Defying Europe once again, Belarus plugs Astravets nuclear power plant into national grid
November 4, 2020
Craig Turp-Balazs


Craig Turp-Balazs

Impervious to international safety concerns, Belarus starts up its first nuclear power plant.

“Cynical ignorance” is how Lithuania’s foreign minister, Linas Linkevicius, described the news that a nuclear power plant in neighbouring Belarus had been put into operation on November 3.

The plant, at Astravets, which is less than 50 kilometres from the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, was connected to Belarus’ national grid just after midday, according to according to Belarusian electricity operator Belenergo. Lithuania, which has long been critical of safety standards at the Russian-built Astravets plant, responded by cutting off the import of electricity from Belarus just minutes later.

Latvia said it had also blocked imports of energy generated at the plant and vowed not to purchase Russian electricity if Moscow was unable to prove imports did not originate from the Belarusian plant.

Lithuania’s president, Gitanas Nausėda, called on the European Union to react “immediately” by closing the bloc’s entire energy market to what he called “unsafely produced” electricity from Astravets.

Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom, which built the plant, has rejected the Lithuanian claims that Astravets is unsafe, saying the design conforms to the highest international standards as confirmed by the International Atomic Energy Agency, a UN watchdog.

Rosatom also insists that it “has a zero-tolerance policy on corruption and an internal control system that ensures that any illegal or inappropriate practices are stopped and prosecuted.” It argued that the project’s launch would help reduce the region’s carbon emissions by up to 10 million tons of CO2 equivalent every year.

“We are working closely with Belarus’s national nuclear regulator, the World Association of Nuclear Operators, and with the EU’s European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group to make absolutely certain that there are no unaddressed risks or ‘threats to safety,’” Rosatom said in a statement issued to The Associated Press news agency. When fully operational in 2022, the nuclear plant’s two reactors are expected to produce up to 2,400 megawatts of electricity.

Rebecca Harms, a former MEP and outspoken critic of nuclear power, says that the plant did not pass the EU stress test, carried out in 2018, and that “some technical deficits are severe and cannot have been eliminated since then”.

However, in a statement for Emerging Europe, Rosatom says that Harms’ claims are not supported by evidence.

“On the contrary, the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group’s (ENSREG) peer-review has given the tests an ‘overall positive’ mark and provided the Belarusian regulator with recommendations to be included in the National Action Plan (NIA). ENSREG gives similar recommendations to all EU member states’ nuclear regulators. NIAs usually take from three to ten years to implement and the implementation of the NIA is not a condition on which licensing and operations of nuclear power plants in respective countries normally depend,” read the statement, which added, “It is also worth to note that Belarus voluntarily agreed to conduct EU nuclear safety ‘stress-tests’ and get the results peer-reviewed by the EU nuclear safety body, ENSREG, although as it was not part of the EU it didn’t have an obligation to do so.”

Latvian energy minister, Žygimantas Vaičiūnas, believes that Astravets could become a “bad” precedent for ignoring the recommendations of EU experts, while also discrediting international cooperation on nuclear safety issues.

“By commissioning the nuclear power plant without implementing the EU’s stress test recommendations, the EU’s political leadership in the region could be undermined,” he said in a call for the EU to get tough with Belarus in October.

Lithuania, which closed its own nuclear power plant at Ignalina in 2009, has already been preparing for a potential disaster at Astravets, buying millions of iodine tablets in the event of a radiation leak.

Belarus itself suffered severe damage from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which spewed radioactive fallout from a plant in then Soviet Ukraine across large areas of Europe.

Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, who by any objective measure lost a presidential election in August, has been eager to start up Astravets before November 7, the anniversary of the Russian Revolution and a national holiday, in order to distract attention from the widespread protests against his regime that have taken place ever since the rigged election.

At the weekend, Belarus opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya called on the EU to step up sanctions against the regime.

The EU last month imposed sanctions on around 40 individuals linked to Lukashenko, but she said Brussels needed to go further and target “people and companies supporting him”.

“This help is needed now. And if European countries, and all the countries supporting our movement, could move faster in their decisions, that would be wonderful,” she said.

Lithuania – and the other Baltic states – will meanwhile be hoping for a quick decision on a bloc-wide ban on the purchase of electricity from Astravets.

Remembering Hungary’s heroic revolution of 1956
November 7, 2020
Marek Grzegorczyk


Marek Grzegorczyk
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It was an early Sunday morning on November 4, 64 years ago. Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest to crush, once and for all, a national uprising. It is said that the soldiers – mostly originating from the Asian parts of the USSR – barely knew where they were or who they were fighting against.

About an hour later, Imre Nagy, the prime minister of the 1956 revolutionary government whose attempt to establish Hungary’s independence from the Soviet Union eventually cost him his life, made a dramatic radio speech:

“This is Imre Nagy speaking, chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Hungarian People’s Republic. In the early hours of this morning, Soviet troops started an attack on our capital with the obvious aim of overthrowing the legal and democratic Hungarian government… Our troops are fighting. The Government is in place.”

