CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M IS THE SYSTEM

Facebook to be fined £648m for mishandling user information

Decision by Ireland’s privacy regulator will set record for breach of EU’s data protection rules

Dan Milmo

THE GUARDIAN

Sun 21 May 2023 

Facebook is to be fined more than €746m (£648m) and ordered to suspend data transfers to the US as an Irish regulator prepares to punish the social media network for its handling of user information.

The fine, first reported by Bloomberg and expected to be confirmed as soon as Monday, will set a record for a breach of the EU’s general data protection regulation (GDPR), beating the €746m levied on Amazon by Luxembourg in 2021.

The decision by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, which is the lead privacy regulator for Facebook and its owner Meta across the EU, is also expected to pause transfers of data from Facebook’s European users to the US.

The ruling is unlikely to take effect immediately. Meta is expected to be given a grace period to comply with the decision, which could push any suspension into the autumn, and the company is expected to appeal against the decision.

The ruling relates to a legal challenge brought by an Austrian privacy campaigner, Max Schrems, over concerns resulting from the Edward Snowden revelations that European users’ data is not sufficiently protected from US intelligence agencies when it is transferred across the Atlantic.


It’s a tough time for Meta. Can AI help make the company relevant again?

Writing in 2020, Meta’s policy chief, Nick Clegg, said suspending data transfers on the basis of standard contractual clauses (SCCs) – a mechanism used by Facebook and others – could have “a far-reaching effect on businesses that rely on SCCs and on the online services many people and businesses rely on”.

In Meta’s most recent quarterly results, the company said that without SCCs or “other alternative means of data transfers” it would “likely be unable to offer a number of our most significant products and services, including Facebook and Instagram, in Europe”.

Johnny Ryan, a senior fellow at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and a campaigner for stronger protection of internet users’ data, said a financial punishment exceeding €746m would not be enough if Facebook did not fundamentally change its user data-reliant business model.

“A billion-euro parking ticket is of no consequence to a company that earns many more billions by parking illegally,” he said.

The Irish data watchdog has fined Meta, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, a total of nearly €1bn since September 2021. It also regulates Apple, Google, TikTok and other technology platforms whose EU headquarters are in Ireland.

In November last year, Meta was fined €265m (£230m) by the watchdog after a breach that resulted in the details of more than 500 million users being published online.

That came weeks after a €405m fine for letting teenagers set up Instagram accounts that publicly displayed their phone numbers and email addresses.

Any suspension would be rendered meaningless if the US and EU implement a new data transfer agreement, which has been agreed at a political level.

A Meta spokesperson said: “This case relates to a historic conflict of EU and US law, which is in the process of being resolved via the new EU-US Data Privacy Framework. We welcome the progress that policymakers have made towards ensuring the continued transfer of data across borders and await the regulator’s final decision on this matter.”

The latest problems for Meta emerged after the group reported better-than-expected first-quarter revenue last month of $28bn.

Meta, which owns Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, has been attempting to shift away from social media and develop the metaverse – its virtual reality program. The billions spent on those efforts caused concern among investors as Meta has also struggled to compete with the rise of TikTok, which has proved particularly popular among younger people.

The company, meanwhile, has made mass layoffs as part of a planned “year of efficiency” that its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, announced in February.

Rome climate protesters turn Trevi fountain water black

Members of Ultima Generazione fossil fuel group climbed in and poured diluted charcoal into water

Reuters

Sun 21 May 2023

Seven activists protesting against climate change climbed into the Trevi fountain in Rome and poured diluted charcoal into the water to turn it black.

Rome: climate activists turn Trevi fountain water black – video

The protesters from the Ultima Generazione (Last Generation) group held up banners saying “We won’t pay for fossil [fuels]” and shouted “Our country is dying.”

Uniformed police waded into the water to take away the activists, with many tourists filming the stunt and a few of the onlookers shouting insults at the protesters, video footage showed.

Italy’s disasters suggest the climate crisis is at the gates of Europe

In a statement, Ultima Generazione called for an end to public subsidies for fossil fuels and linked the protests to deadly floods in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna in recent days. The group said one in four houses in Italy were at risk from flooding.

Rome’s mayor, Roberto Gualtieri, condemned the protest, the latest in a series of acts targeting works of art in Italy. “Enough of these absurd attacks on our artistic heritage,” he wrote on Twitter.

The tradition is for visitors to toss coins into the famous 18th-century fountain to ensure that they will return to Rome one day.

SECRET SOCIETY FOR REAL

At Bilderberg’s bigwig bash two things are guaranteed: Kissinger and secrecy
DAVOS IS THE FALSE FRONT
The annual elite networking, diplomatic and lobbying event took place in splendid seclusion behind closed doors in Lisbon

Charlie Skelton in Lisbon

THE GUARDIAN

Sat 20 May 2023 13.00 BST

The Portuguese sun was doing its cheery best to make this year’s Bilderberg meeting seem warm and welcoming, but nothing could take the deathly chill out of the official agenda of the secretive shindig for some of the world’s most powerful people.

Ukraine, Russia and Nato weighed heavy on the schedule, with “Fiscal Challenges” and “Transnational Threats” seeming like light relief. “Today,” said the head of Nato, Jens Stoltenberg, arriving in Lisbon to attend the talks, “our security environment is more dangerous than it has been since the cold war.”


Bilderberg reconvenes in person after two-year pandemic gap

This annual three-day conference is many things – an elite networking event, a diplomatic summit, a lobbying opportunity for transnational financial interests, an intense focus of conspiracy theory gossip – but above all, the 69th Bilderberg conference, at the glorious Pestana Palace, appeared like a council of war.

Ukraine’s foreign minister hadn’t come to Lisbon because he loves the happy clatter of trams, and the supreme allied commander Europe wasn’t here for the custard tarts. Which was a shame, because they’re excellent. I guess they can’t risk dusting them with cinnamon in Henry Kissinger’s presence, because one sneeze might be enough to carry him off to his reward.

