WAR CRIME

Ukraine missile toll rises to 36,  Russia denies attack

Mon, 16 January 2023

The toll from Russia's devastating strike on a residential block in Dnipro rose on Monday to 36, as fears grew more bodies would be pulled from the rubble and the Kremlin denied responsibility.

Emergency service workers with rescue dogs dug for survivors into the night Sunday in the wake of one of the deadliest recent attacks of Russia's nearly year-long invasion.

"We've been working for 19 or 20 hours without sleep and without rest," said Larysa Borysenko, one of the rescuers, whose team had found bodies but no survivors.

Ukraine's national police service gave the new toll in a statement while the head of Dnipropetrovsk region, Valentyn Reznichenko said two children were among the dead.

The "fate of another 35 residents of the building is unknown," he said, confirming that rescue operations were ongoing, some 40 hours after the strike.

The Kremlin told reporters Monday its forces were not responsible for the attack and pointed to an unsubstantiated theory circulating on social media that Ukrainian air defence systems had caused the damage.

"The Russian armed forces do not strike residential buildings or social infrastructure. They strike military targets," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelensky said late Sunday that search operations would go on as long as necessary and condemned Russian's "cowardly silence" over the attack.

The EU's most senior diplomat Josep Borrell late Sunday described the strike as "inhumane aggression" and vowed "there will be no impunity for these crimes."

"The EU will continue supporting Ukraine, for as long as it takes," he added.

- 'Defensive' Belarus drills -

The rising cost of the strike that ripped open the side of a housing block came as Russia and its close ally Belarus announced the beginning of new joint military drills.

Belarus, which has been a key ally to Russia throughout the conflict, allowed Moscow's forces to use its territory as a launching pad for its assault last February.

Its defence ministry said in a statement the air force exercises would involve joint "tactical" flights and that every airfield in Belarus would be involved.

"The exercise is purely defensive in nature," Pavel Muraveyko, first deputy state secretary of Belarus's Security Council, said in remarks carried Sunday by the defence ministry.

Since Ukrainian forces pushed back Russian troops from the north of the country, Kyiv and its Western allies have been assessing the threat of another assault from Belarusian territory.

The Institute for the Study of War, based in the United States, said in an analytical note Monday that the risk of a new offensive from Belarus was "low" and "the risk of Belarusian direct involvement was very low".

Meanwhile, UN atomic watchdog chief Rafael Grossi was expected in Ukraine on Monday to deploy observer missions at nuclear power plants across the country that have been a key concern throughout Russia's invasion.

- Observer teams at nuclear plants -

"I'm proud to lead this mission to Ukraine, where we're deploying in all of the country's NPPs (nuclear power plants) to provide assistance in nuclear safety and security," he said on Twitter.

Ukraine in recent weeks has been pressing Western backers to supply its forces with advanced tanks, in particular the German-designed Leopard model.

The UK this weekend pledged 14 Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine, which would make it the first Western country to supply the heavy tanks Kyiv has been calling for.

Peskov, the Kremlin's spokesperson, told reporters Monday that fighting in Ukraine would continue with or without the deliveries.

"These tanks are burning and will burn," he said.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview with German media on Sunday that "recent pledges for heavy warfare equipment are important -- and I expect more in the near future".

Separately on Monday, Ukraine officials said that Russian forces had continued shelling the southern city of Kherson, which was recaptured by Kyiv's forces late last year.

The regional governor Yaroslav Yanushevych said one woman was killed in an attack on a residential building and that Russian forces also damaged an empty children's hospital.

In Crimea, the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, the Moscow-appointed official responsible for the military city Sevastopol said Russian forces had downed seven drones over the last 24 hours.

 

 

Warning of unprecedented heatwaves as El Niño set to return in 2023

Damian Carrington Environment editor

THE GUARDIAN
Mon, 16 January 2023 

Photograph: Feisal Omar/Reuters

The return of the El Niño climate phenomenon later this year will cause global temperatures to rise “off the chart” and deliver unprecedented heatwaves, scientists have warned.

