Three ways out from Peru political crisis, say experts
Jean Luis ARCE
Tue, 7 February 2023
Peru has been rocked by two months of social upheaval with near-daily anti-government protests often spilling into violence in which at least 48 people have died.
Demonstrators angered by the arrest of former president Pedro Castillo are demanding the resignation of President Dina Boluarte, immediate elections, the dissolution of parliament and a new constitution.
But Boluarte refuses to step down and last week Congress shelved all attempts to bring forward elections slated for 2026, despite having tentatively voted in principle in December to hold them in 2024.
It has left the country mired in a political crisis that shows no sign of abating with protesters determined to maintain their pressure with rallies and road blocks.
Here, analysts discuss three ways the South American country could resolve the crisis.
- Resignation -
"The only (way out) is President Boluarte's resignation," said Paula Tavara, political scientist and professor at the Catholic University in Lima.
Power would then transfer to the head of Congress whose role would be to call fresh elections, although there is no constitutional time limit for that.
Boluarte was Castillo's vice president and took power after he was impeached and arrested on December 7, charged with rebellion for having attempted to dissolve parliament and rule by decree.
Although she is from the same left-wing party as Castillo, his supporters accuse her of treachery and are adamant she must quit.
Boluarte has dismissed such demands as "political blackmail."
She claims she has no intention of holding onto power and pushed for elections to be brought forward.
But Tavara says it is clear Congress has no intention of doing so since it voted down several bills proposing such anticipated polls, and will not now debate the subject again until August.
One such bill in December was approved, setting April 2024 as the new date, but Congress never ratified it in a necessary second vote.
Congress has thus left "the solutions in the hands of the Executive," said Tavara.
But Boluarte's resignation remains "highly improbable."
Tavara believes that Boluarte is afraid of losing her presidential immunity and having to "take responsibility for the consequences" of the protester death toll in the courts.
Rights organizations have accused the security forces of excessive use of force against demonstrators.
It is also against Boluarte's interests and those of the right-wing allies supporting her in parliament for her to resign, said political scientist Patricia Paniagua of the University of Granada.
"You can see this clear alignment of a strategy" between the two.
- Removal -
If Boluarte does not resign, she could be removed by Congress, as the constitution allows.
Parliament has a history of removing presidents with Alberto Fujimori (2000), Martin Vizcarra (2020) and Castillo (2022) all forced out in recent years, while Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (2018) jumped before he was pushed.
Rumors persist that left-wing parties will try to remove Boluarte, but this could be difficult to achieve with a two-thirds majority needed to do so.
"I cannot see it happening as it would also accelerate the end of this Congress" by bringing forward general elections, said Alonso Cardenas, a professor of political science at the Antonio Ruiz de Montoya university.
"Given the political immaturity" of those in government and in parliament, it is unlikely they would sacrifice their own ambitions for the good of the country, added Cardenas.
In any case, "they don't have the votes" to remove Boluarte, says Paniagua, who nonetheless believes the issue "will be discussed."
- Waiting for storm to pass -
The refusal of Congress to advance elections could lead to the protest movement growing and expanding, particularly in the capital.
"Unfortunately that week of no (election) decision being taken brings us closer to that scenario," said Tavara.
But at the same time, Paniagua believes the government is banking on protesters becoming weary and giving up, allowing the president and Congress to see out their mandates until 2026.
"The response in the street is energetic, it's firm .... but can this last over the medium to long term?" said Paniagua.
Paniagua says Boluarte's silence after Congress shelved her attempts to bring forward elections suggest both branches of power are prepared to continue "turning their backs on what is happening in the street."
Tavara believes the government could survive through "a very serious act of contrition," such as replacing the cabinet, punishing those responsible for protester deaths and opening up dialogue with protesters.
jla/pb/ll/bc/ec
Peru reports hundreds of sea lion deaths due to bird flu
Tue, 7 February 2023
Peru said Tuesday that 585 sea lions and 55,000 wild birds have died of the H5N1 bird flu virus in recent weeks, the latest report on the disease's impacts.
Following the discovery of 55,000 dead birds in eight protected coastal areas, rangers found the bird flu that killed them had also claimed 585 sea lions in seven protected marine areas, the Sernanp natural areas protection agency said.
The dead birds included pelicans, various types of gulls, and penguins, the Sernanp said in a statement.
Laboratory tests also confirmed the presence of H5N1 in the dead sea lions, prompting the authorities to announce a "biological vigilance protocol."
