UK
Rishi Sunak grilled about his family allegedly ‘benefiting from Putin’s regime’

Sunak was challenged by Jayne Secker over claims his family is profiting from Kremlin operations while he is urging businesses to cut ties with Russia.

Basit Mahmood

24 March, 2022 

As chancellor Rishi Sunak braced for a difficult morning broadcast round following his Spring Statement, where he failed to help millions of people with the cost of living crisis, leaving him facing stinging criticism, he probably didn’t anticipate being asked about his family links to Russia.

Appearing on Sky News, Sunak was challenged by Jayne Secker over claims his family is profiting from Kremlin operations while he is urging businesses to cut ties with Russia.

During his Spring Statement yesterday, the chancellor had asked firms to think carefully before investing in Russia to prevent any benefit to Putin’s regime. It comes as the UK and other European leaders impose sanctions on the Kremlin following Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine.

Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murthy, holds a stake in her father’s firm Infosys, which is reported to operate in Moscow and has links to a major Russian bank.

Secker asked the chancellor: “It’s been reported that you’ve got family links to Russia. That your wife apparently has a stake in the Indian IT consultancy firm Infosys, they operate in Moscow, they have an office there, they have a delivery office there, they’ve got a connection to the Alpha bank in Moscow, are you giving advice to others that you’re not following in your own home?”

Sunak replied: “I’m here to talk to you about what I am responsible for, my wife is not.”

Asked once more if his family was benefiting from Putin’s regime, Sunak replied: “I don’t think that’s the case and as I’ve said the operations of all companies are up to them, we’ve put in place significant sanctions and all the companies we’re responsible for are following those as they rightly should.”

Asked if Infosys is, the chancellor insisted he had ‘absolutely no idea’ because he had nothing to do with the company’.

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

UK
How trade unions reacted to Rishi Sunak’s Spring Statement

Sunak's spring statement is unravelling pretty fast

Basit Mahmood 24 March, 2022 


As Rishi Sunak’s Spring Statement unravels pretty fast, with the chancellor being slammed as a ‘fiscal illusionist’ by the IFS, leaving millions of workers worse off, we take a closer look at how some of the trade unions reacted to his measures.

Unite

Unite slammed the statement as ‘tinkering around the edges’. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Workers will still be facing sleepless nights worrying about how to make ends meet, overwhelmed by rocketing prices.

“His Spring Statement does nothing to tackle the corporate elite, the billionaires who stash their loot but sack UK workers by Zoom. Once again, ordinary working people bear the broadest burden while the super-rich get off scot-free.

“That is why I’m calling on the government to join Unite in our new workers’ commission on profiteering because it’s not just the big six energy firms who have made money from this crisis.

“What about those providers who made bundles charging exorbitant prices to our NHS during the pandemic? What about Amazon and the money it made from lockdown. What about DP World, who made over $1 billion dollars in profit and then sacked 800 P&O workers on the spot.”

GMB

The GMB union said that Rishi Sunak should stop fretting about being the next Tory leader and help working people now.

Gary Smith, GMB General Secretary, said: “It’s time Rishi Sunak stopped fretting about being the next Tory leader and focused on providing real help for working people when they need it.

“His talk of tax cuts in the distant future may win votes from his backbenchers, but it does nothing to help people now.

“We’re in the grip of the worst cost of living crisis for 30 years, driven by an utterly predictable energy squeeze.

“With inflation out of control and getting worse people are crying out for help with their skyrocketing bills.

“Tory backbenchers may fall for his fluffy words, but working people know a false promise when they hear it.”

TUC

The TUC says that Rishi Sunak has failed families who need help now.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “In the midst of the biggest wages and bills crisis in living memory, Rishi Sunak’s Spring Statement has failed families who need help now.

“We did not get the urgent help with soaring bills that families need. And the rise in the national insurance threshold will mostly benefit better off households.

“The Spring Statement small print shows that pay packets are now expected to fall in value by £11 a week this year. After 12 years of Tory government, Britain needs a pay rise. But this Chancellor has no plan to get wages rising and give working people long-term financial security.”

UNISON

Chancellor’s tinkering won’t tackle the real problems facing hard-pressed households, says UNISON.

UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said: “The government has merely tinkered around the edges of the living standards crisis. Tweaking tax thresholds will boost the coffers of the wealthy, not provide help to those in most need.

“Promises to reduce taxes in future won’t cut the mustard with families living a financial hell now. Financial pain at the pumps won’t end with a few pence off fuel duty. Less affluent households are being driven off the roads.

“Cheaper solar panels won’t put food on the table for families worried about where their next meal is coming from. Money is tight for millions of working people across the UK, many employed in essential public services.

“The chancellor had the wriggle room to deliver widespread relief across NHS, care, council, police and school services. It’s outrageous he chose not to.”

TSSA

Transport and travel union TSSA slammed the government for promoting a car-led recovery over climate-friendly public transport in the Spring Statement.

Manuel Cortes, TSSA general secretary, said: “This government is fuelling – quite literally – a car-led recovery instead of promoting climate friendly solutions such as public transport.

“We should be making public transport cheaper in the face of spiralling, out of control fuel prices. Other countries are cutting the cost of public transport or making it free for commuters, but this Tory government has increased rail fares and is failing to encourage more people to take public transport.

“This Spring Statement was a missed opportunity from a Tory government that simply doesn’t understand the challenges that our country faces, choosing to back big business over ordinary workers.”

Yemen: Seven years of the forgotten war

Benali Hamdache writes on how the complexity of the war has allowed the UK government to get away with not using its power to bring peace, and to continue profiting from arm sales.

