MIGRATING TO AUSTRALIA
International borders are currently closed and migration for offshore candidates next to zero but I will share this info so you can prepare, if interested. There are still things you can do in preparation

Migrating to Australia is a process and a half. It is costly and the process is long. It can take a year or so for the whole process to come full cycle. What I can not emphasise enough is that IT IS WORTH IT. There are a few visas available for trades people.

Please note that Australia does not classify trades people. You are either one or not. Whether you are class 2 or class 1, apprenticeship trained or not, if you have the required experience and pass their skills assessment you get the same certificate.

The most common visa is the State nomination visas, followed by the employer nominated visas. I will expand on these below. Between 2012 and 2017 you could easily get PR straight up, but they have since changed the rules to balance and spread people across other states.

PR allows you to work anywhere in Australia. Most people chose Western Australia as that is where most of the mining happens, leaving other states with skills shortage. Before we go into details about visas, I will share what you need to be eligible.

Today the Plateau State Contributory Health Care Management Agency PLASCHEMA paid an advocacy/sensitization visit to the University community.

THREAD!

Vice Chancellor, Prof. Yohana Daniel Izam led management staff, principal officers and other staff of the University to receive the PLASCHEMA team in the 600 capacity University Auditorium

The VC told the gathering that the health of every member of the university community is of paramount importance to him. He therefore welcomed the idea of a Health Insurance scheme advocated by the agency

Director general of the Plateau State Contributory Health Care Management Agency, Dr Fabong Jemchang highlighted the benefits of health insurance to members of the University community saying it will end the out-of-pocket expenditure on HealthCare.

He said the Plateau state Contributory Health Care Management Agency is poised to strengthen health financing by pooling resources and through strategic purchasing mitigating high out-of-pocket expenditure

THREAD #Serbian #Orthodox #Church bishops start Conclave (#Sabor-Holy Assembly in #SPC parlance) to elect new #Patriarch, 3 months after previous died of #Covid. Election much more about politics than religion, mainly #Serbia #Kosovo relations but also #Russia Orthodox Church /2

2/ vs. #Ecumenical Patriarch of #Constantinople. Most of numerous traditional cleavages within SPC (Young Lions vs. Old Guards); Serbians vs. TransDrinians; ecumenicals vs. hardline Orthodox etc. will be irrelevant with only the split between Russian vs. Greek students, roughly/3

3/corresponding with main division: support for whatever "solution" President Vucic might propose to satisfy int'l demand to at least de facto recognize Kosovo vs. stubborn refusal to accept anything not in line with current Serbian constitution that says #KosovoJeSrbija. /4

4/Due to 3 decades of heavy politicking under 1 weak Patriarch (Pavle) & his insipid successor (Irinej), those who’d otherwise be God-obeying “good guys” are staunchly in Kosovo Status Quo camp, refusing any deal. Those bishops who were in bed with politicians & secret services/5

5/ now support “accommodation” with Kosovo. Voting system is peculiar: Conclave picks 3 eligible bishops (each needs to obtain simple majority of votes i.e. 23); names of top 3 are sealed & 1 is drawn. System was designed in Communist times to prevent manipulation. Both sides /6

THREAD: After seeing some twitter users raising their concerns, it’s time for some additional explanatory information and points regarding Myanmar military that might come in handy in a few days. [1]
#WhatsHappeninglnMyanmar

Along with saddening incidents in Mandalay this afternoon, allow me to recall past brutal atrocities conducted by armed forces and the generals who have been ruling the country for decades. [2]

During 1988 uprisings where huge demonstrations led by students and then followed quickly by hundreds of thousands of monks, children, doctors and common people against the military government, which led to the general strikes across the country. [3]

And later brutal crackdowns followed and thousands of deaths have been attributed to the military during the uprising.
Yes. Same military of today. The authorities back then put the figures only around 350 ppl killed. [4]

During 2007 uprising/saffron revolution,
the people got fed up with military gov and started a campaign of peaceful resistance led by Buddhist monks, later many arrested/detained, many brutally tortured in custody. Myanmar ppl still hold high respect for saffron rev monks [6]

Today Vice President @ProfOsinbajo presided over a meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC), to critically review the security situation in the country. Council recommitted to the following principles:

#NECBrief
#AsoVillaToday
#Thread

The Council recommitted to the following principles:

1. The protection of all residents of all States, including non-indigenous communities and religious and ethnic minorities within State jurisdictions;

2. The arrest and prosecution of all perpetrators of crime;

3. In collaboration with federal authorities, the reconstruction of destroyed homes and payment of compensation where appropriate by State authorities for damage to property and livelihoods sustained during targeted attacks on communities within their jurisdictions;

