According to the new law, violations can lead to fines or, if the act is committed by non-residents of Russia, lead to their expulsion from the country. Fines for Russian citizens can be as high as the equivalent of $6,500, and as high as the equivalent of $81,250 for legal entities. It is expected that these increased costs associated with championing LGBTQ rights in Russia will lead to a large reduction in such efforts, as well as a potential increase in crimes committed against those who identify as LGBTQ. In response to this latest effort by the Russian government to repress this subset of their population, international human rights groups have moved to denounce this new law as creating a hostile environment in the country for LGBTQ Russians.
Russia Passes New Law Cracking Down On Efforts To Promote LGBTQ Rights
Published by
Holding a PhD in Political Science, I write about current events and on political topics related to international relations, international law, conflict both between and within states, and the interactions between technology and politics.
More from Dr. E.C. Beuck
€2 Billion Plan Approved By European Union To Provide Artillery Shells To Ukraine
Foreign Ministers of the European Union have moved forward with a €2 Billion plan to turn over artillery shells from their military stockpiles to Ukraine for its war efforts, as well as to start the process of producing more. In total, the plan coming from Brussels is to provide Ukraine roughly 1 million artillery shells of the next 12 months. This development comes as Ukraine has shared information that its own forces have been rationing the use of their own artillery due to a lack of supply as the war has shifted into one of grinding attrition between both sides.
Read full storyGlobal Poverty Higher Than Ever And Getting Worse
An homeless, impoverished womanPhoto byAamir Mohd Khan via Pixabay. According to recent research, global poverty levels are higher than ever and are, in fact, getting worse. Over the past decade, the richest one percent in the world have succeeded in capturing half of all the new wealth generated, with the other half going to the far more numerous ninety-nine percent of the population. This has accelerated since the onset of the recent pandemic, with the richest one percent going on to seize nearly two-thirds of all wealth created, which amounts to roughly $26 trillion dollars. To put this further in context, Oxfam notes that breaking down the numbers since 2020 shows that an individual in the bottom 90% of society only earns $1 for every $1.7 million a billionaire would have earned.
Read full storyHistoric Agreement To Protect World’s Oceans Reached
On saturday, after more than 38 hours of talks, an agreement was reached at the United Nations Headquarters in New York to ratify the High Seas Treaty, which aims to protect 30% of the world's oceans and seas by 2030 in order to protect and recover marine populations. The treaty itself is incredibly important for the 30x30 pledge made by countries at the UN biodiversity conference in December of this year, which asserted a desire to protect a third of the sea and land by the year 2030. Had this treaty not been agreed upon, the effort to meet this goal would have failed, as there would exist no legal mechanism to enforce the aims of this pledge.
Read full storyMore Russians Have Died In Ukraine Than All Russian Wars Since World War II
Ukrainian Armed Forces in Eastern UkrainePhoto byMinistry of Defense of Ukraine via Wikimedia Commons. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) it is likely that the number of Russian combat deaths in Ukraine has now exceeded the total combined death toll of all wars that Russia (and its previous incarnation of the Soviet Union) has engaged in since World War II. The CSIS latest numbers put those Russians killed or missing at between 60,000 and 70,000. When including injuries, there has been an overall estimate as high as 250,000 over the past year in Ukraine.
Read full storyRussia Accuses Ukraine Of Attack On Russian Territory
President Vladimir Putin of RussiaPhoto byПресс-служба Президента РФ via Wikimedia Commons. Russia today accused saboteurs from Ukraine of crossing into Russian territory to fire on villages there. Little is known about the attack that supposedly occurred in the Bryansk region of Russia, though the regional governor there has asserted that two civilians were killed in the attack. President Putin of Russia blamed Ukraine for the attack and called them terrorists. Further, the Russian president asserted that the attack confirmed that the invasion of Ukraine against the “neo-Nazis” there was justified and that his country will not stop until the entire state is denazified.