Benali Hamdache Today
Benali Hamdache is Green Party migration and refugee support spokesperson

Today is the 7th anniversary of the forgotten war. One of the biggest humanitarian crises in the world right now. The war in Yemen is both devastating and under-reported.

Since this war started 377,000 Yemenis have died of disease, hunger or conflict. 12 million children are in danger and need aid to make it through the year. The reality of life for civilians is harrowing, but the inertia and inaction from decision makers is evident and widespread.

This is despite our colonial legacy and historical ties to Yemen. South Yemen was made part of the British Empire and the British Yemeni community is both the largest and longest lasting Arabic community in the UK. Yemeni steelworkers and sailors helped build this country. But their story is not well known, and our government seems to hold little regard for repairing our legacy in the region.

Seven years ago, war broke out in Yemen. Modern day Yemen is made up of the former British colony that constituted South Yemen and the former Ottoman colony of North Yemen. The two countries came together in an uneasy and difficult union after wars and political collapse in the 70s and 80s. Yemen has been one country since 1990, but the history of being two nations has caused strife, conflict and paralysis.

Civil war and instability for three decades

Yemen’s history is also filled with the consequence of decisions by other powers. In 1990 Yemen declined to join the Gulf War’s coalition forces. Saudi Arabia responded by evicting hundreds of thousands of Yemeni workers, closing off much needed remittances. The decision seriously destabilised the economy of this newly formed nation. From that point, civil war and political instability dominated the next three decades.

Religious differences have also caused much strife. Yemen’s Shia community mostly live in the North, whilst the Sunni community live in the South. Policies on religious minorities and representation have fed into the conflict and have made finding peace much harder. This has only been exacerbated by the war becoming a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, both seeking to boost the fortunes of their allies. The result is a runaway war with peace seeming remote. This complexity has allowed the UK government to get away with not using its power to bring peace and to continue profiting from arm sales.

Businesses making billions selling deadly arms to use in Yemen

Today businesses like BAE systems are making millions, selling deadly arms to Gulf States to use in Yemen. Yemen is trapped in a cycle of British bombs dropped by one side, with Iranian arms killing more in return.

But there are many more things Liz Truss could be doing as Foreign Secretary. The UK has been shamefully quiet over war crimes committed by our Gulf state allies. We’ve not used our powers at the UN to call for accountability of war crimes, when Dominic Raab was so fast to do the same over Russia in Ukraine. We could be doing much more to reign in our allies and put a negotiated settlement and a ceasefire first.

The struggles of British Yemeni

The dichotomy in the difference in response to Ukraine versus Yemen is one noticed loudly by the British Yemeni community. They cannot bring loved ones to safety in this country. They struggle to send money to family in need. They see little action from their government as an honest broker for peace. Progressive voices need to be shifting the Overton Window and calling for equal treatment of refugees and victims of war, regardless of skin colour.

We need a cross party movement to call this out and demand more. The right for family reunification for British Yemenis and refugee sponsorship should be established. For Syrians, Afghans and many others from the Global South too. Our refugee policy shouldn’t make distinctions based on faith or ethnicity.

The rapidness of Russian sanctions and political action show that the government has many more tools at its disposal. Many more than it is willing to use for conflicts elsewhere, even if at times it’s had to be shamed into using them. We have to use this political precedent to demand more action for Yemen. Starting with stopping selling arms to the conflict and continuing with real accountability for war crimes. This war will not be solved by the one sided approach taken. It needs honest brokers.

Wealthy nations’ money can save lives

Finally, this government’s cut of the international aid budget remains one of its most shameful decisions. The world is increasingly more complex and unstable and will be more as the climate emergency worsens. Wealthy nations’ money can save lives. Instead, less money will be spread between more conflicts, with the very real consequence of the most vulnerable dying.

Let’s not forget either the shameful Nationality and Borders Bill. Its passage will shut the door to Yemenis in need. It will punish any who manage to reach family here.

Conservative foreign policy and refugee policy is often portrayed as “common-sense”. But if the status quo is endless war, barbarity and suffering it needs a radical fresh start. Progressives shouldn’t be afraid to call out an establishment that is complacent, lazy and dominated by self-interest. Black and brown lives matter.

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UN Anti-Racism Day: Calls to provide sanctuary to all refugees escaping war

Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead

19 March, 2022 (1 week ago)

The UK government’s ‘shambolic’ refugee response is in the spotlight on UN Anti-Racism Day, amid calls for the safe passage of all people fleeing war.

To mark the United Nations’ Anti-Racism Day, campaigners are taking to the streets across the UK today in a series of anti-racism protests.

Also known as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the UN Anti-Racism Day is observed annually on March 21. This was the day that – in 1960 – police officers fired at peaceful protestors in South Africa, who were campaigning against racist apartheid. 69 people were killed and 180 injured at the deadly protest.

The date was declared an international day in 1966, when the UN called on the international community to bolster efforts to abolish racial discrimination in all its forms.

This weekend, campaigners are petitioning the UK to make all refugees welcome, including those from outside Europe. The protestors are also fighting against the ‘inhumane’ Nationality and Borders Bill, which is condemned for “stopping refugees and asylum seeker from seeking safety.”

The events, which are organised by Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) and supported by the TUC, are are taking place in London, Glasgow and Cardiff, and many other cities and towns, not only in the UK, but around the world.

Rise of racist populism

Weyman Bennett, co-convener of SUTR, said: “Around the world, the growth of racist populism and its interaction with the far right and fascism is a sharpening problem we face as anti-racists in our respective countries in one way or another.

“Amidst an ecological, economic and pandemic crisis, we see governments and racist, far-right and fascist forces utilise racism to divide people and divert our gaze from those to blame.