Freedom above all

Within hours, Mr Nagy had sought political asylum at the Yugoslav Embassy in Budapest.

Meanwhile, István Bibó, the minister of state at the time, a lawyer, political thinker, prolific essayist, persistent advocate of democratic values and the author of The Art of Peacemaking: Political Essays, wrote a proclamation. In it, he declared that Hungary had no intention of pursuing anti-Soviet policies and refuted the accusation that the uprising was fascist or anti-communist in sentiment. He also urged Hungarians not to recognise the occupying Soviet forces or a puppet government.

“I ask the great powers and the wise and brave decision of the United Nations in the name of the freedom of oppressed nations. God save Hungary!” his proclamation ended.

Hungarian radio went off the air at around 8am with a woman’s appeal to “help Hungary … Help, help, help…” In the mid-afternoon, a Vienna monitor picked up what was apparently the last rebel-held radio station in Hungary. It too broadcast repeated calls for help.

“Civilised people of the world. On the watchtower of a thousand-year-old Hungary, the last flames begin to go out. Soviet tanks and guns are roaring over Hungarian soil. Our women, mothers and daughters – are sitting in dread. They still have terrible memories of the army’s entry in 1945. Save our souls. This word may be the last from the last Hungarian freedom station. Listen to our call. Help us – not with advice, not with words, but with action, with soldiers and arms.”

The revolution was stifled within hours.

“The Hungarian counter-revolution has been crushed,” Moscow radio announced at about 1pm, adding that a new “Revolutionary Workers’ and Peasants Government” had been formed under János Kádár, the former “Titoist” who became first secretary of the Communist party at one point in the rebellion.

International idleness

Mr Nagy, before he disappeared, had appealed for immediate intervention by the United Nations. Some hours before, the Security Council had already met in special session in New York to discuss the situation in Hungary. The Soviet Union vetoed an American resolution calling on for an end to the intervention and the withdrawal of Soviet troops. The UN General Assembly, where the veto cannot be used, was promptly called to take up the Hungarian appeal.

US President Dwight Eisenhower sent an urgent message to Nikolai Bulganin, the prime minister of the USSR, asking him to withdraw the Soviet troops and to allow Hungary to choose its own government, but the message fell on deaf ears.

Hungarians continued to fight the Soviets over the next few days. The resistance finally ended on November 11. János Kádár gave his first radio speech as Hungary’s new prime minister, in which he declared the revolution to have been crushed.

The cost of the Soviet repression was high. Between October 23, 1956 and January 16, 1957, some 2,652 people died, 19,226 people were injured and about 200,000 more fled as refugees. They were welcomed as heroes across the world. Hungary’s own attitude towards refugees is today markedly different.

Nagy would eventually be arrested, having been betrayed by Kádár, who had offered him free passage if he left the Yugoslav Embassy. He was executed in 1958 and buried in an unmarked grave.

In 1989 Hungary’s now prime minister, Viktor Orbán – then an anti-communist activist – addressed a rally celebrating the reburial and rehabilitation of Nagy. In 2018 however, the Hungarian authorities removed a much-loved statue of Nagy that had stood since 1997 in front of Hungary’s parliament in Budapest. The statue was moved to Jaszai Mari Square, away from the parliament building. In its place is a memorial dedicated to the those killed during the Red Terror of 1919’s short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic. A similar memorial stood in the same place before World War II.

Hungary '56 - Andy Anderson - Libcom.org

libcom.org › library › hungary-56-andy-anderson

Mar 27, 2005 — Andy Anderson's pamphlet, written in 1964 and published by Solidarity is invaluable as a guide to the events of the Hungarian uprising of 1956.

A Polish blasphemy case tests the country’s commitment to freedom and tolerance
November 9, 2020
Craig Turp-Balazs


Craig Turp-Balazs

Three Polish women face trial – and the risk of up to two years in prison – for blasphemy.

A court in Plock, Poland, this week pushed back the trial of three LGBT+ activists to January, but the threat of a prison sentence remains for the three women, accused of “offending religious feelings by insulting an object of religious worship”.

In April 2019, Elżbieta Podleśna and two other activists – known only as Anna and Joanna – put up images of the Virgin Mary with a rainbow halo in protest at what they called the “exclusion of LGBT+ people from society” by the country’s Catholic church. The images were placed around the city of Plock in reaction to an Easter display which featured slogans about crimes or sins. Listed among the sins were “gender” and “LGBT”.

At the time, the Jasna Gora Monastery in southern Poland, where the image of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa — the one was used in the activists’ picture — is kept, said that the altered images had caused “great pain”.

Poland’s then interior minister, Joachim Brudziński, wrote: “All that nonsense about freedom and ‘tolerance’ does not give anyone the right to insult the feelings of the faithful”.

