Scientists contest environment minister’s claim of ‘blitzing’ Australia’s ocean reserve expansion goal

Adam Morton Climate and environment editor

THE GUARDIAN
Tue 8 October 2024 

A southern elephant seal pup on Heard Island, part of the nature reserve the federal government has quadrupled in size.

Photograph: VW Pics/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

Scientists have challenged Tanya Plibersek’s claim that Australia is protecting more than half of its oceans and has “blitzed” a 30% target, arguing industrial longline fishing will still be allowed in some areas the government says it is conserving.

The environment minister told a “global nature positive summit” in Sydney on Tuesday the government had quadrupled the size of the sub-Antarctic Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve, a world heritage area about 4,000km south-west of Perth.

She said the more than 300,000 sq km expansion of the marine reserve meant Australia would be protecting 52% of its ocean territory, far more than the 30% target by 2030 the government signed up to as part of a global agreement in 2022.


“I’m proud to say we’ve blitzed our 30 by 30 target when it comes to oceans,” she said.

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Scientists welcomed the expansion, but said much of the area newly included in the reserve was not protected at a level that met the definition agreed in the Kunming-Montreal global biodiversity framework.

Dr Ian Cresswell, a co-author of the last five-yearly federal state of the environment report, said the announcement “took courage” and was “a really good step along the way” but it was “not job done”.

“Australia should not say that we’ve reached the target because we haven’t,” he said.

The global biodiversity framework commits countries to ensure at least 30% of marine and coastal regions are “effectively conserved and managed” as part of “ecologically representative” protected areas by 2030.

Related: ‘Huge environmental win’: Australia to protect 52% of its oceans, more than any other country, Plibersek says

Cresswell, an adjunct professor at the University of Western Australia and former CSIRO research director for biodiversity, said Australia had reached about 25% of oceans protected under this definition.

He said some of the newly protected areas were not particularly ecologically sensitive, while other areas that seabirds and marine mammals used for feeding and during breeding had been deemed “habitat protection zone” – a designation that bans trawling and mining but allows fishing using bottom longlines.

“The system we have put in place is great, but it is not fully representative and misses some of the habitats we know should be protected,” Cresswell said.

Plibersek’s 52% claim was made based on definitions of protected area used by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The IUCN lists seven categories, ranging from “strict nature reserve” to “protected areas with sustainable use of natural resources”.

The government maps showing the expanded marine park said the areas described as “habitat protection zone” counted as an IUCN category four protected area, otherwise known as a “habitat or species management area”.

Fiona Maxwell, a scientist and the Pew Charitable Trusts’ national oceans manager, agreed with Cresswell. She also said it was great the protected area had been expanded, but added: “We are on the way to achieving our 30% target, but we are disappointed the government has used the 52% figure because it is misleading.”

On Wednesday, the minister planned to announce the government would strengthen protection across 73,000 sq km of sea in 14 marine parks in the country’s south-east. The areas off the coast of Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania are home to rare and protected species including pygmy blue whales and the southern elephant seal.

Plibersek said the new protection included establishing 11 new “no-take” zones, a step that would lift 86% of the south-east park network into the highly protected category. Specific areas would be opened to “low impact sustainable fishing”, but new deep-sea mineral mining and other industrial developments would be prevented.
Vexed question hangs over nature summit

The first day of the nature summit focused on the role of Indigenous leadership and knowledge in environment protection and the vexed question of how to pay to stop and reverse nature destruction.

Related: Tanya Plibersek accuses Peter Dutton of intent to ignore Indigenous heritage for mining projects

In Canberra, negotiations remain stalled in parliament over legislation that would create an environment protection agency and a second body to collect environmental data. The Coalition does not believe nature laws need to be strengthened. The Greens and independents want changes so that climate impacts are considered during development approvals and an effective legal exemption for state-run native forest logging is removed.

The government has delayed a promised broader revamp of nature laws.