On the eve of Kissinger’s centenary, the former US secretary of state and longtime Bilderberg kingpin will be delighted, or whatever dull ache he feels instead of delight, to see so many US intelligence officials at this year’s meeting.

They’re Kissinger’s kind of people.

Biden sent his director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, and his senior director for strategic planning at the national security council, Thomas Wright, plus a shadowy gaggle of White House strategists and spooks. Among them, Jen Easterly – the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, who said recently that the western world faces two “epoch-defining threats and challenges” – artificial intelligence and China, both of which feature on this year’s agenda.

Aside from Ukraine, it was these issues which dominated thinking in Lisbon.

China’s overarching aim is “to rearrange the world order” said Lisbon attendee Elizabeth Economy, who’s participating in her second Bilderberg as Biden’s senior adviser for China at the Department of Commerce.

The rise of what she called “a China-centric order with its own norms and values” is a gauntlet thrown down at Bilderberg, the elite forum which has helped frame and foster the western world order for nearly seven decades. They don’t mind a new world order, but they want it to be manufactured at Bilderberg, not made in China.

The twin threats of China and technology are intertwined in the thinking of Bilderberg board member Eric Schmidt. Just a few days ago the former boss of Google told a congressional hearing that AI “is very much at the center” of the competition between China and the US. And that “China is now dedicating enormous resources to outpace the US in technologies, in particular AI.”

Schmidt acknowledges the existential risks of AI, even warning that “things could be worse than people are saying”, but rejects the call made by some AI experts, including Elon Musk, for a six-month pause in AI development, because any delay “will simply benefit China”. There seemed a darkly ironic logic at play: we have to push ahead with developing something which might destroy us before China develops it into something that might destroy us.

Another of the Silicon Valley luminaries in Lisbon was Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI.

Earlier this week, Altman shared his concerns about AI at a US Senate hearing, and warned of the growing capacity for AI to bamboozle the voting public with plausible fakery – a particular worry for Altman “given that we’re going to face an election next year and these models are getting better”.

Interestingly, the question of “US Leadership” is on the conference agenda here at Bilderberg, although with the looming release of OpenAI’s next generation ChatGPT-5, the 2024 presidential debates might well be won by a witty and charismatic chatbot.

Altman is in favour of “regulatory intervention by governments” which he says “will be critical to mitigate the risks of increasingly powerful models”. But not everyone here at Bilderberg agrees.

Schmidt says that AI needs “appropriate guardrails” but caused a stir last week for suggesting, rather snootily, that AI companies should be self-regulating, because “there’s no way a non-industry person can understand what is possible.”

The more than two dozen politicians at this year’s Bilderberg might take issue with that argument. But we’ll never know, because the entire conference takes place behind closed doors, with zero press oversight. Nothing’s leaking out from behind the luxuriant bougainvilleas of the Pestana Palace.

Henry Kissinger, pictured in 2020. The former US secretary of state has been attending Bilderberg conferences since 1957. 

Photograph: Adam Berry/Getty Images

Incredibly, Kissinger has been attending Bilderberg conferences on and off since 1957. His “preoccupation with secrecy and personal diplomacy”, as a 1975 profile of the controversial statesman put it, fits perfectly with Bilderberg’s ferocious desire to keep the annual talks private.

But it’s a desire that sometimes tumbles over into paranoia. On Thursday the Guardian met the European head of Bilderberg, Victor Halberstadt, coming out of a pharmacy in Lisbon, clutching a packet of barrier skin cream. Halberstadt didn’t just ignore a polite media approach he flat-out denied that he was Victor Halberstadt and then hopped into a Mercedes which whisked him off through the security cordon.

This kind of cold war cloak-and-daggerism seems oddly anachronistic for a conference that is hosting a cutting-edge conversation about artificial intelligence with the CEOs of DeepMind and Microsoft. That said, all the ducking and weaving seems to work, if the endgame is inattention by the press.

Considering the number and seniority of public figures and policymakers who attend, Bilderberg, there is eerie lack of coverage in the world’s mainstream press. This year the roster reads just in part: three prime ministers, two deputy PMs, the president of the European parliament, the president of Eurogroup, the vice-president of the European Commission, two EU commissioners, an MEP, any number of European ministers and a member of the House of Lords, Dambisa Moyo – who, besides being a baroness, is also on the board of giant oil company, Chevron.

As ever, big oil was a powerful presence at Bilderberg, with the heads of Total, BP and Galp getting a seat at the table. Big pharma had a healthy presence, with the heads of Merck and Pfizer and a director of AstraZeneca on the list. And the international chemicals industry is represented by the CEO of BASF and a board member of Coca-Cola.

Naturally enough, the likely primary interest of these chairmen, directors and CEOs is their bottom line, to which end they’re always keen to ensure industry regulations are bent in their favour. Luckily, many of them are senior members of trade federations and commercial lobbying groups.

A good example is the International Institute of Finance, a major force in global financial governance. It’s chaired by the head of Banco Santander and Bilderberg steering committee member, Ana Botín. John Waldron, president of Goldman Sachs, is also on the board. These are two of the most powerful financial lobbyists in the world, and yet they get three luxurious days to chew the fat with the policymakers.

This is the dark heart of Bilderberg’s accountability problem. Just because the conference plays out in private doesn’t mean the talks take place in some kind of sanctified orb, in which the commercial concerns of a Luxembourg-based hedge fund boss like Rolly van Rappard, the co-chair of CVC Capital Partners, are somehow temporarily suspended.

When the Spanish foreign minister is mulling over Ukraine with the head of Nato, he’s doing so within earshot of some of the world’s most rapacious investors, like Henry Kravis, or hedge fund boss Kenneth Griffin, the 21st richest man in America.

These are people whose billions depend upon having the informational edge over their competitors, and it’s hard to know what the Griffins and Van Rappards are even doing there, except to pick up geostrategic tidbits to help make a quick buck.