‘Drop the charges and amend legislation’

Podleśna was arrested in May 2019, following her return from a trip to Belgium and the Netherlands with Amnesty International. Police seized her laptop, mobile phone, and memory cards during a search of her home. She was held and questioned by police for several hours, but was released pending a full investigation. She – along with the two other activists – were formally charged in July this year under Article 196 of Poland’s criminal code, which states that a person may not “offend the religious feelings of others by publicly insulting a religious object or place of worship”. The offence carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison.

Unsurprisingly, human rights groups, including Amnesty International, Campaign Against Homophobia, Freemuse, Front Line Defenders, Human Rights Watch and ILGA-Europe, have called for the charges to be dropped.

They also believe that the Polish authorities should amend legislation to bring it in line with international and regional human rights standards and abstain from using it against activists to unduly curtail their right to freedom of expression.

The ‘offending’ icon. Photo: Elżbieta Podleśna (Facebook)

This looks unlikely in the current Polish political climate. In October, the country’s highest court ruled that abortion on the grounds of fetal defect was unconstitutional, while just this week parliament passed legislation that allows pharmacists to refuse to sell contraception.

According to Human Rights Watch, the case against the three women is not unique but an example of the repeated harassment activists and human rights defenders face simply for carrying out peaceful activism in Poland.

“They deserve to be praised, not taken to court for their activism,” says the organisation.

To date, around 140,000 people have joined an international campaign urging Poland’s prosecutor general to drop the charges.

“Given the complete lack of evidence of a crime here, it is clear that these three women are being tried for their peaceful activism,” says Catrinel Motoc, Amnesty International’s senior Europe campaigner.

“Having, creating or distributing posters such as the ones depicting the Virgin Mary with a rainbow halo should not be a criminal offence.”

Undue restrictions on freedom of expression

In its current formulation, Poland’s Article 196 imposes undue restrictions on the right to freedom of expression by providing overly broad discretion to the authorities to prosecute and criminalise individuals for expression that must be protected. This is incompatible with Poland’s international and regional human rights obligations.

Poland is bound by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the European Convention on Human Rights as well as the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU to respect, protect and fulfill the right to freedom of expression.

Furthermore, in 2013, the ICCPR’s special rapporteur in the field of cultural rights noted that restrictions on artistic freedoms based on insulting religious feelings are incompatible with its covenant. This was again highlighted in 2019 by the special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression who stressed that criminalising expression that insults religious feeling limits “debate over religious ideas and… such laws [enable] governments to show preference for the ideas of one religion over those of other religions, beliefs or non-belief systems”.

Freemuse, a Copenhagen-based organisation which defends the right to artistic freedom worldwide is particularly concerned about the policing of artistic and creative content by the authorities in Poland and regard it as an unlawful attack on freedom of artistic expression.

It says that according to international standards, restrictions on the right to freedom of expression must be provided by law and formulated with sufficient precision to enable an individual to regulate his or her conduct accordingly. The current formulation of Article 196 is not sufficiently precise, leaves space for arbitrary interpretation and allows authorities to arrest, detain, and prosecute people simply for expressing views that may be perceived by others as offensive.

A new clash with the EU?

Should Poland proceed with the prosecution, it could be setting up yet another clash with the European Union.

The European Court of Human Rights has long maintained that the right to freedom of expression “is applicable not only to information or ideas that are favorably received or regarded as inoffensive or as a matter of indifference, but also to those that offend, shock or disturb the state or any sector of the population”.

In September, ILGA-Europe – together with Campaign Against Homophobia and Fundacja Równości (The Equality Foundation) submitted a legal complaint to the European Commission about Poland’s so-called “family charters” and “LGBT-free zones”, which over 100 Polish local governments have adopted over the last two years.

The complaint sets out how these “family charters” and “LGBT-free zones” introduce discrimination against LGBT+ people and thus breach a European Council directive establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation, as well as the Charter of Fundamental Rights.

At the same time, many Polish LGBT+ people have begun to write to the European Commission, often anonymously out of fear of further stigmatisation and hate, putting forward individual complaints about how they are being discriminated against in the cities that have declared themselves “LGBT-free zones” and adopted “family charters”. Over 400 individual complaints were sent to the European Commission by people sharing their fears for employment, health and life and their stories of discrimination in Poland.

ILGA-Europe and its partners claim that the aim of its complaint is to provide legal analysis of how “family charters” and “LGBT-free zones” do not, as claimed by Poland’s prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki in a recent letter to the European Commission, protect Polish families, but instead put in place active discrimination against LGBT+ people. Although there is no clear individual court case claiming discrimination in recruitment or employment at this point, the analysis shows clearly how the principles of the European Council’s directive and the Charter of Fundamental Rights are being violated.

According to Katrin Hugendubel, advocacy director of ILGA-Europe: “The European Commission and Council can no longer remain silent in the face of such blatant violations of the principle of non-discrimination by a member state. Our legal analysis of the texts of the family charter clearly dismantles their discriminatory nature. The European Commission is duty-bound to answer the Polish prime minister’s letter, clearly rejecting the argument of ‘defending Polish families’ and addressing the real harm that is being perpetrated on LGBT+ people in Poland. EU law is being violated and the EC needs to start infringement procedures.”