The Greens’ Sarah Hanson-Young said the nature positive summit was “a flop” and accused the government of “caving to polluters and loggers”, pointing to Plibersek’s recent approval of three coalmine expansions. She blamed the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, for the stalled legislation.

Plibersek told delegates at the summit they were “at the start of the road when it comes to [being] nature positive and turning things around”. “Our job is not just to do the work, but to take others along with us [and] to build coalitions with unlikely allies as well as our traditional partners,” she said.

Australia moves to expand Antarctic marine park

AFP
Mon 7 October 2024 

Antarctica (pictured) is located around 1,700 kilometres (1,056 miles) from Australia's Heard Island and McDonald Island (SARAH DAWALIBI) (SARAH DAWALIBI/AFP/AFP)


Australia moved Tuesday to protect a swathe of ocean territory by expanding an Antarctic marine park that is home to penguins, seals, whales and the country's only two active volcanos.

The marine reserve -- Heard Island and McDonald Island -- located 1,700 kilometres (1,056 miles) from Antarctica, will quadruple in size under the announcement.

This means 52 percent of the nation's seas will be protected, a government statement said, cementing Australia's place among leading countries safeguarding seas.

It will also see Australia blitz the global 30 percent United Nations target by 2030 that Australia signed up to in 2022.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said the announcement was a "huge environmental win".

"This is a unique and extraordinary part of our planet. We are doing everything we can to protect it," she said.

Australia's remoteness and vastness means it is somewhat easier to protect oceans than in other countries, particularly in parts that are used less frequently for fishing.

For example, commercial fisheries are a vital part of Tasmania's economy -- the local abalone industry provides about 25 percent of the annual global harvest -- and only 1.1 percent of its waters are protected, government data show.

WWF-Australia's head of oceans Richard Leck said the country had a "significant amount of work to ensure our network of marine parks is comprehensive, adequate and representative".

He added strong protections were still missing for many key ocean conservation areas.

"Australia is a global biodiversity hotspot and one of the world's largest coastal nations, so it's important that we do some of the heaviest lifting to care for our precious marine ecosystems and the species they call home," he said.

But Leck said the final plan did not protect "some of the islands' highest priority conservation areas", including critical foraging habitat for king penguins and black-browed albatross.

"Without increased protection, these critical foraging grounds will remain exposed to pressures like commercial fishing," he said.

lec/arb/rsc

Scapegoat Sue Gray’s exit leaves Starmer’s No 10 with nowhere left to hide

Jessica Elgot

 Deputy political editor

THE GUARDIAN
Tue 8 October 2024 

Relations between Sue Gray and some others in the early days of Keir Starmer’s government were if anything worse than reported.Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock


Office politics can be complicated. And Westminster can get obsessed with personalities behind the scenes and where someone sits on the office floor plan. But with all that being said, it is true to say that relations between Sue Gray, Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff and some others in the early days of Keir Starmer’s government were if anything worse than reported.

She is not the first outsider who found it impossible to gel with Starmer’s close-knit and fiercely political team who ran his leadership campaign and who worked on Labour’s election strategy. His former chief of staff Sam White departed after just over a year.

There were no actual angry words between Gray and Morgan McSweeney, who has taken over from her, on a personal level, but there were two very clear power bases in the operation which was unsustainable.


Now there is one – it is a clean sweep for the political team which has the loyalty of most special advisers, many cabinet ministers and for whom most in Labour credit for the election victory. They have no one left to blame now for any mistakes that are to come.

Related: After 100 days of mistakes, we need to hear Labour’s underlying philosophy | Will Hutton

And it was Gray – fairly or unfairly – who was blamed by many for the missteps that coloured Labour’s first 100 days in government. Gray was billed as the guardian of ethics, who drew up the structures of the team in No 10 and who vetted donors and appointments. Who then is the convenient person to blame for the weeks of bad headlines over the donations from Lord Alli to Starmer and others and Alli’s subsequent temporary pass for No 10?

