Sámi rights dispute shows frictions in Finland’s governing coalition

The dispute is over law that would give Sámi more rights over who can sit in the group's regional parliament.

By

 Anne Kauranen, Reuters

 -

November 10, 2022

Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin arrives at the Informal EU 27 Summit and Meeting within the European Political Community at Prague Castle in Prague, Czech Republic on October 6, 2022. (David W Cerny / Reuters File Photo)

HELSINKI — A dispute over the rights of the Sámi people living in the Finnish Arctic has brought the frictions in Finland’s coalition government into sharp focus just months before a parliamentary election.

Tensions between the five-party coalition’s two largest allies, the Social Democrats and the Centre Party, have been simmering in recent weeks, after opinion polls forecast a poor showing for the Centre Party in the vote due in April.

But now the Centre Party finance minister, Annika Saarikko, and the Social Democrat prime minister, Sanna Marin, are at open loggerheads over the latter’s attempt to bring forward a law that would give Sámi more rights over who can sit in the group’s regional parliament and vote on issues that concern them.

The Sámi, traditionally reindeer herders who live off the land, consider themselves the EU’s only Indigenous people. They say their parliament is being colonized by ethnic Finns and that some infrastructure projects jeopardize their way of life.

Saarikko is accusing Marin of breaking the government’s internal rules by taking forward a law — in the government’s program and long kicked back and forth between Finland’s courts — that the pro-business Centre Party opposes.

“The prime minister’s mode of action to bring forward a discordant proposal to the government is exceptional. The prime minister breaks established rules,” Saarikko wrote on Twitter.

Marin called Saarikko’s tweet “a surprise” and “a sharp turn,” saying the message was opposite to what the two had agreed between themselves.

“I have been through this (matter) very openly with minister Saarikko, the last time yesterday, and my understanding was that we were in mutual understanding over the mode of action,” Marin told reporters.

“I wish to get an explanation from minister Saarikko to her tweet,” Marin said.

Petteri Orpo, the head of the largest opposition group, the National Coalition, which is leading in the opinion polls, asked in parliament if the government was still operational.

”We are watching an odd play over the Sámi parliament legislation. We are in the midst of difficult times and now if ever Finland needs a functioning government,” he said.

A US Hercules cargo plane tested a new cruise missile system in Arctic Norway

It's the system's first test in Europe.

By

 Thomas Nilsen, The Independent Barents Observer

 -

November 15, 2022

1

A palletized munitions deployment box was pushed out of a C-130J Hercules over the Norwegian Sea, northwest of Andøya on November 9. (Brigette Waltermire / U.S. Air Force via The Indepedent Barents Observer)

The U.S. Special Operation Wing on November 9 successfully test fired the newly developed Rapid Dragon weapon system off northern Norway.

The airdropped deployment box with a long-range JASSM-ER cruise missile is the first time Rapid Dragon has been tested in Europe.

Flying north from an airbase in the United Kingdom, the military cargo plane tested the palletized munition system as part of the ATREUS training events going in parallel in Norway, Poland, Romania and the United Kingdom in cooperation with the U.S. Special Operations Europe.

The area where the Rapid Dragon was tested is part of Andøya Space Defense Range, some 300 kilometers inside the Arctic Circle.

“This is not signaling to Russia or any adversary,” U.S. Army Cpt. Margaret Collins told the Barents Observer last week when the plans first were made public.

From this part of the Norwegian Sea, the distance to the home ports for Russia’s nuclear submarines on the Kola Peninsula is some 650 kilometers.

An advantage of the new weapon system is that the United States could rapidly provide massive strike capability to any NATO member by using the existing fleet of transport planes. Such planes, like the Hercules, can operate from landing runways as short as 900 meters.

There are several tens of such runways in northern Scandinavia, airports that can deploy the planes in case military air bases with longer runways are attacked by an adversary.

The module with the missiles is designed as a roll-on roll-off capability to enable rapid fielding and eliminate the need for aircraft modification.

Rapid Dragon has an onboard control module attached to the pack that enables the missiles and battle management system to communicate so missions and targets can be updated while the plane is airborne.

After the module is parachuted, weapons will be systematically released. Each will ignite, pull up, and proceed normally to the target.

