Gender and LGBTQ issues in spotlight
Plus, the US and South Korea agree to potential cost sharing deal
I occasionally get into a rut when I do not read many books. Usually, it is prompted by a book I cannot get into, but I convince myself I need to read it.
When I inevitably give up and find a book I enjoy, I scold myself for not pulling the plug earlier.
I bought Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air a few days ago, and have proceeded to inhale the story. I know these events intimately, which has, surprisingly, added to the reading experience.
There is nothing better than the feeling of rediscovering the joy of reading.
I hope you are enjoying the books, magazines and newsletters in your queue.
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A6 - Where the World Happens
Mexico’s president targets gender discrimination for first policy initiative
The first policy push for Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum will be a reform package that aims to boost women’s rights in the country.
The plans include:
A constitutional right to equal pay for work.
Requiring gender parity in the government.
Initiatives to crack down on violence against women.
Sheinbaum took office this past week and is Mexico’s first woman president. In announcing the potential reforms, she said, “It is now the time for women.”
Sheinbaum’s party has a governing majority, so expectations are that the reforms will pass relatively smoothly.
Mexico has made strides in improving female representation in positions of power, having recently installed its first female Supreme Court justice, Norma Lucía Piña Hernández. Victoria Rodriguez also helms the Central Bank.
However, violence against women remains a serious problem in the country, with a 2022 study finding that 70% of women older than 15 had experienced some form of gender-based violence. That number represented a 4% increase from 2016.
Additionally, the inability to solve murders when the victim is female has consistently sparked protests in Mexico.
Sheinbaum also used her first days as president to target a more ambitious clean energy policy, pledging to generate 45% of Mexico’s electricity through renewables by 2030.
Georgia signs sweeping anti-LGBTQ+ bill into law
The Georgian parliament signed a sweeping law on Thursday that significantly curtails the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals.
The regulations would ban same-sex marriages in the country. It would forbid adoptions by gay couples, outlaw gender-affirming care, and forbid changing gender identities on official documents. The law will also ban the depiction of LGBTQ+ characters in media.
The bill was approved by lawmakers last month, but the president, Salome Zourabichvili, refused to sign it. That gave the Speaker of Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, five days to either pass or kill the bill, and he chose to make it law.
Rhetoric from Georgian politicians was pre-emptively defensive, with Papuashvili saying the law would “cause criticism from some foreign partners,” adding that Georgians “have never been afraid” to follow their faith.
The EU has previously warned that this law would derail Georgia’s hopes of joining the European Union. Georgia was granted “EU candidate” status in 2023, but that was sabotaged in June when the country passed a law that required NGOs that receive international funding to register as “foreign agents.”
Ana Tavadze, an activist with a Georgian LGBTQ+ support group, told the Associated Press that the ruling party, Georgian Dream, had “taken homophobia to a new level, and that is political and institutional homophobia.”
She said the party had fabricated controversies to distract people from a sluggish economy, poor education, and substandard healthcare.
EU members must recognise gender changes across bloc
The top court of the European Union (EU) ruled that all countries in the bloc must recognize changes to given names and genders from other member nations.
The European Court of Justice ruled that refusing to recognize legal gender changes inhibits the right to free movement and residence, which is a core component of the EU. It added that refusing to acknowledge name and gender changes creates “serious professional, administrative and private inconvenience.”
The ruling stems from the case of Arian Mirzarafie-Ahi, a man who received a legal gender change in the UK but was refused a new birth certificate by Romanian authorities.
The court said that forcing Mirzarafie-Ahi to embark in a separate legal gender change in Romania was undue burden, especially because that court could come to a different conclusion.
The ruling was strategically interesting because Mirzarafie-Ahi did not reference human rights or personal dignity. Rather, it leaned on a bureaucratic nightmare that would be created if someone were legally recognized as different genders in different countries.
That argument could be helpful for other trans-rights issues moving forward.
