It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
BOND IS BI
Daniel Craig said he goes to gay bars to avoid aggressive men in straight clubs
Canela López
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Daniel Craig. Getty/Max Munby
Daniel Craig, also known as James Bond in the “007” series, said he likes to go to gay bars to avoid aggressive straight men.
The actor said he started to going to gay bars in his youth to stop getting beat up.
“There are a lot of girls there for exactly the same reason,” Craig said.
Daniel Craig may play a macho man as James Bond in the “007” series, but he said he tries his best to avoid aggressive men off-screen.
“I’ve been going to gay bars for as long as I can remember,” Craig said on the “Lunch with Bruce” SiriusXM podcast. “One of the reasons, because I don’t get into fights in gay bars that often.”
The British actor said he first started going to gay bars in his youth because he didn’t want to get punched on a night out, which would happen “quite a lot” at straight bars.
Craig explained people weren’t bothered by his presence at gay bars, despite being a straight man himself. He said no one really asked him about his sexuality when he was out at straight bars, making them a “very safe place to be.”
“I could meet girls there, ’cause there are a lot of girls there for exactly the same reason I was there,” Craig said.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren says billionaires have ‘enough money to shoot themselves into space’ because they don’t pay taxes
Oma Seddiq
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on September 28, 2021. Patrick Semansky-Pool/Getty Images
Sen. Elizabeth Warren criticized the ultra-rich for traveling to space but not paying their taxes.
On “The View,” Warren discussed Biden’s spending package that would increase investments in healthcare and climate.
“The money is going to come from the billionaires who don’t pay their taxes and therefore have enough money to shoot themselves into space,” Warren said.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday criticized wealthy Americans who have ventured into outer space but haven’t paid their taxes on Earth.
In an interview with “The View” on ABC, the Massachusetts senator discussed President Joe Biden’s trillion-dollar legislative plan, saying that Democrats want to make the ultra-rich pay higher taxes to help cover its costs.
“The money is going to come from the billionaires who don’t pay their taxes and therefore have enough money to shoot themselves into space,” Warren said.
“It’s going to come from giant corporations like Amazon,” she continued.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the second richest person in the world, in July flew to the edge of space on a rocket built by his space company, Blue Origin. The move prompted criticism. Before his journey, more than 185,000 people signed petitions not to allow Bezos to return to Earth.
“Billionaires should not exist … on earth, or in space, but should they decide the latter they should stay there,” one petition’s description read.
Bezos did not pay federal income taxes in 2007 and 2011, according to a bombshell report of IRS documents published by ProPublica in June. Amazon also paid no federal taxes in 2017 and 2018. Over the years, the billionaire has since his wealth increase, with a current net worth over $US190 ($AU258) billion.
The world’s richest person, Elon Musk, likewise saw his wealth grow but paid a small amount in taxes, according to the ProPublica report. From 2014 to 2018, Musk’s wealth increased by $US13.9 ($AU19) billion, but he reported only $US1.52 ($AU2) billion worth of taxable income to the IRS. Comparing the $US455 ($AU619) million he paid in taxes to his wealth gains, ProPublica said Musk paid a “true tax rate” of 3.27%.
Musk also has his own space company, SpaceX. He has not traveled to space yet, but has paid for a ticket for a future flight on Virgin Galactic, a company founded by fellow billionaire Richard Branson.
Democrats have blasted big companies and the ultra-wealthy for avoiding taxes and for not paying what they describe as their “fair share” in taxes.
“I’m sick and tired of the super-wealthy and giant corporations not paying their fair share in taxes,” Biden tweeted last month. “It’s time for it to change.”
Biden’s spending package would increase investments in education, healthcare, childcare, and climate, aiming to boost the working class of the country. But negotiations are ongoing as the Democratic party’s progressives and moderates remain divided over elements of the plan.
“Nobody is going to get everything they want – and that includes all the senators,” Warren said, alluding to Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who have opposed the size and the scope of the package.
“I want the folks on the other side to put on the table what they don’t want,” she added.
Major Hollywood crew strike looms as union sets deadline
Issued on: 13/10/2021 -
Hollywood could come to a grinding halt if the 60,000 workers of the IATSE union go on strike from Monday
MARIO TAMA GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File
Los Angeles (AFP)
Hollywood film set crews will launch their biggest strike since the 1940s next week unless studios meet their demands for better working conditions, their largest union said Wednesday in a move that could bring the multi-billion dollar industry to a halt.
