NATO SUMMIT: Calling on Minister Chrystia Freeland to be tough on Russia

 

MEDIA RELEASE
For immediate release

July 5, 2018

NATO SUMMIT: Calling on Minister Chrystia Freeland to be tough on Russia

On the eve of the NATO Summit, the Canadian Group for Democracy in Ukraine asks, in a letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland, to go beyond sanctions” in punishing Russia. Also, to find a way to admit Ukraine into NATO’s fold by membership or stronger military support.

The Group sees Russia advancing beyond Ukraine in cyber, propaganda, aggression and chaos because not enough is being done to help Ukraine win the war against the aggressor.  Russia has seen this for some five years now as Western weakness.  Consequently, it is advancing.
The Group calls on Canada to reaffirm its strong support for NATO and lead as the value bearer and strategic adult in the room given the highly personalized and erratic approach to foreign policy by President Donald Trump.  It warns members “to approach the Trump/Putin meeting with caution” and urges a pre-meeting and public disassociation from any “nefarious and secret” deals between the two.
NATO needs Ukraine; world peace and security need Ukraine. For nearly five years—and alone-- it has engaged militarily against democracies’ foremost enemy.  It’s experience in combatting Russia’s warfare in all its guises — cyber, terror, disinformation, kinetic – is unmatched and beyond any price tag. The letter also seeks a reversal of Nord Stream 2.  It’s “a monumental threat” to Europe. “Energy is as much a weapon in Putin's hands as military hardware, cyber - attacks, propaganda, subversion.  It makes Russia stronger and Europe weaker. It invites further Russian aggression.” The Group would also like to see Russia ousted from Ukraine by a UN peacekeeping mission.

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Contact: CGfor DU@gmail.com Oksana Bashuk Hepburn  613 293 9121  oksanabh@sympatico.ca Myroslava Oleksiuk  416-471-5675  myroslava@rogers.com

The Canadian Group for Democracy in Ukraine is dedicated to the furthering of democracy in Ukraine

Europeans, Americans and Canadians increasingly tend to choose to live as single adults without children

By Ihor Cap
A significant trend in the EU and North America that is receiving little attention in the media is the rise of single person households. We look at the numbers here. The consequences of these trends on our daily lives and well-being are not yet fully understood but will have significant impact on our changing values and family structures, human services, and policy making decisions.
Eurostat – the statistical office of the European Union (EU) observed a rising proportion of single person households. The latest EU household size statistics show that in 2017 some 34% of European households consist of single adults with no children. That’s a 3% increase from 2010 for most European nations but for some countries like Latvia the rise was especially significant with single person households increasing from 25% in 2010 to 35% in 2017.

 

Eurostat figures also show that this proportion varies across EU Member States with Malta registering the lowest proportion of single person households (< 20%), followed by Portugal and Slovakia at 22% while Sweden tops the list of single adults without children followed by Denmark at 44% and Lithuania at 43% to 42% in Finland and Germany. 

Single person households also on the rise in Canada and the U.S.A.
Similar trends were registered for one-person households in Canada from 2011 (27.6%) to 2016 (28.2%). Statscan reports a .6% increase of single adults without children from 2011 to 2016. The proportion of single person households has been steadily rising in Canada from 7.4% in 1951 to 13.4% in 1971, and 20.3% in 1981 to 25.7% in 2001. The percentage of single person households reached a historical high since confederation in 1867, says another statscan report.

The United States of America (USA) also experienced a substantial growth in percentage of one-person households from 7.7% in 1940 to 27.5% in 2011, says the Business Insider. That growth peaked in 1988 and from 1988 to 2011, the percentage of single-person households increased but an average of 3.5% per year.
Ihor Cap is a web author and father of two wonderful children.

Study: Horses first domesticated on the territory of Ukraine

Przewalski Horses - closest wild relatives

of domestic horses

Author: Helen Briggs BBC Ukrainian 

 New genetic research suggests that people first domesticated horses 6,000 years ago on the territory that is now Ukraine, southeast Russia and western Kazakhstan.

Once domesticated animals continued to interbreed with wild mares, they spread across Europe and Asia suggest researchers who published their work in the PNAS journal.

A study conducted at Cambridge University brought together two competing theories about how horses were domesticated.

To this date, this issue has caused heated debate among naturalists.

Archaeological evidence suggests that horses were domesticated in the western part of the Eurasian steppe. Experts believe that animals were used for riding and as a source of meat and milk.

However, the archaeological findings - such as traces of horse milk, found in ancient pots in the western Eurasian steppe– are not consistent with data obtained from mitochondrial DNA.  According to the data, domestication took place in many regions of Europe and Asia.

The authors of the new study examined DNA samples from the nuclei of cells taken in 300 live horses from eight countries in Europe and Asia.

The genetic data were processed by computer models created to describe variousdomestication scenarios.

Dr Vera Warmuth from the Department of Zoology at Cambridgesays: "This suggests that the domestication of horses originated in the western plains and with the spread of domestication there was much cross-breeding with wildhorses."

The theory also explains why the data on mitochondrial DNA - containing only the genes inherited from the mother - suggests that the domestication of  horses occurred many times in different places.

In fact, according to researchers, people used wild mares to increase the number of already domesticated horses because they most surely multiplied poorly in captivity.

That is what they do with the Przewalski horses - the closest wild relatives of modern horses.

Translated into English by Ihor Cap.

Ihor Cap is a web author and dad.

Original Article Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ukrainian/science/2012/05/120508_domesticated_horses_study_ko.shtml