VIRGINIA

Dominion eyeing more natural gas plants, modular reactors

By SARAH RANKIN

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Renewables alone aren’t expected to meet a projected increase in demand for electricity in the coming decades, Dominion Energy Virginia said in a filing this week that was closely aligned with Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s energy policy.

That means the state’s largest electric utility may seek to keep most of its existing power stations online for decades to come and seek to build additional small natural gas and nuclear units, if it pursues the scenarios outlined in the planning document it filed Monday with state regulators.

“This ‘all of the above’ approach ensures we can reliably serve our customers ‘around-the-clock,’ especially on the hottest and coldest days of the year,” Ed Baine, the utility’s president, said in a news release. “Our plan balances the benefits of renewables with the reliability of ‘on-demand’ power so we can meet the growing needs of our customers.”

Dominion’s filing was quickly met with criticism from environmental groups and other clean-energy advocates, who have long called for greater urgency in the company’s shift to renewables in order to help address the threat of climate change. Various advocacy organizations called it irresponsible, a “corporate profit grab,” and an attempt to get in the “governor’s good graces.

Dominion laid out the possible future generation scenarios in an integrated resource plan, or IRP, filed with the State Corporation Commission. It’s a mandatory long-range planning document that describes how the regulated monopoly utility expects to generate power to comply with regulations and meet customer needs, but it is not an application to build any specific project.

In the IRP, Dominion said that while it is committed to providing increasingly clean power, meeting the standards of a renewable energy law passed in 2020 and heralded by Virginia Democrats as a signature accomplishment will require the company to build and buy additional capacity to meet demand.

It noted that PJM, the transmission organization that oversees the electric grid in more than a dozen states, predicted in its 2023 forecast an increase in peak and energy load growth over the next decade driven primarily by data centers.

Taking that and other factors into account, Dominion laid out five possible scenarios for meeting its customers’ needs. All call for new solar, wind and energy storage development. All but one, a least-cost plan the company was required to model but said it doesn’t consider a true “path forward,” include the development of small modular nuclear reactors. All call for new natural gas generation, and several scenarios would increase Dominion’s carbon dioxide emissions over the longest range of the study period.

The utility’s parent company, Richmond-based Dominion Energy, which operates in 16 states, announced in 2020 a goal of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Dominion Energy Virginia, which serves about 2.7 million customers in Virginia and a small portion of North Carolina, faces a deadline even sooner to meet the standards of the 2020 law, the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which requires it to generate 100% of its electricity from carbon-free sources by the end of 2045. The law does allow Dominion to petition to keep carbon-emitting power producers online longer over reliability or security concerns.

Environmental advocates raised concerns ranging from the methodology behind Dominion’s modeling to the cost of small modular nuclear reactors, which are a relatively new technology in the U.S. Others noted the parallels between the IRP and Youngkin’s plan.

“This appears to be more of a political document. ... It’s not a plan that takes renewable energy, including the Clean Economy Act requirements, and climate change seriously,” said Nate Benforado, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center.

Youngkin, meanwhile, issued a statement shortly after the document became public praising the company’s approach and saying that it validated his energy plan released in October 2022. That planning document called for reevaluating the Clean Economy Act, raised concerns about premature natural gas retirements and called for expanding nuclear generation.

“I applaud Dominion Energy for taking a serious look at the anticipated demand and providing commonsense pathways to proactively delay the retirement of critical baseload capacity in this IRP,” Youngkin said in a statement. “Our regulated utilities have the responsibility to ‘keep the lights on.’”

In separate filings Monday with the commission, Dominion submitted rate-related proposals stemming from bipartisan legislation approved earlier this year.

The legislation directed a structural billing change, the effective elimination of $350 million in stand-alone charges called riders, that the company says will result in a monthly savings of about $7 for the average residential customer.

Dominion is also seeking SCC approval to spread out fuel costs, a move that means customers will eventually pay more but will be cushioned from a sudden sharp increase the company has said is largely attributable to the war in Ukraine. That could provide up to $7 a month in savings beginning July 1, Dominion said.

A proposed increase being sought by Dominion to a stand-alone transmission charge — $2.67 for the typical customer — would partly offset those savings, according to the news release.

A grave under the ocean? Team finds what could be submerged hospital off Florida Keys

David Goodhue
Tue, May 2, 2023

 
Archaeologists have found a submerged gravestone in Dry Tortugas National Park near the Florida Keys, and they say the discovery could also mean there’s a cemetery and hospital in the area.

The site could have been used for quarantined yellow fever patients on a small island that has since eroded into the sea.

While only one grave site was found, the scientists say the remains of dozens of people, mostly members of the military stationed at Fort Jefferson on Garden Key in the 1860s and ‘70s, could be at the site.

“This intriguing find highlights the potential for untold stories in Dry Tortugas National Park, both above and below the water,” Josh Marano, maritime archaeologist for the South Florida national parks and project director for the survey, said in a statement.

“Although much of the history of Fort Jefferson focuses on the fortification itself and some of its infamous prisoners,” he said, “we are actively working to tell the stories of the enslaved people, women, children and civilian laborers.”