Alaska oil lease sales draw more than $5 million in bids for North Slope and Beaufort Sea

Per-acre bids were among the highest in the program's history, but overall revenue was far lower.

By

 Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon

 -

November 15, 2022

1

Pipelines snake through the Prudhoe Bay oil field, in a 2018 file photo. (Yereth Rosen)

Businesses spent more than $5 million for leases giving them the right to explore for oil on state-owned territory in the Arctic, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources announced last week.

The 2022 areawide North Slope lease sale held once a year by the Division of Oil and Gas was the main attraction, with 63 bids received for 61 tracts and over $4.5 million offered in high bids for 121,412 acres, the department said. A simultaneous state Beaufort Sea sale drew $575,146 in bids for 17,212 offshore acres, the department said.

In a statement, the department touted the preliminary results as good for the state economy and the Alaska Permanent Fund, the state-owned oil wealth account.

“Alaskans will be pleased to see the oil resource that seeds critical investments like our permanent fund is continuing to enjoy international interest and support,” Acting Natural Resources Commissioner Akis Gialopsos said in the statement.

The average bids per acre — $37.28 for the North Slope and $35.41 for the Beaufort Sea – were among the highest per-acre amounts in the history of the state’s areawide leasing program, the statement said. The Beaufort Sea is the portion of the Arctic Ocean north and east of Utqiagvik and west of the Canadian islands.

A map shows the location of bids received in the 2022 annual North Slope areawide lease sale. (Alaska Division of Oil and Gas via Alaska Beacon)

Measured by total dollars offered in high bids, however, it was one of the least lucrative state North Slope lease sales held since the first areawide lease was held in 1999. Only six areawide North Slope sales yielded lower total high bids. Some totals were substantially lower, such as the sale held a year ago, which drew only six bids totaling $467,472 in total high bids.

Among the active bidders were Oil Search (Alaska) LLC, which picked up tracts near its newly formed Quokka Unit on the western North Slope, and Great Bear Petroleum Ventures, which picked up tracts near its Alkaid and Talitha prospects south of Prudhoe Bay.

The Quokka Unit, approved in June, lies south of the Pikka Unit, a site that Oil Search and its corporate parent, Australia-based Santos Ltd., call “one of the largest conventional oil discoveries made in the United States in the last 30 years.”

Santos in August announced a plan to start Pikka oil production in 2026; the field is expected to produce 80,000 barrels a day, the company said. That compares to total North Slope oil production that has veered between about 450,000 and 500,000 barrels per day over the past year, according to state Department of Revenue figures.

Other active bidders in the lease sale included Hilcorp, the Texas-based independent that in 2020 acquired BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc.’s North Slope assets and took over from BP as the operator of the Prudhoe Bay oil field.

The Beaufort Sea lease sale results, with 11 bids for nine tracts, were similar to results of recent years’ state sales for that offshore area.

No bids were received in the Division of Oil and Gas’ areawide lease sale for territory in the Brooks Range Foothills. There have been no bids submitted in the annual foothills lease sales since 2014, and the two bids submitted that year never resulted in any leases being transferred. The foothills area lies well south of Prudhoe Bay.

More oil and gas lease sale results are expected by the end of the year. Under a provision of the Inflation Reduction Act, a federal Cook Inlet lease sale that was canceled earlier this year for lack of industry interest was resurrected. That sale must be held by year’s end, according to the law, even though recent history shows very little industry interest in offshore oil and gas exploration in Cook Inlet.

Covid misinformation ignites a battle over blood in a Canadian province

Vaccine fears are causing Canadians to refuse blood transfusions while a province executive peddles misinformation

FREDERIC REGLAIN/ GETTY IMAGES
WAR ON SCIENCE

BY REBEKAH ROBINSON
16 NOVEMBER, 2022

In Canada’s western Alberta province, a land of soaring mountains and long grass prairies, contemporary politicians and a history of fiercely individualist new arrivals — often disgruntled American citizens to the south — have combined to create one of the most ferocious anti-vaccine climates in the Western Hemisphere.

Alberta was the site of many of the mass protests over the summer: “Freedom Convoys” stretched over parts of southern Alberta along the border with the United States, blockaded cross-border commerce and occupied the streets of Canada’s capital, Ottawa. Hundreds of truckers traveled from across the country to protest vaccine mandates in front of the parliament building. To many in Canada, the protests highlighted the cultural and ideological differences between the western prairie provinces and the more populated, urban provinces in Canada’s east.

