Rishi Sunak faces Tory party split over withdrawal from ECHR

 European Convention on Human Rights 

Amy Gibbons
Sat, 2 September 2023 

Rishi Sunak could face pressure from up to a third of his Cabinet to put an ECHR exit at the heart of the Tory election campaign - Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Europe

Rishi Sunak is facing a major Tory split over the UK’s membership of Europe’s human rights pact as centrist MPs warned that quitting would be a “historic mistake”.

The Tory Reform Group (TRG), whose patrons include ministers Tom Tugendhat and Victoria Atkins, urged the Prime Minister not to withdraw nor derogate from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) for the sake of the Government’s flagship Rwanda policy.

The One Nation Conservatives set out their stall on the heated debate amid mounting pressure on Mr Sunak from the Right of the party to quit the international treaty.

It means the Prime Minister risks being burned by his own MPs whatever decision he makes on the UK’s membership, having so far resisted calls to leave the convention.

It is understood Mr Sunak will face pressure from up to a third of his Cabinet – including Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary – to put an ECHR exit at the heart of the Tory election campaign if migrant deportation flights to Rwanda are ultimately blocked by the courts.

But the TRG, a centre-Right Conservative faction dating back nearly 50 years, warned such a move would damage the Northern Ireland peace process, the UK’s ability to bring criminals to justice, its relations with democratic allies, and the Tory party’s own reputation.
Government has ‘range of options’

The Rwanda scheme – whereby migrants arriving illegally on UK shores would be sent to the central African state – is a major plank of Mr Sunak’s campaign to stop the boats, one of his five key pledges to the nation.

But flights have been suspended since June 2022, when a single judge from the European Court of Human Rights, which rules on the ECHR, issued an 11th-hour injunction halting the first deportation.

At least eight Cabinet ministers, along with other senior Tories, are prepared to back Britain’s withdrawal from the European pact if its membership prevents it from protecting its borders against illegal migration.

But the TRG insisted the Government has a “range of options” to tackle Channel crossings besides quitting the ECHR, including rewriting the Rwanda agreement, seeking similar deals with safer countries and introducing digital ID for work and benefits.

It also warned that polling suggests pledging to leave the convention would make voters less likely to side with the Tories, by a margin of 41 per cent to 26 per cent.

The group stressed that the European court rarely finds against the UK, while a number of “positive changes” to British law have been made following cases there, including decriminalisation of homosexuality in Northern Ireland.
Leaving would be a ‘profound mistake’

The ECHR came into force in 1953. It affects the 46 states in the Council of Europe but is not a European Union convention, so the UK’s adherence to its principles was not affected by Brexit.

Mrs Braverman has publicly backed leaving the pact, while others in the Cabinet have been privately voicing support.

Nearly 70 Tory MPs, many from Red Wall seats, backed quitting the ECHR in a vote on a Private Member’s Bill last year. More MPs beyond pro-Brexit backbench groups, such as the new Conservatives, are likely to come under pressure from grassroots Tories to support an exit in the run-up to the election.

But according to the TRG, leaving would be a “profound mistake”, damaging the UK’s interests on the international stage.

In a policy paper shared with The Telegraph, the group said leaving the pact would put Britain alongside Belarus and Russia, who are also non ECHR members.

As well as Mr Tugendhat and Ms Atkins, the group’s patrons include ministers Guy Opperman, Rachel Maclean and Johnny Mercer and John Major, the former prime minister.

Half of Britons too worried about cost of living to consider climate change

THE OTHER HALF ARE WORRIED ABOUT THE IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON THEIR FAMILIES

Amy Gibbons

THE TORY TELEGRAPH
Sat, 2 September 2023 

Woman in milk aisle

More than half of British people are too concerned about the cost of living to worry about climate change, a new poll suggests.

An Ipsos UK survey found 52 per cent of Britons are too consumed by sky-high living costs to consider the environment, while 51 per cent would like to do more to help but cannot afford to.

It comes as Rishi Sunak is under pressure to mitigate the impact of the Government’s net zero drive on households already hit hard by the cost of living crisis.

Tory MP Craig Mackinlay, head of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, said the results suggest the British public is turning “lukewarm” on the 2050 climate target.

