Sunday, September 26, 2021
The Chinese Business Tycoon Revealing the Secrets of Beijing's Élite | 60 Minutes Australia
Votation populaire du 26.09.21 - Allocution du Conseil fédéral - Mariage pour tous
Mariage pour tous en Suisse : un couple français espère que le référendum l'autorisera
Swiss Vote Overwhelmingly for Same-sex Marriage, According to Poll
THE GUARDIAN: Projection indicates clear backing in Sunday’s referendum for ‘Marriage for All’ proposal
Posters of rival political parties and associations in Perly, near Geneva. Switzerland has authorised same-sex civil partnerships since 2007. Photograph: Salvatore Di Nolfi/EPA
Swiss voters appear to have decided by a clear margin to allow same-sex couples to marry, according to a projection after a national referendum on Sunday.
The projection, by the gfs.bern polling agency for Switzerland’s public broadcasters, showed the measure passing by 64% to 36%.
Switzerland’s parliament and the governing federal council supported the “Marriage for All” measure, and pre-referendum polls showed solid backing. Switzerland has authorised same-sex civil partnerships since 2007.
Supporters said the proposal would put same-sex partners on an equal legal footing with heterosexual couples, by allowing them to adopt children together and facilitating citizenship for same-sex spouses. It would also permit lesbian couples to use regulated sperm donation. » | Associated Press in Geneva | Sunday, September 26, 2021
More on this referendum in both English and French here.
Swiss voters appear to have decided by a clear margin to allow same-sex couples to marry, according to a projection after a national referendum on Sunday.
The projection, by the gfs.bern polling agency for Switzerland’s public broadcasters, showed the measure passing by 64% to 36%.
Switzerland’s parliament and the governing federal council supported the “Marriage for All” measure, and pre-referendum polls showed solid backing. Switzerland has authorised same-sex civil partnerships since 2007.
Supporters said the proposal would put same-sex partners on an equal legal footing with heterosexual couples, by allowing them to adopt children together and facilitating citizenship for same-sex spouses. It would also permit lesbian couples to use regulated sperm donation. » | Associated Press in Geneva | Sunday, September 26, 2021
More on this referendum in both English and French here.
This Is How America’s Richest Families Stay That Way
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Most people have probably never heard of a “stepped up basis,” but it might just be the most important tax loophole in America — one that billionaires use to pass vast sums of wealth down to their heirs by avoiding capital gains taxes.
This supremely obscure and yet wildly consequential rule concerns assets passed from one person to another when they die. If a parent buys a stock for $1 and leaves it to their child (or for that matter, anyone) in their will, the tax code changes — or “steps up” — its base value, from the original price to whatever it was worth when the person died. Say that stock was worth $100 when the person died. If the child sells it later for, say, $150, the child would owe taxes only on the $50 upside, instead of the entire $149 profit the family made off the stock over the course of two generations. In April, former Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota called it “one of the biggest scams in the history of forever.”
For a select few families with vast fortunes amassed over many generations, it means that they can pass down millions or billions of dollars in stock, investments or real estate without having to pay income or capital gains taxes on many decades, or possibly a century or more, of gains. The windfall grows each time the money is transferred, endowing those families with disproportionate power for generations to come.
And for the first time in years, there’s a chance that the loophole could be reformed. » | By Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein | Friday, September 24, 2021
Hungary LGBT: New Law Is 'Shameful, Hateful' - Katalin Cseh
BBC: Lawmakers in Hungary have passed legislation prohibiting the sharing with minors of any content seen as promoting homosexuality and gender change.
Speaking before the legislation was passed Hungary's Momentum Movement MEP Katalin Cseh said the law would make it very hard for LGBTQ people to live in the country.
She told BBC World News: "I think it's a total disgrace, really, that such a vote is taking place in the 21st Century in Europe under the disguise of making a law against paedophilia."
Ms Cseh said her Momentum Movement party, which was part of Renew Europe group in the European Parliament would be looking to see what action they could take.
The Viktor Orban's right-wing government does not recognise gay marriage and has a law restricting gay adoption. Watch the video » | BBC | Tuesday, June 15, 2021
Speaking before the legislation was passed Hungary's Momentum Movement MEP Katalin Cseh said the law would make it very hard for LGBTQ people to live in the country.
She told BBC World News: "I think it's a total disgrace, really, that such a vote is taking place in the 21st Century in Europe under the disguise of making a law against paedophilia."
Ms Cseh said her Momentum Movement party, which was part of Renew Europe group in the European Parliament would be looking to see what action they could take.
The Viktor Orban's right-wing government does not recognise gay marriage and has a law restricting gay adoption. Watch the video » | BBC | Tuesday, June 15, 2021
Switzerland Holding Referendum on Same-sex Marriage
BBC: People in Switzerland are voting to decide whether to allow same-sex marriage. Switzerland is one of the last countries in western Europe not to recognise same-sex marriage, and supporters say the change in the law is long overdue.
But there is opposition from some church groups and right wing political parties, who claim it would undermine the traditional family.
Producer: Imogen Foulkes
À LIRE AUSSI :
Mariage pour tous : les Suisses appelés à voter ce dimanche »
But there is opposition from some church groups and right wing political parties, who claim it would undermine the traditional family.
Producer: Imogen Foulkes
À LIRE AUSSI :
Mariage pour tous : les Suisses appelés à voter ce dimanche »
Gay Men’s Wedding Rings
"Kiss"
Zwei schöne Männer; ein schöner Kuß
Mariage pour tous : les Suisses appelés à voter ce dimanche
LE FIGARO : Adoptée en décembre dernier par le parlement, l'inscription du mariage entre conjoints du même sexe est soumise au vote populaire. Le texte prévoit également un élargissement de la PMA, de l'adoption et l'accès au don de sperme pour tous.
