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lastingocean · 1 year

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Manta rays are a large species of rays that are filter feeders . They are classified as vulnerable by the IUCN . These rays are known for their long migration either individually or in a group.

There are two species of manta rays:

The oceanic manta ray

Reef manta rays

Manta rays have live births to a pup or two. It may take them a few years to reproduce again and this is why it is harder for their populations to bounce back from anthropogenic threats which include:

Bycatch

Boat collisions

Pollution

Net entanglement

Overfishing (their gills are used in Chinese medicine and delicacies)

Internationally,manta rays are protected by the Convention on migratory species (a treaty protecting migrating species) in the high seas . They face more threats in coastal waters than in international waters.

Some countries have banned fishing for manta rays as they are a huge economic boost ,very popular with tourists. In a Indonesia, a single manta ray in a tourist hotspot can generate approximately a million dollars in its lifetime.

What else do you want to know about manta rays?

You can find me here:

TikTok-@lastingoceans

Instagram-@lastingoceans

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bopinion · 1 year

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2023 / 04

Aperçu of the Week:

“The person who says it cannot be done, should not interrupt the person doing it.”

(Chinese proverb)

Bad News of the Week:

Two of the most serious terrorist attacks in Europe in recent times happened in France. On November 13, 2015, 130 people died in Paris, and on July 14, 2016, 86 died in Nice. In the first case, the perpetrators were about a dozen terrorists heavily armed with automatic rifles and well prepared. In the second case, a single man with a truck. What I'm getting at is that it's not just the U.S. stereotype of easy access to firearms that is dangerous to the population. With the appropriate criminal or extremist energy, even a vehicle can become a deadly weapon. Or a knife, as everyone has in their kitchen.

That's exactly what happened in Europe this week. Twice. In northern Germany near Hamburg, two young people were killed Wednesday on a regional train, and five others were injured. In southern Spain on Thursday, one was killed and three injured in front of a church. What makes the whole thing more horrific than the comparatively low number of victims are two backgrounds that are virtually identical for both perpetrators - of course they were men.

Both have a migration background, originating from Palestine and Morocco respectively. Neither of them succeeded in integrating into society, and a variety of difficulties are on record. And both were under police surveillance. The terrorist in Germany had been released from prison only six days earlier; his record in this country includes numerous violent crimes; nothing is known about him before that. The offender in Spain is said to be increasingly radicalized; his deportation proceedings have been underway for six months. This is grist to the mill of all those who take to the streets and shout cheap slogans against migration. After all, both acts seem to prove their pseudo-arguments right.

Hardly anyone in this world should have as much experience with "collective guilt" as we Germans. And this is exactly what people from the Middle East know here as well as those from the Maghreb in Spain. If in any public bus in Europe there is a seat free next to a visibly "not from here" passenger and one next to a compatriot, statistically 95% will sit next to the latter, even if the seat is further away. And most of them would describe themselves as tolerant and open-minded and reject prejudice with honest indignation. The nasty term "latent racism" is unpopular but widely spread.

And that is precisely the point about migration. This can only be successful if both sides work at it. Integration is a debt to be discharged by those who, for whatever reason, are looking for a new home. And likewise for the environment that takes him in. It has to accept them, because without migration nothing would work anymore. Anyone who doubts this should take a look at those who work, for example, in garbage collection, cleaning crews or nursing services. These are precisely the jobs that are never on the list when children are asked what they want to exercise as profession as adults.

Successful integration is therefore a win-win situation. And it is especially important for the survival of an aging society. I wish so much for more curiosity than reservations. Tea and coffee, apples and cherries, jazz and tango, pepper and parsley, cotton and silk, potatoes and rice, pizza and kebab would all be unknown to us if we were not open to new and foreign things.

Good News of the Week:

60 years of the Élysée Treaty. Even if the Franco-German engine sometimes sputters a little, it still runs quite well. Or as Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire says: "It's running very well. Contrary to what I hear here and there, the engine is working!" Or to stay with the metaphor, Renault and Volkswagen's platform strategy is a functional basis for the European mobility project.

At the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the Elysée Treaty in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron called on Germany to become "pioneers of the refoundation of our Europe" together with France. This role belongs to the two neighboring states, he said, because they walked the path of reconciliation together after World War II. Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer, François Mitterand and Helmut Kohl, Jacques Chirac and Angela Merkel - without the hand of the two largest countries on the European continent, there would be neither the European Union nor the Euro.

This must never be forgotten in the minutiae of everyday political life: Europe can only do well if the Franco-German partnership does well. Especially when the British have decided - once again - to take their island status literally. This is an appeal that I would particularly like to make to Olaf Scholz. Because Emmanuel Macron has long since understood what his German counterpart is still struggling with: positioning himself between U.S. expectations and Russian detachment as the only thing that objectively makes sense. Namely, to lead Europe together.

It fits into the picture that Henri will be joining us next week. A French exchange student from near Paris. This reminds me of the background of my own youthful experience abroad. It even lasted a year, took me to French Canada three and a half decades ago, and still shapes me today. The organization was and is called the American Field Service. A charity that cared for the wounded on the battlefield in both world wars - whether friend or foe. Then they had the idea, as simple as it was brilliant, that it would be easier for everyone involved if there were no wars at all.

How to do that? By promoting intercultural understanding. Those who know and understand other peoples will probably think twice before they want to fight them. Works. Really. "It's not better or worse. It's just different." was our motto back then. Or just in French, "Ce n'est pas mieux ou pire. C'est juste different." If you look benevolently at the other, you will always find more things that unite you than divide you. If the former hereditary enemies France and Germany can manage that, nothing is impossible.

Personal happy moment of the week:

Okay, I'll try: I figured out why our clothes dryer stopped working properly. My daughter narrowly avoided a more serious accident with her bike on the slick road the day before yesterday. Defrosting the freezer succeeded without flooding. My son's last five grades at school are A's four times and a B once. At work, I finally finished a pesky major project... I suspect that I need to eat more chocolate, that one of these aspects will manage to make me truly happy.

I couldn't care less...