The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), which represents 60,000 film and TV workers from camera operators to set builders and costume designers, has been in months of talks with the top industry organization representing the likes of Disney, Warner and Netflix.
IATSE says that despite months of negotiations, Hollywood studios have ignored their demands for shorter working hours, longer breaks between shifts, and improved pay for the lowest earners.
"Without an end date, we could keep talking forever. Our members deserve to have their basic needs addressed now," said IATSE head Matthew Loeb, setting a deadline of Monday.
The studios' "pace of bargaining doesn't reflect any sense of urgency," he added.
The last strike involving Hollywood film set crew saw violent clashes outside the Warner Bros studio near Los Angeles
VALERIE MACON AFP/File
With film and TV production attempting to ramp up again after enforced Covid shutdowns, IATSE wants stiffer penalties for productions that force members to work through lunch breaks.
It has also criticized Hollywood's failure to update the often lower salaries for crew members working on projects for streaming platforms, which today have budgets comparable to traditional Hollywood blockbusters.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers representing major studios and TV networks did not immediately respond to AFP's request for comment Wednesday.
It has recently told US media it has made concessions on wages, pension and health care to IATSE.
The last major Hollywood walkout to wreak havoc on production schedules was the writers' strike in 2007 and 2008.
The so-called "below-the-line" technical workers involved in the current dispute have not laid down their cameras, makeup brushes and props since 1945.
That event, known as "Hollywood's Bloody Friday," saw violent clashes outside the Warner Bros studio near Los Angeles.
IATSE members voted by a huge margin last week to support a strike if the talks are not successful, bringing the long-running dispute to a boil.
Mike Miller, vice president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) speaks to members at a rally on on Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021. Myung J. Chun /Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
IATSE said more than 60,000 entertainment workers will strike next week if negotiations aren’t final.
Negotiations between crew members and studios have been at an impasse for several months.
A strike could halt a range of TV and film projects – disrupting an industry already impacted by COVID.
More than 60,000 film and television workers in the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), a crew members’ union in Hollywood, are on the brink of an industrywide strike. IATSE President Matthew Loeb tweeted on Wednesday that he intends to formally initiate a strike on Monday unless an agreement is reached between IATSE and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).
“We will continue bargaining with the producers this week in the hopes of reaching an agreement that addresses core issues, such as reasonable rest periods, meal breaks, and a living wage for those on the bottom of the wage scale,” Loeb said in the tweet.
“However, the current pace of bargaining doesn’t reflect any sense of urgency. Without an end date, we could keep talking forever. IATSE film and TV workers deserve to have their basic needs addressed NOW,” Loeb continued.
Union members have pushed for improved working conditions, like longer rest breaks and wage increases for lower-paid crafts. Many personal accounts from union members’ difficult working experiences have been pouring out on social media, reining in support from other major entertainment unions including SAG-AFTRA, the Directors Guild of America, and the Writers Guild of America, as well as notable figures in the industry.
Earlier this month, IATSE members voted to authorize a strike, with over 98% of members voting in favor for a strike. The union and producers resumed bargaining negotiations on Wednesday, according to Deadline, marking eight days since the strike authorization. The unions have been locked in multiple negotiations since July, but parties have repeatedly failed to reach a consensus on a deal.
“Despite our best efforts at the table, the pace of negotiations does not reflect the urgency of the situation,” Cathy Repola, national executive director of the Editors Guild, IATSE Local 700, said in a message to her members on Tuesday. “In the wake of the overwhelming strike authorization vote, the employers repeatedly refuse to do what it will take to achieve a fair deal. Either they don’t recognize what has changed in our industry and among our members or they don’t care. Or both.”
The strike is expected to have major implications on the entertainment industry, creating a labor shortage that could affect everything from live television shows to streaming hits to feature films. Studios are still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, which continues to disrupt production schedules and theatrical releases.
If the action goes forward on Monday, it will be only the second crew member strike in Hollywood history.
IATSE Sets Strike Date, Which Could Shut Down Film And TV Production Nationwide
BY RYAN SCOTT/OCT. 13, 2021
Hollywood may soon come to a grinding halt if two major organizations cannot reach an agreement. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) has officially set a strike date, meaning that if an agreement isn't settled on with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) soon, movie and TV production may all but stop entirely in the U.S. This is, to say the very least of it, a huge deal for the industry.
