Toma nota.../Take note...

 NATO Parliamentary Assembly.– After thorough debates across their whole societies and with large parliamentary majorities supporting the decision, Finland and Sweden simultaneously handed their official letters of application to join NATO over to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on 18 May 2022. NATO Heads of State and Government extended an invitation to Finland and Sweden to join the Alliance at the Madrid Summit on 29 June. The accession protocols for both countries were signed on 5 July after completion of accession talks. The protocols must now be ratified by all Allies, according to their national procedures.

As it has done with past accessions, the NATO PA is monitoring and encouraging prompt ratification of Sweden and Finland’s accession to Allied parliaments.

As soon as Finland and Sweden join NATO, they will also become full members of the NATO PA.

Note: the timeline below indicates the date of the end of the parliamentary procedures. This may not be the end of the ratification process in a nation. Moreover, to take effect, ratification instruments must be deposited with the United States government:

 How to fix New York’s elections: Lessons from NY-10

Democratic countries that use this procedure, such as Belgium, Australia, and Luxembourg, have been doing so for many years, and have a robust participatory democracy.

New York, Sept. 10.– The dust having finally settled on New York’s congressional primaries, there are several important takeaways for voting rights advocates. Let’s look specifically at the lower Manhattan-Brooklyn race in which Daniel Goldman won the Democratic nomination. He received approximately 16,000 votes in the primary out of 302,000 enrolled Democrats in the district, a mere 5%. Of the only 65,000 who voted (about 20% of those eligible), 75% voted against him.

It isn’t Goldman’s fault, but there is something wrong with this picture. Perhaps he will use his own experience to address this strange state of affairs. We offer three suggestions for him.

Régimen cubano arriesga embargo por intereses moratorios y cesación de pagos en un juicio en Londres

Londres, Sept. 9.– Las Cortes Reales de Justicia de Londres han convocado un juicio presencial para enero de 2023 para analizar las pretensiones de los acreedores por la deuda del gobierno de Cubaun caso que, de progresar, podría asestarle un golpe devastador al régimen de La Habana.

El Commercial Court de los Royal Courts of Justice de Londres ha llamado a peritos para avanzar en la valoración de una demanda iniciada en mayo de 2020 ante esta institución, que podría convertirse en el caso legal más importante para resolver la deuda cubana impaga o default indicó el sitio Acciones infravaloradas especializada en información sobre oportunidades de inversión.

Commitment to Participatory Democracy: Gov Hope Uzodimma's unique strategies towards citizenship involvement

The concept of participatory democracy simply means individual participation by citizens in political decisions and policies that affect their lives, especially directly rather than through elected representatives.

 Aug.30.– Three important strategic initiatives of His Excellency Governor Hope Uzodimma underpin his commitment to participatory democracy in his governance style.

The first is the quarterly Imo Stakeholders meetings, the second is the establishment of the Imo Elders Council while the third is the participatory open budget system*.

The Participatory Democracy Cultural Initiative, Inc. (PDCI) proclaims its support for the development of Participatory Budget systems as an additional tool for citizen participation in shaping their own destinies. Today, this participatory exercise in economics has spread to more than 7,000 cities worldwide and has been used to decide budgets for states, counties, cities, housing authorities, schools, and other institutions. Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Peru, Portugal, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Iceland, Finland, United States, Canada and the Republic of Korea are countries where this system is currently spreading and is more common today.

It's time to let the public participate in budgeting

Portland, Oregon (Danny Cage).– Portland needs to join the growing list of cities that rely on the 'participatory budgeting' process.

What if communities directly facing these challenges could directly shape the solutions? That is the premise of participatory budgeting (PB), a form of participatory democracy many cities and communities are embracing as a solution to growing inequity, division, and injustice.