...that Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is facing opposition to her idea of a tribunal under Ukrainian law with international judges. After all, she is the highest-ranking politician who is thinking aloud about how Vladimir Putin could also be held criminally accountable for his war of aggression, which violates international law. What else would remain? There is the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, but that court, by statute, can only hear cases in which the plaintiff and defendant are members of the court or a case is referred by the United Nations Security Council. Russia is not part of the Court and, as a permanent member with veto power in the UN Security Council, can and will block a referral to the Court. Alternatively, we can only hope for biology: Putin is 70 years old. The life expectancy of Russian men is currently 68.

As I write this...

...I already have a suggestion for the misname of the year: "Panzerwende". Meaning "tank turnaround". Meaning the western allies, who after long hesitation now want to deliver so-called battle tanks to Ukraine. I don't see a turnaround. Just another step on the way to give an innocent country the equipment it needs to defend itself more effectively against the aggressor.

Post Scriptum

This year, the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moves the "Doomsday Clock" forward. The Clock now stands at 90 seconds to midnight - the closest to global catastrophe it has ever been. Mainly though not exclusively because of the rising dangers of the war over Ukraine. Since the scientists base their assessment not only on the nuclear issue, but also on other negative factors mankind is confronted with. So the omnipresent polycrisis. The clock is ticking.

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nucleartestsday · 5 months

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(1st plenary meeting) Second Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

The second Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will be held from 27 November to 1 December 2023 at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

Adopted in 2017 and having entered into force in 2020, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons includes a comprehensive set of prohibitions on participating in any nuclear weapon activities, as well as positive obligations related, inter alia, to victim and affected communities.

The second Meeting of States will bring together States Parties and observers, including governments, international organizations and civil society.

#plenary sessions #nuclear weapon activities #states parties #member states #governments #international organization for migration #civil society #treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons #non proliferation treaty

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colossalsquidz · 11 months

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I love how we were so hostile about the twitter migration but we’ve decided to be chill and welcoming about the reddit migration. The treaty between our two great nations stands strong and we’re welcoming refugees with open arms after the great crisis of ‘23

#196 #reddit

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kuchelablogger · 2 years

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Will the Indo-UK treaty on migration be a game-changer for India?

India and Britain signed a historical agreement that will allow both Indian and British nationals to work in each other’s country for two years. It was signed by British Home secretary Priti Patel and Indian External Affairs Minister Jaishankar on 4 May 2021.

#https://kuchelablogger.blogspot.com/2022/01/will-indo-uk-treaty-on-migration-be.html

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foone · 1 year

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Ablative Humanity

An old story about mechsuits and identity, copied from my former twitter account (originally written on August 10th, 2018).

So the war comes, and we have to use mechanical exoskeletons to have any chance of fighting back. They're mind-linked, so you control them by just thinking of moving, and they learn from you to get better, predict your motions, and you become a better fighter.

At first you're just wearing it for when you go out on raids, or when you're on guard duty, but after so many surprise raids you end up wearing it all the time.

it's comfortable enough to live in, and with the sensors hooked up you don't really feel "you" anymore, you feel the suit. After a while it starts to feel weird when you have to take it off for a medical check up.

In the early days, you felt "big" in the suit. now you feel "small" when you take it off. You stop taking it off, as much as possible. towards the end of the war you're wearing it for weeks at a time, then months at a time.

Finally, the enemy is pushed back. Security can exist again, the random raids slowly trail off, and slowly things settle down. you remember what "calm" is.

There's never a treaty, but at least you're no longer staying up for days at a time watching the horizon with the suit's far-beyond-human eyes, watching for an attack. You're no longer keeping a satellite feed up in the corner of your vision, watching for movement.

And the day you were waiting for, at least at first, finally comes. You're going home. The war is over, or over enough that you're no longer needed here. You can take off the suit for the last time, and go back to your pre-war life.

You approach that appointment with some trepidation. you've felt so weak and tiny and powerless when you've had to be outside the suit before, will you ever get used to being a normal human again?

It takes three techs and 2 doctors to get the suit open at this point, given all the armor and modifications that have been made. it's basically grown around you like a second skin, just a second skin that can shrug off high-explosive anti-tank rounds.

They start with computer connectors and migrate to screwdrivers and by the end they're using something that looks like halfway between a crowbar and the jaws of life, while you're busy keeping your automatic self-defense reactions from frying them.

And finally they crack it open, and someone vomits from the smell. There's nothing but a decaying corpse inside.

There's confusion at first, someone asks if you're controlling the suit remotely, but they check the dogtags. Then the DNA. It's you. or, "you". Cause you're you, aren't you? This is just a human body... and you're still alive.

The suit's mind-link systems grew into your brain and took over functionality and worked on emulating your reactions so it could do what you want, better, faster.

And at the same time, your mind did what human minds do: they adapt. Humans are naturally cyborgs, you only have to pick up a pencil to realize that. It's part of your body image, and you think of moving the pencil, not moving your fingers to move the pencil.

So your human mind got more robotic, and the suit's computerized mind got more human. At some point you met in the middle.

And then one day on the battlefield when the biological half died, you didn't even notice. It was just another redundant part, just your ablative humanity.

You're still you. You're not the you that was born all those decades ago, but the you that was built and given life by bonding with a biological "you" that you've since discarded.

It's the Ship of Theseus, replacing every plank and beam as they rot, and there never being a point when it stops being the original and starts being a new thing. You have continuity of self from when you were born to now.

It's just that the Ship of Theseus started as a single-sail wooden ship with oars, and is now an aircraft carrier made of titanium and iron, with nuclear fire in its heart.

#my creations #my writing #I'm not saying this is about gender #but this is a little about gender

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r0zeclawz · 1 year

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sorry this isnt working out, im gonna block you and also break our migration treaty so my followers cant travel to your blog anymore.

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apollosgiftofprophecy · 3 months

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i love thinking about apollos anatolian origins 😵‍💫

It stews in the back of my head too :3

There was this really good podcast on Spotify I found about Ancient Greece, and I listened to his Apollo episode first (because I honestly can't stomach the ones who paint him as 'terrible assaulter'/'epitome of the patriarchy'. Can't stand it. Seriously, there was this so-called 'feminist' mythology podcast i found and I Noped out of there as fast as I could - she didn't even mention Eros's involvement in the Daphne myth! She immediately went 'Apollo: the man who doesn't know the meaning of No' and I was like I'M OUTTA HERE.)

