THE GUARDIAN LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Carbon offsets are a licence to pollute

Tue, 24 January 2023 

Photograph: Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images

Your report (Revealed: more than 90% of rainforest carbon offsets by biggest provider are worthless, analysis shows, 18 January) makes uncomfortable reading for enthusiasts of nature-based solutions to climate change. While forest protection should provide a win-win situation, benefiting both biodiversity and climate, it can too easily become lose-lose, because carbon offsets allow emissions to continue, worsening global heating and threatening not just forests but all natural ecosystems. The problem is that reliable quantification of the “additionality” of nature-based climate mitigation is near-impossible.

The answer is that ecosystem protection (and restoration, wherever possible) must become the default, not the add-on. Until that happens, any carbon trading based on natural processes should be limited to the offset of biologically based emissions, excluding those from fossil fuels.

Dr Phil Williamson
University of East Anglia

• Your reporting of the phantom carbon credits scandal is very welcome. But the bigger problem lies with the concept of offsetting itself, whether in the established market in carbon or the quickly emerging market in biodiversity. Such schemes offer a licence, indeed an incentive, to polluters to carry on polluting. Without damage – emissions or ecological vandalism – there is nothing to offset, a situation that would make investors and speculators in these markets very unhappy. As George Monbiot remarked in 2006, this setup is reminiscent of the indulgences scam run by the medieval church.

Richard Middleton
Crossmichael, Dumfries & Galloway

SIR KEIR AT DAVOS

UK Labour party outlines its vision for government

Jitendra JOSHI
Tue, 24 January 2023 


Confident of taking power at the next UK general election, the Labour party is setting out its vision to the country's allies with vows of reconnecting with Europe after Brexit and delivering economic competence.

Last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and this week with a set-piece foreign policy speech, Labour bigwigs are globalising their fight against the crisis-ridden Conservatives.

The centre-left party -- a political force under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown from 1997 to 2010 -- promises continuity on the Conservatives' unflinching support for Ukraine, along with scepticism towards China.

But in general, Labour's would-be foreign secretary David Lammy attacked the Conservatives' "ideological leadership and reckless choices", vowing to "fix the Tories' bad Brexit deal".

"It doesn't have to be this way," he told European and other foreign diplomats on Tuesday at the Chatham House international affairs think-tank in London.

"The UK is home to cutting-edge technology and services, world-leading universities, vibrant cultural industries, and it has the potential for unparalleled global connections.

"Labour will reset our foreign policy to create a 'Britain Reconnected', for security and prosperity at home," Lammy said.

However, both Lammy and Labour leader Keir Starmer are ruling out the ultimate reconnection -- taking the UK back into the European Union, or at least its single market.

Labour argues that the 2016 Brexit referendum settled that debate, and EU allies themselves would rather the UK gets on with building permanent new arrangements free of the never-ending rancour that characterised the Conservatives' approach to Brussels.

Labour's slogan contrasts with the "Global Britain" promised by Boris Johnson when he took the country out of the EU at the start of 2020.

But trade deals promised by Johnson and his short-lived successor Liz Truss have done little to compensate for the loss of the UK's friction-free relationship with its biggest markets across the Channel.

Johnson's many scandals, and a disastrous economic experiment launched by Truss during her September-October tenure, left the UK a "joke" abroad, Lammy argued.

- 'Mission statement' -

After Johnson and Truss, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is trying to steady the ship financially while also reaching out to the EU in a bid to overhaul contentious post-Brexit trading rules for Northern Ireland.

But with inflation in double digits, strikes crippling key sectors, and many Britons enduring cold and hunger this winter, all opinion polls point to a Labour triumph -- and potential Tory wipeout -- at the next general election.

With the vote likely next year, Labour knows it needs to be ready with credible policies for home and abroad.

At Davos, Starmer called for a "clean power alliance" of countries to fight climate change and bring down sky-high energy prices.

The alliance would be an "inverse OPEC", he told financial big-hitters in the Swiss Alps, referring to the cartel of oil-producing countries.

Starmer also criticised Sunak for failing to come to Davos this year, stressing that his own presence and that of shadow finance minister Rachel Reeves showed "the United Kingdom will play its part on the global stage in a way I think it probably hasn't in recent years".

Lammy vowed a new security pact with the EU, and to restore the UK to the bloc's "Horizon" programme for scientific collaboration, pending a wider review of the two sides' Brexit trade treaty in 2025.

And he promised a new "mission statement" for the UK foreign office to deal with challenges from cyber governance to artificial intelligence.

The Conservative government said there was nothing new in Lammy's vision.

