Kyiv -- Washington -- We Have a Deal!

"We have formed a version of the agreement that provides mutually beneficial conditions for both countries."

"This is an agreement in which the United States notes its commitment to promoting long-term peace in Ukraine and recognizes the contribution that Ukraine has made to global security by giving up its nuclear arsenal."

"[Among terms of the agreement are] full ownership and control [with resources staying with Ukraine]." 

"All resources on our territory and in territorial waters belong to Ukraine. It is the Ukrainian state that determines what and where to extract. "

"Subsoil remains under Ukrainian ownership – this is clearly established in the Agreement."

Ukraine Deputy Prime Minister (Economy Minister) Yulia Svyrydenko

 

"As the President has said, the United States is committed to helping facilitate the end of this cruel and senseless war. [This is a] historic economic partnership."

"This agreement signals clearly to Russia that the Trump Administration is committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign, and prosperous Ukraine over the long term."

"And to be clear, no state or person who financed or supplied the Russian war machine will be allowed to benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine."

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent 

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Ukrainian Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko sign a deal that gives the United States preferential access to Ukraine's mineral resources.

U.S. Department of the Treasury/Reuters

Finally, Ukraine has signed an agreement with the United States allowing Washington access to the country's critical minerals along with other natural resources. Kyiv had long held out for guarantees of security of its sovereign territory to accompany any such agreement. And this is what it now feels it has secured with this altered agreement. President Zelenskyy refused to sign any agreement that left out the vital assurance of protection from Russia's ongoing territorial designs on Ukraine. His adamant refusal to sign anything that left out this critical assurance angered and frustrated U.S. President Donald Trump but in the end the Ukrainian demands were unavoidable and were finally met.

 

Kyiv now feels a degree of assurance that the agreement will go a long way to securing the long-term support it needs for its existential defence against Russia's territorial imperative. Previous versions of the agreement that merited Ukraine's refusal had placed Kyiv as a junior partner in the agreement, with Washington accessing unprecedented rights to Ukraine's prized natural resources. Not yet ratified by the Ukrainian parliament, the last rendition of the agreement establishes a reconstruction fund for the embattled country that Ukraine's cabinet views as a potential insurance of future U.S. military assistance.

 

The original such agreement had been upset on the cusp of being signed when a tense Oval Office meeting between President Trump, Vice-President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy erupted into a shouting match of accusations and protestations of intent. The undiplomatic and humiliating treatment of President Zelenskyy by his Washington hosts was unprecedented. Since then a prolonged period of adjusted re-engagement finally resulted in Washington heeding Ukraine's position more clearly and Ukraine prevailing in its efforts to have President Trump fully cognizant of realities.

 

US President Donald Trump and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky openly clashed in the White House on February 28, when they were due to sign an earlier draft of the minerals agreement.

Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

This agreement of benefit to both sides, includes oil and natural gas along with rare earth elements, but does not include resources representing a current source of revenue for Ukraine. Where President Trump had originally demanded that profits from new investments under the deal be used to pay the U.S. for its years of material support in providing military assets to Ukraine during its war with Russia, that is no longer the case. Full ownership of the resources remains with Ukraine which will determine what can b e extracted and where it can be extracted.

 

Some 55 minerals are included specifically in the text but more can be included. Critical minerals such as titanium, lithium and uranium are included in the agreement, along with a group of 17 elements essential to a variety of consumer technology such a s cellphones, hard drives and electric and hybrid vehicle production. Elements such as lanthanum, cerium and scandium are also listed. Ukraine is expected to contribute 50 percent of future profits from natural resources into a fund supported through the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. 

President Zelenskyy rejected the initial Trump administration deal where Washington expected $500 billion in profit from exploited minerals -- stating he would never sign off on an agreement "that will be paid off by ten generations of Ukrainians". Ukraine's rare earth industry's potential is not yet clear since geological data has yet to be assembled of the mineral reserves scattered across the  vast Ukrainian terrain. Ukraine's reserves of titanium, a key component in the aerospace, medical and automotive industries are thought to be among Europe's largest natural deposits. As well as some of Europe's largest known reserves of lithium in Ukraine; required for the production of batteries, ceramics and glass.

