Hi there everyone. Xiomera and I discussed trying to get out a regional update this year and so I've started this thread to work on it. This will be a newspaper-style update that will be distributed to other regions.

Unfortunately, last year's attempt didn't end up happening, but I'm very grateful to [nation]Laeral[/nation] for the effort and to everyone who contributed articles to that, particularly [nation]United New England[/nation] who I know did a lot of work on it.

I'm inclined to stick to Laeral's suggestion of quarterly updates, but in order to make things more manageable, perhaps less articles overall than were proposed in the previous iteration of this thread.

Proposed Schedule
January: Winter
April: Spring
July: Summer
October: Autumn

I am of the opinion that we should have as many articles as people are willing to write, and as such I'd like to invite people to post topics they'd like to write about and we will see if we can include it in this update.

Article suggestions (other ideas welcome, not all of these need to be written) - credit to Laeral for many of these suggestions
- Article on Artists of Progress RP
- Article on news threads
- Article about an IDU wiki page
- Article on delegate elections
- Interview with a regional officer
- Interview with a roleplayer

If you're interested in writing an article for this update, please reply in this thread with the topic you'd like to write on. Ideally, we will have all articles written by the 30th July so the update can go out on the last day of this month.

Happy writing!

I am going to revive the practice of posting GA resolutions at vote, as time permits for me, for regional discussion before I vote on them.

[box]General Assembly Resolution At Vote

Access To Abortion
A resolution to modify universal standards of healthcare.

Category: Health

Area of Effect: Healthcare

Proposed by: Imperium Anglorum

Whereas some rabidly anti-choice nations lack medical professionals willing to perform abortions, meaning the ability to access them is non-existent without funds needed for foreign travel, denying constructively abortion rights because of income and birth location:

And whereas discrimination in state policy or administration of tax on abortion recipients and providers is unfair and grossly unjust:

And whereas people have natural rights to property in their own person:

Be it enacted by this august World Assembly as follows:

Definitions. In this resolution,

abortion means a medical procedure to terminate a pregnancy deliberately,

discrimination in tax, in relation to medical procedures, includes placing a burden in excess of that placed on other procedures of similar risk,

IAO means Independent Adjudicative Office,

recipient bona fide means a natural person demonstrating a bona fide desire for a commodity or service,

resolution means General Assembly resolution,

member means member nation, and

tax includes solidarity contributions and other compulsory payments made to the state.

Funding. Members must pay for or provide directly abortions, abortifacients, and contraceptives to any recipient bona fide within their jurisdiction upon request. Members must also provide a means to access such services and commodities speedily and free at the point of service or provision.

Non-discrimination. No members may:

conduct discrimination in tax against a recipient or provider of abortion services or contraceptives in tax collection, assessment, or administration,

discriminate against abortion clinics workers on account of occupation or place of employment,

prosecute any person for receiving or providing section 7 compliant abortions, contraceptives, truthful medical advice, or education thereon,

prohibit or levy discriminatory tariffs or tax against section 7 compliant contraceptives or abortifacients,

fail to provide equal protection before the law to recipients or providers of abortion services, or

implement policies intended to restrict access to section 7 regulated goods or services.

Clinics. WA Choice Plus is established and may construct, per section 5, clinics with funds assessed by the General Accounting Office from members in which there does not exist, in the view of the WACC, adequate access to abortion. Such clinics shall offer free and safe abortions to any recipient bona fide. All members must, however, contribute separately to WA Choice Plus in proportion to expenses incurred within their jurisdiction at such clinics for their upkeep and maintenance.

Members must arrange fully subsidised travel for any recipient bona fide, and one person of their choice, to receive care offered by such a clinic if abortion services are not speedily accessible. No limitation, except to prohibit travel to nations in which there is an on-going armed conflict, may be enforced by a member on a person's ability to exit a member for purposes of travelling to a clinic unless permitted by resolution.

Clinics shall provide free healthcare and counselling for expectant parents as well as free contraceptives and abortifacients to any address serviceable by post within a member.