“We need to stand up, and march together in our tens of thousands on March 19 — Black Lives Matter, and we need to build mass anti-racist movements built on black and white unity to crush the threat of racist division.”

UK’s ‘shambolic’ response to the Ukrainian refugee crisis

Since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the UN estimates more than 3 million people have been displaced from their homes.

Moldova and Poland – Europe’s poorest countries – have taken in the highest proportion of Ukrainian refugees. Sabby Dhalu, joint secretary of SUTR, notes how, “Britain is bottom of the refugee table” and that the government’s response to the crisis has been a “shambles.”

Dhalu goes on to say how the government’s latest immigration policy announcement, the ‘Homes for Ukraine,’ scheme relies on the compassion of individuals to register their interest to provide accommodation for refugees arriving from Ukraine.

“A serious refugee policy cannot be based only on kind-hearted, generous individuals and the voluntary sector,” says Dhalu, adding how the refugees are still required to apply for a visa before entering Britain.

“Expecting people fleeing a war-torn country to complete a long and complicated form for a visa with no processing timescale is a disgrace. Refugees should not be caught up in red tape,” writes SUTR’s joint secretary.

‘Double standards’

Dhali also informs how the government is failing its duty to provide sanctuary for refugees escaping wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Ethiopia and Sudan.

“The government has offered Britons £350 a month to house refugees fleeing the Ukrainian war – but where was this response for Afghan or Syrian refugees?

“The double standards shown throughout the crisis has exposed the government’s long-standing racist attitudes towards African, South Asian, and Arab refugees/asylum seekers.

“This is unacceptable.”

Today’s protests are calling on the government to scrap the Nationality and Borders Bill, which SUTR describes as “criminalising asylum-seekers and undermining the right to seek asylum.”

This week saw Filippo Grandi, the UN’s high commissioner for refugees., express similar concerns. During a four-day visit to Afghanistan, Grandi said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine must not make the world forget Afghanistan.

Talking to AFP at a UN compound in the Afghan capital, Grandi warned that ignoring Afghanistan’s humanitarian needs could be very risky.

“The whole attention of the world at the moment is focused on Ukraine.

“But my message coming here is, don’t forget the other situations, where attention and resources are needed, and Afghanistan is one of them.

“The risks of distraction are very high, very high … humanitarian assistance has to flow no matter how many other crises compete with Afghanistan around the world.”

Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward

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Racial justice activists awarded $14 million in landmark case against Denver police

By Metro USPosted on March 25, 2022

FILE PHOTO: Peaceful protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Denver

By Keith Coffman

DENVER (Reuters) -A federal court jury on Friday awarded $14 million to a dozen activists who sued Denver police, claiming excessive force was used against peaceful protesters during racial injustice demonstrations following the death of George Floyd in 2020.

The city of Denver has previously settled several civil complaints stemming from the police response to the Floyd protests, but the lawsuit decided Friday was the first such case in the nation to go to trial, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents several of the plaintiffs.

The verdict, delivered after about three hours of jury deliberations, capped a three-week trial in U.S. District Court in Denver.

The lawsuit, filed in June 2020, led a federal judge to issue a temporary injunction barring police in Denver from using tear gas, plastic bullets, flash-bang grenades and other “less-than-lethal” force unless approved by a senior officer in response to specific acts of violence.

The death of Floyd, an unarmed Black man, during his arrest in Minneapolis by a white officer kneeling on his neck, ignited a wave of protests against police brutality and racial injustice in the summer of 2020 in cities across the country, including Denver.

While the lawsuit brought by Denver activists acknowledged that some protesters engaged in lawless behavior, it said the vast majority were peaceful and accused police of engaging in heavy-handed riot-control tactics without issuing clear warnings and orders to disperse.

The largest individual award, $3 million, went to Zachary Packard, who was struck in the head by a projectile fired from a police shotgun. He suffered a broken jaw and skull, two fractured spinal discs and bleeding in his brain, the lawsuit said.

“There is a widespread custom and practice of violence and aggression against protesters,” plaintiffs’ lawyer Tim Macdonald told jurors.

A lawyer defending the city, Lindsay Jordan, argued that police had to make split-second decisions in a chaotic situation. Some protesters, Jordan said, started fires and broke windows in the state Supreme Court building and a nearby museum.

“When justifiable anger turns to violence and destruction, it’s the responsibility of police to intervene as a matter of public safety,” she said.

In a statement issued following the verdict, the city’s Department of Public Safety, which oversees the police department, said officers had made mistakes, but the protests were “unprecedented” in scope.

“The city had never seen that level of sustained violence and destruction before,” the statement said.

The city has already implemented policy changes in the aftermath of the protests, the department said, including enhanced officer training for crowd management, eliminating the use of some “less-than-lethal” weapons and new guidelines for the use of pepper spray.

(Reporting by Keith Coffman in Denver; Editing by Steve Gorman, Leslie Adler and Cynthia Osterman)

WHO: Omicron BA.2 sub variant now prevalent globally

BY SARAKSHI RAI - 03/24/22 

© Associated Press / Eugene Hoshiko

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday that Omicron sub variant BA.2 is the predominant COVID-19 variant driving infections around the world.

The WHO said in its weekly epidemiological report that "in the last 30 days, BA.2 has become the predominant variant, with 251 645 sequences reported."

It added that it made up about 85.9 percent of cases reported to the WHO in the last month.

According to the WHO, among the major Omicron descendent lineages, "weekly trends show that the relative proportion of BA.2 has increased steadily since the end of 2021, with BA.2 becoming the dominant lineage by week seven of 2022."

The report added that this trend is most pronounced in the Southeast Asia region, followed by the Eastern Mediterranean, African, Western Pacific and European Regions. The sub variant BA.2 is currently dominant in the Region of the Americas as well.