Yet that doesn’t seem to raise any ethical red flags with any of the politicians who trot along to the talks. They’re quite happy to talk turkey behind the bougainvilleas with a bunch of billionaires and profiteers.

But heaven forbid there’s a press conference at the end of it.

Thousands of Amazon staffers are pouring into its Seattle offices. Will it restore the downtown’s fortunes?

Experts say the economic balance is more complex than one business and that the revitalization should be equitable

Andrew Buncombe

THE GUARDIAN

Sat 20 May 2023 

Tony Wang was beaming.

Sales at Yumbit, the lunchtime food truck he works at in downtown Seattle, had been doing well in recent days, so much so they may need more staff.

Wang’s truck is located on the corner of 6th Avenue and Lenora Street, the shiny heart of what some here playfully call “Amazonia”, after Amazon, the largest employer in the downtown area. And the extra customers that he and similar outlets are scrambling to serve are some of the 55,000 employees Amazon ordered to return to the office to work at least three days a week starting in May.

“It’s been a 20 to 30% increase with people coming back to work,” Wang said about sales at the truck. “It’s made a big difference.”

Nearly three years after the pandemic shut down much of downtown Seattle, Amazon’s move was eyed intensely in the city. CEO Andy Jassy told staff in February he hoped their return could be a “boost for the thousands of businesses located around our urban headquarter locations”.

It’s a hope the city’s mayor, Bruce Harrell, shared days later in his state of the city address: “I’m very pleased employers like Amazon recently announced and recognise that coming back to work downtown is a great thing.”

It’s been several challenging years for Seattle, parts of which have struggled for decades with problems including drugs, the great recession and homelessness.

The pandemic posed new challenges. Without the thousands of office workers pouring into high rises each weekday, once busy streets in the city’s downtown became empty. Stores had few customers; millions of dollars in potential sales taxes were lost. The buzz and bustle associated with a large group of commuters disappeared. In parts of the city, reports of crime increased as well. Seattle’s sales tax revenue in 2020 was down more than $46m, a decline of 13% from 2019, according to a Washington state report.

During the pandemic, downtown Seattle was empty. Sales tax revenue in 2020 was down more than $46m. Photograph: Ted S Warren/AP

That year also saw many demonstrations in support of racial justice, and a month-long occupation of one neighborhood, known as the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP), that forced shops ranging from “mom and pop” shops to department stores such as Nordstrom to board over their windows.

Pandemic-era restrictions lasted longer in Washington state than in many places. And even as Covid-related regulations eased, business did not fully pick up again. The Downtown Seattle Association, comprising businesses, nonprofits and residents, said only 43% of all office workers have returned to their desks. In the first quarter of this year, a quarter of downtown offices were either vacant or had been sublet, the Seattle Times has reported.

Recent layoffs in the tech industry have added fresh challenges. In March, Amazon laid off more than 2,300 employees in the Seattle area. Microsoft has cut about 1,000 staffers in the region.

Harrell, 64, a Democrat who took office in January 2022, campaigned as a business friendly candidate ready to help the economy, and address controversies with the police force, which for a decade had operated under federal supervision.

“I’m bullish on the future of downtown,” he said in his address. “It’s the time for bold action. That’s why our long-term plan center around downtown as a sort of a laboratory for the future.”

Harrel has floated changing zoning codes to convert empty office space in the neighborhood to housing. He envisions new hotels and restaurants in the area where several sports stadiums are located.

Although he has said recovery has to involve everyone, he thinks flagship firms such as Amazon can kickstart a return to a more vibrant city.

“From the remote work revolution to ever-evolving retail landscape, the issues facing our downtown are not unique to Seattle,” Harrell said. “But what is unique is the resources we have.”

The Day 1 building is part of the Amazon campus in downtown Seattle.

 Photograph: David Ryder/Getty Images


Amazon shares Harrell’s vision that it can be a force in the revitalization. John Schoettler, Amazon VP Corporate Real Estate, said in a statement that the company’s downtown campus supports an “additional 300,000 indirect jobs across the region”.

“We know we have an important role to play in the recovery of Seattle’s downtown,” he said. “We’ve always been committed to the economic vibrancy of the city and the entire Puget Sound region. That’s why we’ve invested in urban, downtown campuses that create new opportunities for both our employees and the local community.”

The company has fervent critics here, too. They have blamed it for pushing up housing and business rents. A 2017 report by real estate company Zillow estimated that since Amazon moved its headquarters to the South Lake Union area in 2010, the associated boom saw the cost of renting a 650-square foot one-bedroom apartment increase by $44 a month.

Others have argued that no single company can reverse the fortunes of a town. “Downtown runs on people. Bringing more people back downtown is a multifaceted endeavor and no single action will solve it,” said Markham McIntyre, director of the Seattle office of economic development.

There are also demands that the development Harrell envisions benefits everyone. Here, as in many American cities, Black-owned businesses suffered the most during the pandemic, the result, according to experts, of historical structures that has made it more difficult to access credit and capital, among other challenges.

Some local businesses in recent years made a point to advertise themselves as “Black-owned” in an attempt to encourage loyalty or earn new customers. A study by the University of Washington found any boost was short lived. “In the long run, especially the last months of 2020, the Black-owned businesses declined faster than those restaurants that didn’t reveal their ownership,” said Bo Zhao, associate professor of geography at the University of Washington, who carried out the study using data gathered by companies such as Yelp.

The wealth gap between Black and white families in the city is one of the biggest in the country, said Ernest Kelly, the founder of Seattle Black Businesses, a nonprofit that helps people network.

Data from King county, where Seattle is located, shows the median net worth of a Black family was $23,000 in 2019, or 5% of that of white households at $456,000. Nationally, in 2019, the median white family had a net worth of $188,200, almost eight times that of the median Black family at $24,100.

Black and Latino people make up 15 % of Seattle’s population, yet they run fewer than 5% of businesses, Kelly said. “All we want to be able to do as Black businesses is compete.”