Gray was also said to be adamant that she wanted to keep a tight grip on special advisers, keeping numbers down and contracts strict. Who then is the convenient person to blame for infighting, for cuts to salaries and for those who should have been appointed as special advisers being cack-handedly put in as civil servants, like Reeves’ appointment of her adviser Ian Corfield? And who then was found out to being paid more than the prime minister?

And Gray was also said to be in charge throughout the election campaign of the transition to government, of the 100-day plans and the priority of early legislation and key political moments. Who then is the easy person to blame for the early weeks being dominated by rows over cronyism and freebies and for what felt like a void of any positive stories about the government’s actions?

It would be deeply unfair to blame all of this on Gray – and her critics know this. There have been mistakes made across government. Some more experienced Whitehall figures are scathing about the idea that she is responsible for it all.

The deep disquiet about the winter fuel payment cut was not Gray’s fault. She was the senior figure who called a halt to some of the ruthlessness over Labour’s selection process – including calling out the treatment of Diane Abbott. Donations went through Starmer’s private office, not Gray. And she was widely credited with vastly improving Starmer’s relations with regional leaders and his female cabinet ministers, with whom there had been significant communication issues.

When things are going badly, the scapegoat was always going to be the person whose job it had been to make sure that things went well. As one veteran put it during a late night chat at Labour conference, it might not all be her fault, but it was her problem.

The lack of a coherent narrative was the talk of disgruntled MPs and staffers throughout Labour conference. When one special adviser turned up to a late-night drinks party in Liverpool carrying a comically large rucksack, his colleague joked: “What’s in the bag? Have you finally found our transition to government plans?”

In No 10, there is a feeling now that Starmer’s team will be much more united – less obsessed with internal politics and ready to refocus on the bigger picture. Their weak spot will be their experience, though McSweeney’s deputies Jill Cuthbertson and Vidhya Alakeson have both worked in Downing Street before.

McSweeney comes in with the goodwill of many key aides and ministers across government – though a lot of backbench MPs view him with suspicion. Now finally there is one team in charge, not two competing factions.

But there is also nowhere left to hide if this reset does not reboot the purpose of this government. And that purpose and vision is only ever truly down to one person to set and communicate – Starmer himself.




Morgan McSweeney: Who is Sue Gray’s replacement and Labour election guru behind Keir Starmer’s rise to power?

Jabed Ahmed

THE INDEPENDENT
Mon 7 October 2024 

Labour election guru Morgan McSweeney will take over as Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, after Sue Gray quit citing fears she was “becoming a distraction” to the government.

The author of the “Partygate” report has been a high-profile figure in Sir Keir’s top team since she was appointed while Labour was in opposition last year.

However, in recent weeks Sir Keir’s Downing Street operation has been plagued by reports of infighting as rows over Ms Gray’s £170,000 salary dominated the headlines.

Ms Gray’s departure on Sunday triggered a wider reshuffle in No 10. She will be replaced as chief of staff by Mr McSweeney, one of the key figures in Labour’s election campaign, who is reported to have clashed with Ms Gray.

Sue Gray resigned as Downing Street’s chief of staff and has taken on a new role (PA Archive)

As Labour election guru and one of Sir Keir’s closest aides, Mr McSweeney has huge influence within the party and was credited with Labour’s landslide general election victory earlier this year.

But who exactly is Morgan McSweeney?

Early career in the Labour Party

Mr McSweeney, 47, grew up in Macroom in County Cork, Ireland. He joined the Labour Party in 1997, working at the party’s attack and rebuttal unit in Millbank.

He was then hired by cabinet minister Alan Milburn in a key organising role for marginal seats in the 2005 election.

Later he campaigned for Steve Reed, who was seeking to take back control of Lambeth Council from the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. He worked as chief of staff for Mr Reed at Lambeth Council.

Following Labour’s defeat in the 2010 election, Mr McSweeney became head of the Labour Group Office at the Local Government Association.