Read full storyEuropean Union Approves The Effective 2035 Ban On All New Fossil Fuel Cars
Electric car charging stationPhoto byStefan Schweihofer via Pixabay. The Parliament of the European Union has formally approved a law this week that will effectively ban the sale of any new gas or diesel cars in the members states of the European Union starting in 2035. The new law is an attempt to speed up the transition to electric vehicles that climate change might be better mitigated.
Read full storyMoldova Accuses Russia Of Supporting A Coup Plot
Maia Sandu, President of MoldovaPhoto byWikimedia Commons. Maia Sandu, the President of Moldova, has accused Russia as being engaged in a plot to use foreign “saboteurs with military background, camouflaged in civilian clothes, to undertake violent actions, attacks on state institutions and taking hostages” to overthrow her pro-EU government. According to President Sandu, the Russian-backed plot would see protests in Moldova by the “so-called opposition” with the aim of overthrowing the constitutional order of the country.
Read full storyUS Navy And Marines Conduct Drills In South China Sea Following Increased Tensions With China
The Nimitz-class aircraft carriers USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74), left, and USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76).Photo byUS Navy via Wikimedia Commons. Joint exercises by the United States Navy and Marine Corps are being held in the South China Sea amidst the increased tensions with China over the suspected Chinese spy balloon that was shot down over the United States. In exercises involving ships, aircraft, and ground forces, the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier strike group and the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit engaged in “integrated expeditionary strike force operations” in the South China Sea, which is claimed virtually in its entirety by China.
Read full storyFirst Uyghurs, Now Tibetans Being Targeted For Forceful Assimilation In China
Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist PartyPhoto byPhilippines Department of Foreign Affairs via Wikimedia Commons. Since 2017, the Chinese government has been accused of arbitrarily detaining over a million Uyghur Muslims in reeducation camps in the region of Xinjiang in northwestern China. In addition to being detained by the Chinese government, these people have been subjected to human rights abuses such as forced labor and involuntary sterilization among others. The nature of these actions committed against the Uyghur population in Xinjiang has led to the United States and other countries labeling what China is doing as genocide. Despite information continuing to come to light about these events in China, a recent attempt to hold a debate at the United Nations Human Rights Council on China’s treatment of its Muslim population did not pass. For China’s part, it has continued to deny any of these abuses.
Read full storyMassive Trial Against Democracy Activists Begins In Hong Kong
John Lee Ka-Chiu, Chief Executive of Hong KongPhoto byVOA via Wikimedia CommonsThis week began the massive national security trial against 47 pro-democracy activists imprisoned en-masse as a result of their participation in an unofficial primary election in Hong Kong during July of 2020 is set to begin. The charge levied against them? Conspiracy to commit subversion. Should they be convicted, they could face up to life in prison.
Read full storyNorth Korea Increasing War Readiness As Tensions Continue To Escalate
Kim Jong-un of North KoreaPhoto byBlue House (Republic of Korea) via Wikimedia CommonsThe leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, has ordered the military of his country to step up their combat exercises in an effort to improve their readiness for a potential war. The move comes after significant weapon demonstrations aimed at threatening South Korea and its allies like the United States.
Read full storyChina Warns Ukraine Not To Accept Aid From Taiwan
Kaohsiung Music Center and Lingyaliao Railroad Bridge lit with Ukrainian flag colors at 2022 Taiwan Lantern Festival, days after invasion.Photo byTiouraren (Y.-C. Tsai) via Wikimedia Commons.
Read full storyBrutal Paramilitary Wagner Group Designated Transnational Criminal Organization By United States
Military Staff of PMC Wagner GroupPhoto byFrom https://www.cardin.senate.gov/ via Wikimedia Commons. Last week the United States Department redesignated the PMC Wagner Group as a significant transnational criminal organization due to its personnel engaging in ongoing patterns of criminal activities, as well as committing crimes like mass executions, child abductions, and rape in the locales it has operated in. This is not the first time that the organization has been targeted for censure regarding its engagement in these activities either. Moreover it has also been sanctioned by Australia, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the European Union.