Early forecasts suggest El Niño will return later in 2023, exacerbating extreme weather around the globe and making it “very likely” the world will exceed 1.5C of warming. The hottest year in recorded history, 2016, was driven by a major El Niño.

It is part of a natural oscillation driven by ocean temperatures and winds in the Pacific, which switches between El Niño, its cooler counterpart La Niña, and neutral conditions. The last three years have seen an unusual run of consecutive La Niña events.

This year is already forecast to be hotter than 2022, which global datasets rank as the fifth or sixth hottest year on record. But El Niño occurs during the northern hemisphere winter and its heating effect takes months to be felt, meaning 2024 is much more likely to set a new global temperature record.

Related: Revealed: how climate breakdown is supercharging toll of extreme weather

The greenhouse gases emitted by human activities have driven up average global temperature by about 1.2C to date. This has already led to catastrophic impacts around the world, from searing heatwaves in the US and Europe to devastating floods in Pakistan and Nigeria, harming millions of people.

“It’s very likely that the next big El Niño could take us over 1.5C,” said Prof Adam Scaife, the head of long-range prediction at the UK Met Office. “The probability of having the first year at 1.5C in the next five-year period is now about 50:50.”

“We know that under climate change, the impacts of El Niño events are going to get stronger, and you have to add that to the effects of climate change itself, which is growing all the time,” he said. “You put those two things together, and we are likely to see unprecedented heatwaves during the next El Niño.”

The fluctuating impacts of the El Niño-La Niña cycle could be seen in many regions of the world, Scaife said. “Science can now tell us when these things are coming months ahead. So we really do need to use it and be more prepared, from having readiness of emergency services right down to what crops to plant.”

Prof James Hansen, at Columbia University, in New York, and colleagues said recently: “We suggest that 2024 is likely to be off the chart as the warmest year on record. It is unlikely that the current La Niña will continue a fourth year. Even a little futz of an El Niño should be sufficient for record global temperature.” Declining air pollution in China, which blocks the sun, was also increasing heating, he said.

While El Niño would supercharge extreme weather, the degree of exacerbation was under debate among scientists.

Prof Bill McGuire, at University College London, UK, said: “When [El Niño arrives], the extreme weather that has rampaged across our planet in 2021 and 2022 will pale into insignificance.” While Prof Tim Palmer, at the University of Oxford, said: “The correlation between extreme weather and global mean temperature is not that strong [but] the thermodynamic effects of climate change are going to make the anomalies we get from an El Niño year just that more extreme.”

Climate modelling results issued in early January by Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology indicated the country could swing from three years of above-average rainfall to one of the hottest, driest El Niño periods on record, increasing the risk of severe heatwaves, droughts and fires. In December, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration rated the odds of an El Niño forming by August-October as 66%.

The scale of the likely El Niño was as yet unclear. Prof Andy Turner, at the University of Reading, said: “Many seasonal forecast models are suggesting the arrival of moderate El Niño conditions from summer 2023.” The picture would be much clearer by June, the scientists said.

The El Niño-La Niña phenomenon is the biggest cause of year-to-year differences in weather in many regions. In La Niña years, the east-to-west Pacific trade winds are stronger, pushing warm surface waters to the west and drawing up deeper, cooler water in the east. El Niño events happen when the trade winds wane, allowing the warm waters to spread back eastwards, smothering the cooler waters and leading to a rise in global temperatures.

Nations bordering the west Pacific, including Indonesia and Australia, experience hotter and drier conditions. “You tend to get lots of droughts, lots of wildfires,” said Scaife, though China can suffer flooding in the Yangtze basin after big El Niños.

India’s monsoons, and rains in southern Africa can also be suppressed. Other regions, such as east Africa and the southern US, both of which have suffered recent droughts, can get more rain and flooding. In South America, southern regions are wetter, but the Amazon, already approaching a dangerous tipping point, is drier.

