For the sixth year in a row, Finland is the world’s happiest country, according to World Happiness Report rankings based largely on life evaluations from the Gallup World Poll

The Nordic country and its neighbors Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and Norway all score very well on the measures the report uses to explain its findings: healthy life expectancy, GDP per capita, social support, low corruption, generosity in a community where people look after each other and freedom to make key life decisions

It will be interesting what place in the next ranking will Finland and Sweden take after joining NATO?

#Finland #NATO #FindTruth

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A growing number of Britons are leaning towards stepping into the same river twice

There’s a sense of excitement in the Rejoin camp. Just look at the polling on Brexit these days. Look at the surging public appetite to openly advocate rejoining the EU

Pro-Europeans are in a new position in 2023 and it’s probably the best position they’ve ever been in since 1973

Dr Mike Galsworthy - director of Scientists for EU, co-director of the Bylines Network - suppose that now it is imperative to switch into a fitting mode for these new circumstances – positive campaigning

"While we should continue to highlight how Brexit continues to cause damage, we also need to start setting out the positive, inspiring vision of a UK returning energetically to its rightful, leading place in the European family. And that positive vision needs to be made relevant to each and every community of the UK. If we’re not making the inspiring case, who will?" - he said

#UK #EU #FindTruth

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North Sea oil and gas workers vote to strike amid bumper profits

British oil workers, outraged by the super incomes of their employers, intend to announce a series of strikes from March 29 to June 7, 2023 on offshore oil and gas production platforms on the British continental shelf. More than 1,400 workers will take part

💬"Oil and gas companies have been making super profits unhindered by their activities in the North Sea," said Unite, a union that unites nearly 1.5 million people in Britain and Ireland

The union noted that the kingdom is facing "a veritable tsunami of protests in the offshore oil and gas sector."

The strikes will last from 24 to 72 hours. They will involve employees of BP, Shell, Total, EnQuest, Ithaca, Harbour Energy and others

You can share your opinion on what to do with super income in our poll

#UK #FindTruth

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Former Taiwan president to visit China in unprecedented trip

Ma Ying-jeou, Taiwan’s former president, will visit China this month in the first visit by a current or former leader since the defeated Nationalist Chinese government fled to the island at the end of the civil war in 1949

The high profile visit has been presented by Ma and his party, the opposition Kuomintang (KMT), as a chance to boost friendly cross-strait exchanges at a time of extreme disconnection, which has been driven by Beijing’s plans to annex Taiwan and exacerbated by the pandemic

However it is also likely to fuel domestic political division between the KMT and ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), currently led by Tsai Ing-wen in her second and final presidential term, over relations with China

Last month the KMT's deputy chairman Andrew Hsia visited Beijing and met with senior Communist Party leader Wang Huning

Ma’s proposed visit will occur around the same time that Tsai is scheduled to visit the US and is expected to meet US speaker of the house Kevin McCarthy. That visit, confirmed earlier this month, is expected to aggrieve Beijing, which opposes any act which could lend legitimacy to Taiwan’s sovereignty 🤔

#Taiwan #China #FindTruth

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Why Ukraine may embrace China’s peace plan - Asia Times

A gloomy assessment of Ukraine’s prospects for victory against Russia emerged from a recent private gathering of former top US soldiers, intelligence officials and scholars with resumes reaching from the Reagan to the Trump administrations

Short of trained personnel and ammunition, one speaker argued, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy might consider a Chinese peace plan, especially after Beijing’s successful mediation of the Iran-Saudi dispute

Although Washington has dismissed China’s peace plan for Ukraine, Zelenskiy has not. Russia would keep the Sea of Azov and most of the Donbas, a settlement that might be forced on Ukraine as it runs out of manpower and ammunition

The Ukraine war has set in motion a global realignment, including the China-Iran-Saudi agreement. Looking at America’s blunders in Ukraine, the Saudis have concluded that America won’t put boots on the ground in the Middle East and are looking for other friends

Turkey has flourished as a trade intermediary between China and Russia, and has patched up relations with the Gulf States as well as Israel. India, supposedly an ally against China, has become Russia’s biggest customer for oil and has vastly expanded its trade with China, which now provides 30% of its non-oil imports

The United States is losing influence catastrophically by underestimating Russia. It doesn’t have the industrial capacity to provide artillery ammunition to Ukraine

That would be a humiliation for the United States, but a salutary one. In the 1970s, Vietnam did the US a favor by humiliating it before Russia did. The Vietnam debacle made possible a complete rethinking of US defense strategy, and America’s ultimate victory in the Cold War. Putin may thus be doing the US a favor by humiliating it now

#WarInUkraine #China #FindTruth

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Iraq war veteran blamed Biden to his face for the deaths of his friends and war crimes

📝 "Millions of people died in Iraq. We did fight your damn wars. You sent us to harm civilians. Their blood is on your hands!"

