Uruguay fighting against Narco Statism

 

Uruguay launches national strategy to combat

money laundering

By Francisca Orellana

   

Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi wants a national effort to combat money laundering, terrorism financing and the proliferation of weapons, aiming to curb the rise of drug trafficking and organized crime in the country. Photo by Elvis Gonzalez/EPA

Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi's government has launched a national strategy to combat money laundering, terrorism financing and the proliferation of weapons, aiming to curb the rise of drug trafficking and organized crime in the country.

The initiative is an action plan for 2025 to 2030, based on the 2024 National Risk Assessment, which found that drug trafficking, corruption and the trade of soccer players' transfer rights are among the activities posing the highest risk for money laundering in the country.

"Uruguay today is not achieving -- and has not for a long time -- concrete results in the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism," Presidential Deputy Secretary Jorge Díaz said last week during presentation of the strategy.

In 2019, Uruguay secured 52 convictions for money laundering, but only eight have been recorded this year.

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Díaz said the government seeks to achieve concrete results in combating money laundering.

"We have to effectively show that we are efficient and effective in prevention and enforcement," he said.

In early August, Uruguayan authorities made a record seizure of more than 2.2 tons of cocaine in simultaneous operations in Montevideo and Canelones.

The Interior Ministry said the seizure was one of the biggest blows to drug trafficking in the country's recent history and underscored the need to strengthen financial investigations to dismantle the criminal networks behind such shipments.

According to a report from Uruguay's Central Bank, the Financial Information and Analysis Unit received 964 suspicious transaction reports in 2024, up 6% from 911 in 2023. Of those, 12 cases were referred to the courts.

The national strategy is part of a broader effort to combat money laundering that also includes the Integrated System for Combating Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking, or SILCON. Created by decree and led by the Presidency, SILCON coordinates intelligence among several ministries.

As such, the strategy and SILCON work together: while one focuses on strengthening institutional, legal and financial prevention capabilities, the other reinforces operational and intelligence coordination against organized crime and drug trafficking.

Cannabis > The abuse of medical cannabis in Australia

 

‘Profits over patient safety’: Doctors face medicinal cannabis crackdown

Patients in emergency departments with cannabis-induced psychosis, consults lasting less than a minute and doctors who have issued more than 10,000 scripts in six months are among the cases that have prompted Australia’s healthcare watchdog to announce clearer guidelines for the booming medicinal cannabis industry. The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency has released guidance for doctors prescribing medicinal cannabis products amid what it described as poor prescribing practice and surging patient demand.

The watchdog has been alarmed by the emergence of “vertically integrated” telehealth clinics, which both prescribe and dispense cannabis products and account for the vast majority of an estimated $500 million worth of sales each year. The regulator’s chief executive Jason Untersteiner said it would crack down on some practitioners with high rates of prescribing, including eight who had issued more than 10,000 scripts in six months, and one who has prescribed cannabis products more than 17,000 times. “Some business models that have emerged in this area rely on prescribing a single product or class of drug and use online questionnaires that coach patients to say ‘the right thing’ to justify prescribing medicinal cannabis,” Untersteiner said. “This raises the very real concern that some practitioners may be putting profits over patient safety.”

In Australia, GPs and qualified nurse practitioners can prescribe medicinal cannabis under a special access scheme set up after cannabis was legalised for medical use in 2016. Under the guidelines, GPs and nurses must only prescribe cannabis products after they have identified a therapeutic need, conducted a thorough assessment of their medical history and other medicines, and developed an exit strategy from the beginning.

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Another study misses the real reason for falling birth rates

 

Baby bust: Why the French want fewer children

– or none at all

Analysis

France

Long Europe’s baby-making champions, the French are increasingly aiming to have smaller families or no children at all, a trend driven by changing social norms, economic constraints and the concerns and aspirations of a younger generation.

Issued on: 10/07/2025 - 18:36

4 minReading time

By:

Barbara GABEL

France's traditionally resilient birth rate has dropped sharply in recent years, fuelling talk of the end of the country's “demographic exception”. © Joël Saget, AFP file photo

From her teenage years, Bettina Zourli knew she would be the “cool auntie” – but not a mother herself. It’s a choice she recalls having to justify time and time again.  

“People told me that I was bound to change my mind, that it was in the female nature to want children,” says the 31-year-old feminist writer and activist, whose Instagram account @jeneveuxpasdenfant ("I don’t want children") has more than 65,000 followers. 

Zourli's views on the matter are increasingly common in a country that used to stand out from its European neighbours for its high birth rate, but has recently fallen in line.