The work to find the grave site began in August 2022 by park archaeologists with the assistance of members of the National Park Service’s Submerged Resources Center, the Southeast Archaeologist Center and graduate students from University of Miami.

The site was discovered by accident months earlier when a park worker flew over shallow water in an airplane and saw something man-made in the shallow water below, said Allyson Gantt, a park ranger and spokesperson for Dry Tortugas National Park.

“Right angles usually don’t occur in nature,” Gantt said.

The Park Service released its findings this week.

The Dry Tortugas, a 100-square mile park about 70 miles from Key West, include mostly open water and seven islands, including Garden Key, home of Fort Jefferson, a former coastal fortress shut down in 1873. The park is popular with tourists and snorklers, and is only accessible by boat or seaplane.

The gravestone found in the water belonged to a man named John Greer. According to the Park Service announcement, Greer was a laborer at the fort who died Nov. 5, 1861. The cause of his death remains unknown, but the fort had several outbreaks of communicable and mosquito-borne diseases including yellow fever.

A handwritten log shows names, occupation and other details with John Greer’s entry highlighted. Greer is the man archaeologists say is buried in a submerged grave site found off Garden Key in they Dry Tortugas National Park.

Doctors at the time took advantage of the isolated islands surrounding Garden Key and used them as quarantine hospitals for the infected. Between hurricanes, erosion and climate change, some of these islands are now under water.

Greer’s stone is made from a slab of greywacke, the material used to build the first floor of Fort Jefferson, according to the announcement. It was carved into the shape of a headstone and inscribed with his name and date of death.

A greywacke headstone found underwater in the Dry Tortugas National Park shows the name of John Greer and his date of death.

Fort Jefferson was mostly used as a military prison during the Civil War. But the surrounding islands were also used for a naval coaling outpost, lighthouse station, naval hospital, quarantine facility and for safe harbors and military training, the findings say.

That also meant that the population at the fort and surrounding islands swelled with soldiers, prisoners, enslaved people, engineers and support staff, as well as their families. This increased the risk of the spread of disease, especially yellow fever. Dozens died from the disease throughout the 1860s and ‘70s.

The military eventually left the fort in 1873, but the U.S. Marine Hospital Service reoccupied it between 1890 and 1900, again requiring the use of one of the surrounding islands for an isolation hospital, according to the Park Service.

Meanwhile, the archaeologists are trying to find out more about Greer and others possibly buried in the watery grave site.

A diver uses a paper and pencil to take a rubbing of a headstone found underwater in the Dry Tortugas National Park.

“Efforts to learn more about Mr. Greer and other individuals interred on the now submerged island are ongoing. The remains of the hospital as well as the surrounding cemetery have been documented as an archaeological resource and will be routinely monitored by members of the South Florida National Parks Cultural Resources Program,” the Park Service said in a statement. “Visitors are reminded that submerged cultural heritage is protected under Federal law.”

Most young Brits ‘not interested’ in royals ahead of King Charles’ coronation
By Adriana Diaz
May 2, 2023

An overwhelming majority (78%) of young Brits ages 18 to 24 are "not interested" in the royal family.

Most young Brits are not cheering “God Save the King.”

A recent study conducted ahead of King Charles’ coronation found that the majority of young Brits are “not interested” in the royal family and believe the soon-to-be-anointed king is “out of touch.”

The BBC commissioned an opinion poll through YouGov to determine how the United Kingdom felt about the monarchy as the institution prepares to officially welcome a new king and continues to make headlines with family feuds and scandals.

There are clear generational differences regarding people’s opinions on the royals, with an overwhelming majority — a whopping 78% — of the youngest generation of adults, ranging from ages 18 to 24, being uninterested.

A large portion of adults ages 25 to 49 (64%), a little over half of Brits 50 to 64 (53%) and 42% of those 65 and older reported feeling unenthused.

However, overall, the majority of English people (54%) believe that the royal family is a “good value” for the money the people provide them, while a large portion (58%) of the country is still “not interested” in the monarchy.

The poll also broke down data by ethnicity to find that British people of color are less interested in the monarchy than white people.

The royal family has met complaints of being out of touch and having issues with race and diversity for years.

Generally speaking, the majority of those polled do not believe the Firm has a problem with race and diversity.

But those beliefs also vary by age and ethnicity, as 43% of adults ages 18 to 24 claimed that the Windsors do have a problem with race and diversity, with that opinion slowly shrinking down to 17% with those 65 and older.

SEE ALSO

King Charles heckled by ‘Not My King’ protests at royal engagement

However, 50% of whites said no problem exists, while about half (49%) of those who identified as part of an ethnic minority said one did.

Most Brits also agreed that the royal family as a whole has found an appropriate balance between historical traditions and modern times, but also that King Charles III specifically is “out of touch” — a common complaint about members of the royal family.

Since Queen Elizabeth II’s death last fall, which subsequently allows the king to step into his new role, many of his subjects have tried to reject their newest ruler with “Not My King” protests.

He has been criticized for everything from his treatment of his late ex-wife Princess Diana,

his political stances and even his appearance — people have speculated that he’s been “bullied” into hiding what he once described as his “sausage fingers.”Since Queen Elizabeth II’s death last fall, many people have tried to reject their newest ruler with “Not My King” protests.

