Paris to ban single-use plastic at 2024 Olympic Games

Reuters

May 26, 2023

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said on Friday the city planned to ban single-use plastic when it holds the 2024 Olympic Games as part of efforts to tackle a global plastic pollution crisis.

"We have decided to make the Olympic Games the first major major event without single-use plastic," Hidalgo told a press conference at a session of the International Forum of Mayors against Plastic Pollution.

Visitors to temporary Olympics competition sites in the French capital will be admitted only without plastic bottles.

Coca-Cola KO.N, the American beverage giant and designated sponsor of the Paris Olympics, will distribute its products in re-usable glass bottles and more than 200 soda fountains, which will be redeployed after the games.

Re-usable cups will also be used for refreshments during the Olympics marathon.

"Plastic (waste) remains a major global issue: each year, 14,000 mammals and 1.4 million seabirds are killed due to the ingestion of plastic waste," Hidalgo's office said in a statement announcing the Olympics single-use plastic ban

Organisers of the Paris Olympics have said they want to halve the carbon footprint compared to previous Summer Games in Rio in 2016 and London in 2012. The Tokyo Olympics last year took place behind closed doors due to the COVID pandemic.

The U.N. Environment Programme issued a report on May 16 saying countries could reduce plastic pollution by 80% by 2040 using existing technologies and making major policy changes.

UNEP released its analysis of policy options to tackle the crisis two weeks before countries convene in Paris to launch a second round of negotiations to craft a global treaty aimed at eliminating plastic waste.

'We abuse plastic, it's so cheap': UN Environment chief

by Benjamin LEGENDRE, Marlowe HOOD

"We can't recycle our way" out of the plastics crisis, says UNEP chief Inger Andersen.

Humanity uses and abuses hundreds of millions of tonnes of plastic a year because "it's so cheap", despite the huge cost of the pollution it creates, the head of the UN Environment Programme told AFP.

Inger Andersen, an economist by training, told AFP she that a binding, "ambitious" global treaty would help fix the problem, ahead of the second round of UN-led negotiations that diplomats from 175 nations aim to conclude next year.

The interview has been edited for concision and clarity.

Q: What are the main obstacles to an ambitious treaty?

A: Today, virgin raw polymer is cheaper than recycled polymer. So here's the question: What will allow us move from that linear 'we take it, we make it, we waste it' reality to a circular approach? Right now, it's so inexpensive you can just throw plastic away. But the cost to the environment and human health is huge, and it is not taxed anywhere.

Q: Less than 10% of plastic is recycled today—is that a credible solution?

A: We can't recycle our way out of this mess. But recycling is one of the many keys that we will need to make this work. Today, we simply throw plastic away because it has no value.

When I was a little girl growing up in Denmark with very limited pocket money, my brothers and I collected plastic bottles every Saturday because we could get two krone. It wasn't much, but it made it worthwhile. Now imagine the day that this stuff has value—we would think about and treat that garbage very differently!

A dhow made from recycled plastic off the northern coast of Kenya.

Q: What changes in attitude or mentality do you think we need to see?

A: Awareness is step one. Which is not to say the burden falls entirely on consumers—at the end of the day, it's business and governments that have to take that responsibility.

But every consumer has a choice. Let's say we have a party. Do we need single-use cups and plastic bags? If that bag I use to carry home five tomatoes is a heavy polymer, it will sit in a landfill for hundreds of years, maybe a thousand. Why are supermarket bananas in a plastic bag? Nature already delivered them with their own packaging.

So there are choices we can make. Children get it, and are already holding their parents to account. But the bigger system shifts will come from agreements such as the one we are negotiating.

Message to business: 'lean into it'

Q: Plastic pollution has not been a priority on the international agenda until quite recently. What changed?

A: The popular demand for solutions has become powerful, and it's coming across the board from left to right in most countries. I put it down to activism across a broad spectrum, and I am very, very grateful. I ask all those activists to keep the heat on to ensure that the treaty had ambitious and binding elements.

Plastic waste.

Q: Many green groups are worried that the plastics industry will have an undue influence in the talks.

A: For this second round of negotiations we have 2,800 participants—908 from government and 1,712 from non-government organisations (NGOs). There are ten industry associations represented. They have a role to play.

Take ozone, which is probably our most successful treaty. We couldn't find a solution to the manufactured gases depleting the ozone layer without having industry at the table.

Here's what I say to business: this is coming to a movie theatre near you soon. You might as well lean into it and be part of the change, because we will get a treaty and it will be ambitious. Once we make the enabling legislation, business will follow.

Q: Can the world do without plastics at all?

A: Plastic is everywhere. We're still going to need light switches, steering wheels, metro seats, whatever. But we need to think about the single-use dimension.

We are abusing plastic because it's so cheap. But this has consequences in the environment, in the oceans, to our health.

© 2023 AFP

Far-reaching UN treaty a must to cut global plastic use: experts

Vietnam battles plastic blight in idyllic Ha Long Bay

by Alice PHILIPSON

Since the beginning of March 2023, 10,000 cubic metres of rubbish -- enough to fill four Olympic swimming pools -- have been collected from Ha Long Bay.

Squinting in the bright light of a hot summer morning, Vu Thi Thinh perches on the edge of her small wooden boat and plucks a polystyrene block from the calm waters of Vietnam's Ha Long Bay.

It's not yet 9 am, but a mound of styrofoam buoys, plastic bottles and beer cans sit behind her.

They are the most visible sign of the human impacts that have degraded the UNESCO World Heritage Site, famed for its brilliant turquoise waters dotted with towering rainforest-topped limestone islands.

"I feel very tired because I collect trash on the bay all day without much rest," said Thinh, 50, who has been working for close to a decade as a trash picker.

"I have to make five to seven trips on the boat every day to collect it all."

Since the beginning of March, 10,000 cubic metres of rubbish—enough to fill four Olympic swimming pools—have been collected from the water, according to the Ha Long Bay management board.

The trash problem has been particularly acute over the past two months, as a scheme to replace styrofoam buoys at fish farms with more sustainable alternatives backfired and fishermen chucked their redundant polystyrene into the sea.

Authorities ordered 20 barges, eight boats and a team of dozens of people to launch a clean-up, state media said.

