Gens Gaia: The Story of Us

(Link) The global El Niño weather phenomenon, whose impacts cause global famines, floods – and even wars – now has a 90% chance of striking this year, according to the latest forecast released to the Guardian. El Niño begins as a giant pool of warm water swelling in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, that sets off a chain reaction of weather events around the world – some devastating and some beneficial.

The latest El Niño prediction comes from the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), which is considered one the most reliable of the 15 or so prediction centres around the world. Tim Stockdale, principal scientist at ECMWF, said "The amount of warm water in the Pacific is now significant, perhaps the biggest since the 1997-98 event.” That El Niño was the biggest in a century, producing the hottest year on record at the time and major global impacts, including a mass die-off of corals. “But what is very much unknowable at this stage is whether this year’s El Niño will be a small event, a moderate event – that’s most likely – or a really major event,” said Stockdale, adding the picture will become clearer in the next month or two. “It is which way the winds blow that determines what happens next and there is always a random element to the winds.”

The movement of hot, rain-bringing water to the eastern Pacific ramps up the risk of downpours in the nations flanking that side of the great ocean, while the normally damp western flank dries out. Governments, commodity traders, insurers and aid groups like the Red Cross and World Food Programme all monitor developments closely and water conservation and food stockpiling is already underway in some countries.

Incredibly, laws against interracial couples stayed on the books for decades after the Loving decision. In 1998, a clause that prohibited "marriage of a white person with a Negro or mulatto or a person who shall have one-eighth or more Negro blood" was removed South Carolina's state constitution. According to a Mason-Dixon poll four months before the vote, 22% of South Carolina voters were opposed to the removal of this clause. It had been introduced in 1895.

In Alabama, it took until 2000 to remove these laws. A referendum was passed that removed this article from the Alabama State Constitution:

"The Legislature shall never pass any law to authorize or legalize any marriage between any white person and a Negro, or a descendant of a Negro." Alabama State Constitution, Article IV, Section 102

This section was introduced in 1901. According to a poll conducted by the Mobile Register in September of 2000, 19% of voters said that they would not remove section 102. This is comparable to the 22% in South Carolina. However, 64% said that they would vote to remove it. While this is a majority, it is still far from a unanimous vote.

The Loving Day name comes from Loving v. Virginia (1967), the landmark Supreme Court decision that declared all laws against interracial marriage unconstitutional in the United States. We found it quite perfect that a couple named Richard and Mildred Loving won their right to marry, and we know a good thing when we see it. So, Loving Day refers to two kinds of loving: the couple in the Supreme Court case, and the original definition of loving.

The European Union's antitrust regulator said Wednesday it has launched an in-depth investigation into whether tax deals that Apple, Starbucks, and Fiat struck with several European countries violate competition laws. EU antitrust commissioner Joaquin Almunia said it appears the tax arrangements of the companies are not proper, though the companies and countries involved — Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg — will be given a chance to respond before the antitrust commission decides whether the tax deals are indeed illegal.

"In the current context of tight public budgets, it is particularly important that large multinationals pay their fair share of taxes," Almunia said in a statement.

The commission’s investigation will focus on a practice common among multinational corporations like Apple: rerouting international profit through whichever country provides the biggest tax incentives and lowest tax rates. For example, Starbucks might charge its own subsidiaries a license fee for using its logo. If it keeps its European licensing arm in the Netherlands and then funnels all the licensing fees there, it could have high profits there and low profits elsewhere, where tax rates are higher. This specific investigation focuses on deals Apple has with tax authorities in Ireland, Starbucks has with the Netherlands, and Fiat's financing arm has with Luxembourg.

Almunia said that while such agreements are permissible in theory, they would be improper if they give the companies an advantage over competitors. The commission said that sort of strategy is allowable only if the prices a company charges its subsidiaries conform to market rates. Otherwise, the companies could lowball their overall taxable profit, giving them an advantage over other companies.