Despite some resistance, King Charles III will be elevated in a lavish coronation ceremony in Westminster Abbey on the first weekend of May after waiting more than seven decades to become monarch.

The historic occasion will see His Majesty formally crowned following his ascension to the throne in September after the death of his mother — Britain’s longest-reigning monarch.

Bill to broaden LGBTQ+ protections passes Pennsylvania House

By BROOKE SCHULTZ yesterday

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A bill to broaden protections for LGBTQ+ people passed the Pennsylvania state House of Representatives on Tuesday — the first to advance this far after yearslong efforts by Democrats — though it faces strong headwinds in the Republican-controlled Senate.

The bill passed 102-98 in the House where Democrats have a razor-thin majority, becoming the first of its kind to see a floor vote. Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said he supports it.

Similar legislation — long supported by LGBTQ+ advocates, and even a priority of former Gov. Tom Wolf — has failed to get a floor vote in either chamber, despite clearing committee years ago.

Under the bill, it would be illegal to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people in housing, workplaces and public services.

The legislation would add the categories “sexual orientation, gender identity or expression” to a law that empowers the state Human Relations Commission to investigate complaints of discrimination because of someone’s race, sex, religion, age or disability. The commission can impose civil penalties, such as back pay or damages.

At least 22 other states have enacted similar laws, and Pennsylvania is the only state in the northeast without codifying these measures, according to data from the Human Rights Campaign.

Under governors friendly to anti-discrimination efforts, like Wolf and Shapiro, the Human Relations Commission has accepted complaints about LGBTQ+ discrimination. Recently a state panel voted to clarify several terms to broaden its oversight in the absence of legislative action.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, D-Philadelphia, said writing those legal protections into law will give them more security than what courts or the Human Relations Commission can guarantee.

Legislators debated the measure for about an hour on the floor, with opponents saying it would infringe on religious rights. But they also asserted the measure would force athletic teams to allow transgender athletes to play on teams that match their gender identity, use bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity or force doctors to perform gender-affirming care — concerns that the bill’s maker repeatedly said are unfounded.

“Until this bill gets to the governor’s desk, there are going to be a lot of people who are going to lie about this legislation,” an emotional Kenyatta said after the bill’s passage. “They want to talk about everything but what was in the bill. But we’re not going to be distracted.”

All but one Democrat supported it, while all but two Republicans opposed it.

Aaron Kaufer, R-Luzerne, said in support of the bill that he doesn’t think it will the final version, especially once it gets to the Senate, “but I do think we need to advance the ball on this issue. I do think we need to better define, better protect, better clarify.”

Still, opponents aired concerns that it could create new forms of discrimination.

“The more time that we spend focusing on our differences and enshrining them in our laws, simply highlights how we are in fact different. But we should be focused on what we have in common,” said Rep. Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster.

The bill has an uncertain future in the Senate, where Republicans hold 28-22 majority. The chamber’s Republican majority leaders for years have blocked such legislation, and the bill could be a test of Shapiro’s ability to advance campaign goals in a divided Legislature early into his first term.

In a memo to House members, the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry supported “the intent” of the effort, but took issue with practically enforcing certain protections afforded to “perceived” acts of discrimination.

__

Brooke Schultz is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Federal judge orders Pennsylvania school district to allow After-School Satan club

The ACLU of Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit against the district in March

By Taylor Penley | Fox News



Pennsylvania's Saucon Valley School District must allow The Satanic Temple (TST) to use school facilities for its After-School Satan Club as courts continue to examine a civil rights lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Pennsylvania in late March, according to a Monday ruling from a federal judge.

The ruling follows the lawsuit which alleged the district allowed the club to use school facilities but later rescinded permission, citing a policy requiring that use of such facilities should not "interfere with the educational program of the schools."

The group alleged the walkback violated the Free Speech clause of the First Amendment.

ACLU SLAPS PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL DISTRICT WITH LAWSUIT FOR BANNING AFTER SCHOOL SATAN CLUB

The Baphomet statue is seen in the conversion room at the Satanic Temple where a "Hell House" is being held in Salem, Massachusetts, on Oct. 8, 2019. (JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)

John Gallagher, a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, issued a preliminary injunction requiring the district continue to give the After-School Satan Club the right to use its facilities

"When confronted with a challenge to free speech, the government’s first instinct must be to forward expression rather than quash it. Particularly when the content is controversial or inconvenient. Nothing less is consistent with the expressed purpose of American government to secure the core, innate rights of its people," the ruling read.

THE SATANIC TEMPLE DEDICATING ‘LARGEST SATANIC GATHERING IN HISTORY’ TO BOSTON MAYOR, WILL REQUIRE MASKS

People attend a "Satanic Ball" at SatanCon in Boston on April 28, 2023. (Spencer Platt via Getty Images)

"Although The Satanic Temple, Inc.’s objectors may challenge the sanctity of this controversially named organization, the sanctity of the First Amendment’s protections must prevail. Indeed, it is the First Amendment that enumerates our freedoms to practice religion and express our viewpoints on religion and all the topics we consider sacred."