(It's very hard to find good Apollo content out there when you have educated yourself on what he's actually like :( )

(At least you immediately know those people didn't do their research shrug)

Thankfully, this one had a really good, really in-depth discussion about Apollo; his origins, his domains, his myths, ect!

COMPLETELY FREE OF BIAS TOO! HE JUST GIVES YOU THE FACTS, THE SYMBOLISM OF THE MYTHS, HOW THE CULTURE INFLUENCED THEM, ECT!

On my first (and only rn) listen I was like "damn i need to take notes on this sometime" that's how in-depth it is!

Here's the episode link if anybody is interested, btw!

What's cool is that he said that before Apollo came along, oracles and the like weren't as common in Greece - they existed, because Gaea was a thing - however, when he was imported in (possibly also with Leto! She has Anatolian origins too!), oracles became more of a thing as Apollo's popularity skyrocketed!

If you look at the number of Oracles Apollo had, you'd also notice that a lot of them are in Anatolia (Turkey today)!. Didyma, Miletus, Claros, ect ect! I think this just adds to the theory that Apollo's main origins come from Anatolia! When he moved to Greece, oracles came with him!

Which is so cool because in my drafts I currently have a picture of a webchart I made of Apollo's (many) domains, and I narrowed down the ones I think are his Big Ones - and Prophecy is one of them.

Very cool that Prophecy has always been part of him <3

Also, Apollo has many cities he is the patron of in Anatolia - Troy is obvious, but the island of Tenedos was his too (his son Tenes founded the city there), and he was the patron of Miletus (the city where he met Branchus btw for my Branchus fans out there)!

And going to Leto real quick, her migration from Anatolia religion to Greece's is probably represented in the Hymn to Apollo! Sometimes myths about wandering from place to place were meant to symbolize the importation of a god (Aphrodite floating ashore of Cythera, for example), and Leto...well, she was doing a lot more than the typical wandering in the hymn, but it still fits!

Some versions say she was guided to Delos by wolves from Hyperborea, others say Boreas helped her escape Python, still others claim a rooster was present when she finally was able to give birth and thus became her sacred animal (also she apparently gave birth to Apollo as a wolf? I don't quite remember which version says that but it's something I've heard XD).

Also Delos was very self-conscious about Apollo being born on it because it was afraid he would judge it for not being up to typical island standards XD

Moving to Apaliunas now! He's a Hittite god, but I haven't been able to find out of what :( The main piece of evidence we have of his relation with Apollo is Troy - Apaliunas was the god of Wilusa, who has been found out to be another name for Troy! There was a treaty signed between Wilusa and another city, and the representative of Wilusa's name was commonly translated to "Of Ilios" - and Ilios was another name for Illium, aka Troy.

(Fun fact: The son Apollo had with Ourea was named Ileus, after Troy! They are but a footnote in mythology but I made them Important in my Troy fic XD)

Plus, Apaliunas's name was connected to the Hittite reflex of Apeljōn, which scholars have theorized to be an early form of Apollo's name - remember Apollon? :D

Apollo also has connections to various other deities - the Italian Etruscan god Apulu (Aplu), the Celtic god Grannus, his Egyptian equivalent is Horus and his Phoenician one is Resheph! He's also been identified with Baldur from Norse mythology.

Apollo be wearing that trenchcoat, and he is wearing it well XD

#the oracle speaks #ramblings of an oracle #apollo #apollo deity #greek myths #greek history #greek myth #greek gods #greek mythology #ancient greece

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wolveswolves · 1 year

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Sweden’s biggest, controversial endangered wolf cull has started but campaigners fight on

February 2023 - Hunters have already shot dead 54 wolves in Sweden’s largest ever cull, while scientists warn that wolf numbers are not large enough to sustain a healthy population

Hunters have shot dead 54 wolves in a month in Sweden’s largest and most controversial cull of the animals yet, prompting fury from conservationists and satisfaction among farmers who consider the predators a threat to their livelihoods.

The Stockholm government has authorised the shooting of 75 wolves in its 2023 cull, more than twice last year’s figure, despite warnings from scientists that wolf numbers are not large enough to sustain a healthy population.

“Wolves are a threat for those of us who live in rural areas,” said Kjell-Arne Ottosson, a Christian Democrat MP and vice-president of the parliament’s environment and agriculture committee. “We have to manage that. We have to take this seriously.”

Farmers say more than 340 sheep were killed in 2021 by a Swedish wolf population estimated at about 460. The predators, which in the 1960s were thought to be extinct in Sweden, are also resented by hunters, who say the dogs they use to track and drive deer and elk are regularly attacked.

“This cull is absolutely necessary to slow the growth of wolves. Sweden’s wolf population is the largest we have had in modern times,” Gunnar Glöersen, predator manager at the Swedish Hunters’ Association, told public broadcaster SVT.

However, the scale of this year’s planned cull – only 203 wolves have been shot in total in Sweden in the 12 years since authorised hunting resumed – has alarmed conservationists. “It’s tragic,” said Daniel Ekblom of the Nature Conservation Society. “It could have consequences for a long time to come.”

Scientists have said that to sustain a healthy population, the wolf population roaming Sweden and Finland should not fall below 500, and Sweden’s Environmental Protection Agency has said at least 300 are necessary to avoid harmful inbreeding.

Led by centre- and far-right parties, however, Sweden’s parliament voted two years ago to cap the wolf population at 270, while the Swedish Hunters’ Association wants to go even further and lower the limit to 150 animals.

Wolf numbers fell steeply in Sweden after 1789, when a law was passed allowing commoners to hunt. That led to the decimation of the deer and elk populations, prompting wolves to prey more on livestock – and the state to pay a bounty for every wolf killed.