“The effects of El Niño could also be felt as far as the northern hemisphere mid-latitudes, with a likelihood of wetter conditions in Spain from summer onwards and drier conditions on the eastern seaboard of the US in the following winter and spring,” said Turner.

Palmer said the biggest unanswered question was whether climate change favoured more El Niño or more La Niña events: “That is crucially important for countries looking at long-term adaptation, and will need much higher-resolution climate models. That can only come about with bigger computers.”

Palmer and colleagues have called for the establishment of a $1bn international centre for climate modelling, akin to the Large Hadron Collider that allows international particle physicists to do together what no single nation can do alone.

Anthropologist Chowra Makaremi says Iran protests 'fuelled by anger'

Mon, 16 January 2023 

When Chowra Makaremi came to France from Iran as a child, she had to leave her mother behind. Several years later, in 1988, her jailed mother was one of thousands killed in mass executions. Now an anthropologist, Marakemi explains that the Iranian regime has long used state violence for control, setting up a sort of "contract" to keep society within their "red lines". She says the current protests, which began four months ago following the death of Mahsa Amini, are a sign that Iranians are no longer accepting the regime's "game of terror".

Marakemi tells us that a generation of Iranians who, like her, lost family members to state violence have transmitted "a memory of resistance", adding that the current movement is being fuelled not by fear, but by anger at the executions of protesters.

Iran protests, 4 months on: Iranians finding creative ways to continue theifight for freedom

Iran's regime is turning increasingly violent in an attempt to quell the women-led protests that were sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini on 16th September. More than 500 people have died, including scores of children, in the last four months. Will the terror tactics be able to crush the protests or will it only fuel more anger? To find out, our colleagues at France 2 spoke to three women on the ground.

Iran protests, 4 months on: Human rights group say at least 500 killed in crackdown 

• FRANCE 24

 

Thousands march to EU parliament in Strasbourg in support of Iran protesters

NEWS WIRES
Mon, 16 January 2023

© Frederick Florin, AFP

Up to 12,000 people marched Monday to the EU Parliament in the eastern French city of Strasbourg in support of Iran’s anti-government protesters while the Eiffel Tower lit the night with the slogan “Woman. Life. Freedom,” which embodies the protest movement spilling beyond Iran.

The Eiffel Tower display also beamed the message, “Stop executions in Iran,” highlighting a demand of protesters.

Both messages pay tribute to Mahsa Amini, whose death in September triggered demonstrations in Iran, along with arrests and executions.

Paris posthumously declared Amani an honorary citizen in October, and Paris City Hall has said that the Eiffel Tower displays Monday were a homage to Amini and to “those who are bravely fighting for their freedom as the (Iranian) regime is continuing executions of protesters.”

The Strasbourg march was organized by Iranians in Europe on the 44th anniversary of the day when Iran’s last Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, ailing and under growing pressure, left the country forever. The following month, the monarchy collapsed under the fervor of the Islamic revolution that gave Iran its theocracy. Some of the demonstrators Monday carried photos of the former king.

Local media cited police as saying some 12,000 people took part.

“Your silence is violence,” one banner read, reflecting the demand of Iranian protesters abroad to support their message and ensure Tehran hears it.

(AP)

Climate activists hijack car adverts

to highlight environmental impact

Hans von der Brelie

Mon, 16 January 2023 

In cities across Europe climate activists have vandalised car industry billboards in a coordinated campaign to highlight the sector's environmental impact. In Brussels, the action was timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of its International Motor Show.

The campaigners covered manufacturers' posters with their own versions. More than 400 mock billboards have appeared in in London, Berlin, Frankfurt, Paris and other cities and towns.

The action was organised by Extinction Rebellion, with the groups Subvertisers’ International and Brandalism. Their plan was to target Toyota and BMW over their misleading advertisements and aggressive lobbying against climate policy.

