Explainer: Marijuana pardons in U.S. help thousands, leave others in prison

By Sharon Bernstein

Oct 9 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden's pardon for thousands of Americans convicted of simple marijuana possession under federal law has profound impact, experts and individuals say, even if it affects fewer people than similar state and local initiatives. Biden has called on governors to issue similar pardons regarding state marijuana offenses.

WHO IS AFFECTED?

Biden's pardons announced Oct. 6 affect about 6,500 people convicted of cannabis possession at the federal level. None remain in prison. Without a felony on their record, they won't be tripped up when applying for a job or trying to rent an apartment. Research by the American Civil Liberties Union has shown Black Americans are nearly four times as likely as whites to be arrested for marijuana possession.

WHO ISN'T

Biden's pardon does not affect some 3,000 people convicted of higher level marijuana crimes who remain in federal prisons, and as many as 30,000 who are still in prison in several states, according to the advocacy group the Last Prisoner Project. Those numbers do not reflect people with convictions for marijuana possession at the state level, although approximately 2 million marijuana convictions have been expunged or pardoned by states where the drug is now legal.

SPEAKING OF THE STATES

Biden has called on governors to give similar pardons in their states, where most possession cases are prosecuted.

Kevin Sabet, an opponent of marijuana legalization who runs the group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, said in an interview that he thinks Biden's pardons could serve as a model for governors in conservative as well as a few liberal states who oppose decriminalizing pot but agree that users should not go to prison.

Marijuana is now fully legal in 19 U.S. states and allowed for medical use in 37. Most states that have legalized marijuana have also moved to expunge the records of nonviolent offenders or issue pardons.

But thousands of people continue to be arrested for marijuana offenses annually. Data is hard to come by, but NORML estimates that about 350,000 people were arrested for marijuana-related offenses in 2020, of which roughly 91% were for possession offenses only. According to the ACLU, of the 8.2 million marijuana arrests in the U.S. between 2001 and 2010, 88% were for just possessing marijuana.

Lesotho's new party set for election win, early results show

By Marafaele Mohloboli

REUTERS/Siphiwe SibekoRead

MASERU, Oct 9 (Reuters) - A recently founded party led by a millionaire diamond magnate looked set on Sunday to win Lesotho's parliamentary election, having secured enough for a simple majority, according to preliminary results from the election commission.

By Sunday afternoon, results from the Oct. 7 vote were in for 49 out of a total of 80 constituencies. The Revolution for Prosperity (RFP) party, formed by Sam Matekane in March, had secured 41 seats, the minimum required to reach a simple majority.

The current ruling party All Basotho Convention (ABC), which has run the country of 2.14 million people since 2017, was faring badly with no seats won so far, the tally showed.

The Democratic Congress (DC), the main opposition party and member of the coalition government, is running a distant second to the RFP in the race, having secured at least six seats.

A victory for the RFP paves the way for a change in government in a southern African country marred by political upheaval, stalled reforms under the ABC and widespread exasperation of people over political wrangling, corruption and policy paralysis.

RFP has promised to usher in a new era of governance and prosperity in the country by exploiting its natural resources and its commercial competitiveness, drawing from its founder's experience in running businesses.

The party has also promised to strengthen the state institutions.

Lesotho is a small land-locked mountain kingdom that is ringfenced by South African Drakensberg range on all sides. It has close ties with its neighbour commercially and has often relied for its military support to quell coups and political unrest.

Lesotho's national assembly comprises a total of 120 seats, of which 80 are subject to 'first-past-the-post' voting, meaning whoever gets the maximum number of seats wins the election.

The remaining 40 seats are allocated using the proportional representative system, under which voters cast vote for a party instead of a candidate and the party is assigned seats in the parliament in proportion to the votes won.

Reporting by Marafaele Mohloboli and Promit Mukherjee Writing by Promit Mukherjee Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky

Japan Kishida's support hits low on his party's ties to controversial church

Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks to the media after North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan, at his official residence in Tokyo, Japan October 4, 2022, in this photo taken by Kyodo. Mandatory 


TOKYO, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Support for Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's government slid to the lowest of his one-year tenure on doubts about his party's disclosure of ties to the controversial Unification Church, an opinion poll showed on Sunday.

