The Hudak Report 11/23/24
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Featured News
Today In Imperial Recklessness And Insanity (Caitlin’s Newsletter)
Canada Reinvents the Xenophobic Wheel (CounterPunch)
1,500 Australian Woolworths workers begin indefinite strike (World Socialist Web Site)
Thousands of People in Prison Have ADHD. Why Aren’t They Receiving Treatment? (The Appeal)
Developing nations, climate groups oppose COP29 $250B-a-year offer from rich countries (Yahoo! News)
Other News
Denmark: History is full of examples of governments using forced segregation against ethnic minorities.
From settler colonialists coercing Indigenous peoples into reservations, Nazis forcing Jews into ghettos or the United States segregating Black Americans through redlining and zoning policies, displacement and housing have long been at the heart of institutional racism.
But in today’s Europe, an inverted trend of coercive assimilation is emerging in northern nations grappling with high levels of immigration. As a part of what has been described as both “ethnic engineering” and among the “harshest immigration policies” in the world, Denmark is forcibly uprooting people from neighborhoods they call “ghettos” and redirecting them to alternative housing. (Read more at The Conversation)
Netherlands: Pro-Palestinian organisations have taken the Dutch state to court, urging a halt to arms exports to Israel and accusing the government of failing to prevent what they termed a “genocide” in Gaza.
They argue that the Netherlands, a staunch ally of Israel, has a legal obligation to do everything in its power to stop violations of international law and the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention, in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank. (Read more at Al Jazeera)
Ontario: Ontario has reached an agreement with the federal government that will see $108.5 million roll out over the next three years to help fund a school food program in the province.
Officials said the money represents a first round of funding, with federal support for the program in the years ahead still to be negotiated. (Read more at CBC News)
Pakistan: The death toll in yesterday’s gun attack on passenger vans in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lower Kurram has risen to 42, while more than 30 people were injured, the local deputy commissioner said on Friday.
Kurram Deputy Commissioner (DC) Javedullah Mehsud confirmed the casualties to Dawn.com, adding that the deceased included seven women and a nine-year-old girl.
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DC Mehsud said yesterday the convoy, consisting of some 200 vehicles, was on its way from Parachinar to Peshawar when it came under heavy gunfire. Separately, he had told AFP that two separate convoys of Shia passengers were targeted in two attacks. (Read more at Dawn)
PBS: In a watershed deal that has big implications for animation writers, members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) have reached a tentative agreement with management at PBS member stations WGBH, Thirteen, and PBS SoCal on a new three-year collective bargaining agreement.
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According to the WGA, the deal breaks new ground with “first-ever union protections for animation writers, paid parental leave, AI protections, expanded union protections for made-for-new-media programs, increased residual payments for reuse on streaming services, industry-standard raises, and easier paths for members of writing teams to access health coverage.”
The council of the Writers Guild of America East and the board of the Writers Guild of America West will now vote on sending the tentative agreement to the bargaining unit for a ratification vote. (Read more at Cartoon Brew)
Philippines: A recent report says that a new Philippine law meant to hold companies responsible for their plastic waste is showing “promising results,” with most of the country’s largest plastic packaging producers going beyond the minimum recovery target. But critics say the law has several shortcomings.
The Philippines’ Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) law of 2022 requires large companies with more than 100 million pesos ($1.7 million) in assets to take responsibility for reducing their plastic waste. They’re expected to recover 20% of their plastic waste by the end of 2023 and 80% by 2028, preventing it from entering the environment.
Companies can comply with the recovery targets on their own or authorize a “producer responsibility organization” like the nonprofit PCX Solutions, which published the report. (Read more at Mongabay)
Rappahannock Tribe: The Rappahannock Tribe has become the first tribal nation in the United States to successfully adopt a tribal constitution that recognizes the rights of nature, giving legal protection to the river it has lived alongside for thousands of years.
The new constitution recognizes nine specific rights for the Rappahannock River, including rights to “naturally exist, flourish, regenerate, and evolve,” and to have “abundant, pure, clean, unpolluted water,” according to the text. The provisions protect both the river and its entire watershed. (Read more at Mongabay)
Zimbabwe: A Zimbabwean court has convicted an opposition leader and 34 activists on charges of participating in an unlawful gathering, more than five months after they were taken into pre-trial detention.
Jameson Timba, interim leader of a faction of the splintered Citizens Coalition for Change opposition party, and the activists face up to five years in prison or a fine. Sentencing is set for next week, said Webster Jiti, one of the activists’ lawyers.
The court acquitted 30 others who had been detained together with Timba. (Read more at Associated Press)
What I’m Reading
The great Pakistan firewall and use of religion as a tool for digital authoritarianism
ICC arrest warrants: Netanyahu is certainly a criminal, but …
