2020 Human Development Report urgently calls for nature-based development

Though many countries have made gains, Covid-19 may have hurt overall human development; solutions integrating social, economic, ecological systems is the way forward, UN says

The global financial crises, climate change, inequality, and the Covid-19 pandemic have pushed the planet’s buffering systems to their limits, and comprehensive and collective action is urgently needed, the UN said in its latest annual Human Development Report.

Titled, “The next frontier: Human development and the Anthropocene,” the report argues that the globe has entered a new geologic epoch, the Anthropocene, or the “Age of Humans.” Moving forward, it says, human development must consider the dimensions of agency and values, rooted in an understanding of and relationship with nature and stewardship.

The most striking part of the report this year was the introduction of a new measure of human development, one that is adjusted for each country’s per capita carbon dioxide emissions and per capita materials footprint (the amount of extraction of raw materials like fossil fuels and metals).

“Humans wield more power over the planet than ever before. In the wake of COVID-19, record-breaking temperatures and spiraling inequality, it is time to use that power to redefine what we mean by progress, where our carbon and consumption footprints are no longer hidden,” said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner in a press release.

Global Inequality, Wealth, and Consumption

The report shows that individuals in wealthiest 1 percent emit 100 times the carbon dioxide as individuals in the poorest 50 percent each year, and that the growth in emissions for the highest income earners is linked to increased consumption and emissions from wealth and investments.

After adjusting the HDI for planetary pressures, only about 15 percent of the countries originally classified as “very high development countries” remained in that classification. Countries like Singapore, Iceland, Australia, and Canada, which ranked in the top twenty in the HDI dropped in ranking by as many as 92 places in the Planetary pressures-adjusted HDI (PHDI).

Meanwhile, countries like Algeria, Peru, Albania, and the Philippines each saw their rank rise by more than 20 places in the PHDI, demonstrating the smaller carbon and material footprint of these countries.

Wealthier individuals are able to benefit from nature, while exporting the costs of its use and damage to the less wealthy, the report shows, which is “choking the opportunities of the people who have less.”

These imbalanced relations have roots in systemic racism, colonialism, and classism, and affect dynamics both within and between countries.

“The actions of an indigenous person in the Amazon, whose stewardship helps protect much of the world’s tropical forest, offsets the equivalent of the carbon emissions of a person in the richest 1 percent of people in the world. Yet indigenous peoples continue to face hardship, persecution and discrimination,” says Steiner in the report.

Rise in Turkey’s HDI value

Turkey recorded an HDI value of .820 in 2019, putting it in the “very high human development” category. Ranked 54 out of 189 countries and territories, Turkey’s HDI value has increased by over 40 percent since the measurements started in 1990.

In this 30-year period, Turkey’s life expectancy at birth increased by 13.4 years, and GNI per capita increased by over 120 percent.

Turkey’s ranking rises by 10 places in the PHDI.

The report also included the Gender Inequality Index (GII), which measures gender-based inequalities based on reproductive health, empowerment, and economic activity. Turkey’s 2019 GII value is .306, putting it at 68 out of 162 countries.

Norway was ranked first with an HDI value of 0.957, followed by Ireland and Switzerland, each with a value of 0.955. Niger, Central African Republic, and Chad ranked the lowest, with index values of 0.394, 0.397, and 0.398, respectively.

The average index value of OECD countries was .900.

The Human Development Index (HDI) was introduced in 1990 to direct understanding and measures of development and progress away from Gross Domestic Product (GDP), to include societal well-being indicators such as life expectancy, access to knowledge and learning, average years of schooling, Gross National Income (GNI).

In later years, the human Development Report Office (HDRO) also added inequality-adjusted HDI, the Multidimensional Poverty Index, and the Gender Inequality and Gender Development indices to provide a more comprehensive picture of human development.

Source: TRT World

‘India and Pakistan no different on how they treat minorities’

https://www.trtworld.com/

Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka are all in the same rickety boat when it comes to human rights.

The past ten years have been abysmal for minorities and civil rights activists in South Asian countries including India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, according to the South Asia State of Minorities Report 2020.

Governments have introduced repressive laws that curb freedom of expression, persecute journalists and bar people from organising peaceful demonstrations, says the report published by the South Asia Collective, an international group of activists and NGOs.

Some laws disproportionately target minorities such as Muslims in India and Sri Lanka, and Christians in Pakistan.

One policy that transcends almost all the regional governments is their attempt to restrict the role of NGOs - especially if they receive funding from abroad.

India’s suffocating measures

India, where minorities have faced state-sanctioned violence since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was re-elected last year, has handicapped foreign NGOs by setting limits on how they can spend money received from international donors.

Most of the affected NGOs are the ones that work in areas which highlight abuse of power, government indifference towards the plight of minorities, and the brutality of security forces.

“BJP rule has been characterised by the open targeting of several high-profile NGOs, with foreign funding freezes being the weapon of choice,” the report said. 

