ANALYSIS - Does Brics expansion mean a new global order?

Namita Singh
Sun, 27 August 2023 

When British economist Jim O’Neill coined the “Bric” acronym about two decades ago to denote Brazil, Russia, India and China, he was writing about investment opportunities in nations set to become the world’s top emerging economies.

Then a Goldman Sachs banker, he did not think that the four countries will borrow his idea to form a transnational bloc eight years later in 2009.

Now, the five-member group of developing nations has agreed to expand the alliance further to include Argentina, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and United Arab Emirates in a bid to provide a counterweight to the dominance of Western alliances in global affairs.

"This membership expansion is historic," Chinese president Xi Jinping, the bloc’s most stalwart proponent of the enlargement, said. "It shows the determination of Brics countries for unity and cooperation with the broader developing countries."

The six new candidates will formally become members on 1 January 2024, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa said when he named the countries during a three-day leaders’ summit he is hosting in Johannesburg.

"Brics has embarked on a new chapter in its effort to build a world that is fair, a world that is just, a world that is also inclusive and prosperous," Ramaphosa said.

"We have consensus on the first phase of this expansion process and other phases will follow."

The expansion adds economic heft to Brics whose current members are China – the world’s second-largest economy – as well as Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa.

The move is also aimed at increasing Brics’s clout as a champion of so-called Global South nations, many of which feel unfairly treated by international institutions dominated by the United States and other wealthy Western nations, explains professor Swaran Singh, an international relations professor at India’s Jawaharlal Nehru University.

“Expansion of Brics or Brics were never meant for challenging any other system,” he says.

“They were supposed to create an alternative platform to provide some opportunity for least developed and developing countries to participate in international decision making, which automatically perhaps indirectly implies that there is some discomfort with the way international decision making has happened inside the post-second World War international organizations,” he tells The Independent.

“And therefore they were presenting an alternative to create space for these developing countries. And if it is expanding, that means that there is an increasing desire and demand in the world for a platform like this.”

President of China Xi Jinping, president of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa and prime minister of India Narendra Modi gesture during the 2023 Brics Summit at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg on 24 August 2023 (AFP via Getty Images)

More than 40 countries expressed interest in joining Brics, with 22 formally asking, representing a disparate pool of potential candidates – from Iran to Argentina – motivated largely by a desire to level a global playing field many consider rigged against them.

United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres also attended Thursday’s expansion announcement, reflecting the bloc’s growing influence as he echoed its longstanding calls for reforms of the UN Security Council, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank.

"Today’s global governance structures reflect yesterday’s world," he said. "For multilateral institutions to remain truly universal, they must reform to reflect today’s power and economic realities."

And while the criteria for inclusion of new members remains unclear, those invited to join the bloc reflect individual Brics members’ desires to bring allies into the club.

Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had vocally lobbied for neighbour Argentina’s inclusion while Egypt has close commercial ties with Russia and India. The entry of oil powers Saudi Arabia and UAE highlights their drifting away from the United States’s orbit and ambition to become global heavyweights in their own right.

Russia and Iran have found common cause in their shared struggle against US-led sanctions and diplomatic isolation. With their economic ties deepening in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin used his address to lambast the West, highlight the threat they posed to traditional values in developing nations, and signal the emergence of a multi-polar world.

South African president Cyril Ramaphosa and prime minister of India Narendra Modi shake hands during the 2023 Brics Summit at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg on 24 August 2023 (AFP via Getty Images)

"Make no mistake: this is not just about trade,” says Daniel Silke, director of the South Africa-based Political Futures consultancy. “This is about the fragmentation and political polarisation we are seeing in the world," he notes, adding that China had cited threats of a new Cold War with Washington as a reason to expand.

"The world... has entered a new period of turbulence and transformation," Xi said on Wednesday. "We, the Brics countries, should always bear in mind our founding purpose of strengthening ourselves through unity."

But Singh argues that while the individual countries may have their own national agenda when they address the Brics, “when it comes to collective, the declaration and the tone is much generic”.

“It’s not appearing at all as anti-West. It seeks reforms in the IMF. That is a fair thing that they have been talking about democratizing International institutions.”

“But of course, Iran and Russia would be looking at Brics as their platform if they are getting isolated. This will be the collective which they will kind of depend on.

“So I can understand that Tehran and Moscow would have a very different take on how they see their participation in Brics.

“But overall, Brics is able to balance the tone and you have seen moderation in the final declaration which doesn’t kind of become jingoistic exactly the way Russia would like it to be or Iran would like it to be.

“And of course, Russia, China, India have always said we oppose unilateral sanctions on Iran. So in that sense, you can see the same tone in the final declaration.”

Though home to about 40 per cent of the world’s population and a quarter of global gross domestic product, internal divisions have long hobbled Brics ambitions of becoming a major player on the world stage.

Brics countries have economies that are vastly different in scale and governments with often divergent foreign policy goals. And as a result, the West does not really see Brics as a serious threat to western blocs.

