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Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Ukraine Faces Population-Replacement With Third-World Migrants After The War

 Via Remix News,

Millions of Ukrainians have left their country and hundreds of thousands of men are dead and wounded at the front. Now, employers and big capital are already suggesting that the “only solution” is for mass immigration of Third-World migrants. This means that after the war is over, many of the soldiers will come home to a Ukraine that will be rapidly transformed under their feet.

Currently, every 10 Ukrainian women give birth to only 7 children on average, while to maintain the population this number should be at least 22. Without this, Ukraine’s population will continue to decline, and the previously mentioned population level of 40-50 million will become unattainable. 

Vasyl Voskobojnik, president of the Ukrainian Association of Foreign Employment Agencies, says the population decline can no longer be offset by simply increasing the birth rate, and immigration from Third-World countries is the only solution, reports Magyar Nemzet

Workforce gaps are a serious issue. There are currently about 29 million people living in Ukraine, give or take 1 million. According to the National Bank of Ukraine, another 200,000 people left the country in 2024, further worsening the labor shortage. At least 8.2 million workers would be needed for the future recovery of the Ukrainian economy. 

Voskobojnik says the Ukrainian government must develop a migration policy by 2026 that focuses on reducing this shortage.

Even before the war, Ukraine had suffered the most drastic population decline in Europe. Due to high mortality, low birth rates, and emigration, the population was decreasing by hundreds of thousands of people each year. 

After the outbreak of war, millions more fled or were forced across the border by the advancing Russian army. A significant proportion of the working-age men were conscripted into the army, many of whom have now died or been crippled by battlefield injuries. 

According to Voskobojnik, Ukraine can mostly attract labor from countries where the standard of living is even lower than in Ukraine. Many of the working-class Ukrainian men who survive the war may therefore see the labor power they could have wielded after the war evaporate as an influx of even poorer migrants enters the country and drives down wages.

This means that immigrants may arrive mainly from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, as well as North African and Central Asian countries.

This could lead to further tensions in Ukrainian society, as many of the soldiers return to a society where they have essentially been replaced. In previous wars, soldiers mostly returned home to their families, their daughters, and sons to rebuild. Often, peace brought population booms and more boys, known as the “returning soldier effect,” which would help rebuild the population’s decimated male population.

Following World War II, there was some level of such migration into Germany, mainly through Turkish guest workers. These workers were originally supposed to come to the country, earn money to help rebuild, and then head home. Instead, they have remained in Germany for generations, and by many metrics, remain one of the most poorly integrated migrant groups in Germany, even after generations.

As Remix News previously noted, a report from the Berlin-based Institute for Population and Development “found that immigrants of Turkish origin were the least successful of all immigrant groups in the labor market and they are often jobless, the percentage of housewives is high and many are dependent on welfare… The state of Saarland was found to have the worst record — 45 percent of its Turks had no educational qualification of any kind.”

Unlike Germany following World War II, Ukraine is unlikely to experience a massive baby boom. Many soldiers there returned home to women who remained in the country despite the hardship they faced. In Ukraine, child-bearing women fled the country in tremendous numbers, so it is unclear what these soldiers will be returning to. Furthermore, these men may now be competing with male newcomers from across the Third World, which means the people Ukrainians fought and killed for when they left may not be the people they come home to.

These men may also be coming home to the tensions seen in Western Europe. These new migrants come from vastly different cultures than Ukraine, and unlike Western Europe, Ukrainians are highly ethnocentric and racist, meaning that these newcomers may not be embraced by society, leading to further divisions.

Numerous NGOs and non-profits had complained for years that Ukrainians were racist and unwelcoming to foreigners.

“Although relatively few people of African origin reside in Ukraine, the rate of violence against this group has been extraordinary. African refugees, students, visitors, and the handful of citizens and permanent residents of African origin have lived under constant threat of harassment and violence,” according to Hate Crime Survey from 2008.