Do Tien Thanh, a conservationist at the Ha Long Bay Management Department, said the buoys were a short-term issue but admitted: "Ha Long Bay... is under pressure".

—Human waste—

More than seven million visitors came to visit the spectacular limestone karsts of Ha Long Bay, on Vietnam's northeastern coast, in 2022.

Ha Long Bay's popularity with tourists, and the rapid growth of nearby Ha Long City, have severely damaged its ecosystem.

Authorities hope that number will jump to eight and a half million this year.

But the site's popularity, and the subsequent rapid growth of Ha Long City—which is now home to a cable car, amusement park, luxury hotels and thousands of new homes—have severely damaged its ecosystem.

Conservationists estimate there were originally around 234 types of coral in the bay—now the number is around half.

There have been signs of recovery in the past decade, with coral coverage slowly increasing again and dolphins—pushed out of the bay a decade ago—coming back in small numbers, as a ban on fishing in the core parts of the heritage site expanded their food source.

But the waste, both plastic and human, is still a huge concern.

"There are so many big residential areas near Ha Long Bay," said conservationist Thanh.

"The domestic waste from these areas, if not dealt with properly, greatly impacts the ecological system, which includes the coral reefs.

"Ha Long City can now handle just over 40 percent of its wastewater."

Single-use plastic is now banned on tourist boats, and the Ha Long Bay management board says general plastic use on board is down 90 percent from its peak.

But trash generated onshore still lines parts of the beach, with a team of rubbish collectors not able to block the eyesore from tourists.

Rapid economic growth, urbanisation and changing lifestyles in Vietnam have led to a 'plastic pollution crisis', according to the World Bank.


'Plastic pollution crisis'

Pham Van Tu, a local resident and freelance tour guide, said he had received a lot of complaints from visitors.

"They read in the media that Ha Long Bay is beautiful, but when they saw a lot of floating trash, they didn't want to swim or go canoeing and they hesitated to tell their friends and family to visit," he said.

Rapid economic growth, urbanisation and changing lifestyles in communist Vietnam have led to a "plastic pollution crisis", according to the World Bank.

A report in 2022 estimated 3.1 million tonnes of plastic waste are generated every year, with at least 10 percent leaking into the waterways, making Vietnam one of the top five plastic polluters of the world's oceans.

The volume of leakage could more than double by 2030, the World Bank warns.

Larissa Helfer, 21, who travelled to Vietnam from her home in Germany, said Ha Long Bay was beautiful but the trash problem would be one of her strongest memories of the trip.

"Normally you (might say) 'Look at the view! Look at the fishing villages!" she told AFP.

But here "you have to talk about the trash, (you say) 'oh god... look at the plastic bottles and things in the sea.' And it makes you sad."

Thinh, the trash collector, grew up in Ha Long and remembers a very different bay.

"It didn't look so terrible," she said.

"Of course, a lot of work makes me tired and irritated," she admitted. "But we must do our work."

© 2023 AFP


Explore further  Trash for tickets on Indonesia's 'plastic bus'

Russia passports forced on Ukrainians ‘to erase identity’

EURACTIV.com with AFP
May 25, 2023

A picture taken during a visit to Berdyansk organised by the Russian military shows a resident submitting documents at a center for the preparation of documents for the registration of Russian citizenship and passport application in Berdyansk, Zaporizhia region, Ukraine, 31 August 2022. 

[EPA-EFE/YURI KOCHETKOV]


It’s difficult to say exactly how many passports Russia has issued in occupied Ukraine, but what is clear is that Moscow’s motivation is not only to justify its occupation and tighten control, but also to undermine Ukrainian identity, experts said.

Before fleeing occupied Ukraine, Victoria was getting squeezed to apply for a Russian passport she said she never wanted as “I’m a citizen of Ukraine”.

Soldiers in the street warned her to get one, she could not file key paperwork without it, and she heard stories of door-to-door checks ending in deportation for people lacking Russian papers.

Moscow has been steadily imposing its passports in an effort to justify its occupation and tighten control, but also to undermine Ukrainian identity, experts said.

“I absolutely didn’t want to do it,” 43-year-old Victoria, speaking on condition her full name not be used, told AFP in Ukraine-held Zaporizhzhia.

But she relented when she needed to register a home and car deed — transactions for which Moscow-installed authorities demanded Russian documents.

She began getting the required Russian translations of her Ukrainian marriage and birth certificates, but left the process unfinished when she fled eastern Ukraine in January.

“Even if I got a Russian passport, I would still remain Ukrainian. For me, nothing would change,” she said.

Russia had for years been issuing passports to Ukrainians in the eastern Donbas areas held by pro-Moscow separatists as well as annexed Crimea.

‘Start queueing at night’

But since President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion 15 months ago, the passport drive has gradually become more aggressive.

An array of routine necessities such as receiving government benefits, getting or keeping a job and seeking medical treatment require Russian-issued papers, experts and residents told AFP.

Putin in April even signed a decree that allows Ukrainians in occupied areas to potentially be deported if they do not get a Russian passport by 1 July 2024.

“There are queues at the passport offices,” 40-year-old Alyona, who spoke on condition her full name not be used, told AFP from occupied Ukraine.

“My friends went recently and by 8 am there were already 48 people waiting for the passport office to open. People start queueing up at night.”

Alyona, who lives in the Donetsk region, said she got a passport from pro-Russian separatists in 2020 but it essentially sat unused over the next three years.

“Now a Russian passport is needed everywhere,” the shop worker added.

It’s difficult to say exactly how many passports Russia has issued in occupied Ukraine, and even more difficult to say how many of those went to willing recipients.

Moscow released a figure in late November of 80,000 passports given out just since Putin had claimed to have annexed four Ukrainian territories in September.

The governor of the eastern Lugansk region, Sergei Gaidai, told AFP the passports were used by Moscow to try to support its claim of invading Ukraine to protect Russian speakers.

However, he added the passports were more or less optional in the first months of the occupation, but have since become compulsory.

“A person who received a Russian passport, who was forced to receive it, and a person who received it voluntarily are different situations,” he added.

‘Erase Ukrainian identity’

Humanitarian groups have taken a harm-reduction stance on the issue, saying people need to survive and sometimes Russian passports are part of that.