In 2022, Influence Map ranked Toyota the 10th worst company in the world for their anti-climate lobbyingm followed by BMW who ranked 16th overall.

Despite issued adverts higlighting Electric vehicles, in 2021 they only accounted for 0.2% of Toyota's total car sales.

The campaigners say they want more robust government policies, such as 'tobacco-style' advertising bans, to regulate the advertisement of environmentally harmful products such as SUV's.

UK

Cumbria coal mine should never have been approved, says government's climate tsar

Mon, 16 January 2023 


The government's climate tsar has said a coal mine in Cumbria would never have been approved if his recommendations had been in place.

Chris Skidmore, a Tory MP and chairman of the government's net zero review, also expressed doubt over whether the coal mine would ever be built.

Speaking at the launch of his review, he said the decision, made by Michael Gove, the Communities and Levelling Up Secretary, in December "would not have been able to happen" if his recommendations had been in place.

The mine near Whitehaven, Cumbria, is the first new UK coal mine to be approved in 30 years and will be used to dig up coking coal for steel production.

Critics believe it would undermine climate targets and that demand for coking coal is declining, but supporters claim the mine will create jobs and reduce the need to import coal.

Its approval is now facing legal challenges, with Mr Skidmore adding: "Let's wait and see whether this coal mine actually happens - if this report is taken forward it never will."

On Friday, Friends of the Earth filed a legal challenge at the High Court over the government's decision to grant planning permission.

They called the decision "unthinkable" and said their challenge focuses on how Mr Gove "dealt with evidence relating to climate change" put forward by the group and others at the planning inquiry.

Rowan Smith, a solicitor at Leigh Day who is representing the environmental group, said: "Of particular importance in this legal challenge is whether the secretary of state lawfully concluded that the purchase of carbon credits would make a meaningful contribution to the UK's net zero targets, given their achievement relied on domestic - as opposed to international - offsetting.

"Friends of the Earth's legal claim has now been filed with the court.

"It is our hope that a hearing is granted to allow full argument on these matters."

The West Cumbria Mining project was initially approved in 2020 by the local county council but had to get final approval by the government.

Its approval was paused in early 2021 ahead of the COP26 climate conference after the government's climate change adviser said it would increase carbon emissions.

The Climate Change Committee (CCC), which advises the government, said 85% of the coal produced by the mine would be exported.

Read more:
Can the government convince people that net zero legislation is a road to economic growth?

Lord Deben, chairman of the CCC, described the proposal as "absolutely indefensible" and said its approval would damage the UK's leadership on climate change.

The final decision was sent to Mr Gove, who ultimately approved it.

He said he was "satisfied that there is currently a UK and European market for the coal".

Watch the Daily Climate Show at 3.30pm Monday to Friday, and The Climate Show with Tom Heap on Saturday and Sunday at 3.30pm and 7.30pm.

All on Sky News, on the Sky News website and app, on YouTube and Twitter.

The show investigates how global warming is changing our landscape and highlights solutions to the crisis.

GERMANY
Greta Thunberg dragged from coal mine protest by police

'We can’t accept that RWE, a fossil fuel company, can do deals with the government and threaten countless lives across the world,' says Greta Thunberg - David Young/Bild

Jorg Luyken
Mon, 16 January 2023

Greta Thunberg has criticised Germany’s Green Party for allying with a fossil fuel company, after police carried her and other climate protesters away from a village that is due to make way for an expanding coal mine.

Speaking at the edge of the protests in the village of Lützerath in the Rhine region, Ms Thunberg accused the Greens of hypocrisy, saying: "They took part in the demonstrations to save Lützerath and then sacrificed Lützerath.”

Ms Thunberg told broadcaster ARD: “We can’t accept that RWE, a fossil fuel company, can do deals with the government and threaten countless lives across the world.”