It was evident in the statement by White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan last Tuesday who noted that Washington does not see them as "evolving into some kind of geo-political rival to the United States or anyone else" due to divergence on critical issues.

President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, president of China Xi Jinping, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa, prime minister of India Narendra Modi and Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov attend the 2023 Brics Summit at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg on 24 August 2023 (AFP via Getty Images)

The view is not unsubstantiated.

Its heavyweight members – China and India – are often at odds: New Delhi is more friendly to the West and has military deals with the United States, while it is in sometimes violent conflict with Beijing over their Himalayan border.

For Russian president Vladimir Putin the bloc is a forum to jab at the West that has sought to isolate Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. But Lula used the summit to reiterate Brazil’s position of "defending sovereignty (and) territorial integrity" of countries, in an apparent swipe at Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

“I doubt that an expanded Brics can pose any real challenge to existing blocs - Brics has always been incoherent politically speaking – while the Russians and Chinese have had a clear anti-West agenda, India and the rest do not necessarily see the world this way,” says Jabin Thomas Jacob, an associate professor specialising in China’s domestic politics and foreign relations at New Delhi’s Shiv Nadar University.

“India has issues with Western economic domination but it is much closely aligned with the West on matters of international law and norms than it is with China or Russia.

“The Brics countries might look like they have taken a neutral stance on the Russian invasion but there are differences between them,” says Jabin. “Clearly, China is much more invested in a Russian victory while the others are much more concerned about a quick end to the conflict and disruption in the grain and energy markets.”

Additional reporting by agencies

Rishi Sunak to become first PM in a decade to skip UN world leader event

YOU HAVE TO BE A LEADER TO GO TO IT

Adam Robertson
Sun, 27 August 2023

Rishi Sunak will skip the UN General Assembly

RISHI Sunak is to become the first UK prime minister in a decade to skip the UN General Assembly, despite calls from non-governmental organisations for him to attend an event to achieve sustainable development.

Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden and Foreign Secretary James Cleverly (below) will lead the British delegation at the annual gathering of world leaders in New York in September, Downing Street said.

A No 10 spokesperson pointed to the Prime Minister’s busy schedule for the autumn, noting that he will meet counterparts at the G20 leaders’ summit in New Delhi on September 9 and 10 and the Cop28 UN climate summit in Dubai in November.

The National:

It is unusual for a modern British premier to miss the UN’s so-called high-level general debate.

Sunak’s predecessors, including short-lived former prime minister Liz Truss, made time to travel to New York to deliver speeches on the world stage.

The last no-show from a UK leader was David Cameron in 2013.

More than a hundred aid and development leaders wrote to Mr Sunak, calling on him to go to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) summit – the centrepiece of this year’s UN gathering.

The SDG summit is held once every four years and marks the halfway point to the 2030 deadline for achieving the global plan to improve the planet and the quality of human life.

In a letter on Friday, the NGO leaders urged the Prime Minister to “walk the talk and show leadership by turning these commitments into action” and “rebuild the UK’s reputation as a trusted partner to lower-income countries and global actors”.

Stephanie Draper, chief executive of Bond – the UK network for international development organisations, said Britain appeared to have “stepped back from leadership on globally agreed goals”.

“The upcoming UN SDG Summit is an opportunity for the Prime Minister to show leadership on the global stage and rebuild the UK’s reputation as a trusted partner to lower-income countries, and this requires being present as a starting point,” she said.

Labour shadow foreign secretary David Lammy said earlier this month that Sunak’s absence at the UN General Assembly “would mark a low ebb of the Conservatives’ isolationist foreign policy”.

Last year, the Prime Minister faced a backlash when he indicated he would miss Cop27 in Egypt and eventually decided to go after all.

A No10 spokesperson said: “The UK delegation at the UN General Assembly High Level Week will be led by the Deputy Prime Minister, accompanied by the Foreign Secretary and others.

“The Prime Minister is expected to hold discussions with a number of world leaders in the coming weeks, including at the G20 Summit in New Delhi and the Cop28 Summit in the UAE.

“He and other ministers will continue to use all their engagements with their international counterparts to drive forward the Government’s priorities, including on growing the economy, stopping illegal migration and supporting Ukraine.”

Russia uses social media channels to exploit Niger coup

Jason Burke Africa correspondent

THE GUARDIAN
Sun, 27 August 2023 


Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Social media channels associated with the Russian state have launched a major effort to exploit the military coup in Niger last month, seeking to reinforce Moscow’s influence in the strategic African country and possibly open opportunities for intervention.

Mohamed Bazoum, the pro-western elected president, was ousted by senior army officers on 26 July and is being held a prisoner in his official residence in Niamey. African leaders have threatened military action to oust the new regime but advocates of intervention have so far been unable to rally sufficient support.

Activity focusing on Niger on channels linked to the paramilitary Wagner Group declined sharply after the death of Yevgeney Prigozhin, Wagner’s leader, in an unexplained plane crash north of Moscow last week, expert analysis has revealed.

