Joni Mitchell to top Grammy performances with history-making set

Ellie Iorizzo, PA Los Angeles Correspondent
Thu, 1 February 2024 

Joni Mitchell is set to make history by performing live at the 2024 Grammy Awards for the first time at the age of 80.

The nine-time Grammy winner, who is nominated in the best folk category for her 2023 live album, will top the bill alongside a host of music stars including Billie Eilish, Travis Scott, Dua Lipa and SZA – who leads nominations this year.

Luke Combs, Olivia Rodrigo, Billy Joel and Burna Boy will also perform, alongside Irish rock band U2 who will make history as the first broadcasted Grammy performance, delivering their set from the Sphere in Las Vegas.

U2 will also perform a history-making set at the 66th Grammy awards (Nick Ansell/PA)


The music stars will be performing on a stage reminiscent of the gold-plated statuette, with a 20-foot mirrored monumental gramophone taking centre stage and curved stairs cascading from the main stage into the pink-coloured nominee area.

Mitchell, who picked up a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 2002, will grace the stage on Sunday on the heels of a gradual return to live appearances after suffering a brain aneurysm in March 2015.

Her Grammy-nominated live album Joni Mitchell At Newport was recorded during a surprise appearance at the 2022 Newport Folk Festival, her first public performance in 20 years.

Since then she made two public concert appearances billed as “Joni Jam” in Washington state last summer, followed by a Brandi Carlile and Friends show at the Hollywood Bowl last autumn.

Mitchell is widely regarded as one of the greatest singer-songwriters of her time with hit tracks including Chelsea Morning, Big Yellow Taxi and Free Man In Paris.

Joni Mitchell is widely regarded as one of the greatest singer-songwriters of her time (PA)

Her previous Grammy wins span from 1970, when she won best folk performance for Clouds, to 2022 where she was honoured with best historical album for the boxed set Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 1: The Early Years (1963–1967).

During her decades-long career, Mitchell has been nominated for 18 Grammy awards.

In an interview with Sir Elton John in 2022, Mitchell said she felt her music did not get the recognition it deserved in the 1970s due to sexism in the music industry.

The 66th annual Grammy awards will take place at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles and will be hosted by comedian Trevor Noah.

Latin artists marginalized at Grammys... again

Maggy DONALDSON
Thu, 1 February 2024 

Peso Pluma and Yng Lvcas -- seen onstage at the 2023 Billboard Latin Music Awards in 2023 -- did not get much Grammys love (Jason Koerner)

Each time the nominations for a showbiz awards show are rolled out, there are accusations of "snubs" -- but the Recording Academy's history of sidelining Latin music artists seems more pattern than fluke.

This year, not one Latin musician earned a Grammy nod in the Big Four categories, which celebrate the year's top album, record, song and new artist.

Some critics voiced surprise at the slight, one year after reggaeton megastar Bad Bunny made history with the first Spanish-language work nominated for Album of the Year, which lent hope that the Academy was waking up to Latin music's broad audience.

But those hopes were dashed: in particular, many industry watchers expressed shock that Peso Pluma -- the fast-rising Mexican superstar who broke into the global mainstream with a string of hits this past year -- was left out of the Best New Artist category.

The 24-year-old received his only nomination in the category for -- wait for it -- Best Musica Mexicana.

"By leaving him out of the general-field awards, they aren't just snubbing a lone artist here," wrote one Rolling Stone critic. "They're brushing off an entire new wave of talent that's been changing the musical landscape."

Reggaeton hitmaker Karol G was recognized only in musica urbana, while superstar Shakira and her collaboration with Argentine producer Bizarrap was completely shut out, as was rising artist Eladio Carrion.

"I felt that we didn't have as many Latin artists and creators as I would have liked to have seen," Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr told Billboard following the nominations reveal in November.

"We have to do more outreach in Latin communities, making sure that we're representing the music accurately. We're hearing from them things that we can do; making sure we have the right amount of membership and representation."

- 'Recalibration' -

Latin artists spanning genre have posted strong numbers across the board, but regional Mexican music -- which includes many styles like banda, sierreno, norteno and mariachi -- has grown particularly buzzy, making the Academy's neglect of it all the more conspicuous.

Its rise has seen a new generation of artists fuse traditional corridos -- ballads that became popular more than a century ago during the Mexican revolution -- with rap or reggaeton influences that has translated to chart-topping success.

Peso Pluma has faced some anger for embracing the "narcocorrido" subgenre, which some critics say glorifies drug culture, though many others say narcocorridos are a means of social critique.

But either way, his work and other regional Mexican styles have a fervent fan base that is transnational, appeals to the young and digitally savvy, and has staying power both on streaming platforms and social media.

"What's happening now is a recalibration, not only of Mexican regional music, but a recalibration of Mexican and Mexican identity in the United States," said Juan Carlos Ramirez-Pimienta, a professor at San Diego State University who specializes in corridos and narcoculture.

Many fans of artists like Peso Pluma are young immigrants to the United States or first-generation Americans, along with plenty of non-Latinos worldwide, many of whom don't speak Spanish.

"It really has to do with the erosion of English, and American music, as the 'music of the world,'" Ramirez-Pimienta told AFP.

"Pop music is pop music," no matter what language it is sung in, he added.