"We are focusing on promoting our values with a broader range of countries to help them become more resilient against threats, including from climate change, disease and hostile states," a foreign office spokesman said.

jit/phz/gw

Gaza: ‘24 hours of electricity a day? This is beyond a dream for us’

Paddy Dowling
Tue, 24 January 2023 

Enas’s family of 10 live in a settlement near Beit Hanoun. Their electricity access varies from four to eight hours each day (Paddy Dowling)

Since 2007, Gaza has been sealed off from the world. Its 2.1 million residents living in a 40km (25 miles) ribbon of land on the Mediterranean coast, have endured no less than four wars.

The conflicts not only claimed the lives of thousands of civilians, but they also damaged vital infrastructure in the enclave, including Gaza’s Power Plant (GPP), targeted by Israeli airstrikes in 2006 and again in 2014, during its third war. The repercussions of these premeditated attacks still hamstring Gaza’s efforts to meet the electric demand in the strip today.

Illuminated by the tungsten fluorescence from her television, engrossed as she watches her favourite programme, Sobhia, 72, explains: “It is hard to imagine, but we used to experience 24 hours of electricity each day in Gaza; now we are lucky if we get six.”

Sobhia lives among the alleyways of Al-Shati refugee camp in a ground-floor flat. ‘In my senior years with decreased mobility, the TV has become my best friend, it’s all I have to look forward to’ (Paddy Dowling)


Omar, 32, and his friends are perched on the pavements near their homes in search of the night breeze. Occasionally they glance up from their mobile phones and watched the neighbourhood children playing football in the pitch-black streets, using only the headlights of passing cars.

“24 hours of electricity a day? This is beyond a dream for us. Gaza’s youth only know this life, without power. Especially in times of conflict when the Kerem Shalom border crossing closes, there is no fuel for the power station and this affects our homes, hospitals, schools, water and sewage treatment facilities. Everything”, they explain.

They return to studying their phones, their faces lit by the glow as they keep tabs on the world outside.

Omar and his friends barely remember Gaza ever having 24 hours of electricity (Paddy Dowling)

Electricity to the Gaza Strip originates from two sources, the Israeli electric company and from the fuel-dependent GPP, donated by Qatar Fund for Development. The Qatari government has pledged to build a liquefied natural gas pipeline from Israel into the Gaza Strip, with the EU funding €20m (£18m) in aid to complete the pipeline project’s extensions.

A home in Gaza City where the family live with around six hours of electricity each day (Paddy Dowling)

Children of Shati camp play football in the pitch-black streets and alleyways using only the headlights of passing cars (Paddy Dowling)

A toddler sleeps in an old car seat in a darkened room (Paddy Dowling)

The pipeline project is expected to ease the energy crisis in the strip. However, whether the output will keep pace with future demand in the enclave remains to be seen.

“The new pipeline will bring us the hope Gaza desperately needs. But creating enough supply is one challenge, being able to afford the electricity is another challenge entirely,” says Salah, 71, a retired fisherman from Gaza city.

Salah, like so many others, is in debt to the Gaza Electricity Distribution Company and cannot afford to repay it (Paddy Dowling)

Mains electricity from Gaza’s grid remains the most cost-effective source at £0.12 per KWh, when accessible. Alternatively, a private network line using a generator can typically cost eight times as much at £1 per KWh, which most families cannot afford.

“I still owe 76,000 new Israeli shekels (£19,700) in arrears for electricity that I will never be able to repay. I cannot afford to pay on account either. Therefore, with little choice, I am forced to access our electricity the ‘informal’ way, straight from the nearby mains,” Salah concludes.

An elderly lady sits near the entrance to her family home waiting for a breeze to cut through the relentless coastal humidity (Paddy Dowling)

Estimates indicate that at least 25 per cent of Gaza’s residents obtain their electricity through informal means.

Thomas White is head of United Nations Relief and Works Agency in the enclave. Speaking exclusively to The Independent, he says: “Gaza is now on life support, it is being left behind and the humanitarian crisis is getting worse each year.

Mahmoud, 18, stands motionless in the humidity of his family home in Beit Lahia (Paddy Dowling)

A family bathroom in an informal makeshift dwelling near Khan Younis (Paddy Dowling)

“There is no doubt that the approved pipeline will change the lives in Gaza for so many who are forced to live with a rolling blackout schedule of electricity. But with unemployment rates amongst the highest in the world and more than 80 per cent living below the poverty line, Gazans will undoubtedly continue to use negative coping mechanisms to keep their heads above the water line, including risking their lives to have free electricity.”

Enas, 40, lives in an informal settlement on the outskirts of Gaza City along with her husband. They are both unemployed and rely solely on UN emergency food parcels and a cash assistance programme ($100 per month to 100,000 families) to sustain themselves and their eight children.