For its part, Peru's National Forest and Wildlife Service (SERFOR) urged people and their pets to avoid contact with sea lions and sea birds on the beach.
In December, Peruvian authorities culled 37,000 birds on a chicken farm over bird flu, following previous outbreaks that affected wildlife.
Killing infected birds is part of the usual protocol to control avian influenza outbreaks.
In November, the country declared a 180-day health alert after finding three cases of highly contagious H5N1 in pelicans.
According to the SENASA agricultural health agency, the disease is transmitted by migratory birds from North America.
Since late 2021 Europe has been gripped by its worst-ever outbreak of bird flu, while North and South America are also experiencing severe outbreaks.
It is rare that bird flu jumps over into mammals -- and rarer still that humans catch the potentially deadly virus.
But the virus has recently been found in foxes and otters in Britain, a cat in France, and grizzly bears in Montana. All the mammals were suspected to have eaten infected birds.
et/jla/mlr/mlm
Swiss give 2,500-year-old stone sculpture back to Peru
Wed, 8 February 2023
The Swiss on Wednesday handed a large stone-carved head back to Peru, where it was sculpted around 2,500 years ago by one of the country's earliest civilisations, the culture office said.
The monolithic sculpture, which weighs almost 200 kilogrammes (440 pounds), was brought into Switzerland by truck in 2016 from Germany at the request of a German art dealer.
Switzerland's Federal Office of Culture (FOC) said in a statement that the sculpture had not been properly declared as a cultural property. It was later confiscated as there was "substantiated suspicion" it had been illegally taken from Peru.
FOC head Carine Bachmann presented the decorative stone sculpture to Peruvian ambassador Luis Alberto Castro Joo at the Basel-Weil am Rhein customs office, where the piece was discovered seven years ago.
After it was discovered, FOC specialists reviewed the piece and determined that the "2,500-year-old stone head from the pre-Hispanic Chavin culture (circa 1200 to 550 BC) originates in what is now Peru," Wednesday's statement said.
"That makes it a significant piece of cultural property that should have been declared as such when it was imported."
Peru is heavily affected by the plundering and destruction of archaeological sites.
And pre-Columbian pieces like the stone head returned Wednesday are among Peru's most endangered categories of cultural property, the FOC said.
Switzerland and Peru are both signatories of a 1970 UNESCO convention banning the illegal import and export of cultural property.
The two countries also signed a bilateral deal in 2016 to strengthen their cooperation on the issue.
"This restitution underlines the shared commitment of Switzerland and Peru to combating the illegal transfer of cultural property," the FOC said.
How much Canadians have fallen behind amid high inflation and who's hurting the most
Wed, February 8, 2023
OTTAWA — Inflation has eroded purchasing power for many Canadians, but the experience with rapidly rising prices has been far from uniform.
While the inflation rate shows how quickly prices are rising, other factors like income and consumption patterns can make it harder or easier for people to cope.
Here's a look at how high inflation is right now, who's feeling the pinch, and when Canadians can expect inflation to come down.
How high is inflation?
After reaching 8.1 per cent in the summer, Canada's annual inflation rate has slowed noticeably in recent months. In December, the annual inflation rate was 6.3 per cent.
Although that's still much higher than the Bank of Canada's two per cent target, recent monthly trends suggest inflation is heading closer to the target.
But even as inflation slows, food prices in particular have been a pain point for many Canadians. In December, grocery prices were 11 per cent higher than they were a year ago.
Have wages kept up with the cost of living?
Wages are rising buthave not kept up with the rate of inflation. In December, average hourly wages were up 5.1 per cent compared with a year ago.
Brendan Bernard, a senior economist with hiring website Indeed, says Canadians on average have seen their real wages (amount earned after factoring in inflation) fall by about one per cent during that time period.
But some have seen their wages go up more than others, making it easier for those who have received a raise to cope with the rising cost of living.
University of Calgary economics professor Trevor Tombe said workers who got a new job or leveraged a job offer with their employer likely saw their pay go up more than others.
Workers can't always negotiate their pay to reflect the rise in the cost of living. Unionized workers, for example, negotiate contracts on fixed schedules.
"It will take potentially quite a bit of time for the current spike in inflation to be compensated for with increased wages for individuals," Tombe said.
Who's been hit hardest by inflation?
Though most Canadians have probably experienced sticker shock at the grocery store or elsewhere, not everyone is equally strained.