The UK is legally obliged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 100 per cent over the next 27 years, an objective signed into law by Theresa May.
Nearly half avoid harming environment

The Prime Minister has committed to making the transition in a “proportionate and pragmatic” manner, but recently ruled out a referendum on the plans – despite calls from his party to give the public a vote.

The survey, carried out in the first week of August and shared exclusively with The Telegraph, asked 1,000 British adults about their views on energy conservation.

While a majority said they were too worried about living costs to think about the impacts of the climate crisis, nearly half (45 per cent) said they try to avoid lifestyle changes that harm the environment when they are saving money.

Less than a third (29 per cent) said they found that eco-friendly lifestyle choices were often cheaper, with nearly one in four (37 per cent) disagreeing.

A majority (55 per cent) also believe Mr Sunak’s commitment to granting new oil and gas licences in the North Sea will help reduce Britain’s dependency on other nations for energy, while nearly half (47 per cent) think it will boost the economy.

The findings will be food for thought for Claire Coutinho, the new Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary, who replaced Grant Shapps in the role when he was made Defence Secretary on Thursday.

‘Nonsensical rabbit hole’

Mr Mackinlay said: “I am not at all surprised that polling shows the British public, now facing the reality of net zero costs, becoming lukewarm to the project.

“They are feeling the increased cost in their energy bills and being told that a variety of reliable items from cars to heating systems are to be banned in favour of untried, unreliable and hideously expensive technologies they do not want.

“All the while they look abroad and see that few others are following the UK down this nonsensical rabbit hole. It’s little wonder the public are asking ‘why’?”

Rachel Brisley, head of energy and environment at Ipsos UK, said the research “starkly illustrates the reality of balancing the energy trilemma of security, affordability and sustainability”.

“The cost of living crisis remains top of mind for the British public, impacting their ability to take action to reduce climate change even though most would like to do more,” she said.

“Incentives like making public transport easier to use are more popular than penalties such as making it more expensive to drive.

“And the importance of energy security is highlighted by more than half of Britons thinking new oil and gas licences will help reduce our dependence on other countries for energy.

“Balancing these concerns will continue to be a challenge for policymakers as well as the public as we transition towards net zero.”
‘The UK is a world leader’

A Government spokesman said: “We know families are concerned about the cost of living and we provided nearly £40 billion to cover around half a typical household’s energy bill last winter.

“Energy prices have fallen significantly since last autumn and we’re making sure the Energy Price Guarantee remains in place as a safety net through to April 2024.

“The UK is a world leader on net zero and we are progressing our commitments in a proportionate and pragmatic way – listening to businesses and consumers to protect families, bring down energy bills and grow the economy.”

Chernobyl: Scientists solve mystery of why wild boars are more radioactive than other animals

FERAL PIGS ARE A PROBLEM 

WORSE IF THEY ARE GLOWING

Lottie Limb
Sat, 2 September 2023 

Chernobyl: Scientists solve mystery of why wild boars are more radioactive than other animals

The 1986 Chernobyl disaster forever changed the face of the forest in Central Europe.

Pine trees died and turned russet from the radiation - coining the new name of ‘Red Forest’ for the area where saplings regrew. Plants crept into abandoned buildings in the Exclusion Zone, creating eery images now embedded in humanity’s collective psyche.

Animals joined the resurgence: boar, elk, and roe deer populations have boomed in the decades since the disaster, as well as rarer species of lynx, bison and wolves.

But while we’re all aware of the startling visuals that have emerged from the region in Ukraine, far less is known about the inner life of this world, shot through with radioactivity.

Scientists are still largely in the dark about how healthy Chernboyl’s animals are. And one paradox in particular has puzzled them for years: why are the wild boars still so much more radioactive than other species like deer?

Now, more precise measurements have enabled researchers at the Vienna University of Technology and the Leibniz University of Hannover to solve this “riddle”.

In a new paper published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, they explain that it has to do with nuclear weapons tests that predate the disaster - and the pigs’ penchant for a certain truffle.

Radioactivity in wild boars has remained surprisingly high

After the accident, people were discouraged from eating local mushrooms and the meat of wild animals because of high radioactive contamination.

The contamination of deer and roe deer decreased over time as expected. But the measured levels of radioactivity in wild boar meat stayed surprisingly high, SciDaily reports.