In its lawsuit, the ACLU of Pennsylvania noted that other religious organizations – namely those with Christian affiliations – were allowed to use the facilities without complaints, therefore creating a double standard.

The Satanic Temple's ASSC programming director June Everett said in a statement that the After-School Satan Club provided a "critical space" for students with certain beliefs to feel welcome while accusing the school district of "discriminatory" practices.

In this photo illustration, the American Civil Liberties Union logo seen displayed on a smartphone. (Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

"By prohibiting the ASSC from meeting in school facilities, the district is sending a discriminatory message to the club’s students that they are second class and don’t deserve the same opportunities as their peers," Everett's comments read in part.

Monday's ruling answers the ACLU's request for "emergency" injunctive relief made in its complaint.

A tweet shared by the group on Monday hailed the outcome as a "victory for free speech and religious freedom."

Khader Adnan, who yearned to live free, dies in Israeli prison

Tamara Nassar

Rights and Accountability

MONDOWEISS

2 May 2023

Khader Adnan celebrates with his children during a rally honoring him following his release from Israeli prison, near the West Bank city of Jenin on 12 July 2015. Adnan died Tuesday after 86 days of hunger strike against his renewed imprisonment. 

Shadi HatemAPA images

Khader Adnan died after 86 days of refusing food in protest of his detention by Israel.

The news early Tuesday prompted outpourings of anger and grief among Palestinians who see him as an icon of courageous and steadfast resistance to Israeli oppression.

Adnan is the first Palestinian to die during a hunger strike in almost 40 years.

His death brings to 237 the number of Palestinian prisoners who have died in Israeli custody since 1967.

Israeli prison authorities said they found the 45-year-old father of nine unresponsive in his cell at the Nitzan Prison in central Israel in the early hours of Tuesday, and he was pronounced dead at the Shamir Medical Center.

Israel had for weeks refused to move him to a proper hospital or to allow his family to visit him, even as his condition deteriorated.

Hailing from the occupied West Bank village of Arraba near Jenin, Adnan spent some eight years in Israeli detention, mostly without charge or trial.

A baker by profession whose job was to feed others, he refused any sustenance except water and salt in pursuit of a greater cause.

Over the years, he gained his freedom or limits on his detention by undertaking several long hunger strikes.

They include 25 days in 2004, 66 days in 2011 and 2012, 55 days in 2015, 58 days in 2018 and 25 days in 2021.

Those successive protests took a toll on his body, causing several long-term health problems.

Palestinian writer Yousef Aljamal recalled speaking to Adnan by phone in 2021 while co-editing with Norma Hashim the book, A Shared Struggle—Stories of Palestinian & Irish Republican Hunger Strikers.

“I remember his voice was very weak and he was barely able to talk due to his illness and the damage his vocal cords suffered from past hunger strikes,” Aljamal wrote in a tribute to Adnan.

But if Israel broke and finally destroyed Adnan physically, it did not do so spiritually.

“Our freedom is the most precious thing we have,” Adnan explained in an essay published in the book.

“Being locked in a dark dungeon, where Israeli soldiers beat my chained body was deeply humiliating and oppressing,” Adnan said. “Their punches and their weapons have left permanent scars on my body. Their barbarism itself stood before me, literally.”

“Freedom beckoned me from the moment I was first imprisoned, it haunted me. My quest for liberty also drove me to bolster the morale of my friends and brothers.”

By waging his hunger strikes, Adnan said he was determined “to teach the occupiers a lesson in dignity and defiance.”

He also recalled how his captors moved his “weak, faint and emaciated body from one prison to another.”

“Their hatred, oppression and brutality still live with me,” he said. “They pretend to act humanely in front of the rest of the world, but they don’t.”

Adnan never lost sight of what motivated him: his devotion to his people, his land and his family.

“During my struggle I occupied my mind by recalling the sun on the distant green lands. I missed most of all the feel of grains of sand, the scent of the almond and lemon trees,” he said.

“I demanded to go home, to my family, to my daughters, who had spent long periods of their childhoods without me since I was jailed.”

According to Aljamal, Adnan did “not subscribe to Palestinian factionalism. His discourse tended to be focused on Palestinian unity and nationalism, and one could find him at different political and social events across the West Bank.”

The love he showed his people was returned by Palestinians across various political factions.
“Pride and honor”

Following his death, Adnan’s captors transferred his body to Israel’s Abu Kabir Forensic Institute for an autopsy.

Adnan’s lawyer is reportedly appealing to Israel’s high court that they hand his body over to his family for burial.

The International Committee of the Red Cross offered its condolences to Adnan’s family and called on Israel to release his body so his loved ones “can mourn and arrange a dignified burial.”

Adnan’s wife Randa Musa said Tuesday that his family would not open a traditional mourning tent to receive condolences, but would instead accept congratulations on his martyrdom.

“He is our pride and honor, even though we would have liked him to return to us victorious,” Musa said.

Musa has long stood by her husband, campaigning for him, speaking to the media and celebrating with him and their children on the previous occasions when he did come home victorious.

She urged all Palestinian resistance factions to honor her husband’s wishes.

“Not a single drop of blood fell or was seen during Sheikh [Adnan’s] last five hunger strikes,” Musa said.