 

Nothing during times of violent conflict, is as simple as it may appear. According to data from We Build Ukraine, a Kyiv-based think tank, an estimated 40 percent of Ukraine's metallic mineral resources are under Russian occupation, and therefore inaccessible. All the more reason for the United States to protect its investment in Ukraine under this agreement by enforcing a 'hands off' warning to Moscow in its intentions to continue annexing Ukrainian territory to be absorbed into Greater Russia. How and whether serious negotiations take place between Ukraine and Russia forcing Ukraine to cede territory to Russian aggression is a matter for another place and another time. 

 

An excavator mines rare earth materials in the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine in February 2025, as companies continue operations despite the war.  Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images

 

 

"Soldiers of God"

"This is a harrowing story of rape, sexual violence, child abuse, forced marriage perpetrated on minors by a cult in the municipality of Socorro, Suragao del Norte."

"We are talking about over a thousand young people in the hands of a deceitful, cruel, and abusive cult ... real children are in danger, and time is of the essence."

"We cannot, we must not, look away."

Philippine Senator Risa Hontiveros

 

"We urgently call upon the government, specifically our law enforcement agencies, to conduct immediate and thorough investigations into these incidents, secure the protection of the affected children, and bring the perpetrators to justice."

Time is of the essence and we fear that there could be more affected children who are unaccounted for, and whose lives and future are at risk."

"Our work to protect children doesn't end with the passage of laws; it begins there. It is of utmost importance that laws around protecting children from abuse and early marriage are not merely words on paper but are instead, rigorously implemented and enforced."
Alberto Muyot, chief executive, Philippines branch Save the Children

Socorro Bayanihan Services reportedly has at least 3,500 members

A group recognized as an exploitative, quasi-religious cult known as Omega de Salonera surfaced in 2017, instilling fear over a powerful earthquake in 2019 to lure people to come to the mountains where the cult's leaders, escaping scrutiny, commit "monstrous" abuses while operating a covert drugs operation whose activities are protected by their own private army.

Filipino lawmakers revealed that the group has up to 3,500 members, led by Jey Rence B Quilario, referred to as "The Messiah". The chairman of the Philippine senate committee on women and children used her congressional privilege to accuse Quilario and his associates of widespread exploitation, demanding action to address its existence and come to the rescue of the vulnerable children trapped within the group.

 

After an earthquake rocked the region, the cult exploited the natural disaster to lure thousands to its cause in its mountain lair

 

Another senator, Ronald Dela Rosa, accused the group's leaders as well of making "human shields" of cult members to avoid drug trafficking prosecution. He too demanded an immediate probe into the group's activities. Reports he received claim the group runs a methamphetamine laboratory operating out of an underground bunker located near the "White House" where Quilario and other cult leaders live, protected by a private army supported by a local extremist group.

Testimony was cited from adults and children who managed to escape the cult, a 15-year-old among them who spoke of having been forced into marriage with a 21-year-old man when she was 13. Quilario locked her in a room with the man, forcing her into sex, telling the man "he had the right to rape her" because they were, after all, married. 

 

Quilario, according to Senator Hontiveros, raped children himself, prevented minors from attending school, demanded up to 60 percent of members' pensions and welfare payments, and smuggled drugs. Young girls, affirmed Senator Dela Rosa, trapped within the cult were forced to have sex with Quilario before being married at age 12.

Anna Fionah L. Bojos, member of the Cebu for Human Rights NGO documented forced labour, children forced to haul sand and rocks. "Although the cult said it was voluntary labour on their part, they were actually monitored and disciplined for failure to do work", said Bojos, saying children were physically assaulted if work was considered unsatisfactory and sometimes sent to "foxholes" for up to a week of solitary confinement.