Clinic lease terms. Any member may request the construction of section 4 clinics if they can show to the WACC that construction would expand access to abortion in an area where it is inadequate. The clinics will be built on land donated by members where the member doing so grants to the clinic a ten-year renewable lease in which no (a) direct tax or (b) indirect tax in excess of one per cent may be collected, along with the condition, reinforced by private contract, that upon disestablishment of the clinic, the assignee or seizer must remit to WA Choice Plus the fair market value of the improvements to that land.

Exceptions. Notwithstanding any other provision of this resolution and unless otherwise indicated by previous resolution, a member may restrict access to or section 2 funding for an abortion if that member can show that a sex-selective basis clearly impels its request.

Health and safety. The World Health Authority (WHA) must issue regulations to ensure abortions, abortifacients, and contraceptives available to the general public are safe and effective for end-users and those with which they may be in close contact. Such regulations overrule those made by members unless it can be shown to the IAO that those WHA regulations are insufficient in fulfilling the mandates of this section.

Interpretation. Members shall ascribe personhood to begin at birth. In this resolution, older resolutions overrule conflicting provisions of this resolution, singular words include the plural unless otherwise indicated, and section and list headings have no effect.[/box]

If you wish to be considered for IDU Speaker in this upcoming election please state your intention in this thread. The opportunity to self-nominate will be open to all IDUSA members from July 8th, 2020 at 12:00 PM EDT to July 15th, 2020 at 12:00 AM EDT. Please do not post in this thread before nominations open. Thank you.

Announcing the new Cabinet and related positions for the next Delegate term:

In addition to being Vice-Delegate, [nation]Democratic Republic of Eiria [/nation] has graciously agreed to serve as Immigration Minister.

[nation]Lauchenoiria[/nation] will be our new Foreign Minister.

[nation]Laeral[/nation] will be our new Culture Minister.

[nation]Legionas[/nation] will be our new Sports Minister.

[nation]Gardavasque[/nation] will continue in their current role as Cartographer.

[nation]Sanctaria[/nation] will continue in their current role as WA Minister/WALL Ambassador.

[nation]Libertas Omnium Maximus[/nation] remains as IDUSA Speaker.

I would like to thank everyone who previously served in a Cabinet role, as well as those who are either newly serving or will continue to serve. I look forward to working with everyone.

Hello everyone. I am in the midst of putting together a new Cabinet and would like to open up the process to see who may be interested in filling a role. If you’re an existing position-holder, or are not one yet (but would like to be), please message me privately on Discord. I may be asking questions relevant to the role.

To give anyone interested time to respond, I will leave this bid open until midnight CST on July 6th. I will announce my Cabinet picks on Tuesday, July 7th.

If you’re an existing position-holder and do not contact me prior to the 7th, I will assume that to be an effective resignation from the role.

The open roles will be Foreign Minister, Culture Minister and Immigration Minister. Please feel free to ask me questions as well. Thanks everyone ?

This thread is for the purpose of electing a Delegate for the 2020 Schedule II Election, to serve as Delegate of the IDU for the next six months. All members of the IDUSA who have not ceased to exist are eligible to vote.

Voting opens at 12:00 AM EDT on Friday, June 26th, and will close at 12:00 AM EDT on July 3rd.

Please post in response to this thread with "[your IDUSA nation name] votes for...[the name of either of the candidates or the word 'abstain']".

The two candidates running in this election cycle are Eiria and Xiomera.

Now that Maraix has moved into the IDU, I’d like to start work on its factbook, etc. It seems more fun and realistic to set up an independence event that involves other nations, as opposed to just putting the country on the map and coming up with an isolated backstory.

I’m looking to see if there are any nations interested in setting up diplomatic relations to help explain Maraixian independence. These relations could be basic or detailed as you’d like (we could just hash out some basic factbook information here or take it another direction).

I’m primarily interested in setting up relations with two countries: one from which Maraix declared independence (“Country A”), and one with longstanding cultural/administrative ties, into which Maraix wants to enter a defense agreement (“Country B”).