“We do not want a drop of blood to be spilled now. We do not want anyone to respond to their sheikh’s martyrdom. We do not want someone to fire rockets and for Gaza to be subsequently hit.”
“Calculated” killing

Adnan’s passing on Tuesday came after weeks of increasingly urgent warnings from family, lawyers and physicians that his health was deteriorating rapidly, but Israeli authorities consistently refused to release him or care for him properly.

The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council described Adnan’s death as a “calculated and cold-blooded slow-killing.”

Adnan began his final hunger strike after Israeli occupation authorities arrested him on 5 February and imposed an administrative detention order.

Typically issued for six-month periods, these orders can be renewed indefinitely. Detainees are held without charge or trial and they and their attorneys are not allowed to see evidence against them.

Adnan’s latest detention came as the number of Palestinians Israel is holding without charge or trial soared to a 20 year high.

An Israeli military court reportedly later charged Adnan with “terror-related offenses” but he had had no trial even in Israel’s military courts which have a near 100 percent conviction rate for Palestinians.

Israeli occupation authorities accused Adnan of being a senior member of Palestinian resistance group Islamic Jihad.

Israel considers virtually all Palestinian political parties and even prominent human rights organizations to be “terrorist” organizations – a pretext to routinely arrest Palestinians for political activity or for documenting Israel’s crimes.

Adnan’s wife Randa Musa told reporters last month that her husband is “quite literally” dying after a lawyer affiliated with Physicians for Human Rights-Israel visited him.

Physicians for Human Rights Israel said it tried for weeks to convince the Israeli health ministry, prison authorities and the Kaplan medical center to keep Adnan hospitalized, but to no avail.

The prison clinic “was not equipped to monitor Adnan and could not provide emergency intervention in case of sudden deterioration,” the group said.

“Unfortunately, our efforts to raise these concerns judicially and individually fell on deaf ears. Even the request to allow Adnan’s family to visit him in prison – when it was clear this may be their final meeting – was denied by the Israeli prison service.”
Grief and protests

Adnan’s death was met with widespread outrage among Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. General strikes were declared in several Palestinian cities.

Birzeit University in Ramallah, where Adnan earned his Master’s degree in economics, halted all activities in his honor.

Similar outrage was felt in Gaza, from where rockets were fired into Israel in response to Adnan’s death.

The Israeli military fired missiles into Gaza in response, and the joint operations room of Palestinian armed resistance factions retaliated by firing rockets as an “initial response” into southern Israeli cities.

The secretary of the Bobby Sands Trust, Danny Morrison, who previously called on the Israeli government to immediately release Adnan during his 2012 hunger strike, expressed sadness over his death and offered “condolences to his wife, children and family, to his friends and comrades.”

Bobby Sands died almost 42 years to the day, on 5 May 1981, after 66 days on hunger strike against British refusal to grant political status to him and other Irish republican prisoner.

• Tamara Nassar's blog

Ursula Von Der Leyen Should Apologize For Whitewashing Israel’s Apartheid Regime – OpEd


European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Photo Credit: Eric Vidal, © European Union 2022 - Source : EP


May 3, 2023 Eurasia Review 
By Arab News
By Osama Al-Sharif *

The congratulatory video message recorded by the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to mark Israel’s 75th Independence Day last week was a blatant insult to millions of Palestinians living under occupation and in the diaspora. Moreover, it was an affront to anyone who is disgusted by Israel’s immoral and illegal 56-year occupation of Palestinian territories, the 16-year siege of Gaza, the building of illegal settlements, the demolition of Palestinian homes, the incarceration and killing of children and the repugnant violation of UN resolutions and international conventions and laws, in addition to numerous human rights violations.

The fact that such an unabashed message failed to refer to the occupation or the Palestinian right to self-determination can only be a sign of either ignorance, which cannot be forgiven, or acquiescence, which is criminal. The colonial-era trope uttered by her in reference to making “the desert bloom” resurrects falsehoods spread by the Zionist hasbara propaganda machine many decades ago about a promised land that had no native inhabitants and no civilization that goes back thousands of years.

It is no wonder that her message, celebrating Israel’s “vibrant democracy in the heart of the Middle East,” was condemned by the Palestinian Authority and thousands of social media activists. For starters, one cannot mention Israel’s so-called independence without referring to the Palestinian Nakba, or catastrophe, of 1947-48 and beyond. These two events are intertwined and always will be; one people’s liberation came at the expense of another.

And if Von der Leyen rejects the Palestinian narrative, she should check the historical accounts of respected Israeli historians such as Ilan Pappe, Tamar Novick and Benny Morris about massacres and ethnic cleansing crimes committed by the Irgun, Lehi — also known as the Stern Gang — and Haganah during Israel’s war of independence against the Palestinians. More than 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their ancestral homes and tens of villages were destroyed forever.

But one does not have to go that far back in history. The claim that Israel is a democracy is also false. How can a state that occupies an entire people for more than five decades be described as a democracy? Again, the European Commission president should check the indictment of one of Israel’s most-respected human rights organizations, B’Tselem, which in January 2021 reported that “in the entire area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, the Israeli regime implements laws, practices and state violence designed to cement the supremacy of one group — Jews — over another — Palestinians.”