Kelly said the city has made some strides. He welcomed the Seattle Restored project, supported in part by the city, which has helped put Black and minority business in previously vacant buildings to give them a presence in the downtown.

Groups such as the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, which has more than 2,200 members, including Amazon, are hopeful about the benefits of the return to work. CEO Rachel Smith said the downtown generated half of the city’s tax revenues and was crucial to the funding of all services.

“We applaud the private sector for playing its part in supporting downtown’s recovery – and encourage more of it,” she said.

Black-owned businesses in Seattle suffered the most during the pandemic. 

Photograph: Sue Ogrocki/AP

In and around the Amazon hub, things have certainly become busier. On a recent morning, Capelli’s barber shop located next to Amazon appeared to be packed.

“It was slow [during the pandemic] but since then it’s been busy,” says stylist Nick Anselmo. Why does he think that is? “We’re busy, because [getting your haircut is] a necessity”.

Dylan Simpson, a 23-year-old bike courier who also delivers for restaurants, says there’s been a lot more buzz since workers came back.

Sashe Vanchovski, general manager at the Potbelly Sandwich Shop, next to the Amazon offices, said many of the Amazon employees he serves would “rather work from home”. But he’s been pleased by the return to work, as it led to a boost in sales. He does not know precisely how much, but he knows sales are up: “The impact is positive.”

What remains unclear, is though the city will bag the extra sales tax from workers now having to buy their lunches or coffees three days a week, how much benefit will ripple beyond the few city blocks surrounding Amazon’s headquarters.

Harrell’s office said the mayor was not available for an interview. A city spokesperson said there is no precise estimate as to how much extra revenue may be generated. The spokesperson also said Amazon had not received a change to its tax status as part of the return to work, as some had speculated it might.

Mayet Dalila helps young entrepreneurs. She and her son, Olu Dixon, head It’s Never 2 Early 2 Create & Innovate, a project showing off products and services offered by Black residents ranging from the ages of 4 to 24.

Their project is located in a previously empty building in the city’s Belltown neighborhood, a space it found through the Seattle Restored project.

“Being Black and being in business is an uphill battle,” Dalila said.

The building next door has been taken over by Erica Vasquez Jun and Jessica Ghyvoronsky. Their project, River, has hosted art shows and performances.

They are located just a few blocks from Amazon’s main Seattle campus. So far they’ve not seen a “lot of foot traffic” said Vasquez Jun, but they’d love it if some Amazon workers used it to host an event.

She added: “We want to see downtown Seattle come back to life. So I think having people come back downtown is a good thing.”

Killers of the Flower Moon review – Scorsese’s magnificent period epic is an instant American classic

Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro star in a sinuous, pitch-black tragedy about how the west was really won

Xan Brooks
THE OBSERVER

Sun 21 May 2023 06.00 BST

Fate has smiled on the Osage Indian nation, out in Oklahoma. The reservation sits on an oasis of black gold; the First Nation people have become oil multimillionaires. They bump along the dirt roads in chauffeur-driven Buicks, play golf on the grassland and take private planes for a spin.

But this newfound fortune brings danger; they want to watch out they’re not killed. The history of the west, after all, is one of exploitation and slaughter.

The 1920s Osage murders provided the spark for David Grann’s 2017 nonfiction bestseller, which lifted the lid on hundreds of unexplained deaths. Now Grann’s book forms the basis for Martin Scorsese’s magnificent period epic, a saga of industrialised gangsterism in America’s wide open spaces, forcefully played by Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone.

This is Scorsese’s first picture at the Cannes film festival since 1985’s After Hours. It’s also the richest, strongest movie he’s made in nearly 30 years.

Back from the war, Ernest Burkhart (DiCaprio) needs money, a fresh start and perhaps a young wife. His uncle, William Hale (De Niro), furnishes him with all three. Hale is a cattle baron and therefore already rich.

But one fortune’s not enough – perhaps it never quite is – and so he steers Ernest towards Mollie (Lily Gladstone), who holds the “headrights” to the oil deposits on her land. If Ernest marries Mollie, then he and Hale promptly gain control of the estate. What Mollie gets from the arrangement is more open to question.

“Coyote wants money,” smiles Mollie, rumbling Ernest’s game right away. But Scorsese effectively shows that her position is tenuous and how, despite their riches, the Osage know that they need to keep their white patrons on side. Also, Mollie is diabetic and needs regular doses of insulin. Osage women, Hale explains kindly, never seem to live to a ripe old age.

De Niro’s on powerhouse form as big Uncle Bill Hale, a man who combines the folksy authority of Lyndon Johnson with the steely twinkle of Bill Cosby. It’s a performance so potent that it might have unbalanced a lesser movie.

Scorsese, though, simply makes it part of the mix, another instrument in a mighty orchestra, complemented by DiCaprio, Gladstone and Jesse Plemons as a foursquare federal investigator. Killers of the Flower Moon is monumentally long (206 minutes) and moves at an unhurried pace, but it knows where it’s going and barely a second is wasted. It’s sinuous and old-school, an instant American classic; almost Steinbeckian in its attention to detail and its banked, righteous rage.

No man, obviously, regards himself as a monster. Even those who play God claim to do it out of love. And so it is with Bill Hale, who purports to care deeply for the Osage, even as they struggle with alcoholism and depression and the theft of their tribal lands; even as the bodies appear to be piling up by the day.

“I love them, but in the turning of the earth, they’re gone,” he sighs, at the point in the film when the storm clouds start massing. Their time is over, he believes, while his is just beginning.

The realisation that the fossil fuel underfoot is made of so much rotting matter only adds to the sense that Scorsese is weaving an alternative American creation myth here.

Killers of the Flower Moon plays out as a muscular, pitch-black tragedy about how the west was really won, recasting Eden as a barren grassland where the only fruit is crude oil and the blood on the ground plants the seeds for the future.