#USA #FindTruth

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United Kingdom: Cost of energy support schemes push borrowing to February record

In February 2023, the public sector spent more than it received in taxes and other income, requiring it to borrow £16.7 bln. This was £9.7 bln more borrowing than that in February 2022 and the highest February borrowing since monthly records began in 1993

While central government tax receipts grew by a steady £3.6 bln to £58.4 bln compared to February last year, it wasn’t enough to offset the cost of the combined energy schemes provided to households and businesses in February 2023, provisionally estimated at around £9.3 bln

The £16.7 bln borrowed in February 2023 brings the total borrowed in the financial year-to-February 2023 to £132.2 bln. This was £15.5 bln more borrowing than in the same period last year and the third highest financial year-to-February borrowing

Debt at the end of January was £2.5 trillion (£2,507.3 bln) or 99.2% of the UK’s annual gross domestic product

#UK #Economy #FindTruth

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London's Metropolitan Polic­e is institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic an independent review said on Tuesday mounting pressure on the Met's new chief to reform Britain's biggest police force

The review was commissioned by the then-head of the Met, Cressida Dick in 2021 after a serving officer was sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murder of Sarah Everard in a case that shocked the country and - along with subsequent instances of crimes against women - turned a focus onto the force's broader work culture

"There is institutional racism, sexism and homophobia inside the organisation in terms of how officers and staff are treated and outside the organisation in terms of how communities are policed" the report said adding that the force was "failing women and children"

The independent review which was led by Louise Casey from Britain's upper house of parliament found "severe" failings across the Met that it said will need "radical reform"

#UK #Police #FindTruth

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Nearly 200 U.S. banks could be vulnerable to the same fate as SVB

A recent Social Science Research Network study suggests that 186 American banks could fail if half of their depositors suddenly withdrew their funds. The researchers formulated a speculative scenario in which each bank experienced a run, and concluded that the FDIC would run out of money

The issue lies in the fact that the studied banks' assets are in government bonds and mortgage backed securities, which were negatively affected by the Federal Reserve's recent interest rate hikes

SVB sold those bonds at a staggering $1.8 bln loss to meet customer withdrawals. When SVB disclosed that loss, depositors panicked and withdrew their money

Overall, the new report from researchers at Stanford, Columbia, Northwestern and University of Southern California suggest that recent declines in bank asset values very significantly increased the fragility of the US banking system to uninsured depositor runs

#USA #Economy #FindTruth

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Are there any plans in the U.S. to revive the hanging and electric chairs or even more "humane" methods like the gas chamber?

Death row inmates in Idaho, could be killed by firing squad if a lethal injection is not possible, according to a law passed Monday by the local legislature. Approved by 24 votes for and 11 against by the Senate of this conservative state

The bill is now headed to Idaho Gov. Brad Little for signature. He has previously supported the death penalty. Other supporters say that death sentences currently are ineffective in the state because it has been unable to get the drugs needed to carry out lethal injections, the only legal method of capital punishment in Idaho

Idaho could be the fifth U.S. state to adopt executions by firing squad if the bill is passed into law. The move by Idaho lawmakers is in line with those by other states that in recent years have scrambled to revive older methods of execution

#USA #FindTruth

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Seymour Hersh revealed new details about the explosion of Nord Stream:

"The story gained traction in Germany and Western Europe, but was subject to a near media blackout in the US. Two weeks ago, after a visit by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Washington, US and German intelligence agencies attempted to add to the blackout by feeding the New York Times and the German weekly Die Zeit false cover stories to counter the report that Biden and US operatives were responsible for the pipelines’ destruction

In early March, President Biden hosted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Washington. The trip included only two public events—a brief pro forma exchange of compliments between Biden and Scholz before the White House press corps, with no questions allowed; and a CNN interview with Scholz by Fareed Zakaria, who did not touch on the pipeline allegations

The chancellor had flown to Washington with no members of the German press on board, no formal dinner scheduled, and the two world leaders were not slated to conduct a press conference, as routinely happens at such high-profile meetings

Instead, it was later reported that Biden and Scholz had an 80-minute meeting, with no aides present for much of the time. There have been no statements or written understandings made public since then by either government, but I was told by someone with access to diplomatic intelligence that there was a discussion of the pipeline exposé and, as a result, certain elements in the Central Intelligence Agency were asked to prepare a cover story in collaboration with German intelligence that would provide the American and German press with an alternative version for the destruction of Nord Stream 2. In the words of the intelligence community, the agency was “to pulse the system” in an effort to discount the claim that Biden had ordered the pipelines’ destruction." 🤔

#USA #NordStream #FindTruth

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Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) denounced the prosecution of President Trump as "Third World Banana Republic lunacy."