4. Ensuring that deceased victims of such violence are duly accorded dignified burial rites;

5. The immediate public and unequivocal condemnation of all manifestations of hatred, targeted violence, and other hate crimes against ethnic, religious, and minority groups;

6. Ensuring that local security initiatives—whether State Govt law enforcement agencies/local vigilante groups/ @PoliceNG Community Policing programme—are inclusive & composed with due consideration given to adequate representation of non-indigenous/minority resident communities;

Portugal is famous for its mild climate and sunny beaches, but each year hundreds of people freeze to death and millions struggle to survive frigid winter weather.

Here's a quick thread based on my @POLITICOEurope story on Portuguese energy poverty

When I lived in Lisbon my friends and I joked that although the Portuguese were famous for melancholia, uncharacteristic (and unrealistic) optimism defined their approach to thermal insulation: homes seemed to be built as if the weather was expected to be perfect year-round.

While the weather is, indeed, really great for most of the year, it can also be really awful sometimes. In the Summer temperatures can shoot up to truly unbearable levels for weeks on end, and in the Winter the icy humidity can easily make you feel like you're freezing 24/7.

This reality is a huge problem precisely because so many Portuguese people live in homes that don't have the capacity to shelter them from the heat when temperatures rise and the cold when they drop. And that means that every year that means people die because of the weather.

This issue can be traced back to the rural exodus that took place during the second half of the XX century, when millions fled the interior to seek better futures either outside the country — immigrating to France, Germany and Luxembourg — or in cities like Lisbon and Porto.

As witch-hunt #3 gets underway by @BeatriceJanzon
@sverigesradio @sr_ekot against me, Keith Begg, a citizen of Ireland and Sweden and no doubt some members of the FB Group I would like to post some questions to the above:
🆘Is it ethical, that the tactics and antics of a state

media station, paid for with taxpayers money, can infiltrate a Private FB group and try to discredit them? This is done in the most authoritarian of states.
🆘Is it ethical that the Honorable David Nabarro from @WHO had to issue a press release due to being deliberately

misquoting in Swedish media?
🆘Are these headlines reflective of what you would see in free media in a democracy, when the rest of the world was posting quite opposite headlines about Sweden?
🆘Does the deliberate distortion of information on Swedish TV constitute any

breaches of trust? Why was it done? After all when the government changed its C19 strategy on the Gov website, they deemed it a mistake?
🆘Not to mind the Italian embassy having to issue three statements over false claims by Tegnell

which were picked up by the media. Do I as a private citizen think that @RSF_en made a big mistake by recognizing Sweden as #4 in terms of Freedom of the Press? ABSOLUTELY. We want to know what they based their decisions on. Because it is clear to many

#Navalny is facing TWO court hearings today; one is happening now. I'm listening to his speech. He's trying to explain: he was not hiding from the court; he was in a coma. The whole thing is so absurd that it is impossible to comment. In a nutshell: they just want him locked up.

It is clear that the verdict will not be overturned. He will go to serve 2.8 years or more in a penal colony. His allies are locked up under home arrests w/o the Internet. People are silenced. Honest and brave people have lost again.

Navalny's last word #1: "I give the last word so frequently. This trial will end now; there will be the second [today]. And there, too, I will say my last word. If someone decides to publish my last words, it will be a thick book..."

"Probably, this is a sign the power sends me, “Look, we can turn this judicial system any way we want. What are you doing? I'm not the only one who sees this and... people imagine that it can happen to them, too..."

Navalny speaks of his newly found faith and says that he experiences "satisfaction" and doesn't regret returning to Russia." He did the right thing and followed the commandment "blessed are those hungry for righteousness, for they will be satisfied"

If the communist party of China succeeds in their quest to take over America, and vanquish liberty from the earth, those American citizens who vote for the Democrat establishment, will deeply regret having done so, when the Chinese communists openly ridicule and disclose how

1️⃣ How the Yemeni Civil War (2014–present) is portrayed in the main stream media

2️⃣ This one is a little different, it hits close to home in many different ways, the Yemeni Civil War is a unique phenomenon in moder warfare, the majority of people don't even know what's really going on and who's fighting who.

