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swiss NUZ, CBCD, heat waves and old women......
CBDC NEWS: Swiss Bank REJECTS Retail CBDC, while European Bank Says It'll Help DISASTER Relief
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sm_sNk5pEYc
MEANWHILE:
Top EU rights court condemns Switzerland for climate inaction in first ruling of its kind
The EU's top rights court on Tuesday condemned Switzerland for violating the Convention on Human Rights through its inaction in the face of climate change in a landmark case brought by an association of elderly women. But the court rejected a similar claim against France filed by a former mayor and threw out as inadmissible a case against 32 states brought by a group of Portuguese youths.
Europe’s highest human rights court threw out cases Tuesday brought by six Portuguese youths and a French mayor aimed at forcing countries to meet international obligations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but sided with a group of senior Swiss women who also sought such measures.
The European Court of Human Rights came down with decisions in a trio of cases brought by a French mayor, the six Portuguese youngsters and more than 2,000 members of Senior Women for Climate Protection, who say their governments are not doing enough to combat climate change.
Lawyers for all three had hoped the Strasbourg court would find that national governments have a legal duty to make sure global warming is held to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, in line with the goals of the Paris climate agreement. But Judge Siofra O’Leary, the president of the European Court of Human Rights, came down with mixed judgements.
Judgments from the European Court of Human Rights aren’t legally binding for all 46 of the European Council’s member states, but they set a legal precedent against which future lawsuits would be judged.
Although activists have had successes with lawsuits in domestic proceedings, this was the first time an international court ruled on climate change.
Ahead of the ruling, a large crowd gathered in front of the court building to cheer and wave flags, including climate activist Greta Thunberg, who was coming off of multiple arrests during a demonstration in The Hagueover the weekend.
“We’re nervous. Nervous and excited,” said Cláudia Agostinho, a 24-year-old who is one of the six Portuguese who brought the case to the Strasbourg court.
The decisions have “the potential to be a watershed moment in the global fight for a livable future. A victory for any of the three cases would be one of the most significant developments on climate change since the signing of the Paris Agreement” said Gerry Liston, a lawyer with the Global Legal Action Network, which is supporting the Portuguese students.
The European Union, which doesn’t include Switzerland, currently has a target to be climate-neutral by 2050. Many governments have said that meeting a 2030 goal would be economically unattainable.
The groups were confident that the 17 judges would rule in their favor, but the mixed decision could undermine a previous ruling in the Netherlands. In 2019, the Dutch Supreme Court ordered the government to cut emissions by at least 25% by the end of 2020 from benchmark 1990 levels.
The Urgenda decision, referring to the climate group that brought the case, relied on the European Convention of Human Rights. It could be overturned if Tuesday’s decision concludes there is no legal obligation for countries to combat climate change.
“A court ruling is binding on all countries,” said Dennis van Berkel, who represented Urgenda in the Netherlands.
Such considerations were not predominantly on the mind of 16-year-old André dos Santos Oliveira of Portugal.
“The extreme heat waves, the rainfalls, followed by heat waves, it is just choking us with greenhouse effects. And what worries me is the frequency in which they started happening more and more. That’s what really scared me. And, I thought to myself, well, what can I do?” she said.
Together with five more young people, Santos Oliveira took Portugal and 32 other nations to court, arguing the failure to stop emissions violated their fundamental rights. Their case was thrown out.
But judges ruled in favor of a group of Swiss retirees also demanding their government do more. Senior Women for Climate Protection, whose average age is 74, say older women’s rights are especially infringed on because they are most affected by the extreme heat that will become more frequent due to global warming.
Earth shattered global annual heat records in 2023, flirted with the world’s agreed-upon warming threshold, and showed more signs of a feverish planet, Copernicus, a European climate agency, said in January.
In all three cases, lawyers argued that the political and civil protections guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights are meaningless if the planet is uninhabitable.
The countries facing the legal challenges hope the cases will be dismissed. They say the blame for climate change cannot rest with any individual country.
Switzerland is not alone in being affected by global warming, said Alain Chablais, representative of the country at last year's hearings. “This problem cannot be solved by Switzerland alone.”
Acknowledging the urgency of the climate crisis, the court fast-tracked all three cases, including a rare move allowing the Portuguese case to bypass domestic legal proceedings.
it's time for being earnest.....
- By Gus Leonisky at 10 Apr 2024 - 10:44am
- Gus Leonisky's blog
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golden fish.....
The price of gold reached an all-time high on Friday, soaring above $2,400 per ounce as a global safe-haven rush continues.
Spot gold prices rose 2.4% to a record high of $2,431.52 per ounce before pairing some gains. Prices were up 4% for the week and 16% so far this year, exceeding the 13% advance registered for all of 2023.