New Delhi's discriminatory amendment to citizenship law has further alienated India's Muslims. (AP Archive)

Other policy changes such as requiring NGOs to register with income tax authorities every five years are a similar tool of “administrative harassment”.

“Along with attempts to prevent groups working on critical issues, human rights defenders have also reported being subject to threats and intimidation by state agencies and ideological groups aligned to them.”

The intimidation is not limited to NGOs as journalists reporting on creeping BJP authoritarianism often feel the wrath of the state.

“...between 25 March and 31 May 2020, at least 55 Indian journalists faced arrest, physical assaults, destruction of property, threats or registration of FIRs (police reports),” the report said.

New Delhi increasingly relies on internet controls to curb dissent. Internet shutdowns jumped to 106 in 2019 from only six in 2014 as authorities used different laws to control the flow of information.

Kashmir faced a complete internet blackout for months after the Muslim-majority region’s nominal autonomy was withdrawn last year.

“The Indian government has reportedly submitted the most number of content takedown requests to social media platforms, and at least 50 people—mostly Muslims—were arrested for social media posts in just 2017 and 2018 alone,” the report noted.

India is also using the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act to target Dalits, a caste of Hindus who face widespread discrimination under the country’s hierarchical caste system.

“Laws ostensibly meant for the protection of cows continue to provide institutional backing for similar campaigns against Muslims and Dalits,” the report said.

Changes in the Citizenship Act that target Muslim migrants and the brutal police reponse to subsequent protests — in which 22 people were shot dead in Utter Pradesh state in a single day — further illustrate the worsening status of minorities in India.

Thy neighbours are no good

In neighbouring Pakistan, India’s archrival, minorities and those activists trying to help them, fare no better.

“NGOs and INGOs (international NGOs) are subject to extensive regulation involving multiple, lengthy procedures of registration, security clearance, and approvals for funding,” the report said

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The Christians and Hindus in Pakistan regularly complain that young girls are forced to convert to Islam. (AP Archive)

In recent years, Islamabad has increased vigilance on NGOs which it fears might be working on a foreign agenda to promote dissent.

What will particularly bother Pakistan’s policymakers is the report's focus on how the country’s Blasphemy Law, meant to protect religious sentiments, continues to be misused against minorities.

“In reality, the law explicitly discriminates against Ahmadiyas since parts of it criminalise public expression of Ahmadiya beliefs and prohibit Ahmadiyas from calling themselves Muslims, praying in Muslim sites of worship and propagating their faith.”

Just this week, a report by the United States Commission on International Rights Freedom pointed out that Pakistan accounts for nearly half of the incidents of mob violence against alleged blasphemers.

At times, people accused of blasphemy are killed in court in front of police and lawyers.

Christians, another minority, are frequently targeted while authorities do little to protect them.

For instance, a church constructed in the Toba Tek Singh district of Punjab province had to be sealed in 2016 after local Muslims agitated against it.

This alienation doesn’t stop at the places of worship - young Chrsitan students are continuously harassed by their peers to convert to Islam, the report said.

Similarly, Sri Lanka witnessed rising levels of intolerance towards minorities in recent years, especially as successive governments tried to pacify extremist Buddhists to garner their votes.

Muslims in Sri Lanka have felt a wave of discrimination and official apathy after the suicide attacks that killed more than 200 people last year.

“After the Easter attacks, Muslims, particularly a large number of Muslim men, were arrested seemingly without reasonable cause.”

Jingoistic government-aligned media has helped paint Muslims as the villain in Sri Lanka.

“The incitement of hatred and vitriol by media outlets continues unabated. For example, Muslim Covid-19 patients were identified by their faith, unlike other patients, and blamed by the media

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The staggering scale of India’s anti-Pakistan propaganda machine

https://www.trtworld.com/

Hundreds of fake news websites and NGOs linked to Indian entities were used to spread propaganda against Pakistan internationally.

For years Pakistan has accused its archrival India of engaging in hybrid warfare which relies on a disinformation campaign to undermine Islamabad at international forums. Now it seems much of that is true.

The EU DisinfoLab has uncovered a network of NGOs and fake media organisations linked to India that for more than a decade have been engaged in anti-Pakistan propaganda.

"It is the largest network we have exposed," Alexandre Alaphilippe, executive director of EU DisinfoLab told the BBC after the report “Indian Chronicles” was published on Wednesday.

Brussels-based DisinfoLab is a European NGO which aims to check the disinformation targeting the European Union, its parliamentarians and policies.

In a sophisticated operation, much of which has been linked to the New Delhi-based Srivastava Group, hundreds of fake media outlets, long-dead organisations and stolen identities were used to paint Pakistan in a negative light in the EU and elsewhere, the report says.

While DisinfoLab says it has not found any connection between this campaign and the Indian state, Pakistan’s foreign office came out with a strong statement.