Kishida has struggled to overcome revelations of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) deep and longstanding ties to the church in the wake of the July assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The suspected killer has said his mother was bankrupted by the church, which critics call a cult, and has blamed Abe for promoting it.

Support for Kishida's cabinet slumped to 35% from about 40% a month ago in a weekend poll by Kyodo news, the lowest in the agency's surveys since he took office in October 2021. About 48% of respondents said they did not support his cabinet.

Some 83% said the LDP had not done enough to disclose ties between the party's lawmakers and the Unification Church, far eclipsing the 13% who said it had.

The LDP has acknowledged many individual lawmakers have ties to the church but said there was no organisational link to the party. The staunchly anti-communist church says its political arm has courted lawmakers, mostly from the LDP because of their ideological proximity, although it has no direct affiliation to the party.

On rising prices of food, utilities and other necessities, about 79% in the Kyodo survey said they had been hit, compared with about 21% who had not felt any impact.
Japan's inflation accelerated to a nearly eight-year high 2.8% in August, the most recent data available, exceeding the central bank's 2% target for a fifth straight month as price pressure from raw materials and yen weakness broadened.

NUKES & A BRIDGE TOO FAR

Zaporizhzhia plant down to diesel generators as shelling cuts power essential for cooling

Sat, October 8, 2022 

Nuclear plant needs power supply to avoid meltdown

*

Overnight shelling brought down the main power line

*

Relying on emergency diesel generators for time being

*

IAEA says protection zone is an 'urgent imperative'

KYIV/VIENNA, Oct 8 (Reuters) -

Overnight shelling cut power to Ukraine's Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which needs cooling to avoid a meltdown, forcing it to switch to emergency generators, Ukraine's state nuclear company and the U.N. atomic watchdog said on Saturday.

Even though the six reactors are shut down, they still need a constant supply of electricity to keep the nuclear fuel inside cool and prevent disaster.

Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for shelling at the site of Europe's biggest nuclear plant that has damaged buildings and threatened a catastrophic nuclear accident. The International Atomic Energy Agency is pushing for a protection zone to be set up to prevent further shelling.

Speaking on BBC World News on Saturday, Petro Kotin, the head of Ukraine's state nuclear company Energoatom, warned the diesel generators only had a limited supply of fuel at present.

“Right now we are working on logistics to supply more fuel for these generators,” he said.

Energoatom did not immediately respond to a query on the status of negotiations with Russian authorities regarding fuel supply to the plant.

“If (the generators) run out of fuel, after that they will stop, and after that there will be a disaster...there will be a melting of the active core and a release of radioactivity from there,” Kotin said.

The nuclear plant is in a part of Zaporizhzhia region recently annexed by Russia, a move dismissed by Ukraine and its allies as an imperial landgrab.

In a decree published on Saturday, the Russian government set up a firm to take control of the plant, as ordered by President Vladimir Putin on Oct. 5.

The IAEA, which has two observers present at the plant, confirmed Energoatom's statement that the plant had switched to its diesel generators after shelling at around 1 a.m. cut the main 750 kilovolt line supplying external power to the plant.

"The resumption of shelling, hitting the plant's sole source of external power, is tremendously irresponsible. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant must be protected," the IAEA quoted its chief Rafael Grossi as saying in a statement.

"All the plant's safety systems continue to receive power and are operating normally, the IAEA experts (stationed at Zaporizhzhia) were informed by senior Ukrainian operating staff," the IAEA said.

Grossi has been in talks with Russia and Ukraine on setting up a protection zone around the plant, though he has declined to say what that would involve exactly or how it would be enforced or monitored. He was in Kyiv on Thursday and is due to go to Russia early next week.

"I will soon travel to the Russian Federation, and then return to Ukraine, to agree on a nuclear safety and security protection zone around the plant. This is an absolute and urgent imperative," the IAEA quoted Grossi as saying. 

(Reporting by Max Hunder and Francois Murphy; Editing by Catherine Evans, Ros Russell and Nick Macfie)

EU Condemns Russia’s Takeover of Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant

October 08, 2022 
VOA News

FILE: A security person stands in front of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, amid the ongoing Russian military action in Ukraine, Sept. 11, 2022.
Share

The European Union’s top diplomat Saturday condemned “in the strongest possible terms” Russia’s attempt to annex the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and said Russia’s forces must fully withdraw from the plant and return control of it to Ukraine.