"Inflation is not just a single, homogeneous experience that everyone is going through," said Tombe.
Depending on what people buy, the amount they need to maintain their consumption levels and lifestyle could be higher or lower than the headline inflation rate.
Tombe said families with children have been particularly affected by inflation because a larger share of their budgets go toward food and fuel, two categories that have seen sharp increases in prices. According to his calculations based on October 2022, a family with children spent on average about $65 more per month than one without children.
"Price increases will strain households at lower income levels more because they save less than higher-income households," he said.
With less of a savings buffer, lower-income Canadians have a harder time covering the costs of rising bills. Meanwhile, higher income earners can absorb additional costs by reducing their savings.
Statistics Canada data shows net average household savings have declined across all income brackets. But the trend is more alarming for households in the bottom 40 per cent because they tend to spend more than they earn in income.
During the third quarter of 2022, for example, households in the bottom 20 per cent of income earners spent about $7,400 more than they earned. In the third quarter of 2021, that figure was $6,550.
Meanwhile, the top 20 per cent put away on average about $14,200 in the third quarter of 2022, down from $16,900.
How much have Canadians fallen behind?
With prices rising at the fastest pace in decades and the federal Liberals on the hot seat for cost-of-living issues, inflation has featured prominently in the House of Commons.
Federal Conservatives have been particularly focused on affordability concerns and have been calling on the government to rein in spending.
"Canadians are worse off than ever," said Conservative MP and finance critic Jasraj Singh Hallan on Jan. 31.
Recent polling suggests the Conservatives are indeed tapping into many Canadians' feelings about the state of the economy.
But the current bout of inflation hasn't pushed Canadians back as far as some may think.
Tombe says purchasing power has fallen to 2019 levels, which means a dollar today can purchase the same amount of goods and services a dollar could purchase in 2019.
"It's certainly false that Canadians have never been worse off," Tombe said.
"Inflation has dialed the clock back only just a few years in terms of average purchasing power of people's wages."
How do Canadians say they're faring?
A new poll suggests most Canadians feel their financial situation is about the same as it was a year ago.
According to a Leger poll, commissioned by the Association for Canadians Studies, 34 per cent of Canadian households say their financial situation has worsened over the last year.
Meanwhile, 58 per cent of those who responded say their financial situation has remained relatively unchanged and nine per cent say it's improved.
The percentage of Canadians who say they're worse off, however, is higher among low-income earners.
According to the survey, 42 per cent of those earning less than $40,000 say their household's overall financial situation is worse.
The online survey was completed by 1,554 Canadians between Jan. 23 and 25 and cannot be assigned a margin of error because online polls are not considered truly random samples.
When is inflation going to come down?
Barring unexpected global events, most economists anticipate inflation to continue slowing this year.
The Bank of Canada is forecasting the annual inflation rate will reach three per cent by mid-year and will come back down to two per cent in 2024.
Tombe said inflation still appears to be high because the rate is calculated on an annual basis.
The recent deceleration in prices, which has been driven by lower energy prices and easing supply chains, is expected to be reflected in the annual inflation rate in the months to come.
"And so, the worst may already be behind us," Tombe said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 8, 2023.
Nojoud Al Mallees, The Canadian Press
UKCARGILL BY ANY OTHER NAME
Avara boss pledges action on Wye pollution 'as soon as possible'
Gavin McEwan
Tue, 7 February 2023
The river Wye, and inset, Avara agricultural director John Reed (Image: library)
Herefordshire’s largest employer has pledged to make good the pollution its farms have caused to the river Wye. But others say it’s too little, too late.
Avara Foods processes two million chickens a week at its Hereford plant, one of the largest in the country, supplied by 120 farms in the Wye catchment.
“We want to reduce the impact that our business creates,” the company’s agricultural director John Reed said on BBC Hereford & Worcester this morning (February 7).
“Supply chains are being monitored more and more closely,” he said. “We want to reduce our carbon footprint we want to reduce any suggestion of pollution or emissions where we can.”
RELATED NEWS:
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The company has recently published a “roadmap” outlining the steps it has taken and plans to take to reduce the problem of chicken manure, which is used as fertiliser on nearby fields but is washed into watercourses, harming the wildlife they support.
It has pledged that by 2025, its supply chain will have ceased contributing to excess phosphate in the river Wye catchment.
“We need to as soon as possible to stop producing a surplus of phosphates and we need to have a longer-term plan around the legacy levels [already in the soil],” Mr Reed said.