The heating element resting on a bucket of water (Paddy Dowling)

“We cannot afford electricity so of course, like many, we risk our lives to take it informally,” she says, as she points to the numerous blackened and charred plastic plug sockets around the dwelling, as well as the soot stains from a past electrical fire that set the kitchen ablaze.

Enas untangles some well-used wires attached to a heating element, which she lowers into a bucket of water. It hisses and fizzes. She continues: “I realise how dangerous this is. I know that my children could lose their mother, but to have warm water in which to wash is the only time of the day we feel like human beings and not like animals.”

Lights out at 10pm. The only glow visible is from low wattage LEDs in residential units and shops powered by car batteries or, for the lucky few, generators or private networks (Paddy Dowling)

The cruel irony for Gazans living in the strip – in the absence of any political horizon, continued lack of investment and rising unemployment – is that despite their dreams and prayers, they will most likely never be able to afford the price of 24 hours of electricity a day.

Prices indicated are at time of writing

UK

Self-driving bus trial launched at science park


Miranda Norris
Tue, 24 January 2023 

Janette Bell, First Bus MD and Richard Holden MP, Buses Minister (Image: First Bus)

The UK's first self-driving electric bus service has been unveiled in Didcot as part of a project to explore “the art of the possible”.

First Group said it will analyse how passengers, drivers, other road users and pedestrians respond to autonomous buses at Milton business and technology park.

A 16-seat fully accessible electric minibus providing a circular service around Milton Park, which is home to 250 companies and 9,000 employees, near Didcot was demonstrated on Monday.

It will begin taking passengers in early February.

READ MORE: 'Don't blame the bus driver!'

A full-size single-decker will be added later this year for journeys between the park and Didcot Parkway railway station.

The Milton Park Circular Service 1 is being operated by First Bus.

First Bus head of policy John Birtwistle said it is “only a matter of time” before electric buses are used across the UK, but “the autonomous side of things is more about exploring the art of the possible”.

He told the PA news agency: “The technology is spreading to different forms of transport, including potential use in buses and coaches.

“We need to explore how it works, how well accepted it is by the general public, how it works for operations, how drivers react to it, and how people who aren’t using the services react to it.”

Mr Birtwistle said “rigorous” testing has taken place to ensure the vehicles will “absolutely” be safe.

The buses are “capable of coping with all the different experiences you would have from day-to-day”, he explained.

“They can deal with traffic signals. They can deal with roundabouts. They can deal with parked vehicles.

“They can make all the turning manoeuvres as well as simple braking and acceleration.

“They can wait for gaps in traffic (before pulling out).”

Despite the vehicles being fitted with autonomous technology including cameras and sensors, a trained driver will be behind the wheel to provide assistance to passengers and take control if needed.

The experience of drivers and passengers will be a key part of the project’s assessment.

Mr Birtwistle said: “We want to try and understand is this (technology) something that makes the (driver’s) job easier – or does it actually make the job harder, because they’re concentrating on different things, there’s a different focus of their attention?

“We don’t know how individual types of passengers might react to it.

“It could be something that’s more accepted by the young, with older passengers perhaps being less keen to travel on such a vehicle.

“There’s quite an extensive programme of research which is going to address all these issues, and give us some learning and insight for potential future deployments.”

Oxford Mail:

The service is being developed alongside partners including Oxfordshire County Council, transport information company Zipabout, Milton Park, automated vehicle systems provider Fusion Processing and the University of West England.

The £4.3 million project has been funded by a £3 million grant from Government agency Innovate UK.

Buses minister Richard Holden MP joined senior directors of the consortium at Milton Park and was among the first to travel on the autonomous bus as part of a special demonstration.

He said: “Hopefully it’s going to be the start of something quite radical here in the UK.

“It’s thrilling to see our £3 million investment help British firms and engineers pioneer new, exciting ideas to achieve our vision of a truly efficient and sustainable transport network.

“The launch of the UK’s first autonomous, zero-emission bus today is yet another key step towards achieving net zero, creating high-wage, high-skilled new jobs and opportunities while truly levelling up transport across the country.”

Last week another bus operator, Stagecoach, carried passengers on a full-size self-driving bus for the first time in the UK.

Twenty-two volunteers were taken on a journey by the diesel-powered single-decker over the Forth Road Bridge near Edinburgh as part of testing.

Public services are expected to begin in the spring.

In August last year the Department for Transport said it expected self-driving cars to be available for public use by 2025.

Oxford Mail:

Read more from this author

This story was written by Miranda Norris, she joined the team in 2021 and covers news across Oxfordshire as well as news from Witney.