Labour Together

Mr Reed and Mr McSweeney stuck together and later formed the Labour Together think tank in 2017. Mr McSweeney was appointed director of the influential policy group with the primary aim “to move the Labour Party from the hard left” and replace the then leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

He has been credited with Sir Keir’s rise to power within the party and shifting it back to the centre.

As part of his strategy, he also focused on reducing the popularity within the party of the left-wing views that had been popularised by Mr Corbyn.

Keir Starmer’s office

When Mr McSweeney arrived in the leader of the opposition’s office after Sir Keir’s leadership victory in 2020, he ensured that supporters of Mr Corbyn were removed from every lever of power inside the party. He was quickly chosen as Sir Keir’s chief of staff.

During this time, he also set up the Center for Countering Digital Hate. The organisation was initially designed to target antisemitism, which had become a huge problem for the party.

Labour director of campaigns

Mr McSweeney was appointed as Labour’s director of campaigns in September 2021. The Times previously reported that “those who question his authority inevitably find Starmer sides with McSweeney”.

Kevan Jones, the former MP for North Durham, previously told the Financial Times: “Morgan is a driven individual who ruffles feathers and isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but he gets the job done. The results speak for themselves, he knows what he’s doing whatever people think of him.”

During the general election campaign, Mr McSweeney worked closely with Pat McFadden, who was election coordinator.

Labour’s head of political strategy

After Labour’s victory in the 2024 general election, Mr McSweeney was appointed the party’s head of political strategy alongside Paul Ovenden.

Several newspapers have described tensions between Ms Gray and Mr McSweeney, and The Guardian previously reported that one unnamed cabinet minister had said: “One or both of them will have to go. It’s not going to be Morgan.”

Following Ms Gray’s resignation on Sunday, he was appointed Downing Street chief of staff. Vidhya Alakeson and Jill Cuthbertson were appointed his deputies.


Starmer Bows to Politics by Making Morgan McSweeney Top Aide

Alex Wickham and Ailbhe Rea

BLOOMBERG
Tue 8 October 2024


(Bloomberg) -- Keir Starmer has endured a rough first three months in power, with his administration overwhelmed by controversies over donations, infighting and mounting gloom about the UK’s public finances. On Sunday, he finally turned to the architect of Labour’s landslide election victory to try to put things right.

The sudden appointment of Morgan McSweeney to replace Sue Gray, who the prime minister had plucked from a senior role in Britain’s bureaucracy to steer his government, was a brutal move that underscored how much the government was already in need of a full reset. People in Labour also see it as Starmer realizing his office needs more political edge — something the premier isn’t particularly known for — after weeks of negative media coverage.

“Politics is back” in 10 Downing Street, said John McTernan, a former adviser to Labour’s totemic ex-premier Tony Blair.

Listen to the Bloomberg UK Politics podcast on Apple, Spotify or anywhere you listen.

The new Downing Street team led by McSweeney would provide clearer political direction, a better-defined strategy and more cohesive relations between advisers, people who work with him and welcomed his appointment told Bloomberg on condition of anonymity. He is said to want a relentless focus on winning the next election, due in 2029, by ensuring the Tories and the right-wing Reform UK Party led by Nigel Farage cannot accuse Labour of failing on crime, immigration and sensible stewardship of the public finances.

It effectively makes McSweeney the prime minister’s political antenna, now with the authority to run his operation. Starmer, a career lawyer who entered Westminster relatively late, has a technocratic style and favors a government based on competent management of the economy and public services rather than big political narratives. He is said to find daily politicking and 24-hour news coverage frustrating, preferring to focus on his administrative duties.

It’s why he had chosen Gray, a career civil servant who understood how to get things done in Whitehall, in the first place. But Gray’s enemies accused her of failing to manage Labour’s transition from opposition to government, and said her lack of political experience had contributed to Starmer’s inability to shake questions about the free gifts had accepted from wealthy Labour peer Waheed Alli. Amid the furor, Starmer’s personal approval rating has plummeted.