As reported by Variety, Matthew Loeb, president of IATSE, said 60,000 union members will begin a strike on October 18 at 12:01 a.m. if an agreement with the AMPTP is not met. Currently, members of the union are demanding better working conditions, and the battle has been going on for weeks, with things heating up recently when the group widely voted in favor of a possible strike. The situation is complicated, and those interested in learning more about the ins and outs would do well to click this link. The main point is, if these two huge Hollywood groups can't come to terms — and soon — the movie/TV business is effectively going to be shut down. Loeb said the following:
"The pace of bargaining doesn't reflect any sense of urgency. Without an end date, we could keep talking forever. Our members deserve to have their basic needs addressed now."
What an IATSE Strike Would Mean
The IATSE is, in essence, everyone who works on a film set that isn't a director, actor, screenwriter, producer, or teamster. That being the case, it's easy to understand why a strike would be downright catastrophic for productions. The strike was recently authorized with a stunning 98.7 percent approval from the union members, with 90 percent voter turnout.
This all ties into what was once called new media, namely streaming services, and working conditions that were considered acceptable before those companies became the dominant force in Hollywood. The union is asking for better pay, better hours, and safer working conditions. Specifically, they want a 10-hour turnaround between shifts for all workers, in addition to a 54-hour turnaround on weekends. They are also requesting an increased meal penalty, which is a way to try and get productions to actually stop for lunch.
Negotiations with AMPTP, a major group representing the largest film and TV producers in the country, have been ongoing. However, as evidenced by Loeb's comments, the urgency is not there. If a deal can't be reached in the next handful of days, we could be seeing the biggest strike in Hollywood since the writer's strike in 2008, though this has the potential to be more wide-reaching, as the IATSE is a whole lot more than just writers
NEW JERSEY: With the calendar slipping toward a new deadline, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is warning that "difficult decisions must be made" to trim President Joe Biden's expansive plans for reimagining the nation's social service programs and tackling climate change.
Democrats are laboring to chisel the $3.5-trillion package to about $2 trillion, a still massive proposal that would be paid for with higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy.
And with no votes to spare, they must somehow satisfy the party's competing moderate and progressive lawmakers needed for any deal.
It's all raising tough questions that Biden and his party are rushing to answer by the deadline for passage, October 31.
Should Biden keep the sweep of his proposals — free childcare and community college; dental, vision and hearing aid benefits for seniors — but for just a few years?
Or should the ideas be limited to a few, key health and education programs that could become more permanent? Should the climate change effort go bold — a national clean energy standard — or stick with a more immediate, if incremental, strategy?
A 'very disappointed' Pelosi and a 'frustrated' Biden confront the realities
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could have been speaking for the majority of Democrats in Washington when she said on Tuesday that she was “very disappointed” that President Biden’s domestic agenda will have to be pared down because of opposition from Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.
“If there are fewer dollars to spend, there are choices to be made,” Pelosi said during her weekly press conference at the U.S. Capitol. She promised that the final package would be “transformative” all the same, whatever that package ultimately looks like. The two Senate centrists have said that the president’s proposal to spend $3.5 trillion over 10 years on expanding childcare, health coverage and environmental protections is much too expensive to win their necessary support.
Manchin has indicated he’d like to see Build Back Better, as the president’s “human infrastructure” proposals are collectively known, end up costing around $2 trillion. Without any Republican support for those proposals, and with the Senate evenly divided between the two parties, the demands of Manchin and Sinema carry inordinate weight.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Now that the red pens have come out, every member of Congress with any say in the matter wants to make sure that their priorities make the final cut and aren’t trimmed too severely in the process.
“Housing. Is. Everything,” said a recent tweet from Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., the influential House Financial Services Committee chairwoman. She wants to see affordable housing remain a priority in the pared-down Build Back Better agenda.
Other progressives are making similar demands. “The Congresswoman has repeatedly said ‘no climate, no deal,’” a spokeswoman for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., wrote to Yahoo News in an email.
Some Democrats just want to see something — anything — make it into law. They fear that failure to pass either the Build Back Better bill or a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package that has some Republican support could indicate to the American people that Democrats are incapable of governing when in control of both the White House and both chambers of Congress. It is not lost on Democrats that they used precisely that argument to wrest the House from Republican control in the 2018 congressional midterms.