Profile: Miranda Norris Journalists news from the Oxford Mail

Norway to offer record number of Arctic oil, gas exploration blocks

Tue, 24 January 2023 


Norway on Tuesday said it plans to offer a record number of gas and oil exploration blocks in the Arctic, with environmental NGOs condemning an "aggressive" promotion of fossil fuels.

The Scandinavian nation -- Europe's primary natural gas supplier and a major oil producer -- proposed 92 exploration blocks, including an unprecedented 78 in the Barents Sea in the far north.

The other 14 are in the Norwegian Sea near the Arctic Circle.

"New discoveries remain necessary to continue to develop the Norwegian plateau" and are important for Europe, Oil and Energy Minister Terje Aasland said in a statement.

The announcement is part of the annual granting of oil licences in so-called "mature" zones that have already been widely explored.

The centre-left government, lacking a parliamentary majority, reached an agreement with the Socialist Left party last year to forbid prospection in unexplored areas by 2025.

The government's propositions sparked outrage among environmental organisations.

Truls Gulowsen, head of the Norwegian branch of Friends of the Earth, condemned an "extremely aggressive" cycle of concessions presented as the United Nations and the International Energy Agency discourage further oil exploration to achieve climate goals.

The NGO said the proposal would violate the commitment not to explore virgin territory as some blocks were to be located far from existing infrastructure.

The right-wing opposition, a fervent defender of Norway's oil sector, said the move was a "tactical game" by the government to give itself bargaining chips to use in future negotiations with the Socialist Left.

Oil industry body Offshore Norge welcomed the fact that "attractive areas" would be opened to prospection.

The proposals will go to a public consultation. Oil companies must submit their applications later this year and licences will be granted in January 2024.

The Barents Sea has long been seen as a productive area for the energy sector, but oil and gas extraction is so far only taking place at two sites in Norwegian waters.

phy/map/imm/ea

Norway’s fossil fuel bonanza stokes impassioned debate about how best to spend its ‘war profits’

Story by Sam Meredith • Yesterday - CNBC

Norway's skyrocketing oil and gas wealth is expected to climb to new heights this year, boosted by higher fossil fuel prices in the wake of Russia's nearly year-long onslaught in Ukraine.

It has ignited an impassioned debate about international justice, with many questioning whether it is fair for Norway to rake in record oil and gas revenues at the expense of others' misfortune.

"Most European countries are getting poorer because of the war. Norway is getting richer — much richer," Lars-Henrik Paarup Michelsen, director of the Norwegian Climate Foundation think tank, told CNBC via telephone.


Norway is making more money from oil and gas exports than ever.© Provided by CNBC

Norway's skyrocketing oil and gas wealth is expected to climb to new heights this year, boosted by higher fossil fuel prices in the wake of Russia's nearly year-long onslaught in Ukraine.

The ballooning petroleum profits of the Scandinavian country put Oslo in a unique position: As many in Europe are struggling to cope with the region's worst energy crisis in decades, Norway — already extremely rich — is getting richer still.

It has ignited an impassioned debate about international justice, with many questioning whether it is fair for Norway to rake in record oil and gas revenues at the expense of others' misfortune.

Opposition lawmakers, prominent economists in the country, and even titans of Norway's energy industry have called on the government to set an example to the world by pumping its fossil fuel revenues into a new international solidarity fund that helps countries meet their climate goals.

Norway's Finance Ministry expects the state's revenues from oil and gas sales to climb to 1.38 trillion Norwegian krone ($131 billion) this year. That's up from a previous record of 1.17 trillion krone last year, and a nearly fivefold increase from 288 billion krone in 2021.

"They are war profits," Lars-Henrik Paarup Michelsen, director of the Norwegian Climate Foundation think tank, told CNBC via telephone.

"Most European countries are getting poorer because of the war. Norway is getting richer — much richer."


Opposition lawmakers, prominent economists and even titans of Norway's energy industry have called on Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store's government to set an example to the world by pumping at least some of its fossil fuel revenues into a new international solidarity fund.© Provided by CNBC

Michelsen said he was fearful that by choosing to pocket its bumper oil and gas profits, Norway is damaging its international reputation, warning that the country is at risk of being perceived as "very egocentric."

"We are in a completely different position than the rest of Europe and I think, with that, it also bears a responsibility," Michelsen said. He called for the government to redirect its extraordinary windfall to further help Ukraine, accelerate Europe's energy transition and provide climate finance for low-income countries.