High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell called the seizure of the nuclear power plant “illegal, and legally null and void,” and said a reinforced International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) “presence at the site and its unhindered access to the plant are urgently needed in the interest of the security of Europe as a whole.”

Earlier in the day, the IAEA reported that the Zaporizhzhia plant, the biggest in Europe, had lost its only external power source as a result of renewed Russian shelling and was forced to rely on emergency diesel generators.

All six reactors at the plant are shut down, but they still require electricity for cooling and other safety functions. The IAEA said plant engineers have begun work to repair the damaged power line.

 International Atomic Energy Agency Director General 

Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks at a news conference at

 Vienna Airport after his return from his mission at the 

nuclear power plant of Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine, Sept. 2, 2022.

The nuclear watchdog agency said the plant’s link to a 750-kilovolt line was cut about 1 a.m. Saturday local time. It cited official information from Ukraine, as well as reports from IAEA experts at the site, which is held by Russian forces.

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi is traveling to Moscow to hold talks in the coming days about establishing a protection zone around the nuclear plant. He was in Ukraine Friday and met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy regarding the situation. Transferring the plant to Russian ownership, Grossi said, is a violation of international law.

Russian shake-up?

Colonel General Sergei Surovikin. Russia's Defense Ministry 

announced Oct. 8, 2022, that Surovikin would be the commander 

of all Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.

Russia's Defense Ministry named General Sergei Surovikin on Saturday as the new overall commander of Kremlin forces engaged in Ukraine. It was the first official announcement of a single overall commander for all Russian forces fighting in Ukraine since its February 24 invasion began.

"By the decision of the defense minister of the Russian Federation, General of the Army Sergei Surovikin has been appointed commander of the joint group of troops in the area of the special military operation," the statement said, using the Kremlin's term for the invasion of Ukraine.

Surovikin had since 2017 led Russia's Aerospace Forces. In June, he was placed in charge of Russian forces in southern Ukraine.

Workers repair the railway part of the Crimean bridge connecting 

Russian mainland and Crimean Peninsula over the Kerch Strait, Oct. 8, 2022.

Bridge partly opens

Saturday dawned with an explosion that partially collapsed a bridge over the Kerch Strait, an important road and rail link between Russia and Crimea and a vital supply line for Russia’s war effort against Ukraine.

No one has claimed responsibility for the blast that killed three people and shut down the bridge. Russian transportation authorities said limited road and rail traffic had resumed about 10 hours after the attack.

Zelenskyy, in a video address, indirectly acknowledged the bridge attack but not its cause.

“Today was not a bad day and mostly sunny on our state's territory,” he said. “Unfortunately, it was cloudy in Crimea. Although it was also warm.”

Ukrainian officials have repeatedly threatened to strike the bridge.

Flame and smoke rise from Crimean Bridge connecting Russian 

mainland and Crimean Peninsula over the Kerch Strait, Oct. 8, 2022.

Moscow stopped short of assigning blame, but the speaker of Crimea’s Kremlin-backed regional parliament accused Ukraine, while downplaying the severity of the damage.

“Now they have something to be proud of: over 23 years of their management, they didn’t manage to build anything worthy of attention in Crimea, but they’ve managed to damage the surface of the Russian bridge,” Vladimir Konstantinov, chairperson of the State Council of the Republic, wrote on Telegram.

The official Twitter account of the Ukraine government tweeted, “Sick burn.”


Mykhailo Podolyak, a Zelenskyy adviser, lauded the attack, tweeting, "Crimea, the bridge, the beginning. Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia must be expelled."





Russian Foreign Ministry representative Maria Zakharova wrote on Telegram, “The Kiev regime’s reaction to the destruction of civilian infrastructure highlights its terrorist nature.”

The Ukrainian postal service announced it would issue stamps commemorating the blast, saying in a statement that the images would draw on classic film posters to highlight the bridge's “sacred significance” to Moscow. The postal service previously released a set of stamps commemorating the sinking of the Moskva, a Russian flagship cruiser, by a Ukrainian strike in late May.