But pro-Russian Telegram channels more broadly have continued to discuss or push disinformation about Niger at generally the same levels as before Prigozhin’s death, according to research by Logically, a technology company tackling potentially harmful online content and disinformation based in the UK, India and US.

Prigozhin, who led a rebellion against Vladimir Putin in June, spearheaded a disinformation offensive in Africa that played a key role in the expansion of Russian influence in strategic areas such as the Sahel.

Content about Niger across 45 Russian Telegram channels either affiliated with the Russian state or Wagner increased 6,645% in the month following the coup, suggesting a keen interest in Moscow in exploiting the upheaval.

Logically detected only 11 pieces of content relating to Niger in the month before the coup, but 742 pieces of content since. The company identified a significant increase in the amount of content pushing anti-French narratives on these accounts, though it found that negative sentiments towards Paris in Niger, a former French colony, were already widespread before the coup.

The research will reinforce fears that Russia will seek to win influence, lucrative contracts and access to key resources in Niger following the overthrow of Bazoum.

The overthrow of a civilian government by soldiers in neighbouring Mali in 2021 marked a turning point in the battle for influence between Russia and western countries in the Sahel.

The new regime in Mali swiftly concluded a deal with the Wagner group leading to the withdrawal of western forces stationed there in what was seen as a major victory in Africa for Moscow.

Most observers were taken by surprise by the July coup as Niger was seen as relatively stable and with stronger democratic institutions than many of its neighbours. The country is also a key base for western forces and its army has been a partner for the US and other militaries in the unstable and troubled Sahel region.

There is no evidence of a concerted Russian effort to destabilise Bazoum’s government immediately before the coup, which analysts have attributed to internal power struggles.

However, Niger has been the focus of influence campaigns on social media before. In mid-February, social media was flooded by a wave of disinformation when Bazoum travelled to Paris for a meeting with President Macron of France.

One video that was circulated widely on TikTok and Facebook in February, falsely presented footage filmed during an attempted coup in March 2021 in Niamey as a fresh incident involving firing around the president’s residence.

Underneath were postings by contributors that fiercely criticised Bazoum and his support of France.

Other footage was deployed in in the same way to mislead viewers. Fake bulletins showed a French attack on a Nigerien military convoy and contained accusations that France’s forces were secretly working with Islamist extremists.

Similar examples found by Logically in recent weeks include a post from a Russian “fact-checking” Telegram channel with more than 600,000 subscribers that claimed that instability in Niger and other nations was being fomented by western powers as a consequence of their desire to join the BRICS group of developing world countries, which has been broadly supportive of Russia since the outbreak of war in Ukraine.

A second post from a Russian state-media outlet with more than 360,000 subscribers on Telegram amplified claims made by the Nigerien regime that two countries from the ECOWAS regional bloc of west African nations were close to launching a military intervention to restore Bazoum to power.

“Social media accounts quite quickly pivoted to Niger … [with] some serious issues with misattributed footage. There is a big audience for pro-Kremlin narratives that contradict western countries’ pro-Ukrainian narratives,” said Kyle Walter, the head of research at Logically.

Social media was blamed for fuelling mounting hostility towards France that led Paris to pull its troops out of Mali and the Central African Republic in 2022 and from Burkina Faso earlier this year.

The future of the Wagner group on the continent remains uncertain. The networks of companies set up by Prigozhin have been very successful in extracting gold, diamonds, valuable timber and much else from African countries as well as winning contracts as mercenaries in Central African Republic, Mozambique, Libya and elsewhere.

“It’s unclear whether there will be a wholesale takeover of Wagner by some part of the Russian state or if Moscow will try to use a constellation of other groups as it tries to maintain the influence it has won,” said Dino Mahtani, an independent analyst and veteran observer of African affairs.

“There has been a rise in pro-Russian sentiment in many of these countries that Moscow will want to reinforce.”

The continuing effort by accounts linked to the Russian state to exploit the upheaval suggests the Kremlin will seek to ensure continuity as it takes over the influence operations as well as networks and businesses run by Prigozhin.

Several Facebook pages that shared the fake news about recent turmoil in Niger have previously disseminated pro-Russian material or taken aim at the French presence in the Sahel.

One page amplified false reports on Facebook and Twitter in April 2022 that accused French troops of committing atrocities in central Mali and displayed supposed pictures of a mass grave dug up at Gossi, near a French military base that had just been handed back to the Malian army.

The French army revealed it had used a drone to film what appeared to Russian mercenaries burying corpses several days earlier.

The CAR also has hired Russian mercenaries, and there are concerns that Burkina Faso may now do the same.

In January, an animated video showing a Wagner operative helping west African countries fight off zombie French soldiers began circulating on social media and pro-Kremlin Telegram channels. According to the Atlantic council, a US based thinktank that tracks disinformation, the origin of the video has not been identified but it appears to have first been posted on Twitter on 14 January, then migrated to alternative video platforms before being shared elsewhere.

Anthony Blinken, the US secretary of state, last week told the BBC he did not think Russia or Wagner instigated Niger’s coup but “they tried to take advantage of it”.