“India not only spread disinformation but abused international institutions in its desire to malign Pakistan,” it said.

The revelations could deepen tension further between the two neighbours who have fought three wars and have come close to another full blown conflict last year.

Resurrected to deceive

The DisinfoLab investigation found that at least ten long-defunct NGOs and industry-related organisations were resurrected and used to lobby diplomats at international forums, especially the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

For instance, the Commission to Study the Organisation of Peace (CDOP), an NGO that became inactive in the 1970s, was reactivated in the mid-2000s to organise events on the sidelines of UN sessions and send representatives to panel discussions.

Its origin has been linked to Srivastava Group.


What will worry many in Islamabad is that the NGOs in question are UN accredited, something which makes them appear legitimate.

The groups are also responsible for putting up “Free Balochistan” posters across Geneva in 2017. Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province is facing an insurgency, and India often highlights the human rights violations there to deviate attention from its own atrocities in Kashmir.

The International Club for Peace Research (ICPR), another dormant NGO that focuses on Africa, was resurrected in 2009 when it started to appear at the UNHRC sessions where Pakistan was targeted.

It was this so-called NGO which in 2012 issued a press release, distributed by Indian news agency DNA, demanding “enquiry into genocide in Bangladesh by Pakistani Army.”

“The (ICPR) website refers to promoting peace and to Mother Teresa in its “about us” section, lists past events and meetings related to peace and human rights in Africa, but its “news”, “pictures” and “demonstrations” sections are entirely about human rights in Pakistan,” DisinfoLab says.

The groups ostensibly lobby around issues that are sure to cause discontent within Pakistan.

“Generally, we found several other NGOs regularly covering the same issues around minorities in Pakistan, Balochistan, Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. For a majority of these NGOs, these issues are not part of their original mission,” it notes.

For instance, in the southern Sindh province there’s strong resentment against the construction of upstream dams. But despite it being a domestic matter, the World Sindhi Congress was invited by one of the groups at the 2018 UNHRC to speak against the dam.

The report has also raised questions about the performance of UN bureaucracy as organisations set up to represent industry groups ended up in the hands of Indians and later used solely as tools to bash Pakistan.

Take for example the Canners International Permanent Committee (CIPC), which was established to promote the canning industry but stopped functioning in 2007. It was later reactivated by the same Indian network.

“The core theme of the original NGO – “canned foods” - was totally diverted by Indian Chronicles to undermine Pakistan at the Human Rights Council,” says DisinfoLab.

Another interesting example is of the African Regional Agricultural Credit Association (ARACA), which instead of proposing ways to help farmers, has used Geneva for anti-Pakistan activities.

A Pakistani dissident, Mehran Marri, also known as Mehran Baluch, who has more than 27,000 followers on Twitter, has spoken on behalf of ARACA.

Marri, who supports Balochistan’s secession from Pakistan, has also served as the President of Balochistan House, an organisation linked to Ankit Srivastava of the Srivastava Group.

“NGOs tied to this ecosystem are also often represented by official representatives of minorities in Pakistan, who can be seen to speak for different organizations,” notes DisinfoLab.

The media connection

The Indian disinformation network relies heavily on more than 700 fake media outlets to spread propaganda of the NGOs linked to Srivastava Group.

Fake news websites such as EU Chronicles, Japan Times Today, and Arizona Herald, regularly published Pakistan-centric stories.

The DisinfoLab found that the Indian news wire agency, ANI, a partner organisation of Reuters, often helped magnify the stories published by these outlets.

Once sent out by ANI, these stories were picked up by respectable media groups such as The Times of India and The Economic Times.

A glaring example of how the propaganda works can be seen in the 2017 interview of the Pakistani diplomat Hussain Haqqani published in another fake outlet, Times of Geneva.

The story titled ‘Baloch posters in Switzerland to isolate Pakistan’ was picked up by ANI and forwarded to its subscribers. It ended up on the webpages of Outlook India magazine and the Business Standard.

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Yemenis return to their destroyed homes

Many Yemenis choose their own war-ruined homes over living like refugees elsewhere.

AMAL MAMOON  https://www.trtworld.com/

TAIZ — As soon as Yemen's Taiz city was gripped by war in 2015, Qaid al Silwi fled to the suburbs along with his wife and six children.

A 65-year-old retired architect, Silwi described his home as a "golden home" which he had built during his youth. The war pushed him out to a neighbouring province, where he spent two years at his son-in-law's home since he had no money to rent a separate place.

“I had no choice but to move to my son-in-law's home," Al Silwi told TRT World.

The thought of returning to Taiz preoccupied him until early 2019, when he learned from his neighbourhood friends that the fighting had subsided in the city.