The environmental campaigner, 20, travelled to Germany last week to join protesters who had occupied the deserted village, which is situated at the edge of a huge open cast mine owned by energy firm RWE and due to be expanded.

Greta Thunberg says the German Greens have 'sacrificed Lüzerath'

- Federico Gambarini/dpa via AP

On Sunday, police carried Thunberg away after she refused to leave a sit-in at the edge of the mine.

German police spent much of last week clearing hundreds of protesters from the village, but two activists who had shut themselves inside an improvised tunnel were still holding out on Monday morning.

Robert Habeck, Germany’s energy minister, announced the deal with RWE last autumn, describing it as a “milestone” for climate protection.

RWE agreed to waive its right to dig up coal under five further villages in the surrounding countryside and to stop all coal mining in the Rhine region in 2030, eight years earlier than planned.

Under the deal, RWE agreed to keep two large coal-fired plants running for an extra 15 months to temper the effects of Russia cutting gas supplies to Germany.

Greta Thunberg is taken away by officers after joining the coal mine protest in Germany

 - David Young/Bild

This week, Mr Habeck accused protesters of picking “the wrong symbol” in Lützerath, claiming that the village stood for the end of coal mining in the region.

But climate activists have seethed at the fact that the environmentalist party has prioritised securing energy supplies over what they say see as the more critical fight against climate change.

Protesters point to studies that suggest Germany will overshoot its climate obligations under the Paris protocols if it continues to mine the coal found in the Rhine region.

Barbados ambassador calls on UK government and monarchy to apologise for slavery

Nadine White
Mon, 16 January 2023 

The Emancipation Statue, known by locals as Bussa, located at St Barnabas roundabout outside of Bridgetown in Barbados (Johnny Green/PA)

A Barbados ambassador has called for the British government and royal family to apologise for slavery and pay reparations following the Church of England’s admission of its involvement in past atrocities.

David Comissiong, Barbados’ ambassador to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), addressed the church’s “groundbreaking” developments in disclosing its involvement in the mass enslavement of African people, as the Caribbean nation continues to push for reparatory justice.

Barbados was the birthplace of the British slave society and was most ruthlessly colonised between 1636–1876; Mr Comissiong is the deputy chairperson of the country’s National Task Force on Reparations.

The Church of England’s investment fund’s “shameful” historic links to transatlantic slavery were laid bare in a full report on Tuesday, prompting it to announce £100 million of funding for a programme of investment, research and engagement to try to “address past wrongs”.

In the 18th century, the church “invested significant amounts” of its funds in the South Sea Company, a firm founded in 1711 to refinance England’s national debt which was awarded the monopoly on Britain’s trade of enslaved people to the Spanish Americas.

Other entities that invested in it include the British royal family, government, the Bank of England, scientific pioneers such as Sir Isaac Newton, and members of the ruling class of European nationalities including King Philip V of Spain.

“The reality is that the Church of England has confirmed that investment or other participation in the crime against humanity that the transatlantic slave trade was is more than enough to establish an obligation to apologise and to implement and finance – in consultation with representatives of the affected communities – a concrete programme of reparations,” Mr Comissiong said on Sunday.

“The eyes of all right-thinking people, all over the world, will now be on the British government, the British royal family, the Bank of England and other institutions of the British establishment, and the governments of Spain and other relevant European countries.

“How will each of them respond to the moral imperative that now confronts them? The world will be watching."

David Comissiong, deputy chairperson of Barbados’ National Task Force on Reparations (Supplied)

The Church Commissioners for England announced the funding commitment on Tuesday. However, as it emerged that the institution is sitting on £10 billion, derived from the Anne’s Bounty, a predecessor fund of the church which had direct links with transatlantic chattel slavery, some critics have dismissed its £100 million as inadequate. On the other hand, some members of the church have slammed the funding package altogether.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, chairman of the Church Commissioners, called the report’s interim findings “a source of shame” in June 2022 and reiterated his apology last week, saying “it is now time to take action to address our shameful past”.