Forty-eight hours before his death, Prigozhin posted his first video address since leading a short-lived rebellion in Russia in June, appearing in a clip – possibly shot in Mali – on Telegram channels affiliated with the Wagner group.

The warlord said the clip that Wagner was conducting reconnaissance and search operations and “making Russia even greater on all continents, and Africa even more free”.

‘The UK’s importing of food is a travesty’: farmer’s wife Helen Rebanks tells her own story

Toby Helm
Sun, 27 August 2023 

Photograph: Gary Calton/The Observer

“I live with my husband, James, and we have four children – Molly, Bea, Isaac and Tom. There are also six sheep dogs, two ponies, 20 chickens, 500 sheep and 50 cattle to care for. I am a farmer’s wife, and this is my story.”

So writes Helen Rebanks on the first page of her debut book, The Farmer’s Wife. It is about her life with husband James managing four young children and a lot more animals on a 700-acre farm in the Lake District. James has already made his name as a bestselling author of The Shepherd’s Life and English Pastoral about traditional farming in Cumbria

Now it is Helen’s turn. Behind her portrait of a hard, though in many ways idyllic, life Helen believes all is far from well for UK farmers. Interviewed before the book’s launch, Rebanks is scathing about how Brexit and its aftermath have destroyed farmers’ livelihoods, and in some cases their lives.

“Farming is going through a huge challenge with the government post-Brexit,” she says. “Since the 1950s farmers have been encouraged to produce, produce, produce and have been supported. But then came the catastrophe of foot and mouth disease and there was rebuilding for some: others went out of business. Farmers have relied on EU subsidies which, however imperfect, were at least a system – basic payment for the land you farmed. But that has been incrementally reduced year on year, so farmers’ income keeps coming further down.”

She is particularly critical of the government’s trade agreements with non-EU countries that were supposed to create a new “global Britain” in which farmers and everyone else running businesses would thrive after Brexit.

Instead they find imports are now undercutting homegrown produce. “The most recent is Mexico for eggs – from battery hens,” says Rebanks. “Our egg producers are going out of business because feed costs, heating, lighting, energy costs – everything to do with production – has gone up. There are fewer British eggs because supermarkets won’t pay the true cost of production. How are farmers supposed to make a living?”

Related: Farmer’s wife Helen Rebanks: ‘There was a fire in me about speaking up for the women who hold things together’

For some farmers, it has proved too much. “A lot of farmers are trapped in awful circumstances with not enough staff,” she says. “It is no surprise the suicide rate is at an all-time high. The government’s importing of food is a travesty. I don’t want to eat an apple that has been shipped in a cold store for months from New Zealand, or chicken in a supermarket sandwich that has possibly come from Thailand.”

• The Farmer’s Wife by Helen Rebanks will be published on 31 August by Faber (£20). 

Opinion

Don’t say the craic of doom has come for Ireland’s pubs

Alex Clark
Sun, 27 August 2023 

Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters

A question for the times: is there anywhere in the world where you can’t get a pint of Guinness in a joint draped with green, white and orange tricolours and belting out the hits of Christy Moore? Such desolate places must exist but they appear to be vanishingly rare.

If the Irish pub is one of the country’s most successful exports, there’s worrying news about its fortunes at home. Since 2005, nearly 2,000 pubs have closed, and since 2019 – a period of lockdown and sharply rising costs – more than 450 have called time for good. Unsurprisingly, the perennially populous Dublin has been affected less than smaller towns and rural areas.

It is, of course, all relative. In the riverside town five miles from where I live, we look mournfully at the half-a-dozen shuttered bars that thrived in our drinking memory; but we still have our pick of at least half a dozen more. The town has just over 1,500 inhabitants.

We look mournfully at the half a dozen shuttered bars that thrived in our drinking memory

It was to one – a tiny space that still keeps room for a shop at the front, where you might buy a few rashers or some fly spray – that the congregation of the Cistercian abbey at the heart of the town repaired after a wedding a few days ago. We needed to get a shine on before the reception proper started, and where else would you do it?

The problem with writing about Irish pubs, especially if you’re a blow-in like me, is that everything sounds invented for comic effect. What can I say? It is true that I have a fond memory of hubris punished when, during a family session in a favourite local – one that also doubles as an undertaker – we decided to join the pub quiz. Metropolitan liberal elite humanities graduate that I am, I envisaged an easy victory. I had not reckoned on several questions involving the results of nearby lower-league hurling fixtures, concocted as the landlord flicked through the sports pages of the Carlow Nationalist, nor marks awarded to those who knew which graveyard was closer to the establishment (a wag: “By road, John, or as the crow flies?”). We thought to gain advantage when the price of the plots in said graveyards cropped up, my mother-in-law having memory of a recent purchase in our extended circle, but it was to no avail. I think we came last.

Nor have I embellished the occasion on which a particularly well-refreshed gent gathered me up for a dance and, hearing my English accent, cried: “Sure, never mind! Give us a kiss, the war is over!” I recall my waltzing partner later having his car keys gently confiscated and his good-natured son being called to fetch him.