- 'Process of disenfranchising' -

Just like with pop, rock, hip-hop, country, classical and a number of other genres, Latin music does have its own section of categories among the more than 90 Grammy awards on offer.

And since 2000, the Latin Recording Academy -- which was established as a separate branch of the Academy in 1997 -- holds a ceremony specifically dedicated to primarily Spanish- and Portuguese-language music, the Latin Grammys.

That gala and the dedicated categories are important for ensuring representation, but they also make it easier to avoid honoring Latin music for its mainstream popularity, said Ed Morales, a writer and professor at Columbia University.

"The creation of the Latin Grammys can be used as an excuse to silo, and reduce the need for representation in the mainstream Grammys," he told AFP.

That said, it is "a major marketing promotional opportunity for the Latin music industry... I think it's been established as an important service," Morales added.

Both scholars said that the marginalization of Latin music in the granting of industry awards is not dissimilar to the struggles hip-hop artists have faced for decades -- barriers that have only begun breaking in recent years.

"It's the same process of disenfranchising," said Ramirez-Pimienta.

Morales noted the longstanding contributions of Latin music in the United States, with influences including rock, country and hip-hop.

At the end of the day, for Morales, it's a question of being recognized not just for identity, but for artistry.

"Latinos should not be these perpetual outsiders or foreigners," he said.

mdo/sst

THE PRIVATIZATION OF THE STATE
Argentine police battle protesters opposed to sweeping reform bill

AFP
Thu, 1 February 2024

Argentine police clash with protestors outside Congress while lawmakers debate the government's economic reforms (JUAN MABROMATA)

Argentine police fired rubber bullets on Thursday to disperse protesters gathered outside Congress as lawmakers debated the new president's sweeping economic, social and political reform package.

Opposition legislators stormed out of the building at one point to observe and denounce the police action, but later went back inside to take their seats and the debate resumed until past midnight.

The drama unfolded on the second day of what is expected to be a marathon debate on libertarian and self-described anarcho-capitalist President Javier Milei's reform plans.


The 53-year-old political outsider won a resounding election victory last October on a wave of fury over decades of economic crises marked by debt, rampant money printing, inflation and fiscal deficit.

Milei began his term by devaluing the peso by more than 50 percent, cutting state subsidies for fuel and transport, reducing the number of ministries by half, and scrapping hundreds of rules so as to deregulate the economy.

His massive reform package touches on all areas of public and private life, from privatizations to cultural issues, the penal code, divorce and the status of football clubs.

Argentines who elected him are already up in arms and staged a strike less than two months into his term.

Opposition lawmakers walked out of the chamber as police fought the protests outside.

TV footage showed police firing rubber bullets and water cannons at hundreds of demonstrators opposed to the reform package.

Local media reported three people injured and two arrests. The Buenos Aires press union reported at least a dozen journalists were hit by rubber bullets, including one in the face.

"We cannot hold a session under these circumstances," leftist lawmaker Mariano Del Cano said as he and others left the building.

Myriam Bregman, a leftist lawmaker and former presidential hopeful, told reporters that a group of around 40 legislators urged police to stop the violence.

"They hurled gas at us, they hit us, they pushed us," Bregman said.

Alejandro Finocchiaro, a lawmaker who supports Milei, accused lawmakers who walked out of trying to delay the debate and said the demonstrators outside "were determined to be repressed so this session will come to a halt."

It was the second day of protests outside Congress as the bill is debated.

Milei has his work cut out for him as his party holds just 38 of the 257 seats in the lower chamber.

Moderate opposition lawmakers have warned they will seek further changes to the bill, in particular on the touchy issue of the delegation of special powers to the executive in an economic emergency, and on the scope and extent of privatizations.

Plans to privatize state-owned oil giant YPF have already been scrapped, but another 40 companies are still on the list.

edm-lm/dga/dw/nro/dhw

Sikh turbans can be as good as cycle helmets in a crash, scientists discover

Sarah Knapton
Thu, 1 February 2024 

SIkhs are exempt from wearing motorcycle helmets or hard hats in some countries, including UK 

- Raquel Maria Carbonell Pagola/LightRocket via Getty Images

Turbans can be as effective or better than cycling helmets at protecting against some head injuries, experts have found.

Sikhs are often exempt from wearing helmets because they are incompatible with their religious headdress, but it was unknown whether the layers of fabric offered any protection.

Some turbans are folded from almost 32 feet of fabric, which can form a substantial barrier against knocks to the head.

To test their effectiveness, Imperial College London and the Sikh Scientists Network wrapped turbans on to the heads of crash test dummies and subjected them to cycling style crashes.

They found that turbans greatly reduced the risk of skull fractures in areas covered with a thick layer of fabric, compared to bare heads – in some cases appearing more protective than helmets.

Writing in the journal Annals of Biomedical Engineering, the team concluded: “Overall, while helmets generally offer better performance than turbans, certain turbans displayed comparable or even superior performance in one or more injury metrics.”

The team found the style of turban affected the risk of injury. For impacts to the front of the head, the 10ft long Dastaar turban style reduced impact force by 23 per cent compared to the worst performing turban style.

For impacts to the side of the head, the 32-foot (9.7 metres) Dumalla turban style performed the best, with a 59 per cent reduction in the force.
Force-absorbing turban

The researchers now plan to use their findings to develop a force-absorbing turban material to offer Sikhs who wear turbans better head protection.