The Australian drag performers and ‘rainbow angels’ fighting back against far-right vitriol

Drag performer Reuben Kaye can cover the scars of a gay bashing from his youth when he applies his makeup, but the abuse he and his queer peers cop on both the streets and social media is getting worse. Photograph: Nick Mick Pics

Cait Kelly

Sun 21 May 2023

THE GUARDIAN AUSTRALIA

In 2011, Reuben Kaye sat backstage in a small theatre in the English city of Oxford, holding a tube of lipstick in his hand.

The foundation had been hard to apply over a scar near one of his eyes and the lipstick was a little heavy around the edges. But as he looked back at himself he had one thought: you look good.

When he walked through the semidarkness on to the stage that night, his cabaret show took on something more – from there, it blurred the lines with drag.


Victorian councils to hold emergency meeting on far-right targeting of drag queen storytime events

“Something just fell into place the minute I stepped on stage in heels and makeup,” Kaye says. “Through it, I found out so much about who I am, both my virtues and my foibles. In many ways, I don’t think I’d be standing here if I didn’t have this part of me.”

Kaye knows what it’s like to be on the receiving end of hate – the scar on his face came from getting gay-bashed as a teenager. But recently, he’s been at the centre of a storm.

It started with a joke – over in seconds, beamed live across the country. Kaye was on The Project in February and made a quip, filled with sexual innuendo, about Jesus getting nailed to the cross.

The audience laughed; most of the hosts roared.

But the backlash was relentless.

‘Something just fell into place the minute I stepped on stage in heels and makeup,’ Reuben Kaye says. Photograph: Credit Kyahm Ross

Kaye had to wipe his personal information from the internet, including hiding his address on the electoral roll. His parents have been told not to answer any mail that comes for him. Protesters have appeared at his shows, and one gig has been postponed for three months in the hope the security threat dies down.

“It really just exploded,” Kaye says. “My phone has become an active war zone.”

Hostility isn’t new for the Melbourne-based performer, but it has increased since his appearance on The Project.
There were talks about metal detectors at gigs – about treating an arts venue as we would an American high schoolReuben Kaye

Over the past year, drag artists and other queer performers have increasingly become political targets, including from far-right groups.

In Victoria, threats have led to the cancellation of at least 11 queer events in the past six months, a dramatic shift in a country with a long history of drag in the cultural mainstream. Guardian Australia spoke to three performers this week about what it has been like to find themselves at the centre of a political storm.

Kaye still receives a barrage of abuse online and police are actively monitoring the comments on his YouTube page.

“It’s all very triggering language,” Kaye says. “It’s all the language from high school. It’s ‘Go kill yourself’. It’s ‘You’re a fucking faggot freak’ … it’s a lot.

“There were talks about metal detectors at gigs – about treating an arts venue as we would an American high school.”

Melbourne entertainer Dean Arcuri helped launch the Rainbow Community Angels, who help defend events targeted by far-right groups.

 Photograph: Christopher Hopkins/The Guardian

Kaye says he can feel more animosity in the general community and says he is getting yelled at more when he’s out dressed in drag.

But he won’t stop – it’s not just his career, it’s about his heritage. His paternal grandfather was involved in Yiddish theatre in Poland before the family fled Europe because of the war. His father was a painter, his mother worked in film.

Australia has a long history of celebrating queer culture – in the 1960s straight and queer audiences travelled from around the country to see queer cabaret troupe Les Girls.

It launched the career of Carlotta, AKA Carol Byron, who made history in 1973 by becoming the first out trans person to play a trans character on television.

“The things that Australia is most known for are some of the campiest in the world,” says Kaye. “You’re talking the Sydney Opera House, you’re talking Priscilla Queen of the Desert, you’re talking to Barry Humphries. Even AC/DC has a song called Big Balls. And I’m sorry, but Jimmy Barnes?”

The humour is what makes Australia’s drag performers unique and it helps bridge the divide between queer art forms and mainstream straight culture.




Australia has some of the best performers – straight and gay in the world, says Kaye, “So why wouldn’t you want to celebrate that?”

Vomit emojis and vile vitriol – it just ‘weighs you down’

Dean Arcuri spent the first half of his career having doors shut in his face.

“I look too Italian to work in Australia on TV, but then when I went to Europe, I sounded too Australian,” Arcuri says. “Every time, it was like ‘You’re really great, but you’re just not what we want.’”

Through persistence, Arcuri carved out a career in Melbourne as a cabaret singer. Although he loved the dress-up as much as the stage lights, he always shied away from drag.

He looked at other performers – often whiter, thinner, gay men whose exaggerated femininity came close to feeling real – and ruled the whole thing out. Until a conversation with a friend changed the way he saw drag – and he realised he didn’t have to lose his sideburns.

“I just kind of went, OK I’m going to try it. And I spent a good eight months coming up with the character of ‘Frock [Hudson]’ … at least six of that was coming up with the name.

“I got to have fun with it and I absolutely loved it.”

Last Wednesday morning, Arcuri’s phone wouldn’t stop buzzing. The messages – “Stay away from our kids”; “You filthy pedo” – were coming in thick and fast: in just an hour, he received 24 messages like this.

“I’ll be honest, the past 12 hours have been exhausting,” Arcuri says. “It is constant messages on social media, commenting, or just putting vomit emojis on things, sending messages to me, calling me really gross stuff. It just weighs you down.”

Dean Arcuri prepares for a Storytime session as Frock Hudson. 

Photograph: Christopher Hopkins/The Guardian

Arcuri had just helped launch the Rainbow Community Angels, a new group that provide volunteers, dressed as angels with large wings, to defend events targeted by far-right groups.

On Wednesday, when most local councils were celebrating International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (Idahobit), the Angels were outside Melbourne’s Eltham library making sure Arcuri’s drag storytime could still take place.

A group of 40 anti-LGBTQ+ protesters stood near Eltham library with banners saying things such as, “Kids should be protected not sex-ploited”.