The companies named have been frequent targets of criticism for paying low taxes in some countries where they operate. The countries have also been criticized — Ireland mostly for its low tax rates, the Netherlands and Luxembourg as homes for shell companies, and all three for secrecy over how they negotiate with companies and decide on tax rates. Ireland, which has an already low tax rate of 12.5 percent, is notorious in the EU for using big tax cuts to attract profitable companies away from other locales.

"Why three companies today? Because we are starting," he said at a press conference in Brussels, implying more investigations could be opened in the near future.

Ireland was quick to respond, issuing a statement that it is "confident that there is no state aid rule breach in this case and we will defend all aspects vigorously."

Good news from Congo. And perhaps even more unexpectedly, it has come about with the help of users of mobile phones, legislators in Washington, and corporate giants such as Apple and Intel. That is the finding of an investigation by the Enough Project, an anti-genocide campaign group, which says Congolese warlords have lost their grip on most of the country's mines and lucrative conflict minerals.

The mines have long been held up as a case of corporate social irresponsibility. Adults and often children spend days underground digging up the tin, tantalum, and tungsten used to make computers and mobile phones, creating billions in profits for electronics companies. Moreover, the minerals also generated $185m every year for armed groups responsible for atrocities including killings and rapes, the report says, fuelling one of the world's longest conflicts in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Yet in an apparent triumph for consumer activism, and blow to political cynicism, the militias have lost control of more than two-thirds of mines in the past four years, according to the Enough Project. Among the warlords to cede control is Bosco Ntaganda, nicknamed "The Terminator", who once profited handsomely from illegal mines but is now facing trial at the international criminal court.

The turning point was a US law introduced in 2010, that required companies to determine the origin of minerals used in products. Brought in under the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act, it required any company that might be using conflict minerals to register with the US Securities and Exchange Commission and publish its supply chain. The firms, presumably aware of the public relations implications of being linked to murderous warlords and child labor, have generally complied.

Now, for the first time in Congo's history, there is a validation process to evaluate mines as conflict-free, and 112 out of 155 mines surveyed passed as clean. Intel is producing the world's first fully conflict-free product that contains clean Congolese minerals, the report says, while Apple has validated its tantalum supply chain as conflict-free. "This is spurring other companies to accelerate their reform efforts."

Meanwhile, another shaft of light has appeared in the past year as UN peacekeepers, acting on a more aggressive mandate, took on and defeated two of the rebel groups that enjoyed access to mines. According to the Enough Project, communities near conflict-free mining projects now experience a greatly reduced presence of armed groups, while hospitals and schools are starting to be built in those areas. The wages of miners have also risen, in some cases threefold, and an increased number of miners now receive helmets and safety equipment and experience safer working conditions.

Speaking from Goma, field researcher Fidel Bafilemba, a co-author of the report, expressed confidence that similar models can succeed elsewhere. He said the initiative was built on "similar and earlier campaigns against cheap labor in the east Asian textile industry, and others. Pressuring companies to humanize their supply chain works."

The US-based Enough Project said it conducted five months of field research in eastern Congo, interviewing 220 people in 14 mines and towns, in addition to 32 interviews in the US and Europe. It found that 67% of tin, tantalum (refined from coltan) and tungsten in North Kivu, South Kivu and Maniema provinces were no longer in the hands of the armed groups or the Congolese army.

But inevitably there is a caveat. Artisanal mining of gold is still funding military commanders, the research found. Bafilemba added: "US special envoy Russ Feingold, the United Nations, and especially now those in jewelry business, must squarely address conflict gold that still funds armed groups responsible for atrocities and grave human rights abuses."

The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) is a jihadist group active in Iraq and Syria. ISIS was formed in April 2013 and grew out of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). It has since been disavowed by al-Qaeda, but become one of the main jihadist groups fighting government forces in Syria and is making military gains in Iraq. The final "S" in the acronym ISIS stems from the Arabic word "al-Sham". This can mean the Levant, Syria or even Damascus but in the context of the global jihad it refers to the Levant.

Its precise size is unclear, but it is thought to include thousands of fighters, including many foreign jihadists. Correspondents say it appears to be surpassing al-Qaeda as the world's most dangerous jihadist group. The organisation is led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Little is known about him, but it is believed he was born in Samarra, north of Baghdad, in 1971 and joined the insurgency that erupted in Iraq soon after the 2003 US-led invasion.

