Month: September 2023

The illegal separatist regime in the Karabakh (Garabagh) region of Azerbaijan announced its self-dissolution on Thursday. 

A relevant decree was signed by the regime’s self-proclaimed “president,” Samvel Shahramanyan. The document states, “All institutions and organizations are to be dissolved by January 1, 2024, and the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) ceases to exist.”

It also calls on the Armenian residents of the Karabakh region to become acquainted with the conditions of reintegration presented by Azerbaijan in order to subsequently make an independent and individual decision on the possibility of staying in or returning to the Karabakh region.

The dissolution of the decades-old illegal separatist regime in the territory of Azerbaijan came as the culmination of the latter’s recent anti-terror measures and ensuing reintegration efforts.

From September 19 to 20, the Azerbaijan Armed Forces conducted a counter-terrorism operation in the Karabakh region to disarm the remnants of the Armenian army. The operation followed the intensifying Armenian attacks on Azerbaijani positions and the recent deadly mine incidents, resulting in the deaths of Azerbaijani police officers and road construction workers. By the cessation of hostilities, dozens of military posts, strongholds and equipment of the illegal military formations were disabled.

On September 20, the so-called “defense forces” of the separatists surrendered, agreeing to full disarmament and withdrawal. Since then, the Azerbaijani army, in coordination with the temporary Russian peacekeeping mission in the Karabakh region, has been confiscating arms, ammunition, and equipment from the Armenian army formations. The process will reportedly continue until the illegal armed formations are completely disarmed and removed from the territory of Azerbaijan.

The Karabakh region was outside of Azerbaijan’s control for nearly three decades. During this period, the region was illegally occupied and ruled by Armenia and the separatist regime established and backed by the Armenian authorities. The occupation of the Karabakh region by Armenia was the result of an illegal territorial claim by Armenians with its roots dating back to the Soviet era.

Separatist sentiments in the highland part of the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan rose after it was given the status of so-called Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (Region) within Azerbaijan by the Soviet rulers in 1923. As a result of continuous relocation of Armenians to the region, they began to claim the Azerbaijani lands as their own. The anti-Azerbaijan sentiments expanded over the years until the late 1980s and early 1990s when it grew into a full-blown war between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Armenia launched a military aggression against Azerbaijan. The bloody war, which lasted until a ceasefire in 1994, resulted in Armenia occupying 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territories, including the Karabakh region. Over 30,000 ethnic Azerbaijanis were killed and 1 million others were expelled from their lands in a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign conducted by Armenia.

Armenia designed an illegal separatist “government” in the occupied Karabakh region, throwing military and financial weight behind it to consolidate the occupation. Certain parts of the Armenian military were deployed in the region to form the so-called “defense forces.” The separatists were also assisted in establishing their bogus “executive, legislative, and judiciary” structures. By 2023, five self-styled “presidents” were “elected” to rule the separatist regime. The last illegal “elections” took place on September 9, 2023, with Samvel Shahramanyan becoming the next “president” to fill the shoes of the resigned Arayik Harutunyan. The separatists sought “independence” from Azerbaijan, claiming the Karabakh region should never be part of the country.

On September 27, 2020, the decades-old conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan escalated when Armenia’s forces deployed in occupied Azerbaijani lands shelled military positions and civilian settlements of Azerbaijan. During counter-attack operations, Azerbaijani forces liberated over 300 settlements, including the cities of Jabrayil, Fuzuli, Zangilan, Gubadli, and Shusha, from nearly 30 years of illegal Armenian occupation. The war ended with a statement signed on November 10, 2020, under which Armenia also returned the occupied Aghdam, Kalbajar, and Lachin districts to Azerbaijan.

According to Azerbaijani data, up to 25,000 ethnic Armenians live in certain parts of Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region, temporarily monitored by the Russian peacekeeping contingent. Armenia demanded so-called status for this area post-war, while Baku rejected these claims as a threat to the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

Since late 2020, Azerbaijani authorities have been calling on ethnic Armenians residing in the Karabakh region to eliminate anti-Azerbaijan propaganda and take steps to become part of Azerbaijani society. The Azerbaijani government and people consider the territory partially settled by the Armenian residents as the Karabakh region and the Armenian residents living there as Azerbaijani citizens.