Last year, 12.2 percent of French people said they didn’t want to have children, more than twice the number from 2005, according to a study released on Wednesday by national demography institute INED. 

The figure is even higher in the 18-29 age group, roughly equivalent to “Gen Z”, with 15% percent of men and 13.3 percent of women saying they do not want to be parents. 

The shifting numbers are the latest indicator of changing attitudes to parenthood and the steady erosion of France’s so-called “demographic exception”. 

‘Changing social norms’ 

Zourli says it’s often hard to pinpoint a particular reason for not wanting children. 

“It’s just the absence of desire,” she says. “It’s more of an innate thing. You can’t explain why you don’t want kids.” 

According to the INED study, neither gender, nor standard of living, nor professional category alone can explain why a growing number of people say they have no desire for children. It points instead to how “attitudes and opinions” increasingly weigh in the balance. 

Here is the missing link that ties this all together - marijuana. Cannabis users have a tendency to stop maturing when they start using pot. Consequently, many never reach the level of maturity where they want to have children. Many remain emotionally adolescents well into adulthood.
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Didier Breton, a professor of demography at the University of Strasbourg and associate researcher at INED, cautions against reading the figures as evidence of a fading desire to have children.  

“It’s more a matter of changing social norms,” he says. “Twenty years ago, it was less acceptable for people to say they didn’t want children, particularly for women. Today, it’s easier to express such a choice.” 

Breton points to several possible motives for not wanting children, including the physical transformations associated with pregnancy, a refusal to accept the constraints of parenthood, and a desire to preserve one’s freedom and independence.  

“It’s about making life-defining choices, such as prioritising your career, travelling, or simply not reproducing the family model you’ve known,” he says. 

Gender inequality 

A 2021 survey of people who did not want children found that 86 percent cited the desire to devote themselves to “private life, relationships, friends and travel”. In second place, 71 percent of respondents said they didn’t identify with parenthood. 

The latter figure conceals a major gender gap, with 45 percent of women answering “not at all” against 29 percent for men – a discrepancy that is even wider among people aged under 30.  

“Gender inequality is a major factor in women’s stance on whether or not they want children,” says French sociologist Charlotte Debest, whose book “Elles vont finir seules avec leur chats” ("They will end up alone with their cats") will be published later this year.  

“The unequal division of domestic labour makes it harder for women to see themselves as mothers,” Debest explains. “Many women refuse to accept traditional models of the ‘good mother’ that persist to this day. Such models are out of step with the aspirations of many young women.”

Concern about climate change and the future of the planet is another major factor.  

In the 2021 survey, 63 percent of respondents cited environmental protection as a reason not to have children. The high percentage reflects both growing ecological awareness and a tendency to seek an ethical motive for remaining childless, argues Debest.  

Read moreThe French nationals going 'childfree' to save the planet

“Using the ecological argument gives social legitimacy to people who choose not to have children,” she explains. “Instead of just saying, ‘I don’t want children’, it’s a way to say you’re giving up on children for their own good.”  

She adds: “Of course, there are many childless people who are genuinely committed to environmental activism or concerned about the future of the planet.” 

The end of the three-child model 

Such concerns are fuelling a rapid drop in France’s fertility rate, which slumped to 1.62 children per woman last year, down from 2.02 in 2010, hitting its lowest level since the end of the First World War.

The steady decline in recent years has prompted President Emmanuel Macron to call for a “demographic rearmament” of the nation with new reforms making it easier for people to have children – which are yet to come into law.

According to the INED study, people who do want children are increasingly aiming for smaller families, largely because of economic constraints.  

Among women under 30, the desired number of children has fallen from an average of 2.5 in 2005 to 1.9 in 2024, the study found. 

“The high cost of living coupled with job and housing instability mean many people feel they simply cannot afford another child,” says Debest. “There is a new awareness of the cost of bringing up children.” 

Whereas 26 percent of French people said they wanted three children in 2005, the figure has now dropped to 15.5 percent.  

“We are witnessing the erosion of the three-child family model, which was once highly valued in France,” says Breton, for whom the model is “destined to disappear”.  

Zourli says she regularly receives Instagram messages from mothers wondering whether they should have a second child, and that many thank her for making them feel “less guilty”.  

“The societal pressure to have a nuclear family with a boy, a girl and their heterosexual parents remains strong,” she adds. “But it's being questioned more and more.” 