While the EU has yet to go as far as to begun such infringement procedures, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has offered support. In her State of the Union Speech on September 16, she declared that “LGBT-free zones have no place in the European Union.” This was something the LGBT+ community across the EU has been waiting for “and takes hope and courage in”, says ILGA-Europe.

It, and other human rights groups, will be hoping that any prosecution of Elżbieta Podleśna and her two co-defendants will bring about action to match the rhetoric.

UK
'Unsustainable, overwhelming' Covid burden on schools

Ofsted finds school staff 'exhausted' from ‘firefighting’ amid Covid crisis – and that 'last-minute' DfE decisions aren't helping

John Roberts
NOV 9, 2020



Headteachers are facing "unrealistic pressure" as a result of frequently changing and last-minute Department for Education advice on Covid-19, a new Ofsted report warns.

School leaders visited by the watchdog this term described the pressures they faced as "unsustainable" and "overwhelming" and said their school staff were tired or exhausted.

The findings are revealed in Ofsted's latest briefing on how schools are functioning this term following the return to full-time education after the first coronavirus lockdown.

Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman has also warned that covering staff absences and enhancing cleaning regimes are placing financial pressure on school budgets and that school leaders are "firefighting".

The watchdog has published its second briefing report after visits to 380 schools between 29 September and 23 October.

It highlights the impact on school staff this term as they work through the pandemic.
Coronavirus: The impact on teacher workload

The Ofsted report says: "Some leaders noted that, despite the generally high levels of resilience among staff, their staff are tired or exhausted, and that workload had increased."

The report highlights balancing teaching both remotely and face-to face at the same time; supporting pupils who are not in school, "meticulously" applying new safety procedures to prevent Covid-19 from spreading and providing cover for members of staff who are self-isolating as examples of the extra work and pressure faced by school staff.

The report adds: "The pressures on senior leaders – including headteachers – across many schools have also increased. Leaders described these pressures as unsustainable, overwhelming or unrealistic."

In a section on why leaders believe their workload has increased, the report adds: "The messages and guidance in relation to Covid-19 from the Department for Education change frequently. These changes, often described as ‘last-minute’, do not give leaders enough time for re-planning and implementation, which results in ‘unrealistic' pressure falling on leaders."

Ofsted has also published a commentary today from Ms Spielman on the report findings.

"Currently, alongside some interventions such as small-group support, there are more widespread adaptations to the curriculum to focus on core subjects," she writes.

"It’s important that these adaptations are short term and do not slide into a more corrosive, longer-term narrowing of the curriculum. For now, though, school leaders recognised they were ‘firefighting’."

The chief inspector adds: "Budgets, as ever, are clearly on the minds of leaders across education and social care. Covering for staff absences and maintaining enhanced cleaning regimes are budgetary pressures most affecting schools and children’s homes."

James Bowen, director of school leaders’ union the NAHT, said: “School budgets were already incredibly tight.

'Unsustainable' Covid costs

"The government’s refusal to recognise the financial difficulties schools are now facing due to Covid-19 and fully reimburse them for the money they have been required to spend to make schools safe, means that not only is money being taken away from children’s education and wellbeing, it could push some schools over the edge financially."

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “The government isn’t doing enough to support schools and colleges to stay open because of its continued refusal to reimburse them for the huge costs involved in managing Covid safety measures and hiring supply cover when staff have to self-isolate.

"These costs are completely unsustainable and the government must act.”

Ofsted is still carrying out "visits" to schools this term but they are being carried out remotely during the national lockdown.


John Roberts is North of England reporter for Tes

Possible COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough makes measures to stop virus spread now more urgent

Andre Damon
WSWS NOV 9, 2020

The announcement from Pfizer and German partner BioNTech Monday that there has been progress in the development of an effective vaccine against COVID-19 is a promising and encouraging development. It makes all the more necessary urgent measures to contain the spread of the virus and save lives until a vaccine is widely available.

Pfizer announced that patients in clinical trials who received two injections of the vaccine, spaced three weeks apart, had 90 percent fewer cases of COVID-19 than a control group. By way of comparison, the typical yearly flu vaccine is only 40–60 percent effective.

Pedestrians walk past Pfizer world headquarters in New York on Monday Nov. 9, 2020. 

(AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

The findings were based on initial data from a clinical trial of over 43,538 participants, which were reviewed by an independent board, but which have not yet been made public. The company intends to file for an emergency use authorization once half of the participants in the study have been observed for safety issues for at least two months, sometime in the third week of November.

If approved, Pfizer’s vaccine (as well as that being developed by rival Moderna) would be the first mRNA vaccine in widespread use. This would open a new age for the rapid treatment of infectious diseases with a whole new class of low-cost vaccines.

The progress toward a vaccine is encouraging news. However, significant questions and issues remain.