Are you interested? Read the long or TLDR version of Maraix’s history, which also describes the role of each country.


LONG VERSION

• In 1788, 6 convicts (five adult men and one 13-year-old boy, named Tom Morrisson) boldly broke out of the royal prison in “Country A” and managed to steal a small royal navy sailing vessel.
  
• The leader of this band of fugitives was a former navy officer who had been found guilty of treason and was slated for execution a mere two days after the daring prison escape. Astonishingly, he was able to guide the band on the stolen vessel into the Tenebric Ocean, evading capture. They were last seen sailing away from a remote Tenebric island, after picking a small group of indigenous islanders (three men and seven women). The band would not be seen again for another 42 years.
  
• In 1830, a royal science/exploration vessel from “Country A” landed on what is now known as Maraix Island, and was amazed to discover a small population living there – Tom Morrisson (the last surviving member of the fugitive band), three of the original group of islanders, and the descendents of the fugitives and islanders who had made it to Maraix, then called Maw Island. As it turned out, they had sailed deep into the Tenebric Ocean and, instead of capsizing (as was assumed at the time), they landed at Maw Island, burned their vessel, and started new lives for themselves.
  
• “Country A” decided not to prosecute Morrisson. Instead, they claimed tiny, tropical Maw Island as an overseas territory, planting a flag on the shores of Vex Bay, much to the annoyance of the Maw Islanders. This territory also included two small, uninhabited islands in the vicinity of Maw.
  
• From 1830–1910, “Country A” was minimally involved in the affairs on Maw Island, due to its remote location, though it served as a distant waypoint and rest stop for exploration, whaling, and trading vessels.
  
• During the 20th century, “Country A” began to increase their investment in the population of Maw Island, providing infrastructural, educational, transportation, and healthcare support over the decades. Because of its remote location, this support was actually administered via “Country B,” which was in a better location (or perhaps had a better fleet) to reach the island.
  
• Maw Island reached a population peak of approximately 260 people around 1952, but the numbers began slowly declining. Though proud of their remote paradise, life was hard for the Maw Islanders.
  This hardship led the population to place Maw Island on sale in 1977. In 1982, they sold the island to Juan Sébastien Rudolph Maraix, then known as a fabulously wealthy playboy owner of a small casino empire, who promptly renamed the island after himself. The sale agreement set aside the Apōiti-Vex community for the 186 remaining islanders, and their descendents, who could live within the community limits, rent-free, so long as they continuously occupied the land.
  
• As it turns out, Juan Sébastien Rudolph Maraix was one of the many aliases used by Juan Rossi Gutierrez, leader of an international drug cartel. Under the guise of developing the island for tourism, Gutierrez used the island as a center for his international smuggling and money laundering operations, while also employing a campaign of intimidation, harassment, and murder to drive the local population out of the community, further reducing the island population.
  
• When Gutierrez was arrested by “Country A” or “Country B” (or maybe both!) in 1997, it was discovered that he had placed the island under the name of his wife, Tiffani Amber Maraix. As such, while “Country A” and/or “Country B” confiscated many of Gutierrez’s assets, Maraix Island was not one of them.
  
• Tiffani Amber Maraix, upon learning of her husband’s arrest, fled to her home country and immediately filed for divorce.
  
• From 1998–2015, Maraix made several attempts to monetize the island, to little avail. While she was able to successfully sell a small portion of the island to a real estate developer, the amount she earned from the sale was insufficient to cover her mounting debts, back taxes, and expensive tastes. The developer built Marina Terrace, a luxury condominium and marina, and managed to sell most of its units as vacation condos to fabulously wealthy retirees and global nomads.
  
• In 2015, facing insolvency, Maraix placed the island on the market and began aggressively courting a number of phosphorous mining operations to make the sale.
  
• The Apōiti-Vex community, scarred by their experience of letting Gutierrez take ownership of the island, joined together with the Marina Terrace Homeowners’ Association (whose owners were horrified by the idea that phosphorous mining might destroy their idyllic vacation community) and the owners of Canavalia Resort, Inc., (the near-bankrupt owners of property originally built under Gutierrez’s sham tourism scheme) to raise money to purchase the island.
  