Investigation ongoing

The blast, reportedly a truck bomb, occurred even though all vehicles driving across it undergo automatic checks for explosives by state-of-the-art control systems. That has drawn a stream of critical comments from Russian war bloggers.

The truck was owned by a resident of the Krasnodar region in southern Russia, Russia’s Investigative Committee said. It noted that investigators arrived at his home as part of the inquiry and are looking at the truck’s route and other details.

The 19-kilometer bridge across the Kerch Strait linking the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov opened in 2018 and is the longest in Europe. The $3.6 billion project is a tangible symbol of Moscow’s claims on Crimea, and it has provided an essential link to the peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

While Russia seized areas north of Crimea early on during the invasion and built a land corridor to it along the Sea of Azov, Ukraine is pressing a counteroffensive to reclaim them.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press and Reuters.

Factbox-The bridge linking Russia to the Crimean peninsula

Yesterday 

LONDON (Reuters) - The road-and-rail bridge linking Russia and the Crimean peninsula was damaged in a powerful blast on Saturday, hitting a crucial supply route for Russian forces in Ukraine. Following are key facts about the bridge.


A helicopter drops water to extinguish fuel tanks ablaze on the Kerch bridge 

in the Kerch Strait, Crimea

© Reuters/STRINGER

CRIMEA AND RUSSIA LINK

The 19-km (12-mile) Crimea Bridge over the Kerch Strait is the only direct link between the transport network of Russia and the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

The bridge was a flagship project for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who opened it himself for road traffic with great fanfare by driving a truck across in 2018.

It consists of a separate roadway and railway, both supported by concrete stilts, which give way to a wider span held by steel arches at the point where ships pass between the Black Sea and the smaller Azov Sea.

The structure was built, at a reported cost of $3.6 billion, by a firm belonging to Arkady Rotenberg, a close ally and former judo partner of Putin.

Related video: Why is the Crimean Bridge attack significant?

Duration 1:27   View on Watch

WHY IT MATTERS

The bridge is crucial for the supply of fuel, food and other products to Crimea, where the port of Sevastopol is the historic home base of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

It also became a major supply route for Russian forces after Moscow invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, sending forces from Crimea to seize most of southern Ukraine's Kherson region and some of the adjoining Zaporizhzhia province.

Russia's Defence Ministry said on Saturday that those troops could be fully supplied by existing land and sea routes.

WHAT HAS BEEN DESTROYED

The blast on Saturday brought down sections of road taking traffic in one direction.

Traffic was initially suspended after the incident but by Saturday evening cars and buses were allowed to start crossing the bridge in alternating directions on the remaining intact lanes, while heavy goods vehicles waited to cross by ferry.

Russian officials said railway traffic would resume on Saturday evening.

The span through which ships pass the strait was not damaged.

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Frances Kerry)

Pope, calling migrants' exclusion 'criminal', on collision with Meloni

By Philip Pullella

Pope Francis attends a mass to canonise two new Saints, Giovanni Battista Scalabrini and Artemide Zatti in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, October 9, 2022. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane

Oct 9 (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Sunday made an impassioned defence of migrants, calling their exclusion "scandalous, disgusting and sinful," putting him on a collision course with Italy's upcoming right-wing government.

Francis made his comments as he canonised a 19th century bishop known as the "father of migrants" and a 20th century man who ministered to the sick in Argentina.

Francis, who has made support of migrants a major theme of his pontificate, presided over the ceremony before 50,000 people in St. Peter's Square.

"The exclusion of migrants is scandalous. Indeed, the exclusion of migrants is criminal. It makes them die in front of us," he said.

"And so today the Mediterranean is the world's largest cemetery," he said, referring to thousands who have drowned trying to reach Europe.

"The exclusion of migrants is disgusting, it is sinful. It is criminal not to open doors to those who are needy," he said.

Giorgia Meloni is expected to become prime minister later this month at the head of a right-wing coalition that has vowed to crack down on immigration and tighten Italy's borders.

She has promised accelerated repatriations and tighter asylum rules. Meloni has also called for a naval blockade of North Africa to prevent migrants from sailing and for renewed curbs on charity rescue ships. read more

Francis, who did not mention Italy, said some migrants sent back are put in "concentration camps where they are exploited and treated as slaves." In the past he has said this has happened in Libya.