Dr Gurpreet Singh, from the Sikh Scientists Network and Imperial’s Department of Materials, said: “Our findings show that simple Sikh turbans have the potential to mitigate head impacts.

“This provides important evidence that we hope will point the wider scientific community to invest in the best headgear fabrics to absorb shock, which indeed will open commercial markets to people from all walks of life that deal with concussions and head impacts.

“Due to a lack of research into advanced fabrics, Sikhs currently face varying degrees of risk,” Dr Singh added.

Sikhs who wear turbans are exempt from wearing hard hats and motorcycle helmets in countries, including the UK, India, some Canadian states, Denmark, New Zealand, Sweden and Thailand.

The team found that risk to cyclists could be lessened by placing energy absorbing materials between the layers of fabric and covering a larger area of the head with more fabric.

Ruth Purdie, chief executive of the Road Safety Trust, which funded the research, said: “Cyclists are classed as vulnerable road users, and therefore it is important to think about different ways to improve their safety.

“The findings of this study could really support Sikh cyclists and help reduce their risks of head injury.”

Turban style and thickness affects head injury risk in Sikh cyclists

Peer-Reviewed Publication

IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON

Sudden impacts or jolts to the head can cause skull fractures and traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). TBIs can cause bleeding, unconsciousness, and potential changes to the brain leading to memory loss, mood and personality changes and lack of concentration - sometimes many years after the initial injury. 

 

However, very little research has been done to ascertain the extent and mechanism by which turbans might mitigate impacts to the head during cycling incidents. 

 

Now, researchers from Imperial and the Sikh Scientists Network have studied the performance of turban styles worn by male and female Sikhs under the types of impacts common to cycling incidents. The findings allowed them to make evidence-based recommendations so that Sikhs who wear turbans might benefit from the best head protection possible. 

 

The research is published today in Annals of Biomedical Engineering. 

 

Using crash test dummy heads, the researchers tested five different turbans, distinguished by two wrapping styles and two different fabrics with size variations. They then compared their findings of injury risk with conventional cycle helmets and with bare heads.  

They found that turbans greatly reduced the risk of skull fractures in areas covered with a thick layer of fabric, compared to bare heads. Also, the style of the turban greatly affected the risk of head injury. 

For impacts to the front of the head, the Dastaar turban style with 3 metre long and 2m wide Rubia Voile fabric performed the best, with a 23 per cent reduction in the force applied to the head compared to the worst performing turban style.  

For impacts to the side of the head, the Dumalla turban style with 10m long and 1m wide Full Voile fabric performed the best, with a 59 per cent reduction in the force applied to the head compared to the worst performing turban style. 

They also found that although the risk of skull fractures and brain injuries was higher with all turbans than conventional bicycle helmets, the risk might be reduced using the following recommendations: 

 

• Covering a larger area of the head with a thick layer of fabric. 

• Placing energy absorbing materials between the layers of the fabric to increase impact duration and reduce force, reducing the risk of skull fractures. 

• Reducing the friction between the layers of fabric to reduce the rotational force transmitted to the head, thus the risk of brain injuries. 

 

Lead author Dr Mazdak Ghajari, from Imperial’s Dyson School of Design Engineering, said: “From our previous work, we have a good understanding of which types of impacts are common in cyclists and how we should assess the efficacy of head protection equipment in the lab. This project was a great opportunity for us to apply this expertise to empower Sikhs to protect themselves from head injury.” 

 

Co-author Dr Gurpreet Singh, from the Sikh Scientists Network and Imperial’s Department of Materials, said: “Sikhs have earned the right to wear the sacred turban with pride for centuries now. However, being just 0.5% of the world population, very little has been done to scientifically empower Sikhs to continue practicing their faith with advanced, protective materials that are in-line with their religious requirements. Due to a lack of research into advanced fabrics, Sikhs currently face varying degrees of risk. 

 

“Our findings show that simple Sikh turbans have the potential to mitigate head impacts. This provides important evidence that we hope will point the wider scientific community to invest in the best headgear fabrics to absorb shock, which indeed will open commercial markets to people from all walks of life that deal with concussions and head impacts.” 

 

The researchers now plan to use their findings to develop a force-absorbing turban material to offer Sikhs who wear turbans better head protection in situations where helmets might otherwise be worn. 

The findings could also be used to benefit Sikhs in other areas where head protection is worn. For example, due to religious tenets, Sikhs who wear turbans are exempt from wearing hard hats and motorcycle helmets in several countries where it is a legal requirement, including the UK, India, some Canadian states, Denmark, New Zealand, Sweden and Thailand. 

Ruth Purdie OBE, chief executive of The Road Safety Trust, which funded the research, said: “Cyclists are classed as vulnerable road users, and therefore it is important to think about different ways to improve their safety. 

 

“The findings of this study could really support Sikh cyclists and help reduce their risks of head injury.” 

 

This work was funded by The Road Safety Trust and supported by the Sikh Scientists Network. The research was undertaken with Rehat Maryada – the Code of Sikh Conduct and Conventions – in mind. 