"Hearing the news I immediately moved back” he said, "but my house was damaged by shelling and it wasn't livable at all"

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Silwi chose his war-ruined home in Taiz city as he was sick and tired of living like a refugee elsewhere. (Khalid Al-Banna / TRTWorld)

Between displacement and a damaged house, Silwi chose the latter and began living there along with his family.

It's a two-storey building. The first floor has no windows, doors and walls left, while the ground floor has some walls intact. Silwi and his family members have carved out some space to live there.

Building a new life amidst the rubble brought some horrors, too. While setting up a living area, Silwi's grandson Mohammed, who helped him clean up an alley outside the front door, stepped on a landmine. "We heard a loud explosion. I went out and saw my grandson on the ground, bleeding".

Silwi took Mohammed to hospital, where doctors amputated a leg. After the accident, an IED disposal squad visited the area and cleared it from landmines.

"But it still is not safe out here. Every now and then the shooting and shelling happen on the frontlines, which are not far from here."

After returning to his damaged home in Taiz last year, many Yemenis repaired the walls of their ground floors to share the space with their surviving family members. 

(Khalid al Banna / TRTWorld)

Although Silwi is thankful to his relatives and son-in-law for welcoming him and his family into their home, he has decided to stay put in his own house no matter how bad the war gets in the coming months.

“A life in displacement is worse than a life amid fighting. I would rather prefer being dead than living like a refugee again"

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Mohammed Mukhtar recently returned to his home in Taiz city. The years of shelling and bombardment has reduced his three-story house to a mere skeleton of bare-brick walls. 
(Khalid al Banna / TRTWorld)
Like Silwi, several other families have returned to whatever little has remained of their homes.

“If we don’t return, where will we go? We don’t have any other choice. In the beginning we thought it would be a few weeks or months until the war would be over. But the war kept dragging for years," Silwi said.

“Yemenis usually have large families and how long can our relatives share their homes with us?"

Most of the returnees don’t have the money to renovate their homes. What most of them do is fix one or two rooms where they could sleep, eat and spend most of their free time.

Many businesses have reopened in damaged buildings close to the frontlines of war in Yemen's Taiz city. (Khalid al Banna / TRTWorld)

Ahmed Kamel, 42, closed his shop and fled Taiz city in 2015. After spending four years in displacement and facing harsh spells of unemployment, he moved back to Taiz and reopened his shop.

“I’m dependent on this shop. Away from it, I was a jobless man, mostly depending on generous people and organizations," Kamel said.

“It is true the fighting is still not over yet but it's okay. It's not worse than being unemployed. Here I don’t ask people for help"

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An undergraduate student from Taiz University posed for a photograph at a damaged house in Taiz city earlier this month. (Khalid al Banna / TRTWorld)

Kamel said children and women do get terrified by the sounds of shelling but they are also adapting to it and trying to "enjoy their lives in their own homes."

“My children are happy to meet their friends again and they don’t care about shelling. They don't want to leave their home again".

Source: TRT World

AUTHOR
Amal Mamoon  is a freelance journalist based in Yemen. She wrote for local and international media, her work were shown in Middle East Eye, The New Humanitarian (Formerly IRIN) and others.

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Saudi enjoys ‘impunity’ over torture and abuse of migrant workers - HRW

MURAT SOFUOGLU   https://www.trtworld.com/

Human Rights Watch interviewed several detainees held in a deportation centre in Riyadh, where migrant workers have been tortured and abused continuously.

Saudi's culture of 'impunity' has increased to alarming levels, despite human rights groups consistently exposing Saudi atrocities against migrant workers in the country’s badly-conditioned detention centres.

Recent Human Rights Watch (HRW) research found that hundreds of detainees have been held under awful inhumane conditions in a deportation centre in the Saudi capital of Riyadh. The report indicated that torture and abuse have been common practices, which even allegedly led to three deaths there.

“There is the issue of impunity and a lack of accountability to the extent this continues. No one is allowed access to facilities. They [Saudis] think they can get away with it because there are no tracks on the detention centers. There is not adequate pressure at the moment," Nadia Hardman, a leading researcher of the Human Rights Watch, tells TRT World.

According to different estimates, there are nearly 10 million foreign workers, who are working across the country in different sectors from energy to services. From time to time, Riyadh has carried out a series of detentions, deporting hundreds of thousands of migrants.

Hardman has interviewed nine detainees after they returned to their home countries from Saudi Arabia. Two of them are Indians and seven of them are Ethiopians. All of them described various types of mistreatment and human rights violations in the Riyadh centre.

Some detainees have stayed under detention for more than a year and others have been for months. Many migrants have also feared becoming infected with Covid-19 due to being held in crowded rooms, where they lie on top of each other.

“We as human rights organisations are trying to expose what’s happening. But it needs an international community. It needs those governments that are also in relationship with Saudi Arabia but who also have nationals in the detention center. They need to demand the release of their civilians,” Hardman says.