Neither does the sight of two young fellas, clearly not on their first pint, watching agog as the pub TV showed the culmination of True Detective (“They’re shooting your man Farrell to bits! Jaysus!”) require further ornamentation.

One more: a quick stop-off on a trip to the west, on a hot and dusty afternoon in a one-horse town. An elderly gent sipping Guinness at the bar, dressed smartly in a beige suit. On his feet, socks and open-toed sandals; on his head a colourful sombrero. We did not ask.

Speaking of Colin Farrell, Irish pubs are not all exact replicas of the convivial, warm darkness that sustained the characters in The Banshees of Inisherin. But they are still the very best pubs you will ever find.

• Alex Clark is an Observer columnist

100-year-old ginkgo trees could get the axe under disputed plan for Tokyo's Jingu Gaien park

Miho Nakashima has her body painted like a tree by artist Andy Boerger during a public protest on Sunday, Aug. 27, 2023, to point out that 100-year-old trees in the Jingu Gaien park area in Tokyo, Japan, could be cut down under a disputed development plan.

(AP Photo/Norihiro Haruta)

STEPHEN WADE
Sun, 27 August 2023 

TOKYO (AP) — Miho Nakashima stood in a two-piece bathing suit in Tokyo on Sunday next to a 100-year-old gingko tree, her body painted head-to-toe in green leaves and brown branches.

Her message was clear, and she repeated it standing at the heart of the Jingu Gaien park area, its sanctity threatened by a disputed real-estate development plan

“I'm a tree,” she said. “Don't chop me down.”

A plan approved earlier this year by Gov. Yuriko Koike would let developers, led by Mitsui Fudosan, build a pair of 200-meter (650-feet) skyscrapers in Jingu Gaien, mow down trees in one of Tokyo's few green areas, and raze and rebuild a historic rugby venue and an adjoining baseball stadium.

Takayuki Nakamura, among a few hundred who gathered on Sunday to protest, pressed his face into the bark of one tree and prayed. The area was set aside 100 years ago to honor Japan's Meiji Emperor.

“I want to appreciate the existence of these trees. Sometime I can feel some sounds inside,” he said.

The planned redevelopment would take more than a decade to finish, and has attracted lawsuits with mounting opposition from conservationists, civic groups, local residents, and sports fans.

Eighteen ginkgo trees behind the rugby stadium are likely to be cut down.

The flashpoint has been trees, green space, and who controls a public area that has been encroached on over the years. Also at issue is the fate of more than 100 gingko trees that line an avenue in the area and provide a colorful cascade of falling leaves each autumn. Botanists say any construction is sure to cause damage.

Critics say the plan has been rammed through despite a botched environmental assessment as real-estate developers take what was intended as public land and turn it into a private commercial venture.

Famous Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami has opposed the plan. And composer and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto sent an open letter to Koike deriding the plan just days before his death on March 28.

The rugby stadium was used during the 1964 Olympics, and Babe Ruth played in 1934 in the baseball stadium along with other American stars facing Japan's best players.

The project highlights the ties among the main actors: the governor, Mitsui Fudosan, and Meiji Jingu, a religious organization that owns much of the land to be redeveloped.

“The redevelopment of the park is obviously a public issue,” Koichi Nakano, a political scientist at Sophia University, told The Associated Press earlier this year. “At the same time, they (politicians) can claim that it is a private decision of a religious organization and the developers.

“But because Jingu Gaien is also a public park with sports facilities, politicians can — and do — meddle in the decisions. Which results in the cozy, probably collusive relationships among the insiders that are unaccountable to the public.”

About 1,500 trees were chopped down in the same area to build the $1.4 billion stadium for the Tokyo Olympics. The Olympics also allowed the city to change zoning laws, which may permit developers to further encroach on the park area.

“This is like building skyscrapers in the middle of Central Park in New York,” Mikiko Ishikawa, an emeritus professor at the University of Tokyo, told The Associated Press.

Developers have argued the two sports facilities cannot be renovated and must be razed.

However, Koshien Stadium near Kobe, built in 1924, has been renovated over the last 15 years, much in the same way that Fenway Park (1912) in Boston and Wrigley Field (1914) in Chicago are still viable for two of MLB's most famous teams.

Meiji Kinenkan, a historic reception hall, dates from 1881 and is still in wide use in Jingu Gaien with no calls from its demolition.

“The development companies are trying to cut down more trees and make a huge business area,” Nakashima said as a leaf was painted on her cheek. “The park has a very long history and should be saved.”

___



Miho Nakashima has her body painted like a tree by artist Andy Boerger during a public protest on Sunday, Aug. 27, 2023, to point out that 100-year-old trees in the Jingu Gaien park area in Tokyo, Japan, could be cut down under a disputed development plan.

 (AP Photo/Stephen Wade)



Takayuki Nakamura prays against a 100-year-old ginkgo tree that could be cut down under a disputed development plan for in the Tokyo Jingu Gaien park area in Tokyo, Sunday, Aug. 27, 2023. Nakamura, among a few hundred who gathered on Sunday to protest, planted his face in the bark of one tree and prayed. The area was set aside 100 years ago on honor the Meiji Emperor.