“We know that the vast majority of these individuals still received them under the influence of threats, under the influence of violence,” said Mykhailo Fomenko, a lawyer with Donbas SOS aid group.

“When it’s all over, these passports will be removed from our lives and forgotten,” he added.

Yet long after the documents are issued, the fingerprints, photos and family information collected from applicants will remain in Russia’s possession, in a boon for its security apparatus.

The information also serves as a ready-made list for drafting men into Russia’s war effort, which experts say has already happened.

Despite Russia blocking access to vital services for those without its passports, there are things that cannot be done with them.

The European Union said it would not recognise Russian passports issued in regions of Ukraine annexed by Moscow.

The move — which also covers two Kremlin-controlled areas of Georgia — means Russian travel documents given to residents of those regions cannot be used to get visas or to enter the Schengen zone.

Their utility in Russia is also in question, said the Lugansk governor Gaidai.

“We have many examples when people who received a passport in occupied Lugansk, then went to Russia and had problems, for example, with trying to get a mortgage,” he noted.

Regardless of practical implications of the passports, their very issuance is seen by some advocates as a fundamental attack.

“They want to erase Ukrainian identity,” said Alena Lunova, advocacy manager at Ukrainian human rights group Zmina.

French police teargas protesters at oil giant's meeting


AFP
Fri, May 26, 2023 

The annual general meeting of TotalEnergies opened on Friday in Paris after police teargassed climate activists, as the oil giant also faces pressure from the French government to speed up the switch to renewable energy.

The demonstration caps a series of tumultuous shareholder meetings at major corporations in Europe as activists step up pressure on companies to reduce their carbon footprints.

"We regret that we had to take exceptional measures both in calling in the police and in strictly controlling access to this assembly," TotalEnergies chief executive Patrick Pouyanne told a few hundred attendees in a concert hall in the French capital.

French police earlier in the morning used tear gas to disperse protesters who had managed to sit on the ground in front of the venue, the Salle Pleyel, but ignored three warnings to move.

A couple of hundred protesters, however, remained on either side of the street blocked off by police outside the venue, as shareholders entered the hall.

The police said four people had been detained.

"All we want is to knock down Total," protesters chanted.

In reference to rising global temperatures, they also bellowed: "One, two and three degrees, we have Total to thank".

Some poured a black liquid over their heads.

The company wanted to avoid the chaos of last year when activists prevented some shareholders from attending the annual meeting.

This year, the firm placed two-metre (6.5-foot) high plexiglas screens to separate off speakers on stage from members of the public at the concert hall.

It also forbade attendees and journalists from using their smartphones inside the venue.

- 'Go faster' -

Climate campaigners are growing impatient with oil majors and other companies over their impact on the planet.

Energy giants posted record profits last year as Russia's war in Ukraine sent oil and gas prices soaring.

During the annual shareholders' meeting of British group Shell on Tuesday, activists sang "Go to hell Shell!"

TotalEnergies plans to allocate a third of its investments in low-carbon sources of energy and reach 100 gigawatts of renewable electricity capacity by 2030.

But France's energy transition minister, Agnes Pannier-Runacher, urged the company to speed things up on Friday.

"Total invests in renewable energies, but the challenge is to go faster, stronger and above all faster," she told FranceInfo radio.

Pouyanne told shareholders that "climate is at the heart of our concerns" and that his group has done more than others to invest in renewables.

But as world oil demand is growing and "if TotalEnergies doesn't respond to this demand, others will do it for us".

- 'The worst' -

Marie Cohuet, spokeswoman for climate campaigners Alternatiba, said TotalEnergies "embodies the worst of what is done in terms of the exploitation of people and the planet", Cohuet said.

One shareholder, who gave his name as Jean-Paul, defended himself as he made his way in.

"We are all concerned by climate issues, but there are also economic aspects, employment," he said.

TotalEnergies' some 1.5 million individual shareholders expected to attend the meeting online or in person are to cast votes twice on climate-related issues during the assembly.

Investors are first to vote on the group's proposed climate strategy.

They will then also be polled on a motion for TotalEnergies to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions in line with the 2015 Paris accord's goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The vote on the motion, which was put forward by 17 investors who together hold almost 1.5 percent of shares, is purely consultative.

TotalEnergies operations include liquefied natural gas and oil projects in the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Papua New Guinea and Uganda, where it has come under fire for a pipeline project activists say threatens a fragile ecosystem and livelihoods.

The French giant has also sparked controversy over posting a record net profit of $20.5 billion for last year, how much taxes it pays in France, and how much it pays Pouyanne.

A 10-percent hike on part of his salary for this year was to be discussed at Friday's meeting.

tll-nal-ys-cho/ah/sjw/lth

                                      

France: Police tear-gas protesters at TotalEnergies meeting

Police in Paris have scuffled with protesters demanding climate action from French oil giant TotalEnergies. The company's board opposes a resolution calling for a commitment to steeper absolute emissions cuts by 2030.

French riot police on Friday used tear gas and pepper spray as they clashed with climate protesters who were trying to block shareholders at oil giant TotalEnergies from going to their annual meeting.

The scuffles came as investors in the company are expected to vote on climate resolutions put forward by activist shareholders calling for faster cuts to the greenhouse gas emissions produced by TotalEnergies' oil and gas activities.

The company's board opposes the resolutions.

Last year, protesters succeeded in preventing some shareholders from attending the meeting.

Police tried to remove the sitting protesters by force

 Stephanie Lecocq/REUTERS

What happened at the protests?

Dozens of protesters tried at dawn to access a part of the street near the Salle Pleyel, the concert hall venue of the meeting, which was blocked off by police trucks.

Police then tear-gassed some demonstrators who managed to stage a sitting protest in front of the concert hall after they ignored three megaphone warnings to disperse.

Protesters chanted, "All we want is to knock down Total" and "One, two and three degrees, we have Total to thank." There was also a banner reading, "The science is clear but Total is ignoring it."

Some poured a black liquid resembling oil over their heads.

Shareholders were escorted through the group of demonstrators into the venue by police, but were required to leave bags at the entrance and give up their smartphones for the duration of the meeting.

Total, you are the eco-terrorists,' this banner reads

Thibault Camus/AP Photo/picture alliance

What's TotalEnergies' response?

The CEO of TotalEnergies defended his company's climate stance at the meeting.