Children were also required to do "masi-masi" every day; physical exercises; jogging with a sack full of rocks; undergo obstacle challenges; firearm and bladed weapons handling; learn martial arts; swim and crawl in the mud full of waste and urine. Socorro Bayanihan Services deny the accusations, claiming children had been taught to "fabricate" such stories.

Since then, more former cult members have emerged, a 28-year-old former Agila Squad member (armed wing of Socorro Bayanihan Services) reporting that over 100 members were part of the squad, among them children as young as 12, undergoing combat training, told they were "soldiers of God" involved in a divine mission.

Misled by the Allure of Chocolate

"The companies have always done just enough so that if there were any media attention, they could say, ‘Hey guys, this is what we’re doing'."
"We haven’t eradicated child labor because no one has been forced to... How many fines did they face? How many prison sentences? None."
"There has been zero consequence."
Antonie Fountain, managing director, Voice Network

"The truth is that consumers today have no sure way of knowing if the chocolate they are buying involved the use of slavery or child labor. There are many different labels on chocolate bars today, such as various fair trade certifications and the Rainforest Alliance Certification; however, no single label can guarantee that the chocolate was made without the use of exploitive labor. In 2009, the founders of the fair trade certification process had to suspend several of their Western African suppliers due to evidence that they were using child labor. Chocolate companies, however, continue to certify their products to tell consumers that they source their cocoa ethically. But in 2011, a Danish journalist investigated farms in Western Africa where major chocolate companies buy cocoa. He filmed illegal child labor on these farms, including those certified by UTZ and Rainforest Alliance. Despite the industry’s claims, child labor still plagues cocoa farms in Western Africa."
Food Empowerment Project

 ICCFO – Cocoa bean harvest in Cameroon

"Consumers believe that by buying certified cocoa they are doing something good for the environment, or children, or farmers."
"But that is a fiction."
Francois Ruf, Ivory Coast-based researcher

There are two outstanding issues in the growing of cocoa plants; that in West Africa where most cocoa plantations are located, the use of child labour is rampant. The second issue is the critical deforestation of rainforests, degrading the environment and threatening the larger global ecosystem. These issues, when they are addressed, alarm the world's chocolate industry, alerting prominent chocolate makers to a potential withdrawal of appetite for chocolate on a world scale. Not to worry: their hurried responses of assurances, lull chocolate lovers into the belief that nothing is as bad as it seems, and the chocolate industry is in the process of addressing the situation.

Chocolate wrappers come complete with traceability and sustainability certificates and manufacturer assurances that all is well, they're on top of the situation. The situation? That two and a half million children work in miserable and occasionally dangerous conditions on plantations in Ghana and Ivory Coast where most of the global supply of cocoa beans come from. And where the widespread rainforest clearing with their threatened biodiversity is increasingly imperilled. Mars and Nestle among other well-known manufacturers -- to the rescue! Despite which, somehow, the situation has managed to accelerate.

Ivory Coast is losing its rainforests even more rapidly than elsewhere. According to an article in the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies Yale Environment 360 publication, rainforests in Ivory Coast have been reduced by at least 80 percent already. The depletion rate in both Ghana and Ivory Coast last year alone was higher than elsewhere on the planet. "Any time someone bites on a chocolate bar in the United States, a tree is being cut down", environmental activist Eric Agnero warned, from Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

Utz "has had significant lapses in its compliance reviews", found an investigator for the Washington Post. The Dutch organization held to be authorized to inspect most of the cocoa supply globally appears to have slipped its watchdog moorings. Its verification of approximately two-thirds of the world's total supply of certified cocoa in 2017 alone, failed to catch breaches. "Tackling child labour is at the core" of Utz's mandate, states its website, yet the Washington Post revealed that in two reports co-sponsored by the certifier, a higher rate of child labourers were found in Utz-approved plantations.