Elle figure parmi les derniers pays d'Europe occidentale à ne pas avoir légalisé le mariage homosexuel. Dimanche 26 septembre, un référendum appelle tous les cantons à voter pour ou contre l'inscription dans la Constitution du mariage civil entre conjoints du même sexe. Depuis 2004, les personnes homosexuelles avaient la possibilité de s'unir par un «partenariat enregistré». Dans ce cadre, elles pouvaient avoir un nom commun, toucher une part de l'héritage du conjoint ou, depuis 2018, adopter l'enfant de leur partenaire. Mais les défenseurs du mariage pour tous regrettaient une «inégalité de droits».
Le référendum de ce dimanche vise à donner aux couples homosexuels l'accès à l'adoption, et aux couples de lesbiennes la procréation médicalement assistée (PMA). En cas de «oui», la loi instaurera également la double filiation, soit la reconnaissance des deux femmes comme mères, ainsi que l'accès au don de sperme. » | Par Le Figaro | samedi 25 septembre 2021
Saturday, September 25, 2021
European Lorry Drivers ‘Will Not Want to Come to UK’, Warn Haulage Chiefs
THE OBSERVER: Emergency visa plan will not resolve Britain’s road transport crisis, says industry as majority blame Brexit in poll
Cars queue for petrol in Harleston, Norfolk, as food and fuel supply chains are hit by the HGV driver shortage.Photograph: Nils Jorgensen/Rex/Shutterstock
The government’s emergency programme to issue temporary visas to thousands of lorry drivers is far too little to resolve Britain’s supply-chain crisis and is unlikely to attract them to the UK, haulage chiefs have warned.
Downing Street on Saturday night confirmed hastily compiled plans to add 5,000 HGV drivers and 5,500 poultry workers to a visa scheme until Christmas, to help the food and fuel industries with shortages.
However, even as the plans were formally announced, Marco Digioia, the head of the European Road Haulers Association which represents more than 200,000 trucking companies across the continent, told the Observer that “much more would be needed” than a temporary relaxation of immigration rules. “There is a driver shortage across Europe,” he said. “I am not sure how many would want to go to the UK.” » | Jon Henley, Michael Savage and James Tapper | Saturday, September 25, 2021
Of course they won't want to come back to this country after the shabby way we've treated them! We Brits have behaved appallingly! Were I to be in their shoes, I certainly wouldn't want to come back to this xenophobic hellhole either! Brexiteers deserve all they get. Unfortunately, we Remainers will also have to suffer because of their ridiculous decision to vote in favour of Brexit! – © Mark
The government’s emergency programme to issue temporary visas to thousands of lorry drivers is far too little to resolve Britain’s supply-chain crisis and is unlikely to attract them to the UK, haulage chiefs have warned.
Downing Street on Saturday night confirmed hastily compiled plans to add 5,000 HGV drivers and 5,500 poultry workers to a visa scheme until Christmas, to help the food and fuel industries with shortages.
However, even as the plans were formally announced, Marco Digioia, the head of the European Road Haulers Association which represents more than 200,000 trucking companies across the continent, told the Observer that “much more would be needed” than a temporary relaxation of immigration rules. “There is a driver shortage across Europe,” he said. “I am not sure how many would want to go to the UK.” » | Jon Henley, Michael Savage and James Tapper | Saturday, September 25, 2021
Of course they won't want to come back to this country after the shabby way we've treated them! We Brits have behaved appallingly! Were I to be in their shoes, I certainly wouldn't want to come back to this xenophobic hellhole either! Brexiteers deserve all they get. Unfortunately, we Remainers will also have to suffer because of their ridiculous decision to vote in favour of Brexit! – © Mark
John Major on Afghanistan, 'Global Britain', and the Tory Party | FT
Emotional Same-sex Wedding at Rosewood Sandhill
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Secret Histories: LGBTQ Life in Pre-Revolutionary Russia
THE CALVERT JOURNAL: Where can we turn to uncover the pre-history of LGBTQ rights in modern Russia?
It’s difficult to learn about LGBTQ history in a country where the community still struggles with homophobia at all levels of society. Most of the current research on the topic is still carried out by foreign scholars, and most of the [the] historical Russian texts on homosexuality, even when written by prominent scholars and writers, are disregarded. So where can we turn to learn about the phantom queer cultures that laid the ground for LGBTQ life in Soviet and post-communist Russia?
Historian Dan Healey, whose 2001 book Homosexual Desire in Revolutionary Russia was translated into Russian in 2008, argues that despite several prohibitive laws sexuality was considerably less regulated in pre-revolutionary Russia than elsewhere in Europe at that time. Several researchers claim that historical accounts show that before the 18th century, Russian society held rather lenient views toward homosexuality, and that homophobia was at least in part “imported” from Europe by Peter the Great — along with European traditions in food, architecture and fashion. Some argue that it was Peter’s father, Tsar Alexis, who first started persecuting gay people, but the first law that made homosexuality illegal (initially only for men in the army and navy) was signed by Peter in 1716. For civilians homosexuality was made illegal in 1835 — again for men only. However, not only there few recorded cases of these laws were actually applied, but the rapid urbanisation that followed the abolition of serfdom in 1861 allowed for LGBTQ communities to form in the capital, St Petersburg, as well as Moscow and other large cities. » | Text: Tasha Raspopina | Monday, June 3, 2019
ROMANCE OF THE ROMANOVS »
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