B’Tselem added that “a regime that uses laws, practices and organized violence to cement the supremacy of one group over another is an apartheid regime.” And it concluded: “These accumulated measures … form the basis for our conclusion that the bar for labeling the Israeli regime as apartheid has been met.” Its case also rested on Israel passing the Nation-State of the Jewish People law in 2018.

The same label was soon adopted by Amnesty International, which declared that its “investigation shows that Israel imposes a system of oppression and domination against Palestinians across all areas under its control: in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and against Palestinian refugees, in order to benefit Jewish Israelis. This amounts to apartheid as prohibited in international law.” The same conclusion was reached by Human Rights Watch, also in 2021.

As for Von der Leyen’s provocative statement that Europe and Israel share common values, she should check some figures related to Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank and its siege of the Gaza Strip. In the first quarter of 2023, the Israeli military killed 95 Palestinians in the West Bank, including 17 children, according to the UN. At least 4,765 Palestinian prisoners, of whom 971 were administrative detainees, were held in Israeli jails at the start of March this year, according to Haaretz. Administrative detainees can be held for an open-ended period of time without charges and without trial.

Furthermore, since the start of this year, Israeli forces have demolished at least 47 Palestinian-built structures in occupied East Jerusalem, including inhabited and uninhabited homes, stores and other structures. This is a war crime under international law. Moreover, Israel continues to approve new illegal settlement building in the West Bank, in violation of international laws. Are these the shared values that Von der Leyen is referring to?

Finally, Israel blocked a visit by the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, earlier this year because he dared to criticize Israel’s policies in the West Bank. It has also barred UN envoys from visiting the Occupied Territories on numerous occasions.

And with reference to Brussels’ partnership with Israel, Von der Leyen should check how many EU-funded schools Israel has demolished in recent years. By 2017, Israel had destroyed at least $74 million-worth of EU-funded projects in the Occupied Territories, including schools, playgrounds and agricultural initiatives, according to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor. In response, eight EU countries demanded that Israel compensate them for the demolition of new school facilities for Bedouin communities in the West Bank. No compensation was ever received.

Last year, an EU delegation visiting the West Bank said it was “appalled” after Israeli forces destroyed a primary school in Masafer Yatta. And, in 2021, a group of 160 academics from 21 countries urged the European Commission to “use its leverage” and ban Israeli universities from receiving funds from an EU program worth over $100 billion. In a letter, they said that “the complicity of Israeli academic institutions in Israel’s structural violence perpetrated against Palestinians across historic Palestine has been broadly and systematically documented.”

Echoing Israeli propaganda about making the desert bloom and shared democratic values is an attempt to whitewash an apartheid regime. Von der Leyen’s rhetoric reeks of obscene Orientalist bigotry and she must apologize to the Palestinians, who continue to suffer under the oldest colonial occupation in modern times.

Osama Al-Sharif is a journalist and political commentator based in Amman. Twitter: @plato010

EU calls on Israel to halt unilateral measures that endanger possibility of peace

Any response must be proportionate and in line with international law, says EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell

Aysu Biçer |03.05.2023 -

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen (L) meets with European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell (R) in Brussels, Belgium on May 02, 2023.


LONDON

The European Union urged Israel on Tuesday to halt unilateral measures that could further increase tensions and endanger the possibility of a just and sustainable peace based on a two-state solution following renewed violence in Palestinian territories.

In a statement issued by the EU after the first face-to-face meeting between EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen in Brussels, the commitment to a two-state solution was reaffirmed and the importance of respecting the status quo of the Holy sites was repeated.

The statement noted that the two discussed regional issues as well as EU-Israel relations and that Borrell emphasized the strength of cooperation between the EU and Israel.

It said the EU "condemned recent terrorist and rocket attacks against Israelis and underlined the EU’s commitment to Israel’s right to defend itself."

Borrell recalled that "any response must be proportionate and in line with international law. At the same time, he expressed concern about the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory."

"The EU and its Member States remain firmly committed to the two-state solution and the HR/VP recalled the European readiness to contribute to a peace process," it said, referring to Borrell, who is the EU High Representative and Vice-President of the European Commission.

Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes Tuesday targeting sites of Palestinian factions in the besieged Gaza Strip.

The fighter jets struck sites of armed factions in Gaza City and central areas of the strip with several missiles, according to eyewitnesses and an Anadolu correspondent.

The bombing caused violent explosions in large areas of the strip.

The Palestinian Health Ministry has not provided any information on whether there are any casualties.

Palestinian groups in Gaza and Israel exchanged fire Tuesday shortly after the death of Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan in an Israeli prison after 86 days of a hunger strike.

Ben Shapiro slammed for gleeful reaction to Hollywood writers strike

Controversial conservative commentator celebrated late night talk shows’ temporary cancellation amid strike

Inga Parkel

Ben Shapiro has been called out for his hypocritical response to the WGA Hollywood writers’ strike that has temporarily shut down all US late-night talk shows.