• In 2017, these three groups successfully purchased the island (and surrounding territories) from Tiffani Amber Maraix and immediately placed it into the Maraix Territorial Community Land Trust, to ensure joint ownership.
  
• While researching and establishing the land trust, the three groups realized that they could claim independence from “Country A” for… “reasons.” Thus, now in 2020, Maraix will file in court to officially organize themselves into the Free Homeowners’ Association of Maraix, with sovereign control over the land trust. The Constitution, Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions (CCC&R) thus serves as their declaration of independence from “Country A.”
  
• Due to its incredibly small size (there is currently only 1 security officer on the island), Maraix will seek to enter into a defense agreement with “Country B.” Because of its history of warm relations with “Country B”, Maraix also hopes to continue cultural connections and administrative services in the future, where feasible.
  

• Would anyone like to set up relations as “Country A”? You could help identify the “reasons” (legal loophole? tired of paying for remote island services?) for this declaration of independence, or just agree to appear in the factbook as the country from which Maraix declared independence. You can also feel as grumpy (or not) about this declaration as you’d like.
  
• Would anyone like to set up relations as “Country B”? Maraix has a long history of warm relations with “Country B” and would like to continue these relations (and as many administrative services as can be afforded) in the future.
  
• Additionally, Maraix will seek to enter into a defense agreement with “Country B.” As a micronation, Maraix cannot defend itself militarily, and cannot fight in military roleplays. It needs the protection of a nation with a larger military… well, any military, really. However, this defense agreement can be negotiated to include other kinds of support for your nation’s diplomacy and war efforts (such as humanitarian, diplomatic, espionage, etc).
  

Vy Emetsi Piba’i Shoohy Ge Tsooupitsu-matoo-da Ti
I Chavine Vo’a | Joone 22, 2020

Guchavooge tsoo shimichy’e i pe’a na’ivoo. Upitsu-matoo-da Kyne Joonitsihe shigeche i ja-pu'a chaby’o ga she Upitsu-matoo-na’ivoo. Boo shigeche i Tsige tsytsi ke shoogo i tsoo-vichagache ke ishoogyke tsoo-kashe. Tsoo imichy i tiveni voche ku she Upitsu-matoo-na’ivoo. Ke, hu Joonitshihe, tsoo mi imaboo tsoo-pebashenato Tsige.

Guchavooge hha-duchavoo ke Shoo-chavooge Chavotsy kipoobica i oobitoo'ati ve Joonitsihe miboo goo kitsooge pu-upitsu-matoo-da Helen Tsachi ke William Archer Godrej i punegoda ve Joonitsihe. Ja pu-upitsu-matoo-da kihy voo piboochu ku goo-go, mija ge Tsige, ke mija vigeche shoogo vichagache ke Tsige. Upitsu-matoo-da Emetsi Piba’i, hoo'eva, ge i hhada-michoo.

Piba’i geche ja pumina tse i upitsu-matoo-da pegi’oche ku Vi’atsy, ba 20 hani shoo. Pe’i chy kige kimavoo shoobo vachi ve gi-piboochu ve pude chepagikoote, ke pe’i ge ti ve gi-tsa ve gi-bahhama Tsige. Tse i ja-pu’a ga ke Upitsu-matoo-na’ivoo, tsoo ishoogo'e pe’i ichagu’u chaga mi-maji i Tsige, vi she shoo-tepa.

Tsoo tsyboo She Shoo Ibo’ugu chi’ate Prime Minister Mahshid Shi’upa hyke she tsyma de: ishutse she puda ke ishutse Kyne Joonitsihe. Ijatsi Emetsi Piba’i.


[English Translation:
Why Emetsi Piba'i Must Be Our Next High Judge
By Chavine Vo’a | June 22, 2020

Today we lost a great man. Judge Kyne Joonitsihe was a strong, sturdy member of the Upitsu-matoo-na’ivoo. He was a proud Tsige, and always worked to help us and support our interests. We have lost a powerful voice on the court. And, with Joonitsihe, we can not also lose our Tsige representation.