It is down to McSweeney to ensure that the last three months are an early blip rather than a turbulent period that will undermine the rest of his premiership. As Labour’s campaign chief, McSweeney set strategy and messaging. But while he may not have Gray’s experience of day-to-day governing, he is more street-smart and will anticipate political problems and opportunities, the people said.

The 47-year-old grew up in Macroom in County Cork, Ireland, and moved to London when he was 17, working on building sites before attending Middlesex University. Inspired by the Blair government’s achievement in brokering peace in Northern Ireland, he joined the Labour party in the wake of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, working in the party’s head office as an intern.

His early work as a political strategist came when he led Labour’s campaigns in the London district of Lambeth, retaking control of the council from the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats and defeating the hard-left “Militant” grouping that had taken over Labour in that area.

He impressed colleagues in defeating the far-right in Barking and Dagenham in the late 2000s, when the British National Party was gaining a foothold in the London district in search of their first parliamentary seat. McSweeney’s campaign focused on local, everyday issues over a period of years, and the BNP was convincingly defeated by Labour in the 2010 general election.

Other ventures were less successful. He ran Liz Kendall’s leadership campaign in 2015, when the now work and pensions secretary came last in a contest won by socialist Jeremy Corbyn.

While many abandoned Labour following Corbyn’s win — not least Blair, who declared the party “lost” forever — McSweeney believed it could be brought back to the political center. He founded the think tank Labour Together, branded at the time as a broad church for people across the movement.

Following two election defeats under Corbyn, McSweeney masterminded Starmer’s campaign to be leader. That contest was fought along left-wing ideas, but under McSweeney’s guidance, Starmer pivoted to the center after winning, and expelled Corbynism — and Corbyn himself — from the party.

Ahead of the July election, McSweeney was also instrumental in jettisoning or scaling back policies, including expensive but popular ones like the green energy transition, to reduce targets for opponents to attack. Labour’s campaign was fought on a promise not to raise major taxes and to guard the economy and public finances, and it delivered a historic majority for Starmer to govern with.

Labour aides see McSweeney as close to Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, and his appointment as Starmer’s chief of staff could help the premier’s relations with Treasury. McSweeney’s wife, Imogen Walker, is a new Labour lawmaker and has been appointed as a parliamentary aide to Reeves.

But those perceived ties also frustrated some members of Starmer’s senior ministerial team while Labour was in opposition, with McSweeney and Reeves seen as blocking more ambitious policy ideas.

Critics have also pointed out that ruling out major revenue raisers in the campaign has tied the government’s hands ahead of what is expected to be a painful budget on Oct. 30. Reeves’s negative messaging about the £22 billion ($28.8 billion) fiscal black hole she said she inherited from the Conservatives was seen in the party as an extension of McSweeney’s approach.

Those arguments contributed to the infighting that ultimately cost Gray her job, and her allies have accused McSweeney of seeking to oust her in a power struggle for Starmer’s ear. McSweeney and a handful of other male aides in Starmer’s office became known as “the boys,” setting off the first round of skirmishes with Gray as she tried to curb their influence.

While McSweeney’s promotion has been broadly welcomed in Downing Street, some Labour MPs, particularly women, worry it bolsters that “boys” club around the premier. His previous tenure as chief of staff between 2020 and 2021 is also remembered by some lawmakers as a time of poor relations between Starmer’s office and the parliamentary party, which Gray is credited with improving.

The turmoil has raised the stakes for Starmer, especially as his pitch during the election was a promise of stability after 14 years of Tory-led governments. Rather than knocking heads together or finding an elegant solution to keep both aides in place, Starmer opted for one all-powerful political appointee. He’ll now need McSweeney to stay out of the headlines to restore a semblance of calm.


Who is in Keir Starmer’s top team at No 10 after Sue Gray resignation?