 

---

JOURNAL

Annals of Biomedical Engineering

From Frida Kahlo to Billie Holiday – why we have got artistic female addicts all wrong


Professor Sally Marlow
Fri, 2 February 2024 


Frida Kahlo in bed at her home, La Casa Azul, Mexico City - Gisele Freund/Photo Researchers History/Getty Images

The work of Frida Kahlo, Billie Holiday, Anna Kavan, Andrea Dunbar and Nan Goldin represents more than a century of creativity. All five women struggled with drugs and alcohol, and there has been much speculation about how their art was affected by their addictions. As an addiction scientist, I wanted to take the opposite approach, and, in Radio 3’s The Essay, see what I could learn about these women’s dependencies by looking at their work.

Of course, all five are brilliant, ground-breaking. Kahlo was the first Mexican artist to have works in the Louvre and New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Holiday had more than 200 hit records and regularly sold-out Carnegie Hall. Kavan was a writer described by Brian Aldiss as “De Quincey’s heir and Kafka’s sister”, while Andrea Dunbar’s play Rita, Sue and Bob Too not only spawned a hugely successful film, but was also a phenomenal piece of social commentary which predicted the #MeToo movement and grooming scandals by more than three decades.

As for the only living artist included in this select group of five, Nan Goldin, her work is considered so valuable by the world’s leading art institutions that when she threatened to remove it if they did not sever ties with the family she saw as her tormentors, they one by one acquiesced.


What struck me while researching the programme was just how often all five women have been characterised as “addicted” artists, which is at best reductive and at worst offensive. I came across various patronising and lazy stereotypes. Whether it’s Andrea Dunbar referred to as “genius from the slums” or headlines about Anna Kavan’s house containing “enough heroin to kill the whole street”, these women are defined time and time again by their problems and the circumstances which led them to use drugs and alcohol, rather than their talent.

It’s not even as if they all explicitly reference alcohol and drugs in their work. For example, there are no pills, syringes or cocktail glasses in Frida Kahlo’s paintings. Andrea Dunbar didn’t write plays about alcohol, it’s simply part of the backdrop.

Playwright Andrea Dunbar in Bradford - Peter Lomas/ANL/Shutterstock

There are, of course, double standards. We read male authors like Jean Cocteau and Edgar Allen Poe and look at work by Jackson Pollock and Picasso without giving their addictions a second thought. However, when it comes to women, the idea of the neurotic artist whose talent is really not a talent has been constantly re-enforced. It’s only relatively recently that a critical mass of women artists have achieved acclaim, and we don’t seem to be fully comfortable yet with a narrative that a woman artist can simply be an artist. This may change as the work of artists like Rachel Whiteread, Cornelia Parker and Hilary Mantel becomes the norm, using architecture, physics and history for inspiration rather than autobiography and trauma.

It is clear that the art of the women I looked at for the series is great in its own right, but also instructive in teaching us about the nature of addiction. Kavan used heroin for decades as well as wrote about it, most famously in Julia and the Bazooka, a short story collection about what she calls “injected tranquillity”, published in 1970 shortly after her death. She details the devastating inevitability of relapse in The Old Address, following a stay in some sort of medical facility; and in High in the Mountains describes how a particular drug (perhaps cocaine) makes the protagonist feel.

But it is from Julia and the Bazooka that I learnt most about addiction. Julia has a kindly doctor who prescribes her heroin, and Anna had just such a doctor in her own life. The context is important here. The Departmental Committee on Morphine and Heroin Addiction of 1926 recommended that medical professionals could legally prescribe heroin or morphine to those addicted to it if it would enable patients “to lead useful lives”, and doctors prescribed right up until 1968.

British novelist Anna Kavan

There were just a few hundred people receiving heroin prescriptions from their doctor at any one time and Anna Kavan was one of them. She is arguing in the story for a medical approach to heroin addiction, not a criminal one. It is likely that this medical approach meant that she lived until she was almost 70, and was spared some of the dangers of unknown purity of produce and organised criminal distribution.

In the work of the five women I chose for the series, the drug references are most explicit in the photography of Nan Goldin. Goldin took candid pictures of her life beginning in the 1970s, well before everyone else started doing it on social media. She became addicted to heroin, but in the 1980s got clean. Then in 2014 she had surgery on her wrist and was prescribed painkillers in the shape of an opioid cousin of the morphine and pethidine Kahlo had been prescribed 90 years previously.

This was Oxycontin, the prescription opioid which underlies much of the current opioid epidemic in the United States. Goldin was addicted immediately and lost three years of her life until a second detox and rehab. During those three years, she kept on taking photographs, which she brought together in a 2019 slide show, Memory Lost, a startling, bleak pictorial record of her addiction the second time round.

US Photographer Nan Goldin - JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP via Getty Images

She used this to raise awareness and start a campaign against the Sackler family, one branch of which owned Purdue Pharma, manufacturers and marketers of Oxycontin. Goldin’s experience and art shows that addiction never really goes away. Many people who have managed to quit drugs or alcohol describe themselves as “in recovery”, not “recovered”, acknowledging that relapse in addiction is common even after a long period of not using.

In Goldin’s photo Dope on my rug, taken in 2016 during the height of her addiction to oxycontin, four bottles of prescription opioids and eight blister packs of pills are scattered amongst packets of cigarettes, a hard drive, a note pad and a camera – an enormous amount of drugs and an enormous part of her life.