Prof Peter Neumann of King's College London estimates that about 80% of Western fighters in Syria have joined the group. Unlike other rebel groups in Syria, ISIS is seen to be working towards an Islamic emirate that straddles Syria and Iraq.

The group has seen considerable military success. In March 2013, it took over the Syrian city of Raqqa - the first provincial capital to fall under rebel control. In January 2014, it capitalised on growing tension between Iraq's Sunni minority and Shia-led government by taking control of the predominantly Sunni city of Fallujah, in the western province of Anbar. It also seized large sections of the provincial capital, Ramadi, and has a presence in a number of towns near the Turkish and Syrian borders.

The group has gained a reputation for brutal rule in the areas that it controls.

Headlines are pretty useless if you don’t know the backstory. Thus, most news articles begin with a captivating breaking news update and then have to try to backtrack to give it context. Trying to keep up with current events and trends is stalled if you need to keep reading backstories to catch up.

My blog is not the proper forum to present breaking news in realtime because there are far more efficient and knowledgeable people doing that. Instead, I want to focus on the stories giving the headlines context. This guide represents a brief synopsis of some of the major global news stories that dominate the headlines. My hope is to provide information so that you can know what is generally going on in various regions of the world and draw on that information when you see headline news elsewhere.

My hope is to publish something each weekday, but I know that will not happen 100% of the time. I also will include (1) a map giving geographical context (2) the latest headline in italics to get a taste of recent developments and (3) the background information. The background stories are updated about every week, but are really meant to just skim. Headlines in italics change daily (for the most part).   

  Central African Republic

Violence in Central African Republic pitting Muslim fighters against Christian civilians has killed 21 people so far this week. The latest clashes erupted after villagers in Liwa, located about six miles outside the central town of Bambari, killed two Muslim men on a motorcycle on Monday. In response, fighters descended on both Liwa and Bambari, throwing grenades and burning more than 100 houses. After taking four people hostage, the fighters quickly executed two of them in front of the Bambari courthouse, which Seleka leaders have been using as a headquarters. (11 June)

March 2013, Muslim Seleka rebels took over the capital and seized power. Rebel leader Michel Djotodia suspended the constitution and dissolved parliament in a coup condemned internationally. Christian militiamen calling themselves the anti-Balaka attacked Seleka strongholds in the capital, Bangui, in early December, and the rebel government crumbled. In January the anti-Balaka stepped up the violence, forcing tens of thousands of Muslims to flee. The interim president Djotodia resigned over criticism that he failed to stop sectarian violence. Catherine Samba-Panza took over as interim leader. The violence has continued. Around 2,000 French troops and nearly 5,000 African peacekeepers are trying to stabilize the country. In April the U.N. Security Council authorized a nearly 12,000-strong peacekeeping force to bolster the troops already in the country to protect civilians, though the U.N. force is not expected to be operational until September. [1][2]

Iraq

An estimated 500,000 people have fled Iraq’s second-largest city following its capture by al-Qaeda militants. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant — ISIL — seized Mosul on Tuesday with a sweeping attack on the city’s airport, TV stations, government buildings and prisons, setting over 2,000 inmates free. The capture of Mosul expands ISIL’s western stronghold after taking Fallujah and parts of Ramadi earlier this year. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has declared a national state of emergency. The Iraqi government has struggled to contain spiraling internal violence since the departure of U.S. troops in 2011. The conflict between Sunni militants and the Shiite-led government is an outgrowth of the 2003 invasion, which helped spark a civil war. (11 June)