The £100 million funding, to be delivered over the next nine years, will establish an impact investment fund to “invest for a better and fairer future for all, particularly for communities affected by historic slavery”, the church said.

"The involvement and culpability of the Anglican Church and the other relevant institutions actually go way beyond investing in slave-trading companies like the South Sea Company,” Mr Commisiong told The Independent.

“What the Anglican Church has established is that - at a minimum- investing in a slave-trading company like the South Sea Company requires the guilty entity to genuinely apologise and to be prepared to help repair some of the damage that was done, and that still persists in the lives of African descendants today.

“These are all crucial, historic, ground-breaking developments in their own right, but of equal, if not greater, significance is the invaluable light that they shed on other extremely important related aspects of our reparations campaign.”

The South Sea Company transported 34,000 enslaved African people “in crowded, unsanitary, unsafe and inhumane conditions” during its 30 years of operation, the report estimates.

Shareholders with over £10,000 worth of stock in the company included the Earl of Halifax, Charles Montagu, the founder of the Bank of England. That amounts to over £1.5 million in today’s money.

“There can be no doubt that the eighteenth and nineteenth-century slave trade was an unacceptable part of British history. As an institution, the Bank of England was never itself directly involved in the slave trade, but is aware of some inexcusable connections involving former governors and directors and has apologised for them,” a Bank of England spokesperson told The Independent.

“The bank appointed a researcher to undertake extensive research into this aspect of its history. Much of that research is presented in an exhibition in the Bank’s Museum which is free and open to the public.”

Weeks ago, it emerged that Barbados is pursuing reparations from Richard Drax, a sitting member of parliament and the UK owner of the largest former slave estate on the island. The nation became a republic, removing the British monarch as its head of state, in November 2021.

While the palace declined to comment, the UK government has been approached for a response to Mr Commisiong’s remarks.

Capitalism and Slavery

https://glc.yale.edu › pdf › capatlism_and_slavery

PDF

Capitalism. &. Slavery. <I. Eric Williams. NORTH C ... slaves in other colonies, the Georgian planters found them- selves in the position, as Whitefield ...

This Is Australia: First Nations dancers remake Childish Gambino’s This Is America

Sian Cain
Mon, 16 January 2023 a



When Childish Gambino’s song This s America was first released in 2018, its elaborately choreographed and racially loaded film clip inspired a storm of speculation as people tried to decode what likely became the most talked-about music video of all time. Which of the dance moves were based on Jim Crow caricatures? Is the shooting of the gospel choir a rejection of spiritual upliftment? Is the last shot a reference to Get Out? And just what did the galloping horse mean?

Then remakes began to stream in from around the world. This Is Iraq, This Is Sierra Leone, This Is Nigeria, This Is Barbados, This Is Malaysia: all tackling racial injustice, human rights abuses, political hypocrisy and greed through dance and song.

Now Marrugeku, Australia’s leading First Nations dance company, has put together This Is Australia: a searing indictment of the country’s treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, refugees and migrants.

Like Childish Gambino’s video, Marrugeku’s take is packed with references familiar to Australians with one eye on the news – a man with a spit hood over his head, an overly-familiar white reporter, refugees holding signs, heavily armed police. The song, lead by Noongar rapper Beni Bjah, opens: “We just want a barbie / Crack a can or two / Put upon your thongs / Aussie day is due / Oh, lest we forget / The footy’s on tonight / Can’t you just get over it / You know she’ll be right.”

“It’s is a different process to writing an original song, to having a blank canvas,” Bjah says. “But having Childish Gambino’s version to go off actually helped – This Is America had already inspired me so much, all these ideas just popped in my head. We could have probably written three or four songs.”

Marrugeku’s co-artistic directors Dalisa Pigram and Rachael Swain had the idea years ago, while brainstorming a work that would tackle First Nations incarceration rates and Australia’s treatment of refugees. That work would become Marrugeku’s latest show, Jurrungu Ngan-ga (Straight Talk), which heads to Adelaide Festival in March.