Azerbaijani authorities initiated the reintegration of Karabakh Armenians by arranging a meeting between officials from Baku and representatives of the Armenian residents in the region. The meeting in the town of Khojaly on March 1, 2023, discussed the reintegration of the Armenian residents of the Karabakh region into Azerbaijani society in line with the Constitution and laws of Azerbaijan. The sides agreed to continue contact in the next meetings. The Azerbaijani government even suggested that it take place in Baku. However, due to the refusal of the Armenian side, the process ended in a deadlock.

Following the counter-terrorism measures on September 19-20, the meetings between officials from Baku and representatives of the Armenian residents of the Karabakh region have been resumed.

(New York Jewish Week) — Mark Vogel, who lives in Riverdale and runs a website about Jewish and kosher travel, spoke for many of his neighbors when he posted a video on Instagram of his sukkah being pounded by rain, standing forlornly in the middle of his flooded backyard.

“I built a Sukkah,” he wrote in a caption. “I should have built an ark.”

Vogel, and many of the other millions of Jews in the tristate area, have been coping with the reality that Sukkot, the most outdoor holiday on the Jewish calendar, has coincided with heavy rains that have flooded highways, shut down subway lines and triggered a state of emergency in New York City. More than 8 inches of rain had fallen at John F. Kennedy airport by Friday afternoon, and more is expected into Saturday.

Sukkot begins Friday night, and on the weeklong holiday, Jews traditionally eat their meals and even sleep in the sukkah, an outdoor hut with a roof generally made from tree branches that recalls the Israelites’ biblical sojourn in the desert and emphasizes the need for divine protection.

But rain makes those observances close to impossible — leading most would-be sukkah-dwellers in New York to accept that they’ll be eating indoors on the holiday’s first night, and sparking a wide variety of theological and practical responses from rabbis and rank-and-file Jews alike. For others, it has complicated travel plans hours before the holiday’s start, backing up traffic and making the subway especially hard to navigate.

“I once heard that if it rains on [the] first night of sukkoth, it’s some sort of sign that God is displeased with us,” Linda Gisselle Roth, who splits her time between New York City and Connecticut, wrote on Facebook on Friday. “And it’s been raining for days. And I’ve never felt like this before.”

She added, “I want to spend [the] first night of sukkoth, in my sukkah. So for right now, I’m asking, please let the rain stop.”

While the rainy season in Israel traditionally begins right after Sukkot, rain is a common occurrence on the holiday in the United States and even inspired the title of a children’s book from the 1990s, “Why Does It Always Rain on Sukkot?”

Observant Jews have varying customs when it comes to dealing with rain on the holiday. Many avoid their sukkah entirely, while others will quickly recite blessings over wine and challah in the sukkah and then eat the rest of the meal indoors. Adherents of Chabad, the Hasidic movement based in Crown Heights, try to eat in the sukkah under nearly all circumstances.

One resident of Teaneck, New Jersey, a heavily Jewish suburb, posted a single-spaced, two-page guide from his local rabbi on what to do if it rains on the holiday. (The rabbi, who is not named in the document, recommends saying blessings over wine and challah in the sukkah and then continuing the meal inside.)

A bad sign?

Rabbis on social media, meanwhile, explored the theological dimensions of the weather. Some cited a passage from the Mishnah, the ancient code of rabbinic law, that compares rain on Sukkot, following the effort of building a sukkah, to a servant bringing his master a jug of wine, only for the master to throw water back in the servant’s face.

“Nasty weather on sukkot is a sign of God’s displeasure with us,” Rabbi Ysoscher Katz, who teaches at the liberal Orthodox Yeshivat Chovevei Torah seminary, wrote on Facebook. Then, referencing the recent High Holidays and addressing God, he wrote, “If all we did the last few weeks is not good enough for You, what’s left for us to say?! We did the best we can. If You want more, You will have to let us know what that more is.”

Rabbi Ethan Tucker, the president of the Hadar Institute, an egalitarian center of Jewish study based in Manhattan, also cited the passage and encouraged people to focus on the experience of the servant in the parable. He added that because the first day of the holiday falls on Shabbat, the other central commandment associated with Sukkot, praying with four species of plants, is also deferred a day. (Sunday is expected to be sunny.)