In making this series I discovered just how little those around these women understood or acknowledged that they needed help and support with their addictions. Frida Kahlo attending her own art opening in her bed was not a charming eccentricity, but a strong sign that she was struggling. It was as if art was the only way these women could make themselves heard, whether about their addictions, or about the circumstances which exacerbated them.

Billie Holiday: 'Dope never helped anybody sing better or play music better or do anything better.' - Bill Spilka/Getty Images

It is extraordinary to me that these women produced the art they did while drugs and/or alcohol were so much a part of their lives. Drugs and alcohol rarely make anyone more creative or more productive, although they often make people think they are more creative. As Billie Holiday recognised in her autobiography, “Dope never helped anybody sing better or play music better or do anything better.” In fact, drugs almost always have quite the opposite effect, they dull the senses and blunt the edges.

Therefore we should recognise these five remarkable talents despite their addictions, not because of them. Let’s not stigmatise them or fetishise them, let’s celebrate them.

Professor Sally Marlow is Professor of Practice in Public Understanding of Mental Health Research at King’s College London. The Essay: Women of Substance is on Radio 3 from Monday 5-Friday 9 Feb at 10pm

Public transport walkout hits strike-battered Germany


AFP
Fri, 2 February 2024 

The Verdi services trade union called on more than 90,000 workers at over 130 local companies operating buses, trams and underground services to join the walkout in an escalating dispute over pay and working conditions (Adam BERRY)

Public transport workers across Germany walked off the job on Friday in the latest industrial action to buffet Europe's top economy.

The Verdi services trade union called on more than 90,000 workers at over 130 local companies operating buses, trams and underground services to join the walkout in an escalating dispute over pay and working conditions.

The strike impacted 81 cities and 42 rural districts.


In most areas it was scheduled to stop public transport for the whole day, with the exception of Berlin where service resumed mid-morning, and Bavaria where Verdi did not strike while pay negotiations continued.

Long-distance and regional trains operated by Deutsche Bahn, where drivers went on strike last week, were unaffected.

Verdi's deputy chair Christine Behle said the union was seeking a 35-hour work week with no losses in wages, in a bid to make jobs more attractive to workers.

Many operators are reporting up to 20 to 30 percent unfilled posts, with the staff shortages contributing to a vicious circle of overworked employees who are then falling ill, exacerbating the situation.

Climate activists had earlier in the week given their support to Verdi despite the impact on public transportation, saying it was time for the sector's workers to receive better compensation.

The strike came one day after security staff at 11 German airports walked off the job, leading to the cancellation of 1,100 flights amid a spate of industrial action and protests to hit commuters in the last weeks.

Meanwhile farmers have repeatedly used tractors to block access to roads and key ports in Germany, intensifying demonstrations against government plans to cut agriculture subsidies.

The next strike appeared to be on the horizon, at German airline Lufthansa.

Verdi chief negotiator in wage talks for ground staff, Marvin Reschinsky, said the negotiations with the flag carrier had hit an impasse.

"A strike is highly likely," Reschinsky said. "The only question is whether it will be before or after February 12 when the third round of negotiations are set to take place."

dlc/hmn/lth

NO WMD

UK to test fire nuclear missile from submarine in the Atlantic


Danielle Sheridan
Thu, 1 February 2024 

An unarmed Trident II (D5) ballistic missile being fired from HMS Vigilant in 2021 - LOCKHEED MARTIN/PA

Britain will test fire a nuclear missile for the first time in eight years.

A warning was issued to shipping that a test would be carried out as HMS Vanguard, a 16,000-tonne Trident submarine, arrived in the Atlantic.

The test, which will involve a dummy warhead, will be carried out by Feb 4 around 90km off Florida’s east coast, with a range of 5,900km.


The last time the UK fired a nuclear weapon was in 2016, when a Trident II D5 missile veered off course while being tested off the coast of Florida.

As first reported by The Sun, the missile firing will be the last test before the £4 billion submarine re-enters service as part of the UK’s nuclear deterrent fleet, having been in refit in Plymouth for seven years.

During its refit last year, it was discovered that a nuclear engineer glued broken submarine bolts back together in an “unforgivable” error.

The unsatisfactory repairs to HMS Vanguard’s cooling pipes were discovered after a bolt fell off whilst being tightened during checks inside the reactor chamber.

It led to Ben Wallace, the then defence secretary, holding a phone call with the chief executive of Babcock, the defence contractor which had glued the bolt back on, demanding greater transparency.

HMS Vigilant, one of the four Vanguard-class submarines which form the UK's strategic nuclear deterrent force - THOMAS McDONALD/CROWN COPYRIGHT

Although such tests are planned in advance and are not a direct response to geopolitical activities, it comes as the crisis in the Red Sea has intensified.

Earlier this week, Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary, met with his US defence and national security counterparts to discuss events in the region and how to tackle shared threats.

Since November, more than 30 attacks have been made on ships in the region which are there as part of Operation Prosperity Guardian, a multinational maritime task force made up of the UK, US and others, to protect international shipping in the Red Sea.

In a statement released on Thursday, Mr Shapps said: “It is completely unacceptable that Houthi activity in the Red Sea is threatening freedom of navigation, damaging the global economy and risking lives.