"The climate is at the heart of our concerns," Patrick Pouyanne told attendees, saying his group had gone further than others in investing in renewables.

He also expressed regret at having had to "take exceptional measures both in calling in the police and in strictly controlling access to this assembly."

TotalEnergies has caused controversy not only by its stance on climate issues, but also for posting a record net profit of $20.5 billion (€19 billion) for last year amid fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine and over how much taxes it pays in France.

Pouyanne's high salary has also come under critical scrutiny, with a 10% rise on part of it to be discussed at the meeting.

Growing climate protests

The protests come as climate campaigners step up their actions against fossil-fuel companies that are widely seen as ignoring the danger posed by global warming caused by human activity.

Protesters tried to storm the stage of Shell's shareholder meeting earlier this week and also disrupted BP's AGM last month.

Scientists say greenhouse gas emissions need to be reduced by at least 43% from 2019 levels by 2030 if the Paris Agreement's goal of keeping warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels is to be met.

DW (AFP, Reuters)

Oil majors go slow on green transition despite pressure

Nathalie ALONSO
Fri, May 26, 2023 

Oil firms are making progress on reducing the burning of excess gas at oil and gas fields, but less on shifting to renewables

Most oil majors are stepping up investments in green energy but they are facing a barrage of recriminations and protests from activists for their refusal to completely forsake fossil fuels.

Campaigners again used a series of shareholder meetings in the past month to make their anger known and push energy firms to do more to shift towards solar, wind and other cleaner projects.

In the latest action, hundreds of protesters tried to block the gathering of France's TotalEnergies in Paris on Friday, prompting police to use tear gas to disperse some who sat in front of the venue.

Earlier this week in London, protesters demonstrated outside Shell's annual general meeting. Inside, activists interrupted the opening remarks of CEO Wael Sawan while others tried to take the stage.

Late last month, activists from Fossil Free London disrupted the speeches of BP's chairman and CEO.

Groups of investors are also demanding change -- even the Church of England's pensions board has weighed in, deciding to join others in voting against Shell's "green" transition plan and demanding more ambitions carbon-cutting targets.

Since 2021 the International Energy Agency (IEA) has called for a stop to new oil projects so the world meets the goal of keeping global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

But new oil fields are still opening as energy firms say they must meet the unabated demand for the fossil fuel.

"Climate is at the heart of our concerns," TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne told Friday's shareholder meeting as he spoke behind a plexiglass that was put up for the occasion.

He said his group has done more than others to invest in renewables but that world oil demand is growing and "if TotalEnergies doesn't respond to this demand, others will do it for us".

Shareholders later voted overwhelmingly in favour of the company's climate strategy, tough 30 percent backed a non-binding resolution from activist investors calling for more ambitious emissions targets.

- 'Tiny' investment -

Oil and gas groups -- which posted huge profits last year -- have set objectives to reduce emissions but their investments in renewable energy and carbon capture remain a marginal amount of their overall spending.

According to the IEA, such spending rose from one percent in 2020 to five percent of total expenditures by last year, still only representing a quarter of what energy firms paid out to shareholders.

European firms such as TotalEnergies and Equinor are doing better than their peers, but "their investment in clean energy is tiny compared to their capital expenditure on oil and gas expansion", said David Tong, global industry campaign manager at Oil Change International.

Other than renewables and carbon capture, energy firms also have expertise that could be put to use in the production of hydrogen, biogas, ethanol and low-carbon fuels, said Christophe McGlade, head of the IEA's energy supply unit.

"If they can direct more of their spending towards those technologies, that could really move the needle in terms of getting them to scale up, and getting the deployment levels we need to get on track with net zero," he said.

- Reaching net zero -

The emissions reduction efforts made by energy majors have concerned mostly their own operations, which represent only about 15 percent of their overall carbon footprint.

They have in particular been battling against methane leaks and reduced the burning of unwanted natural gas at oil fields.

Such measures have helped BP reduce its emissions by 41 percent from 2019 to 2022, and it has upped its 2030 target to a 50 percent reduction.

Even US oil majors, which have long resisted recognising the need to reduce emissions, have begun to do so. ExxonMobil plans to cut its proper emissions by a fifth by 2030, from 2016 levels.

But the bulk of the work is elsewhere: reducing the climate impact from its products as they are burned in cars or furnaces -- indirect emissions that account for 85 percent of the sector's overall carbon footprint.

Yet oil and gas firms are not cutting investment in fossil fuel exploration and production. The IEA forecasts that it will rise this year to hit the 2019 pre-pandemic level.

BP announced earlier this year knocked back its emissions reduction plans. Instead of a 35-40 percent drop in indirect emissions linked to its production by 2030, BP now targets a 20-30 percent reduction.

"If companies are banking on continued increases in oil and gas demand, they are implicitly assuming that we will not reach our net zero targets and not limit climate change," McGlade said.

nal/rl-lth/rl

Glue, Soup And Grit: The New Climate Activism

By Clare BYRNE

AFP

May 26, 2023

Climate protesters pour oil-like liquid over themselves outside TotalEnergies' AGM, May 2023

Geoffroy Van der Hasselt

Police in Paris on Friday used teargas against activists who attempted to block the annual shareholders meeting of French oil giant TotalEnergies -- the latest standoff involving climate campaigners.

The clashes came in a week which saw police raid homes in Germany as part of an investigation into a group that has blocked streets and flung mashed potato at the glass covering famous works of art to raise awareness about the need for climate action.


Some activists say shock tactics are necessary to focus attention on the urgency of weaning the world off fossil fuels.

AFP looks at various eye-catching acts of civil resistance used by groups across Europe such as Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil and Last Generation.



A Last Generation activist was left with a block of asphalt stuck to his hand

Tobias SCHWARZ

From London to Paris to Berlin, activists have taken to glueing themselves to streets to disrupt traffic.

Last month, activists in Berlin blocked dozens of streets, including a busy motorway, during rush hour.

Police had to use a drill to dislodge one activist, who was left with a slab of asphalt stuck to his hand.

Some of the protesters were given jail sentences.


Just Stop Oil campaigners said art lovers were more concerned with paintings than the planet  Handout

Nothing grabs attention like soup dripping off a priceless artwork, as two activists from the Just Stop Oil group discovered when they emptied cans of tomato soup over the glass protecting Vincent van Gogh's "Sunflowers" in London's National Gallery in October 2022.