“What does it *feel like* when you have prepared for something and then you cannot execute it as planned?” he wrote on Facebook. “It feels like rejection, as in the parable. The weather may in fact just be the weather, but it doesn’t necessarily make the feeling of loss less palpable. Is there a way to make this Sukkah rainout an opportunity to sit with rejection? To empathize with other such experiences, even if they are not our own?”

Making the best of it

Some New Yorkers tried to stay positive. “It might be flooding and we might consume a lot of rain water with our food lol but Sukkot Dinner under the Stars is still on even if we might end up eating indoors under a roof instead!” a Facebook user from Queens posted on Friday, advertising a meal that night.

Nina Jochnowitz, a State Senate candidate in New Jersey, cited the rabbinic idea that Sukkot is considered a time of joy, and referenced a Hasidic saying that “‘joy breaks all boundaries,’ transforming even the most negative occurrences into blessings!”

And others reached for seasonal parallels: “If only sukkot came with rain dates like baseball,” one person posted.

For Vogel, the travel writer and Riverdale resident, the rain was especially unfortunate, as he has built a smaller sukkah in recent years to limit capacity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This was the first year he had gone back to building a larger one.

“Well, I was looking forward to eating in a large sukkah this year with friends and family,” he told the New York Jewish Week. “But we can’t control the weather, so we will make the best of it.”

This article originally appeared on JTA.org.

The post Flash floods put a dangerous damper on the first night of Sukkot in NYC appeared first on The Forward.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former Republican poll watcher Scott Hall on Friday pleaded guilty to five criminal counts in the Georgia elections case, according to a live feed of a court hearing.

Hall and 18 others, including former U.S. President Donald Trump, were indicted in Fulton County, Georgia, last month with conspiring to reverse Trump’s 2020 presidential election loss in the state.Hall and former Trump lawyer John Eastman were the first of former President Donald Trump’s co-defendants to surrender at an Atlanta jail on Aug. 22.

MSCI’S global equities seesawed on Friday after an earlier boost from encouraging inflation data faded as investors digested the figures, prepared for a likely U.S. government shutdown and adjusted portfolios for quarter-end.

Hardline Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday afternoon rejected their leader’s proposed bill to temporarily fund the government, making it all but certain that federal agencies will partially shut down beginning on Sunday.

Underlying U.S. inflation pressures moderated in August, with the annual rise in prices excluding food and energy falling below 4.0% for the first time in more than two years – seen as welcome news for the Federal Reserve as it ponders the monetary policy outlook.

Earlier data also showed headline inflation in Europe rising more slowly than economist forecasts and at its lowest level in two years.

New York Fed President John Williams said the central bank is likely at or near peak rates but that he expects it will need to stay restrictive “for some time to fully restore balance to demand and supply and bring inflation back to desired levels.”

“What’s driving everything is interest rates, and what the Fed finally got markets to buy is that lower inflation is not a reason to lower interest rates,” said Robert Phipps, director at Per Stirling Capital Management, who saw the comments by Williams as the biggest drag on stocks on Friday as it reminded investors that rates will likely stay higher for longer.

On top of this, Phipps also cited end-of quarter portfolio adjustments, the prospect of a government shutdown, and an expansion of Detroit’s auto workers’ strikes as incentives for traders to sell shares going into the weekend.

Traders were betting on an 85.8% probability that the Fed would keep rates steady at its next meeting in November compared with an 80.7% probability on Thursday, according to the latest data from CME Group’s Fedwatch tool.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) fell 145.75 points, or 0.43%, to 33,520.59, the S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 7.56 points, or 0.18%, to 4,292.14 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) added 33.90 points, or 0.26%, to 13,235.17.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index (.STOXX) earlier closed up 0.38%. MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe (.MIWD00000PUS) gained 0.05% after earlier rising as much as 0.8% and falling as much as 0.2%.

In currencies, the dollar was still headed for its biggest quarterly gain in a year but it backed off 10-month highs giving the yen some breathing room as the Japanese currency remains under scrutiny for potential government intervention.

The yen weakened 0.09% versus the greenback at 149.42 per dollar. The dollar index , which measures the greenback against a basket of major currencies, fell 0.009%, with the euro up 0.11% to $1.0571.