The pope went off script about migrants at the point in his prepared comments when he mentioned the most well known of the two new saints - Bishop Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, who lived between 1839 and 1905.

Scalabrini founded two religious orders - one of priests and one of nuns - to help Italian immigrants in the United States and South America.

The other new saint is Artemides Zatti, who lived between 1880 and 1951. His family fled poverty in Italy and settled in Argentina.

A lay member of the Salesian religious order, he worked as a nurse, bringing healthcare to the poor on his bicycle.

SHARE THE WINDFALL PROFITS!

TotalEnergies accelerates refinery wage talks as fuel supply shrinks

Queues stretch at Paris petrol stations, testing motorists' patience


Tassilo Hummel and Caroline Pailliez
Sun, October 9, 2022 

PARIS (Reuters) -TotalEnergies on Sunday proposed to bring forward annual wage talks, in response to union demands, to try to end a protracted strike that has disrupted supplies to almost a third of the country's petrol stations.

"Provided the blockades will end and all labour representatives agree, the company proposes to advance to October the start of mandatory annual wage talks," it said in a statement.

The talks were initially scheduled to start in mid-November.

Union representatives earlier told Reuters the strikes staged by the CGT, historically one of France's more militant unions, would continue. They have disrupted operations at two ExxonMobil sites as well as at two TotalEnergies sites.

Over roughly two weeks of industrial action, France's domestic fuel output has fallen by more than 60%, straining nerves across the country, as waiting lines grow and supplies have run dry.

Almost a third of France's petrol stations had problems getting supply of at least one fuel product on Sunday, up from 21% the day before, the office of the energy minister said.

France has released strategic reserves and raised imports, Energy Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher said.

"These additional volumes should allow the situation to improve throughout the day on Monday," she said in a statement.

WINDFALL PROFITS

Wage talks have been underway for weeks at ExxonMobil, while the CGT at TotalEnergies said it has been trying to get the management to the negotiation table earlier than formal talks scheduled next month.

Workers at TotalEnergies are seeking a 10% pay rise starting this year after a surge in energy prices led to huge profits that allowed the company to pay out an estimated eight billion euros ($7.8 billion) in dividends and an additional special dividend to investors.

The company's CEO last week said "the time has come to reward" workers, but the company until had refused to start negotiations.

A CGT representative said the union would not make any official comment on TotalEnergie's offer before internal discussions and informing workers.

The CFDT union, France's largest, which chose not to call for strikes despite demanding a similar pay rise, said in a statement it was prepared to start wage talks in October.

ExxonMobil in France did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Aurore Berge, the head of the governing Renaissance group in the lower house of parliament, said workers had a legitimate right to seek a share in exceptional profits that were made with their help, but not to hurt ordinary people.

"It is not acceptable that workers stage preemptive walkouts which will hit whom? The French people who have no other choice (but to use their car)," she told BFM TV in an interview on Sunday.

Senator Bruno Retailleau, who is campaigning to become the head of the conservative Les Republicains, on Sunday urged the government to use force to end the shortages.

($1 = 1.0266 euros)

(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel and Caroline Pailliez  Editing by David Goodman and Barbara Lewis)

French energy giant offers pay talks to end fuel strike

Issued on: 09/10/2022 - 

Paris (AFP) – France's TotalEnergies said on Sunday it would advance annual pay talks with unions if they dropped a blockade of fuel depots and refineries that has slashed petrol supplies across the country.

Vehicle owners have faced increasingly long waits to fill up after two weeks of strikes by workers demanding higher wages in response to soaring prices.

"I haven't been able to work for two days now," complained 60-year-old taxi driver Thierry.

He said he had "gone round the whole of Paris" to find fuel and had already been waiting for three hours at a filling station in the capital for fuel tankers to turn up.

Like other major oil companies, TotalEnergies has seen its profits soar as energy prices skyrocket during the war in Ukraine, and government officials have been pressing the company to settle the standoff.

TotalEnergies runs a network of around 3,500 filling stations in France, nearly a third of the total. Most of them are low on fuel or even empty for some types.

"If the depot blockades end and with the agreement of all labour representatives, the company proposes to move forward the annual salary negotiations from November to October," TotalEnergies said.

The discussions would define "how employees will benefit from TotalEnergies' exceptional results before the end of this year, taking into account this year's inflation".