On Tuesday (2 May), the Writers Guild of America – the union that represents 11,500 writers of film, television and other entertainment forms – announced they will take action from Tuesday (2 May), after months of negotiations with Hollywood studios over pay failed to come to a deal.

This means talk show hosts, including Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers and Stephen Colbert, will not be recording episodes of their shows, which will go dark until an agreement is reached.

Responding to the news on Twitter, the 39-year-old conservative pundit wrote: “This is the first time I can remember supporting a strike. In fact, I hope the strike continues forever.”

His post has since been derided for suggesting that he’s never supported a strike. A majority of Republicans typically have negative views of unions, according to 2021 figures from the PEW Research Centre.

“Consider this the next time a conservative tells you they're ‘pro-worker’,” one Twitter user said.

A second joked: “Even as a conservative, are you meant to admit that you don’t think any strike has ever been justified?”

“Imagine being such a corporate stooge that you’ve never supported a strike,” a third commented.

“First time supporting a strike? Ben Shapiro is just straight up telling us he does not care about workers,” argued another.

“Why is @benshapiro so angry at a Hollywood writer's strike? Oh yeah,” one added, remembering Shapiro’s failed screenwriter career.

The Independent has contacted Shapiro for comment.

His history with Hollywood has recently resurfaced following his divisive takes on popular film and television.

According to Shapiro, he was blacklisted by Hollywood over his political views.

Who owns the UK’s major energy and water suppliers, and how much profit do they make?

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak says oil and gas companies are treating the British public ‘like cash machines’ amid the cost of living crisis

BP’s profits of $5 billion (£4bn) were stronger-than-expected results for the first quarter of 2023 / PA Wire

By
Lowenna Waters
Nuray Bulbul
4 hours ago

il and gas giant BP has reported bumper profits for the beginning of the year, renewing calls for a stronger windfall tax as Brits struggle to pay their energy bills.

BP’s profits of $5 billion (£4bn) were stronger-than-expected results for the first quarter of 2023.

These are a reduction on the $6.2bn from the same period last year, but otherwise are the best results BP has reported in at least a decade.

They have sparked renewed calls for the Government to ensure oil companies are hit with what Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called a “proper” windfall tax.

“It shows that these really huge profits are continuing. This isn’t the first but £4 billion… that’s a huge amount of money,” he told BBC Breakfast.

“And it’s always worth bearing in mind that, of course, we want BP and others to make profits so they can invest.

“But these are profits they didn’t expect to make. These are profits over and above because the world price of energy is so high.”

Trades Union Congress (TUC) general secretary Paul Nowak said oil and gas companies were treating the British public “like cash machines”. Most trade unions in the UK belong to the TUC.

He said: “These eye-watering profits are an insult to working families as millions struggle with sky-high bills. The Government has left billions on the table by refusing to impose a proper windfall tax on the likes of BP. And even now ministers are refusing to take action to fix our broken energy market and stop this obscene price gouging.”

So, who owns the UK’s biggest energy firms, and how much profit are they making?

Here’s everything you need to know.

Who owns British Gas and how much profit does it make?

British Gas is owned by the company Centrica, which is the largest domestic gas supplier in the UK, and is also one of the largest electricity suppliers.

It was previously publically owned but in December 1986 the prime minister at the time, Margaret Thatcher, privatised it.

Centrica owns British Gas and other energy companies, including Ireland’s Bord Gais Energy. In February, it reported a record operating profit of £3.3bn last year.

Who owns BP and how much profit does it make?

British Petroleum, better known as BP, is a British company founded in 1909.

Its top five shareholders are State Street, BlackRock, Dimensional Fund Advisors, Fisher Investments, and Menora Mivtachim.

With operations in nearly 80 countries, BP announced it made a profit of $5bn (£4bn) in the first three months of 2023.

Shell reported a record $40 billion (£32.5 billion) profit in 2022 / PA Wire

Who owns Shell and how much profit does it make?

Shell is a British-Dutch-owned company, headquartered in the Netherlands, and is incorporated in the UK. The company, which first sold antiques and seashells, was expanded by the Samuels brothers in the 1880s into an oil-exporting business.

The brothers achieved a revolution in the transport of oil by using a tanker called the Murex across the Suez Canal to transfer oil.

Shell supplied the British Army with the majority of its fuel during the First World War and made all of its ships — including the Murex — available to the British Admiralty.

Wael Sawan became the company’s CEO in January. He replaced Ben van Beurden, who had been in the role since January 1, 2014.

In Sawan’s previous role as the head of Shell’s integrated gas and renewables division, he oversaw Shell’s growth into low-carbon energies, as well as its giant gas business.

Shell reported a record $40bn (£32.5bn) profit in 2022. This capped a turbulent year in which a rise in energy prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine allowed it to provide shareholders with unheard-of profits.

Who owns Scottish Power and how much profit does it make?

Scottish Power is owned by the Spanish utility firm Iberdrola. The company was formed in 1990, in preparation for the privatisation of Scotland’s energy supply the year after, according to Berkshire Live.

In October 2021, Scottish Power reported a 39 per cent decline in underlying profits, at its division responsible for providing energy to domestic customers. It cited rising wholesale costs, as well as low wind volumes, as the key reasons for this.