Related video: Fossil fuel industry takes gaslighting to new level with dark money campaign (MSNBC)   Duration 4:11   View on Watch

"This situation is certainly not of our making and not to our liking," Norway's Deputy Foreign Minister Eivind Vad Petersson told CNBC via telephone. He argued that it is critically important for Europe's energy security that Norway keeps gas production high.

Petersson said the government's financial support to Ukraine is approaching 1.5 billion euros ($1.63 billion), adding that the country's policymakers are working on a multi-year program to continue to help Kyiv.

When asked about accusations that the country is war profiteering, Petersson replied, "No, not really … The indirect effect, we fully acknowledge, is that our revenues have increased, but I do not accept that label."

"We are very well aware of the responsibility that comes with the fact that we have these resources. Of course, the responsibility to protect it, bearing in mind the crucial role of energy security now in Europe for this winter and possibly next," Petersson said.

He added that Norway's government is also "fully aware of the responsibility that comes with being a supporter and donor, not only to Ukraine but also other countries across the world suffering the effects of Russia's war."

'We should contribute more with this money'

Norway, which last year overtook Russia as Europe's biggest natural gas supplier, has been one of the world's top crude producers for the past half-century. That's thanks to its gigantic North Sea petroleum deposits — the spoils of which have been used to provide a robust safety net for current and future generations.

The Norwegian government's net cash flow from petroleum sales is transferred into Norway's $1.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund. The government can only spend a small part of the fund each year, but this is still estimated to amount to nearly 20% of the government budget.

The so-called Government Pension Fund Global, among the world's largest sovereign wealth funds, was established in the 1990s to invest the surplus revenues of Norway's oil and gas sector. To date, the fund has invested in more than 9,300 companies in 70 countries around the world.


Norway, which last year overtook Russia as Europe's biggest gas supplier, has been one of the world's top crude producers for the past half-century.© Provided by CNBC

"These excess profits, as we may call it, are a direct result of the war," said Ingrid Fiskaa, foreign affairs spokesperson for Norway's Socialist Left, whose support is critical for Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store's minority government.

Fiskaa highlighted that legislation in Norway limits the use of oil revenues in the domestic economy to avoid high inflation — and that, she argues, strengthens the case for investing in international solidarity.

"There should be a lot more debate on this issue," Fiskaa told CNBC via telephone. "Oil companies are getting richer and richer, but we don't see that money — and who is really paying for this? It is the rest of the world. We should contribute more with this money."

Norway's aid budget has hovered near 1% of its gross national income for more than a decade, making it one of the world's most generous donors.

Store's government was sharply criticized last year for proposing to cut the proportion of GNI it spends on foreign aid to 0.75%. That level is still significantly above the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's average of 0.3%, but civil society groups described the move as "embarrassing" at a time when Oslo was making money like never before.

Norway's foreign ministry has since pledged to deliver on its aid budget target of 1% of GNI in 2023.

Norway sovereign wealth fund excludes AviChina, Bharat Electronics

Tue, 24 January 2023 

OSLO (Reuters) - Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, said on Tuesday it has excluded China's AviChina and India's Bharat Electronics from its portfolio.

The two were excluded due to "unacceptable risk that (the) companies are selling weapons to a state that uses these weapons in ways that constitute serious and systematic breaches of international rules on conduct of hostilities," the fund said.

"The background for the decision is sales of light airplanes and other military material respectively to the military in Myanmar," Norges Bank Investment Management said.

UK must review decision to block UK-France power cable project - court ruling

Sam Tobin
Tue, 24 January 2023 

French flag and British national flag in Violaines

By Sam Tobin

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain must review its refusal to grant development consent for a high-voltage undersea power cable project linking Britain and France, London's High Court ruled on Tuesday.

Investment firm Aquind, which says its undersea cable linking England and Normandy would be able to transmit 16,000,000 MWh of electricity each year, took legal action after then-Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng refused consent in January 2022.

Judge Nathalie Lieven said in a written ruling on Tuesday that Kwarteng failed to take into account evidence about an alternative location for a substation in England and wrongly applied the business department’s planning policies.

Aquind’s director Richard Glasspool said in a statement the decision was "wonderful news".

"We look forward to re-engaging with local residents, stakeholders, environmental experts and energy professionals in order to pursue the commitment to meeting the UK’s Net Zero energy target," he said.

A government spokesperson said: "The UK Government is disappointed by the outcome but we will be considering the judgment carefully before deciding next steps."

The project – which would be able to transmit around 5% and 3% of the total consumption of Britain and France respectively – was recommended for approval in a report sent to Kwarteng in June, 2021.

After requesting further information, Kwarteng last year decided that Aquind had given "insufficient consideration" to an alternative connection point in Dorset in southern England, which Aquind had previously rejected.