On Sunday, the CGT union branch at the company -- which is leading the strikes at TotalEnergies and at rival Esso-ExxonMobil -- said the industrial action would continue but it was open to talks as soon as Monday.

"If we do start talks, it will be based on our demands -- a 10-percent salary hike ... retroactive for the year 2022," branch coordinator Eric Sellini told AFP.

Currently three of Total's refineries are blocked, including its largest, in Normandy, as well as a fuel depot near Flandres in the north.

The government has already dipped into strategic stockpiles in a bid to bring relief, and fuel tankers are being allowed exceptionally to make deliveries on Sunday to replenish filling stations.

"I'm all in favour of dialogue so French people don't have to put up with this industrial action for too long," Energy Transition Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher told BFM television.

She said the government had increased supplies by 20 percent but fears of running out of fuel were aggravating the shortage. Some areas have seen a 30-percent spike in sales to motorists.

"The situation should improve tomorrow," she said.

Turkey's 'disinformation' bill to have pre-election 'chilling effect' -Europe watchdog


 Protesters demonstrate in Istanbul against a media bill

Sun, October 9, 2022 

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's proposed "disinformation" bill threatens free speech and could further harm journalism ahead of next year's elections, a European rights watchdog's legal body said, calling for Turkey's parliament to reject it.

The Venice Commission, which advises the Council of Europe, said prison sentences and other fallout from the draft legislation would be disproportionate to its aims and could lead to "arbitrary restrictions of freedom of expression".

President Tayyip Erdogan's government says the legislation would address misinformation in the press and on social media. His ruling AK Party and allies have a majority in parliament and are expected to adopt it as soon as this week.

Critics, including opposition parties and press groups, are primarily concerned over an article saying those who spread false information about Turkey's security to create fear and disturb public order would face one to three years in prison.

"The Commission is particularly concerned with the potential consequences of such provision, namely, the chilling effect and increased self-censorship, not least in view of the upcoming elections in June 2023," it said late on Friday.

It said the bill "constitutes an interference with the freedom of expression" protected by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). It asked lawmakers to clarify terms in the bill and to reject the draft amendment, which was debated last week.

There are alternative non-criminal ways to counter misinformation and disinformation in a democratic society, the Venice Commission said in a 23-page assessment.

The bill would continue a decades-long crackdown on free speech and the media under Erdogan, who faces tight presidential and parliamentary elections next year.

A Reuters investigation recently showed how the mainstream media has become a tight chain of command of government-approved headlines.

Parliament is set to resume debate over the legislation on Tuesday after it passed the first 15 articles last week.

Turkey faces suspension from the Council of Europe over an ECHR judgment that it ignored an earlier 2019 ruling calling for the release from prison of philanthropist Osman Kavala.

(Reporting by Azra Ceylan; Writing by Jonathan Spicer; Editing by Alex Richardson)

UK AUSTERITY BUDGET
Tory MPs are plotting with Labour to ‘block benefits cuts’, shadow minister reveals

Rob Merrick - 1h ago - REUTERS

Conservative MPs opposed to real-term benefits cuts are working with Labour to force Liz Truss to abandon the plan, a shadow minister has revealed.


SEI124326531 (1).jpg© EPA

Jonathan Ashworth said unhappy Tories have “reached out to me” to find a way to block the big hit to the incomes of the poorest, adding: “There’s a lot of anger on the Conservative side.”

The cross-party talks emerged as a senior Tory predicted Kwasi Kwarteng will be forced to cave in to pressure to release the Treasury watchdog’s verdict on his economic plans early – instead of keeping it under wraps until 23 November.

Liz Truss says no decision has been made on cutting benefits

View on Watch  Duration 0:55

Mel Stride, the chair of the Commons Treasury committee, also called his party’s mood “fairly febrile”, as MPs head back to Westminster this week with Labour 30 points ahead in the polls.

The twin controversies of the benefits cuts and the Office for Budget Responsibility’s secret forecast are shaping up as the key conflicts when Ms Truss and her chancellor face their rebellious MPs.

No 10 is desperate to bank savings for promised tax cuts by only increasing benefits in line with wages, rather than much-higher inflation – as Boris Johnson promised earlier this year.