(AP Photo/Stephen Wade)



The Jingu Gaien park area is seen in central Tokyo, Sunday, Aug. 27, 2023. The beloved green area in under threat from a massive commercial redevelopment plan.

(AP Photo/Norihiro Haruta)

The sign is seen at the entry way of the Jingu Gaien park area in central Tokyo Sunday, Aug. 27, 2023. The beloved green area in under threat from a massive commercial redevelopment plan.

 (AP Photo/Stephen Wade)

Miho Nakashima has her body painted like a tree by artist Andy Boerger during a public protest on Sunday, Aug. 27, 2023, to point out that 100-year-old trees in the Jingu Gaien park area in Tokyo, Japan, could be cut down under a disputed development plan. 

(AP Photo/Stephen Wade)

Miho Nakashima, center, has her body painted like a tree by artist Andy Boerger, left, during a public protest on Sunday, Aug. 27, 2023, to point out that 100-year-old trees in the Jingu Gaien park area in Tokyo, Japan, could be cut down under a disputed development plan.

(AP Photo/Norihiro Haruta)

‘We’ll launch rockets every month’: 

Britain finally joins the space race

ROFLMAO

Robin McKie
Sun, 27 August 2023 



A large band of battered metal has been placed on a stand at the entrance of Skyrora’s rocket manufacturing hall in Cumbernauld in central Scotland. Six feet in diameter, the loop is perforated, torn and twisted, a result of being blasted into space and then dropped on to the Australian outback where it has lain for almost 50 years until its recent recovery.

The ring is part of the remains of Britain’s only satellite launch, which took place on 28 October 1971 when a Black Arrow rocket placed a Prospero probe into orbit round the Earth. The programme was cancelled the same year.

But now the UK is preparing to return to the satellite-launching business as several rival companies vie for business with the aim, this time, of firing rockets from British, not antipodean soil. These competitors include Skyrora, which has begun manufacturing its XL rockets at Cumbernauld, in expectation of a first launch next year from the SaxaVord rocket base in Unst, Shetland.

“The launch of Black Arrow in 1971 was Britain’s only successful placing of a satellite into orbit. So we brought back a piece of it – a faring that connected the first and second stages before it fell to Earth – and have put it at the entrance of our manufacturing hall to make it clear that, after half a century, we are back in business and ready to go into space again,” said Euan Clark, a project team lead at Skyrora.

Other rocket companies with plans for UK launches include Orbex Prime, whose launchers are scheduled to take off from Sutherland Spaceport in north Scotland, with other launch sites being touted for the Western Isles and the Kintyre peninsula as well as locations in Wales and Cornwall.

The rebirth of UK satellite launching – which will be dominated by spaceports located north of Hadrian’s Wall – is the result of the dramatic miniaturisation of modern electronics. Early spacecraft were the size of cars and required massive launchers. Today, satellites are often the size of shoeboxes that need only modest launchers, like the Skyrora XL. It is 22m in height compared with the 110m-high Saturn V rockets that took Apollo astronauts to the moon.

The three-stage Skyrora XL will be powered by 3D printed engines and in the near future should, if the company’s plans work out, be launching around a dozen satellites a year from Unst, the most northerly inhabited place in the British Isles. Here, rockets can be fired over the open waters of the North Sea and will carry probes on polar orbits where Earth-monitoring spacecraft can study sea-level fluctuations and ice-sheet changes as the planet revolves beneath.

“We expect that environment-monitoring probes as well as communication satellites will form the core of our business,” Clark told the Observer. Each rocket will be able carry payloads up to 300kg, at a cost of £30,000 to £36,000 per kilogram, burning 50,000 litres of fuel to take their cargoes to heights of 1,000km.

Engineers at Cumbernauld are constructing engines for the first orbital flight of Skyrora XL, which is planned for next year. The quiet tempo at its manufacturing plant will change dramatically after that.

“In a few years, we hope to launch a rocket every month,” said Clark. “There are seven engines on the Skyrora first stage and another in its second stage, which means we will have to build one of them every three or four days to keep up that schedule.”

These highly complex engines will burn a kerosene-peroxide propellent, which offers key advantages, added Clark. It produces less pollution than standard fuel and can remain stored in a rocket on a launchpad for several days – in contrast to most launchers, which currently use liquid oxygen that has to be drained from the craft when delays occur. Given the unpredictability of weather in Shetland, an ability to keep fully fuelled rockets on a launch pad for long periods will be a key benefit.

Rocket-building promises to bring dramatic changes to the image of Cumbernauld, a town previously renowned for being the setting of Bill Forsyth’s endearing comedy film, Gregory’s Girl – although it remains to be seen how successful the company, which was set up six years ago, will be in achieving its ambitions. It is pinning its hopes on launching small satellites – which are defined as being under 500kg in weight. In 2012, there were about 50 launches of small satellites. By 2019, there were more than 400 and the global market continues to grow, say analysts.