“They’re all doable, it’s applying the law that’s already in place – all farmers need to be doing that. What we can't do is wish it away, it needs action, it needs people to work together.
“What it doesn’t need are fingers pointing at individuals or businesses as though they are the problem and they are the only ones who are going to provide the solution.”
BBC reporter Nicola Goodwin, who said she had tried “for years” to interview the company on the record, asked if its pledge had been influenced by a lengthy US court case in which Avara’s joint parent company Cargill was recently found guilty of allowing its chickens to pollute the Illinois river, and had been obliged to put forward an action plan to compensate for the damage.
Mr Reed admitted he “didn't know a great deal about” the case, which he “became aware of a few weeks ago”.
“Avara is an independent UK business working to UK legislation,” he said. “It would be unwise to comment on something we didn’t know a great deal about.”
He also said there had been “relatively little conversation until the last six months” between Avara, the Government, the Environment Agency and its Welsh counterpart.
“I’ve been disappointed at the lack of resources that these enforcement agencies have,” he said. “We are accused of being the biggest problem [so] you would expect all these agencies to be knocking on our door first.”
Mike Dunsbee of Friends of the Lower Wye, which brought the parties together for discussions in November, told show host Elliott Webb that he “didn’t understand” why the authorities hadn’t spoken to Avara previously over the issue.
“The Environment Agency have got to now sit on their backs and tell them to get a move on,” he said. “For Avara to say it will take until 2025 to clear up their bit – it’s just too long.”
He added: “We are pushing for the chicken manure to be taken out of the catchment completely,” and claimed Avara’s proposed solution of treating some of the 156,000 tonnes of chicken manure a year at a new Herefordshire anaerobic digestion plant which has yet to be approved, would use “unproven technology”.
Incinerating the waste instead “would reduce it to ash, making it easier to move out of the area”, Mr Dunsbee said.
Meanwhile, Guardian reporter Nicola Cutcher said that she had been told by Mr Reed that Avara “has until now left the manure to their farmers to deal with as they see fit”.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today this morning: “Introducing stricter standards for manure means writing new contracts, and they’re getting pushback from their farmers. With fertiliser prices high, they are saying, ‘we want to keep our poultry manure, thanks’.”
Ms Cutcher added that the US judgment “shows Cargill knew about the problem of chicken manure since the 1980s” and had introduced manure management standards in 2004.
“People are saying, maybe we should be looking for [reparations] here, but Mr Reed told me it wasn’t on their agenda,” she said.
“But I think the clamour will grow louder from local campaigners who want to see far more action to clean up the Wye.”
AUSTRALIA
Labor’s safeguard mechanism does more to save the fossil fuel industry than it does the planet
Richard Denniss
Tue, 7 February 2023
Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP
The enormous PEP-11 gas project off Sydney’s northern beaches is back in the headlines and the timing couldn’t be worse for a federal Labor government trying to rush a new climate policy through the parliament; a policy that does nothing to stop new gas and coalmines being built and doesn’t even stop major polluters increasing their emissions. Labor’s Madeline King must now remake the decision made by our undercover resources minister, Scott Morrison.
The gas project is so unpopular that, with an upcoming New South Wales election, even the Liberal premier, Dominic Perrottet, is campaigning against it. And federally, Labor is in a mad, but unnecessary, rush to get its new climate policy through the parliament. Unfortunately for the climate minister, Chris Bowen, the loudest supporters for his so-called safeguard mechanism are the fossil fuel industry. Just last week, Beach Energy, which is preparing to expand the Waitsia gas project in WA by 250 terajoules a day (that’s a lot), spoke up in its defence. There are 113 other gas and coal projects seeking approval in Australia, and by design, the safeguard mechanism will do nothing to stop any of them going ahead.
Related: Liberal MP Bridget Archer ‘open-minded’ on Labor’s push to overhaul climate safeguard mechanism
Not only doesn’t the Safeguard Mechanism stop new gas or coalmines being built, it doesn’t even require our existing major polluters to reduce their actual emissions. If passed, the new laws would allow polluters to actually increase their pollution as long as they buy some carbon offsets. Even if all the credits were of high integrity, which is a big if, the safeguard mechanism does not require a single company to actually begin to decarbonise.