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Authoritarians muddy the conversation. We clarify it with journalism.

The Freedom Convoy that shut down the border with the U.S. was full of people from Alberta. The blockades lasted for several weeks as the anti-government protests challenged vaccine mandates and other Covid safety restrictions. Those who joined the demonstrations frequently slipped into extremist far-right narratives and promoted conspiracy theories.

Conspiracy theorists have latched on to spreading scientific misinformation. Doubts about vaccine efficacy are commonly circulated through social media, and potential Covid cures like ivermectin, which scientific research does not support, are promoted. Agence France-Presse’s fact-checking bureau found a fire hose of false claims online suggesting that more vaccinated people were hospitalized in Canada than those who were unvaccinated — a claim unsupported by data from Health Canada.

In this still-simmering political cauldron, the new premier of Alberta’s government announced that people unvaccinated against Covid confront the most discrimination in the state.

Shortly after taking office last month, Danielle Smith declared at her first press conference that unvaccinated people are the state’s most vulnerable, having already come up with a plan to amend the Alberta Human Rights Act to codify protections for those who allegedly have been discriminated against for being unvaccinated against Covid. (She ultimately backtracked when leaders from groups experiencing discrimination protested her remarks.)

The new premier, the equivalent of a state governor, has previously come under fire for sharing unproven claims about the virus on Twitter during the early days of the pandemic. Smith became the leader of the Wildrose party in 2009. The party is unique to Alberta with a platform that has sought to revamp healthcare delivery with more privatized options and reign in provincial spending, hoping to appeal to populist voters. Her previous position as a radio talk show host allowed her to broadcast views that promoted pseudoscience and cures for Covid frequently touted by former President Donald Trump.

Overall, Canada consistently ranks as having one of the most highly educated populations in the world. Nationally, support for vaccines is high. But while 88% of the Canadian population has received at least one dose, Alberta has the lowest number of doses administered per 100,000 people to date compared to the other prairie provinces.

Alberta is well known for its “western alienation” — a kind of jilted, strained relationship with other parts of Canada. A feeling of limited representation in the federal government and an economic reliance on natural resources has yielded a sense of apartness from the rest of Canada.

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This apartness is rooted in Alberta’s history. In the 19th century, many Americans heading west settled in the vast Canadian province, bringing with them a strident individualism and deeply entrenched political populism, rejecting government reach into private lives. The number of Americans arriving in Alberta, mainly from the rural American Midwest, quickly outpaced British settlers and even native-born Canadians.

Whether due to the stress of the pandemic, opportunism from populist politicians or the forces still at work from its settler colonial history, Alberta’s apartness now may be intensifying.

Doctors in Alberta have warned that it is becoming more common for patients to refuse blood transfusions from Covid-vaccinated donors, and they worry that this could develop into the next form of widespread protest. Timothy Caulfield, a professor in the Faculty of Law and School of Public Health at the University of Alberta, believes this trend is driven by misinformation, which is causing patients to refuse to consent to blood transfusions if the blood comes from a donor who had received the Covid vaccine.

Damaging myths surrounding blood purity cost countless human lives during the 20th century, and centering Covid vaccine opposition around the transfusion of blood would be a remarkable new chapter for the vaccine hesitancy movement.

Anti-vaccine sentiment in parts of western Canada has morphed into fear of bodily contamination. Photo: Justin Ling

In the 20th century, a fear of contaminated blood was a vehicle for anti-Black racism. The false notion that drops of blood could contain racial purity was a widespread belief in the U.S. and swaths of Europe. The Canadian Red Cross oversaw the blood donation process for five decades, from the mid-1940s to the late 1990s. The program, originating in wartime, had a history of racially segregating blood for American and British white soldiers.

Fear of blood contamination has historically impacted marginalized communities. Earlier this year, after three decades, Canada removed the ban on donated blood from men who have sex with men. The ban came out of longstanding concerns about HIV transmission in the donated blood supply following the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s. It was slowly dialed back as testing requirements became more comprehensive and donation supply demands increased.