“The stakes are too high,” veteran Democratic pollster Celinda Lake told Yahoo News, “and the voters will not forgive Congress for doing nothing.”
Frustration has been mounting at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue as Biden, Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer try to keep a fragile coalition from collapsing.
President Biden delivers remarks on the September jobs numbers in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Friday in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“Everybody is frustrated,” Biden said earlier this month. Little since then has transpired to lighten the mood.
As far as the White House is concerned, things could be a lot worse. Just weeks ago, a clash between House progressives and Senate moderates nearly led to the collapse of Biden’s entire domestic agenda, with Pelosi deciding that she didn’t have the votes to bring the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package to the floor.
Pelosi’s calculated delay has bought the White House and congressional leaders time, but it also gives competing factions on Capitol Hill an opportunity to make an intense pitch for why their priorities need to stay in the final bill.
Pelosi has said that she would like to keep most of the programs in the Build Back Better agenda, only for shorter durations. Those include an expanded child tax credit, provisions for lower drug prices, subsidized childcare and a raft of investments in lowering greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change. “Mostly we would be cutting back on years,” she said on Tuesday.
That was different from what she told her Democratic colleagues on Monday, indicating in a letter that it was preferable to cut programs instead of reducing the period through which those programs would be funded. “Overwhelmingly,” that letter said, “the guidance I am receiving from Members is to do fewer things well so that we can still have a transformative impact on families in the workplace and responsibly address the climate crisis.”
If all that seems confusing, that’s because it is. Biden made listening to members of Congress a signature of his negotiating style. He has dispatched his top aides routinely to Capitol Hill to explain the particulars of his domestic agenda. Listening to lawmakers has the understandable effect of emboldening them, which may not be what the White House needs at the moment.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki at the daily briefing at the White House on Tuesday. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images)
“Every day there’s a reason it can all fall apart,” Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., told Yahoo News the day after Biden went to Capitol Hill in an effort to rally House Democrats. “There’s definitely bruised feelings,” the first-term congressman acknowledged before observing that “Americans don’t care about our feelings in Washington, D.C.”
Americans do seem to like the various parts of Biden’s domestic agenda; it has routinely polled at about 70 percent, as he and his allies never tire of pointing out. All the more frustrating for the White House, then, that parts of that agenda have to fall out.
Officials in the West Wing tried to put a brave face on the ongoing negotiations, even as they confront the reality of curtailed ambitions.
“I promise you, we don’t get too glum around here,” press secretary Jen Psaki said during a Tuesday briefing, “even if things look challenging.” She pointed out that even ambitions that have been curtailed are better than ones that haven’t been realized at all.
‘Wait a minute, this is wrong’ — how Israel’s Gaza attack got Menendez and others in Congress to open their eyes
One notable political consequence of Israel’s attack on Gaza last May was the statement by Sen. Robert Menendez, chair of the Foreign Relations Committee and a staunch Israel supporter, that he was “deeply troubled” by reports Israel was killing “innocent civilians,” though Menendez endorsed Israel’s right to defend itself.
Menendez’s statement was “an act of God” that took him by surprise, but is representative of other Congress members’ growing awareness, Samer Khalaf, the president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said last Saturday.
“Menendez is one of the biggest pro Israel hawks in the Senate, period…. I’ll be honest with you, I think it was an act of God. Look, I’ve known Menendez since he was a mayor in New Jersey [late 80s Union City] and I’ve met with him on countless occasions and when he ran for Congress [in 1992] he decided to take a very Zionist track and when he ran for Senate he became even a bigger Zionist. But we consistently met with him, and that was the one area that we could not get through to him. So I don’t think it was a matter of lobbying in his case. I think this was a matter of, It was so bad what they were doing that he finally realized, Wait a minute, something is wrong here. He made that statement but at the same time he wanted to protect himself, and so it’s kind of like, what good was that statement. You made one step forward but like five steps back.
I don’t know what his motivation was. Because his statement came out of nowhere. I don’t want to be naive about it and say now he’s pro-Palestinian. He’s not. He’s pro-Zionist and he’s going to be that way. But it showed some glimmer of hope that we can maybe get some movement somewhere else from other people.
SAMER KHALAF, (L) PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN-ARAB ANTI-DISCRIMINATION COMMITTEE, AND CHRIS HABIBY, ITS LEGISLATIVE DIRECTOR, AT THE ORGANIZATION’S CONFERENCE IN ANAHEIM. OCT. 9, 2021. SCREENSHOT FROM VIDEO.