To this day, some samples of wild boar meat - from populations that have spread across the region - still contain radiation levels significantly over regulatory limits.

Cesium-137 is the key radioactive isotope measured in these samples. It has a half-life of around 30 years - meaning that after 30 years, half of the material has decayed by itself.

Radiation exposure to food typically declines faster, since the cesium has travelled far since Chernobyl - washed out by rainwater, or driven down into the soil, so it stops being absorbed by plants and animals in the same initial quantities.

So after one half-life, most food samples exhibit much less than half the original concentration.

In Bavarian boar flesh however, radiation levels have remained almost constant after nearly 40 years - seemingly breaking the laws of physics.

A green oasis: How Nairobi’s world-only national park benefits lions, giraffes and people

Why do wild boars have high radioactivity?

Wild pigs feed in a snow covered field near the village of Lovchitsy, 65 kilometres northwest of Minsk, Belarus. - Sergei Grits/AP

To help solve this mystery, a team led by Professor Georg Steinhauser at TU Wien decided to decipher the origin as well as the amount of radioactivity in boars.

"This is possible because different sources of radioactive isotopes have different physical fingerprints," explains Dr Bin Feng, who conducts his research at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry at Leibniz Universität Hannover and the TRIGA Center Atominstitut at TU Wien.

"For example, they do not only release cesium-137, but also cesium-135, a cesium isotope with a much longer half-life."

The ratio of these two types of cesium varies depending on the nuclear event. A breakthrough in measuring cesium-135 (much harder to pin down) helped the researchers see that the boars bore the marks of a different period: nuclear weapons tests of the 1960s.

The results showed that while a total of about 90 per cent of the cesium-137 in Central Europe comes from Chernobyl, the proportion in the wild boar samples is much lower. Instead, a large proportion of the cesium in wild boar meat tracks back to nuclear weapons testing - up to 68 per cent in some samples.

But again, the question is why?

Here are all the positive environmental stories from 2023 so far

Chernobyl’s tree frogs: The inside story on how a cunning species survived radiation
Deer truffles are at the root of it

As the old adage goes, you are what you eat. The researchers have linked the prevalence of nuclear weapons testing era radiation in the boars to their diet.

The animals are particularly keen on deer truffles - underground growing mushrooms that they dig up. And the radioactive cesium accumulates in these subterranean mushrooms with a long time delay.

The cesium migrates downwards through the soil very slowly, sometimes only about one millimetre per year.

"The cesium migrates downwards through the soil very slowly, sometimes only about one millimetre per year," Georg Steinhauser to SciDaily.

Deer truffles, which are found at depths of 20-40 centimetres, are therefore only now absorbing the cesium that was released in Chernobyl. The cesium from "old" nuclear weapons tests, on the other hand, already arrived there some time ago.

The mushrooms - which are likened to marzipan balls rolled in cinnamon - have had a double hit of cesium, which is also decaying over time.

"If you add up all these effects, it can be explained why the radioactivity of deer truffles - and subsequently of pigs - remains relatively constant over the years," says Steinhauser.

"Our work shows how complicated the interrelationships in natural ecosystems can be," he adds, "but also precisely that the answers to such riddles can be found if your measurements are sufficiently accurate."

Given these factors, the contamination of wild boar meat is not expected to drop significantly in the next few years.

That could be bad news for farmers. Wild boars are less hunted in some areas - possibly because their ongoing radioactivity makes them less appealing. And their overpopulation often causes damage to agriculture and forestry.

The middle   WORKING class is getting its spending power back — but progress is 'fragile'

Gabriella Cruz-Martinez
·Personal finance writer
Sat, September 2, 2023 

America’s middle class is getting its spending power back after a year and a half of decades-high inflation.

But it still lags behind the levels from before the pandemic.

A new household budget index from Primerica, a financial services company, found that the purchasing power of middle-income households — defined as those earning between $30,000 and $130,000 a year — increased to 97.5% in July, up from 97% the month prior.

The improvement, however, is still below the index's baseline of 100% that occurred in January 2019. Any reading under that threshold shows consumers' spending power is at a deficit.