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While the safeguard mechanism’s reliance on unlimited offsetting is its biggest selling point for the fossil fuel industry, it is also the government’s weakest selling point when it comes to persuading the public and parliament that its laws must be passed in a hurry. The public don’t want PEP-11 or enormous new coalmines to go ahead, with or without offsets, they want real investment in the renewables, energy efficiency and the electrification of transport that will decarbonise our economy. The big swings to the Greens and teals at the last election were driven by a public hunger for more climate action, not more accounting tricks.
As the debate about the flaws of the safeguard mechanism heats up, some will inevitable argue that we risk “perfect being the enemy of the good” or even that we are on the brink of “another CPRS moment”. But there are enormous differences between the safeguard mechanism and Kevin Rudd’s carbon pollution reduction scheme. For starters, we are now only 27 years from our 2050 net zero target and we are still considering approving gas and coal projects that will operate until at least 2070.
But the biggest difference between the CPRS debate and the current scheme is the consequences of voting it down. The CPRS was a flawed but ambitious attempt to introduce an economy-wide carbon price. The safeguard mechanism, originally designed by the Abbott government, only applies to 215 big polluters and literally allows all of them to increase their emissions as much as they want as long as they buy some offsets. It does nothing to drive investment in renewables, nothing to boost electric vehicles or energy efficiency and, of course, nothing to stop new gas and coal projects from opening.
While Labor may have succeeded in wooing the fossil fuel industry with its climate policy, it certainly isn’t inspiring voters. By adopting a climate policy that lets polluters rely entirely on offsets, the government has lost the ability to build genuine public pressure on the Senate to pass its ineffective scheme. By Labor’s own logic, it wouldn’t matter if the safeguard mechanism didn’t pass in a hurry, as we could always just buy some more offsets next year.
The reality is the safeguard mechanism does more to safeguard the fossil fuel industry than it does to safeguard the climate. It hides its support for fossil fuel expansion behind a fig leaf of dodgy carbon credits and offsets.
Related: Chubb review recommends new integrity body for Australian carbon credits scheme
The last election was all about climate and integrity. And while Scott Morrison and his secret ministries might be gone, if his pro-pollution policies are protected in broad daylight, we will not only see more gas and coal projects and a runaway climate crisis, but we’ll likely see more teals, greens and independents elected to the crossbench at the next election.
The looming Senate battle will no doubt spark superficial claims of a return to the so-called climate wars. But the substantive policy question is whether the new parliament is serious about the climate integrity mandate people voted for. As the UN secretary general has urged “2023 is a year of reckoning. It must be a year of gamechanging climate action. We need disruption to end the destruction. No more baby steps. No more excuses.” And the science is clear: we are running out of time.
The Australia Institute is hosting the 2023 Climate Integrity Summit at Parliament House on 15 Feb. Dr Richard Denniss is executive director
UK
Government ‘negligence’ to blame for steel firm’s collapse, says union
Anna Wise, PA Business Reporter
Wed, 8 February 2023
Government negligence is to blame for the collapse of British steel business Aartee Bright Bar, a steelworkers’ union has claimed.
Aartee Bright Bar, which says it is the UK’s largest distributor of engineering steel products, called in administrators Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) on Tuesday after facing tough economic conditions and surging metal costs.
The leading trade union for steelworkers, Community, hit out at the Government for failing to act sooner over issues including increased energy costs, which have heaped pressure on struggling firms in the sector.
The West Midlands-based business has around 250 staff, operating from two productions sites in Willenhall and Dudley, and three distribution and sales offices in Rugby, Bolton, and Newport in South Wales.
It is not yet known whether there will be an impact on jobs following the insolvency.
Michael Magnay, joint administrator at A&M, said: “Like many businesses in its sector, Aartee Bright Bar has been facing significant headwinds as a result of the challenging economic environment and fluctuating steel prices.
“Against this backdrop, administrators have been appointed and we are exploring the options available to preserve value.”
Trade union Community argued that the business’s collapse was representative of the pressure the wider industry was facing, particularly from high energy and metal costs.
Alun Davies, national officer for Community, said: “The news of Aartee Bright Bar crashing into administration is extremely worrying.
“All parties must do whatever it takes to protect the workforce in this difficult process.
“These developments demonstrate the extreme pressures the industry is under.
“This is the price of Government’s negligence and its failure to act on issues like energy costs and procurement.”
The news follows reports last week that British Steel is planning to axe hundreds of jobs as part of closures of its coke ovens in Scunthorpe, according to a union source.
The Government is reportedly considering cash injections into both British Steel and Tata Steel UK.
But Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, national officer at the GMB union, said the Government’s investment was a “sticking plaster that does nothing to help the long-term structural issues affecting our steel industry”.
She added that the steel industry could “wither and die like so much of our proud manufacturing heritage” without meaningful support.
Furthermore, Liberty Steel revealed last month it was implementing the next stage of its restructuring programme which could affect up to 440 jobs.
The firm said it needed to refocus its operations in order to adapt quickly to the challenging market.
Liberty Steel, headed up by Sanjeev Gupta, counts Aartee Bright Bar as one of its customers, according to reports.
There are more than 33,000 people directly employed by Britain’s steel industry and a further 40,000 working in the steel supply chain, Community said.
Britain’s steel industry will be worth £6 billion by 2030.
Liberty Steel customer Aartee Bright Bar crashes into administration
Tue, 7 February 2023
A major customer of Britain’s third-biggest steel producer has been forced to call in administrators, deepening the financial gloom engulfing the industry.
Sky News has learnt that Aartee Bright Bar, which is based in the West Midlands and employs 250 people, has this week drafted in Alvarez & Marsal to handle an insolvency process.
Liberty Steel is part of the industrial conglomerate headed by Sanjeev Gupta.
Mr Gupta is reported to have close ties to Ravi Trehan, Aartee's founder, while Greensill Capital, the controversial supply chain finance group which itself collapsed in 2021, is said to have financed a number of trades between the two.
Michael Magnay, Joint Administrator at A&M, said in a statement issued to Sky News: "Like many businesses in its sector, Aartree Bright Bar has been facing significant headwinds as a result of the challenging economic environment and fluctuating steel prices.
"Against this backdrop, Administrators have been appointed and we are exploring the options available to preserve value."
A steel industry source said on Tuesday that Liberty Steel would be an obvious buyer of Aartee Bright Bar's assets out of administration.
A spokesman for Liberty Steel declined to comment, although a source close to it said it would "look at how it could help".
Aartee, which also has offices in Lancashire and Wales, is a manufacturer, stockist and distributor of steel products.
A statement purportedly made on behalf of Aartee Bright Bar, which was issued by email from Aartee Group, said: "Despite the very significant challenges facing the UK steel industry Aartee Bright Bar (ABB) has been making regular and substantial payments to its creditor FGI. It is therefore disappointing that FGI has chosen to enforce on a small remaining debt which the business has a plan to clear in the very near future.
"The management of ABB will work speedily to ensure the matter is resolved quickly with the administrator."
Its insolvency comes amid talks between the government and Liberty Steel's two larger competitors - Tata Steel and British Steel - about £600m of taxpayer funding to aid their transition to greener electric arc furnaces.
The funding for British Steel has been thrown into doubt by its Chinese owner's plan to axe about 800 jobs, mainly at its Scunthorpe plant.
Mr Gupta has also announced proposals to cut hundreds of jobs across his UK operations.
Florence mosaics renovation reveals devilish details
Ella IDE
Wed, 8 February 2023
Restorers launched a ground-breaking project in Florence's historic Baptistery Wednesday, allowing visitors a unique view of magnificent mosaics, including a three-headed devil which inspired Italian poet Dante.
For the next six years, tourists will be able to climb a specially-engineered, mushroom-shaped scaffold to examine up close over 1,000 square metres of richly-coloured and gold biblical depictions in the dome.
The cycle of medieval mosaics, made with an estimated 10 million tesserae measuring between five to 20 millimetres each, were designed by three generations of artists, including Cimabue, believed to be the painter Giotto's teacher.
"It will be the first -- and I hope last -- time that the public will be able to see these mosaics up close, because it will mean this restoration was a success," architect and project manager Samuele Caciagli told AFP.
The ceiling of the octagonal Baptistery, which sits opposite the Duomo in Florence's historic centre and which has hosted baptisms, including that of Dante Alighieri in 1266, was last restored over a century ago.
But now "there are cracks in every segment (of the dome) and a series of depressions... as well as detachments from the surface," Beatrice Agostini, who oversees the restoration team, told AFP.
- Rain, quakes, flood -
Florence's Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore organisation has been carrying out a 10-million-euro restoration of the whole building since 2014, with the white and green marble interior walls finished last year.
Scaffolding for the ceiling work had to be designed in such a way as to keep doors open to the over one million people who visit the Tuscan city's oldest religious monument every year.
The solution was a "mushroom", a central tower leading up to a 630-square-metre aluminium structure split over eight levels and hidden from the ground by a fabric "false ceiling".