The pair, who complained that art lovers were more concerned with paintings than the planet, were arrested and charged with damaging the frame (the glass-protected painting was untouched).

Their action spawned a slew of imitations. A man in The Hague glued his head to Vermeer's "Girl With a Pearl Earring", activists in Madrid stuck themselves to paintings by Francisco Goya and protesters in Germany flung mash at a Claude Monet.



Last Generation protesters smeared the facade of La Scala with paint, December 2022

Piero CRUCIATTI

Red-carpet events have also repeatedly been targeted by activists, who accuse the rich and powerful of dining out at the planet's expense.

In December, campaigners from Last Generation smeared the facade of the famed La Scala theatre in Milan on the opening night of the new season.

Extinction Rebellion meanwhile attempted to stop private jets taking off during this year's Cannes film festival.


Protestors clash with riot police over a megadam in Fance, March 2023

Thibaud MORITZ

In France, thousands of activists armed with bowling balls and other objects fought pitched battles with the police in March.

They were attempting to block construction of a reservoir for use in irrigation in the southwestern village of Sainte Soline, saying the megadam would distort access to water in times of drought.

The clashes left two demonstrators in a coma.


Activists protest at the Garzweiler lignite open cast mine in Germany, January 2023

INA FASSBENDER

In January, thousands of protesters descended on the German hamlet of Luetzerath in western Germany to try to prevent the deserted village being razed to make way for the expansion of an open-cast coal mine.

Some dug trenches in the ground, while others camped out in tree houses and erected giant tripods to try to keep the police at bay.

Several protesters were hospitalised after the police moved in to clear the site.

It's become so routine it's almost expected -- when the shareholders of oil majors such as TotalEnergies or Britain's Shell; big banks such as BNP Paribas and HSBC; or car giants like Volkswagen meet, climate activists are usually on hand to harangue them and their board over their responsibility in the climate emergency.


Scuffles between police and climate protesters outside TotalEnergies' AGM, May 2023

Geoffroy Van der Hasselt

On Friday, shareholders arriving for TotalEnergies' annual general meeting in Paris were escorted past hundreds of protesters by riot police.

On Tuesday, activists who stormed Shell's annual meeting sang "Go to hell Shell!"

Greta Thunberg's 'school strike for the climate' has spread around the world

Hanna FRANZEN

The torch-bearer for a new generation of campaigners was a solemn 15-year-old with plaits, who in 2018 began skipping school every Friday to protest outside the Swedish parliament over its climate inaction.

Greta Thunberg gained cult status and went on to travel the world (by boat and train), urging world leaders to "listen to the science" on climate change.

Last year she told AFP she wanted to hand over her megaphone to campaigners from communities that are already being severely affected by climate change.

© Agence France-Presse

Yemen street artist chronicles war on battle-scarred walls

Robbie Corey-Boulet and Rania Sanjar
Thu, May 25, 2023, 

Alaa Rubil paints images of death and despair to shine a light on the horrors and victims of war in Yemen

Yemeni artist Alaa Rubil uses the shell-pocked buildings of his hometown as canvas, painting images of death and despair to shine a light on the horrors and victims of war.

Not long after the start of the bloody conflict between Yemen's internationally recognised government and Huthi rebel forces, the southern port city of Aden, where Rubil lives, became the scene of brutal fighting.

For several months in 2015, artillery rained down on Aden, and Huthi rockets and mortars fired into densely populated areas killed dozens of civilians, Human Rights Watch reported at the time.

Rubil, now 30, has been painting murals since we has a teenager, but found his voice in the aftermath of that round of violence.

"I saw that the government was not aware of the people who were displaced," he told AFP.

"I wanted to communicate my message to the world by drawing people who lost their homes and families," he said.

"By using the walls, I could reach the world."

Today, the rubble-strewn streets of Aden double as a semi-permanent exhibition of Rubil's work -- and a testament to what the city's inhabitants have lived through.

- 'Feel the people' -

On the wall of one shop in a particularly hard-hit area, he painted a large outline of a man's face, but obscured the eyes, nose and mouth with a cupped palm holding up three sticks of dynamite.

Across the street, on the interior wall of a bombed-out apartment building, a piece he calls "Silent Suffering" depicts a skeleton playing a violin as peace signs float around its skull.

In another work, a girl in a red dress sits on the ground with her head resting in her left hand, next to a black crow perched on a missile.

Behind her, the girl's deceased relatives, rendered in black and white, peer down from an open window.

The image is based on the true story of a girl who lived in the area and lost her family in the fighting, Rubil said.

"She thinks that war is a game. She thinks that her family is returning," he said. "So she is waiting for them."

Amr Abu Bakr Saeed, 42, who lives nearby, told AFP the paintings were a dark but necessary tribute to the dead.

"When we pass through this place, we feel pain, we feel the people who were here," he said.

"These paintings express the tragedies of the people whose homes were destroyed and who were displaced, and prove that war really took place in Yemen."

- 'No one cares' -

A little more than eight years ago, neighbouring Saudi Arabia mobilised a coalition to topple the Huthis, who had seized Yemen's capital, Sanaa, in 2014.

The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people either through combat or knock-on effects such as hunger and disease. Millions remain displaced, their homes and communities destroyed.

A truce that went into effect in April 2022 officially expired in October, but has still significantly reduced fighting across the country, raising hopes for a durable peace.

Riyadh sent a delegation to Sanaa last month to meet with the Huthis, and the kingdom's ambassador to Yemen, Mohammed al-Jaber, told AFP this month he believed all parties were "serious" about bringing an end to the war.

Walking through the ramshackle streets of Aden, carrying his paint and brushes in a small basket so he could touch up several pieces, Rubil said he, too, was trying to be optimistic.

"I love the idea that this place could turn from a centre of destruction to a centre of peace," he said, adding he hoped art could help the city rebuild.

But he acknowledged that many Aden residents were still waiting to see tangible progress.

"For me, nothing has changed," said 53-year-old Yasmin Anwar Abdel Shakur, passing by on her way home from work in a government health office.

"We are threatened by buildings falling over on us at any time," she told AFP, describing how most buildings that were heavily damaged during the war remain unrepaired.