But the Child Poverty Action Group is warning 200,000 more children will be pushed into poverty if payments rise by only around 5 per cent, not the inflation rate of roughly 10 per cent.

Mr Ashworth, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said many Conservatives oppose what he called “another unfair, deep cut in the incomes of the poorest”.

“I’m saying to Conservative MPs – some of them have already reached out to me – let’s work together and let’s block this,” he told Times Radio.

“I think there’s a lot of anger on the Conservative side, because we know what’s happening more broadly at the moment.”

Meanwhile, a former Sainsbury’s boss warned the cost of living crisis is the deepest for 50 years as he called on the government to directly help more effectively to the poorest.

“The 1970s is probably the last time the challenges to households were as great,” Justin King told Sky News.

He added: “I don’t think the government should be giving to those people who can afford to pay their bills, so it can give more money to those who are going to struggle. I think targeting is perfectly possible.”

Nadhim Zahawi, the Cabinet Office minister, said: “No decisions have been made on the benefits uprating.” It would normally be made in November – for changes next April.

Mr Stride attacked “too many missteps” and suggested there will need to be more U-turns to regain “fiscal credibility” on top of the climbdown on the plan to scrap the top 45p income tax rate.

“A lot of Conservative MPs are very concerned with where we are with the polls,” he said, adding: “There is a recognition that we have got to turn things around and start doing it very quickly.”

On the OBR report, Mr Stride said: “My best guess, and I’ve said it is only a guess, is that the date will be brought forward.”

ECOCIDE

Exclusive-U.S. Navy Jet Flew Across Baltic Hours After Nord Stream Burst

By Reuters
Oct. 7, 2022,


FILE PHOTO: Gas leak at Nord Stream 2 as seen from the Danish F-16 interceptor on Bornholm, Denmark September 27, 2022. Danish Defence Command/Forsvaret Ritzau


OSLO/PARIS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Navy reconnaissance aircraft flew near the site of the ruptured Nord Stream 2 pipeline in the Baltic Sea hours after the first damage emerged, according to tracking reviewed by Reuters, a flight Washington said was routine.

Russia's Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines burst on Sept. 26, draining gas into the Baltic Sea off the coast of Denmark and Sweden. Seismologists registered explosions in the area, and police in several countries have launched investigations.

Flight data showed a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol and reconnaissance plane was over the North Sea at 0003 GMT when Swedish seismologists registered what they later described as a subsea blast southeast of Bornholm Island in the Baltic Sea.

The plane, which had flown from Iceland, performed a pattern of regular racetrack-shaped circuits over Poland before breaking away towards the Baltic pipeline area, data showed.

GRAPHIC - U.S. Navy plane flew near Nord Stream 2 after rupture

https://graphics.reuters.com/UKRAINE-CRISIS/ENERGY-AIRPLANE/klpykxjkxpg/chart.png

The identity of the plane could not immediately be established because of the type of rotating identification code sometimes used by such planes, but the U.S. Navy confirmed it was an American aircraft when presented with data by Reuters.

"The U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft shown in the tracking data conducted a routine Baltic Sea maritime reconnaissance flight, unrelated to the leaks from the Nord Stream pipelines," a U.S. Navy spokesperson said.

Related video: U.S jet flies near Russian gas pipelines after Nord Stream explosion - report
Duration 2:56   View on Watch

Asked if any of the intelligence gathered might help investigators looking into the pipeline ruptures, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa spokesperson, Capt. Tamara Lawrence said: "We do not have any additional information to provide at this time."

It's unclear what role, if any, the U.S. military is playing to aid European investigations into the ruptures of the pipelines, although President Joe Biden has spoken about eventually sending down divers.

'CHESS GAME'

According to the data, several minutes past 0100 GMT the plane flew south of Bornholm heading to northwestern Poland, where it circled for about an hour above land before flying at around 0244 GMT to the area where the gas leak was reported.

It came as close as some 24 kms (15 miles) to the reported leak site, circled once and flew towards the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, a frequent focus for surveillance, analysts say.

Polish, Swedish, Danish and German ministries of defence were not immediately available for comment.

There is flight data missing between 0339 GMT and 0620 GMT, but on its way back, around 0700 GMT, the plane flew some 4 kms north of the reported leak site.