During the last update on March 8, the WHO said that BA.1.1 was the dominant sub variant and that BA.2 made up 34 percent of new cases.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during the White House COVID-19 Response Team Briefing on Wednesday that the Omicron BA.2 sub variant of has shown increased transmission but there is no evidence of "severe disease."

This comes as U.S. infections are at an eight-month low, but administration officials have warned that the new sub variant could cause an uptick in cases.

"I would not be surprised if, in the next few weeks, we do see an uptick in cases," White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci said last week. "The really important issue is that, will that be manifested in an increase in severe disease that would lead to hospitalization?"

New CDC data released Tuesday put BA.2 at about 35 percent of U.S. cases in the week ending on March 19 according to The Wall Street Journal. The variant accounts for more than 50 percent of cases in parts of Northeast, the report added.

Covid-19: UK case numbers soar by a million in a week as ‘Stealth Omicron’ drives infections

4.26 million people across the UK are likely to have had Covid last week as ‘Stealth Omicron’ drives the rise in cases

By Karen Roberts
Friday, 25th March 2022, 2:33 pm

Covid-19 infections have risen sharply across most of the UK and are nearing record levels in England, while both Scotland and Wales have reached an all-time high, new figures show.

And the number of infections in the UK have risen by a million in a week.

Across the UK as a whole, 4.26 million people were likely to have had coronavirus last week – just short of the 4.30 million in the first week of 2022, which was the highest total since estimates began. The figure for the previous week was 3.3 million.

Northern Ireland is the only nation where infections are believed to be falling, with levels having dropped for two weeks in a row, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The steep rise in infections across much of the country is being driven by the so called ‘Stealth Omicron’ BA.2 variant, a more transmissible form of Omicron, the ONS said.
Positive Covid-19 lateral flow test. Picture: Bernard Ward/AdobeStock

Cases in Scotland rise for eighth week in a row

The figures are further evidence that Covid-19 is becoming rapidly more prevalent in the UK and come as the number of people in hospital with the virus continues to increase.

Around one in 16 people in private households in England – or 3.5 million people – are likely to have had Covid-19 in the week to 19 March.

This is up from one in 20, or 2.7 million people, in the previous week and is the third week in a row that infections are estimated to have risen.

Wales has also seen its third successive jump in infections, with the figure up from 125,400 people, or one in 25, to 192,900 people, or one in 16: a record high.

In Scotland, infections have now risen for eight weeks in a row and have also reached another record high, with nearly half a million people (473,800) likely to have had Covid-19 last week, or one in 11. This is up from 376,300 people, or one in 14, the previous week.

But in Northern Ireland infections have fallen for the second successive week and now stand at an estimated 108,700 people, or one in 17, down from 130,600 people, or one in 14.

Omicron subvariant BA.2 will soon dominate in the U.S. Here's what you need to know about it.

Laura Ramirez-Feldman

·Reporter/Producer

Fri, March 25, 2022,

An Omicron subvariant known as BA.2 is expected to become dominant in the U.S. in the coming weeks.

BA.2 is at least 30% more transmissible than its cousin BA.1, and it has been driving new COVID-19 surges in the United Kingdom and other European countries. According to a World Health Organization report, the highly contagious subvariant is dominating cases worldwide, and accounted for about 86% of cases reported to the WHO between Feb. 16 and March 17.

In Hong Kong, BA.2 recently brought on a deadly outbreak reminiscent of the early days of the pandemic.

Across the European Union, new daily cases are up more than 70% since the beginning of March. Hospitalizations in the U.K. have been going up as well.

A patient outside the Accident and Emergency Ward of the United Christian Hospital in Hong Kong on March 4. (Marc Fernandes/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

So far, in the United States, BA.2 accounts for 35% of new coronavirus cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. U.S. health officials expect the strain to outcompete the other variants and to become dominant soon. However, there are some reassuring signs that BA.2 might not hit the United States as hard as Europe, and health experts in the U.S. don’t foresee a major surge in cases from the Omicron subvariant.

“We’ll likely see an uptick in cases, as we’ve seen in European countries, particularly the U.K.,” White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci told ABC’s “This Week.” “Hopefully, we won’t see a surge — I don’t think we will.”

While BA.2 appears to be more transmissible than BA.1 and is gaining ground in the U.S., it has not interrupted the country’s downward trend in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.

“So right now in the United States, case rates are still falling, despite an increased predominance of BA.2 compared to BA.1,” said Dr. Lucy McBride, a Yahoo News medical contributor. “Because of widespread vaccinations and because people do have some immunity from past infections … we are seeing fewer deaths, hospitalizations, and overall we're doing much better than we were even a month ago.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci discusses the Omicron variant at a White House press briefing on Dec. 1. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

There are no indications so far that BA.2 causes more severe disease overall than its predecessor, Delta. Another plus, McBride said, is that the vaccines available have continued to do an excellent job of protecting against severe disease and death.

“Right now, it's very important to get vaccinated, particularly if you have not been vaccinated. We all will be exposed at some point to the coronavirus, whether it's this variant or the next one, and you'd rather be armed with antibodies and immunity from having been vaccinated,” McBride said.

People who are eligible for a booster shot, particularly the elderly or those at high risk because of underlying health conditions, should consider getting the additional dose, because it provides much more protection against Omicron than just two doses.

A sign for a COVID-19 vaccination center in London on Jan. 28. (Ray Tang/Xinhua via Getty Images)

McBride's argument is supported by recent U.K. data showing that booster protection against symptomatic COVID-19 infection was 70% for BA.2 and 63% for BA.1. Protection against death caused by an Omicron infection was 95% in people who had received boosters and who were age 50 and older, the same research showed.