Protestors demonstrate against the treatment of Ethiopian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia, Nov. 18, 2013, in Atlanta. (David Goldman / AP Archive)

Saudi “impunity”

Apparently, neither the international community nor those governments, whose citizens have been detained in the Saudi detention centre featuring in the HRW report, are up to develop enough pressure to force the oil-rich kingdom, one of the wealthiest states, to abide by international law and standards on the treatment of migrants.

In September, the UN passed a resolution against Saudi Arabia on its mistreatment of refugees and migrants. There was, however, no effect. It suggests there was barely even a minor change in the cruel conduct of Saudis, Hardman and her colleagues observed.

“There seems to be no incentive for Saudi Arabia to change its behaviour. There is no consequence when there should be,” Hardman views.

“Of course many countries have trade relationships with Saudi Arabia and what happens in detention centers might not be priority. But this is migration detention. There is no punitive reason for people to be there. They have not committed a crime. If they have, they should be brought to a court to answer those crimes,” Hardman says.

“Having them in a deportation center for more than a year is just unimaginable,” she adds.

International law bans any prolonged detention, which is not sanctioned by courts, seeing it as arbitrary arrest.

The Indian government has shown some efforts to repatriate some of its citizens held in the deportation centre, according to Hardman. The Ethiopian government, which is now waging a war with its northern province, the Tigray region, has also tried in very slow motion to bring some of its citizens back home, she says.

An activist holds a placard beside police in front of the Saudi Arabia embassy during a protest over the recent execution of an Indonesian migrant worker for murder, in Jakarta, Indonesia, March 20, 2018. (Darren Whiteside / Reuters Archive)

No hope!

“I spoke with some people, who said they expected to die there because they have seen other detainees abused so badly that they were unlawfully killed,” Hardman says.

While their treatment is appalling, there is no sign that their brutal captors could be held accountable for what they have done to migrants’ lives, Hardman says.

“The detainees feel that they don’t have hope. They don’t have expectations. Of course they asked me what would happen. But they don’t have expectations. The only thing they asked for is the world to know what is happening,” she says.

The HRW could not estimate the exact number of detainees in the Riyadh centre.

Saudi authorities have not replied to any requests from the HRW on both the number of detained migrants in the deportation centre, and migrant accounts of various mistreatment.

While Saudis have shown indiscriminate abuse against all detainees, they have still kept different nationalities in different rooms according to migrant accounts.

“You have the sub-Saharan African room. You have the South Asian area. We do not know exact nationalities. But we do know that people are being kept in separate areas,” says Hardman.

Hardman has also previously investigated the detained conditions of mostly Ethiopian migrants, who have been stuck in the war between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Houthis. They have been held in various Saudi detention centres across the country after being forcibly expelled by Yemen’s Houthis to the kingdom’s territory.  

Source: TRT World

UK
Homeless people in temporary housing at highest level since 2006 - as some trapped in 'intolerable' conditions

Campaigners say poor conditions and overcrowding are rife in the emergency B&Bs where one in six homeless households are placed.

By Ivor Bennett, news reporter SKY NEWS
Thursday 17 December 2020 

The number of people in temporary accommodation has increased by 83% within a decade. 


More than a quarter of a million people in England are homeless and living in temporary accommodation, new figures show.

There were an estimated 253,620 people without a secure home at the end of June this year, according to housing charity Shelter.


The figure is the highest it has been since 2006 and has increased by 83% in the last decade.

The analysis of government data shows an extra 6,000 people were relying on temporary accommodation after the first three months of the pandemic.

But campaigners believe the true number of people experiencing homelessness is much higher than the figures suggest, fearing many rough sleepers are undocumented by councils.

"What we've got is a pre-existing housing crisis that's kind of collided with the worst public health crisis in living memory and these people are caught in the fallout of that," Shelter's chief executive Polly Neate told Sky News.

"We are seeing people seeking our help at an alarming rate and without more public support we are struggling to keep up with demand."

Temporary accommodation provided by councils can range from a self-contained flat to an emergency B&B room with shared facilities.

One in six homeless households (17%) are currently placed in emergency B&Bs and hostels, where campaigners say poor conditions and overcrowding are rife.

Play Video - What it's like to be homeless in a lockdown

The use of emergency B&Bs alone has increased by a staggering 371% over the last 10 years.

"I've seen families, mum and three kids, in one room on a corridor with a communal bathroom at one end and a communal kitchen at the other," Ms Neate said.

"Those conditions become almost intolerable - both for people's physical health and for people's mental health. The impact has been really severe during the pandemic."

Farhad Izadi became homeless after separating from his partner last Christmas.

When standing in the middle of his hostel room in Harrow, northwest London, he is able to touch the ceiling with one hand and the wall by his bed with the other.

Balancing on one leg and stretching out his foot, he makes contact with the opposite wall while his other limbs stay in place.

"I wouldn't call it a room, I would call it a box," Mr Izadi told Sky News.