Sterling was last trading at $1.2201, up 0.03% after data showed Britain’s economic performance since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic was stronger than previously thought.

U.S. Treasury yields slid after the inflation reading and were still lower with Benchmark 10-year notes down 2 basis points to 4.577%, from 4.597% late on Thursday. The 30-year bond was last down 1.1 basis points to yield 4.7181%, from 4.729%. The 2-year note was last was down 2.1 basis points to yield 5.0498%, from 5.071%.

In energy, oil prices were mixed on Friday in a volatile trading session due to macroeconomic concerns and profit-taking, but were set to rise about 30% in the quarter as OPEC+ production cuts squeezed global supply.

U.S. crude settled down 1% at $90.79 per barrel and Brent ended at $95.31, down 0.07% on the day.

In precious metals, gold prices extended declines on Friday and were on track for monthly and quarterly declines on expectations that the U.S. central bank may keep interest rates higher for longer.

Spot gold dropped 0.9% to $1,847.99 an ounce. U.S. gold futures fell 0.77% to $1,846.00 an ounce.

Those who did not have a chance to see Taylor Swift at MetLife Stadium during her Eras Tour stop might have a chance to see her there at the New York Jets game this Sunday. After she was spotted at the Kansas City Chiefs game on Sept. 24, pandemonium broke out among Swifties on social media. They were quickly trying to understand the rules of football as her presence at the game seems to have confirmed that she and the Chiefs’ tight end, Travis Kelce, might be an item after he spoke about shooting his shot with the pop star back in July. The two were said to have spent time together and were seen leaving in a convertible after the game.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

Now, it’s becoming clear that the relationship rumors are having a real economic impact for the NFL, as the possibility of a Swift sighting has helped tickets for the Jets vs. Chiefs game on Sunday rise 40%, according to CNN Business.

More From TIME

Read more: Swifties Are Studying Up on Football After Taylor Swift Went to the Chiefs Game

The publication reports that an online marketplace called TickPick has seen the average price of tickets for Sunday’s game rise from $89 to $119 after it was reported by Front Office Sports that Swift will be attending another Chiefs game. Ticket price data from Gametime says the lowest last-minute tickets are available at $152 each. It’s no shock that the 12-time Grammy winner’s fanbase clamors for the chance to see her, as evidenced by the Ticketmaster debacle when tickets went on sale for the Eras tour. Last week’s game at Arrowhead Stadium, where Swift watched from Kelce’s family box alongside his mother, saw a major boost in ratings. According to Front Office Sports, the Fox Sports broadcast brought in over 24 million viewers, making it the “most-watched NFL game on any network for Week 3.”

Kelce saw the power of the Swifties firsthand after sales for his jerseys saw a 400% spike in sales following the pop star’s appearance at the stadium. The two have been rumored to be romantically linked since July. When Kelce went on The Pat McAfee Show podcast earlier this month, he said he invited Swift to attend one of his games. He seemed to be surprised by her decision to actually show up, but sources told People that Swift “thought it was a fantastic way to spend a Sunday.” Kelce and his brother addressed the relationship rumors for the first time in a recent episode of their podcast, New Heights. Jason, who plays for the Philadelphia Eagles, jokingly asked his brother how it feels that Swift “put his name on the map.”

Read More: Travis Kelce Opens Up About Taylor Swift Relationship Rumors

Kelce says that he thought it was “pretty ballsy” of her to go to the game and “It was awesome how everybody in the suite had nothing but great things to say about her—the friends and family. She looked amazing, everybody was talking about her in great light.”

As anticipation grows for Swift’s supposed Sunday appearance, Fox Sports reports that the Fox music department asked her label and publishing company for permission to use some of Swift’s songs during the broadcast but the request was denied “in conjunction with speculations on or about her private/personal/dating life.”