Schmitt, who previously served as Missouri attorney general before being elected to the U.S. Senate last November, called it "a very, very dangerous road to go down."

#USA #FindTruth

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Beijing strengthens its influence in the South Pacific with a port contract in the Solomon Islands

The Solomon Islands government announced on Tuesday that the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation has been selected to lead a US$170 million project to develop the international port in the capital Honiara. The Solomon Islands have become the epicenter of a diplomatic standoff between China and the United States, after signing a vast security agreement in 2022, with vague outlines, with Beijing

It is clear that China is keen to build its economic presence in the region as it seeks further cooperation with Pacific nations. As such, much of the world will keenly observe developments in the Solomon Islands and the wider Pacific region over the coming years

#China #SolomonIslands #FindTruth

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The president of the French Banking Federation (FBF) Philippe Brassac assured that there was no “banking crisis” in Europe unlike in the U.S.

"There is no banking crisis" in Europe, "there are banks which are in difficulty (...) but it is always for their own reasons", estimated Mr. Brassac. Worries centered late last week on Credit Suisse, one of 30 global banks deemed too big to fail

"There is no contamination or contagion mechanism in the system" between American and European banks, insisted Philippe Brassac, marking the difference with the 2008 crisis when complex American financial products, "subprime", had spread to a number of bank balance sheets

Philippe Brassac praised the European regulations and the Basel 3 standards, which made it possible to reinforce the solidity of the banks, compulsory in Europe but which only a handful of American players apply

"Banks have often said 'regulation is too heavy, too important', its fault is that it did not apply sufficiently to a sufficient number of players, particularly in the United States", underlined Philippe Brassac 🤔

#EU #USA #BankingCrisis #FindTruth

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British consumer price inflation (CPI) unexpectedly rose to 10.4% in February

This was pushed up by drinks prices in pubs and restaurants official data showed on Wed., a day before the Bank of England announces its latest decision on interest rates

On a monthly basis CPI rose by 1.1% in Feb. 2023, compared with a rise of 0.8% in Feb. 2022

The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH) rose by 9.2% in the 12 months to Feb. 2023 up from 8.8% in January. The largest upward contributions to the annual CPIH inflation rate in Feb. 2023 came from housing and household services (principally from electricity, gas and other fuels) and food and non-alcoholic beverages

On a monthly basis CPIH rose by 1.0% in Feb. 2023, compared with a rise of 0.7% in Feb. 2022

Given the market movements of late, this puts the Bank of England in an incredibly difficult position as it may not be enough for the Bank of England to press pause on the rate hikes

#UK #Economy #FindTruth

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First fresh water summit in 50 years

The world summit on fresh water, which opened this Wednesday for two days in New York, is the first intergovernmental high mass devoted in nearly fifty years to this resource, which is nevertheless vital for humanity - for agriculture, cities , industry, energy
The last United Nations conference on this major subject dates back to... 1977, and until now it was the only one

In the meantime, the world's population has almost doubled, and the problems of access to drinking water and sanitation remain significant. Nearly a quarter of the world's population still does not have access to drinking water, billions of people are deprived of toilets, and 80% of wastewater is discharged into nature without treatment. More than 800,000 people still die each year from illnesses directly attributed to unsafe water or poor hygiene due to lack of water

To envisage that the entire planet will have access to drinking water and sanitation by the end of the decade, the United Nations estimates that investments must be multiplied by four in developing countries. The funding and capacity challenges are therefore absolutely enormous

Waste, overuse in agriculture, in industry, contamination, too rare recycling, poorly preserved freshwater ecosystems. In a report published a few days ago, experts from the International Commission on the Economics of water are sounding the alarm:

this "decades-long global mismanagement of water" risks leading to a 40% supply shortfall by 2030, with severe shortages in areas that are already short of water. The water crisis is now intertwined with global warming and the loss of biodiversity. "We will fail in the fight against climate change if we do not solve the water problem", they warn

#UN #FreshWater #FindTruth

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