Child labourers working on such plantations are exposed to danger, as they put "in more work deemed dangerous, such as working with machetes and insecticides". Close to 5,000 previously certified Utz farmers were in fact, located in purportedly protected areas, according to a spokesperson with Utz, which belatedly decertified them. Yale Environment 360 was informed by Richard Scobey, president of the World Cocoa Foundation "very few international companies directly source from protected areas" even as those sources indirectly supply a dozen companies acquiring 85 percent of the cocoa harvest through intermediaries.

Men and young boys working on a small cocoa farming commune near Abengourou, Côte d’Ivoire  Racounteur

Unsustainably Exploiting the Oceans

"Chinese fleets are all over the world now, and without these subsidies, the industry just wouldn't be sustainable."
"For Senegal and other countries of West Africa, the impact has been devastating."
Li Shuo, global policy adviser, Greenpeace East Asia

"Foreigners complain about Africa migrants coming to their countries, but they have no problem coming to our waters and stealing all our fish."
Moustapha Balde, 22, Senegal

"We always thought that sea life was boundless. [Now], we are facing a catastrophe."
"I understand why [local fishermen in Joal, Senegal] they hate me [for his campaign targeting Chinese boats and Senegalese boats alike against overfishing]. They are just trying to survive from day to day."
Abdou Karmim Sall, 50, president, Joal fishermen's association

"Sometimes the Chinese pay bribes [to local African authorities] to get access [along the African seacoast, for fishing], and that money doesn't trickle down, so the population is hit by a double whammy."
Rashid Sumaila, director, Fisheries Economics Research Unit, University of British Columbia Fisheries Center

A Chinese fisherman and three local e local sailors clean recently caught shark. (Greenpeace/Liu Yuyang)

Senegal has close to a 500 kilometer coastline along the Atlantic, and for the country the ocean represents their economic lifeblood, with seafood their main export. Fishing-linked industries give employment to close to 20 percent of the Senegalese work force. Declining fish stocks and drought linked to climate change has led millions of rural Senegalese to migrate to the coast, placing a further burden on sea dependency.

In the small fishing village of Joal, the population has swelled to 55,000 souls and as a result 4,900 pirogues fish from Joal, a substantial increase from the few dozen that were part of the local scene when Abdou Karim Sall was still in his teens. More latterly at age 50, he became a local celebrity
when he personally detained captains of two Chinese fishing boats fishing close by his village illegally.

Large, foreign-owners trawlers capriciously trawl the seacoast; at last estimate, over 100 of the boats representing European, Asian and locally flagged vessels. Apart from those fishing vessels, there are other boats flying Senegalese flags despite their ownership by Chinese companies. Chinese boats are flagged as among the worst offenders, stealing 40,000 tons of fish yearly from Senegalese waters, representing about $28-million the nation might have profited by.

What has been happening in Senegal is repeated throughout West Africa where countries like Guinea-Bissau, and Sierra Leone have few boats to police their national waters. "We used to have big grouper and tuna, but now we are fighting over a few sardinella" buyer Sente Camara, 68, complained. "The future is dark", she added.

In the nation of 14-million, impoverished Senegal has seen its fishing stocks plummet, and local fishermen with their hand-hewn canoes have a difficult time competing with the megatrawlers whose nets scoop every living thing out of the seas. The fish are sent abroad, much of it becoming fishmeal for chickens and pigs in the United States and Europe.

Local fishermen in Senegal cast their nets. Other than a motor and GPS, their boat lacks any modern equipment. (Greenpeace/Liu Yuyang)

Fewer returns from the sea translates to far less income for fishermen, itself ensuring high food prices for all Senegalese citizens traditionally dependent for protein on fish. China is the world's largest seafood exporter, its population accounting for over a third of all fish being consumed globally, with China's fishing industry giving employment to over 14-million people, another 30 million relying for their livelihood on the fish industry.