But what if you have already been infected with Omicron BA.1? Some recent research has shown that previous infection with the BA.1 version of the Omicron coronavirus variant provides strong protection against its relative, BA.2. However, McBride says it is worth talking to your primary care provider about getting the full vaccine series, based on your age, your underlying health conditions, your occupation and your immune status.

“Once you've been vaccinated, you've taken the claws and the fangs away from the virus. You've turned it into a more manageable illness, and the chance of getting severely ill and the chance of getting long-term consequences, while they're not zero, they're dramatically reduced,” she said.

ECOCIDE X 2

Saudi Arabian Grand Prix to go ahead as planned despite Houthi missile attack

Oil facility 10 miles from track set ablaze on Friday afternoon  

Drivers hold four-hour meeting to discuss concerns

Smoke and flames rise from an oil facility near to the F1 circuit in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah after it was hit and set ablaze by a Houthi missile attack 

Photograph: Lars Baron/Getty


Giles Richards
THE GUARDIAN

Fri 25 Mar 2022


Race organisers have insisted that the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix will go ahead as planned after Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for a missile attack on an oil facility less than 10 miles from the circuit. But in a four-hour meeting with drivers that lasted until well past midnight local time, several are believed to have voiced their concerns to F1’s chief executive, Stefano Domenicali, with some lingering doubts over whether the race will still take place.

Discussions continued until 2.30am local time, over four hours after Domenicali had made his assurance that all was well. Organisers the Saudi Motorsport Company had earlier confirmed that it would go ahead after all 10 team principals agreed to race. “We are aware of the attack on the Aramco distribution station in Jeddah earlier this afternoon and remain in contact with the Saudi security authorities, as well as F1 and the FIA to ensure all necessary security and safety measures continue to be implemented to guarantee the safety of all visitors to the Formula One Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as well as the drivers, teams and stakeholders,” read a statement. “The race weekend scheduled will continue as planned. The safety and security of all our guests continues to be our main priority and we look forward to welcoming fans for a weekend of premium racing and entertainments.”


Fire breaks out at Jeddah oil depot before Saudi Arabia grand prix

Mercedes’ Toto Wolff said: “It was a good meeting. We, as team principals, have been assured that we are protected here, that’s probably the safety place in Saudi Arabia at the moment, that we’re racing.”

Red Bull’s Christian Horner was also confident it would go ahead. “We’ll be racing,” he said.

After the attack, huge plumes of black smoke rising high into the sky were clearly visible from the circuit. The Houthi rebels, who have been embroiled in war with a Saudi-led coalition for seven years, claimed to have carried it out, with Saudi state media saying the coalition had foiled a string of Houthi drone and rocket attacks. Last Sunday the Houthis attacked another oil facility in Jeddah as part of another wave of strikes.

Domenicali said he was assured by the Saudi authorities that the safety of the teams will be guaranteed. “We have received total assurances that, for the country, safety is first, no matter the situation – safety has to be guaranteed,” he said. “So we feel confident and we have to trust the local authority in that respect. Therefore, of course we will go ahead with the event.”

The team principals were unanimous in agreement at this stage that the race weekend should continue.

Some drivers were understood to be less convinced, however. Before the attack, Lewis Hamilton was unequivocal in demanding F1 does more to instigate reform in Saudi Arabia if the sport continues to race there. With the state accused of sportswashing and having recently executed 81 people in one day, the seven-times champion admitted he was shocked when he received a letter from a teenager sentenced to death for a crime he was alleged to have committed when he was 14.

Saudi Arabia’s human rights record has attracted enormous criticism – including allegations of indiscriminate bombing of civilians in Yemen – and placed F1 once more under the spotlight for assisting in legitimising the activities of the regime.

The Jeddah circuit is located approximately 10 miles from the site of the oil depot fire caused by a Houthi missile strike. Photograph: Clive Rose/Formula 1/Getty Images

Hamilton placed the pressure firmly on F1 to make a difference since the drivers have no say on the countries his sport visits. “Ultimately, it is the responsibility of those who are in power to really make the changes and we are not really seeing enough, we need to see more,” he said. “We don’t decide where we go to race in Formula One, but while it is not necessarily our responsibility, we are duty-bound to try and do what we can.”

Hamilton’s unease at racing in Saudi Arabia had not changed from last year’s race when he said he was “not comfortable” with F1 competing in the country. As revealed by the Guardian on Thursday Hamilton was written to earlier this week by the family of Abdullah al-Howaiti, who was sentenced to death for a crime they maintain he did not commit and was a minor when he was alleged to have done so.

Hamilton acknowledged he was aware of the letter and that its subject matter left him reeling. “It’s mind-blowing to hear the stories,” he said. “I’ve heard there is a letter sent to me from a 14-year-old on death row. When you’re 14 you don’t know what the hell you’re doing in life.”


F1 faces calls to quit Saudi Arabia while prisoner’s family asks Hamilton to help

Hamilton has attempted to ensure he is aware of human rights issues and has met representatives from some of the countries involved in an attempt to effect change.

The British driver remains committed to doing so but questioned why the authorities in Saudi Arabia and F1 itself were apparently oblivious to the need for reform.

“It is important we try to educate ourselves and with a little bit of difference, we can try to make sure we are doing something,” he said. “I am always open to having a discussion, to learning more and trying to understand exactly why things are happening and why they are not changing. It is 2022 and it is easy to make changes.”

With his Mercedes off the pace of the leaders he is searching for change too on track if the race takes place but is unlikely to enjoy any great steps forward this weekend. His car is suffering from the bouncing due to a downforce stall on straights and Mercedes are still working on an aerodynamic solution.