Dr. Nathan Lachowsky, a public health professor at the University of Victoria, cited “a variety of screening questions that have excluded specific groups from blood donation, including men who have sex with men, certain Black African communities, people who inject drugs, and sex workers.” He believes that while the screening questions have evolved, “rarely has there been acknowledgment or apology for ways in which the blood system has propagated stigma and discrimination against these groups.”

The general public has questioned the integrity of Canada’s blood donation system in the past. A scandal in the 1990s led to thousands acquiring HIV and hepatitis C through blood transfusions, which prompted investigations into the system. Subsequently, a nonprofit health organization, Canadian Blood Services, took over the processing of blood donations with stringent health protocols.

“This system failure led to a national inquiry and the current blood donation system we have today in Canada,” said Dr. Lachowsky, which created a sense of distrust.

Nevertheless, Canada’s public healthcare system, which shielded the country from outsized effects of contracting Covid and minimized vaccine hesitancy, should also minimize an outbreak of fear over “contaminated” vaccinated blood, said Dr. Davinder Sidhu, a transfusion specialist physician from the University of Calgary.

“Based on the Canadian universal healthcare model, there is just a presumption [that] the system will be here to take care of people if they get sick. The fear of significant financial pressures and costs don’t exist like in the U.S. medical healthcare model. And so, people may be more cavalier with their health,” said Dr. Sidhu.

According to Dr. Sidhu, the requests for directed donations from unvaccinated donor groups is particularly surprising because Canada is known for its safe blood system. “Directed donations are more common in parts of the world where the blood supply is less well tested or deemed dangerous due to other circulating transfusion-transmitted diseases,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Canadian Blood Services said in a statement: “Our ultimate priority is the health of the patient. Health Canada has not recommended or imposed any restriction on the use of the approved Covid-19 vaccines and blood donation. This is because the blood of donors who have received non-live vaccines does not pose a risk to patients who receive a blood transfusion.”


Rebekah Robinson is a Staff Reporter at Coda Story. 

Get in touch via rebekah@codastory.com

Canada’s Trudeau faces populist headwinds as economic slump looms

Nov 16, 2022 
By Steve Scherer and Nia Williams

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is coming under pressure from populist conservative rivals as the country veers toward a possible recession, with provinces vowing to oppose some of his Liberal government’s key policies.

Provincial opposition to carbon pricing and a promised assault-rifle buyback could be used to rally conservative opposition to the government ahead of what would be a third re-election bid for Trudeau, who took office in 2015.

New federal Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre is leading the charge, blaming Trudeau for skyrocketing inflation and laying responsibility for a housing shortage on “gatekeepers” in Ottawa.

Alberta’s new right-wing populist premier, Danielle Smith, wants to pass a law that would allow the province to ignore federal laws it does not like, and neighboring Saskatchewan, also led by a conservative government, is also planning on seeking greater autonomy from Ottawa.

“The rise of the populist right, and the resistance to Ottawa from the provinces reinforce each other,” said Tom McIntosh, a politics professor at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan. “It’s going to create some choppy waters for Trudeau.”

Most polls have shown the federal Conservatives leading the ruling Liberals since Poilievre took over as leader in September, but the left-leaning New Democrats’ parliamentary backing of the Trudeau government means the next vote could be as far off as 2025.

That gives Trudeau’s rivals considerable time to reinforce their narrative of him as a disconnected elitist – the son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau – who commands from Ottawa with little regard for provincial concerns.

Trudeau’s government plans to focus on the initiatives it was elected on, despite provincial criticism, a government source said, noting the political landscape could change in at least one province next year with Alberta’s elections.

Some 58% of Alberta’s conservatives say the province should have more sovereignty and independence from the federal government, according to a Trend Research/Janet Brown Opinion Research poll published by the CBC last week.

The Alberta-Saskatchewan oil patch is already a stronghold for Conservatives. The Liberals elected only two members of parliament in Alberta last year, compared with 30 for the Conservatives. Saskatchewan elected only Conservatives.

Trudeau’s climate change policies, and the carbon pricing scheme in particular, are a wedge issue with his populist rivals in the Prairie provinces and likely to face increased resistance in the lead-up to the next election. Canada is the world’s fourth-largest oil producer.

“The carbon tax is not a climate plan; it is a tax plan,” Poilievre said in the House of Commons earlier this month. Both Alberta and Saskatchewan have lost court bids to overturn federal carbon pricing already.