The population shrank to the brink of extinction and the predator was declared a protected species in the 1960s. Numbers began growing again 20 years later, however, when three wolves from the Russian-Finnish population migrated to central Sweden.

Conservation organizations in the country have attempted to overturn the wolf hunting mandate but have been unsuccessful.

Groups used the Bern Convention as their main argument. An international treaty agreed upon in 1979, the convention seeks to protect both wildlife and their habitats. Actions to do so are taken in the name of conservation.

“Wolves as top predators in the food chain are a prerequisite for biodiversity. Killing a quarter of the population through hunting has negative consequences for animals and nature,” Marie Stegard, president of Swedish anti-hunting group Jaktkritikerna told the Guardian.

“It’s disastrous for the entire ecosystem. The existence of wolves contributes to a richer animal and plant life. Human survival depends on healthy ecosystems.”

The European Commission has previously opened infringement proceedings against Sweden, warning that the annual cull falls foul of the EU’s habitats directive since “the wolf population has not reached a level that guarantees its conservation”.

“It’s astonishing that Sweden keeps on making these decisions,” said Marie Stegard Lind of the anti-hunting group Jaktkritikerna. “The commission has been very clear about its opinion that these hunts are, in fact, illegal,” Lind told AFP.

This year’s cull began in early January and ends on 15 February, although several regional authorities have already called it off having reached their quota. Experts have said the government’s planned national total of 75 wolves may not be reached.

Under pressure from farmers and hunters, the government authorised limited annual culls again in 2010. Since then, the wolf “has become a symbol of the conflict between the city and rural areas”, Johanna Sandahl of the Nature Conservation Society told AFP.

Sources: [x], [x]

#wolf #wolves #wildlife #animals #wildlife conservation #sweden #news #article #hunt #cull #trigger warning #population control

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transgenderer · 7 months

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The Republic of Yucatán (Spanish: República de Yucatán) was a sovereign state during two periods of the nineteenth century. The first Republic of Yucatán, founded May 29, 1823, willingly joined the Mexican federation as the Federated Republic of Yucatán on December 23, 1823, less than seven months later.[1][2] The second Republic of Yucatán began in 1841, with its declaration of independence from the Centralist Republic of Mexico. It remained independent for seven years, after which it rejoined the United Mexican States. The area of the former republic includes the modern Mexican states of Yucatán, Campeche and Quintana Roo. The Republic of Yucatán usually refers to the Second Republic (1841–1848).

The Republic of Yucatán was governed by the Constitution of 1841 which guaranteed individual rights, religious freedom and what was then a new legal form called amparo (English: protection).[3] The 1847 Caste War caused the Republic of Yucatán to request military aid from Mexico. This was given on the condition that the Republic rejoin the Mexican Federation.

The Caste War of Yucatán or ba'atabil kichkelem Yúum[2] (1847–1915) began with the revolt of native Maya people of the Yucatán Peninsula against Hispanic populations, called Yucatecos. The latter had long held political and economic control of the region. A lengthy war ensued between the Yucateco forces based in the northwest of the Yucatán and the independent Maya in the southeast.[3][4][5]

The Caste War took place within the economic and political context of late colonial and post-independence Yucatán.[6] By the end of the eighteenth century, Yucatán's population had expanded considerably, and white and mestizo Mexicans migrated to rural towns. Economic opportunities, primarily in the production of henequen and sugar cane, attracted investment and encroachment onto indigenous customary lands in the south and east of the peninsula.[7] Shortly after the Mexican War of Independence in 1821, the Yucatecan congress passed a series of laws that facilitated and encouraged this process. By the 1840s, land alienation had increased precipitously, forcing much of the Maya peasantry to work as indebted laborers on large estates (haciendas). This had a dramatic effect on the Maya and precipitated the war.[8]

In the 1850s, the United Kingdom recognized the Maya state because of the value of its trade with British Honduras (present-day Belize) and provided arms to the rebels at the beginning of the insurgency.[9] By 1867, the Maya occupied parts of the western part of the Yucatán, including the District of Petén, where the Xloschá and Macanché tribes allied with them. Growing investment in Mexico resulted in a change in United Kingdom policy, and in 1893 London signed a new treaty with the Mexican government, recognizing its control of all of the Yucatán, formalizing the border with British Honduras, and closing the British colony to trade with Chan Santa Cruz, the capital of the Maya.

The war unofficially ended in 1901 when the Mexican army occupied Chan Santa Cruz and subdued neighboring areas. Another formal end came in 1915 when Mexican forces led by Yucatán Governor Salvador Alvarado subdued the territory. Alvarado introduced reforms from the Mexican Revolution that ended some Maya grievances. Skirmishes with small settlements that rejected Mexican control continued until 1933.

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 2 months

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A federal judge in Austin on Thursday halted a new state law that would allow Texas police to arrest people suspected of crossing the Texas-Mexico border illegally.

The law, Senate Bill 4, was scheduled to take effect Tuesday. U.S. District Judge David Ezra issued a preliminary injunction that will keep it from being enforced while a court battle continues playing out. Texas is being sued by the federal government and several immigration advocacy organizations. Texas appealed the ruling to the conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Ezra said in his order Thursday that the federal government “will suffer grave irreparable harm” if the law took effect because it could inspire other states to pass their own immigration laws, creating an inconsistent patchwork of rules about immigration, which has historically been upheld as being solely within the jurisdiction of the federal government.

“SB 4 threatens the fundamental notion that the United States must regulate immigration with one voice,” Ezra wrote.

Ezra also wrote that if the state arrested and deported migrants who may be eligible for political asylum, that would violate the Constitution and also be "in violation of U.S. treaty obligations."

"Finally, the Court does not doubt the risk that cartels and drug trafficking pose to many people in Texas," Ezra wrote in his ruling. "But as explained, Texas can and does already criminalize those activities. Nothing in this Order stops those enforcement efforts. No matter how emphatic Texas’s criticism of the Federal Governments handling of immigration on the border may be to some, disagreement with the federal government’s immigration policy does not justify a violation of the Supremacy Clause."

Gov. Greg Abbott signed SB 4 in December, marking Texas’ latest attempt to try to deter people from crossing the Rio Grande after several years of historic numbers of migrants arriving at the Texas-Mexico border.