In its report on the vaccine, medical journal Stat noted that “there is no information yet on whether the vaccine prevents severe cases, the type that can cause hospitalization and death. Nor is there any information yet on whether it prevents people from carrying the virus that causes Covid-19, SARS-CoV-2, without symptoms.” The latter would be critical in determining how effective the vaccine is in lowering transmission rates.

It is also still too early to say how long the vaccine protects against infection. Stat also noted that the results announced by Pfizer and BioNTech have not yet been peer reviewed by scientists or published in a medical journal.

Provided that the initial results hold, even under the best of conditions Pfizer said that only 50 million doses will be available by the end of the year, with 1.3 billion produced in 2021. The vaccine must be stored at super-cold temperatures, which could make it extremely difficult to deliver to many places.

The availability and distribution of the vaccine, moreover, will be hampered by the subordination of production to the profit motives of the giant pharmaceutical companies and the conflicting interests of competing nation-states.

That being said, it does appear that progress is being made. Director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, noted that the initial results from Pfizer also bode well for the vaccine being developed by biotechnology firm Moderna and the National Institutes of Health based on similar technology. The Russian health ministry issued a statement indicating its Sputnik V vaccine would also be over 90 percent effective.

All of this means that an effective vaccine will likely be available for broad distribution sometime next year.

The progress toward a vaccine makes all the more criminal the policy of “herd immunity” that is being implemented by governments throughout the world. As one begins to see light at the end of the tunnel, the argument that it is necessary to “live with the virus” becomes absolutely unacceptable.

News of the vaccine comes as the pandemic is surging in the United States and Europe. The US has surpassed 10 million cases, and, within a matter of days, a quarter million people will have died in the United States alone. As of Monday, 43 states reported 10 percent more new COVID-19 cases than the week before.

Despite this disaster, there is no plan to contain the pandemic. US President Donald Trump, who remains in office for at least two-and-a-half more months, has publicly advocated “herd immunity,” all but declaring that the spread of the disease is a positive good. President-elect Joe Biden has rejected calls for more widespread lockdowns.

While the UK, France and Germany have announced minor restrictions on bars and gyms, they have categorically refused to close non-essential workplaces like factories and schools.

The current catastrophic state of the pandemic is the direct consequence of the fact that government policy has been determined not by public health but by the interests of profit. Once the bailout of the banks was secured in March, the ruling class worked to implement its back-to-work policy.

As a result, hundreds of thousands have died. If emergency action is not taken now, hundreds of thousands more will die before a vaccine is widely available.

The senseless loss of life must be stopped! Non-essential businesses must be closed, with full compensation for all lost wages for workers and income for small businesspeople due to the pandemic. The terrible trade-off between risking one’s life and one’s livelihood cannot be accepted.

Where production is essential to the functioning of society, safe working conditions must be overseen by workers’ rank-and-file safety committees and health care professionals, with no concern for corporate profit.

There must be a massive investment in public health infrastructure, including universal testing, contact tracing and free treatment for all. Once a vaccine is available, it must be freely distributed and not subject to the profit interests of private corporations or the competition of nation-states.

The working class must now intervene to ensure that hundreds of thousands do not needlessly die in the coming weeks and months because the capitalists must have their profits.

UK
Hancock labelled “corrupt” after handing another Covid contract to failing private healthcare company

Conservative MP Owen Paterson, who acts as a consultant for the firm, was party to a call between the company and the health minister responsible for coronavirus testing supplies.

 by Jack Peat
November 5, 2020
in News



Matt Hancock has come in for criticism after awarding a new £375 million testing contract to a Tory-linked private healthcare company whose testing kits had to be recalled over the summer because of concerns about contamination.

Randox was handed an extension to an existing contract – without other companies being invited to bid – leading to accusations of “corruption” and “cronyism”.

So far Hancock has now approved transfers of nearly half a billion pounds in taxpayer funds to the Northern Ireland-based company since the pandemic began.

Conservative MP Owen Paterson acts as a consultant for the firm for the princely sum of £100,000 a year. According to reports he was party to a call between the company and James Bethell, the health minister responsible for coronavirus testing supplies.
Independent inquiry

The Green party MP Caroline Lucas has called for an independent inquiry following the revelations into where public money is going.

“Many firms who have benefited seem to have links to the Tory party or individual ministers”, she said.

“The lack of transparency around Covid-related contracts is a scandal. At the very least, ministers owe MPs an explanation, and we are still not getting one.”

750,000 unused kits

Randox provides tens of thousands of kits a week to care homes and individuals testing themselves at home, which are then posted back to its laboratories in County Antrim.

In July the company was ordered to recall 750,000 unused kits when spot checks revealed some kits supplied by a Chinese manufacturer were not sterile.

The new deal was signed on 2 October and was expected to run for six months, until the end of March 2021, a spokesperson said.