The company – which has been given funds by both the UK Space Agency and the European Space Agency – says it is also eyeing opportunities to use its craft to clean-up near-Earth space.

“There all sorts of old satellites and bits of rocket in orbit round the Earth and these can cause problems,” said Clark. “So if we can use our satellites – as we believe we can – to bring some of them down safely or put them in a safer, higher orbit, that will obviously be very useful as well.”

Protest convoy against government irrigation scheme reaches Paris after 8 day march

RFI
Sun, 27 August 2023 

© BassinesNonMerci

The protest convoy, which arrived in Paris on Saturday, brought together nearly a thousand people on the Champ de Mars in a good-natured atmosphere to the sound of songs denouncing "bassines" – the controversial government project to create massive open-air reservoirs for agricultural irrigation.

Hundreds of demonstrators chanted "Fence by fence, cover by cover, we'll destroy all the reservoirs" when they arrived in the French capital on Saturday, after setting off on bicycles and tractors over a week ago from Nouvelle-Aquitaine in western France.

Before reaching Paris, the slow convoy of protesters pitched camp in Orléans on Thursday, where they spent three days in front of the headquarters of the Loire-Bretagne Water Agency – one of the main contractors tasked with rolling out the government's irrigation scheme.

The aim of the so-called "mega-basins" is to store water drawn up from the water table in winter into the open air reservoirs, so it can be used to irrigate crops in when rainfall is scarce or during periods of drought.

Supporters of the government-sponsored plan see this as a prerequisite for the survival of farms in the face of the threat of recurring droughts.

On their way to Paris, a delegation representing the anti-irrigation protesters had been received for more than five hours on Wednesday by Sophie Brocas – the prefect of the Centre-Val de Loire region and water project coordinator – to call for an moratorium on current water storage proposals, but to no avail.

AUSTRALIA

Firefighters fear being ‘overwhelmed’ by rise in battery fires after fatal Sydney blaze

Royce Kurmelovs
Sun, 27 August 2023

Photograph: Sydney Photographer/Alamy

Firefighters say they fear being ‘“overwhelmed” by increasing numbers of battery fires, after the death of a Sydney man in a house fire on Saturday night was linked to toxic smoke from burning lithium batteries.

The 54-year-old man was eating downstairs in his Punchbowl unit in Sydney’s west with two women when the fire broke out. He tried to extinguish the blaze with a fire extinguisher, but when firefighters arrived he was found unconscious on his bathroom floor with soot on his mouth, having inhaled toxic smoke.

Firefighters performed CPR on the man until paramedics arrived, but his injuries were too severe and he did not survive.

While the cause of the fire is still under investigation, four lithium iron batteries were found in the home.

The incident has highlighted a growing concern about the rate of lithium battery fires, firefighters said.

Lithium battery fires are caused by a chemical reaction inside the battery that produces an intense flame that is hard to extinguish and produces toxic gases.

New South Wales Fire and Rescue Supt Andrew Shurety said he couldn’t put a specific number on how often fire crews were being called to lithium battery fires, but that it was a “marked increase” with “a number of fires including the fatal one last night”.

“I’ve been a firefighter for over 30 years and I’ve never seen anything like this. In my personal opinion we’re going to be overwhelmed by it, which will be quite shocking to the community, unless we start taking precautions,” Shurety said.

A spokesperson for Fire and Rescue Victoria said the service was also aware of the issue.

“Lithium ion batteries, although great for our lifestyle, pose a fire risk if damaged, are used incorrectly or are not maintained,” they said.

“Fire Rescue Victoria implore people to use reputable brands in line with manufacturer specifications.”

In July, an e-scooter in Wentworth, Sydney caused a fire which gutted a unit and in January five people in Brisbane were injured when an e-scooter caught fire inside a home.

As of July 2023, firefighters in Western Australia had responded to 32 battery lithium fires and in the ACT eight fires were attributed to e-scooter batteries in Canberra.

It is believed that electric vehicle lithium battery fires are rare, with only four known to date, but United Firefighters Union Australia flagged the issue as an emerging problem in March.

Superintendent Shurety said that like other fire risks, people should take precautions about how and when they charge lithium batteries, including avoiding overcharging them, avoiding flammable locations like a bed and using reputable brands.

“We see fires start from cheap brands that come in as import without warranties,” he said.

NSW Fire and Rescue has published detailed information on its website outlining precautions that can be taken.

Opinion

Shoplifting is out of control. Forget the police – stores need to up their game

CONSUMPTION BY OTHER MEANS

Martha Gill
Sat, 26 August 2023



Within corner-shops and supermarkets and department stores, a new mood of lawlessness circulates. Owners of small shops have long complained that they are being treated as larders; now the owners of large ones have joined them.