Menendez was not alone, Khalaf told an audience at the ADC’s annual convention. But don’t expect conversions to the Palestinian cause.
The latest Israel aggression toward Gaza and toward the West Bank and even toward their so called Palestinian Israeli citizens opened up a lot of eyes for a lot of members of Congress. A lot of people that normally would never criticize Israel all of a sudden started saying, Wait a minute, this is wrong…
For me, I thought, that to get the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee who is pro Zionist to come out and actually question an action of Israel was a significant step. It’s not great, but it’s a step. Politics is a game of inches literally… You’re not going to flip somebody. There’s no light to turn on. There’s no magic word, no statement you’ll be ever to make to that person. ‘Oh wow! You’re right I was wrong. I now agree with you 100 percent.’ We have to take everything incrementally.
Khalaf also discussed the dilemma of working with “PEP” congresspeople, Progressive Except Palestine.
“They’re well known… They’re great on issues regarding minority rights, they’re great on issues regarding women’s rights. They’re great on issues involving a whole myriad of things. But we stop at Palestine. So we have to decide individually what we do about those people. Do we say we’re going to totally ignore that person?”
A member of the audience cited one such PEP case: Rep. Katie Porter, a law professor who in 2018 became the first Democrat to win her district in Orange County, California, and last year was reeelected. The audience member said that Porter has “evaded” Arab Americans though she raised “crazy money” at fundraisers in Arab-American households, and even attended a fundraiser for Rep. Rashida Tlaib.
REP. KATIE PORTER VISITING THE CALIFORNIA/MEXICO BORDER, SEPT. 13, 2021. FROM HER FACEBOOK PAGE.
Chris Habiby, legislative director of the ADC, said he thinks it’s important to keep working with Porter because she is more open than predecessors. But he lamented that she has refused to support Rep. Betty McCollum’s landmark bill that (as Habiby said) “prohibits security assistance to Israel that goes toward harming Palestinian women and children.” Polls show a large majority of Democratic voters support it.
“It is an issue that is important to our entire community, it is something that we are pushing hard on the Hill,” Habiby said. When the ADC met with Porter, “Her response was– interesting.” Porter said, “I agree with the effort.” But according to Habiby, she said that thinking strategically, the bill will not get enough support to become law, so she wants to address human rights aspects of “security assistance across the world.” Habiby said he has met her staff to build a coalition to address security assistance globally, “which includes Israel.”
At least Porter is thinking about it, Habiby said. “It’s not that she has disregarded it, or she doesn’t think about it… I understand frustration. I understand, we want her to be on the other side of this bill.”
Google and Amazon workers want companies to end contracts with Israeli military
"We cannot look the other way, as the products we build are used to deny Palestinians their basic rights, force Palestinians out of their homes and attack Palestinians in the Gaza Strip – actions that have prompted war crime investigations by the international criminal court."
Hundreds of workers at Google and Amazon are demanding that both companies stop providing cloud services to the Israeli military.
In May Israel carried out deadly attacks on Gaza, killing almost 250 people and more than 60 children. That same week the Israeli government signed a contract with Amazon Web Services and Google for over $1 billion. That contract secured a four phase project called “Nimbus”, which will provide cloud services to the Israeli government and military.
In an open letter, published in The Guardian, nearly 400 Google and Amazon workers condemned the contract and called on the companies to sever ties with Israel.
“We cannot look the other way, as the products we build are used to deny Palestinians their basic rights, force Palestinians out of their homes and attack Palestinians in the Gaza Strip – actions that have prompted war crime investigations by the international criminal court,” reads the letter.
“We envision a future where technology brings people together and makes life better for everyone. To build that brighter future, the companies we work for need to stop contracting with any and all militarized organizations in the US and beyond. These contracts harm the communities of technology workers and users alike. While we publicly promise to uplift and assist our users, contracts such as these secretly facilitate the surveillance and targeting of those same users.”
The letter was published on the same day that Irish author Sally Rooney put out a statement embracing BDS and rejecting a request to have her latest novel translated by an Israeli publisher.
In response to the letter more than 40 human rights organizations have launched a #NoTechforApartheid campaign, highlighting the workers’ demands. “Following in the footsteps of those who fought to divest from apartheid South Africa and won, it’s our responsibility to rise up in support of Palestinian freedom,” reads the campaign’s website. “The Amazon and Google execs who signed this contract can still choose to be on the right side of history.”