Following the U.S.-launched 2003 invasion of Iraq to overthrow Sunni leader Saddam Hussein, intercommunal violence between Iraqi Sunni and Shi'a factions became. In 2008 and 2009, violence declined dramatically, however, low-level strife continued to plague Iraq until the U.S. withdrew in late 2011. In January of 2014, Pro-al-Qaeda fighters infiltrated Fallujah and Ramadi after months of mounting violence in mainly-Sunni Anbar province. Government forces recaptured Ramadi but face entrenched rebels in Fallujah. Now, violence in Iraq is at the highest level since the country was pushed to the brink of a sectarian civil war in 2006 and 2007, with the spike in attacks driven by Sunni discontent with the Shia-led government and spillover from the war in neighboring Syria. In April of 2014, Iraqis voted in the first parliamentary election since the 2011 withdrawal of US troops. The elections decided the 328 members of the Council of Representatives who will in turn elect the Iraqi President and Prime Minister. [1][2][3][4]

Libya

Air strikes hit three areas of the Libyan city of Benghazi, shortly after reports emerged of a ceasefire deal between former general Khalifa Haftar and a government crisis committee. (11 June)

Anti-government protests began in February 2011 and eventually lead to escalating clashes between security forces and rebels. With the help of NATO, Libyan rebels were able to defeat better-armed pro-Gaddafi forces and become recognized as the legitimate government of Libya by July. Since then, Libya's central government has been struggling to control armed groups, militias and brigades of former rebels who helped oust Gaddafi, but now refuse to disarm. Khalifa Haftar, who was once among Gaddafi's top generals before falling from grace and going into U.S. exile, returned to Libya to support the rebellion in 2011, but has emerged as the most serious challenge to the post-Gaddafi authorities born of the rebellion against the former leader. In March, the Libyan parliament unseated the nation’s first democratically elected leader, Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, after he failed to control an armed group that exported oil on a North Korean–flagged tanker. Now, Libya has called an election on June 25 to replace its disputed interim parliament, the General National Council (GNC), and try to resolve the power struggle, but violence among armed groups threatens to impair the vote. [1][2][3]

Nigeria

Boko Haram, which loosely translates as "Western education is forbidden," has as its main aim the establishment of a separate Islamic state in the country's northeast. Nigeria is divided almost equally between Muslims mainly in the north and Christians in the south. Boko Haram has been engaged in a deadly insurgency in Muslim north since 2009, attacking schools, churches and government targets. The group became internationally known in April when they captured nearly 300 schoolgirls who remain missing. In addition to the kidnappings, countless people have lost their lives in sporadic attacks across the region. [1]

Pakistan

Pakistan was still reeling from an unprecedented Taliban assault on Karachi's Jinnah International Airport when insurgents opened fire on the airport once again on Tuesday — an attack that vindicated Taliban threats that Sunday's deadly attack was “just the beginning.” If it wasn't already clear, the attacks have underlined a growing belief that the country's peace process, which Pakistan’s government has clung to for months, is dead in the water. The government in Islamabad now faces calls from some within the country to abandon fears of reprisal and accept that an all-out military campaign against the Taliban may be the only way to quell a 10-year insurgency that has slowly crept toward the country's bustling cities. Though often referred to under the blanket term Taliban, the perpetrators of this week’s attacks belong more specifically to the Pakistani Taliban, or Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), operationally distinct from but maintaining a broad allegiance to the Afghan Taliban, which maneuvers in the neighboring country. (11 June)

An Uzbek militant group operating in Pakistan's north-west tribal areas says it played a role in the attack on the Karachi airport earlier this week, suggesting increased co-operation between militant groups in Pakistan. Pakistan's north-west region, particularly the North Waziristan tribal area which borders Afghanistan, is home to numerous militant groups which often work together, sharing fighters, money or expertise. The IMU was formed in 1991 with an original goal to set up an Islamic state in Uzbekistan. But it later broadened its ambitions beyond the country to the rest of central Asia. (11 June)

Parliamentary elections in 2013 brought the Muslim League back to power in the first transition from one elected government to another through elections in the country's history. The new government moved fast to engage with the Taliban, and began peace talks with the group in March 2014. However, Pakistani forces have struggled to maintain control over the restive tribal regions along the Afghan border, where Taliban-linked militants became firmly entrenched. These Sunni extremists have more recently expanded attacks from their border to target minority groups elsewhere in the country, in particular Shia Muslims and Christians. Since 2009, the government has been waging an on-and-off military campaign to flush the militants out of the tribal areas. Peace talk have since faltered with a split inside the Taliban over whether to take part. [1][2]