Co-op despairs that shoplifting is “out of control”; along with antisocial behaviour incidents, the crime has increased by a third in the first half of this year. Meanwhile, John Lewis has taken to offering free coffees to passing officers. “Just having a police car parked outside can make people think twice about shoplifting from our branches,” the head of security for the John Lewis Partnership has said, with more than a hint of desperation. Earlier this month, there was the “TikTok looting” of Oxford Street, where teens ran amok around stores after a thread urging people to “rob JD Sports” went viral. The trend has a longer sweep: in the past six years, shop thefts in Britain have more than doubled.

What to do about shoplifting? It’s a delicate subject. Shoplifting is not quite like other crimes. Pilfering, purloining, filching, snaffling – it is by nature relatively trivial, the sort of thing children try their hands at without necessarily graduating to car heists and bank jobs. No punishment quite fits (the collapse of Winona Ryder’s career for a few designer gowns stands as a sort of parable for the shoplifter: it’s hardly ever worth it). But most of all, shoplifting is a crime that seems to reflect social need: it rises when the economy dips. The current spate seems partly fuelled by the cost of living crisis. Starving your population and then “cracking down” on it for nicking baby formula or a can of soup can start to make a government look rather unreasonable.

Literature reflects some of our moral feelings about shoplifting – quite often we are on the side of the light-fingered lifter. Dickens is full of desperate characters driven to theft and punished for it by a hypocritical elite. Not for nothing did Daniel Defoe make the heroine of Moll Flanders a shoplifter. And the opportunistic thief is not only a vehicle for social comment but for social defiance, too. In his book Do It, 60s activist Jerry Rubin proffers the following advice. “Don’t buy. Steal. If you act like it’s yours, no one will ask you to pay for it.”

But if the root causes of shoplifting are economic and social these are fairly large problems to solve, not to mention slow ones. In the meantime, we need a few shorter-term solutions. This is not a victimless crime: costs are eventually transferred to the customer, and staff are put at risk. And when it comes to small businesses, shoplifting is hard to justify as a response to rising prices. Stealing is not always the best way, after all, to address inequality. In her book The Steal: A Cultural History of Shoplifting, Rachel Shteir quotes a chastened Rubin after a thief burgles his apartment. “In advocating stealing as a revolutionary act,” he says, “I guess I didn’t make clear the difference between stealing from General Motors and stealing from me.”

Related: ‘We’ll just keep an eye on her’: Inside Britain’s retail centres where facial recognition cameras now spy on shoplifters

So, what can be done to address shoplifting (or “shop theft”, as outlets have tried to rebrand it, in a plea for it to be taken more seriously)? The instinct of politicians has been to ramp up deterrents – a Tory minister recently suggested more jail time is needed for repeat offenders – but this, according to Tim Newburn, professor of criminology at the London School of Economics, is exactly the wrong approach.

More bobbies on the beat – another part of Labour’s response – won’t help

“There are decades of evidence to show that increasing punishment is useless,” says Newburn. Not only is it expensive, it “compounds the social problem by sticking vulnerable people in prison”. But the key sticking point is that the vast majority of offenders do not get caught in the first place. Which makes Labour’s policy – making more use of community sentences – unlikely to work very well either.

More bobbies on the beat – another part of Labour’s response – won’t help. Shops are private spaces, and shoplifters can wait until a policeman passes outside before they commit their crime. The number of extra police needed to adequately guard every shop from thieves, Newburn says, would border on the absurd. Labour wants specially trained patrollers to plug into local knowledge, which might catch the odd repeat offender but would also absorb a lot of resources. Meanwhile, forces are currently so stretched that some can no longer respond to serious mental health crises.

Not only does “cracking down” on shoplifters through the criminal justice system raise difficult moral problems, it doesn’t even work.

So what can be done? Well, there is another approach to the problem. Criminologists call it “situational prevention”. “Literally all crime over the last 30 years has dropped significantly,” says Gloria Laycock, emeritus professor at University College London’s centre for security and crime science. “This includes shop theft, which is now increasing but from a low base.”

The reason for this drop-off? Technology has made breaking the law much harder. The use of deadlocks has decimated car theft; domestic burglary has diminished as double-glazing and alarm systems have thrown up hurdles to burglars.

Yet in many modern shops, we have the opposite phenomenon. Although some security measures have increased, with door alarms and beeping tags, in other ways theft has become easier. Once goods were kept behind counters, but since the birth of large supermarkets they have been laid out near the door, ready for the taking. Automated self check-out means the customer in effect monitors their own behaviour. Staff levels have dropped precipitously. Some shops have responded by employing security guards, but these are effectively middlemen for an overstretched police service. They do little to stop the crime happening in the first place.

“A radical policy might be to decriminalise shop theft,” says Laycock, tongue only half in cheek. “This would put the onus directly on the shops, which could employ the measures that actually work, like putting goods back behind counters.”

She captures the problem: automation has led to lawlessness to which there is no ready solution in the justice system. And it’s not just shops where this is happening. Slowly, gradually, we are removing “secondary social control mechanisms” – shop staff, train ticket collectors, park keepers and bus conductors. Part of their job – an overlooked fact – was to maintain order. A bigger social problem may be looming.

• Martha Gill is an Observer columnist