Analysts attribute the rally to investor demand for safe-haven assets amid global uncertainty and rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
US officials claimed on Friday that Iran could launch a massive strike on Israel within the next 24 to 48 hours. Tehran has been threatening a harsh response since Israel killed two senior Iranian generals in an airstrike earlier this month.
“The positive factors for gold outweigh the negative. The heightened tensions in the Middle East are the main driver for gold’s recent surge,” Chris Gaffney, president of world markets at EverBank, was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Head of market analysis at StoneX Financial Ltd., Rhona O’Connell, also said that “geopolitical risk is the fulcrum here,” and that in a year with more than 50 local and national elections, continuing tensions in the Middle East are adding “further fuel to the fire.”
Some experts indicated that continued strong buying from China has also underpinned prices.
Investors traditionally turn to gold in times of market uncertainty to hedge risks and as a store of value. For thousands of years, bullion has been seen as a safe haven during periods of economic instability, stock market crises, military conflicts, and pandemics.
Other precious metals were also on the rise, with silver going up 4% to $29.60 per ounce, its highest price since early 2021. Palladium went up 2.7% to $1,075 and platinum rose above the key psychological level of $1,000 per ounce to its highest in nearly four months.
https://www.rt.com/business/595828-gold-price-middle-east-tensions/
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hollow swiss.....
Switzerland’s neutrality remains unchanged, the country’s foreign ministry has insisted ahead of the peace conference on the Ukraine conflict next month. Russia has accused Bern of effectively siding with the West and Kiev in the current confrontation, making it an unfit mediator.
According to the Swiss government, the ‘Peace in Ukraine’ summit aims to pave the way towards a “just and lasting peace” in the eastern European country. Bern has invited more than 160 delegations from around the world, including members of the G7, G20, BRICS, and EU. However, Switzerland has not extended an invitation to Russia.
Moscow has described the upcoming gathering as “pointless,” and said it would refuse to participate even if it were invited. The Kremlin has argued that the conference is based around Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s peace formula, which Russia has dismissed as an unrealistic ultimatum.
Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin deemed Bern’s seemingly mutually exclusive statements absurd. He stressed that “we are not being invited there” while at the same time “it is being said that it’s impossible to resolve anything” without Russia.
On Friday, Reuters quoted a Swiss foreign ministry representative as stressing that Bern’s neutrality is “constant” and will not be affected by the summit on June 15-16. The statement noted, however, that “being neutral does not mean being indifferent.”
Switzerland strongly condemns Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Outside the military realm, the right to neutrality does not stand in the way of solidarity and support for Ukraine and its people,” the ministry clarified, as quoted by Reuters.
Despite not being a member of either the EU or NATO, Switzerland has supported the West’s sanctions against Russia over its actions in Ukraine.
Last month, the country’s national agency overseeing sanctions revealed that Bern was holding an estimated 13 billion francs ($14.3 billion) in Russian assets, which remain frozen in its financial institutions.
Also in April, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters that “Switzerland simply does not suit us” as a host of any peace negotiations with Ukraine.
“It is not a neutral party, it has turned from neutral to openly hostile,” the diplomat claimed at the time.
While some political forces in Switzerland advocate aligning the country’s position more with the US and the EU, a poll conducted by the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zurich, a research university, which was published in March, demonstrated that some 91% of Swiss citizens believe the country should stay neutral.
https://www.rt.com/news/597385-switzerland-neutral-ukraine-peace-summit/
BY CONDEMNING RISSIA FOR ITS "AGGRESSION" OF UKRAINE IS IGNORING THE NATO/NAZI/EU/UK/US AGGREESSION OF RUSSIANS IN UKRAINE. SWITZERLAND IS DISTORTING HISTORY. NOTHING NEW AS LONG AS THERE IS MONEY IN IT.... SHOULD SWITZERLAND ACKNOWLEDGE THE ROLE OF THE WEST IN THIS AFFAIR, IT WOULD LOSE CASH HEAD OVER HEAL BY WESTERN PEOPLE WHO PARK THEIR MONEY IN THE "SAVE HAVEN", SO THE SWISS NATION IS FAR FROM BEING "NEUTRAL"...
MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:
NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)
THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.
THESE WILL ALSO INCLUDE ODESSA, KHERSON AND KHARKIV.....
CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954
TRANSNISTRIA WILL BE PART OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION.
A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.
EASY.
THE WEST KNOWS IT.
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swiss win!
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/entertainment-arts-68992694?src_origin=BBCS_BBC
SWITZERLAND WINS! WHO CARES!!!!!?????
SEE ALSO: https://yourdemocracy.net/drupal/node/44012
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