Catholic leader won’t resign despite ‘damning’ child sex abuse findings
“I do what I’m told. The Holy Father put me here and he tells me to stay here – that’s enough for me.”

 by Henry Goodwin
November 10, 2020
in News



The head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales has refused to resign over a damning report into child sex abuse allegations.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster Diocese, said he recently offered his resignation to the Pope – only on account of his age and nothing else – but that he was told to stay in post.

It comes as the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) report into the Catholic Church, published on Tuesday, found Cardinal Nichols “seemingly put the reputation of the church” above his duty to sex assault victims.

It added that he had demonstrated “no acknowledgement of any personal responsibility to lead or influence change”.
‘I’m staying’

The report findings were met with calls for Cardinal Nichols to resign – something he says he will refuse to do.

“I was 75 very recently. A few weeks ago, as according to the law of the Church, I sent my resignation into Pope Francis and I have received a very unequivocal reply, and that is that he tells me to stay in office here,” he told PA.

“So that is what I will do, that is where my orders come from. I’m staying.”

Asked if he was the right person to lead the Catholic Church in England and Wales, despite the report’s findings, Cardinal Nichols said: “I do what I’m told. The Holy Father put me here and he tells me to stay here – that’s enough for me.”

The report found that the Catholic Church repeatedly failed to support victims and survivors, while taking positive action to protect alleged perpetrators, including moving them to different parishes.

It highlighted the case of Father James Robinson, a serial paedophile, who was moved to another parish within the Archdiocese of Birmingham after complaints were first made in the 1980s. He was later jailed for 21 years.

The report also identified how senior leaders were resistant to external oversight and have only partially implemented the recommendations of previous reviews.
‘Lack of understanding’

Focusing on Cardinal Nichols, the report said: “In the cases of (two complainants), Cardinal Nichols demonstrated a lack of understanding of the impact of their abuse and experiences and seemingly put the reputation of the church first.”

The report also found Cardinal Nichols demonstrated “no acknowledgement of any personal responsibility to lead or influence change”.

It added: “The responses of church leaders over time were marked by delay in implementing change as well as reluctance to acknowledge responsibility, to hold individuals to account or to make sincere apologies.

“They conveyed on occasions a grudging and unsympathetic attitude to victims. Failure in some of these areas contributed to more children experiencing actual abuse and many others being exposed to the risk of sexual abuse.”
‘He needs to go’

One survivor who gave evidence before the inquiry said of the report: “The head of a church should have the greatest morals of all, but instead they were sending paedophiles to other areas of the country – and America – in an attempt to cover the abuse up. How ‘Christian’ is that?

“It was bad enough being abused in the first place but then to have it dismissed and covered up just takes even more of a toll on you.”

Richard Scorer, specialist abuse lawyer at Slater and Gordon representing survivors at the inquiry, said: “This is an absolutely damning report.

“Cardinal Nichols needs to go right away – in any other walk of life he would be gone immediately. This is a church that cannot be trusted to protect children.”

The inquiry also criticised the Holy See – the Pope and the offices of the Catholic Church based in Rome – for a lack of cooperation during the investigation.

Norwegian Air unsure of future as government refuses support


‘This would not be a responsible use of public funds’ says Norwegian industry minister

Turbulence: Norwegian Air has had its request for government assistance rejected. 

Photo: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Terje Solsvik
November 10 2020 05:00 AM

THE Norwegian government will not provide additional financial support for Norwegian Air, which has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, the industry ministry and the ministry of transportation said yesterday.

Norwegian Air, which has grounded most of its fleet, said in August it would run out of cash in the first quarter of 2021 unless it could secure fresh funds and has held talks with the government in the hope of winning support.

"That the government has decided to reject the request for funds is disappointing and feels like a punch in the gut for everyone at Norwegian," said CEO Jacob Schram. "The company and the board will turn every stone to get through this situation," he told a news conference yesterday, adding that the budget airline is not out of cash yet.

Asked whether the company was at risk of bankruptcy, Mr Schram said he would not rule out any potential outcomes.
"But we need ventilator support to get through the winter," he added.

Creditors and lessors took control of the airline in May with a financial rescue that allowed it to access state-guaranteed loans of three billion Norwegian crowns (€281m) and thus prevent a collapse.

"Norwegian Air has asked for billions of crowns in additional support, and the government has concluded that this would not be a responsible use of public funds," said Industry Minister Iselin Nyboe.

The airline industry is likely to provide sufficient services and will still see healthy competition in the time ahead, she said.

Scandinavian carrier SAS is a major competitor in Norway, and Hungary's Wizz Air recently launched several domestic routes.

"Norwegian is currently evaluating the effects of the current situation with the aim of safeguarding the interest of all stakeholders," the company said.

More funding could come from the sale of aircraft, conversion of more debt to equity or from its owners and the Norwegian government, it said, while declining to specify the amount it might seek.

Reuters

BREAD AND CIRCUSES

Vietnam's Formula One Debut Grand Prix In Doubt After Corruption Scandal

Vietnam signed up for Formula One hoping the glamour of the sport could reflect the country's economic lift-off and reshape Hanoi's staid image, much as it has done for Singapore.