“We have worked in lockstep with our US allies to deliver Operation Prosperity Guardian, as well as conducting proportionate and targeted strikes against the Houthis.

“As two nations who champion freedom of movement, we will not cower in the face of these attacks and we would not hesitate to take further action if required.”

Nestlé investigated after admitting its mineral water underwent ‘purification’


Henry Samuel
Thu, 1 February 2024 

Nestlé Waters factory at Contrexeville in northeastern France - JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VERHAEGEN/AFP

French prosecutors are investigating Nestlé after the Swiss food giant admitted to treating water for its top brands, including Perrier and Vittel, that supposedly comes straight from springs.

Mineral water is 100 times more expensive than tap water but is supposed to be “purer”, “healthier” and “better for you”.

But the investigation came after a government probe, reported on by Le Monde and Radio France, found that almost one in three mineral water brands in France undergo purification treatment supposed to be used only on tap water.


For years, bottlers have used illegal purification techniques for water labelled as “spring” and “natural mineral”, according to the joint investigation.

The French government has been aware of this since 2021 and in response, quietly eased regulations, it alleged.

The probe came after a complaint made by France’s regional health agencies, said Frédéric Nahon, a prosecutor.

Investigations “are still in progress, in particular to establish whether the label ‘natural’ mineral water is misleading or not,” he told AFP. Regional newspaper Vosges Matin said the investigation had been opened in January 2023.

Nestlé Waters said this week that it had passed some waters, such as Perrier and Vittel, through ultraviolet light and active carbon filters “to guarantee food safety”.

Nestlé said it “lost track of the importance of conforming to regulations” but that all the brands concerned now fulfilled French requirements.

Nestlé Waters said it had passed some waters such as Perrier through purification treatment ‘to guarantee food safety’ - BALINT PORNECZI/BLOOMBERG

French law – based on a European Union directive – prohibits the disinfection of mineral water, which is supposed to be of naturally high quality before bottling. Tap water, by contrast, is disinfected before being classed as drinkable.

Nestlé said there had been “changes in the environment around its sources, which can sometimes make it difficult to maintain stability of vital characteristics” in the water – namely the absence of pollution and mineral composition.

Since stopping the treatments, Nestlé has paused production at some wells in the Vosges department of eastern France because of their “sensitivity to climate hazards”, forcing it to slash production of Hepar and Contrex mineral waters.

In the report submitted to the government in July 2022, the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (IGAS) estimated that 30 per cent of French brands resort to non-compliant treatments. However, it added there was “no doubt” that figure “underestimates the phenomenon and that all mineral bottlers are concerned”.
‘Microbiological risks’

A government source told AFP: “No health risk linked to the quality of bottled water has so far been identified.”

But “it would not be prudent to conclude that health risks are completely under control, especially microbiological risks”, according to a passage from the IGAS report cited by Radio France.

Nestlé did not immediately make clear when it stopped treating water sold under the Perrier, Vittel, Hepar and Contrex brands.

Ingrid Kragl, information director of Food Watch, an NGO, told France Inter it would file a legal complaint for fraud.

“How is it that the French government, according to the investigation, was aware of this and that these products were marketed even though they were in breach of the regulations?,” she asked.

Britain plans ‘robocop’ force to protect nuclear sites with paint bombs


Jonathan Leake
Thu, 1 February 2024 

High-security nuclear site Sellafield contains more than 100 tonnes of plutonium - Christopher Furlong/Getty Images Europe

Britain’s nuclear sites could soon be protected by a “robocop” style police force made up of AI-powered drones equipped with paint bombs and smoke guns.

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), which runs high-security nuclear sites such as Sellafield and Dounreay, wants to build a robotic police force to cut costs and boost security across sites containing radioactive waste.

It has offered £1.5m to security and defence companies for initial designs of a robotic defence system, with a view to commissioning a fully-fledged version in the future.


The NDA’s document for the project says that a key aim is to cut labour costs by reducing the number of armed police.

Currently, the Civil Nuclear Constabulary employs nearly 1,600 people, with its cost bill rising to £130m in 2022/23 – up from £110m in 2018.

The procurement document said: “The NDA covers 17 nuclear sites, 1,000 hectares of land and over 800 buildings. We are interested in innovative ways to ensure our sites remain safe and secure in a resource-constrained environment.”

A spokesman for the NDA confirmed the “roboforce” plans, claiming that police officers will be able to control the technology without being exposed to danger.

“They will be able to override the system, or investigate and deal with intruders from a control room,” the spokesman said.

A robotic dog, Spot, is already in use at Sellafield to detect radioactive waste

Security is a key issue for the NDA.

Its Sellafield site, the largest, contains more than 100 tonnes of plutonium and 81,000 cubic metres of high-level waste.

Such waste will remain toxic for centuries, meaning the NDA will face a growing security bill until the waste can be buried.

This has forced the Government agency to consider novel alternatives to human security.

Its procurement document said: “Security systems should consider devices that can be deployed from mobile platforms to deter or delay threat actors. This will buy time for responders and potentially aid any post-incident investigation.”

The systems could include drones or vehicles equipped to blast intruders with white noise, disorientate them with smoke or even target them with paint bombs.

The NDA also wants its roboforce to carry 360-degree cameras containing facial recognition technology that can spot abnormal behaviour.