The modest uptick comes after credit card debt surpassed $1 trillion for the first time last month and a string of recent data showed that more consumers are having trouble paying their debts on time.

Read more: Personal loan vs. credit cards: What to use for an emergency?

"We’re seeing some climbing out of the deepest of the difficulties after the pandemic. We’ve seen inflation slowed down, and we’ve seen earned incomes begin to increase. Both are positives compared to the way things were previously," Primerica CEO Glenn Williams told Yahoo Finance. "I think the important thing to realize is that while things are not getting as bad as fast as they were, they’re still not necessarily getting good."

Eva Cevallos with her 11-month-old daughter, Quinn, pays with a credit card, as she shops at the Walmart Supercenter store in Rosemead, Calif. (Damian Dovarganes, AP Photo)
'Families have been underwater for 44 months'

Inflation has been dragging middle-income households underwater for over a year, according to Primerica’s data.

American’s spending power dipped to a low point of 85.6% in June 2022, the survey showed, down from its high of 102.8% in November 2020. The decline represented six years of gains in purchasing power lost in 18 months, Williams said.

That sharp decline in June of last year coincided with consumer prices increasing 9.1%, the largest 12-month increase since November 1981. Though inflation has cooled since then, households have yet to fully recover from the blow.

"The index is not yet back to 100. And when you get to 100, it simply means that the families have enough earned income in that month to cover their expenses," Williams said. "They didn't make up for the lost ground."

According to Primerica’s data, in the 55-month period the index covers going back to 2019, middle-income households have been at a spending deficit for roughly 44 of those months.

"For 44 of those months, families have been underwater, which means they didn't have enough earned income to cover their expenses," Williams said. "That spending comes either through withdrawal of savings or using credit."

'The success we’re beginning to see is extraordinarily fragile'

While household finances have made some progress, those gains may not last long.

Credit card balances hit $1.03 trillion, up 4.6% from the previous year, the Federal Reserve of New York revealed earlier this month. Similarly, the Federal Reserve of St. Louis reported outstanding credit balances had surpassed $1 trillion. Both indicators were record highs.

A separate study found that 51% of credit card borrowers couldn’t pay off their entire balance each month and let debt roll over from one month to the next, accruing interest. That was the first time that the share of Americans revolving their debt was higher than those paying off their bills on time, J.D. Power researchers noted.

And Macy’s said last month its second quarter credit card sales were down 36%, with the retailer writing off many of the ballooning balances of consumers unable to pay their bills.

"I think the success that we're beginning to see is extraordinarily fragile. And I think that the credit card balances that we're seeing today at record levels are directly connected to those months of those families being underwater for the last 44 months," Williams said. "And using credit cards to bridge the gap each month because their income was not keeping up with inflation."


Interest rates on credit cards have surged to record highs following the Federal Reserve’s efforts to tame inflation. The average rate on a credit card is now above 20%, according to Bankrate, matching 38-year highs.

For folks with revolving credit debt, accruing interest can add up fast. For instance, if you have a credit card with an APR of 20.60% and want to pay off $3,000 in debt within 24 months, you’ll pay $153 monthly. Over that time, you’ll accrue roughly $685 in interest. That’s cash you could be using for other expenses.

Worsening the financial circumstances for many younger Americans is the end of federal student forbearance come October. According to Experian, the average student loan borrower will have to make a payment of $203 once payments resume.

"So you've got challenges from the past, which I think are directly related to the credit card balances and then you do have the other potential challenges of the future. The one that's staring so many families in the face right now is the beginning of loan payments and student loan payments," Williams said.

"There's still a tremendous amount of progress that needs to be made for these families to be out of harm's way."

Gabriella is a personal finance reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @__gabriellacruz.

THERE IS NO MIDDLE CLASS , NOR CONSUMER CLASS,  ITS A FALSE LABELING OF THE POST WWII WORKING CLASS. LIKE SO CALLED COLOR OF YOUR COLLAR WHITE, BLUE, PINK. OR THE SO CALLED COLOUR OF THE WORKING CLASS; WHITE.