Amazon, Google employees urge their companies to cut contracts with Israel
Google and Amazon employees are speaking out against their companies’ new contracts with the Israeli government and its military, known as Project Nimbus
More than 300 Amazon and nearly 100 Google employees said they felt "morally obligated" to speak out against contracts with Israel [Getty]
In a historic campaign, Google and Amazon employees have urged their respective companies to pull out of contracts with the Israeli government and its military, which they said contributed to the "systematic discrimination" and "displacement" of Palestinians.
In a Guardian column on Tuesday, more than 300 Amazon and nearly 100 Google employees said they felt "morally obligated" to speak out against contracts with Israel, known as Project Nimbus.
The workers, who referred to themselves as "employees of conscience from diverse backgrounds", described the contracts as "[selling] dangerous technology to the Israeli military and government".
"This contract was signed the same week that the Israeli military attacked Palestinians in the Gaza Strip – killing nearly 250 people, including more than 60 children," the workers wrote.
"The technology our companies have contracted to build will make the systematic discrimination and displacement carried out by the Israeli military and government even crueller and deadlier for Palestinians," they added.
The cloud services will help Israel illegally collect data on Palestinians, the workers said, that will be used to further policies that US-based NGO Human Rights Watch says constitute crimes of apartheid.
A deal was signed between Google and Amazon with Israel in May to set up cloud-based regional data centres in Israel.
Israeli officials said the agreement will ensure continuity of service even if the tech giants come under pressure from rights campaigners to boycott the country.
The announcement came as Jewish employees of Google asked managed to review the contract and corporate donations with "institutions that support Israeli violations of Palestinian rights".
Photos reveal brutal Israeli treatment of activists, farmers during olive harvest
Activists and local farmers said Palestinian activist Mohammed al-Khatib was violently beaten, kicked, and punched in the face by Israeli soldiers before he was thrown on the ground and dragged across the rugged terrain before he was stepped on, and eventually blindfolded and taken into custody.
ISRAELI SOLDIERS PREVENTING ACCESS FOR LOCALS AND ACTIVISTS FROM OLIVE GROVES DURING HARVEST SEASON IN SALFIT, THE WEST BANK ON OCT. 11, 2021. PALESTINIAN LAND ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE TOWN OF SALFIT WAS ANNEXED IN THE LAST YEAR TO A NEW JEWISH OUTPOST ALTHOUGH PALESTINIANS HOLD LAND DEEDS FOR THE LAND. DURING AN ATTEMPT TO BREAK THE WHITE LINE ZONING A CLOSED MILITARY ZONE IN THE GROVES, THE ARMY USED STUN GRENADES AND ARRESTED THREE ACTIVISTS. (PHOTO BY MATAN GOLAN/SIPA USA)
A photo of an armed Israeli soldier, surrounded by dozens of his fellow soldiers, standing on the back of a Palestinian man as he lie face down in the ground went viral on Palestinian social media this week.
The photo was taken in the midst of a brutal Israeli crackdown on activists as they attempted to escort a group of Palestinian farmers to their land in order to harvest their olive trees in the al-Ras area west of Salfit, in the northern occupied West Bank.
Activists and local farmers who were at the scene told Mondoweiss that the man in the photo, Palestinian activist Mohammed al-Khatib, was violently beaten, kicked, and punched in the face by Israeli soldiers before he was thrown on the ground and dragged across the rugged terrain before he was stepped on, and eventually blindfolded and taken into custody.
“The soldiers attacked us all in an extremely aggressive manner,” Munther Amira, a Palestinian activist with the Popular Resistance Committee in the West Bank, who was at the scene on Monday, told Mondoweiss.
“We tried to reason with them and tell them we were just trying to help the farmers reach their land so they could pick the olives, but they refused,” Amira said.
According to Amira, al-Khatib was one of several activists who attempted to move past the soldiers and arrive at the olive groves nearby. When he did that, the soldiers attacked.
“They started attacking people everywhere, throwing tear gas, and beating anyone who tried to move closer to the olive groves,” he recounted, noting that two Israeli activists were also detained in the process, and a Palestinian journalist was also beaten.
“The photos speak for themselves, and tell you everything you need to know,” Amira said, adding that when he and other activists tried to step in and help al-Khatib, they were also beaten and pushed around.