Reuters used a partial flight map from U.S.-based tracking website Radarbox complemented by data provided to Reuters by Sweden-based Flightradar24 to reconstruct the P-8's path.

Flightradar24 data showed the plane taking off and landing at Reykjanes peninsula in southwestern Iceland, where Keflavik Air Base is located along with reported P-8 hangar facilities.

The data emerged as the Baltic remains a front for Cold War-style tensions in the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to analysts who caution it is impossible to establish with certainty the reason behind specific military flight paths.

"The Baltic is a very active sphere of confrontation with lots of probing and an endless chess game," said UK-based defence analyst Francis Tusa.

Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Thursday the pipeline burst was "most likely" the work of Russian special services, citing information from Western allies.

Western governments and officials have so far avoided pointing a finger directly at Moscow, while Russia has rejected any allegations of responsibility as "stupid", blaming the United States and its allies instead.

(Additional reporting by Gwladys Fouche in Oslo, Marek Strzelecki in Warsaw, editing by Terje Solsvik and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

SEE

 https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/10/who-sabotaged-nord-stream-pipelines-us.html

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for ECOCIDE 

Malicious and targeted' sabotage halts rail traffic in northern Germany

By Sarah Marsh and Andreas Rinke - Yesterday 


FILE PHOTO: Train arrives at Hamburg-Altona station

© Reuters/FABIAN BIMMER

BERLIN (Reuters) -Cables vital for the rail network were intentionally cut in two places causing a near three-hour halt to all rail traffic in northern Germany on Saturday morning, in what authorities called an act of sabotage without identifying who might be responsible.

The federal police are investigating the incident, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said, adding the motive for it was unclear.

The disruption raised alarm bells after NATO and the European Union last month stressed the need to protect critical infrastructure after what they called acts of sabotage on the Nord Stream gas pipelines.

"It is clear that this was a targeted and malicious action," Transport Minister Volker Wissing told a news conference.

A security source said there were a variety of possible causes, ranging from cable theft - which is frequent - to a targeted attack.

Omid Nouripour, leader of the Greens party, which is part of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's federal coalition, said anyone who attacked the country's critical infrastructure would receive a "decisive response".

"We will not be intimidated," he wrote on Twitter.

CHAOS BEFORE ELECTION DAY

"Due to sabotage on cables that are indispensable for rail traffic, Deutsche Bahn had to stop rail traffic in the north this morning for nearly three hours," the state rail operator said in a statement.

Deutsche Bahn (DB) had earlier blamed the network disruption on a technical problem with radio communications. Spiegel magazine said the communications system was down at around 6:40 a.m. (0440 GMT). At 11:06 a.m, DB tweeted that traffic had been restored, but warned of continued train cancellations and delays.

The disruption affected rail services through the states of Lower Saxony and Schlewsig-Holstein as well as the city states of Bremen and Hamburg, with a knock-on effect to international rail journeys to Denmark and the Netherlands.

They came the day before a state election in Lower Saxony where Scholz's Social Democrats are on track to retain power and the Greens are seen doubling their share of the vote, according to polls.

Queues rapidly built up at mainline stations including Berlin and Hanover as departure boards showed many services being delayed or canceled.

(Reporting by Sarah Marsh; Additional reporting by Andreas Rinke and Christian Ruettger; Editing by David Holmes and Mark Potter)

No sign that foreign state was behind German rail sabotage, police say

An ICE high-speed train arrives at the Hamburg-Altona train station during a strike of the German Train Drivers' Union (GDL) in Hamburg, Germany September 2, 2021. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer

BERLIN, Oct 9 (Reuters) - German police said it had not excluded political motives in the suspected sabotage of communication cables on Germany's rail network on Saturday but that there was no sign of any involvement by a foreign state or terrorism.

A spokesperson for the Berlin criminal police bureau said on Sunday that it was still investigating the sabotage of radio communication cables in Berlin and Herne in North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW), which halted all rail traffic in northern Germany for around three hours on Saturday.

Germany's federal police has handed the case over to Berlin and NRW criminal police bureaus.

This is not the first time there have been attacks - often linked to leftwing extremists - on the communications system of state rail operator Deutsche Bahn, although it is the biggest one in recent years.

Fears have grown since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines of targeted assaults on Germany's critical infrastructure.