Robust tropical disturbance near Africa is on track to be the next storm to watch

Bryan Norcross
Sat, September 2, 2023 

Updated Saturday 9 a.m. ET 

The Tropical Disturbance that moved off Africa yesterday already has a broad circulation with bands of tropical moisture around the system. As it tracks to the west over the warm tropical Atlantic, the National Hurricane Center and the various computer forecasts indicate the system is likely to develop into a tropical depression or tropical storm over the next several days.

The name will be Tropical Storm Lee, if another system somewhere in the ocean doesn’t pop up. But none is expected

Tropical Disturbance to Watch

The disturbance has lots of runway to organize into a mature tropical storm or hurricane on its track to the general vicinity of the northeastern Caribbean islands next week. On the current schedule, the system would reach the islands or the waters north of them about next Saturday.

It’s far too early to speculate whether potential-Lee will impact the islands or the U.S. The final track will likely be dependent on how strong the system gets and on what timetable, which can’t be known except in a general sense. The disturbance is expected to organize and intensify, but whether that happens early or late in the week is an open question.

For now, this is just a system to watch, especially later next week.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic, Ex-Idalia is producing tropical-storm-force winds over 50 mph on Bermuda. The system is skirting by to the south and east. Conditions on the island will improve later today.

Tropical Storms Gert and Katia are expected to be short-lived, dying over the open ocean.

Otherwise, more systems over Africa will follow today’s Tropical Disturbance off the continent, but nothing is imminent that is of interest.

California state scientists authorize first-ever strike. Will workers walk off the job?

Lindsey Holden
Sat, September 2, 2023 

Kevin Neri/kneri@sacbee.com

California state scientists could potentially walk off the job for the first time in their union’s four-decade history.

The California Association of Professional Scientists on Friday announced members voted to authorize a strike after a three-year contract fight. The union represents about 5,300 managerial-level scientists in state government who monitor food safety, prevent air and water pollution and manage natural resources, among other public duties.

CAPS leaders announced the strike authorization vote on Tuesday, and members were able to cast ballots until 8 a.m. on Friday. About 93.5% of members voted in favor of calling a strike, according to a news release.

“I’m extremely proud of the members who stood together and voted,” said Jacqueline Tkac, CAPS bargaining committee chair, in a statement. “State scientists are united and are willing to fight for what they deserve, if necessary. This vote is a clear message to our bargaining partners in the Newsom administration that their last, late-hour offer was sadly inadequate.”

The union has been fighting for pay raises of 30% to 40% to fix wage disparities between scientists and their engineering counterparts. Members say engineers receive significantly more money for similar work.

The strike authorization does not mean CAPS members will walk off the job. However, it will allow leaders to call for a strike if the union cannot reach a contract agreement with the state and declares an impasse.

The strike authorization announcement describes negotiations as having reached a “critical juncture” ahead of the final two weeks of the legislative calendar. The Senate and Assembly conclude their business on Sept. 14.

“We continue to bargain, of course,” Tkac said in her statement. “But time is short to reach an agreement and state scientists are tired of the state’s foot-dragging and lowball offers. The bargaining team remains steadfastly committed to our efforts to ensure the state of California becomes a just and equitable employer for state scientists.”

Tremors are shaking Washington’s volcanoes, including Mount Baker. What’s causing it?

Robert Mittendorf
Thu, August 31, 2023 

Several Washington state volcanoes are showing what appear to be swarms of minor earthquakes, a phenomenon that’s lasted for the past month or more.

But a Western Washington University seismologist known for explaining the recent “Swift quake” says they might not be earthquakes at all.

Seismographs on Mount Baker, Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens each registered a dozen or more apparent temblors in July and August, according to data posted at the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network website.

All were less than magnitude 2, and many were less than magnitude 1 — too small to be felt by people.

Even so, increased seismic activity can indicate that an eruption is imminent, as happened in 1980 with Mount St. Helens.


But what looks like seismic shaking on these volcanoes isn’t even an earthquake, a Western Washington University seismology professor said.

Turns out, the tremors are actually vibrations from the folding and cracking of glaciers, Jackie Caplan-Auerbach told The Bellingham Herald.

“A lot of the earthquakes that you are seeing right now are those little tiny glacier quakes,” Caplan-Auerbach said in an interview.

Western Washington University geology professor Jackie Caplan-Auerbach is shown doing field work off the coast of Hawaii in July 2018.