Agence France-Presse
Updated: November 10, 2020

Vietnam Grand Prix's track site in Hanoi© AFP

Highlights

Vietnam's 5.565-kilometre track in Hanoi was ready ahead of schedule

Vietnam last month formally cancelled the 2020 grand prix

The communist nation inked a 10-year deal with Formula One in 2018

Vietnam's inaugural Formula One Grand Prix "might not happen" next year, a source told AFP on Tuesday, as a report said it had been dropped from the 2021 calendar following the arrest of a key official. Doubts about the race arose after Nguyen Duc Chung, who was Hanoi's mayor and a major supporter of the grand prix, was arrested on corruption charges in August. "Without Chung, the future of the race in Hanoi is gloomy. It might not happen," a source close to the race told AFP on condition of anonymity.

There has been no word from Vietnamese authorities on whether the race, postponed from April and then cancelled because of the coronavirus, would make its belated debut next year.

Some spectator stands have been removed from beside the track.

And the BBC said the date of the grand prix, April 25, has been left blank on a 22-race 2021 schedule to be published on Tuesday.

The report said the move was triggered by the arrest of Chung, who struck the deal to host the race, for the alleged "appropriation of secret state documents".

Three others including his driver were arrested in the case, which is not related to the grand prix.

Chung, 53, was suspended as mayor two weeks before his arrest. The one-time director of Hanoi's police department was appointed chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee in 2015.

Vietnam signed up for Formula One hoping the glamour of the sport could reflect the country's economic lift-off and reshape Hanoi's staid image, much as it has done for Singapore.

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The communist nation inked a 10-year deal with Formula One in 2018. State media said it would cost the country $60 million per year.

The fee has been picked up in full by the country's largest private conglomerate, VinGroup, which had been hoping to dazzle with a night race.

Officials said the 5.565-kilometre track in Hanoi was ready ahead of schedule.

Vietnam last month formally cancelled the 2020 grand prix due to concerns that teams and fans coming from overseas could spark a new outbreak of Covid-19.

Authorities have allowed very few commercial flights into Vietnam since borders were largely closed in March, and tourist visas are still suspended.

The country has gained plaudits for its handling of the coronavirus, with just 1,215 recorded cases and no community transmission for more than two months.

GREEN CAPITALI$M

Rishi Sunak: UK to issue first green bond and require firms to disclose climate risk
Chancellor unveils raft of green finance plans


Rishi Sunak said the government will issue the UK's first Sovereign Green Bond in 2021
Michael Holder
10 November 2020

The government plans to cement the UK's position as a global centre for green finance received a significant boost yesterday (9 November), with the Chancellor Rishi Sunak unveiling proposals to issue the country's first sovereign green bond next year and make climate risk disclosure mandatory for major companies from 2025

In a statement to Parliament yesterday, Sunak said the government would issue the UK's first Sovereign Green Bond in 2021, subject to market conditions. He also promised that the initial bond would be followed by a series of further issuances designed to meet growing investor demand for green bond instruments.

"This will be the first in a series of new issuances as we look to build out a green curve over the coming years, helping to fund projects to help tackle climate change, finance much needed infrastructure and investment and create green jobs across this country," said Sunak.

The global green bonds market has surged in recent years, with analyst Moody's recently projecting total issuance worldwide could grow to between $175bn and $225bn by the end of 2020. But while a growing number of countries, including the likes of Germany and Sweden have issued sovereign green bonds, the UK has yet to do so.

Meanwhile, the fast-growing sector has been dogged by concerns that a lack of clarity over what constitutes a green or climate bond could result in some nominally green funding being channelled to support polluting infrastructure.

However, Sunak this afternoon said the UK would, in addition to issuing its first green gilts, seek to implement a green taxonomy that he hoped would provide a common framework for determining which activities can be defined as environmentally sustainable, building on the EU's on-going efforts to develop its own green taxonomy.

The UK taxonomy would take the scientific metrics established by the EU taxonomy as its basis, with a new UK Green Technical Advisory Group established to ensure the approach is fit for purpose for the UK market, according to the Treasury. Sunak said the efforts were aimed at "robustly classifying what we mean by green to help firms and investors".

Moreover, the Chancellor confirmed plans set out earlier today by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to introduce stricter rules on climate risk disclosure for large companies and investors, in line with the guidelines developed by the global Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFDs).

First outlined by the FCA earlier this year, the new rules require all large UK companies with a premium listing - currently representing a market capitalisation of around £1.9tn - to publicly disclose the risks they face from climate change and the net zero transition, or explain why not, by the end of 2023.

Sunak said that from 2025 the rules would be tightened further to make the TCFD guidelines fully mandatory, going beyond the 'comply or explain' approach, and making the UK the first country in the world to make climate risk disclosures obligatory.