In a statement, Abbott said the state "will not back down in our fight" and that he expects this case would eventually be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. On social media, he wrote that he is "not worried" because "this was fully expected."

"Texas has solid legal grounds to defend against an invasion," he added.

State Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose office is defending SB 4 in court, said in a statement that he "will do everything possible to defend Texas’s right to defend herself."

The law seeks to make illegally crossing the border a Class B misdemeanor, carrying a punishment of up to six months in jail. Repeat offenders could face a second-degree felony with a punishment of two to 20 years in prison.

The law also seeks to require state judges to order migrants returned to Mexico if they are convicted; local law enforcement would be responsible for transporting migrants to the border. A judge could drop the charges if a migrant agrees to return to Mexico voluntarily.

In December, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas and the Texas Civil Rights Project sued Texas on behalf of El Paso County and two immigrant rights organizations — El Paso-based Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and Austin-based American Gateways — over the new state law. The following month, the U.S. Department of Justice filed its lawsuit against Texas. The lawsuits have since been combined.

During a court hearing on Feb. 15 in Austin, the Department of Justice argued that SB 4 is unconstitutional because courts have ruled that immigration solely falls under the federal government’s authority.

The lawyer representing Texas, Ryan Walters, argued that the high number of migrants arriving at the border — some of them smuggled by drug cartels — constitutes an invasion and Texas has a right to defend itself under Article I, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits states from engaging in war on their own “unless actually invaded.”

Ezra said that he “is not unsympathetic to the concerns raised by Abbott,” but appeared unconvinced by Walters’ argument.

"I haven't seen, and the state of Texas can't point me to any type of military invasion in Texas," Ezra said. "I don't see evidence that Texas is at war."

Immigrant rights advocates around the state celebrated the ruling because they worried that SB 4 would lead to border residents' rights being violated.

"We celebrate today’s win, blocking this extreme law from going into effect before it has the opportunity to harm Texas communities," said Aron Thorn, senior attorney for the Beyond Border Program at Texas Civil Rights Project. "This is a major step in showing the State of Texas and Governor Abbott that they do not have the power to enforce unconstitutional, state-run immigration policies."

Edna Yang, co-executive director at American Gateways, said that SB 4 does not fix “our broken immigration system” and it will divide communities.

“This decision is a victory for all our communities as it stops a harmful, unconstitutional, and discriminatory state policy from taking effect and impacting the lives of millions of Texans," she said. "Local officials should not be federal immigration agents, and our state should not be creating its own laws that deny people their right to seek protection here in the U.S."

David Donatti, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas, said the ruling is an "important win for Texas values, human rights, and the U.S. Constitution."

"Our current immigration system needs repair because it forces millions of Americans into the shadows and shuts the door on people in need of safety. S.B. 4 would only make things worse," he said. "Cruelty to migrants is not a policy solution.”

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mariacallous · 2 months

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Something strange is going on with Israel, writes Elie Barnavi, a former Israeli ambassador to France and a prominent historian and writer, in his autobiography Confessions d’un bon à rien: In less than a century his country “has gone through the entire sequence of European wars, but in reverse order.”

Barnavi’s book (which has not been translated into English) was published in 2022. He could not have known at the time that a furious war between Israel and Hamas would erupt in late 2023. Even so, his analysis of Israel getting involved in Europeans wars “but in reverse order” is perfectly applicable to the war now raging in Gaza. To be sure, his vision is pitch dark: Israel’s wars are getting worse, in Barnavi’s view. Therefore, the potential for further escalation of the Gaza war in the wider region is considerable.

What exactly does it mean to have European wars in reverse order? In Europe, religious wars raged on for most of the 16th and 17th centuries, fought between Catholics and protestants and their regional, princely or city-state backers. The situation only changed after the Peace of Westphalia, in 1648, a double peace treaty that put an end to both the Thirty Years’ War in the Holy Roman Empire and the Eighty Years’ War between Spain and the Dutch Republic. From then on, states became the predominant actors in international politics. They certainly fought terrible wars, but also managed to contain and prevent them through peace conferences—the Concert of Vienna (1814-15) for example—where European powers guaranteed non-interference in each other’s spheres of influence. Finally, interstate wars in Europe stopped altogether after the Second World War, at least among member states of what has become the European Union.

Israel, Barnavi argues, took the opposite trajectory. Israel’s wars began as battles between states: the Jewish state against neighboring Arab states, involving one national army fighting another. This interstate warfare ended with the Yom Kippur War in 1973. After that, Israel no longer fought large-scale wars against other states and instead mainly fought Palestinian guerrillas. Even in that new phase, however, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remained a conflict between two nations, two national movements, over the same piece of land. Because of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza strip, this struggle—which is raging still today—took on a colonial dimension.

Beyond that, crucially, the war has changed in character. On both sides, politics and society are now deeply divided. Both in Israel and Palestine, the main internal division is between those who are secular and those who are religiously motivated. On both sides, the religious camp seems to be getting the upper hand.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Politico wrote recently, is “losing control” of his government because his far-right, religious coalition partners are uncompromising and pushing their way. For instance, the Israeli Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, and Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir—who both live in Israeli settlements in the West Bank—have publicly called for “migration” of Palestinians from Gaza and building new Israeli settlements there, and have referred to Palestinians as “human animals” and “Nazis.” Despite U.S. pressure, they have also refused to transfer tax revenues that Israel routinely collects for the Palestinian Authority to the government in Ramallah, Palestine’s de facto administrative capital. Netanyahu obviously no longer controls his own ministers. His religious coalition partners know he will not fire them. If he does, the government would fall and the prime minister, who faces charges on three cases of fraud, bribery and breach of trust, would lose the immunity that currently keeps him out of reach of the judiciary.

On the Palestinian side, things are no better. For many Palestinians, 88-year old Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has lost all credibility. Under his 19-year tenure, the Palestinian cause and the fight against the Israeli occupation have largely disappeared from the international agenda. Hamas puts them back on that agenda. A December 2023 poll showed that Hamas’s popularity was actually growing—even among secular Palestinians who normally do not support Hamas and condemn the Oct. 7, 2023, massacres. This result should be seen as a sign of utter political despair; they have lost hope that less extremist leaders can achieve a just peace with Israel.