Read full storySurge In Rhino Poaching In Namibia Part Of Troubling Trend Worldwide
Rhino and calf in reserve.Photo byByrdyak via Wikimedia Commons. This past year an all-time high of 87 rhinoceros were killed in Namibia according to the official government data there. This surge is a dramatic increase to nearly twice the number of the endangered species killed as compared to the previous year. Though hundreds of thousands of rhinoceros once lived across Asia and Africa at the start of the twentieth century, sustained poaching has plagued Africa and Asia for decades now, which, when combined with habitat destruction, has meant that the different populations of this majestic species have been reduced to critically endangered status. Even anti-poaching programmes, such as strict policing and dehorning of the adult animals to deter poachers, has not been effective.
Read full storyIran Now Has Enough Material For Several Nuclear Weapons According To IAEA Director General
Rafael Grossi, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has warned that Iran has now amassed enough material that they can create several nuclear weapons. According to Director General Grossi, the West should step up its efforts to engage diplomatically with Iran to ensure that they do not follow through in creating these weapons. Though headed to Tehran for a visit in February to pursue political dialogue with the Iranian regime, the fact is that the nuclear deal signed with Iran in 2015 called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is in shambles.
Read full storyFears Rise As Democratic Republic of the Congo Has Accused Rwanda Of Committing An Act Of War
President Paul Kagame of RwandaPhoto byVeni Markovski via Wikimedia Commons. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) recently declared that Rwanda’s attack against a DRC fighter jet amounts to an act of war. While Rwanda has insisted that it reserves the right to take “defensive measures” against the aircraft as a result of it violating their airspace, the DRC denied this claim. While the plane itself ended up landing safely, the fact remains that this is a dangerous escalation between the two countries in the midst of the violence ongoing in the DRC.
Read full storyDoomsday Clock Shows World Closer To Catastrophe Than Ever
Nuclear Bomb TestPhoto byUS Department of Energy via Wikimedia Commons. The science and security board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has updated the Doomsday Clock for 2023, placing the time at just 90 seconds until midnight. A metaphorical measure of the different challenges facing humanity, though most often associated with the threat of nuclear holocaust, the new time shows our world to be closer to calamity than ever.
Read full storyMuseum In Ukraine Allows Visitors To Sink Model of Russian Warship ‘Moskva’ As Many Times As They Want
Russian Warship, MoskvaPhoto byRussian Ministry of Defense via Wikimedia Commons. A new exhibit at the Lviv Museum of Science in the western part of Ukraine now allows visitors the ability to relive the sinking of the Russian warship ‘Moskva’ as many times as they want. The former flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, which was reportedly sunk by Ukraine following assistance from intel provided by the United States, has been the subject of much internet sensation over the course of the war in Ukraine.
Read full storyPower Outages Impacting Millions In Pakistan Only The Latest Disaster Facing The Country
Islamabad skyline and Rawal LakePhoto byKamranmangrio via Wikimedia Commons. Pakistan’s government is currently attempting to deal with significant power outages across the country which are affecting a large swathe of its population. The worst outage in months, it is but the latest to plague the population of Pakistan who have been suffering from almost daily blackouts due to the sadly lacking infrastructure in the energy sector. Unfortunately, the government lacks the funding necessary to update this aging, inadequate infrastructure. Moreover the International Monetary Fund, which has bailed out Pakistan five times in the past two decades, has halted an additional package of assistance to the country due to disagreements with the government on needed steps to be taken in the economy. Such include not cutting or ending subsidies on certain goods and not improving revenue and tax collection in the country.
Read full storyIn The Face Of Chinese Space Progress, US and Japan Agree Space Attacks Will Trigger Mutual Defense Treaty
For some time now the officials of the United States military have been aware of the rapid advancements being made by China in the realm of outer space military capabilities. According to Lt. General Nina Armagno, the director of staff of the United States Space Force, China has made significant progress in a number of areas, such as satellite communications and re-usable spacecraft which are important for the scaling up of a space program. Even more concerning is how Ye Peijian, the head of China’s Lunar Exploration Program, has compared Earth’s moon and Mars to contested islands in the South China Sea. Islands which China has exerted significant efforts to claim for itself.
Read full story
Comments / 255