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Daily Archives: February 4, 2022

(WSJ) Dismal Russian Record in Occupied Eastern Ukraine Serves as Warning

Posted on February 4, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

The Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine’s Luhansk and Donetsk regions were once the engines of the country’s economy and dominated its politics.

They produced its richest man, billionaire industrialist Rinat Akhmetov, as well as former President Viktor Yanukovych, ousted by the street protests that triggered the Russian invasion in 2014.

Since then, however, the two areas—now nominally independent “people’s republics” inside the larger regions of Luhansk and Donetsk—have turned into impoverished, depopulated enclaves that increasingly rely on Russian subsidies to survive. As much as half the prewar population of 3.8 million has left, for the rest of Ukraine, more prosperous Russia or Europe. Those who remain are disproportionately retirees, members of the security services and people simply too poor to move. Current economic output has shrunk to roughly 30% of the level before the Russian invasion, economists estimate.

As Russian President Vladimir Putin is massing more than 100,000 troops for a possible broader invasion of Ukraine, the developments in Donetsk and Luhansk show what many fear could happen to the rest of the country if he were to carry that out. The dismal record of Russian rule is one reason so many Ukrainian citizens, including Russian-speakers, are ready to take up arms so that their hometowns won’t meet the same fate.

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Posted in Economy, Foreign Relations, Military / Armed Forces, Politics in General, Russia, Ukraine

Investors hold mining companies to account following Church of England intervention

Posted on February 4, 2022 by Kendall Harmon
A memorial event at which families of those killed in the devastating Brumadinho disaster shared testimonies and prayers, has catalysed investors to take further steps in recognition of the profound risks caused by tailings facilities.

Following the memorial event, Responsible Investor magazine contacted unresponsive companies named, during the event, resulting in further disclosure about tailings from ArcelorMittal. The Church of England Pensions Board has called on the company to publish its support of the global industry standard, and continue to make relevant disclosures for their facilities.

The event marked the third anniversary of the Brumadinho disaster. During the event the Church of England Pensions Board together with the United Nations Environment Programme provided an update on the implementation of the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM).

The £3.5/$4.7 billion Church of England Pensions Board, which set up and leads the 100 strong coalition of investors representing USD $20 trillion under management that form the Investor Mining and Tailings Safety Initiative, also announced that they will vote against the chairs of company boards at companies in which they invest that have not confirmed their intention to implement the Industry Standard.

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Posted in Church of England (CoE), Corporations/Corporate Life, Ethics / Moral Theology, Pensions, Stock Market

(SA) Game-changing technology to remove 99% of carbon dioxide from air

Posted on February 4, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

University of Delaware engineers have demonstrated a way to effectively capture 99% of carbon dioxide from air using a novel electrochemical system powered by hydrogen.

It is a significant advance for carbon dioxide capture and could bring more environmentally friendly fuel cells closer to market.

The research team, led by UD Professor Yushan Yan, reported their method in Nature Energy on Thursday, February 3.

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Posted in Ecology, Science & Technology

(Church Times) ‘Levelling up’ funding not enough, says Bishop Wilcox of Sheffield

Posted on February 4, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

Funding set aside to regenerate 20 towns and cities outlined in the Government White Paper Levelling Up, “barely begins to address the chronic under-investment of recent decades”, the Bishop of Sheffield, Dr Pete Wilcox, has warned.

The White Paper, published on Wednesday, consists of 12 “national missions” to be achieved by 2030, including missions to close gaps in wealth, employment, education, training, 5G broadband, homeownership, and life expectancy in the UK — particularly between the north and south of England. It also pledges to reduce homicide and serious violence in the worst-affected areas, and offer a “London-style” devolution deal to every part of England which requests one, supported by the £2.6-billion UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which is to be decentralised to local leaders.

One of the central proposals is to “restore local pride” in 20 towns and cities, beginning with Wolverhampton and Sheffield, with “King’s Cross-style” regeneration projects. To fund this, from April, £1.5 billion of the £1.8 million announced in the October Budget to bring 1500 hectares of brownfield land into use will be redirected towards the north and the Midlands.

In November, Wolverhampton and Sheffield were respectively promised £20 million and £37 million towards the scheme; a further £28 million was allocated to the West Midlands Combined Authority, and £13 million for the South Yorkshire Combined Authority on Sunday.

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Posted in Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, Economy, England / UK, Ethics / Moral Theology, Politics in General, Religion & Culture

(PRC) U.S. Hispanic population continued its geographic spread in the 2010s

Posted on February 4, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

The U.S. Hispanic population reached 62.1 million in 2020, an increase of 23% over the previous decade that outpaced the nation’s 7% overall population growth. At the county level, growth played out unevenly, which resulted in the continued geographic spread of Hispanics. Numerical growth of Hispanics was largest in counties that already had significant Hispanic populations, but the growth rate was largest in counties with smaller Hispanic populations, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of decennial census data from 1980 to 2020.

The Hispanic population grew by 50% or more from 2010 to 2020 in 517 of the 1,685 counties with 1,000 or more Hispanics in the 2020 census. The vast majority of these counties are not in what have historically been Hispanic population centers. Together, these counties have a Hispanic population of only 7.6 million. By contrast, the 20 counties with the largest numerical growth in population are home to more than a third of the nation’s Hispanics (22.2 million).

The U.S. Latino population has been shifting away from states with historically large Latino populations for decades, a trend that can be seen at the state level. As recently as 1990, 86% of Latinos lived in just nine states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York and Texas). Although the Latino population has grown in each of these states, their share of all U.S. Latinos had dropped to 73% by 2020. In New Mexico, the state’s 1 million Latinos are nearly half of the population (48%). Despite a large population share, New Mexico, which had the ninth-largest Latino population in 2010, dropped to 13th-largest in 2020, after being passed by Georgia, North Carolina, Washington and Pennsylvania.

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Posted in * Culture-Watch, America/U.S.A.

A Prayer for the Feast Day of Cornelius the Centurion

Posted on February 4, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

O God, who by thy Spirit didst call Cornelius the Centurion to be the first Christian among the Gentiles: Grant to thy Church, we beseech thee, such a ready will to go where thou dost send and to do what thou dost command, that under thy guidance it may welcome all who turn to thee in love and faith, and proclaim the Gospel to all nations; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Posted in Church History, Missions, Spirituality/Prayer

A Prayer to Begin the Day from the Church of England

Posted on February 4, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

Almighty God,
by whose grace alone we are accepted and called to your service:
strengthen us by your Holy Spirit
and make us worthy of our calling;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

Posted in Church of England (CoE), Spirituality/Prayer

From the Morning Scripture Readings

Posted on February 4, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation which addresses you as sons?

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor lose courage when you are punished by him.
For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time at their pleasure, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

–Hebrews 12:3-11

Posted in Theology: Scripture