Hamilton was sixth-tenths off Charles Leclerc’s pole position last week in Bahrain and the team have no quick fix. Mercedes’s chief technical director, Andrew Shovlin, has said it could take two or three more races to solve their problems.

Ferrari and Red Bull were in a class of their own at Bahrain last week with the Scuderia’s Leclerc taking a one-two with Carlos Sainz. Mercedes were flattered by third and fourth, positions inherited after the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez retired with a fuel system problem the team said it has now successfully resolved.

The battle between Ferrari and Red Bull is set to be fascinating. They are closely matched on pace, with Ferrari’s new engine proving to be hugely competitive. However, Jeddah is a different circuit to Bahrain, where there is a preponderance of slow corners. Jeddah is quick, indeed some drivers have suggested dangerously so, with a combination of close walls and blind corners.

Ferrari were strong in Bahrain through and in acceleration out of the slower corners while Red Bull enjoyed the superior straight-line pace. How they perform in Jeddah will be another indicator of relative strengths and weaknesses.

DOCTRINE OF HUMANITARIAN WAR

Madeleine Albright Was a Killer

Madeleine Albright has died at 84. She was a pioneering imperialist who passionately advocated greater use of deadly violence in pursuit of a US-dominated post–Cold War global order — and killed many, many people in the process.

From 1993 to 1997, Madeleine Albright served as United Nations ambassador. In that capacity, she presided over the brutal post–Gulf War sanctions on Iraq. 

(Chatham House / Flickr)


BYLIZA FEATHERSTONE
Jacobin

Madeleine Albright, who died Wednesday at the age of eighty-four, was America’s first female secretary of state. But the countless headlines touting that fact risk reducing her accomplishments to gender. That’s not fair: she was so much more than a trailblazer.

Albright was an imperial ghoul, as ruthless in her pursuit of American global dominance as any man. She played a central role in crafting a post–Cold War policy that wrought devastation on multiple continents. Her biography was a harrowing one: her family fled Nazi persecution when she was a child, and twenty-six of her relatives, including three grandparents, were murdered in the Holocaust. It’s a traumatic story, but rest assured: she presided over of plenty of trauma and death for others in return.

From 1993 to 1997, Albright served as United Nations ambassador. In that capacity, she presided over the brutal post–Gulf War sanctions on Iraq, with the aim of maximizing the misery of Iraqis so as to encourage Saddam Hussein’s overthrow. In a 1996 interview with Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes, Albright seemed to suggest that the deaths of other people’s children were simply a cost of doing empire. “We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that is more children than died in Hiroshima,” said Stahl. “And you know, is the price worth it?” Albright answered, “I think that is a very hard choice, but the price, we think, the price is worth it.”

Although the mortality estimates Stahl was referring to have subsequently been questioned by researchers, Albright made it clear that she was quite prepared to inflict death on that scale. It’s hard to fathom the death of more than half a million children, and the refractory misery, for so many families, contained in that one statistic. Yet that was a “price” Albright was willing to extract from ordinary people in that poor country, where sanctions deprived Iraqis of medicines, clean drinking water, and essential infrastructure.

The Powell Doctrine — that is, the view of post–Cold War foreign policy advanced by Clinton’s Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Colin Powell (also recently eulogized here and not kindly) — was that the United States should limit its military interventions to situations in which its own national interests are threatened. Albright did not agree, and they clashed over what the US role should be in crises like Bosnia. Powell wrote in his memoir that he “almost had an aneurysm” when she asked him, “What’s the point of having this superb military we’re always talking about if we can’t use it?”

As UN ambassador, Albright drove UN secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali from power after a relentless campaign, a sorry episode that sheds some light on her vision of the fin de siècle world order. Boutros-Ghali, whose tenure in office was supported by every country other than the United States, later attributed his ouster to his publication of a UN report arguing that an Israeli attack on a refugee camp in Lebanon, which killed one hundred people, was deliberate and not a mistake, contrary to the Israeli government’s claims. US officials denied that this was the reason, citing instead disputes over Rwanda, Croatia, and Bosnia. He had ruffled some Western ruling-class feathers by calling Bosnia a “war of the rich.” As well, Boutros-Ghali, an architect of the Camp David accords, saw Albright’s campaign against him as racist or xenophobic pandering to anti-UN Republicans (Bob Dole, for example, had taken to making fun of the Egyptian secretary general’s name: “Booootros Booootros” or “Boo Boo”), who were especially animated after fifteen US soldiers died in a botched UN peacekeeping raid in Somalia. Among other means of driving the secretary general from power, Albright falsely accused Boutros-Ghali of corruption. Writing in Le Monde Diplomatique at the time, Eric Rouleau suggested the real reason for Albright’s vendetta against her popular colleague:

The fall of the Berlin Wall had enabled the United States to conduct the Gulf War almost as it pleased and this suggested a model for the future: the UN proposes, on Washington’s initiative and the US disposes. But Mr. Boutros-Ghali did not share that view of the end of the Cold War.

From 1997 to 2001, Albright was secretary of state, under President Bill Clinton. In that much-celebrated groundbreaking role, she continued inflicting unimaginable suffering on the Iraqis. UN assistant secretary-general Denis Halliday resigned his post in 1999 in order to speak out against the sanctions; the US was “knowingly killing thousands of Iraqis each month,” he said at the time, a policy he called “genocide.” Although many Americans were shocked when the George W. Bush administration invaded Iraq, the reality is that when Bush came into office, the United States was already bombing Iraq, on average, about three times a week. That’s our girl! Just as warmongering as a man.