Alberta, Saskatchewan and other conservative-led provinces also oppose an assault-rifle buyback the Trudeau government is promising for next year.

“We’re a federation, and in this federation there are absolutely perceptions that some provinces are more equal than others,” said Shachi Kurl, president of polling company Angus Reid Institute.

ECONOMIC HEADWINDS

Quebec is a prime example of historical tension between Ottawa and the provinces. The mostly French-speaking province had a sovereignty movement long before Western Canadians caught onto the idea, and held referendums in 1980 and 1995 seeking to secede from the Canadian federation. Federalists won both votes, though their margin of victory in 1995 was extremely narrow.

Quebec last month re-elected a center-right leader who bristles at federal oversight of immigration and what he sees as unwarranted restrictions to badly needed healthcare funding transfers from Ottawa.

The latest round of talks between the provinces and the federal government to increase transfers failed last week.

The prospect of an economic downturn resulting from the Bank of Canada’s aggressive interest rate hikes to fight inflation, which recently peaked at 8.1%, also has added to tensions between Trudeau and provincial premiers.

Jared Wesley, a politics professor at the University of Alberta, said the friction with Ottawa is partly meant as a distraction to the economic problems.

“It’s the old trick of externalizing your opponent,” he said.

(Reporting by Steve Scherer in Ottawa and Nia Williams in British Columbia; Editing by Paul Simao)

Journalists dressed in white march to denounce murders in Haiti

Haiti|Impunity

Inter American Press Association
16 November 2022

Journalists cry and call for help as one of their colleagues, Romelo Vilsaint, lies on the ground injured, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 30 October 2022; the journalists had gathered at a police station to demand the release of another colleague, Robeste Dimanche, detained while covering a protest.

 RICHARD PIERRIN/AFP via Getty Images

Eight journalists were murdered or killed in 2022, victims of violence in Haiti, a country facing a severe security crisis stemming from the actions of armed gangs, anti-government protests, and the excessive use of police force.

This statement was originally published on en.sipiapa.org on 13 November 2022.

Eight of their colleagues have been killed this year

Dozens of journalists dressed in white marched on Sunday through Haiti to denounce the murder of eight of their colleagues this year and demand the country’s authorities clarify each case.

The demonstration began in Champ de Mars, in the center of Port-au-Prince, and culminated at a police station in the commune of Delmas, east of the city. On that Sunday, October 30, reporter Romelo Vilsaint died of a bullet in the head while protesting the arrest of another colleague, Robeste Dimanche, who was later released.

“We are here to denounce police brutality against journalists and to ask the police inspectorate general to follow up on the file related to the murder of journalist Romelo Vilsaint,” lawyer Arnel Rémy told the AlterPress agency, one of several local media covering the activity.

The journalists also reminded the authorities of the warning of the Colectivo de Medios en Línea (CMEL), the organizer of the march, that members of the organization would cover no press conference by the police if the institution refuses to inform the public about the results of the investigations.

The CMEL filed a complaint with the Port-au-Prince Prosecutor’s Office against the officers accused of Vilsaint’s murder last week. It was initially reported that a tear gas bomb hit him. Still, Gary Desrosiers, a police spokesman, confirmed to the Associated Press that the reporter died of a “fatal gunshot” during “an unfortunate situation.”

The following day, the police announced the opening of an investigation. The government lamented the death of the journalist, a permanent correspondent in the Haitian capital for Radio Génération 80, based in the town of Port-de-Paix, in the northwest of the country.

Eight journalists were murdered or killed in 2022, victims of violence in Haiti, a country facing a severe security crisis caused by the actions of armed gangs, anti-government protests, and the excessive use of police force.

In addition to Vilsaint, the most recent death was that of journalist Fritz Dorilas. According to local media, he died on November 5 in the Tabarre commune, northeast of Port-au-Prince, when armed individuals fired shots near his home during gang clashes.

However, the online portal Alaminute.Info reported that Dorilas, co-host of the program “The law, the law and justice” on radio Megastar, was forcibly taken from his home located in the Carradeux sector and then executed nearby as the shooting was taking place. The police have not yet confirmed the cause of death.