Rowena Mason Whitehall editor

THE GUARDIAN
Sun 6 October 2024 


McSweeney had entered No 10 as head of political strategy, in charge of charting the party’s path to another victory in five years’ time.Photograph: Zuma Press Inc/Alamy


Keir Starmer has reshuffled his Downing Street operation after Sue Gray resigned less than a week before his government’s 100th day in power. Who is in the prime minister’s top team now?

Morgan McSweeney, chief of staff

As the brains behind Keir Starmer’s leadership campaign, McSweeney is credited with having brought the prime minister to power. He entered No 10 as head of political strategy, in charge of charting the party’s path to another victory in five years’ time.

When it emerged there were rival power bases around McSweeney and Gray in No 10, few had any doubt he would survive any fallout. He has now emerged as chief of staff, with unrivalled influence, and is likely to bring a much sharper political focus to the job.

McSweeney is adored by many staffers, with some party figures retaining more affection for him than they do for Starmer. The highest form of praise in Labour HQ has been said to be: “Morgan loves it.” However, he is something of a bogeyman on the left after leading the thinktank Labour Together in a campaign to purge the party of Jeremy Corbyn’s influence.

After working in Labour’s attack unit in the New Labour years, McSweeney cut his teeth as chief of staff to the then Lambeth council leader Steve Reed, who is now a cabinet minister, and helped defeat the British National party in Barking and Dagenham. Born in Ireland, he divides his time between Scotland and Westminster. His wife, Imogen Walker, is Labour’s MP for Hamilton and Clyde Valley.

James Lyons, director of strategic communications

Lyons is hugely experienced as a former tabloid and broadsheet journalist who went on to big jobs in PR dealing with crisis situations, and boasts connections in Westminster among journalists and politicians.

Having worked for the Daily Mirror and Sunday Times, he became a communications chief for the NHS in 2017 and rose to a director job, helping the health service navigate the challenges of the Covid pandemic. He left the job last year to join the Chinese-owned social media company TikTok.

Related: Revolts and resignations: a timeline of Starmer’s first three months in power

Vidhya Alakeson, deputy chief of staff

Alakeson was Starmer’s director of external relations in opposition and entered No 10 as political director, running a team to help shape messaging, conduct research and keep the government on the front foot. Her new role as deputy chief of staff is likely to still be highly political.

She previously worked as deputy director of the Resolution Foundation thinktank and was the founder of a charitable trust, Power to Change, that supports community businesses.

Jill Cuthbertson, deputy chief of staff

Cuthbertson is one of the prime minister’s most relied-upon political organisers and gatekeepers. She entered No 10 in a senior role as director of government relations and will now be a co-deputy chief of staff. “She never drops a ball,” says one colleague.
Ninjeri Pandit, principal private secretary

Pandit is a former NHS digital executive who joined No 10 to focus on health policy. She became director of its policy unit and will now be the prime minister’s principal private secretary – a key civil service role. Pandit was once praised by Dominic Cummings in a blog as one of “the brilliant women around the table” who would have done the job of prime minister “10 times better” than Boris Johnson.


Who is Morgan McSweeney? The man replacing Sue Gray at the heart of Keir Starmer's government

Rachael Burford

MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS

Mon 7 October 2024


Morgan McSweeney (Handout)

Sue Gray has quit as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's chief of staff after less than four months in the job, saying her position "risked becoming a distraction" to the government.

Campaign Director Morgan McSweeney was immediately announced as her replacement. Often described as Labour’s election guru, he is seen as the mastermind behind Sir Keir’s succession from Jeremy Corbyn and the party’s landslide victory on July 4.

As one of the PM’s closest aides, Mr McSweeney has enormous influence and is now one of the most power government figures in the country.
The path to No 10

Mr McSweeney cut his teeth in local government. In 2006 he organised Labour’s successful campaign to seize control of Lambeth council from a Tory-Lib Dem coalition. He acted as the chief of staff for then council leader (and now the Environment Secretary) Steve Reed.