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Madness, Drugs, or Demons? > Man killed after opening fire on Michigan church

 

Man opens fire outside Michigan church, is shot and killed by security staff

A man who opened fire outside a Michigan church filled with worshippers on Sunday was struck by a vehicle and then fatally shot by security staff who averted a potential mass shooting, police said.

Churchgoers attending a morning service at CrossPointe Community Church in Wayne spotted the gunman driving recklessly and then saw him exit his car wearing a tactical vest and carrying a rifle and a handgun, police Chief Ryan Strong said at an evening news conference.

The man began firing as he approached the church, striking one person in the leg.

Police later identified him as Brian Anthony Browning. His mother attended the church occasionally, but was not there at the time of the shooting, Pastor Bobby Kelly said, adding that he recalled seeing Browning at a service late last year.

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“He first came when his mother invited him, and I met him,” Kelly said. “He seemed to really have some thoughts that were not threatening or anything like that, but he definitely had some thoughts as far as hearing from God,” he said.

This may be an indication that he was hearing from demons. 

“A parishioner struck the gunman with his vehicle as the gunman shot the vehicle repeatedly,” Strong told reporters. “At least two staff members shot the gunman, causing the fatal wounds.”

His motive remains unclear, but it appears he was suffering from a mental health crisis, Strong said.

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The shooting occurred around 11 a.m. on Sunday in Wayne, a city of about 17,000 people located about 25 miles (40 kilometres) west of Detroit.

The person who was shot in the leg was treated for non-life-threatening injuries, the chief said. Nobody else was hurt.

Strong said a church member ran the suspect over with his pickup truck, giving security staff time to shoot him.

“We are grateful for the heroic actions of the church’s staff members, who undoubtedly saved many lives and prevented a large-scale mass shooting,” the chief said.

About 150 people were inside the church at the time. The church’s website says it hosts a worship service on Sundays at 10:45 a.m.

Worshipper Wendy Bodin said she heard a loud “boom,” and when she looked outside, she saw a man sprawled out on the grass in front of the church. “I thought he got hit or crashed his car or was hurt,” Bodin told WXYZ-TV. “And another lady saw and pointed to me and said, ‘Oh my, call 911!’”

Wayne Police Deputy Chief Finley Carter III said hours later that it was too early to know a motive. FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino tweeted that bureau “leadership and support teams” were at the scene and helping with the investigation.

Bits and Bites from Around the World > Ohio cop surprised by raccoon with meth pipe

 

Pet raccoon holding a meth pipe in driver’s seat

surprises Ohio police

Police officers respond to a lot of strange calls, but a recent incident involving a pet raccoon and a methamphetamine pipe in Ohio may take the cake for most unusual interaction.

An officer in central Ohio encountered Chewy, a pet raccoon, during a traffic stop Monday evening. While the car was initially pulled over for an active warrant on the driver, who also had a suspended licence, it was Chewy who alerted the cops to additional potential crimes.

Springfield Township police officer Austin Branham first approached the vehicle and detained a cooperative 55-year-old woman by the name of Victoria Vidal.

When Branham turned his attention back to the car, however, “things took an unusual turn,” the Springfield Township Police Department wrote in a press release shared to Facebook.

“As Officer Branham returned to the vehicle, he observed a raccoon named ‘Chewy’ sitting in the driver’s seat with a meth pipe in its mouth. Chewy had somehow gotten hold of a glass methamphetamine pipe, leading officers to further inspect the vehicle.”

Body camera video released by police showed the calm raccoon playing with the meth pipe, and at one point putting it in his mouth, while the officers laughed, incredulous at the sight.

View image in full screen

A zoomed-in video still shows Chewy with the meth pipe in his mouth. Handout / Facebook / Springfield Township Police Department

Chewy’s adventures in drug paraphernalia led the officers to further search the car, where they found a bulk amount of methamphetamine, crack cocaine and three used meth pipes, police said.

Vidal was charged with possession of drugs and three counts of possession of drug paraphernalia and was cited for driving under suspension, authorities said. She was also subsequently turned over to Cuyahoga Falls Police on her active warrant, where additional charges related to crack cocaine possession will be presented at a grand jury pending lab results.

“Thankfully, Chewy the raccoon was unharmed, and notification was made to the proper authorities to determine that she has the proper paperwork and documentation to own the raccoon,” police said, adding that Vidal did have all the right papers. “While our officers are trained to expect the unexpected, finding a raccoon holding a meth pipe is a first!”

“No raccoons were hurt or injured in this incident,” authorities confirmed. “As always, we remain committed to keeping our community safe — no matter what surprises may come our way.”

Springfield Township