By Wednesday afternoon, al-Khatib and the other activists had been released, but the farmers from Salfit had still not been able to access their land.
“This is all part of the intimidation tactics of the occupation, to prevent the farmers from going back to the area and harvesting their olives,” Amira said. “But we will not abandon the farmers, because this is Palestinian land, and belongs to us.”
“The olive harvest season is a blessed time for Palestinians. But for the settlers and soldiers it is a time of destruction, blood and violence.”
Settlers in, Palestinians out
For generations the people of Salfit have enjoyed al-Ras, a mountainous area on the western outskirts of the city, for its rolling olive groves, and views of the Mediterranean coastline just beyond the wall.
Dr. Dheeb Shtayyeh, a university professor and farmer from Salfit, told Mondoweiss that he and his family have been using the land at al-Ras for generations.
“I used to come here with my father as a boy and pick olives with him,” Shtayyeh said. “And when I got older, I started to bring my children here to play, and would come with my family here for picnics year round.”
Shtayyeh’s family is one of a dozen Palestinian families who own land on al-Ras, but have been unable to access their land since December 2020, when an Israeli settler showed up and established an illegal outpost on the mountaintop.
“All of a sudden, whenever we would try to go to al-Ras, soldiers would show up and kick us out,” he said. “The moment the settler would see us, he would call the soldiers, and they would be there within minutes, telling us it was a closed military zone, and we were not allowed to be there.”
PALESTINIAN ACTIVISTS RAISE THE FLAGS OF NATIONS THAT OPPOSE ILLEGAL SETTLEMENTS AT THE NEWLY ERECTED CAMP DUBBED THE UNITED NATIONS CAMP, NEAR THE ISRAELI SETTLEMENT OF ARIEL, WEST OF WEST BANK TOWN OF SALFIT ON SEPTEMBER 20, 2021. (PHOTO: STRINGER/APA IMAGES)
Over the past year, Shtayyeh, along with dozens of other families from Salfit and activists around the West Bank have been staging weekly demonstrations and peaceful actions in protest of the establishment of the outpost on their land.
He says they are nearly always met with tear gas and violence on part of the Israeli military, which maintains a now permanent presence in the area to protect the outpost.
In July, Israeli forces violently suppressed one of the protests with tear gas, causing some of the olive trees to catch fire.
“That is when we really started to worry about the trees, especially because the harvest is coming up,” he said.
Once the olive harvest began in October, as it does every year, Shtayyeh and his fellow farmers’ fears were confirmed when they attempted to reach their groves in order to pick their olives, but were swiftly turned around by the soldiers, who said they “needed permission” to be in that area and to harvest the olives.
“We have the papers that are more than 200 years old, proving that this land belongs to us and belonged to our grandfathers,” Shtayyeh remarked. “So why would we need permission from the occupation to pick our olives?”
Following the brutal attack on the activists and farmers on Monday, Shtayyeh said that the families are fearful of what will become of this year’s harvest, which many of the families rely on financially for the coming year.
“This is the first time in generations that we have not been able to harvest our olives,” he said. “We wait all year for the harvest. We not only depend on it for our lives, but also for our culture, and to teach our children about our heritage.”
Despite his fears, Shtayyeh said that he doesn’t plan on giving up or abandoning his land.
“We will never give up this land, no matter the cost,” he said. “They prevent us from accessing our land, they attack us with all their weapons and power, they arrest us, and kill us, but we will not give up.”
“I used to bring my son here every year to pick olives with me, but now I bring him to the protests, so he can learn and understand that this is our land, and that we will never give it up.”
UK
PRIVATIZED WATER COMPANIES Thames Water boss brands performance ‘unacceptable’ during river quality inquiry
LUKE O'REILLY, PA
13 October 2021, 10:25 am
Thames Waters’ chief executive has branded her own company’s performance as “unacceptable” while taking questions from the river water quality inquiry.
The Environmental Committee (EAC) on Wednesday quizzed bosses from five of the largest water and sewerage companies in England on the issue of river contamination.
It comes following the committee’s inquiry into water quality in rivers, which heard reports of water companies discharging raw sewage into rivers in England more than 400,000 times last year.
The Thames has been badly impacted by wastewater, with millions of tonnes of raw sewage entering the river each year. Engineers at the back of a boring machine excavating a section of the Thames Tideway Tunnel in London.