Farhad Izadi describes his accommodation as like living in a 'box'

As well as being cramped, he said his accommodation is unhygienic and unsafe. He shares a bathroom and kitchen with 20 other residents, some of whom he claims are abusive and violent.

"There are people over there, coming out with knives, threatening people," he said.

"It's a nightmare really. I'm trying to be positive because I don't have any other option at the moment. I try to find any opportunity to go out of that place."

The only time Mr Izadi spends at the hostel is at night.

He cooks at 3am when the kitchen is empty, while his days are spent volunteering at a community library - the only place that offers an escape from a predicament that has left him suffering from depression and anxiety.

"I used to say it's my second home but now perhaps I should say it's my first home because I spend a lot of time here," he said.

"Even if you're the healthiest person on the planet, if you live there after a few months it's impossible not to be depressed or suffer from anxiety."

Play Video - Plight of the homeless forced to live in bed and breakfast accommodation

More than two-thirds (68%) of all homeless people living in temporary accommodation are in London, equating to one in every 52 people in the capital.

In London, Newham has the highest rates of people in temporary accommodation (one in 23), followed by Haringey (one in 28), and Kensington and Chelsea (one in 29).

Outside of the capital, Luton has the highest rate of people in temporary accommodation (one in 55). This is followed by Brighton and Hove (one in 78), Manchester (one in 93) and Birmingham (one in 94).

A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson told Sky News that reducing the number of households in temporary accommodation is a priority and that the government is investing more than £750m to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping next year.

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Study reveals temporary housing crisis in England

The charity Shelter has called for public help, saying more than a quarter of a million people in England are ‘trapped’ in emergency accommodation.

The charity Shelter says there is a desperate shortage of homes for social rent amid a crisis regarding temporary accommodation in England (Tim Crocker/Riba/PA)

By Trevor Marshallsea, PA
December 17 2020

More than a quarter of a million adults and children in England are homeless and living in temporary accommodation during the pandemic, according to a new report.

Standing at 253,000, the figure is the highest such total in the country in 14 years, the investigation by the charity Shelter says.

The charity’s Homeless and Forgotten study highlights what it calls England’s “housing emergency”, and says a lack of social homes “is leaving thousands stuck in unstable temporary accommodation with nowhere else to go”.

The report says 115,000 more people are living in temporary accommodation in England than 10 years ago, with the use of emergency B&B housing – usually arranged by local councils – leaping 371% in that period.

Shelter says Covid-19 risks “turbo-charging” the housing crisis, citing Government data showing the number of people affected jumped by 6,000 in the first three months of the pandemic

253,000
People who are homeless and living in temporary accommodation in England

Shelter

The charity says the country is suffering from a desperate shortage of social homes and has issued a plea to the public to lends its support to the charity to help those affected, especially over Christmas and winter.

“Over a quarter of a million people – half of them children – are homeless and stuck in temporary accommodation,” Shelter’s chief executive Polly Neate said in a statement.

“This should shame us all. With this deadly virus on the loose, 2020 has taught us the value of a safe home like never before. But too many are going without, because of the chronic lack of social homes.

“Many people will spend Christmas in grim, dangerous places, cut off from loved ones and faced with a daily struggle to eat or keep clean.

“As the country continues to reel from the financial shockwaves caused by the pandemic, our services will do all they can to support those battling homelessness.

“This year has been unbelievably tough, but with the public’s generous support we will do our best to give hope and help to everyone who needs us.”

Shelter conducted interviews with 21 homeless families and individuals “trapped” in temporary accommodation for its report.

It said the shared experiences revealed from the interviews were feelings of isolation, “not being able to stay safe”, poor diets, difficulties keeping clean and negative impacts on mental wellbeing.

It’s a complete nightmare. We don’t feel safe, it’s always noisy, you don’t know who you’re living next to Jenny, temporary housing dweller

One interviewee, Jenny, was living with her two toddlers in temporary accommodation in south-west London described as a “tiny, self-contained flat is in extremely poor condition”.

“It’s a complete nightmare,” she told Shelter. “We don’t feel safe, it’s always noisy, you don’t know who you’re living next to. The police are always around – someone tried to break down our door once, which was terrifying. It’s so difficult to do simple things like your laundry.

“The kids sleep on the sofa. There’s barely any space for them to eat – let alone play. I can’t let them play in the garden because there are needles and broken glass.

“This is no place to bring up a family. I worry constantly about what impact this is having on them.”