“These are associated in some way with the glaciers. It often looks alarming. (But) none of these look out of the ordinary,” she said.

Caplan-Auerbach, who is a professor in WWU’s Geology Department and associate dean of the College of Science and Engineering, made international news in August when she shared that Taylor Swift’s recent Seattle concerts registered more forcefully on seismographs than the Seattle Seahawks’ 2013 “Beast Quake.”

Glaciers are giant rivers of ice, and as they creep along and melt and freeze they create cracks and crevasses, Caplan-Auerbach said.

“Those cracks shake the ground like an earthquake,” she said.

Glaciers on Mount Baker are seen from the Heliotrope Ridge Trail in August 2020, The 10,781-foot volcano is about 50 miles east of Bellingham.

How billion-dollar hurricanes, other disasters are starting to reshape your insurance bill

Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY
Updated Sat, September 2, 2023 

As coastal residents pick up the pieces in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, the final price tag from Idalia is far from clear. But one thing is already known – the storm is yet another reminder that protecting homes with insurance is getting harder, riskier and more expensive as temperatures warm and weather events grow more erratic and intense.

While nowhere near as harmful as it might have been, Hurricane Idalia is still predicted to have caused somewhere between $12 and $20 billion in damage and lost output, according to Moody's Analytics. In Florida alone, Idalia may result in insured losses of almost $10 billion, according to USB Bank.

As insurance companies try to quantify risk from climate change, the unglamorous industry is proving to be a key part of how Americans experience the effects of climate change. Virtually anyone buying a house with a mortgage must have homeowner's insurance, and insurance companies in disaster-prone areas have been significantly raising rates or withdrawing altogether from certain areas.

There's a lot at stake: If you don't have insurance, you can't get a mortgage.

An aerial view shows a vehicle driving along a flooded street in New Port Richey, Florida, on August 30, 2023.
How will insurance be affected by Idalia?

Climate change is leading to more intense and frequent natural catastrophes. What changes are likely to be coming as insurers try to balance customer needs with rising costs? James Eck, a senior credit officer with Moody's Investors Service who produced two in-depth reports looking at the issues this week, says insurance companies may make changes in the future:

Individual homeowners might be expected to take on more of the initial risk. "Instead of a $1,000 or $5,000 deductible, maybe it's $20,000 or $25,000," he said.


Insurance companies might reduce the concentration of risk in a given area. So in a given ZIP code they might cap the number of homes they insure, so their exposure to risk is lowered and their customer base is diversified.

Blueprint: Best homeowners insurance in Florida of September 2023

To lower premiums, homeowners might be encouraged to install relatively low-cost flood protection measures that lower the chance of catastrophic damage. Examples include:

Moving utilities above the base flood elevation, often out of basements or first floors, so furnaces, water heaters, electrical systems and other utilities are at least 12 inches above possible water levels.

Replace carpeting on lower levels with tile, which is flood-resistant.

Flood-proof basements by sealing walls with waterproofing compounds. Possibly installing a sump pump.

Install flood vents, which allow water to flow through and then drain out of a home, lowering the risk of structural damage.

Use flood-resistant insulation and drywall, which can minimize water damage and be easily cleaned and sanitized.
In a warming world, how do you make it affordable?

At its core, insurance rests on a simple proposition: If you spread the risk of disaster over a large population, in any given year most people will be fine and their premiums will pay for those who are hit with catastrophe.

Over hundreds of years, insurance companies have gotten very good at calculating the threat of those catastrophes so they can accurately guess just how much risk to take on and still make money.

That calculation has become more difficult as climate change increases the number of disasters, from wildfires in the West to droughts in the Midwest to destructive storms along the East Coast.

Insurance generally presumes that events hit random people, not entire blocks or subdivisions or ZIP codes, said Robin Dillon-Merrill, a professor of operations and management at Georgetown University.

"It starts to break down when the disasters keep getting bigger and bigger," she said.

In response, some insurance companies have simply stopped writing new policies in areas they consider too risky. In Florida, several insurers have curtailed offerings or left the market entirely due to frivolous lawsuits, fraudulent insurance claims and overall hurricane risk. In California, the rising number and ferocity of wildfires, coupled with thousands of residents who want to live in the beautiful but dangerous Wildland Urban Interface have caused some insurers to stop writing new policies.