Who owns Southern Water and how much profit does it make?

Southern Water supplies water and sewerage services to customers across the south of England. It loses 88.1 million litres of water per day from the pipes in its network.

Its shareholders took home £622 million in profit between 2013 and 2017. In 2021, Southern Water was sentenced to pay £90m in fines for widespread pollution after pleading guilty to 6,971 unpermitted sewage discharges, according to Gov.uk.

Who owns EDF and how much profit does it make?

EDF Energy is owned by the French energy supplier Électricité de France (EDF), which is itself owned by the French government.

It made a profit of £1.12bn in 2022 in the UK, following a loss of £21m in the previous year.

Luc Remont, chairman and chief executive officer of EDF, said: “The 2022 results were significantly affected by the decline in our electricity output, and also by exceptional regulatory measures introduced in France in difficult market conditions.

“Despite all the challenges, EDF actively focused on service and support for all its residential and business customers, and made every endeavour to ensure the best generation fleet availability for the winter period.”

According to its own figures, it posted a loss of £154m in 2020.

Who owns E.ON and how much profit does it make?

E.ON is owned by E.ON SE, an electricity supplier based in Essen, Germany. The company was formed in 1989 and was originally known as Powergen, before it was privatised in the 1990s.

The company also owns Npower, which it acquired in December 2018, and was previously owned by German multinational energy firm RWE.

In November 2021, its parent company reported a nine-month adjustment to earnings before interest and tax, of €3.93bn (£3.29bn), while its customer solutions arm more than doubled its profits to €910m (£810.4m).

Who owns SSE and how much profit does it make?

SSE’s retail business, which provides energy to household customers, was sold to OVO Energy in January 2020.

OVO Energy reported that it had significantly reduced its losses in 2020 to £7 million — down from £103m the previous year. The company also reported a significant increase in revenues, from £1.5bn to £4.5bn.

Who owns Octopus Energy and how much profit does it make?

Octopus Energy is owned by Octopus Group, the fund-management company which founded the energy firm in 2015. Octopus Group has interests in venture capital, investment management, and real estate, as well as the energy sector.

In January, Octopus Energy announced an operating loss of nearly £85m in 2021, after reporting a loss of almost £50m in 2020, according to Reuters. However, the firm’s energy-supply revenues increased to £1.9bn from £1.2bn the previous year.

UK

More school strikes loom as education secretary branded 'complete failure'

Tuesday 2 May 2023 

NEU boss Kevin Courtney is warning the government of coordinated education strikes if an improved pay offer is not made.

Credit: PA

A "complete failure" by the education secretary to negotiate teachers' pay could trigger strikes which hit every state school in England, a top union boss has said.

Gillian Keegan has been accused of "refusing to engage" with teaching unions over pay in a stinging statement released by the National Education Union (NEU) at the end of another day of walkouts.

Thousands demonstrated across England on Tuesday, the sixth day an individual school has faced strike action by members of the NEU this year.

NEU Joint General Secretary Kevin Courtney said the government does not recognise the "damage they are doing to education and the profession" by allowing further strikes to go ahead.


"[Ms Keegan] has taken her ball home with her and refuses to engage. This is irresponsible in the extreme and is a complete failure by the education secretary."

The Department for Education, however, says the union boss is misrepresenting the government's position and that a "fair and reasonable" offer was made which also provides an additional £2bn in funding for schools, which they asked for".

Mr Courtney warned ministers of plans by his and other education unions to carry out coordinated strikes in the autumn term, should members vote to continue with industrial action.

Around 400,000 teaching union members go on strike in the first term of next year, if members of the NEU, Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), NASUWT and Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) vote to do so when they're balloted in the summer.

Teachers were offered a £1,000 one-off payment by the government for the current school year (2022/23) and an average 4.5% pay rise for staff next year after intensive talks with the education unions.

All four teaching unions have already rejected the offer, with the NEU saying there should be "no doubt that teachers are fully committed to securing a resolution to the pay dispute. It is inescapable that something must change".

But the government insists its offer is fair and says coordinated "with the aim of causing maximum disruption to schools is unreasonable and disproportionate, especially given the impact the pandemic has already had on their learning".

"Children's education has always been our absolute priority, and they should be in classrooms where they belong."

The NEU's executive is due to meet this month to decide whether to approve three more strike days in late June or early July, with those walkouts expected to go ahead.

Currently only the NEU has a mandate to take strike action and it plans to re-ballot its teacher members in England to take further action in the autumn.

The NAHT and the NASUWT teaching union - which both failed to meet the mandatory 50% turnout threshold required for strikes in England in their last ballots - will re-ballot members.

The ASCL is also due to hold a formal ballot for national strikes in England for the first time.

Meanwhile, more health strikes have been averted after a majority of NHS unions agreed the government's pay offer should be implemented, however some walkouts could still go ahead with the Royal College of Nursing and Unite continuing their dispute.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay, in a message to members of dissenting unions, said he hopes they "recognise this as a fair outcome that carries the support of their colleagues and decide it is time to bring industrial action to an end".

He added: "We will continue to engage constructively with unions on workforce changes to ensure the NHS is the best place to work for staff, patients and taxpayers."