However, the High Court ruled that it was "irrational" for Kwarteng to refuse Aquind’s application without making further inquiries about the feasibility of the location in Dorset.

Lieven said the inspectors who initially recommended approval found that "the development could meet 4-5% of Britain's electricity need with the obvious public benefits that would follow".

The judge added that "the level of this public benefit meant that any reasonable (minister) would have inquired into the feasibility and viability" of the alternative site before rejecting the development on a "purely speculative basis".

(Reporting by Sam Tobin and Elizabeth Piper, editing by William James, Ed Osmond and Angus MacSwan)

French ski resort workers target half-term holidays with 'unlimited' strike action


Henry Samuel
Tue, 24 January 2023

Protesters demonstrate against the French government's pension reform plans outside the Place de la Republique in Paris on Jan 19 - Reuters

Half-term ski holidays in France are facing disruption after lift operators announced "unlimited" strikes in resorts next month over Emmanuel Macron's pension reforms.

Just weeks after skiers endured record-low snow cover over Christmas, their biggest obstacle to hitting the slopes in the next holiday period could now prove to be industrial action.

The two main French unions representing lift and tow operators and seasonal workers filed for open-ended strikes starting next Tuesday to coincide with the second day of mass protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.

“We have decided to call for a strike during the February holidays because demands are better heeded during this period,” said Eric Becker, head of the lift operators’ branch of the Force Ouvrière union. The other main union, Confédération Générale du Travail also called for “especially strong action” during the Ski World Cup at Courchevel and Méribel in mid-March.

February is peak season in French ski resorts in the Alps and Pyrenees as schools have two weeks off, while many Britons and other nationalities come over during their half-term breaks.

In an apparent attempt not to scare customers away entirely, unions say not all lifts, tows and cable cars will be blocked at once. Instead, they intend to stage rolling partial stoppages across the resorts.

Pascal de Thiersant, director of the Trois Vallées ski park in Savoie, blasted the union action. “After almost two years of Covid then the energy problem, the unions want to pile it on again. That’s really shooting themselves in the foot,” he complained.

The threat of blocked ski slopes is the latest militant action against Mr Macron's retirement reform, which more than 65 per cent of the public opposes, according to most polls.

Last Thursday, all of France’s main unions united for the first time in 12 years to stage a day of mass strike action that saw at least 1.2 million people take to the streets.

Despite the show of force, Mr Macron and his government are sticking to the retirement reform, which reaches parliament in late March.

However, he now faces growing dissent among MPs within his centrist Renaissance party and its allies. There are also splits among conservative Republicans, whom he will rely on to push through the bill in parliament, where he no longer has a majority.

Galvanised by mass action, unionists on Monday also pledged to step in to help bakers in Marseille, southern France, who are struggling to pay rocketing electricity prices.

Out of “solidarity”, the southern port’s CGT energie branch - which represents electricity and gas workers - called on members to doctor the electricity meters of any bakers “they meet” in order to halve their bills.

“In concrete terms, that means playing with the meter so that bakers can have a rate that is either 50 per cent or 60 per cent free,” local union leader Renaud Henry told RMC radio.

Hundreds of people in the baking profession protested against high energy costs in Paris on Jan 23 - AP

While he confessed the initiative was “totally illegal”, he argued that “it is also totally ethical for us”, as he said "speculators" were behind rising energy costs. EDF, France's main electricity utility, is 84 per cent state-owned.

Mr Henry urged energy workers to time ther "Robin Hood-style" action to help bakers with the next planned day of mass action, slated for January 31.

“The idea is that as bakers are mobilised (in strikes), we need to create a link with the working world that is fighting against this unfair pension reform,” he said.

At Monday’s bakers’ protest in front of the finance ministry in Paris, one Breton Boulanger named Alain told 20 Minutes that his energy bill was now five times higher.

“If the government does nothing, the bakers will rise. The French Revolution started because bread ran out.”

THE ABUSIVE FEMALE BOSS IS THE EVIL STEPMOTHER OF YORE

Cate Blanchett’s Tár is an abusive boss, but her story has much to tell us about feminism too

Susie Orbach

THE GUARDIAN
Tue, 24 January 2023 



Following claims of misogyny, the debate about Tár – the film starring Cate Blachett as Lydia Tár, a famous, fictional and sexually predatory classical conductor – has been reframed in terms of power, not gender. But is that right?

Yes and no. We can’t ignore that she is a woman of a particular generation. Thirty years younger than second-wave feminists (my generation) who came of age in the early 1970s, she is not identified as the much smaller group of third-wavers, yet she fits that age group. If we take Tár as emblematic of her generation, we may better understand her character and the costs she faced.