Nationally, insurance is also more expensive because rebuilding costs have risen due to higher construction prices, inflation and supply chain issues.

Contributing: Trevor Hughes

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Idalia kicks off huge insurance costs in hurricane season 2023

'Long overdue': China's new Foreign State Immunity Law will align it with Western practices

South China Morning Post
Fri, September 1, 2023 

Beijing has made the unprecedented decision to allow some cases against foreign states in Chinese courts, a move that will align its take on "foreign state immunity" with mainstream Western practices.

China has long taken the stance that states and their property are immune from the jurisdiction of the courts of other states. Previously, it has never allowed a case where a foreign state or government was sued, nor has it allowed any claim involving a foreign state or their property.

But the Foreign State Immunity Law, adopted by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Friday, will remove such immunity from next year.

Legal experts said the "long overdue" law could provide better legal protection for private businesses involved in international trade as China works to restore business confidence.

From January 1, 2024, sovereign states or entities authorised to act on their behalf that are involved in certain territorial infringements or commercial activities will no longer be immune from prosecution in China.

Commercial activity was defined in the draft law as "any transaction or investment involving goods or services or other act of a commercial nature that does not constitute an exercise of sovereign authority".

"Loans" were added to the list of activities after the deliberation, according to the state-run newspaper Legal Daily.

The law aims to "improve China's foreign state immunity system" and "clarify the jurisdiction of the courts of the People's Republic of China over civil cases involving foreign states and their property".

The standing committee also amended the Civil Procedure Law in the same meeting, allowing embassies to collect evidence in foreign countries if a plaintiff before a Chinese court needs to seek evidence abroad and the court finds it necessary.

The amendment will also take effect on January 1 and will be exercised according to domestic laws. The amendment is conducive to "better safeguarding China's sovereignty, security and development interests", Xinhua said.

"The Foreign State Immunity Law generally brings China in line with the approach of most other states," said James D Fry, an associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong.

"For example, international law generally does not recognise immunity for torts or delicts [infringements or violations of the law] committed in the host state, and Article 9 of the draft law makes that express," he said.

While the bill did not specify, he expected the law would also apply to Hong Kong, following the 2011 Congo judgment that the city would follow the China approach on state immunity issues.

"This change will make it easier to enforce arbitration awards in Hong Kong, among other things, which should help strengthen Hong Kong's reputation as a hub for dispute resolution."

The immunity of states from the jurisdiction of foreign domestic courts has been a long-standing and widely accepted principle of international law.

After World War II, most sovereign countries, including the United States and Britain, enacted their own laws to allow some exceptions for better legal protection to businesses engaging in international transactions - changing their approach from "absolute immunity" to "restrictive immunity".

China and Russia were the two main holdouts from the shift - which has meant suing a foreign state in domestic courts has been impossible.

"For many years, China has been reluctant to abandon the traditional absolute theory for fear that it may expose China to many lawsuits in foreign courts," said Bing Ling, a Chinese law professor at the University of Sydney.

But the concern was "misconceived" because whatever theory China upholds, foreign courts could always apply their own laws of restrictive immunity in lawsuits against China, he said.

China signed the United Nations Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property in 2005 - which set out the circumstances under which a foreign state should not be immune from the jurisdiction of another state - but has yet to ratify it.

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress passed the Foreign State Immunity Law which will bring China more in line with Western legal practices. 

After a US state filed a suit in federal court against China in 2020 for its alleged responsibility for the human and economic losses caused by Covid-19, more than 35 Chinese lawmakers proposed looking into a law on state immunity as they thought the absence of such legislation put China at a disadvantage when dealing with foreign litigation.

The foreign ministry then drafted the bill which was first deliberated by the standing committee in December.

"With China's engagement in international commerce, especially under the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese companies have long required the same protection afforded by the restrictive immunity doctrine," Ling said.

He added that the final passage of the Foreign State Immunity Law "sends a somewhat different message" as it will see Chinese law conform "with the mainstream practice of Western countries".

China has recently expanded its legal tools to protect its national interest and security, notably the enactment of the Foreign Relations Law and amendments to the Counter-espionage Law.