From February 24, visitors to the platform, which sits over 30 metres (98 feet) up, will climb to stand face to face with Christ, cherubs, virgins, monks and monsters.
Horned Satan, depicted chewing on three sinners while nearby a naked victim roasts on a spit, is widely believed to have been a source of inspiration for the representation of Hell in Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy.
The mosaics have suffered from rainwater infiltration, and have also been damaged by earthquakes and the flood that devastated the city in 1966.
- 'Secrets' -
Restorers from the Archaeological Conservation Center, which specialises in mosaics, began on Wednesday the mammoth task of mapping the tiny tesserae one by one, gently brushing away dust as they are photographed.
They will use ultrasound, georadar and thermal imaging tools, as well as pacometers, tools which will find pins and brackets used to prevent detaching mosaics from falling off during the last restoration in 1898 to 1907.
They will then reattach tesserae that are coming away and suture any cracks before "cleaning them to remove surface dirt that obscures the mosaic and its natural brilliance", Agostini said.
The restoration of the mosaics are expected to cost over 4.5 million euros ($4.8 million).
The origins of the Baptistery, where a 14th-century antipope is buried and which appears in Dan Brown's 2013 mystery thriller "Inferno", are debated by scholars.
Many believe it was initially a Roman temple dedicated to the god Mars. Construction of the building in its present form was finished in 1128 and in 1225 work began to entirely cover the dome with mosaic tiles.
It would take about 70 years to finish the eight segments.
Now, the restorers' mapping and exploration of the vivid world above "may reveal more of the little secrets this extremely enigmatic baptistery hides", Agostini said.
ide/ar/yad
Britain is only G7 economy in Europe with falling wages, warns OECD
Eir Nolsoe
Wed, 8 February 2023
Real wages in Britain are still falling even as workers in Germany and France see their wages rebound, new figures show.
The UK is the only European G7 country where incomes continued to fall last year after adjusting for inflation, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Figures published on Wednesday show average real income in Britain dropped by 0.6pc between July and September as soaring inflation chipped away at purchasing power.
That contrasted with average growth in real incomes of 0.2pc across OECD countries where data was available.
Households in Germany, France and Italy all saw their real incomes improve, with French families seeing the largest boost in purchasing power, at 0.8pc.
Incomes stagnated in the US and declined slightly in Canada over the period. However, Britain suffered the steepest drop across the OECD.
High inflation was to blame for the blow to household spending power, the OECD said.
In the UK, inflation was 8.7pc in the three months to September, while it was 8.5pc in Germany, 8.4pc in Italy and only 5.9pc in France.
Britain is suffering the largest loss of purchasing power since the oil crisis in the 1970s, according to a separate analysis published by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) on Wednesday.
Workers in the public sector have been most exposed to rampant inflation, the ONS said, although those in the private sector have also seen a real-terms decline in their earnings.
Overall, the UK is one of few countries where real household income per head has still failed to overtake pre-pandemic levels, according to the OECD.
“High consumer prices in the United Kingdom over the past year have continued to undermine household income when measured in real terms, causing real household income per capita to decline by 3.9pc [since 2019],” the OECD said.
Real incomes have also failed to recover from the pandemic in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Portugal and Spain.
The bleak figures add to pressure on the Bank of England and Rishi Sunak to bring rampant price rises under control. Mr Sunak has made halving inflation this year one of his cornerstone goals.
The OECD and ONS's findings come during another wave of mass strikes across Britain, as industrial disputes over pay and working conditions, triggered by soaring inflation, continue across the public sector.
Union threatens to cause blackouts with strike at Britain’s biggest power station
Matt Oliver
Wed, 8 February 2023
Drax - Ian Forsyth/Bloomberg
Workers at Britain's biggest power station have threatened to hold a series of strikes they claim will raise the risk of power cuts.
Trade union Unite claims the walkouts will effectively shut down the Drax Power Station, in North Yorkshire, straining electricity supplies and making it harder to keep the lights on.
The station can generate up to 4 gigawatts of electricity at full capacity, or roughly 7pc of national demand.
Unite’s decision to hold industrial action on February 20 and 27, March 6, 13, 20, 27 and April 4, 10 and 17 follows a dispute between the union and managers over pay.
Around 180 of the power station’s 470 staff will be involved in the industrial action, after Unite members narrowly voted to reject the offer of a 8pc pay increase.