"Many people have died here, their lives are gone," she said. "No one knows and no one cares."

rcb-rs/ho/ami/leg

Preserving heritage: Ethiopian quest to recreate ancient manuscripts


Aymeric VINCENOT
Thu, 25 May 2023 

The scribes use different pens for each colour used in the text

Armed with a bamboo ink pen and a steady hand, Ethiopian Orthodox priest Zelalem Mola carefully copies text in the ancient Ge'ez language from a religious book onto a goatskin parchment.

This painstaking task is preserving an ancient tradition, all the while bringing him closer to God, says the 42-year-old.

At the Hamere Berhan Institute in Addis Ababa, priests and lay worshippers work by hand to replicate sometimes centuries-old religious manuscripts and sacred artwork.

The parchments, pens and inks are all prepared at the institute, which lies in the Piasa district in the historic heart of the Ethiopian capital.

Yeshiemebet Sisay, 29, who is in charge of communications at Hamere Berhan, says the work began four years ago.

"Ancient parchment manuscripts are disappearing from our culture, which motivated us to start this project," she says.

The precious works are kept mainly in monasteries, where prayers or religious chants are conducted using only parchment rather than paper manuscripts.

"However, this custom is rapidly fading... We thought if we could learn skills from our priests, we could work on it ourselves, so that is how we began," adds Yeshiemebet.

- 'It's hard work' -

In the institute's courtyard, workers stretch the goatskins tightly over metal frames to dry under a weak sun which barely pierces the milky sky.

"After the goatskin is immersed in the water for three to four days, we make holes on the edge of the skin and tie it to the metal so that it can stretch," says Tinsaye Chere Ayele.

"After that, we remove the extra layer of fat on the skin's inside to make it clean."

Alongside two other colleagues, the 20-year-old carries out his task using a makeshift scraper, seemingly oblivious to the stench emanating from the animal hide.

Once clean and dry, the skins are stripped of the goat hair and then cut to the desired size for use as pages of a book or for painting.

Yeshiemebet says most of the manuscripts are commissioned by individuals who then donate them to churches or monasteries.

Some customers order for themselves small collections of prayers or paintings to have "reproductions of ancient Ethiopian works", she adds.

"Small books can take one or two months. If it is a collective work, large books can take one to two years.

"If it's an individual task, it can take even longer," she says, leafing through books clad in red leather, their texts adorned with brightly coloured illuminations and religious images.

Sitting in one of the institute's rooms, with parchment pages placed on his knees, Zelalem patiently copies a book entitled "Zena Selassie" ("History of the Trinity").

"It is going to take a lot of time. It's hard work, starting with the preparation of the parchment and the inks. This one could take up to six months to complete," the priest says.

"We make a stylus from bamboo, sharpening the tip with a razor blade."

The scribes use different pens for each colour used in the text -- black or red -- and either a fine or broad tip, with the inks made from various local plants.

- 'Talking to saints and God' -

Like most other religious works, "Zena Selassie" is written in Ge'ez.

This dead language remains the liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and its alpha syllabic system -- where the characters represent syllables -- is still used to write Ethiopia's national language Amharic as well as Tigrinya, which is spoken in Tigray and neighbouring Eritrea.

"We copy from paper to parchment to preserve (the writings) as the paper book can be easily damaged, while this one will last a long time if we protect it from water and fire," says Zelalem.

Replicating the manuscripts "needs patience and focus. It begins with a prayer in the morning, at lunchtime, and ends with prayer."

"It is difficult for an individual to write and finish a book, just to sit the whole day, but thanks to our devotion, a light shines brightly within us," Zelalem adds.

"It takes so much effort that it makes us worthy in the eyes of God."

This spiritual dimension also guides Lidetu Tasew, who is in charge of education and training at the institute, where he teaches painting and illuminations.

"Spending time here painting saints is like talking to saints and to God," says the 26-year-old, who was brought up in a church.

"We have been taught that wherever we paint saints, there is the spirit of God."

ayv/txw/np/leg

'City of Joy' inspiration still working for India's poor

Laurence THOMANN
Thu, May 25, 2023 

More than 40 years after inspiring a best-selling novel, 86-year-old ascetic Gaston Dayanand is still working for India's "poorest"

Decades after inspiring a best-selling novel that brought readers into slums near Kolkata, 86-year-old ascetic Gaston Dayanand is still working for India's poorest.

His life helping people in the mega-slums of Pilkhana formed the plot of Dominique Lapierre's 1985 book "The City of Joy", which was later turned into a Patrick Swayze movie.

Born in 1937 to a Swiss working-class family in Geneva, Brother Gaston said he remembered deciding at six years of age to dedicate his life "to Christ and the poor".

"I never wanted to be a priest," the brother of the Prado congregation told AFP at the Inter-Religious Center of Development (ICOD), an NGO he co-founded in Gohalopata,a village 75 kilometres (45 miles) southwest of Kolkata.

"The church would never have let me live in a slum with the poor, but my life was about sharing with the poorest."

A trained nurse, Brother Gaston arrived in India in 1972 to work with a French priest in a small self-help centre in Pilkhana.

"It was the biggest slum in India at the time, they said in the world!"

Having arrived on a tuk-tuk, he surprised the local residents by entering on foot.

"I didn't want to enter a place where there are so many poor people, on a rickshaw, like a rich person," he said.

"I went to places where there were no doctors, no non-governmental organisations, no Christians. That is to say, places that were completely abandoned."

- 'Chicago on the Ganges' -

One day in 1981, Brother Gaston said he received a visit from Dominique Lapierre, who was "sent by Mother Teresa".

The well-known French author, who wanted to write a novel "about the poor", convinced the ascetic of his sincerity.

The two men became friends.

Lapierre, who died last December, described Brother Gaston as "one of the 'Lights of the World' whose epic of love and sharing I had the honour of recounting in my book 'The City of Joy'."

Translated throughout the world, Lapierre's novel, published in 1985, sold several million copies.

"He financed all my organisations at a rate of $3 million a year, almost all his royalties, for almost 30 years," Brother Gaston said.

But the film adaptation of the novel, in which Swayze plays a fictional doctor, displeased him: "I frankly hated this film. 'The City of Joy' has become 'Chicago on the Ganges'."