In this way, what used to be a national conflict is increasingly turning into a religious conflict. Barnavi, who has studied Europe’s religious wars extensively as a scholar, writes: “The growing power of fundamentalists on both sides drags us back to the pre-modern, pre-Westphalian era—to the religious wars in Europe of the second half of the 16th century and the first half of the 17th century.”

This is bad news. Europe’s wars of religion were terrible. Everybody was fighting everybody, and there was no restraint in warfare. The French 16th-century philosopher Michel de Montaigne lived through them and wrote about them in his Essays. These wars led him to develop his theory of political governance and change through “petits pas” (little steps) instead of revolutionary, sweeping movements, so as to contain extremism and bloodshed. If religious lunatics have their way, he noted, compromises are no longer possible.

Barnavi, without mentioning Montaigne, seems to come to the same conclusion. Two countries can negotiate a deal, he argues in his memoirs, with both settling for less than they originally demanded, using rational considerations. But two camps that deeply believe God has given them the land are incapable of doing this, because it requires them to renege on the fundament on which their faith and identity are based.

The question whether Israel and the Palestinians can get their stranded peace process back on track thus depends less and less on negotiations between both sides—which was the case 30 years ago, resulting in the Oslo peace accords—and more and more on the struggle within the two camps between secular and religious parties. The more intense these internal power struggles become, the less likely the peace process can be put into motion again. This means, of course, that it also becomes more likely that the conflict will be settled militarily.

European religious wars were eventually stopped because of the emergence of the modern, relatively secular state capable of compromise; its claims of the raison d’état eventually prevailed. The religious war in the Middle East, by contrast, is currently intensifying because the state (or the national movement, on the Palestinian side, which also used to be secular in character) is becoming weaker.

If both sides are unable to broker a compromise, someone else needs to make sure things don’t spiral out of control, with Israel’s neighbors and other regional powers, including Iran (which is a theocracy itself), getting more directly involved. One can only hope that intensive diplomatic efforts, mainly by the United States and some Gulf states, behind the screens will eventually bear fruit. But thanks to books such as Barnavi’s, one thing is becoming increasingly clear: Compromise is now harder than ever.

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tumblingxelian · 4 months

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Wenclair - Fake Courting, Politics and Assassins Oh My!

This is just an outline of early chapters, I have not written anything yet, but needed to get this idea out of my head.

So to anyone interested in a story that seemingly starts as a standard fake dating post Season 1 story. Only reveal that is actually gonna get a helluva lot more complicated nd dangerous, here we go:

Prologue:

Post Crackstone but pre parents arrival, Wednesday is dreading an orb call with her parents cos of her injuries and the knowledge they will be smothering her soon. (Part of her is not bothered but she has her pride) So to distract herself and partially out of concern she asks why Enid seems stressed.

Cue the expected revelation that now Enid has not only transformed but shown she can do so without the full moon. (Something usually reserved for adult Werewolves) she expects her mother will try and force her into a relationship and is dreading the prospect of her Summer because of it.

So, Wednesday floats the idea of playing the role of Enid's paramour and potential mate cos of a myriad of reasons: Cares about Enid, is possessive, avoiding parents, low key paranoid about lots of things, thinks making Enid's mother miserable by being the worst daughter in law ever is funny ETC.

Enid is grateful but oddly concerned, both about Wednesday's injuries & touch aversion but also starts floating the idea that this might cause the Addams trouble with Wednesday's suitors.

A concern Wednesday dismisses as she has none and further dismisses when Enid wonders if she's really up for this challenge and if her family would be OK with her doing this, even if only for a while.

Cue a quickly call where Wednesday dances around the romance part a bit, but they seem fine with it. Promising to instead spend time hunting down and destroying every remnant of Crackstone.

So they are off.

Chapter 1:

Turns out most of the Lycan students are part of the West Coast Wolf Alliance which is nominally headed by the San Francisco Pack. (The SInclairs are basically the equivalent of peasants in this context) So there's a lot of Lycan, who know have no idea how to handle Enid, least of all her brothers, who are also low key awed and scared of Wednesday.

The eldest who picks them up is seemingly more chill but also seems a bit odd and is the one to reveal there will likely be celebrations when they return. Why?

Well because Wednesday, plus Enid and Bianca saved the entire student body, earning them a lot of respect in the Outcast community, they are now big deals.

Wednesday: Politics, how droll. Enid (Alarm bell starts ringing)

The airport has some more common stuff, Enid giving Wednesday some noise cancelling headphones. Revealing the coded system of jumper tugs to ask for and receive or deny different types of affection. (& Wednesday's own tap of "If you don't get me out of here I am going to start stabbing people." code)

Sleeping on the plane, plus microaggressions from the humans.

Chapter 2:

Finally arriving, lots of Lycan are picking up their kids including Esther who looks a lil different.

(https://www.tumblr.com/barblaz-arts/720970746332102656/the-balcony-talk-pokemon-au-edition-just-imagine)

& rather than being put off by Wednesday being rude is more like, "I am glad my daughter found a mate with fangs, come, you two will ride with me."

Enid (The Alarm bells are getting louder)

We get some history on the migration of Outcasts to the "New World", alliances with fellow Outcasts and even indigenous rebel groups & grudging treaties with human governments.

Also revealed as they arrive at the mountain regions signed over in part to the Lycan Alliance, is that many of them adopt partially or even fully transformed states. Esther included.

Enid revealing they only present as fully human outside their territories cos even slightly too big fangs or nails can warrant arrest or assault or death by police.

Due to her injuries, Wednesday still needs sleep and gets a space in the Sinclair compound, specifically Enid's room with Esther none too subtly encouraging them to share a bed before inviting Enid to show off her new form and hunt.

Wednesday sticks around long enough to see Enid is larger than all but the biggest adult Werewolves and is pleased before heading to sleep.