Strike action “will close Drax down,” the union claimed, warning that Britain “could face power cuts” as a result.
Drax denied the walkouts would render the power station inoperable. It is understood that non-striking staff could be reassigned to keep all four biomass-burning units online. A spokesman said the company had “robust plans in place."
Separately, the boss of one of Europe’s largest energy suppliers warned that factories and households will need to cut energy use even more to avoid another surge in oil and gas prices.
Anders Opedal, chief executive of Norway’s Equinor, said “a further reduction in demand” would be needed to help refill gas storage sites.
Russian supplies that helped fill storage stocks for this winter have been largely cut off, leaving Europe more reliant on shipments of liquified natural gas from around the world.
Mr Opedal said: “Most likely we'll also be able to refill the storage for next winter. But that will require a further reduction in demand.
“There are unknowns such as the weather, both in Europe and Asia. Any supply disruption will also have an impact on the market. So I would say it's a little bit of a nervous market going forward.”
Both Europe and the UK have already cut energy use to get through this winter, with EU member states agreeing to cut gas demand by 15pc. In the UK, the Government launched an energy-saving campaign.
Equinor, which is majority-owned by the Norwegian state, became Europe’s largest supplier of natural gas last year, overtaking Russia. It is also the UK’s largest supplier.
On Wednesday the company posted a record $74.9bn (£62bn) profit, becoming the latest fossil fuel producer to report soaring returns following a year of high oil and gas prices.
In recent weeks prices have been declining from the highs reached last summer and this week the average pump price of diesel dropped below 170 pence per litre, shaving more than £16 off the cost of filling up a 55-litre car compared to last July.
Simon Williams, fuel spokesman at the RAC, said: “This is good news for drivers of diesel vehicles as they have had to endure some tough times with the average price of a litre nearly hitting £2 at the end of June.”
Wholesale diesel prices leapt following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 amid concerns about disruption to supplies as Russia is a major exporter of the fuel.
However, they have started to cool with Russian supplies still getting into the market, and other sources opening up to Europe.
Mr Williams said if retailers “play fair” with drivers, the price at the pumps should fall further given the relatively low wholesale prices, which are currently about 52.07p in the UK.
Drax power plant workers to strike nine times in three months
Alex Lawson Energy correspondent
Wed, 8 February 2023
Photograph: Adam Vaughan/EPA
Workers at one of Britain’s biggest power plants are preparing to go on strike nine times over the next three months in a dispute over pay.
More than 180 staff at the Drax plant near Selby, in North Yorkshire, plan to strike in February, March and April after rejecting a proposed pay deal.
Unite union has accused Drax of “classic corporate greed”, citing an increase in its profits, which jumped to £200m in the first half of its financial year, up from £52m in the same period a year earlier, helped by high electricity prices.
Unite said it had rejected an 8% pay rise and noted that the retail prices index (RPI) inflation rate was 13.4% in December.
The Unite general secretary, Sharon Graham, said: “This is a classic case of greed by a company which is already generating eye-watering profits. Drax is cynically seeking to boost its bonanza profits further by forcing workers to take a real-terms pay cut.
“Unite is now totally focused on the jobs, pay and conditions of its members and the workers at Drax will be receiving the union’s complete support.”
Unite claimed strike action would shut down Drax – which supplies about 6% of Great Britain’s power at times – and cause power cuts. The company refuted this claim and said it had “robust plans in place to ensure the power station continues to safely generate renewable electricity for millions of homes and businesses” in the event of industrial action.
A Drax spokesperson said: “We are deeply disappointed that Unite is planning to go forward with this unnecessary action which will see colleagues lose money instead of securing a significant pay rise. Drax remains open to dialogue with Unite to avoid industrial action.
“There are three trade unions representing colleagues at Drax power station and this offer has been accepted by Prospect, while GMB has stated it will not be taking industrial action.”
Drax, which has faced criticism over its use of biomass, said it had offered employees £2,000 each in recognition of their work extending the life of two coal units until March 2023. The units have been kept on standby at the request of National Grid.
The strikes at Drax are due to take place on 20 and 27 February; 6, 13, 20 and 27 March; and 4, 10 and 17 April.
The dispute echoes a standoff at UK Power Networks (UKPN), which supplies power to London and the south-east of England. Unite said on Monday said that 1,300 workers at the company would be balloted for strike action as they were unhappy with a pay rise of 7% for the current financial year.
Unite has previously accused UKPN and other networks of “rampant profiteering”.