3️⃣ The combatants :
Iranian backed Supreme Political Council (Houthis)
  International recognized Government (Hadi-led government)
  South Yemen Nationalists Southern Transitional Council

4️⃣ The (allegedly Turkish and Qatari backed) Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Yemen Province (ISIL-YP)
 The (allegedly Iranian and Qatari backed) Ansar al-Sharia and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)

5️⃣The so called Supreme political council of Yemen is a Mish mash of bad guys and misfits, Iran supplies the Houthis with arms, drones and ballistic missiles, Hezbollah delivers these arms through shell corporations and Hezbollah operators man the missiles

This is a thread about how Australia has become the battleground for a power struggle between governments and Big Tech, as explained in today’s Download newsletter. https://t.co/BJ7uxYhoIl

Australians woke up on Thursday to Facebook timelines devoid of any news.

Faced with the option of either paying to link back to publishers to comply with an incoming Australian law, or entirely pulling the plug on hosting news, it chose the latter.

As it stands, Facebook users in Australia can't use the platform to see or share content from any news outlets anywhere in the world, and no one can post links to Australian publishers, wherever they are.

Users say government websites like fire services and meteorology departments have been caught up in the ban too, most likely due to issues with the machine learning
system Facebook uses to enforce it.

An article by Jan Nyssen, a Belgian physical geographer, and professor of geography at Ghent University, on the ongoing war and its impact on civilian life in Tigray

"Ever since I started research in Tigray in 1994, the fight against famine has been a major priority. With academic colleagues, we tried to assist through studies and projects for environmental conservation. But now, it feels as though we are back to square one" he says

From February to May 2021, more than half of Tigray’s territory is expected to suffer “Emergency” outcomes by the U.S.’s Famine Early Warning System Network—the last stage before “Famine.

What is reported is therefore catastrophic; worse even than anticipated in our prescient paper in November. In that analysis, we warned that food security in Tigray was already critical before the start of the conflict: for instance....

....large areas were on a path towards hunger due to a desert locust invasion that significantly reduced harvests.

Thread on Scotland mortality reality, with lessons for the world.
Just got emailed the data:
"National Records of Scotland have just released all cause death statistics for January 2021: 6,429 deaths. This is somewhat above the average of the preceding 5 years."
1/x

"However, the figure for 2018 stands at 7,552. We tried to point out last year that, though the spike in excess deaths in April was real and alarming, it essentially amounted to a bad flu season landing at the wrong time of year.
2/x

Hilarious Rush Limbaugh moment from his 2009 CPAC address -->

German farmers are in revolt, but lack global ‘liberal’ lobby support, unlike India: Here are 3 reasons why?

https://t.co/JuFiBHYYYK via @OpIndia_com

German govt brought in a new “insect protection law.” It 'll curb d use of certain pesticides to save insect populations from collapsing. But many German farmers insist that these laws 'll destroy their livelihood. Or as they put it more succintly,“don’t kill farms to save bugs.”

To make their statement, German farmers even brought their tractors to the historic Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Sound even more familiar?

Nobody tried to seize symbols of German state power and plant alternative flags. Also, nobody used swords against police personnel nor tried to chase them into a ditch. Such losers I tell you, those Germans. They don’t understand how “peaceful protest” is really done.

But I cannot help wonder. As Rihanna would say, why aren’t people talking about this? What happened to humanitarian liberal media all around the world and their supposed reverence for farmers? Don’t the “annadatas” of Germany deserve some love?

@fvckinashman @KarlitoRichII @JoLuehmann 1. Thanks, Jay. Yeah... the Gracies have had connections with oppressive violence in Brazil from day one. Their recent interaction with the fascist dictatorship (1964-85) is still not sufficiently told. @UrbanAntonio has been collecting pieces here and there.

@KarlitoRichII @JoLuehmann @UrbanAntonio 2. There is another phenomenon that grew as an offshoot of Gracie-inspired BJJ: the neonazi BJJ groups in large cities like Sao Paulo, Rio and Brasilia. Their shady relations with the repression institutions is still not sufficiently documented, as a lot about ....

@KarlitoRichII @JoLuehmann @UrbanAntonio 3... what happened in the dungeons of the dictatorship. Anyway, they have established a strong tradition of fascist support in BJJ. They openly support Bolsonaro and we believe (but have no hard evidence) that several MMA ...

@KarlitoRichII @JoLuehmann @UrbanAntonio 4... fighters in Brazil were intimidated into publicly supporting Bolsonaro. It's not hard to understand why: their tentacles are long and they can end a career. If you go back to social media in 2018, all of them posted something ...

@KarlitoRichII @JoLuehmann @UrbanAntonio 5... supporting Bolsonaro.

If any of you find info written in Portuguese about that, send it my way and I'll translate it. We have some awesome people in the fights there like @souljacker and @JrGabrielBjj but the left is still microscopic in BR MMA.