Protests in Major Russian Cities, Hundreds Arrested

A Journal of People report

Thousands of opposition supporters rallied across Russia against government corruption on March 26, 2017. The protests may be the biggest anti-Kremlin protest since 2012. A number of these protests were approved by authorities while a few were not approved.

Media reports said:

Unsanctioned rallies in several cities including Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Vladivostok sprung up after anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny published allegations that prime minister Dmitry Medvedev had accumulated a massive fortune surpassing his official salary.

Authorities arrested hundreds of demonstrators, including Navalny, who plans to run against president Vladimir Putin in the 2018 election, and Guardian reporter Alec Luhn, who was covering the protests. Luhn was released without any charges immediately after it was established that he was a journalist.

New theory of economic ‘agrowth’ contributes to the viability of climate policies

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Source: Internet

ICTA-Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB) researcher Jeroen van den Bergh publishes in Nature Climate Change a study in which he proposes a new economic theory compatible with the fight against climate change. The “agrowth” proposal comes up as an alternative to the opposing economic trends of “green growth” and “degrowth”

Forty-five years after the first proposal on the limits to growth by the Club of Rome, the increasing concern over climate change and how to deal with it has reopened the debate questioning whether climate change mitigation policies are compatible with economic growth.

Massive flooding could endanger European coastal communities

American Geophysical Union

Massive coastal flooding in northern Europe that now occurs once every century could happen every year if greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) continue to rise, finds a new study published in Earth’s Future, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.

Northern Europe will see the strongest increase in extreme sea levels. Areas along the Mediterranean and the Black Sea could see these 100-year extreme sea level events several times a year. In the North Sea region, extreme sea levels could increase by nearly 1 meter under the worst-case scenario. The Atlantic coasts of the United Kingdom and Ireland could see similar increases in extreme sea levels while lower but still considerable increases in extreme sea levels are projected for the Norwegian and Baltic seas.

Humans cause up to 70% of sea ice loss

by Tim Radford

Climate News Network  | 17 March, 2017

Sea ice in the Arctic has declined dramatically in the last 50 years. Image: Patrick Kelley/US Coast Guard via Flickr

London, March 17, 2017 – Scientists have calculated that at least 30% and perhaps one half of the decline in Arctic summer sea ice could be attributed to natural causes – changes of ocean and atmospheric circulation that happen according to some long-term cycle.

And that means humans can be held responsible for at least 50% and up to 70% of a pattern of decline that could devastate Arctic ecology, and accelerate climate change in the temperate and tropical zones.

Cuba sending medical brigade to Peru in the wake of severe flooding

Granma | 27 March, 2017

Cuba is preparing to send a medical brigade to Peru to help address the emergency facing the population, in the wake of heavy rain in several of the country’s regions over the last few weeks.

The Cuban embassy in Lima offered the Peruvian Foreign Ministry the services of a contingent from the Henry Reeve Medical Brigade specialized in disasters and epidemics. The group, including 11 doctors, ten healthcare professionals, an administrator, and lead doctor, will stay for one month, and is equipped with sufficient medicine and supplies to treat thousands of people.

Fidel’s humanism emphasized on 40th anniversary of his visit to Angola

The Comandante made his first trip to Angola March 23-27, 1977

by  Roberto Hernández

Granma | 24 March, 2017

Fidel, during his visit to Angola, in the company of Angolan President Agosthino Neto (right) and Celia Sánchez Manduley (background left). Photo: Joaquin Viñas

LUANDA.–Angolans and Cubans emphasized the humanism of the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, during a commemoration of the 40th anniversary of his first trip to Angola, March 23-27, 1977.

“I would like to thank him for the support he gave us, which permitted us to be here in this room today,” said General Antonio dos Santos Franza, who traveled to Cuba in 1962 to study agronomy and met Fidel during his talks with students at the University of Havana.

India: The Saffron Surge?

A Frontier Editorial | Vol. 49, No.37, Mar 19 – 25, 2017

By demolishing the predictions of all pre-poll surveys, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls by a thumping majority. It tried hard to win the polls and had a robust organisation. Their efforts have paid ample dividends.

The BJP supporters and ideologues have taken this opportunity to go on claiming that the poll results are a reflection of the endorsement of Modi’s ‘demonetaisation’ and ‘pro-poor’ measures. They called it a referendum on demonetisation which it was not. Those who witnessed the harassments of common money-using people in the wake of demonetisation can easily understand the falsity of this claim. And there is no evidence that Narendra Modi, after becoming the Prime Minister, has formulated a single policy that is directly in favour of the poor. His promise of creating 20 million jobs a year has also turned out to be a damp squib. His professed sympathy for Muslim women is dictated more by hatred of the Muslim community by the concern for his ‘Muslim sisters’. Remember the Israt Jahan case. Also remember that no Muslim woman was fielded as a BJP candidate. By not including any Muslim, man or woman, in its list of candidates, the BJP made it clear that it was not eager to reach out to the Muslim community. The tears about Muslim women were meant only to intensify communal polarisation.

India: Behind The Saffron Surge – Some Black & White facts

by Sandeep Banerjee

Frontier | 26 March, 2017

Sir,
Apropos to your Editorial “The Saffron Surge?” in Frontier, Vol. 49, No. 37, Mar 19 – 25, 2017, I would like to place some supplementary points for perusal of the Editors and readers of this esteemed magazine.

14.05 crores of voters, 22.3 crores population… well, one may assume number of available workforce of able bodied population (excluding those above 60 or 65 years) above the age of 18 years or more, to be 12-13 crores. Those are all 2017 figures for Uttar Pradesh. And now the number of unemployed is more than 1 crore! Every 1 out of every 8 would like to work and earn but there is no job opening.  It was reported in more than one national daily in perhaps January 2017. While doing caste, religious and other arithmetic, many poll wizards did not give the unemployment issue due importance. A connected issue, somehow connected ‘from above’ by the media, is – development is the mantra of the age and it will eradicate unemployment, poverty etc problems. So, unemployment created a ‘demand’ of development. Added up, these two, i.e. unemployment and development took up the ‘main attention’ of more than a third of the population; 36% voted one of these two (in CSDS survey [1]) as no: 1 problem. And who doesn’t know that Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra stand for good employment prospect to migrant population of India, including those from Uttar Pradesh; and hence, for the migrant and would-be migrant populace, BJP with its development slogan and actualities of some states, albeit some ‘scars and bloodstains’, may mean ‘business’… this idea might as well worked for BJP in UP.