The deaths of Dorilas and Vilsaint are in addition to those of six other journalists: Tess Garry, Radio Lebon FM, October 24; Frantzsen Charles, FS NEWS, and Tayson Lartigue, Tijèn Jounalis, September 11; Maxihen Lazarre, Rois des Infos, February 23; Wilguens Louissaint, a contributor to various digital media, and Amady John Wesley, radio station Écoute FM, January 6, 2022.

A resolution on Haiti, approved by the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) during its 78th General Assembly in Madrid, stressed that the climate of violence and the political, economic, and security crisis in which the country is immersed keep journalists in a situation of defenselessness and high risk.

The IAPA called on the government to guarantee the preservation of freedom of expression and the free and safe exercise of journalism and urged the press organizations of the Americas to express their solidarity and support for journalists and media outlets that continue to carry out their informative mission despite the high-risk circumstances.

Secrets of a temple: Offerings to ancient water goddess uncovered in Greece, experts say

Aspen Pflughoeft, The Charlotte Observer - 

Jagged mountain tops, carved by ages of wind and rain, overlook the Mediterranean Sea from the Greek island of Crete. These rocky, red-brown peaks hid a secret for over 2,000 years, but not anymore.

Archaeologists have known about the ancient city of Phalasarna for years, according to the tourism website Visit Falassarna. Ruins of the harbor city are located on the western end of Crete, an island about 200 miles south of mainland Greece.

Along the coastline, archaeologists have uncovered the ruins of towers, a road, water tanks and a factory, Visit Falassarna reported.

Nestled between two mountain peaks overlooking the harbor, excavations revealed something new, the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports said in a Nov. 11 news release.

Archaeologists unearthed the ruins of a temple reconstructed during the late fourth century B.C. and early third century B.C., the release said. The dusty, worn-down ruins were once a monumental staircase leading to two buildings: a main temple and a secondary structure, experts said.

Excavations found five offering cases in the once-tiled floor of the temple, archaeologists said. Inside these cases, researchers found well-preserved, elegant vases.

One vase had a telling inscription: A K E S T O I D A M A T R I — dedicated to the goddess Demeter, archaeologists translated in a Facebook post from the ministry.

Demeter is an ancient Greek goddess associated with the earth, fertility and the power of water as a life source, the ministry said. The sister and consort of Zeus, she was also worshiped as a goddess of agriculture, Britannica reported.

Digging deeper at the once-sacred site, archaeologists found a pit with art from 600 B.C. — centuries older than the other discoveries, the release said. These artistic offerings included clay female figurines, glass objects and terracotta animal figurines.

Piece by piece, archaeologists concluded that the temple was rebuilt about 2,300 years ago after an earlier structure collapsed, experts said in the release. In between, people used the open-air space to worship the goddess Demeter.

The ancient city of Phalasarna, sometimes called Falasarna or Falassarna, still had more secrets to reveal.

Covid curbs set off rare unrest in Chinese city of Guangzhou

Videos widely shared on Twitter showed noisy scenes in the city’s Haizhu district of people charging down streets and confronting workers in white hazmat suits.

Residents line up for coronavirus testing in the Haizhu district of Guangzhou, China, on Sunday.VCG via Getty Images

Nov. 15, 2022, 8:40 PM MST / Source: Reuters

BEIJING — Crowds of people in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou crashed through Covid barriers and marched down streets in chaotic scenes on Monday night, according to videos posted online, in a show of public resentment over coronavirus curbs.

Among the latest outbreaks in China, Guangzhou’s is the largest, with new daily infections topping 5,000 for the first time and fueling speculation that localized lockdowns could widen.

Videos widely shared on Twitter showed noisy scenes in Guangzhou’s Haizhu district of people charging down streets and remonstrating with workers clad in white hazmat suits.

Twitter is blocked in China, and several hashtags related to the topic of “riots” in the area were scrubbed from China’s Twitter-like Weibo by Tuesday morning.

Neither the Guangzhou city government nor the Guangdong provincial police responded to Reuters’ requests for comment.

“It was quite tense out there last night. Everyone made sure their doors were locked,” said a Guangzhou resident who uses the name Chet and lives about half a mile from where the protest took place. He said local chat groups and social media feeds had been flooded with videos and pictures of the episode.