- Surrounded by leprosy -

At the time of Lapierre's visit, Mother Teresa was receiving medicine from all over the world.

She donated large quantities to the self-help centre, which Brother Gaston was able to use.

He trained nurses and established a dispensary.

"I had the medicine, I didn't need anything else," he said.

"We quickly had more than 60,000 patients the first year, 100,000 the second. Three years later, we had a small hospital."

As soon as he arrived in India, he decided to adopt the nationality.

"It took 20 years, of course," he said.

Brother Gaston was born with the surname Grandjean.

In India, he chose the surname "Dayanand", meaning "blessed (ananda) of mercy (daya)".

He worked for a long time with Mother Teresa's brothers caring for people suffering from leprosy in Pilkhana.

"I stayed for 18 years, surrounded by 500 lepers, in a very small room," he said.

Abdul Wohab, a 74-year-old social worker, said: "Gaston is a saint."

- 'A board to sleep on' -

Now white-haired and confined to a wheelchair, Brother Gaston is still trying to help those in need in the northeastern province of West Bengal.

Of the 12 NGOs he founded since moving to India, six are still active, including the ICOD, which has taken in 81 people of all faiths, including orphans and the elderly, as well as those suffering from disabilities and mental health problems.

Brother Gaston said he spends "three-quarters of (his) days meditating" on his bed, facing Christ.

"I had never had anything else but a board to sleep on. Now I live like a bourgeois in a big bed," he said.

"But it's not me who wanted it," he added with a laugh.

"The worst part is that I accept it."

The ICOD's co-founder and director, Mamata Gosh, nicknamed "Gopa", watches over the man who taught her to be a nurse 25 years ago.

"Before him, I didn't know anything," the 43-year-old told AFP.

"He is my spiritual father."

Brother Gaston's day begins at 5:00 am with three hours of prayer, in front of a reproduction of the Shroud of Turin overhanging an Aum, the symbol of Hinduism, in his tiny oratory adjoining his room.

Dressed all in white and barefoot, he sits in his electric wheelchair and visits each of the residents of the thatched hamlet, then returns to his room in the late morning.

On his bedside table sits a Bible, a crucifix, his glasses and an old laptop that he uses to keep in touch with his NGO's donors.

"I will earn my bread until the last day of my life," he said.

lth-mca/pbt/kma/dhw/cwl

Art on war footing displayed at new show in Moscow


Romain COLAS
Fri, May 26, 2023 

The Kremlin is encouraging artwork in support of its offensive in Ukraine

Ukraine, 2023. Russian soldiers pose with their Kalashnikovs faced with a ruined city.

In front of them, a young woman can be seen carrying Russia's flag and a bullet proof vest with the Z sign used by Russian troops in the offensive.

The scene is from a grand painting in a new exhibition in central Moscow called "We are Russians, God is with us" by patriotic artist Vasily Nesterenko.

The style of the paintings harks back to the realist tradition from Tsarist and Soviet times and the images are intended to promote support for Russia's campaign in Ukraine.

"Stand there, near that painting which shows our victory will be final," a moustachioed man told students from a military academy, dressed in black uniforms, visiting on a school trip.

The 56-year-old artist Nesterenko, who has received numerous awards from Russian President Vladimir Putin, is standing nearby posing for photos.

"Being in the military is for life, like being an artist," notes the painter.

The Manege exhibition hall near Moscow's Red Square is hosting the exhibition that includes paintings depicting Russia's military through the centuries.

With the difficulties in its Ukraine campaign mounting, the Kremlin is encouraging artwork that emphasises Russia's fighting spirit and the message that Moscow is fighting a defensive conflict against Kyiv and its allies.

At the same time, artists critical of Russia's actions face repression.

Several officials in leading state cultural institutions who have chosen to remain silent over Ukraine have lost their jobs in recent months.

The state now needs Russian artists to show loyalty, as Nesterenko has done.

- 'Always had war' -

Born in Ukraine in 1967, he first became well-known for his religious paintings.

He decorated part of the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow and, more recently, a church dedicated to the Russian army inaugurated in 2020.

Since 2004, Nesterenko has enjoyed the title of "people's artist" -- a legacy of the Soviet era -- and has several important duties in the official cultural sphere.

"When the cannons start to talk, you cannot keep quiet," Nesterenko told AFP, putting his own political engagement in the context of that of European painters during the 19th century.

For more realism, he has visited Russian forces in Ukraine and Syria.

Some of his works show ruins and civilian victims, while others are more focused on the camaraderie between soldiers.

The painting "Letter to Russia's enemies" shows soldiers in a jolly mood writing a letter -- a work very similar to historic Russian painter Ilya Repin's painting of Cossacks writing to the Ottoman Sultan.

"My historical military paintings are well-meaning, optimistic, they do not show the blackness of the darkness like the works of Goya," Nesterenko said.

"All wars have pushed our homeland to unite, focus and respond.... We have always had war. Whether it was against the Mongols, the Poles, the Swedes, the French and, several times, the Germans."

The show presents Russian history as a necessary succession of glorious military ventures -- in line with Kremlin thinking.

Nesterenko is a defender of classical European painting which he says is under threat -- an argument frequently made by Russian officials, who often talk about the decadence of Western culture.

"I think there will soon be a time when it is only here that we will love your culture, your art and your religion," said Nesterenko, who continues to travel to museums in Europe on a regular basis.

rco/dt/bur/pvh/ach

IT'S FROM THE WALL

Berlin police investigate Roger Waters over Nazi-style uniform at concert

Pink Floyd singer wore costume during performance in which he imagines himself as fictional fascist dictator




Philip Oltermann in Berlin
THE GUARDIAN

Fri 26 May 2023 

Police in Germany have launched a criminal investigation into the Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters over a Nazi-style uniform he wore at a recent concert in Berlin.

“An investigation has been opened over the costume displayed at the concerts on 17 and 18 May,” Berlin police spokesperson Martin Halweg told the Guardian.

Displaying symbols of Nazi rule, including the swastika or SS insignia, is illegal in Germany, with exemptions for educational purposes and in artistic contexts.

The legal concept of “incitement of the people”, which often applied to trials relating to Holocaust denial in Germany, makes it illegal to assault the human dignity of “national, racial, religious groups or a group defined by their ethnic origins”.