Arcuri says he has built a thick enough skin to handle the hostility, but experiences a level of anxiety around performing now. He will often wait until he is inside a venue before getting changed.

“Every now and then, have people sent messages saying ‘I don’t think this is OK’? Absolutely,” he says. “But what we’re seeing now is something completely different.”

Belial B’Zarr: ‘[Drag] became like a very expressive art form for me, whilst at the same time bringing me closer to community.’ 

Photograph: Dylan Mclardy
‘It’s terrifying that there’s been such a rise in hate’

Belial B’Zarr was performing at a different youth event in Moonee Ponds in Melbourne in September when they heard their name shouted across the park.

It was Thomas Sewell, leader of the National Socialist Network, who had bought a crew of neo-Nazis to protest. One banner carried the words “Belial B’Zarr, demon flesh, drag pedos groom kids”.

“I couldn’t believe it,” says B’Zarr, who uses they/them pronouns. “Honestly, of all those bizarre things I’ve ever seen, a bunch of men in a park holding banners complaining about someone spinning around some little rainbow flags.”

B’Zarr finished their performance, while the protesters stood to the side and shouted. Since then, two events they have had scheduled have been cancelled because of security concerns.


Why were neo-Nazis at an anti-trans rally in Melbourne?

B’Zarr knows far-right agitators watch what they do – and where they are performing. This makes them cautious – they open packages with their face turned away and never reveal their real name or how they look out of drag on their social media channels. They won’t even say their age – but their voice gives away the fact they are young.

They’ve always been an artist – they learn to sew before they even started school. They studied classical music and use the same laser focus needed to master the piano to create drag performances.

“There’s wig styling, makeup artistry, costume design, choreography, music, circus arts. There are so many things that you can bring to the art form,” B’Zarr said.

“It became like a very expressive art form for me, whilst at the same time bringing me closer to community.”

Felicity Marlowe, manager of Rainbow Families Victoria and co-founder of Rainbow Community Angels, says the only way to win is through visibility. She promised the angels would turn up at more events when they are needed.

“It’s terrifying that there’s been such a rise in hate,” Marlowe says. “And we really don’t want that message to continue. This is a community saying, once again, we know how to look after each other, we are here.

“We’ll be there to say that we value the art, we value the people, and we want people to live their authentic lives.”

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Major Tory donor investigated over fraud and money laundering allegations

Indian rice tycoon Karan Chanana, who gave the Conservatives more than £220,000, is under scrutiny by India’s finance ministry

Conservative donor Karan Chanana, an Indian rice magnate, is being investigated by his country’s finance ministry over alleged fraud and money laundering. 

Photograph: Stuart C Wilson/Getty Image

Jon Ungoed-Thomas and Solomon Hughes

THE OBSERVER

Sat 20 May 2023 

A leading Tory donor who has given more than £220,000 to the party is being investigated over allegations of fraud and money laundering.

Karan Chanana, head of the global rice brand Amira, is being investigated in India over claims that tens of millions of pounds of bank loans were unlawfully diverted into shell entities. Chanana has not responded to the claims.

The allegations come as the UK government faces mounting pressure to tighten up rules on foreign donations and improve diligence checks. The Conservatives face calls this weekend to freeze the money donated by Chanana, pending an inquiry.

The enforcement directorate in India, which is part of the country’s finance ministry, said it conducted search operations on 2 May at 21 locations in India connected to Chanana, the Indian company Amira Pure Foods and other parties.

Nearly £100,000 in Indian currency was seized in the searches, which were conducted under India’s Prevention of Money Laundering Act, said the directorate. No charges have been filed to date.

In a statement, the enforcement directorate said: “Investigations revealed that the accused entities in connivance with each other as well as other related/unrelated entities have illegally diverted loan funds sanctioned by the consortium of banks by way of transferring loan funds into the accounts of various shell entities under the guise of genuine business transactions.

“It was also known that Karan A Chanana had donated to a political party of [the] United Kingdom since 2019 … while the accused entity had itself defaulted on repayment loans.”

Chanana, 50, has been credited with transforming a family business into a global conglomerate.

His company Amira Nature Foods was listed on the New York stock exchange in October 2012, specialising in Indian basmati rice grown in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Chanana, its chairman and chief executive, operated the business from its headquarters in the 35-storey Gold Tower in Dubai, while its official company registration was in the British Virgin Islands.

Its subsidiaries included Amira Pure Foods in India, now under investigation, and Amira G Foods in the UK, according to corporate filings.

Amira G Foods, controlled by Chanana, donated £222,104 to the Conservative party between September 2019 and December 2021.The latest accounts for the UK company show net liabilities of £5.96m, with its parent company in the British Virgin Islands providing financial support.

Amira Nature Foods was delisted from the New York stock exchange in August 2020 after it missed deadlines for filing financial information.

A consortium of banks, headed by India’s Canara Bank, filed an information report with India’s Central Bureau of Investigation in November 2020 alleging bank fraud.

It accused New Delhi-based Amira Pure Foods, Chanana and his fellow directors of “wrongfully and dishonestly” transferring loans into “paper companies” between 2009 and 2018, causing wrongful bank losses of more than £116m. Amira Pure Foods in India is now under liquidation.

The enforcement directorate said it initiated its investigation based on the information report filed by the banks. It says further inquiries are continuing, and did not respond to a request for comment last week.

Margaret Hodge, the Labour MP and chair of the all-party group on anti-corruption and responsible tax, said the Conservative party should now establish the source of the funds donated by Amira and freeze the money until the inquiries are completed.

She said new reforms were required for election finance to ensure more effective checks on political donors. Hodge added: “The Tories have been too dependent on major donors and have not been doing proper checks. They should now be forced to do so by new legislation.”

The BBC last week reported that, along with the Evening Standard, it had won a legal battle to name a Conservative donor whose foreign companies were named in connection with a global money-laundering case. The donor, Javad Marandi, has denied any wrongdoing and is not subject to criminal sanction.