Albright also promoted NATO’s expansion into the former Soviet countries in Eastern Europe, a reckless trajectory that numerous high-ranking diplomats over the years have warned would inevitably antagonize Russia. That policy has contributed significantly to the terrifying potential nuclear conflict that we’re now facing, as well as the awful massacre of Ukrainian civilians (at least 977 for certain, as of yesterday, and the UN high commissioner for human rights believes the real number is much higher).

Albright never retired, a distinction that her fans will no doubt see as a badass rejection of ageism. But it would have been much better for the world had she taken some time off to bask in her considerable achievements. Her consulting company helped Pfizer avoid sharing their international property, although doing so would save lives around the world during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Vaccine patents remain a major cause of global vaccine apartheid and mass death. But it’s unlikely that this troubled her on her deathbed: the deaths of poor, brown people who aren’t Americans have always been “worth the price” to Albright.

During the 2016 presidential primary, she said of women (like this writer) who didn’t support the candidacy of Hillary Clinton, “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other.” She later apologized for the comment in an op-ed column in the New York Times, so I don’t want to be petty about it. After all, the Iraqi people never got an apology from her. But reviewing the evidence above, it was reckless of Albright to consign other women to that famous inferno.

Almost certainly, there’s already a reservation in her name at that sizzling underground hot spot. Maybe there she will finally get the recognition she deserves, as a standout among murderous imperial warmongers of any gender.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Liza Featherstone is a columnist for Jacobin, a freelance journalist, and the author of Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle for Workers’ Rights at Wal-Mart.

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=KOSOVO

Seeing the Forest for the Trees
Thesis on The Kosovo Crisis and the Crisis of Global Capitalism
(originally written May 1999, Bill Clinton set the stage for George W. to invade Afghanistan and Iraq for humanitarian purposes.)
http://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2005/01/war-whats-it-good-for-profit.html

CLIMATE CHANGE

'Extremely dry': Farmers in southern Alberta gear up for drought conditions

A farmer's field in Alberta is shown.

Karsen Marczuk
CTV News Lethbridge Video Journalist
Published March 25, 2022 


With the Lethbridge area not seeing much snow over the past few months, the dry conditions are already causing grief for some farmers.

"We had some snow fall but most of that just blew away or blew around," said James Johnson with Johnson Fresh Farms near Taber, Alta. "It’s still extremely dry."

Just weeks away from spring seeding, Johnson calls the dry conditions just another bump in the road. But there are more bumps on the road than usual this year, like the rising cost of fertilizer and gas as a result of Russia’s attack on Ukraine.


"Especially with the high input costs right now with fuel and fertilizer, I know it's probably a little bit different for the dryland guys, they're really going have to think long and hard (about) how much fertilizer they want to risk putting on their crop," said Johnson. "We’re lucky to have irrigation."

Southern Alberta experienced a large drought throughout the summer last year, with many crops wilting away in the heat.

"We’re going into this season really lacking any sub-soil moisture at all. In some areas, there will be some top moisture, and I’ve seen some reports on that, where people think they have enough to maybe germinated, but it's not enough to carry the crop on,” said Lynn Jacobson, president of the Alberta Federation of Agriculture.

Jacobson says the lack of moisture can effect more than just crops.

"There's not going to be a lot of grass for the cattle for grazing, for people with cattle, so that's going to have an effect on people with grazing leases and even their own pastures," he said. "And hay is already tight this year, so that's just going to cause another problem."

There isn't much precipitation in the long-range forecast, something Environment Canada meteorologist Alysa Pederson says has been the trend since October.

“We only had about 88.7 mm of precipitation, which is only about 63 per cent of normal,” she said.

Pederson said much of Western Canada saw a La Nina throughout the winter, which brought less precipitation.

She says cooler but drier conditions are expected throughout the spring in the Lethbridge area.

“We’re looking at a little bit below normal, but that doesn’t mean we're going to have warm weeks, or below normal weeks, kind of averaging out through the season,” Pederson said.

A map from Environment Canada.

Pederson added that the past winter is in line with 2021 and 2020.

With warmer weather on the horizon, Jacobson expects crop insurance to be a hot item once again this summer.

Both Johnson and Jacobson say all they can do now is cross their fingers and hope for rain.

At 96 degrees, Phoenix breaks 1990 heat record in first heatwave of spring
Adam Terro
Arizona Republic


Temperatures in Phoenix hit a new record high on Friday with the weather expected to warm up even more over the weekend, according to the National Weather Service in Phoenix.

Phoenix Sky Harbor reached 96 degrees Friday afternoon, setting a new daily high-temperature record for March 25, 15 degrees above the normal temperature for the date.

The previous record of 93 degrees was set in 1990 and 1988, according to NWS Phoenix.

Temperatures are expected to increase over the weekend, peaking on Saturday with an expected high of 96 degrees and a low of 63 degrees at night, NWS meteorologist Marvin Percha said.

Forecasts for Sunday include a high of 94 degrees and a low of 61 with a slight breeze persisting throughout the weekend, Percha said.

It's the first heatwave of the spring season in the Valley, and although not hot enough is to force closures of trails and parks in Phoenix, officials are advising hikers to take precautions.

The Phoenix Parks and Recreation Services reminded those planning to go out onto trails over the weekend to be prepared and stay safe.

Hikers are encouraged to go out in the mornings and evenings in order to avoid the hottest times of the day. Additionally, hikers should dress appropriately for the weather, stay hydrated, carry a phone in case of emergencies and stay on designated trails.

The weather is expected to quickly cool off at the start of next week.

NWS forecasts showers to begin Monday and last throughout Tuesday as well. A high of 85 is expected on Monday, and temperatures will drop to 71 on Tuesday, along with an 80% chance of showers, according to Percha.