Earlier today the Chavotsy Daily News published an obituary of Joonitsihe in which they named Judges Helen Tsachi and William Archer Godrej as possible successors to Joonitsihe. While both judges have done good work in their time, neither is Tsige, and neither has consistently helped the Tsige. Judge Emesti Piba’i, however, is another story.

Piba’i has served two terms as a regional judge in Vi’atsy, almost twenty years in total. She has been praised across political parties for her work defending agricultural rights, and she is open about her love of her Tsige heritage. As a member of the Upitsu-matoo-na’ivoo, we know she will help not only the Tsige, but the country as a whole.

We at the She Shoo Ibo’ugu urge Prime Minister Mahshid Shi’upa to make the right decision: honor the people and honor Kyne Joonitsihe. Choose Emetsi Piba’i.]

An international conference dedicated to discussing solutions to climate change will take place in Lauchenoiria in August 2020. The conference will last two weeks, from the 3rd to the 21st August. It will take place in the western Lauchenoirian city of Elopolis. Delegates will be hosted in dedicated hotels in the city and the conference will take place at the Elopolis Exhibition and Conference Centre which has been refurbished in recent years.

A number of topics relating to climate change will be discussed, including:
- Emissions targets
- Carbon capture options
- A potential carbon tax

Delegations from all nations in the IDU are warmly invited to attend this conference. Climate Alliance Lauchenoiria will also be inviting international climate groups to send activists to stage demonstrations during the conference and make sure the government is taking the issue seriously. If your nation has activist groups who would want to attend, there is a section for that on the form. If not, you can leave that part of the form blank.

Delegations should note that Elopolis will be very hot at that time of year - an invitation to consider the ramifications of climate change, if you will. Delegations should also note that smoking is still illegal in Lauchenoiria: we won't have a repeat of last time.

There is no limit on the number of puppets, but bear in mind that playing too many puppets at once can be time consuming.

Those who wish to attend are invited to fill out the following form:

Climate Protests Organized Across Tsiba
By Gichy Anderson | June 20, 2020

Members of the Ecology Party organized protests across Tsiba in support of ecological regulation today. Protesters also called for Tsiba to attend a global ecological summit. The largest protests were in Chavotsy and Davapu, with smaller protests in To’etsy, Bucha-Duchavo’a, and Chatoogu’u. Protests have remained peaceful in most parts of the country, although four protesters were arrested in Bucha-Duchavo’a for attempting to deface a municipal building.

Tsiba’s protests were some of many held across the IDU as part of a growing environmentalist movement in the region.

Eleanor Marie Butler, Leader of the Ecology Party and Second Representative of the City of Davapu, said in an interview that she “didn’t want to make temporary change, [she] wanted to save Tsiba from climate ruin.”

Butler and the Ministers of the Putsiba from the Ecology Party have presented a list of climate demands to the Duchavoputsy. They want the government to join and help organize an international climate conference, invest in low emission public transportation and energy, and provide economic incentives for Tsiba farmers attempting to reduce their climate footprints.

Members of the Green Party have already agreed to stand with the Ecology party. Pe'echavo Anderson, Leader of the Green Party and Representative 87 of Tsibitsy, said in a statement to the press that the Green Party would support any plans that helped the farmers and agricultural workers of Tsiba and that he, at this time, felt climate change to be an issue significantly impacting the agricultural interests of Tsiba.

Opinions are split within the Shooda-Tsiba and the Our Freedom Party. Taupe Pyvupi, of the Alliance for the People of Tsiba, has previously said that he is against climate legislation, and said in a statement that he wanted the government to do more to stop protests for the safety of the populace.

Prime Minister Mahshid Shi’upa is expected to make a statement later this week. Shi’upa has been observing the traditional Prime Minister’s two weeks of silence held from June 11 to June 25 each year in memory of the late Prime Minister Beshootsu Pyvupi. She will likely make her statement on Thursday when she addresses the Duchavoputsy.