Palestine

During the war that followed Israel's declaration of independence in 1948, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced out of their native land. The demand of these refugees and their descendants to return to their former homes remains one of the most fiercely debated aspects of the dispute with Israel. The Palestinian national movement gradually regrouped in the West Bank and Gaza, run respectively by Jordan and Egypt, and in refugee camps in neighboring Arab states. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) emerged as its leading umbrella group shortly before the Six-Day War of 1967, during which Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. The PLO under Yasser Arafat gradually won international recognition as the representative of the Palestinian people, culminating in the Oslo Accords with Israel in 1993. These accords established a Palestinian National Authority as an interim body to run parts of Gaza and the West Bank (but not East Jerusalem) pending an agreed solution to the conflict. The PNA functions as an agency of the PLO, which represents Palestinians at international bodies. The Fatah faction of the PLO ran the PNA until 2006, when Hamas won a majority in Legislative Council elections. Uneasy co-existence between PNA President Mahmoud Abbas and a Hamas-led government led to violence between armed wings of Fatah and Hamas, culminating in Hamas seizing power in Gaza in June 2007 and President Abbas dismissing the government. The two PNA areas have since been run by the separate factions - the West Bank by Fatah, and Gaza by Hamas. In April 2014 Fatah and Hamas announced a reconciliation deal and began efforts to form a unity government. [1]

South Sudan

The government and rebels in South Sudan have agreed to end fighting and form a transitional government within 60 days. Though previous deals have been broken by both sides in the past, the regional IGAD bloc, mediating the conflict, has threatened sanctions if they fail to abide by the agreement. (10 June)

More than 1 million people have fled their homes since fighting erupted in December between troops backing President Kiir and soldiers loyal to Machar, his sacked deputy. The violence quickly spread to areas including the oil-producing north, often along ethnic lines between Kiir's Dinka people and Machar's Nuer. This ethnic conflict has sparked international fears of a descent into genocide. [1]

Syria

In 2011-12 security forces used tanks, gunfire and mass arrests to try to crush anti-government street protests inspired by the Arab Spring in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. These protests rapidly took on a more formal nature and began to organize political and military wings for a long uprising against the Baath government. As 2012 wore on, the stand-off escalated into civil war, with defections from the governing elite signaling the steady collapse of central authority. By December 2012 the US, Turkey, Gulf states, France, and Britain had recognized the main opposition National Coalition of the Syrian Revolution as the "sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people", signaling their belief that the Assad government is beyond redemption. The rise of the Al-Nusra front, a radical Islamist militia allied to al-Qaeda, in rebel ranks led to a marked cooling of international and regional support for the opposition in mid-2013, and allowed the government and its Hezbollah allies to launch a counter-offensive. The violence has continued on and Assad recently won a presidential election dismissed by many as a charade. [1][2]

Thailand

Thailand's military junta is giving away movie tickets this weekend and trying to arrange free viewings of the World Cup for the country's soccer fans, efforts aimed at winning over hearts and minds following last month's coup. The efforts are part of Thailand's "Return Thailand to Happiness" campaign, launched just days after the military took power. (11 June)

The current crisis began last November when royalist conservatives in Bangkok began occupying public squares demanding the ouster of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s democratically elected government. On May 7, the Constitutional Court removed Yingluck and a number of her Cabinet ministers from office. This judicial coup was followed by a decision from the National Anti-Corruption Commission, which indicted Yingluck for dereliction of duty in handling a controversial rice-subsidy program. Both the constitutional court and the anti-graft commission were created in 2007 by a royalist government following the 2006 military-backed coup. The court has since sacked three elected governments, dissolved a dozen political parties and nullified elections certified as free and fair. The country’s Senate and Constitutional Court have repeatedly blocked attempts by elected parliamentarians to amend the constitution. Thailand’s military took over the government in a coup on 22 May. [1][2]

Ukraine