At the time, then prime minister Scott Morrison was announcing a $7m plan for a “re-enactment” of James Cook’s journey on the HMS Endeavour that would circumnavigate Australia, despite the fact that Cook never did that. (It was later scrapped due to the pandemic.) When Black Lives Matter protests began a few months later after the murder of George Floyd in the US, suddenly Australia was engaged in a national debate around toppling statues celebrating figures such as Cook.

“We were thinking, how do we respond to all of this?” says Pigram. “And this was it. [Marrugeku] worked on the choreography, while Beni crafted up those amazing lyrics that hit hard in the heart.”

Glover’s opening dance, as a twitching caricature, inspired Pigram to think of an Australian equivalent. “We were trying to think of the kind of stereotypical dance that people imagine Aboriginal people doing – the kangaroo, and shaking shoulders,” she says. “[Dancer] Luke Currie-Richardson is doing it with style, but it is kind of cheeky.”

Halfway through, the song is interrupted by a wailing cry, sung by Marrugeku’s Emmanuel James Brown, over a shot of a triumphant Cook figure standing on a boat. This is a grieving response to the valourisation of Australia’s colonisers – a reminder of the pain they left behind, Pigram says: “We talk about melting statues down, when these statues are melting people down.”

The project sat in stasis during the pandemic, until stars aligned: Marrugeku was touring Jurrungu Ngan-ga around the Kimberley just as the Western Australia border re-opened and all the company’s dancers were in the same space for the first time in a long time.

Marrugeku and Bjah reunited on a sweltering day at Fitzroy Crossing, on Bunuba country, to record the video. Childish Gambino’s clip features several long, meticulously choreographed takes, and Marrugeku filmed roughly seven takes of every shot. “Multiple takes for anything a couple of minutes long is a lot work,” Bjah says. “But the dancers were so on point, they brought me up to their level. I felt the pressure because I didn’t want to make them keep running through it on a hot day.”

While Marrugeku’s shows like Jurrungu Ngan-ga earn rave reviews from those with the opportunity to see them, Pigram and Bjah hope people around the world who can’t will watch This Is Australia, and better understand the unique challenges facing Australia’s First Nations peoples, migrants and refugees.

“When we make a show for a theatre, we’re making the show that some people can never access – people who are incarcerated, on prison islands, in detention centres,” Pigram says. “So this is how we get to them, and to people all across the world.”

“Australia has a fear of the unknown,” Bjah says. “What we don’t understand, we want to lock up or send home. And we’re the most multicultural country in the world.”

Petition to strip royal loopholes from Scottish laws becomes Holyrood's most popular

Steph Brawn
Mon, 16 January 2023

A PETITION demanding the Scottish Government abolish royal exceptions and adaptations to legislation has become the most popular on Holyrood's website.

The petition launched by Our Republic has amassed over 6000 signatures in just over a week – nearly twice as many as any other submitted in the past year.

It calls for all details of instances where the monarchy has lobbied for changes in Scottish law to be made public, for them to be reversed, and for any future communications between the monarchy and government to be “fully transparent” to prevent any such alterations to Scottish laws being implemented in the future.

Our Republic convenor Tristan Gray said it is important for people to realise the monarchy are not simply “neutral figureheads”.

READ MORE: BBC Scotland radio host calls Nicola Sturgeon 'our leader'

He said: "We wanted to draw attention to the secretive ways in which the royal family have been interfering with our laws to their own benefit.

“While many people think of the royals as simply neutral figureheads and tourist attractions, the reality is that, behind the scenes, they are anything but.

"News stories this week, from the clear strategy of anonymous briefing to shape media reporting to revelations Charles yet again interfered with environmental regulations in 2019, show how much of an immediate concern these ongoing royal manipulations should be.