Under questioning from EAC chairman Philip Dunne MP, Thames Water chief executive Sarah Bentley admitted that her company’s performance is “unacceptable”.
“Thames (Water’s) performance is unacceptable, our customers find it unacceptable to contact us.
“Our ageing infrastructure, whether that’s on the water side with leakage, or on the sewage network in terms of the capacity we are treating, needs addressing.”
Ms Bentley said that Thames Water has a “broad range” of performance metrics that “need to change”.
“Since I joined 12 months ago I have been accelerating the money that we have got during this regulatory period”, she said.
“When I started I went out, I listened to our customers, I listened to environmental groups and members of this House, and of this committee, and it is clear that we have a broad range of performance metrics that we need to change”.
Ms Bentley also revealed that the new Thames Tideway Tunnel would not be able to eliminate the problem of rainwater spills into the Thames.
The 16-mile long tunnel is projected to cost £4.2bn and is set to be completed by 2025.
“Currently, when we get inundated with rain, up to 39 million tonnes of rainwater, which then gets contaminated with sewage, is discharged into the tidal Thames, which is clearly unacceptable”, she said.
“The Thames Tideway tunnel will eliminate the vast majority of that.
“Clearly, with extreme weather events, that are increasing, we need to look at that before it comes into operation in the next two and a half years.
“But when the original analysis was done 15 years ago, we would have needed a tunnel twice as big.” Members of Surfers Against Sewage and Thames 21 clean the banks of the river Thames, near Battersea Bridge in south west London, as part of the Surfers Against Sewage 20th anniversary Beach Clean Tour, which has visited 20 major UK beaches and waterside locations (Dominic Lipinski/PA)More
She told the committee that, at its widest, the Thames Tideway tunnel is as wide as three double-decker buses.
“It would need to be twice as big to reduce it down to zero spills”, she said.
“It’s designed to take it from 39 million tonnes down to two and a half million tonnes.”
She said her company was spending £1.2bn over the next five years on improving its overall network to treat sewage and rain.
Ms Bentley said she understood why Thames Water’s customers find spills into the water unacceptable and said that her company’s position is also that they are unacceptable.
“I can understand why people are genuinely upset and concerned about the quality of the rivers and the situation with sewage discharge into those rivers,” she said.
“A number of my colleagues have suggested making sure that we transparently share information about when those spills are occurring.
“More importantly, what I have heard in the year that I have been running Thames is that our customers just find spills unacceptable, and we find them unacceptable and I’m really committed to finding out how we can eliminate storm discharges so that people can swim confidently in the river.”
Previously the EAC heard that just 14% of English rivers are currently rated an ecological status of ‘Good’, and that not one river in the country is rated ‘Good’ on its chemical status.
In a statement the EAC said that one of the main sources for this is sewage discharge from the water industry.
UK
Electric freight trains mothballed due to soaring energy prices
NEIL LANCEFIELD, PA TRANSPORT CORRESPONDENT
13 October 2021 Rail freight operators have stopped using electric trains and switched to diesel locomotives due to soaring energy prices.
Firms cannot absorb the three-fold increase in the cost of electricity, according to trade body Rail Freight Group (RFG).
The decision to mothball electric freight trains, which result in lower CO2 emissions than diesel models, was made less than three weeks before the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow.
RFC said in a statement: “The current significant increase in the wholesale cost of electricity for haulage means that some operators have had to take the regrettable decision to temporarily move back to diesel locomotives.
“A 200% increase in electricity costs for each train cannot be absorbed by the operators, or customers, and so necessary action is being taken to ensure that trains can continue to operate delivering vital goods across the country.
“Our members are assuring us that this is a temporary measure and will be kept under constant review.” The statement added that road freight emits 76% less CO2 than road freight “even with use of diesel locomotives”.
GB Railfreight, one of four major freight operators on Britain’s railways, told magazine International Railway Journal it had taken the “difficult decision” to replace their electric services with diesel locomotives “in order to maintain a cost-effective solution for transporting essential goods and supplies around the UK”.
Industry body the Rail Delivery Group said some train operators “may need to take short-term action to afford their bills”, but many firms join forces to buy electricity in bulk to protect themselves from sudden price rises.
The maximum price of approximately 80% of the total electricity used to power trains in Britain is fixed until around April 2024.
Office of Rail and Road figures show 422 kilotonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions were made by diesel locomotives in the year to March 2021.