Marandi’s legal representatives said last week that he had not been investigated or questioned by the authorities. His lawyers previously said that funds transferred to his companies “were lawfully earned, and lawfully transferred, and there is no question of money laundering”.

The case prompted an urgent parliamentary question by the Scottish National party MP Alison Thewliss on the implications of the case. Chris Philp, the minister for crime, policing and fire, responded that the government could not comment on investigations by law enforcement.

The Electoral Commission said it had recommended the government consider how to improve controls to prevent foreign money being used in UK politics and to enhance checks. A spokesperson said: “Companies don’t need to show that they have made enough money in the UK to give to [parties]. We have been recommending that this situation needs to be reviewed.”

“We have also recommended that the UK government should introduce a duty on parties for enhanced due diligence and risk-assessment of donations, adapted from money-laundering regulations.”

A Tory party spokesperson said: “The Conservative party only accepts donations from permissible sources, namely individuals registered on the UK’s electoral roll or UK-registered companies.

“Donations are properly and transparently declared to the Electoral Commission, openly published by them and comply fully with the law.”

Chanana and Amira Nature Foods did not respond to a request for comment.

Nobel winners demand release of Belarusian peace laureate Ales Bialiatski

Open letter condemning the detention of the human rights activist, who won the 2022 prize, signed by more than 100 laureates including Kazuo Ishiguro and JM Coetzee

Sarah Shaffi

THE GUARDIAN

Sun 21 May 2023 

More than 100 Nobel laureates, including Kazuo Ishiguro, Olga Tokarczuk and JM Coetzee, have called for the release of Nobel peace prize winner Ales Bialiatski and said they “stand with the fearless people of Belarus who continue to fight for their human rights”.

Bialiatski founded an organisation called Viasna (Spring) to provide support for demonstrators who were jailed after protesting against dictatorial powers granted to Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko following a constitutional amendment in 1996.

After its founding, Viasna evolved into a human rights organisation that documents the authorities’ abuses against and torture of political prisoners.

Bialiatski’s work has seen him targeted by the authorities: he was jailed in 2011 for alleged tax evasion by the government, and released in 2014. But in 2021, the year after an election led to protests against Lukashenko’s dictatorship, Bialiatski was again jailed, this time without trial or conviction.


Belarus jails Nobel peace prize-winning dissident Ales Bialiatski

The Nobel peace prize was conferred on him in 2022, during his detention. Since then, he has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Now, 103 Nobel Laureates have signed an open letter from Pen International expressing solidarity with Bialiatski and condemning the actions of the Belarusian president.

The letter, also signed by authors including Svetlana Alexievich, Mario Vargas Llosa and Annie Ernaux, says that Bialiatski “has devoted his life to the promotion of democracy and human rights in Belarus.

“He has dared to hold President Lukashenko accountable for his brutal, relentless and systematic crackdown on independent voices,” continued the letter. “For this, he is paying the heaviest price: 10 years in prison on spurious grounds.

“Bialiatski is a symbol of hope and an inspiration to human rights defenders around the world, who should be celebrated as such.”

The signatories say they stand with Bialiatski and the fellow members of Viasna – Marfa Rabkova, Valiantsin Stefanovich, Uladzimir Labkovich, Leanid Sudalenka, Andrei Chapiuk – who have also been imprisoned.

“We stand with the multitude of writers, journalists, cultural workers, human rights defenders and citizens of Belarus who are serving lengthy prison terms merely for peacefully expressing their views and speaking truth to power,” the letter said. “We stand with the fearless people of Belarus who continue to fight for their human rights.”

Bialiatski won the Nobel peace prize jointly with the Russian human rights organisation Memorial and the Ukrainian Centre for Civil Liberties. The citation for the prize said they demonstrated “the significance of civil society for peace and democracy”.

Trudeau’s wide-stance pose with Korean politician splits critics



Korean media praises prime minister’s gesture, known as ‘manner legs’, while some Canadians say it is embarrassing country

Leyland Cecco in Toronto

THE GUARDIAN

Fri 19 May 2023

Justin Trudeau’s hair has made international headlines, as have his fumbling handshakes and propensity to appear shirtless when cameras are near. Now, the Canadian prime minister’s well-mannered legs are getting their moment in the spotlight

Ahead of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Trudeau and a delegation of Canadian ministers were in South Korea to celebrate the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, as well as an attempt to salvage a multibillion-dollar battery plant deal.

Before giving a speech to the national assembly, Trudeau posed for photographs with Korean politicians, including with the national assembly speaker, Kim Jin-pyo.

Amid the clatter of camera shutters, Kim raised on his tiptoes, poking fun at the 20cm (8in) height gap between the two leaders.

Justin Trudeau’s greetings: from 'manner legs' to the three-way handshake – video

Trudeau bent momentarily down to Kim’s level, prompting laughter from the Korean delegation. He then spread his legs to put himself at a similar altitude to Kim, a move known in South Korea as “manner legs”, meant to level the height between two people.

Korean media largely praised the gesture, with the outlet Chosun calling it a “heartwarming scene” and YTN suggesting it showed a “caring” mindset.

The Canadian conservative outlet True North, however, wrote the meeting had “some Canadians accusing Trudeau of embarrassing Canada while abroad once again”.

It was not the first time the prime minister’s greetings with political leaders have received attention.

In February, a handshake with the Alberta premier, Danielle Smith, a fierce critic of the prime minister, quickly devolved into an awkward fumble.


Canada’s Justin Trudeau greets political opponent with awkward handshake

Trudeau was also the first to effectively dodge former president Donald Trump’s forceful handshake strategy that left world leaders and political rivals looking bewildered. In their first meeting in 2017, Trudeau put a hand on Trump’s shoulder to brace himself.

And in 2016, Trudeau attempted to shake hands with former presidents Barack Obama and Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico, awkwardly crossing his arms over and grabbing Peña Nieto’s wrong hand.