Andrew Gray, the NDA’s innovation delivery manager, said: “Keeping our sites safe and secure is absolutely critical to delivering our mission in line with our regulatory obligations.

“We are continually seeking cutting-edge technologies and innovative solutions to enable us to overcome the challenges we face in nuclear decommissioning, and deliver effectively and efficiently for the public.”

‘Certainly intimidation’: Louisiana sues EPA for emails of journalists and ‘Cancer Alley’ residents

Oliver Laughland for the Guardian and Delaney Nolan for the Intercept
Fri, 2 February 2024 

The Louisiana state capitol in Baton Rouge.Photograph: Stephen Smith/AP

Louisiana’s far-right government has quietly obtained hundreds of pages of communications between the Environmental Protection Agency and journalists, legal advocates and community groups focused on environmental justice. The rare use of public records law to target citizens is a new escalation in the state’s battle with the EPA over its examination of alleged civil rights violations in the heavily polluted region known as “Cancer Alley”.

Louisiana sued the EPA on 19 December, alleging that the federal agency had failed to properly respond to the state’s sprawling Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, request sent by former state attorney general Jeff Landry.

Court filings note that the public records case is related to another, ongoing lawsuit brought against the EPA by Landry, a staunch advocate for the oil and gas industry who now serves as Louisiana’s governor. Shortly after Landry’s suit was filed, the EPA dropped its investigation into the Louisiana department of environmental quality’s permitting practices, which advocates say disproportionately impact Black residents in Cancer Alley.


News that the state has sought to obtain such an array of communications as part of its efforts prompted allegations of intimidation from many of the Black residents who were targeted. It has also raised press freedom concerns for media organizations included in the request, described by FOIA experts as extremely unusual.

“The Louisiana attorney general’s office protects industry more than they protect the people,” said Sharon Lavigne, a resident of St James parish who has long fought industrial proliferation in her community, and whose emails were targeted in the request. “Maybe that’s why they got all of these emails, just to see what we’re doing and to see how they can stop us.”

Landry filed the request on 29 June 2023, just one day after the EPA announced it was dropping its Cancer Alley civil rights investigation.

The request seeks all records since March 2021 regarding “environmental justice in Louisiana, the Industrial Corridor in Louisiana”, and “the area called Cancer Alley”. It lists six advocates by name, all of whom are Black, as well as the organizations Rise St James, The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, and several other community and law groups who have represented Cancer Alley residents.

Due to the expansive nature of the request, the EPA said it would take more than a year to locate and provide all the records. Louisiana then sued to compel the agency to move more quickly.

The Louisiana attorney general’s office declined to answer questions from the Guardian and the Intercept over why it had requested such information, but filings in its FOIA lawsuit accuse the EPA of “prodigiously leaking information to the press” and allowing environmental advocacy groups to hold undue influence on decisions.

An environmental law group said the AG’s accusations of external influence were hypocritical, noting that Landry’s office previously hired petrochemical lawyers to represent the state in its negotiations with the EPA. Those same lawyers were simultaneously representing one of the companies at the center of the EPA’s civil rights investigation, the Taiwanese petrochemical giant Formosa.

Landry’s request specifically seeks records containing mention of Formosa, as well as the Japanese firm Denka. Both companies are at the heart of ongoing campaigns and litigation in the region. Lavigne’s group, Rise St James, has been instrumental in thus far stopping Formosa from building a massive, multibillion dollar plastics plant in their parish. A Louisiana appeals court recently reinstated Formosa’s air permits, overturning a 2022 ruling.

The request also asks for emails with national and local media including MSNBC, the Washington Post and the Advocate, specifying nine journalists by name.

The co-author of this article, the Guardian’s Oliver Laughland, was one of the named journalists. “We are deeply concerned by what appears to be an attempt to intimidate journalists and interfere with their ability to report on alarming matters of environmental injustice – in particular, the dangerous toxicity of air in predominantly Black areas of Louisiana,” said Guardian US general counsel Kai Falkenberg.

“FOIA is an essential tool for informing the public on the workings of government, but in this case, we’re concerned that the state of Louisiana is abusing that law to prevent reporters from engaging in newsgathering on matters of public interest to readers in Louisiana and around the world.”

The EPA declined to answer questions from the Guardian and the Intercept, citing litigation, but it provided the 940 pages of documents already handed to the Louisiana justice department. Further releases are scheduled for 2 February.

The documents, many of which were heavily redacted, contain typical requests for comment from several journalists, internal EPA discussions over drafting and scheduling, and EPA exchanges with environmental lawyers and nonprofits, including a list of the attendees at a meeting of leading Cancer Alley advocates.

•••

Public records law in the US dictates that, with certain exemptions, communications by or with local, state and federal employees must be made available to the public. The law is intended to preserve government transparency.

David Cuillier, director of the Freedom of Information Project, said that requests for communications between the government and citizens – including journalists – are not uncommon. But those requests are typically made by other journalists, law groups, or members of the public – not state governments.

“It’s totally weird and rare for a government agency to request, one, records from another agency, and, two, all the communications about these advocates and citizens and journalists,” Cuillier said.

Bill Quigley, long-time director of Loyola University’s law clinic, also noted that “it is not at all common for states to sue the federal government over FOIA disputes”.