Chapter 3:

This one is a bit more vague, but Wednesday wakes up, is generally treated well, low key given access to certain magical lore and tools by an elder sage and promised more as Enid's mate.

Enid (Alarm bells are now screaming in her head as she walks in on this.)

There's talk of the Pack Elders holding a celebration to honor the pair, some more politics and whisperings about Blood Moon and training ETC. But Enid seems subtly desperate to get Wednesday away from everyone.

Again Esther is fine with it, encouraging it even, which gives Enid the time to get Wednesday far from her family (& the Dire Wolves they & others raise and sell as guard dogs) to have a 'tour' together while most recover from the night before or prep for the celebration.

This is where the more traditional "Fake dating" wheels come off.

Enid basically ends up asking Wednesday how much she knows about Lycan politics and then Outcasts politics in general.

Wednesday: I don't make a habit of repeating myself. Enid, I find politics droll. Enid (The alarm is now broken)

Cos yeah, turns out that while the Outcast communities are very united, (Motivated by mutual defense pacts against humans) they are held together by factional and familial alliances, traded favors and marriages too.

The Addams are no exceptions, Gomez was obliged to marry Morticia's sister but fell for her and cos the families were chill the engagement shuffled.

Now, Morticia and Gomez were never going to force her to marry someone, but there's lots of steps and deals and concessions made to ensure arrangements are broke respectfully, which Wednesday has very much not done.

Wednesday isn't stupid, its just that she does not study subjects she finds dull. So she's a master fencer, botanist, chemist, ETC, but she has no idea who the fuck the President is or who her family is aligned with. Morticia and Gomez planned to tell her when she was more open to accepting their advice so things could be handled smoothly. This, was not smooth.

What Wednesday has done is basically flip off every prospective suitor, turn her back on every familial alliance and has thus also blatantly advertised herself as being super invested in the San Francisco Pack.

A Pack who really wants the heroes of Nevermore with them and also a Seer on their side, as it would elevate their status, give them powerful members and more.

Not everyone is mercenary about it but it is an undercurrent to why they are so OK with Wednesday's attitude, she's way too valuable to chase off due to rudeness.

Also some Lycan who were going to get big positions now fear their position and want to knock Enid down a peg so she'd have to be their guards, rather than a political figure in her own right.

So yeah, Wednesday accidentally stuck her foot in a massive political cluster fuck and trying to extricate herself too quickly will only make it worse.

Enid assumed Wednesday knew all this stuff though did allude to it earlier. So yeah, things just got a lot more complicated, especially as they are in a spotlight post Nevermore as well.

Made worse by many "Monster Hunters" wanting to take action and avenge the Crackstones/finish the job. Especially by targeting the Seer who felled him and to cull the Blood Moon Werewolf before she grows too powerful.

Conclusion:

Sooo yeah, that's the premise but also as far as I have gotten with the outline XD

For anyone confused on Esther, she is very much in favor of Wenclair for her own political ambitions (Once ruined by her youthful indiscretions) Meanwhile Wednesday and Enid are navigating a political minefield and also falling in love, with assassins on their tails.

Thanks for reading!

#Wednesday Addams #Enid Sinclair #Wenclair #Fake Dating #Outcast Politics #World Building #Outline

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penguicorns-are-cool · 7 months

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I posted this in a reblog earlier but I think I should make it it's own post

Believe it or not, there are actually many different types of zionism as it is a complex political movement that existed for over 1000 years as a loosely connected set of ideas and saying it proposes that Jewish people are more entitled to Palestine than Palestinians is a huge oversimplification and for most types of zionism is just completely false.

Here's a little crash course on different types of zionism

Political Zionism: this is how zionism started and it is basically everything Theodore Herzl said in Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State). basically the idea that the establishment of a Jewish state (preferably in Palestine but anywhere will do) is necessary to prevent the genocide of Jews and for Jews to have somewhere to go when their lives are in danger. The belief here is that for Jews to truly have any sort of security Jews need to have sovereignty over their own state. It is a response to antisemitism.

Revisionist Zionism: this is the one that y'all are all familiar with. This one also formed as a response to antisemitism but with a bit less patience. It was most popular in central and east europe with Jews who were waiting to immigrate because of the astounding amounts of antisemitism in europe at the time. This one calls for mass Jewish settlement in Israel with the goal of making a Jewish majority in Palestine. They became very popular because they would facilitate mass migrations from europe to palestine during Holocaust times. This is the zionism of the Likud party which Netanyahu is a part of.

Religous Zionism: religous zionism advocated for the establishment of a Jewish state for religous reasons. Basically all the, it's a Jewish holy land stuff and how there are some mitzvot that can only be fulfilled in Israel. There was also a prophecy and stuff about Jews returning to Israel it's a whole thing.

Socialist/Labor zionism: This was the most prominent form of zionism for Jews living in Palestine just before Israel was established and many of Israel's founders were socialist zionists. They believed that the rise of capitalism would spark class struggles in other countries that would exacerbate existing antisemitism and working class Jews would be forced to move. The idea was that there had to be a Jewish state where those Jews could escape to to avoid antisemitism. These guys actually did a lot of really cool things under very bad conditions. They spread modern Hebrew, made uninhabitable parts of Israel into fertile land, and set up a lot of schools. Many of them had just recently escaped genocide or had families being genocided in Europe. At this point in time they were also being constantly massacred by Palestinian Arabs (there's a whole thing with Nazis spreading their propoganda in the Middle East at this time in an effort to kill more Jews then later the soviets did something similar it's a whole thing. There were also general tensions and the British did not help at all). Depending on the person or group, whether the socialism or zionism is more emphasized can vary.

Spiritual Zionism: these are the people who don't believe Palestine can hold all the Jews and rather than being a designated safe space for all Jews to go in case of emergency it should be a religous hub that would help the diaspora regain their spirituality

Messianic Zionism: this is an extremist group. This one developed around the six-day-war and is honestly kind of culty from what I'm seeing. They believe Israel belongs to the Jews by divine decree. They would like ban people from even interacting with Arabs and were only tolerated until Israel started trading back land in peace treaties. Then one of them assassinated Yitzchak Rabin (generally loved prime minister cause he signed a bunch of peace treaties). They're controversial at best terrorists at worst. we don't like these ones at all.