Ukraine always featured high numbers of neo-Nazi groups and skinhead football hooligans, and brutal attacks have taken place in Ukraine even before the war. Many of the most elite Ukrainian units, such as Azov, adhere to neo-Nazi belief structures.

For those hoping for a multicultural utopia in Ukraine after the war, some may be hoping that the incredible numbers of the young Ukrainians who fought for units such as Azov never actually come home. In other words, these men were useful for fighting the Russians, but perhaps not so useful for the multicultural society employers and international capital are hoping for after the war.

Although few have voiced their opinion about what immigration will look like in Ukraine after the war, others have also openly called for a massive demographic transformation.

“After the end of the conflict, Ukraine may begin to be populated with Africans and Afghans in order to prevent a demographic catastrophe,” reads an interview in Focus magazine with Vladimir Paniotto, director general of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS).

Notably, he said that it will be far harder in Ukraine, where people do not have such an open view of migrants as those in Western Europe.

These migrant newcomers will also need adequate housing, wages and a working environment to make them choose Ukraine. However, it is questionable how a country whose economy and state administration are in ruins as a result of war could handle mass immigration from the Third World. Unlike how migration was marketed, many of the migrants who came to Western Europe have ended up draining state coffers through social welfare, education, housing, and integration. In Germany, for instance, foreigners cost the government nearly €50 billion in 2023.

Ukraine also does not have as many resources for integrating migrants as Western states, and as already noted, integration has been far from a success story there. Even groups that have lived there for centuries, such as the Hungarians, are actively discriminated against, even at the government level.

Since Ukraine will mostly be rebuilt using Western funds, it is likely that Americans, Germans, and French people, already hit hard by the costs of mass immigration, will be the ones paying for social welfare and integration for Ukraine’s newly arrived welfare recipients.

As the Russian-Ukrainian war drags on, the chances that Ukrainian refugees and their children, who have been living and working abroad for three years, will not return to economically devastated Ukraine are increasing. 

In short, the Great Replacement on steroids may be coming to Ukraine, and employers and international capital are gearing up for the feeding frenzy after the war. Once again, the biggest losers will be Ukrainians.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ukraine-faces-population-replacement-third-world-migrants-after-war

Aardvark prices $94M IPO to fund Prader-Willi, obesity drug work

 

  • Aardvark Therapeutics on Wednesday night raised $94 million in an initial public offering that will support development of hunger-suppressing drugs for the rare disease Prader-Willi syndrome and obesity-related conditions.
  • The biotechnology startup sold 5.9 million shares at $16 apiece in the offering, roughly in line with what it had outlined in a regulatory filing last week. It will start trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange Thursday under the ticker “AARD.”
  • The offering is the fifth new stock issuance by a biotech this year this year, according to BioPharma Dive data. IPO activity has increased across sectors, too: January’s total of 17 U.S. IPOs outpaced the ten-year historical average, research firm Renaissance Capital wrote in a recent report.

Prader-Willi is a rare condition that causes relentless hunger, known as hyperphagia. It has long been a tough target for drugmakers. Several attempts to develop a medicine for hyperphagia either failed in testing or were rejected by regulators. As a result, the only available treatment options for the estimated 10,000 to 20,000 people in the U.S. with Prader-Willi either manage symptoms or prevent complications.

There’s a chance that could change shortly, should the Food and Drug Administration approve a hyperphagia drug from Soleno Therapeutics by the end of March.

Aardvark may be close behind with a medicine codenamed ARD-101. The company’s drug acts on certain types of so-called bitter taste receptors which, as their name suggests, convey acrid flavor from the mouth to the brain. Present in other tissues, they help regulate metabolism and inflammation, too.

Activating these receptors can trigger secretion of a gut hormone, cholecystokinin, that’s involved in hunger suppression. According to Aardvark, previous attempts to target these receptors with a drug have been hampered by safety concerns. But the company says ARD-101’s safety risks are lower because it’s directed specifically to bitter taste receptors that are found in the gut.