In a previous survey, Cuillier and his colleague found that only about 2% of public records requests are made by another government agency. Cuillier argued it would be in the best interests of Louisiana’s department of justice to be transparent over the FOIA’s purpose. Otherwise, he said, it gives the appearance that the state is “spying on political opponents”.

An environmental group likewise said that the requests, while lawful, would have a chilling effect on local advocates’ efforts – including those not specifically named by the request. The group, which asked not to be named, suggested the records request is an attempt to shift the narrative, framing the EPA as suspect, rather than polluters themselves.

Robert Taylor, an 83-year-old lifelong resident of St John parish who leads an advocacy organization in Cancer Alley, one of the most polluted communities in the US, said it was “frightening” and “horrible” to know the state government had targeted his emails.

“It’s certainly intimidation. What other reason could there be for it?” Taylor said.

Louisiana’s lawsuit against the EPA’s Cancer Alley investigation is continuing and expected to advance to the supreme court. In a recent hearing, Judge James D Cain, appointed by former president Donald Trump, rejected the EPA’s motion to dismiss and appears ready to side with Louisiana, citing “the whims of the EPA and its overarching mandate”. Cain, who is also presiding over Louisiana’s FOIA lawsuit, issued a ruling on 23 January temporarily blocking the EPA from enforcing some aspects of civil rights law in Louisiana.

Troy Carter, Louisiana’s lone Democrat in Congress whose district includes the Cancer Alley region, urged the state government to drop both lawsuits against the EPA and its pursuit of records.

“This would remove any need for these citizens’ private conversations with the government to be disclosed,” Carter said. “The first amendment protects the right to free speech. The government should not have any appearance of targeting private individuals in a manner that could inhibit freedom.”

This article was published in partnership with the Intercept

UK
Tory donor’s oil and gas company given North Sea licence after £150,000 fine

Helena Horton Environment reporter
Thu, 1 February 2024 

Just Stop Oil campaigners protesting against the offshore licensing bill in Parliament Square in January.Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images

An oil and gas company owned by a major Tory donor, which has been fined for illegal flaring, has been awarded a licence to drill for fossil fuels by the government.

This week, the government granted the right to drill for fossil fuels in 24 new licence areas across the North Sea. One of the licences was given to EnQuest Heather, a subsidiary of EnQuest.

Campaigners have criticised ministers for rewarding “reckless and polluting behaviour”, pointing out that EnQuest was fined £150,000 in 2022 by the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) for flaring an excess 262 tonnes of gas on the Magnus field between 30 November and 1 December 2021, despite knowing that it did not have the necessary consent in place.

The campaigners also point out that since 2013, the EnQuest chief executive, Amjad Bseisu, has donated £480,721.40 to the Conservative party in cash and in kind.

The recent round of North Sea licences has been controversial. The government argues that producing more oil there will “bolster energy security, reducing the UK’s reliance on imports from hostile foreign regimes such as Russia”, and that it is part of a “pragmatic” approach to the transition to net zero. The North Sea Transition Authority argues that the licenses “will help to ensure job security and provide benefits to the local and wider economy”.

It said: “The round is a key part of the North Sea Transition Authority’s (NSTA) drive to support the oil and gas industry, which currently contributes around three-quarters of domestic energy needs and, according to official forecasts, will continue to do so even as demand is reduced.”

But the Climate Change Committee and other energy experts have warned that no new oil and gas licences should be given if climate catastrophe is to be averted. The Labour party has pledged that it would not grant any new oil and gas licences if in power.

Flaring is a controversial process as it burns excess fossil fuels, so is unnecessarily polluting. It is a cheap method of disposing of the associated gas that comes from oil production, and is banned by countries including Norway but allowed in certain circumstances by the UK.

The Good Law Project’s legal director, Emma Dearnaley, said: “The government’s backing of a North Sea oil and gas extravaganza to help corporations and a wealthy few make huge profits instead of investing in cheaper and greener energy sources will come at huge cost to our environment and our economy. Do ministers think this a price worth paying just to keep their party donors happy?”

Greenpeace UK’s senior climate campaigner, Philip Evans, said: “You’d be forgiven for thinking that the Tory party might have an agenda when dishing out these new oil and gas licences. And since more oil and gas will only intensify the climate crisis, destroy lives and livelihoods around the world, and won’t even lower bills or make the UK more energy secure, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the government maybe doesn’t have our best interests at heart. But when those who are awarded the licences have a track record of reckless and polluting behaviour like breaching flaring rules all while bankrolling the Conservative government, of course eyebrows are going to be raised.”

There are other methods to deal with excess natural gas, for example by capturing it so it is not wastefully burned, polluting the atmosphere for no reason.

Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science, said: “EnQuest and the other companies that have been granted new exploration licences are betting that the world will fail to tackle climate change and that the demand for fossil fuels will stay high.

“Successful global climate policy would mean demand will fall and the international market prices for oil and gas will drop. The relatively high operating costs in the North Sea mean that oil and gas production is unprofitable when market prices are low.

“That is why these operators need British consumers to continue to pay high prices for oil and gas, and why they prefer to vent and flare natural gas rather than make additional investments in the infrastructure to capture it instead. It is the economics of an industry that is awash with customers’ money and finds it difficult to abandon inefficient, wasteful and polluting practices.”

EnQuest and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero have been contacted for comment.