Ryan Mitchell, an associate professor of law at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said while the new law is not entirely motivated by competition betweeen China and the US, it could create room for "sanctions-like techniques against foreign states or their officials".

"For instance, denying immunity for damage to property in the PRC could be interpreted broadly to justify some types of lawsuits or fines," he said.

Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

OOPS

Italian ex-premier says French missile downed an airliner in 1980 by accident in bid to kill Gadhafi

FRANCES D'EMILIO
Sat, September 2, 2023 



- An Italian Carabinieri police officer patrols a hangar, in Pratica di Mare, near Rome, Monday Dec. 15, 2003, the reconstructed wreckage of the Itavia DC-9 passenger jetliner which crashed near the tiny Mediterranean island of Ustica in June 27, 1980. A former Italian premier is contending that a French air force missile brought down a passenger jet over the Mediterranean Sea in 1980 and is appealing to France's president to respond. The crash of the Italian domestic airliner killed all 81 persons aboard. What caused the crash is an enduring mystery. 

(AP Photo/Emiliano Grillotti, File)

ROME (AP) — A former Italian premier, in an interview published on Saturday, contended that a French air force missile accidentally brought down a passenger jet over the Mediterranean Sea in 1980 in a failed bid to assassinate Libya's then leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Former two-time Premier Giuliano Amato appealed to French President Emmanuel Macron to either refute or confirm his assertion about the cause of the crash on June 27, 1980, which killed all 81 persons aboard the Italian domestic flight.

In an interview with Rome daily La Repubblica, Amato said he is convinced that France hit the plane while targeting a Libyan military jet.

While acknowledging he has no hard proof, Amato also contended that Italy tipped off Gadhafi, and so the Libyan, who was heading back to Tripoli from a meeting in Yugoslavia, didn't board the Libyan military jet.

What caused the crash is one of modern Italy’s most enduring mysteries. Some say a bomb exploded aboard the Itavia jetliner on a flight from Bologna to Sicily, while others say examination of the wreckage, pulled up from the seafloor years later, indicate it was hit by a missile.

Radar traces indicated a flurry of aircraft activity in that part of the skies when the plane went down.

“The most credible version is that of responsibility of the French air force, in complicity with the Americans and who participated in a war in the skies that evening of June 27," Amato was quoted as saying.

NATO planned to “simulate an exercise, with many planes in action, during which a missile was supposed to be fired” with Gadhafi as the target, Amato said.

In the aftermath of the crash, French, U.S. and NATO officials denied any military activity in the skies that night.

According to Amato, a missile was allegedly fired by a French fighter jet that had taken off from an aircraft carrier, possibly off Corsica's southern coast.

Macron, 45, was a toddler when the Italian passenger jet went down in the sea near the tiny Italian island of Ustica.

"I ask myself why a young president like Macron, while age-wise extraneous to the Ustica tragedy, wouldn't want to remove the shame that weighs on France," Amato told La Repubblica. ”And he can remove it in only two ways — either demonstrating that the this thesis is unfounded or, once the (thesis') foundation is verified, by offering the deepest apologies to Italy and to the families of the victims in the name of his government."

Amato, who is 85, said that in 2000, when he was premier, he wrote to the then presidents of the United States and France, Bill Clinton and Jacques Chirac, respectively, to press them to shed light on what happened. But ultimately, those entreaties yielded “total silence,” Amato said.

When queried by The Associated Press, Macron’s office said Saturday it wouldn't immediately comment on Amato’s remarks.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni called on Amato to say if he has concrete elements to back his assertions so that her government could pursue any further investigation.

Amato's words "merit attention,'' Meloni said in a statement issued by her office, while noting that the former premier had specified that his assertions are “fruit of personal deductions.”

Assertions of French involvement aren't new. In a 2008 television interview, former Italian President Francesco Cossiga, who was serving as premier when the crash occurred, blamed it on a French missile whose target had been a Libyan military jet and said he learned that Italy's secret services military branch had tipped off Gadhafi.

Gadhafi was killed in Libya's civil war in 2011.

A few weeks after the crash, the wreckage of a Libyan MiG, with the badly decomposed body of its pilot, was discovered in the remote mountains of southern Calabria.

___

Sylvie Corbet contributed to this report from Paris.