“Even if we transition to 100% clean energy, temperatures will continue to rise unless we also address our unsustainable relationship with nature,” wrote climate scientist Johan Rockstrom recently, echoing a call that reverberated across this year’s New York Climate Week.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

While climate action is often framed as a sacrifice of at least $2 trillion annually (mainly for clean energy), the cost of inaction on protecting and restoring nature is much higher. Consultancy PwC estimates that over half (55%) of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP)—equivalent to an estimated $58 trillion—is exposed to material nature risks due to moderate or high dependence on nature. While sectors like agriculture, forestry, and fisheries are most exposed, PwC found every single economic sector to have nature-related risks. Nature stewardship is critical to business outcomes, for everything from drug discovery to growing materials for food, fibers, and fuel—and every sector also stands to benefit from investing in protecting and better managing waters, land, air, and wildlife, collectively known as nature-based climate solutions.

The world’s top climate experts at the IPCC agree that we urgently need more investment to both reduce and remove greenhouse gas emissions, by protecting existing, intact stores of carbon (such as in forests, grasslands, mangroves, and peatlands), reducing nitrous oxide and methane emissions from farming, and quickly and cheaply removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through ecosystem restoration.

To both meet our climate goals and reduce nature risks, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) estimates that we need to mobilize at least $230 billion in additional funding per year for nature protection and restoration—and much of that will need to come from the private sector. Currently, only 17% of the $154 billion in existing funding for nature comes from private capital; the rest is from governments.

Despite scientific proof of the critical role that nature plays as part of the climate solution, nature-based climate initiatives lost substantial corporate support over the past year. High-profile brands such as Delta and Apple have been subject to media scrutiny and even lawsuits surrounding their nature investments and claims. Vocal champions of climate action are split in their opinions of the importance of nature-based solutions. Some believe that new technologies alone—like carbon capture, modular nuclear, and fusion—hold the key to the future. This group sees nature as a weak climate solution, evaluating nature investments solely on their greenhouse gas reduction impact.

In contrast, many others see nature-based solutions as a vital component of climate action. And more importantly, they see many reasons to invest in nature beyond carbon: increased biodiversity, including improved water access, higher crop yields from better soil fertility and pollinator survival, access to not-yet-discovered raw materials to improve health and treat illness, lower temperatures, and greater resilience to extreme weather. In this spirit, many companies are continuing investments in nature-based solutions, but recently often in silence. This trend has been termed “greenhushing,” whereby corporations deliberately choose to under-report or hide their sustainability work to evade public scrutiny, is increasingly common, and makes it more difficult to know the true scale of corporate investments going into nature.

Last week at Climate Week NYC, held September in parallel with the United Nations General Assembly, TIME’s climate action division, TIME CO2, convened a roundtable to understand what was motivating companies to continue investing in nature, and what barriers keep them from increasing their investments. The roundtable included senior sustainability executives from companies such as Amazon, Amex, Airbnb, GSK, HP, Ingka Group (IKEA), L’Oreal, Mastercard, Rabobank, Salesforce, Unilever, and VMware, and NGOs including Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy. It was sponsored by the American Forest Foundation, Climate Impact Partners, Pachama, Space Intelligence, and Sylvera.

At the roundtable, we learned that companies found that their investments in ecosystem conservation and restoration in operating areas have not just reduced supply-chain emissions but also generated tangible business value. Improving water security, potential for financial returns, and overall business resilience were cited as particularly important reasons for nature investments. These investments are often additional to other corporate initiatives focused on emissions reductions, such as carbon pricing, supplier emissions requirements, renewable energy procurement, and logistics fleet electrification. In the absence of universal climate regulation, these voluntary actions are necessary.

Unanimously, these business executives pointed to the fact that corporate investments in nature-based solutions face highly critical and persistent media coverage, focusing on what has not worked, often dismissing or failing to cover the benefits. They discussed their interest in increasing transparency around corporate investments in nature-based solutions, sharing what is and is not working to increase learning from failures, as well as increase investment in areas that deserve more focus.

A recurring theme was that the expectation of perfection was the enemy of actual progress, and that if we want to inspire more businesses to act on climate, we need to demand they have clear goals, a plan to achieve it, and clear, regular communication of proof of progress. To demand perfection is to scare away many from even taking their first steps on their climate journey. 

It’s clear that leading businesses aren’t retreating from investing in nature. In fact, they’re doubling down. Companies need to speak up—and be encouraged to do so—if we are going to see these practices become mainstream and scale. Not because of pressure from the climate and conservation community, but because it’s good business.