The company reported encouraging Phase 2 study results in 2023. It has since coordinated with the Food and Drug Administration on design of a late-stage study that, if successful, would support an approval application. Data from that study are expected early next year, according to the IPO filing.

Aardvark also plans to start a mid-stage study later this year testing ARD-101 in a type of obesity related to treatment for brain cancer.

The company has a second prospect combining ARD-101 with a DPP-4 inhibitor — a drug type that’s commonly used to treat diabetes. Aardvark claims the two mechanisms could be complementary and even boost the effects of popular “incretin” drugs like Wegovy. That hasn’t been proven in testing, though. Aardvark will evaluate the strategy’s potential in obesity and related conditions in a Phase 2 trial beginning later this year.

While there have been several notable IPOs so far this year, the pace of new biotech stock sales in 2025 is similar to each of the last three years, BioPharma Dive data show. IPO size has ticked higher, though. Initial offerings in 2025 have generated a median of $140 million in proceeds, versus about $129 million through this time last year and $88 million in 2023.

https://www.biopharmadive.com/news/aardvark-biotech-ipo-prader-willi-obesity/739745/

E-ZPass scammers try to cash in on NYC congestion pricing with phony text shakedown

 It would be EZ to fall for this.

State transportation officials are warning motorists not to be taken in by an E-ZPass scam that’s been making the rounds since the MTA’s controversial congestion pricing plan hit the Big Apple last month.

The scammers send text messages that claim to be official, citing an “unpaid toll invoice” and warning that unless the bill is paid soon drivers could face “excessive late fees on your bill.”

Transportation officials are warning residents not to fall for it.

E-ZPass is warning drivers not to fall for a text scam trying to cash in on confusion over Big APple congestion pricing.Universal Images Group via Getty Images
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“We have recently learned of a SMS text message scam being presented as an attempt to collect tolls for the Congestion Relief Zone, formally known as the Central Business District Tolling Program,” an alert on the official E-ZPass website reads.

“Some of these messages reference the ‘NY Toll Services'” while others are using other fictitious names,” the alert says. “Please be advised this is NOT an authorized communication from EZPass or the toll agencies associated with EZPass.

“We advise you NOT to access the website contained within the message if you should receive one.”

The scam appears to try to take advantage of the rollout of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s congestion pricing plan, which launched on Jan. 5, causing frustration and confusion among drivers who motor into Manhattan.

Scam text messages have been circulating trying to get metro area drivers to pay phantom congestion pricing fees.X / @NYSThruway

The state-sponsored plan slaps a $9 toll on cars entering Manhattan below 61st Street during peak hours in order to ease Midtown congestion and raise money for MTA capital projects.

The scammers are now trying to take another bite out of drivers’ wallets.

“My hope was the MTA would issue a warning via email to all E-ZPass users to beware of scam texts and not click any such links,” Corey Bearak, senior policy advisor for the group Keep NYC Congestion Tax Free told The Post on Wednesday.

“To date that has not happened,” Bearak said. “Is the MTA too busy planning to explain why they fail to  disclose Congestion Pricing Tax revenues?”

The New York State Thruway Authority has tried to alert motorists about the phony EZPass text messages looking for overdue fees.X / @NYSThruway
Other transportation agencies and authorities that operate with E-ZPass have also issued warnings, including the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the New York State Thruway Authority.

Another warning came from Westchester County DA Susan Cacace this week.

Meanwhile, E-ZPass is advising potential scam victims to take action.

Transportation officials noted that the real E-ZPass will never ask for “personally identifiable information” like a social security number or even a date of birth, the notice said.

“Real communications from E-ZPass New York will only refer customers to the following official websites: EZPassNYcom and TollsByMailY.com,” the E-ZPass alert said. “If you receive this fraudulent SMS and would like to file a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center visit http://www.ic3.gov.”

The MTA did mot immediately respond to a request for comment.

https://nypost.com/2025/02/12/us-news/ezpass-scammers-try-to-cash-in-on-nyc-congestion-pricing-with-phony-text-message-shakedown/