Second-wave women knew that their power was problematic. They knew it was scary to take it up. They knew that as they endeavoured to do so, they would encounter internal constraints and taboos. Judgments would come from themselves if they risked doing so. Judgments would come from others as they dared to move forward.

What became critical in second-wave feminism was the joining together of women to understand the many conflicts – internal and external – that would ensue from breaking out of the expectations they had imbibed. We knew we needed one another as we attempted to break through these barriers. It wasn’t easy, but when support for personal and social change occurred it made us anew.

Of course, there were downsides. There was a tendency to walk in step, to not break ranks, to move forward in a literal phalanx in a new form of sisterliness that could, at times, stifle. Individual women taking up space could be experienced as threatening (as well as admired). Judgments would come from others as they dared to move forward and yet, it was managed.

When it came to parenting, second-wavers recognised that, in order to give their daughters the world, they needed to find a way to convey to them that conflict and fear would be part of what awaited them. The world would not be their oyster without that knowledge.

For the generation of women who grew up 10 to 20 years after the second wave, who were influenced by feminist ideas without having been in consciousness-raising groups, the noble longings they had for their daughters and students meant they foisted ambition and support for being “great” and “going for it” on them, while inadvertently leaving out the cost of inner conflict and doubt and the scariness of taking up space. Girl power was the mantra.

Tár embodies that generational ambition. She is a huge talent. She is fierce in her passion for music. She works hard. She is serious. She can’t, however, do vulnerability. When her daughter is bullied, she beats down the bully, perhaps as much to silence the scared part of herself. When a student in a masterclass questions knowledge based on the fecund composer Bach, she tries to invite him in, to show him Bach’s genius and musical questioning, to give this young man what she didn’t have in her training, but it backfires.

Related: Thank you, Cate Blanchett, for taking up the baton for female conductors

Tár appears fearless, even ruthless. She has a softness, yes, but we sense it is towards those who don’t have what she has. Then she is hurt by them or tires of them and discards them. Perhaps she can only tolerate a little of seeing needs that can’t be met.

Watching this film put me in mind of another current film, Women Talking, in which we witness the individual women of an isolated Mennonite colony struggling to speak up, to speak of their experience – much of it abject – and to come together to decide on scary action. It reminded me of the second wave, of daring to speak, to differ, to be difficult, to be tetchy, to be accepted, and yet find a way to work with one another, recognising complexity and difference. That struggle is what led many of us to psychoanalysis and to reconfigure it, to understand how the outside got in and the inside got out. It led other second-wavers to rethink history, art, science, education, technology, theatre and so on.

The many internal conflicts of being raised a girl these days – and boy, too – are as costly, limiting and not simply expansive as we may hope. It’s no surprise that emotional literacy and therapy, once ridiculed or hidden behind doors, are now prized. The young, the old: we all need to listen. We all need to be heard, to manage the complex multiple inequalities that are structural and internal.

Susie Orbach is a psychotherapist, psychoanalyst, writer and social critic

Ford to make call on Europe job cuts by mid-Feb as buyers circle German site

Victoria Waldersee and Christina Amann
Tue, 24 January 2023 

Signage is seen outside the Ford Halewood transmissions plant in Liverpool, Britain

By Victoria Waldersee and Christina Amann

BERLIN (Reuters) -Ford will decide by mid-February how many jobs to cut in Europe, a German union said on Tuesday, as reports surfaced that BYD and car contract manufacturer Magna were interested in buying one of the U.S. carmaker's German sites.

The future of the site in Saarlouis, Germany has been unclear since last June when Ford picked a site in Spain to assemble its next-generation electric vehicle (EV) over the German plant, which will stop producing its current model, the Ford Focus, from 2025.

Among fifteen possible investors were companies in energy and car assembly as well as original equipment manufacturers, the works council chief of the Saarlouis site, Markus Thal, told Reuters.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Ford officials were travelling to China next week to visit BYD and discuss selling the site to the Chinese EV maker, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Autos publication Automobilwoche reported that Magna and VDL Nedcar were also among the fifteen interested investors.

"We are in ongoing discussions with a number of potential buyers and have nothing further to add at this time," a Ford spokesperson said, declining to comment on the individual companies named.

Spokespeople for BYD and Magna declined to comment. VDL Nedcar could not immediately be reached for comment.

"It is of secondary importance which continent a possible investor comes from - if a carmaker comes, that's what we would like to see, because it's what we do," Thal said.

He added that negotiations with possible investors had accelerated in recent months and the carmaker aimed to present a solution for the future of the plant by the end of the first quarter.

"We need a plan urgently," he added, saying workers would not wait until 2024 for a solution.

