in northern Kosovo, and that disgruntled Serbian residents were blocking the roads.
Serbia responded to the situation by deploying tanks and fighter jets right next door, with footage of the armored vehicles rolling in triggering calls for “restraint” from the US and their allies.
Vucic remarked on Sunday that everyone was “suddenly worried” when they saw “Serbian helicopters and planes over the territory of central Serbia because, I guess, they shouldn’t take off until [Kosovo Prime Minister Albin] Kurti or someone from the international community approves.”
Despite cozying up to the US for years, Vucic has had no public support from Washington, and attempts to resolve the situation via NATO have proven similarly fruitless. Speaking by phone to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Vucic stressed that Serbia remained committed to the 2013 EU-brokered agreement that laid the groundwork for the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina. Stoltenberg only urged Vucic and Kurti to take steps towards de-escalation and dialogue.
Russia, which does not recognize Kosovo’s independence from Serbia, said the Pristina authorities were to blame for the escalation of tensions. The Russian ambassador to Belgrade toured the positions of the Serbian military with the country’s defense minister on Sunday, the Russian embassy saying the Serbs had been acting “responsibly” in the circumstances.
Meanwhile, the EU foreign policy head, Josep Borrell, issued a statement urging both the Serbian and Kosovo authorities “to unconditionally de-escalate the situation on the ground by immediately withdrawing special police units and dismantling roadblocks,” and said they must resolve the crisis via “the EU-facilitated dialogue.”
Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, just over a decade after NATO’s ‘humanitarian intervention’ in the Yugoslav conflict, which saw a bloody guerilla campaign, led by ethnic Albanians, met with a military crackdown by then-President Slobodan Milosevic. The US and its allies sided with the guerilla fighters, bombing former Yugoslavia for three months, destroying its military, as well as civilian infrastructure, and NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force was deployed in Kosovo. An ethnic Albanian rule was eventually established in the province, except for several Serb-majority regions that maintained de-facto autonomy. Despite years of talks, the signing of the 2013 Brussels Agreement, and various suggestions of mutual exchange of territories, the situation remains unresolved, and Serbia does not recognize Kosovo’s independence.
Iceland’s ruling coalition retains power as women win majority
of seats in parliament for 1st time in European history
26 Sep, 2021 12:03
Icelandic Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir talks to reporters at a polling station in Reykjavik,
Iceland, September 25, 2021. © Arni Torfason / AP
Iceland’s ruling coalition has increased its majority in the general election, while the final tally shows that women will make up the majority of a country’s parliament for the first time in European history.
Of 63 seats in the Althing, the island nation’s parliament, 33 seats – or roughly 52% – were won by women, Iceland’s public broadcaster RUV reported, citing projections based on the final results of Saturday’s vote.
I see two women who look like they might be over 40. So many young women - this should be a very interesting session for Iceland's Parliament.
No other European country has ever had more women than men in its parliament, according to AFP. Countries where currently over 50% of MPs are women include Rwanda, Cuba and Nicaragua, while half of MPs are women in Mexico and the UAE, the news agency said.
Before the election, the Althing had 25 female MPs, 24 of which were chosen by voters and one had replaced a male colleague who resigned.
The ruling left-right coalition of three parties has strengthened its majority by winning 37 seats. The party leaders previously said they would renew the coalition if their alliance returned with a majority, according to RUV.
Negotiations will determine if Left-Green Movement leader Katrin Jakobsdottir continues to serve as prime minister.
The official turnout for the vote was 80.1%.
Swiss voters approve same-sex marriage in national referendum
26 Sep, 2021 10:19
FILE PHOTO. ©REUTERS/Mal Langsdon
Switzerland has voted to legalize same-sex marriage in a national referendum on Sunday. It gives extra rights to gay couples, who previously faced some legal restrictions.
Final results published on Sunday said the initiative has been accepted by nearly two-thirds of voters, with 64.1% voting in favor. Opinion polls conducted prior to the referendum indicated similar support levels. The final tally of the vote is expected later on Sunday afternoon.
Before the vote, same-sex couples had the option of a civil partnership under a 2007 law, but some of their rights were limited, compared to married couples. They couldn’t get joint custody of adopted children, for example, and couldn’t adopt children to whom they are not related by blood.
And now they can! Wonderful! OMG
Once same-sex marriage is legalized, lesbian couples in Switzerland will be entitled to use sperm from donors and other forms of medically assisted conception, on par with heterosexual couples.
Legalization will also make things smoother for mixed-citizenship, same-sex couples who want to get a foreign spouse naturalized.
The “marriage for all” initiative was spearheaded by the Swiss government, which touted it as a matter of equality.
Opposition was led by groups upholding conservative values, who claimed it could lead to a surge in surrogate pregnancies – which are illegal in Switzerland – and would hurt children conceived from donors. Such children have to wait until they are 18 to learn the identity of their biological father, under Swiss law.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)