To donate to Shelter’s urgent winter appeal visit www.shelter.org.uk/donate

PA

 

HEATHROW

Campaigners Outraged After Top UK Court Overturns Ban on 'Climate-Wrecking' Third Runway at Heathrow

"It's time to take our demand straight to the government—it can still change its plans for Heathrow expansion," says Friends of the Earth.

by

Jessica Corbett, staff writer

 Published on Wednesday, December 16, 2020

by

Common Dreams

A police officer stands by as a campaigner against a third runway at Heathrow Airport holds a placard in front of paint thrown by another protester at the Supreme Court in London on December 16, 2020 after the verdict on a legal challenge to the proposed runway. (Photo: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP via Getty Images)

Climate campaigners on Wednesday condemned the United Kingdom's Supreme Court for overturning an "amazing and historic" ruling from earlier this year blocking a third runway at London's Heathrow Airport because the government's approval of the project hadn't adequately accounted for the country's Paris climate agreement commitments.

"The U.K.'s highest court unanimously approved an appeal from Heathrow Airport Ltd. to overturn a decision made by the Court of Appeal in February following a case brought by Friends of the Earth and legal action charity Plan B Earth," The Independent reported. A judge on the court, Lord Philip Sales, said that Chris Grayling, the former transport minister, "did take the Paris agreement into account and was not legally required to give it more weight than he decided was appropriate."

In response to the judgment (pdf), a member of Extinction Rebellion accused the judges of signing "a death warrant for millions of people" as nearby activists held signs and banners reading, "No climate-wrecking third runway" and "Immoral."

While expressing disappointment with the decision, Friends of the Earth emphasized that the runway's future is far from certain and vowed to keep fighting against it.

"This judgment is no 'green light' for expansion. It makes clear that full climate considerations remain to be addressed and resolved at the planning stage. Heathrow expansion remains very far from certain and we now look forward to stopping the third runway in the planning arena," said Will Rundle, head of legal at Friends of the Earth.

"With ever stronger climate policy commitments that Heathrow must meet, it remains unlikely it will ever get planning permission for the third runway," he added. "Friends of the Earth will fight it all the way. We are in this for people everywhere facing climate breakdown right now, and for the next generation who are being left to inherit a world changed for the worse."

The Guardian noted Wednesday that "since the runway was approved in 2018, the U.K. has committed to net zero emissions by 2050 and on [December 4] it pledged to cut carbon emissions by 68% by 2030." The U.K. is set to host a global climate summit in Glasgow next year.

Given that "last week the government was even warned by its own advisers at the Committee on Climate Change that there can be no net expansion of U.K. airport capacity unless the aviation industry achieves unexpectedly fast emissions cuts," Friends of the Earth campaigner Jenny Bates said "it is hard to see how Heathrow expansion can proceed."

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has long opposed the expansion and his government didn't join the challenge to the Appeal Court ruling. Before the latest verdict, a government spokesperson said that "we have always been clear that Heathrow expansion is a private sector project which must meet strict criteria on air quality, noise, and climate change, as well as being privately financed, affordable, and delivered in the best interest of consumers," according to BBC News.

"Boris Johnson must re-think the decision to approve the policy supporting expansion of Heathrow airport, and commit to no net airport expansion in-line with the advice of independent advisers, the Committee on Climate Change," said Bates. "The U.K. has the potential to lead the world in ambitious climate action but only if the government takes this opportunity to steer the country to a sustainable future, making green jobs, low-carbon travel, and the health and well-being of all of us a priority."

Friends of the Earth is circulating a petition declaring, "It's time to take our demand straight to the government—it can still change its plans for Heathrow expansion."

The high court's decision was welcomed by a spokesperson for the company that owns Heathrow Airport and filed the appeal but drew criticism from activists and advocacy groups within and beyond the United Kingdom—including Swedish teenager and Fridays for Future founder Greta Thunberg, who suggested that it is incompatible with the U.K. government's declaration of a climate emergency.

Caroline Lucas, a member of Parliament in the Green Party who represents Brighton Pavilion, said the "disappointing" decision "takes us backward in response to #ClimateEmergency." Echoing campaigners' charges that the project is incompatible with the Paris agreement, she also called on Johnson to put an end to the expansion.

  

UK Supreme Court ruling paves way for Heathrow Airport third runway to proceed

by Hannah Tan-Gillieshannah@moodiedavittreport.com

Source: ©The Moodie Davitt Report

17 December 20

UK. The Supreme Court has overturned a block on Heathrow Airport’s third runway imposed by the UK Court of Appeal.

As reported, the Court of Appeal decision was based on Heathrow Airport’s alleged failure to take into account the Paris climate agreement in its expansion plans.

Commenting on the Supreme Court’s decision, a Heathrow spokesperson said: “This is the right result for the country, which will allow Global Britain to become a reality. Only by expanding the UK’s hub airport can we connect all of Britain to all of the growing markets of the world, helping to create hundreds of thousands of jobs in every nation and region of our country.

“Demand for aviation will recover from Covid, and the additional capacity at an expanded Heathrow will allow Britain as a sovereign nation to compete for trade and win against our rivals in France and Germany.”


Heathrow Airport says that a third runway will help turn the vision of a ‘Global Britain’ into a reality

Heathrow also noted that the UK aviation industry has produced a comprehensive and detailed plan which sets out the road to carbon net zero by 2050, while the airport has also published a pathway to achieving that goal by the mid-2030s.