BYD told Reuters in October it was looking to produce electric cars in Europe, where it currently only makes electric buses at a plant in Hungary.

It sells three Chinese-made cars in a handful of European markets and said last November it plans to add more models and markets this year, one of numerous Chinese brands targeting Europe's growing EV market.

Separately, union representatives for Ford's largest German site in Cologne will meet on Saturday to discuss planned job cuts which the works council informed workers of in meetings on Monday.

Management figures were invited to present their plans to the workforce but did not provide any details, according to the works council.

The worst-case scenario was up to 2,500 job cuts in product development and a further 700 in administration, a union spokesperson said. A second scenario was also on the table, they added, declining to provide details.

A Ford spokesperson declined to comment on the planned cuts, referring to a Jan. 20 statement in which it said that the shift to EV production requires structural changes and it would not say more until plans are finalised.

The carmaker has committed to an all-electric lineup in Europe by 2030 and its U.S. leadership has repeatedly flagged that EVs require less labour.

Its European staff last saw a wave of job cuts in 2019 and 2020 as the carmaker pursued a 6% operating margin in the region, a goal thrown off course by the coronavirus pandemic, with pretax profit margins in Europe in the first nine months of 2022 at just 2.2% of sales.

The workers council in Cologne has demanded that management commit to no layoffs before Dec. 31 of 2032, and that the roughly 2,500 product development staff there remain part of the automaker's global development landscape.

(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee and Christina Amann; Editing by Paul Carrel, Alexander Smith, Andrea Ricci and Christina Fincher)

Ukraine corruption scandal: US promises 'rigorous monitoring' of aid

Euronews
Tue, 24 January 2023 



The United States vowed to tightly monitor how Ukraine spends billions of dollars of aid on Tuesday, following a damaging corruption scandal that led to a string of resignations in Kyiv.

While Washington said it had no evidence western funds were being misused, US State Department Spokesman Ned Price promised there would be "rigorous monitoring" to ensure American assistance was not diverted.

Several senior Ukrainian officials were dismissed on Tuesday, in the wake of a corruption scandal surrounding illicit payments to deputy ministers and over-inflated military contracts.

A total of five regional governors, four deputy ministers and two heads of a government agency left their posts, alongside the deputy head of the presidential administration and the deputy attorney general.

In his nightly address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the purge was "necessary" to maintain "a strong state", while Price hailed it as "quick" and "essential".

Still, the scandal comes at a sensitive time for Kyiv, as it asks for ever-increasing amounts of support from the West and faces down Russian advances in the east.

Corruption could dampen Western enthusiasm for the Ukrainian government, which has a long history of shaky governance.

Corruption in Ukraine: Is time running out for Zelenskyy to reform the country?

Over the weekend, anti-corruption police arrested the deputy infrastructure minister on suspicion of receiving a 367,000 euro bribe to buy overpriced generators, an allegation he denies.

This comes at a time when Ukrainian civilians are enduring prolonged power cuts, amid crippling Russian strikes on the country's energy infrastructure.

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian newspaper investigation accused the Defence Ministry of signing off contracts to supply food to frontline troops at "two to three" times the regular price.

According to analysts, the high-profile resignations show that corruption bears not only a criminal but also political responsibility.

"It is a good example of how institutions and anti-corruption and checks and balances mechanisms established after the [2014 Maidan] Revolution of Dignity are working despite a full-blown war going on," Kateryna Ryzhenko from Transparency International Ukraine, an anti-corruption NGO, told Euronews.

"But the final part of these events should be played by the prosecution, investigative body, and the court when these cases are adjudicated to the full extent of the law," she added.

Ukraine war: Kyiv aid 'money laundering scheme', Christmas truce fails, Ukrainians honour war dead

Ukraine's Defence Ministry, which allegedly signed off on overpriced contracts worth €320 million, said the resignations would help "preserve the confidence of society and international partners."

On Sunday, it dismissed the allegations as "misinformation", warning they harmed the "interests of defence during a special period".

In January, the leader of Russia's Chechen Republic blasted Western aid to Ukraine as a "scheme for laundering money".

"I see that some are worried about the foreign aid to Ukraine. Do not worry! This is a working money laundering scheme. Western and Ukrainian officials will embezzle these funds, and no more than 15% of the entire aid will reach the trenches," Ramzan Kadyrov wrote on Telegram.

There is no evidence for this claim from the staunch Putin ally.

Zelenskyy was elected in 2019 on the promise of wide-reaching reforms to battle corruption and improve the economy.

During his time in office, the Ukrainian president sacked numerous ministers and officials as he battled to fight the malign influence of powerful people in the country.