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Italy

New Homophobia Low: Facebook Page Urges Aborting 'Gay' Unborn

LA REPUBBLICA (Italy)

ROME – Online homophobia has reached a new low in Italy where a Facebook page circulated this month with the declaration: "Aborting a gay (fetus) is an act of faith."

Rome daily La Repubblica reported that the Italian language Facebook account was opened on June 19 with this false claim: "Thanks to the miracle of science we are able to impede (homosexuality)…Yes, I know that it is terrible to abort the poor babies affected by the gene of sodomy. But it is the lesser evil." Updates followed with bogus reports of scientific studies that could determine homosexuality in the unborn, and invented would-be mothers adding posts about having to decide to abort after finding out their baby would be gay.

The virtual space generated more than 2,000 comments, mostly but not all critical, before Facebook closed the page after a week of protests from civil rights groups and politicians. Several noted that beyond the false news in the digital troll, there was also "incitement to abort." Gay rights activists noted that Italy has no law specifically punishing acts of homophobia.

"I put myself in the shoes of young gay people who must read these things," Paola Concia, a member of the Italian Parliament, told La Repubblica.

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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

How Russia's Wartime Manipulation Of Energy Prices Could Doom Its Economy

A complex compensation mechanism for fuel companies, currency devaluation, increased demand due to the war, logistics disruptions, and stuttering production growth have combined to trigger price rises and deepening shortages in the Russian energy market.

Photograph of Novatek's gravity-based structure platform for production of liquefied natural gas, floating on a body of water.

Russia, Murmansk Region - July 21, 2023: A view of Novatek's gravity-based structure platform for production of liquefied natural gas.

TASS/ZUMA
Ekaterina Mereminskaya

In Russia, reports of gasoline and diesel shortages have been making headlines in the country for several months, raising concerns about energy supply. The situation escalated in September when a major diesel shortage hit annexed Crimea. Even before that, farmers in the southern regions of Russia had raised concerns regarding fuel shortages for their combines.

“We’ll have to stop the harvest! It will be a total catastrophe!” agriculture minister Dmitry Patrushev had warned at the time. “We should temporarily halt the export of petroleum products now until we have stabilized the situation on the domestic market.”

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As the crisis deepens, experts are highlighting the unintended consequences of government intervention in fuel pricing and distribution.

The Russian government has long sought to control the prices of essential commodities, including gasoline and diesel. These commodities are considered "signalling products", according to Sergei Vakulenko, an oil and gas expert and fellow at the Carnegie Endowment. Entrepreneurs often interpret rising gasoline prices as a signal to adjust their pricing strategies, reasoning that if even gasoline, a staple, is becoming more expensive, they too should raise their prices.

The specter of the 2018 fuel crisis, where gasoline prices in Russia surged at twice the rate of other commodities, haunts the authorities. As a result, they implemented a mechanism to control these prices and ensure a steady supply. Known as the "fuel damper," this mechanism seeks to balance the profitability of selling fuel in both domestic and foreign markets.

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