“When it happened so close to me I found it really upsetting. I couldn’t sleep last night after watching those images,” said Chet, whose residential compound has been locked down for about 20 days.

On Tuesday, China reported 17,772 new local Covid-19 infections, up from 16,072 a day earlier and the most since April, even as many cities scaled back routine testing after authorities announced measures last week aimed at easing the impact of heavy coronavirus curbs.

UK

Firefighter strike threat looms after union members reject 5% pay offer 

As fears increase over growing number of public sector walkouts

Firefighters have rejected five per cent pay offer making strike action more likely

Fire Brigades Union (FBU) said members voted by 79 per cent against the offer

It comes amid a wave of action after nurses and civil servants balloted for strike

By ELENA SALVONI FOR MAILONLINE
14 November 2022 

Firefighters have overwhelmingly rejected a five per cent pay offer, making strike action in the service increasingly likely.

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) said members voted by 79 per cent against the 'disgusting' pay offer and that it would fail to support firefighters, some of whom have turned to foodbanks.

The union's executive will now decide the next step, which is expected to be a ballot on strike action.

It comes amid a wave of industrial action across the public sector and amongst key workers - with nurses, civil servants, train drivers and postal workers all balloting for action or going on strike in recent weeks.

Members of the Fire Brigades Union have overwhelmingly rejected a five per cent pay offer. Pictured here taking part in a demonstration outside the Scottish Parliament in October

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) encouraged its 300,000 members to back strikes over the Government's 'insulting' pay offer — which amounts to roughly 4 per cent, or £1,400.

It confirmed last week that around 100 hospitals in England will be affected by the disruption.

Hundreds of thousands of nurses are set to walk out across the UK before Christmas in a bid for a 17.6 per cent pay rise and better working conditions.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said the action is 'neither reasonable nor affordable' and that the request rise would 'turbocharge inflation'.

Around 100,000 civil servants also voted to strike this week in a dispute over pay, pensions and jobs.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has been reported to be considering a limit on public sector pay rises to just 2 per cent in 2023/24, a move which would see a real terms pay cut as inflation hovers around 10 per cent.

The Chancellor's Autumn statement will reveal all on Thursday, but he has warned Brits that he will have to make 'horrible' decisions as he tries to rescue the economy.

FBU general secretary Matt Wrack, said after the news was announced: 'FBU members have spoken'. Pictured here at a rally earlier this month

Public sector workers' pay will only be decided next year, with the Chancellor set to give an outline this week of what different departments will be able to afford.

In the latest show of workers' discontent amid the cost of living crisis, the FBU said it's members' vote has shown 'there is remarkable strength of feeling amongst firefighters and control staff on this derisory pay offer'.

FBU general secretary Matt Wrack, said: 'FBU members have spoken.

'The ball is in the employers' and Government's court. There is still an opportunity to resolve this dispute and we will be writing to Fire Ministers and Government departments across the UK requesting urgent meetings.

'We have firefighters using foodbanks. Our members worked through the pandemic to help protect their communities, taking on extra duties to do so.

'A further real-terms pay cut is an absolutely disgusting way to thank them. Whilst strike action is always a last resort, our members simply can't go on like this.'

Who is going on strike and when?

Civil servants: Around 100,000 civil servants have voted for a national strike over pay, pensions and jobs, the PCS union has announced. The dates are TBC.

Nurses: Strikes are expected to begin in early December and could take place over two dates, potentially a Tuesday and a Thursday. They could last until early May 2023.

Bus drivers: The workers will strike on November 22, 25, and 26 and on December 1, 2, 3, 9, 10, 16 and 17.

Rail workers: Drivers working for 12 British train operators will go on strike on November 26 in an ongoing dispute over pay

Postal workers: Take national strike action on Thursday 24 and Friday 25 November and for Wednesday 30 November and Thursday 1 December 2022.

Britain is facing a winter of discontent after 100,000 civil servants voted to strike as comrades on the rail network agreed new dates and nurses decided on taking industrial action for the first time in more than a century

Poorest UK households face biggest jump in inflation

The poorest 10% of households were hit by a 12.5% rise in their living costs for October.