In addition to the rain, the breeze from the weekend is expected to pick up and reach gusts of up to 25 mph on Monday, according to NWS Phoenix.

The Ketanji Brown Jackson Hearings Show Marriage Equality Is the Next Target Once Roe Falls

BY MARK JOSEPH STERN

MARCH 23, 2022

Sen. John Cornyn questions Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson during her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Tuesday. 

Win McNamee/Getty Images

For several decades, Republicans used Supreme Court nomination hearings to sharpen their knives against Roe v. Wade. They have long seized the opportunity to make their case against Roe, railing against the decision as a paragon of judicial activism and overreach. During Ketanji Brown Jackson’s hearings this week, GOP senators have, predictably, condemned Roe—but not as much as might be expected. Instead, many senators have turned their attention to a different precedent that’s likely next on their hit list once Roe likely falls this summer: Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 decision recognizing same-sex couples’ constitutional right to marry.

Loathing for Obergefell emerged early on Tuesday, when Republican Sen. John Cornyn launched a frontal assault on the ruling, then sought Jackson’s reaction. He began by criticizing “substantive due process,” which holds that the “liberty” protected by the due process clause protects substantive rights, not just procedural ones. The Supreme Court has used this theory to enforce “unenumerated rights” that it deems fundamental, including the right to marry, raise children, use contraception, and terminate a pregnancy. Along with equal protection, it served as the basis of Obergefell. According to Cornyn, however, this doctrine is “just another form of judicial policymaking” that can be used “to justify basically any result.”

Obergefell, Cornyn told Jackson, was “a dramatic departure from previous laws” that contradicted “234 years” of history. Most states, he pointed out, had not yet repealed their bans on same-sex marriage when the “edict” came down. “Do you share my concern,” he asked Jackson, “that when the court … creates a new right, declaring that anything conflicting with that is unconstitutional, that it creates a circumstance where those who may hold traditional beliefs on something as important as marriage, that they will be vilified as unwilling to assent to this new orthodoxy?”

Cornyn then lectured Jackson about the alleged evils of Obergefell. “When the court overrules the decisions made by the people,” he told her, “as they did in 32 of the 35 states that decided to recognize only traditional marriage between a man and a woman, that is an act of judicial policymaking.” The senator went on to claim that “Dred Scott, which treated slaves as chattel property, was a product of substantive due process.” (That’s not actually true, but it marks an obvious effort to sully decisions like Obergefell with the taint of racist origins.) Cornyn also dismissed Obergefell as “court-made law that we’re all supposed to salute smartly and follow because nine people who are unelected, who have lifetime tenure, whose salary cannot be reduced while they serve in office—five of them decide that this is the way the world should be.”

Republican Sen. John Kennedy picked up this baton a few hours later. Kennedy criticized Justice Anthony Kennedy, the author of Obergefell, for refusing to identify a “formula” for fundamental rights and instead going “case by case.”

“Can you understand,” Kennedy asked, “why some Americans go, ‘Wait a minute. These are unenumerated rights. Are justices interpreting the Constitution or are they just deciding a right when they get five votes and it’s just a moral conviction?’ ” Republican Sen. Ben Sasse also grilled Jackson about substantive due process and the court’s authority “to create new fundamental rights.” He returned to the subject on Wednesday, then expressed disappointment when she declined to disavow the doctrine.

In case it wasn’t clear what these senators were up to, Cornyn made it explicit on Wednesday afternoon. “The Constitution doesn’t mention the word abortion,” he lectured Jackson, “just like it doesn’t mention the word marriage.” These senators appear confident that the Supreme Court will overrule the constitutional right to an abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which should come down by June. They are so confident, in fact, that they prodded Jackson to say whether she would abide by Dobbs once she joins the court, rather than fight to revive Roe. But on the whole, Republicans were noticeably less engaged over abortion than they were about same-sex marriage.

It’s easy to see why. The GOP, alongside the conservative legal movement, has built up a massive infrastructure to fight the culture wars. After Roe, it will need a new target, and marriage equality is the obvious choice. Republicans never really gave up on the issue, but rather staged a tactical retreat after Obergefell, pressing for sweeping exemptions from civil rights laws to legalize discrimination against same-sex couples. But after Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett replaced the gay-friendly Anthony Kennedy and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, this retreat slowed to a crawl, and Republicans sought to regain some ground. They pressed the Supreme Court to roll back protections for same-sex couples (to no avail—yet) and have now launched a campaign to mandate anti-LGBTQ discrimination in schools. A GOP legislator in Texas has asked Attorney General Ken Paxton to declare that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage remains valid and enforceable.

As the architect of Texas’ vigilante abortion ban has candidly acknowledged, overturning Roe will leave Obergefell hanging by a thread. And the unraveling won’t stop there. A number of major decisions protecting reproductive rights, including access to contraception, will be imperiled if the court repudiates substantive due process. So will Loving v. Virginia, the 1967 decision legalizing interracial marriage, which—just like Obergefell—relied on both due process and equal protection. Republican Sen. Mike Braun claims to have misspoken when he said that Loving should be overturned on Tuesday. But he was only following his beliefs to their logical conclusion.

The fact that Republicans don’t talk much about marriage equality these days doesn’t mean they’ve accepted it. The GOP’s 2020 platform called for the government to cease recognizing same-sex unions. Republican legislators around the country are falling over themselves to ban discussion of same-sex marriage in public schools. And now Republican senators have used the Jackson hearings to test the waters with Obergefell, revealing a newly invigorated push for its reversal. And why not? The crusade against Roe seemed hopeless for decades until, suddenly, it didn’t. With six conservative justices installed on the Supreme Court, there’s no limit to Republicans’ anti-gay dreams.