The court also ruled that Brexit was irrelevant to the claim because the UK had not yet left the EU when Mirzarafie-Ahi legally changed his gender.
Assault on American corporate DEI issues continues
Conservative American activists are enjoying a winning streak in their war against corporate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies.
Toyota said it would no longer sponsor LGBTQ+ events and would “narrow our community activities to align with STEM education and workforce readiness.”
The automaker said it would not pariticpate in the Corporate Equality Index, saying the entire DEI push has been highly politicized.
The recent backlash against corporate DEI policies is driven by an conservative activist named Robby Starbuck, who this year released a documentary claiming that toxic chemicals cause children to identify as queer.
Toyota’s reversal seems to be a reaction to an online campaign started by Starbuck, who has become adept at rallying the far right internet to put pressure on various companies for their DEI policies.
Toyota joins Tractor Supply, John Deere, Harley Davidson, Ford and Lowe’s as companies that have caved to internet-generated pressure.
A lot of the corporate DEI reversal can be tied to the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision to reverse affirmative action, which has opened up avenues for lawsuits claiming that someone's career was restricted due to reverse racism.
US-South Korea deal aimed at neutering impact of possible Trump victory
The US and South Korean governments agreed to a tentative cost-sharing deal that would last for five years, presenting a possible safeguard against a Donald Trump presidency.
Trump has routinely criticized the large American troop presence in South Korea, arguing that the country does not pay its fair share for their presence.
Under the new deal, Seoul will contribute US$1.13 billion annually between 2026-2030 to the cost of hosting troops in the country. The deal needs to be approved by South Korea’s National Assembly.
During his previous presidency, Trump negotiated a cost-sharing deal with Seoul, but it did not go into effect until March 2021, allowing the Biden administration to make changes to the deal. CNN reported that Trump had initially asked South Korea to pay US$4.7 billion per year for the troop presence.
America has had a large military presence in South Korea since the end of the Korean War, with proponents saying it is crucial to maintaining the close relationship between Seoul and Washington.
The military presence is also important as North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un continues to to antagonise his neighbors and Beijing becomes increasingly assertive in the region.
Environment: Solar boom in China turns electricity prices negative
China is the global leader in renewable energy production, to the points that some parts of the country are seeing negative elecrity prices.
China produces twice as much renewable energy as the entire world combined, and battery storage has not caught up to the demand.
Grid officials are reducing output while they wait for more batteries to be built, which should help smooth out supply-demand issues and prevent additional overcapacity.
This green energy push from China has had two secondary effects.
First, it has motivated other developed countries to build out their renewables infrastructure. For example, while the US lags behind China in renewables production, its capacity has jumped by 36% year-on-year, which continues a significant growth trend.
Second, the Chinese export market has proven to be a viable source of clean energy for developing economies that have yet to build their renewable energy infrastructure.
Kevin’s Article: Recent study into ancient Chinese oracle bones highlights how AI is changing archaeology
From the first three paragraphs:
A recent study from mainland China has highlighted the types of archaeological insights that are expected to become increasingly common as artificial intelligence (AI) technology is employed more widely.
The team, from Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou and Renmin University in Beijing, conducted an in-depth analysis of one of the earliest forms of writing – oracle bones –to determine whether the 3,000-year-old authors were left-handed or right-handed.
In a preprint that has not yet undergone peer review, the team utilised digital copies of oracle bones and employed an unsupervised deep-learning tool called Bone2Vec to analyse the inscriptions.
Charity to Consider: The Trevor Project
From the About Page:
Crisis counselors are trained to answer calls, chats, or texts from LGBTQ+ young people who reach out on our free, confidential and secure 24/7 service when they are struggling with issues such as coming out, LGBTQ+ identity, depression, and suicide.
What I am reading
China's swinging pendulum: is it a feature, or a bug? by
The Life and Wanderings of Chef Andy Ricker via Roads and Kingdoms