“The context of the clothing worn is deemed capable of approving, glorifying or justifying the violent and arbitrary rule of the Nazi regime in a manner that violates the dignity of the victims and thereby disrupts public peace,” Halweg said.

At the concert at Berlin’s Mercedes Benz Arena, Waters appeared on stage as the character Pink from the rock opera The Wall during a performance of the song In the Flesh, wearing a black leather trench coat with a red armband bearing two crossed hammers instead of a swastika.

In the rock opera, the song marks its protagonist’s descent into a drug-induced hallucination, in which he imagines himself as a fictional fascist dictator addressing a neo-Nazi rally.

When Waters and the German band Scorpions performed In the Flesh at a concert in the no-man’s land next to the recently toppled Berlin Wall in 1990, Waters wore a military uniform closer resembling those worn by the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

In the 1982 film version of The Wall, Bob Geldof performed the same song in a Nazi-style uniform, and Waters wore a similar costume as part of his 2010-13 The Wall Live tour, which included nine concerts in Germany.

As part of their investigation, police in Berlin would look at footage of his previous shows in Germany to assess whether the costume had been changed, Halweg said.

Israeli authorities have in recent days criticised Waters less for the costumes than a segment featuring the names of activists killed by authorities. Names on the list included Anne Frank, the Jewish teenager killed in a Nazi concentration camp, as well as that of Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian-American journalist who is believed to have been shot dead by an Israeli sniper in May 2022.

Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, wrote on Twitter that Waters had compared the Holocaust victim Frank to “a journalist shot in an active combat zone”, adding: “Waters seeks to compare Israel to the Nazis.”

Berlin police will continue to gather evidence for approximately three months and then hand over their findings to the state prosecutor, who will assess whether Waters’s act can be considered as incitement to hatred.

Waters is due to play a concert in Frankfurt on Sunday that city magistrates had tried to cancel, accusing him of being “one of the most widely known antisemites in the world”. Waters, who has always denied accusations of antisemitism, took legal action against the decision. Frankfurt’s administrative court last month declared the singer’s right to go ahead with the event, while acknowledging that aspects of his show were “tasteless”. The Guardian has contacted Waters for a response.

German police probe Roger Waters over Nazi-style uniform

DW

May  26,2023

The Pink Floyd co-founder wore a Nazi-style uniform at a concert in Berlin. Several other German cities previously tried to cancel the musician's shows after he was accused of anti-Semitism.

German police have launched an investigation into Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters after he appeared on stage in Berlin last week wearing a Nazi-style uniform and firing an imitation machine gun.

Waters' outfit comprised of a long black coat with a red armband featuring a Swastika-like emblem of two crossed hammers.

"We are investigating on suspicion of incitement to public hatred because the clothing worn on stage could be used to used to glorify or justify Nazi rule, thereby disturbing the public peace," a police spokesperson told the AFP news agency on Friday.

Nazi uniforms, flags and other symbols are banned in Germany, but police said Waters is being investigated under a separate law of "incitement of the people."

Once the investigation is concluded, police will hand the findings to Berlin prosecutors who will decide whether to pursue any charges

Accusations of anti-Semitism

Waters is a well known advocate for Palestinians, but he has also been accused of anti-Semitism, which he denies.

During his German tour, including at the Berlin concert, he flashed the names of several deceased people on-screen.

Among these names were Anne Frank, the Jewish teenager who died in a concentration camp, and Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian-American journalist who was shot dead while reporting on violence in the West Bank, prompting accusations of Holocaust relativization.

"Good morning to every one but Roger Waters who spent the evening in Berlin (Yes Berlin) desecrating the memory of Anne Frank and the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust," Israel's Foreign Ministry tweeted earlier this week.

Waters' shows also often feature giant inflatable pigs emblazoned with aggressive or brooding slogans. Some of these had the Star of David painted on them.

Several German cities previously tried, unsuccessfully, to cancel Waters' concerts after Jewish groups, including the Central Council of Jews, accused the rockstar of anti-Semitism.

However, some fans came to the defense of Waters on social media, arguing that the performance in Berlin and the armband emblem were a recreation of the satirical scene from the 1982 the feature film based on the band's hit album "The Wall," which was a critique of fascism.

zc/nm (AFP, Reuters, AP)

FBI files reveal plot to kill Queen Elizabeth during US trip in 1983

Document says man claimed he would attempt to harm monarch while she was visiting California


PA Media

Fri 26 May 2023 

An FBI file relating to a visit to the US by the late Queen Elizabeth II has revealed a potential plot to assassinate her.

The document, available on the FBI’s online vault, outlines what appears to be intelligence provided to federal agents about a threat to the queen’s life in California 40 years ago.

Queen Elizabeth and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, made an official visit to the US west coast in February and March 1983.

The file states that a phone call was made by “a man who claimed that his daughter had been killed in Northern Ireland by a rubber bullet”.

It adds: “This man additionally claimed that he was going to attempt to harm Queen Elizabeth and would do this either by dropping some object off the Golden Gate Bridge on to the royal yacht Britannia when it sails underneath, or would attempt to kill Queen Elizabeth when she visited Yosemite national park.”

The file refers to a club that “has a popular reputation as a republican bar that is frequented by sympathisers with the Provisional Irish Republican Army”.

Another document, among more than 100 pages published online by the FBI, this time relating to the queen’s state visit to the US in 1991, reveals concerns that Irish groups were planning to protest at the monarch’s attendance at a baseball game as well as a White House event. The information came from a Philadelphia Irish paper titled Irish Edition.

The file said: “The article stated anti-British feelings are running high as a result of well-publicised injustices inflicted on the Birmingham Six by the corrupt English judicial system and the recent rash of brutal murders of unarmed Irish nationalists in the six counties by loyalist death squads.

“Though the article contained no threats against the president or the queen, the statements could be viewed as being inflammatory. The article stated that an Irish group had reserved a large block of grandstand tickets.”

A separate file among the documents, dated 1989, said that while the FBI was unaware of any specific threats against the queen, “the possibility of threats against the British monarchy is ever present from the Irish Republican Army”.

The queen’s second cousin, Lord Mountbatten, was killed in an IRA bombing in County Sligo in Ireland in 1979.