The Heathrow spokesperson added, “Heathrow has already committed to net zero and this ruling recognises the robust planning process that will require us to prove expansion is compliant with the UK’s climate change obligations, including the Paris Climate Agreement, before construction can begin.

“The Government has made decarbonising aviation a central part of its green growth agenda, through wider use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel as well as new technology. As passenger numbers recover, our immediate focus will be to continue to ensure their safety and to maintain our service levels while we consult with investors, government, airline customers and regulators on our next steps.”


The addition of a third runway would pave the way for a major expansion of capacity-constrained Heathrow

As reported, Heathrow passenger volumes fell by -88% year-on-year in November to 747,000 as travel restrictions and the latest lockdown in the UK took their toll.

Heathrow is also continuing to urge the government to abandon plans to abolish tax free shopping for international visitors, saying the “disastrous tourist tax” will hurt UK competitiveness.

It is one of many organisations to have called on the UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak to reverse the proposed abolition of tax free shopping and the VAT refund scheme in January.

British coroner lists pollution as cause of 

9-year-old's death in landmark ruling



Smog surrounds St Paul's Cathedral in London in 2014. A coroner in Britain made the landmark decision to list air pollution as the cause of death for 9-year-old Ella Kissi-Debrah. 

 Photo by Facundo Arrizabalag/EPA-EFE


Dec. 16 (UPI) -- A coroner in Britain cited air pollution as a cause of death of a 9-year-old girl who died of an asthma attack in a landmark ruling Wednesday.

The Charites Asthma U.K. and the British Lung Foundation said Ella Kissi-Debrah was the first person to have air pollution listed as a cause of death on their death certificate.

Ella, who had severe asthma that caused episodes of cardiac and respiratory arrest, died in a hospital in February 2013 after experiencing cardiac arrest from which she couldn't be resuscitated, the coroner's report said.

"Air pollution was a significant contributory factor to both the induction and exacerbation of her asthma," said assistant coroner Philip Barlow.

Barlow added that Ella was exposed to levels of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter in excess of World Health Organization guidelines.

Ella's cause of death was determined to be a severe asthma attack leading to respiratory failure. A report by Stephen Holgate, former chair of the British government's advisory committee on air pollution, found that Ella's asthma attacks coincided with high air pollution on the busy street near her home.

"The principal source of her exposure was traffic emissions," he said.

"The whole of Ella's life was lived in close proximity to highly polluting roads. I have no difficulty in concluding that her personal exposure to nitrogen dioxide and PM [particulate matter] was very high."

Ella's mother, Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, said that her family received "the justice for her which she so deserved."

"Also it's about other children still as we walk around our city of high levels of air pollution," she said. "Her legacy would be to bring in a new Clean Air Act and for governments -- I'm not just talking about the U.K. government -- governments around the world to take this matter seriously."

#BLM

Chicago mayor 'appalled' by 2019 raid on Black woman after video is aired

(Reuters) - The mayor of Chicago said on Wednesday she was appalled by a 2019 police raid on the home of a Black woman, that was caught on video and aired this week, showing police handcuffing the naked woman.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot also criticized the police for trying to stop the CBS Chicago network from broadcasting the video of the raid on the home of the woman, Anjanette Young.

“I was completely and totally appalled as a human being, as a Black woman and as a parent,” Lightfoot told a news conference.

“Ms Young’s dignity, that she and all of us deserve, was taken from us and this is simply inexcusable.”

The video shows police officers forcing their way into Young’s home after smashing the door open.

“You’ve got the wrong house,” a terrified Young is seen screaming at police, while clasping a blanket to cover herself.

“I don’t even know what you’re doing.”

The Chicago police department did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Young’s treatment has drawn parallels with the shooting of Breonna Taylor by police in March, after police forcibly entered her house in a drugs investigation focused on Taylor’s ex-boyfriend.

Taylor’s case became a rallying cry in Black Lives Matter protests that swept the United States and beyond this year.

Reuters did not have contact details for Young but she told CBS in an interview here that she had felt violated by the raid.

“If I made one wrong move I felt like they would have shot me,” said a teary-eyed Young, who wore a T-shirt with a picture Taylor and the words “I am her”.

CBS reported here that the Chicago Police Department had denied a Freedom of Information Act request lodged by Young to gain access to the video. Police also filed an emergency motion in federal court to stop CBS Chicago from airing it.

“Filing a motion against a media outlet to prevent something from being published is something that should rarely, if ever, happen. This is not how we operate,” Lightfoot said.

Reuters was unable to determine why police conducted the raid or if Young had faced any charges in connection with it, but media here described it as "botched" and Lightfoot issued an apology to the woman.

Reporting by Derek Francis in Bengaluru; Editing by Robert Birsel