The upcoming rules will capture a significant portion of the economy, including listed commercial companies, UK registered large private companies, banks, building societies, insurance companies, UK-authorised asset managers, life insurers, FCA-regulated pension schemes, and occupational pension schemes, according to the Treasury.

Sunak said the green finance measures announced today would help position the UK as a "world leader in green finance".

"As we leave the EU we have an opportunity to set out a new vision for this sector - a vision based not on a race to the bottom, but on a financial services industry that is open, innovative and leads the world in the use of green finance," he told MPs. "This new chapter means putting the full weight of private sector expertise, innovation and capital behind the critical global effort to tackle climate change and protect the environment."

Reacting to Sunak's statement in Parliament yesterday afternoon, Labour's Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds said action to ramp up green finance "can't come soon enough", but called on the Treasury to go further and not wait until 2025 to bring in mandatory TCFD reporting rules.

She also urged the government to ban overseas fossil fuel financing and loans through UK Export Finance, and criticised the UK's £5bn green recovery commitments, which she argued paled in comparison with the green stimulus plans from France and Germany that have assigned £27bn and £36bn respectively to climate-related projects.

"Where is this government's ambition for a green recovery from the coronavirus crisis?" she asked. "And where is the replacement for the Green Investment Bank that the Conservatives sold off?"

Reaction elsewhere to Sunak's green finance announcements tended towards cautious optimism. Greenpeace UK's policy director Doug Parr broadly welcomed moves to make climate risk disclosure mandatory, but warned the new rules must be "compulsory and thorough".

"The real win would be to make all financial institutions put in place plans to meet the Paris Agreement by the end of next year, steadily choking off the supply of cash to planet wrecking activities," he said. "Disclosure is a route to making that happen, but not an end in itself."

Similarly, former Bank of England senior economist Carsten Jung, who now works for the IPPR think tank, said Sunak's announcements today were "really just a bare minimum of what would be needed to make finance support the climate transition" and labelled green bonds as "largely a cosmetic move".

He argued the climate risk disclosure rules should also include Scope 3 emissions disclosures for company supply chains and products sold, but that disclosure in itself would "not do much to advance the climate transition". Firms should additionally be forced to set binding targets for emissions reductions, he said.

But Stephanie Pfeiffer at the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change offered a more effusive welcome to the new proposals.

"Investors applaud the measures on green finance announced by the Chancellor today," she said. "The financial impacts of climate change are colossal and pose an unprecedented systemic risk to the UK economy as a whole. Plans for UK green gilts will help to unlock investment in the net zero economy while also supporting the country's recovery from the pandemic. Mandatory TCFD reporting will help to ensure robust governance and reporting on climate-related risks.

"The UK was one of the first countries to enshrine a commitment to achieve net zero emissions in law. Investors now have greater clarity that the UK is serious about delivering a net zero economy and secure its future as a global leader in sustainable finance. They can count on the support of the investment sector in getting there."

The moves came as Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey yesterday (9 November) confirmed plans to carry out a climate risk 'stress test' for financial institutions in June next year, having been forced to delay the move by a year as a result of the coronavirus crisis.

"Our goal is to build a UK financial system resilient to the risks from climate change and supportive of the transition to a net-zero economy," he said. "Compared to the financial crisis and the pandemic, the risks from climate change are even bigger and more complex to manage. And acting now gives us the best opportunity to manage those risks."

Meanwhile, Business Secretary and COP26 President Alok Sharma said global climate action had reached an "important inflection point", with the torrent of net zero pledges announced by state and private actors in recent months providing evidence of a growing consensus in support of a zero carbon future.

Speaking at the launch of the 'Race to Zero Dialogues' yesterday - a series of virtual events being hosted by UN climate change secretariat UNFCCC over the next fortnight - Sharma urged more organisations to commit to achieving net zero emissions and called on countries to boost their short-term climate ambition.

"We know, that to achieve the Paris goals we must halve global emissions over the next decade, and rapidly adapt to our warming climate," he said. "To do this we must all move faster. Now whilst I recognise that time is short, and that the world is facing an immense challenge with Covid-19 we urgently need to raise our ambition."

The UK alongside the UN and several other major economies are set to host a Climate Ambition Summit next month aimed at encouraging countries to come forward with more ambitious climate action commitments in support of the Paris Agreement.

Sharma urged regions, cities, businesses and universities to join the UNFCCC-backed Race to Zero coalition, a global alliance of organisations committed to reaching net zero by mid-century at the latest, and called on governments to submit enhanced 2030 climate targets that would put nations on track to reaching net zero.

"The shift to a zero-carbon economy is underway," Sharma said. "Only by continuing to come together can we build the zero carbon, climate resilient future that is essential for our people and our planet."

The UK government is expected to publish its own 10 point green recovery plan ahead of the December event, while hopes are also building that Joe Biden's election victory and his promise to return the US to the Paris Agreement with immediate effect next January will help encourage more countries to announce their own net zero strategies in the coming weeks and months.

This story first appeared on Professional Adviser's sister title Business Green