“The first step towards changing this is to lift the shroud of secrecy."

READ MORE: An SNP shift to the left could boost independence campaign

A constitutional mechanism called Crown Consent sees the monarch given an opportunity to look over prospective laws that could affect his or her property and public powers. It is not the same as Royal Assent, which is given to bills to make them acts of Parliament.

Gray added: “We're calling on the Scottish Government to ensure all future communication between the Crown and the Government are public and transparent, publish all past correspondence, abolish past exemptions implemented on the monarchy's behalf, and work to prevent such alterations to our laws in the future."

The popularity of the petition has come amid a rocky time for the royals after the publication of Prince Harry's autobiography Spare, which made claims about how the family has sought to shape media reporting and "plant" stories.

The National: Prince Harry's autobiography Spare included revelations about how the family can shape media reporting

Prince Harry's autobiography Spare included revelations about how the family can shape media reporting (Image: Archant)

Reports said that the late Queen was given advance sight of Holyrood bills – allowing her to secretly lobby for changes – on at least 67 occasions. These included bills dealing with property taxation, protections from tenants, and planning laws.

It emerged at the weekend the UK Government asked King Charles for permission to pass its post-Brexit Environment Act because laws requiring landowners to enhance conservation could affect his business interests.

In letters sent in October 2019, then environment minister Rebecca Pow informed Charles: “This bill contains measures on conservation covenants which affect the interests of the crown, the Duchy of Lancaster and the Duchy of Cornwall.

READ MORE: UK's richest one per cent has more wealth than bottom 70 per cent

“Part 7 (conservation covenants) of the bill applies to crown land as it applies to any other land.”

Letters then show that the prince’s private secretary, Clive Alderton, gave his consent for the law.

Gray said that he feels republicanism is growing in Scotland and now is the right time to talk about the future of the monarchy.

He said: "We have members from parties across the political spectrum and republicanism is growing in Scotland. A recent poll showed that only 45% of Scots still support the monarchy.

“We think the time is right to have a proper conversation about the future of the royal family in Scotland, and the vital importance of the concept that all of us should be equal under the law."

The petition can be signed here and will continue to collect signatures until February 2. It will then be considered by the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee.

EU/UK
Energy bills will remain higher for years, warns boss of major gas producer


August Graham, PA Business Reporter
Mon, 16 January 2023

Societies need to stop thinking of energy as something abundant, the boss of one of Europe’s biggest gas companies has said as he warned that bills will remain higher for years.

Equinor chief executive Anders Opedal said that a lot of energy has been wasted as countries got used to cheap oil and gas.

But after Russia escalated its war with Ukraine, the European energy market has lost its biggest supplier of gas, a vital fuel for much of the economy.

“I think we need to treat energy as something that is not abundant. It actually has a value. I think we’ve had a lot of cheap energy in the past and we’ve probably wasted some of it,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“So, to make sure that we are making the right investments everyone wants to use as little energy as possible.”

The current energy crisis has seen bills for the average household protected by the price cap, rise from around £1,300 to £2,500 today, including government support.

Without the support from the Government, the average annual household energy bill would have been £4,279 in the last three months of 2022.

Mr Opedal said prices will likely remain higher for years to come, although they will start to fall from the more extreme level as the market adapts.

Norway’s Equinor is one of the biggest producers of gas in the world, and supplies much of Europe’s energy needs.

“We will see more and more normal prices in a couple of years’ time,” Mr Opedal said.

Energy bills will remain high for years to come, a major gas producer has warned 

(Danny Lawson/PA)

He added: “We see a rewiring of the whole energy system in Europe in particular after the gas from Russia was taken away. We need massive amounts of more renewables.

“We need to do the industry in a totally different way, requiring hydrogen and so on.

“This will require a lot of investment and these investments need to be paid. So I would assume that energy bills will maybe be slightly higher than in the past, but not as volatile and high as they are today.”