The poorest have faced the largest rise in inflation, according to the Office for National Statistics (Aaron Chown/PA)

By Henry Saker-Clark, 

PA Deputy Business Editor
November 16 2022

The poorest tenth of UK households witnessed the sharpest jump in the cost-of-living last month, according to official figures.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that the gap between inflation faced by the poorest and wealthiest UK households widened to the largest since the financial crisis in 2009.

It came as statisticians revealed Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation of 11.1% in October for the country, jumping to a 41-year-high from 10.1% the previous month.





The jump was driven by higher energy bills and more expensive food, which essentials such as milk and pasta leaping in price.

In a separate report based on the data, the ONS said these increases were weighing particularly heavily on the poorest in society.

The poorest 10% of households were hit by a 12.5% rise in their living costs for the month.

Meanwhile, the richest 10% of households experienced inflation of 9.6% in October.

The ONS highlighted that the gap is largely driven by increases in energy and food costs as poorer households spent “a greater proportion of their expenditure” on these compared with the top tenth.



Jack Leslie, senior economist at the Resolution Foundation, said: “Everyone in Britain is affected by double digit inflation – which has caused pay packets to shrink at record rates.

“But some groups are more affected than others, and Britain now has a significant cost-of-living gap between rich and poor households.

“Rising energy bills and rapid food prices mean that low-income households now face an effective average inflation rate of around 12.5%, while in the cold winter months, the over-80s are already facing inflation rates of around 15.3%.

“This shows why the Chancellor needs to protect vulnerable households through the ongoing cost-of-living crisis when he sets out his autumn statement.”

THE SOLUTION 

UK

The Chancellor must not balance the Budget on the backs of the poor

(Alamy)

Patrick Watt

If you go into most churches across the United Kingdom – not just on a Sunday but on any day of the week – you’ll find people on the frontline of the response to the cost-of-living crisis.

Church congregations – in common with other local faith communities – are running food banks and debt crisis centres and, as winter approaches, acting as warm banks for the growing numbers of people struggling to heat their homes, as well as feed their families.

This is central to how many millions of people live out their faith. But putting faith into action doesn’t stop there. The people who volunteer for our food banks are often the same people who raise funds and take action to support people beyond our borders: people whose lives have been devastated by conflict, climate change and extreme poverty, in Ukraine, Pakistan and East Africa.


We expect a swift return to spending 0.7 per cent of national income on tackling poverty overseas

For many Christians there is no choice to be made between tackling poverty at home and abroad.

This isn’t just about generosity. It is about something much deeper – the answer to the question, “who is my neighbour?” – and the responsibility that we have for one another.

In the past year huge numbers of people in the UK and globally have been plunged into poverty on a scale not seen for decades. In the UK, nearly 10 million adults and 4 million children didn’t have enough to eat or skipped meals this September. Meanwhile, tens of millions of people in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya face the looming threat of famine following the worst drought in 40 years.

This should be what the Prime Minister and Chancellor are focused on as they plan the government’s financial statement tomorrow.

That public finances are currently stretched hardly needs stating. However, what Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt must not do is to balance the budget on the backs of the poor. Not that they need to pursue austerity 2.0. Much more could be done to tax the vast profits of oil and gas companies, ensure that multinational companies systematically avoiding their fair share of taxes pay up and equalise tax on private wealth with income tax.

The worst possible response to the deepest cost of living crisis in a generation is to treat it as a zero-sum competition between the most disadvantaged people at home and abroad. So just as a fair society would expect welfare benefits to be protected on in the Budget, so too should we expect a swift return to spending 0.7 per cent of national income on tackling poverty overseas. As the COP27 summit focuses on the loss and damage caused by climate change, the UK should be joining Denmark, Belgium, Austria and others in looking at how to mobilise new sources of finance, rather than cannibalising a shrinking aid budget.

As the Prime Minister and Chancellor finalise their plans for the Autumn Statement, where will they draw inspiration? They may be looking at the record of Conservative predecessors, such as Margaret Thatcher, who famously once said: “No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he'd only had good intentions – he had money as well.”

But Margaret Thatcher missed the key point about Jesus’s best-known parable. The Good Samaritan is neither a story about good intentions nor money. It’s about how we should love our neighbours as ourselves. The people on our street are our neighbours. But so too are the people of South Sudan and Afghanistan.

Churches across the UK understand that. It’s time that the UK government did as well.


Patrick Watt, CEO of Christian Aid.