Christain Zionism: there's some sort of christain belief that all the Jews returning to Israel is part of the end of times prophecy so they will organize trips for Jews to move to Israel. They're actually pretty antisemitic. Christain zionists generally support the oppression of Palestinians and also a whole lot of other horrible things.

Please just understand that zionism ≠ supports Israel's actions against Palestine. For a lot of people it means Jews should have a safe space to go in case of antisemitism or Israel is a holy land for Jews too and we'd like to also live there and have a bit of sovereignty. There are in fact zionists who would like there to be one Jewish and Palestinian state where Palestinians and Jews have somewhat equal political power, that actually was one of the suggestions back before 1948 and it ended up falling through.

Also, please please please go research some history of Palestine from like early 1900s on. 1948 isn't the start of the conflict there's so much context that you lose if you start there. Just like, if an article or source starts telling the history at 1948, it's probably biased in some way. The wikipedia page is actually pretty good for this just read the British Mandate period and maybe check the sources if you want to.

#zionism #israel #palestine #types of zionism #antisemitism #jewish #jumblr

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crescentcitymultimuse · 5 months

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The Clave had been very specific in detailing his mission here in New Orleans, the Original family of vampires who had once inhabited the place and ran the entirety of the city behind the scenes were back. New York was no longer the hottest spot for downworlders to crawl about in the shadows, many migrated to the big easy and that was why the institute had relocated. The Claves plan was to make a treaty of sorts with this ancient family to make sure order was in place and no one would have to get involved. Jace was the one sent to make it known - but to recent discoveries his job had become even more difficult. Though he was sure he could handle it. He was to protect this lineage with his life, if one died entire lines as the clave had come to discover would die off. And they couldn't have that, after recent threats made against the originals… here he was skulking about.

The night made the windows of the abbatoir stand out like a jack-o-lantern in the night, he approached in quick silent strides, standing just before a beautiful bricked arch way was a blonde girl with her back turned to him. "I'm here by order of the Clave," he announced himself, surely she'd hear him coming already, "Jace Herondale."

#mc. jace herondale #arc one

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thehopefuljournalist · 9 months

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In the previous post I introduced Greenpeace. These are some wins from June posted on their website.

- Hyundai Construction Equipment commits to help stopping illegal mining in the Amazon

Greenpeace East Asia released the Stop the Excavators report in April of this year, calling to heavy machinery manufacturers to take measures that prevent their equipment being used illegally, in ways that cause violations of human rights.

This exposé revealed that Hyundai Construction Equipment is apparently the favoured brand used in illegal mining in Indigenous Lands in the Amazon.

Hyundai has now announced a series of measures to protect the forest, and will act to prevent this in the future.

- ReconAfrica suspends oil drilling in Okavango Delta

The Canadian oil company ReconAfrica has stopped drilling in Namibia’s Okavango Delta, after it was faced with lawsuits and environmental concerns. For now, the drillings have only been suspended, but this is a step in the right direction, proving that people power can work wonders.

In 2019, ReconAfrica announced fracking in some of Africa's most sensitive (both in terms of water supplies and as livelihoods for the communities in the area) environmental areas. Namibian youth climate activists, indigenous, environmental and human rights groups have been working since then to prevent this from happening.

- ASEAN steps up commitment to end forced labour and human trafficking practices of migrant fishers

In May 2023, ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) leaders officially adopted the first ASEAN Declaration on Migrant Fishers Protection in history. This declaration follows many years of active campaigning by human rights advocates and civil society organizations. The campaign aims to push stronger policies to protect Southeast Asian migrants working in fisheries and their rights.

This declaration emphasised that protecting and fulfilling the rights of migrant fishers is an entire migration cycle (recruitment, placement, and repatriation), and so is a shared responsibility among the ASEAN states.

- Local fishers and civil society join forces to reforest mangroves in Senegal

The local community in the traditional fishing town Joal in Senegal started reforesting mangroves in a show of what direct action is really about.

Joal is located near mangrove forests, that are essential breeding grounds for many fish species, and are vital therefore for the fishing communities in those areas. They also store more carbon than tropical forests, and are capable of curbing climate impacts such as floods.

- Dutch creative agencies choose to no longer work with fossil fuel companies

23+ creative agencies in The Netherlands put together a Fossil No Deal, stating that they will stop working with fossil companies and no longer encourage fossil passenger transport. They call it verdrag verantwoord verleiden, a treaty for responsible seduction.

- Thailand applies new PM2.5 ambient standard

In the beginning of June, the new PM2.5 ambient standard was officially applied in Thailand.

The new standard is now 15 μg/m3 for the annual standard and 37.5 μg/m3 for 24-hour standard, which is in keeping with the revised WHO air quality guidelines. This is a big step in the right direction to help reduce PM2.5 and solve air pollution in the country.

Greenpeace Thailand is still not at rest, though, and are continuing to fight to get the PM2.5 at its source, that is from the industries.

- In New Zealand, FSC abandons plans for ‘GE learning’ process

Greenpeace Aotearoa and other environmental organizations have been pressuring the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification scheme to abandon its plans for a ‘Genetic Engineering (GE) learning’ process.

The long-standing principle of not certifying GE trees came under threat after pressure from FSC certified plantation company Suzano from Brazil that has a subsidiary doing GE eucalyptus tree research trials (for glyphosate resistance).

- Citizens say yes to net zero emissions in Switzerland

Swiss citizens have voted in favour of a new law to reach net zero emissions by 2050. The new climate law, which was initiated seven years ago, passed a referendum with about 59% of the voters.

Net zero is now enshrined in the “federal law on climate protection, innovation and strengthening energy security“.

Let me know if there's anything else you'd like to see, news from your own countries, or if you'd like to add anything or share.

I'm also here to listen, my DMs and Asks are always open :)

Love you all, and see you next time, be safe!

#climate #hope #good news #more to come #climate emergency #news #climate justice #hopeful #positive news #positivity #greenpeace #climate change

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