Indonesia has responded to the presence of Chinese trawlers caught poaching by impounding scores of them. A Chinese vessel was sunk by Argentina when it attempted to ram an Argentinian coast guard ship. Chinese fishermen and South Korean authorities have clashed with deadly results. Beijing, however, views its fishing vessels as a forerunner of its territorial ambitions in the South China Sea where in Hainan Province the government motivates boat owners to fish around the Spratly archipelago and the Paracel Islands claimed by the Philippines and Vietnam respectively.

Chinese fishing boats are not entirely on their own; they have naval power back-up, and Chinese naval frigates have driven off thousands of Filipino fishermen dependent on the rich fishing areas around the Spratly Islands.  China's distant-water fishing fleet has expanded to include close to 2,600 vesselsm most of them so large they scoop up as much fish in a week as Senegalese boats bring in throughout the space of a year.

The journal Frontiers in Marine Science estimates that China's fishing predation costs West African economies $2-billion yearly in lost income, while Chinese government subsidies valued at close to $22-billion-worth between 2011 and 2015, has created a dependency among Chinese boat owners.

Local fishermen beat the sides of their boat and sing traditional songs as they pull their nets in. (Greenpeace/Liu Yuyang)

Disciplining Vulnerable Employees

"Mr. Mohammed did not consider the particular circumstances or make any assessment of the actual seriousness of Ms. Ram's conduct before deciding to terminate her employment."
"He claimed that he did not do so because it is necessary to ensure that employees know that taking food without authorization will not be tolerated."
"[Mr. Mohammed had testified that Usha Ram] was a good and valued employee, with no record of any formal discipline] with the Burger King chain before she was fired."
"[Janif Mohammed and co-owner of the franchise Michael Lacombe] behaved in an unreasonable, unfair and unduly insensitive manner."
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Lisa Warren

Usha Ram has been awarded $46,000 after being fired from a Vancouver Burger King. (Jesse Johnston/CBC)

A 55-year-old woman who had come to Canada in 1987 from Fiji with a basic amount of English at her disposal having achieved a Grade 8 education in her country of birth, worked as a cook in a Burger King franchise for 24 years. As a full-time worker the woman, who was the sole family earner whose salary enabled her to care for a physically handicapped husband and an adult daughter who is mentally disabled, earned an annual wage of $21,000.

Her long employment and dependability marked her as a valuable employee, a fact her employers agreed upon. Yet she was fired because of a miscommunication and a company policy that ensnared this woman into a situation that was both demeaning and crudely and cruelly dismissive of her work record, her dignity as a human being, as well presenting as an acute instance of total disinterest in her welfare at age 55, with few other skills and poor English, in a search for replacement employment.

Her firing transpired as 2013 came to a close when her employer accused her of stealing from the company. Her crime was that she understood she had been given permission to take home with her a fish sandwich, french fries and a soft drink as she went off shift. She had asked the duty manager at the fast food outlet for permission to take home with her a "fish fry" free of charge as she had forgotten her wallet.

The manager agreed, under the impression that she would be taking the fish sandwich only, not accompanied by french fries and a soft drink. At the Burger King franchise employees were given entitlement to free drinks during shifts and outside of shifts, half-price food. Miscommunication aside, the cost of the the food items that Usha Ram had taken home with her would represent a value of $1.00. But management was offended that she was under the impression that she owed them nothing.

The manager bided his time, waiting for Ms. Ram to pay for the 'extra' food she had taken, but when she neglected to do so, he notified the owners. That resulted in Janif Mohammed accusing Usha Ram of theft. She wept, offering to pay for the food, hoping her job would not be in peril. But the decision had been made to fire her. This is a woman whose loyalty to her employers was evident in her willingness to be assigned to various sites.

The franchise locations in Vancouver, included a number of sites, and she was transferred to one site after another over the 24-year period when she was employed by the franchise owners. Justice has now finally been done. She has been awarded $46,000 for wrongful dismissal. Justice Warren ordered that the franchisee pay this ill-done-by woman general damages of $21,000, reflective of a year's salary, along with $25,000 in aggravated damages.