In his visit to Seoul, Trudeau also met with President Yoon Suk Yeol, pitching greater collaboration between the two nations, but also drawing distinctions over how the countries pursue gender equality and child care policies.

As part of the state visit, Trudeau visited the grave of Frank Schofield, a Canadian missionary who supported Korean independence from the Japanese empire and is the the first foreigner buried in the Seoul National Cemetery.

‘It was utterly surreal’: police accused of farcical error after 14 arrested at seminar on day of coronation


Primary teacher and ex-civil servant were among those attending class. Here they recount what happened

Daniel Boffey Chief reporter

THE GUARDIAN

Sun 21 May 2023

“I felt that they knew by the time they had taken us to the station in the van that they had the wrong people,” said Lauren, 26, a medical writer in the pharmaceutical industry.

The post-coronation wash-up over the last fortnight has been marked by an array of surreal stories of bungled arrests, from the republican activists swept up by police for possession of luggage straps to the pro-monarchy Australian architect who had been simply seeking to enjoy a pleasant day out at Westminster Abbey.

It has been notable that in each of those cases, after intense media attention, the Metropolitan police has since admitted some regret and announced that no further action would be taken.


‘It massively backfired’: Republicanism in spotlight after arrests

On the subject of a third raid that morning in Haggerston, east London, about five miles away from the coronation at Westminster Abbey, where shortly before 10.30am 14 people were arrested “on suspicion of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance”, there has been no such candour from Scotland Yard.

Today, in a frank and occasionally humorous account of the day, despite the clear shock those involved continue to feel, Lauren and those detained alongside her – including a primary school teacher, an owner of an animal rescue centre and a former senior civil servant – ask that Scotland Yard breaks its silence about what they say was manifestly a farcical case of mistaken identity.

The group, almost entirely female or non-binary, aged between their mid-20s and late 60s and largely new to activism, let alone its more extreme manifestations, were arrested on suspicion of being a Just Stop Oil cell intent on disrupting the crowning of Charles III.

In reality, they had gathered in a small nondescript room in a rented work space in east London for a seven-hour seminar about the theory, history and practice of non-violent protest after expressing an interest in the social activist group Animal Rising, largely via its website.

“I was there to actually avoid the coronation,” said Tony Jenkins, 58, the only male attender, who runs South Norwood Animal Rescue and Liberty. His last involvement with the police was when working alongside officers in Operation Takahe as they sought to track down the so-called Croydon cat killer.

“It was utterly surreal,” said Caitlin, 29, from Finsbury Park, north London, who until a few weeks before her arrest – her first – had been a civil servant with high-level of security clearance. “I had almost brought my husband and dog along, and I am glad I didn’t because I don’t know what I would have done with the dog.”

Louisa Hillwood, 29, a primary school teacher in Hackney, was due to lead the “non-violent protest” training course that day from 10.30am to 5pm. She had attended a couple of the sessions herself and was comparatively experienced. There was coffee and tea on hand for people as they drifted into the ground-floor room. A whiteboard had “non-violent training” written across it.

The morning would be given over to introductions. Each of the group, sat in chairs in a circle, would be asked to speak of their hopes and fears about protesting and in relation to the day of quite intense and – dare it be said – quite dry learning ahead of them.

A discussion about the history of non-violent protest, taking in the civil rights movement, and then some pointers on their rights, would follow. The highlight of the day, for those looking for some action, would be at the end when the attenders would be invited to take part in some role play about how to react if someone is shouting abuse at you.

“It would be things like active listening, like trying to empathise with the people, but also not tolerating violence from others and ensuring that the situation doesn’t escalate,” said Hillwood.

“None of us had met before, I still didn’t even know most of their names and then about 10.25, we hear ‘police, police, we are coming in’,” recalled Hillwood, who had been arrested once before at a “rescue” of dogs last year from a breeding centre used by the medical researchers.

About 25 officers swarmed around the seated group, with all the drama of a terrorist swoop.

“They were all talking at once, saying you are under arrest, so I couldn’t hear why,” Hillwood said. “I said: ‘What are you talking about?’ Because they were saying that we were Just Stop Oil and that we were going to disrupt the coronation. And I was just like: ‘Absolutely not. I mean, we’re miles away. And we’re going to be here all day. We’ve got no intention of leaving.’” By this time, the king’s procession was already arriving at Westminster Abbey.

Jenkins was told not to sip his coffee. “The officer said: ‘You can’t do that, it could be poisoned or something.’ And then we were searched.” Only two of the 14 did not get handcuffed. There was one female officer. It took a while for her to make her way round the group. “They found my old Cabinet Office business card in my wallet, and were, ‘Ehm, OK’,” said Caitlin.

They were put in minivans outside the building, with eight of the group taken to Brixton police station in south London and six to Stoke Newington in north London. Hillwood was sat in the vehicle for hour and a half before disembarking in Brixton. There was a further 90-minute wait outside the station before being checked in at the custody desk.

It was 4pm by the time Hillwood was led to her cell. She asked for her solicitor and was served a vegan “all day breakfast”.“It was literally beans,” Hillwood said. A solicitor advised her to offer no comment to the officers’ questions.

But when it came to his turn, Jenkins felt no such compunction. “I said my intention was to sit in an all day training course learn about non-violent protests, meet some new people and avoid the coronation.”

The group were let out late in the evening on bail pending further investigation. Those arrested have since tried to piece together what may have happened. They learned that Just Stop Oil had previously used the building for meetings, along with many other organisations.

The police had mentioned some placards lying around in part of the building, and some paint unconnected to the training. The truth, said Caitlin, was that it was a horrible bungle. Animal Rising is planning a civil case for wrongful arrest and imprisonment. “I want the police to drop it,” said Caitlin. “I want my phone and my watch back and I want this wiped from the police database.”

The Metropolitan police has declined to comment.