During his time at the London borough he is said to have led the revolt against local far left factions. It is where Mr McSweeney met his wife Imogen Walker, then a Lambeth councillor and now Labour MP for Hamilton and Clyde Valley.

His campaign work also helped see off the threat from the British National Party (BNP) in Barking and Dagenham. Between 2008 and 2010 Labour was fighting a battle against the far right who held a dozen seats on east London council.

Mr McSweeney was on the frontline as Labour adopted an election strategy focused on patriotism and tackling crime and antisocial behaviour to force out the BNP.

He later became head of the Labour group at the Local Government Association and in 2015 ran now Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall’s unsuccessful bid to lead the party.

Ms Kendall received less than five per cent of the vote in a the leadership election where Jeremy Corbyn stormed to victory.

He helped start the Think Tank Labour Together where he served as director before joining Sir Keir’s team in 2020.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is joined on stage by his wife Victoria (PA Wire)

In Opposition

When Sir Keir became leader of the opposition Mr McSweeney oversaw Labour’s campaign operation.

He set a focus on winning back former red wall constituencies and the swing seats where Brexit-backing voters had abandoned the party in favour of Boris Johnson’s Conservatives at the 2019 election.

Labour rebranded with Union Flag logos, while the national anthem was sung at the party conference in a bid to reassure patriotic voters.

At the general election on July 4 the party won a huge majority of 174 seats on less than 35 per cent of the popular vote.
Relationship with Sue Gray

Sir Keir’s first 100 days in government have been plagued by infighting and a scandal over a number of freebies accepted by the PM and his senior ministers.

At the same time it emerged that there was fiction between Mr McSweeney and Ms Gray in Number 10.

Ms Gray’s appointment to become the PM’s most senior political aide was controversial. She had been the senior civil tasked with writing the Partygate report, which was instrumental in bringing down Boris Johnson’s government.

Unflattering briefings about Ms Gray appeared in the press almost as soon as Sir Keir took power. There were rumours Mr McSweeney had been blocked from getting security briefings by the PM’s chief of staff - claims Whitehall officials vehemently denied.

Ms Gray said she was looking forward to continuing to support the Prime Minister in her new role (PA Archive)

However some were said to have found Ms Gray’s “centralisation” of government frustrating.

One Labour government source told the Guardian said: “There has been a massive centralisation under Sue Gray. Under the last government four people controlled what went into the PM’s box and now it’s one.

“Things have slowed down. She’s put herself into a position where she is extraordinarily powerful.

“There’s a suspicion that she’s making a lot of decisions on the PM’s behalf and that he wouldn’t necessarily agree with them. She’s in a position where his successes are going to be attributed to her but she’s overly vulnerable when things go wrong.”

Announcing her resignation Ms Gray said it had been an honour to "play my part in the delivery of a Labour government", both in opposition and in Number 10.

"However in recent weeks it has become clear to me that intense commentary around my position risked becoming a distraction to the government’s vital work of change," she said.

"It is for that reason I have chosen to stand aside, and I look forward to continuing to support the prime minister in my new role."

UK

Pensioners say 'we have been betrayed' as they protest winter fuel payment cut

Nick Jackson

MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS
Tue 8 October 2024 

-Credit: (Image: Reach Publishing Services Limited)

Dozens of pensioners have turned out at Wigan bus station in a protest over the government’s controversial cut to the winter fuel allowance for pensioners. The move by the in-coming chancellor Rachel Reeves to exclude about 10 million UK pensioners from the £300 allowance has overshadowed Sir Keir Starmer’s first three months as prime minister.

In Wigan, it is emerging as the hottest issue both on the streets of the town and even in the council chamber. At September’s full meeting of the local authority, councillors agreed to write to the Government to ask for the threshold restricting the winter payments to to be raised.


Wigan's Labour-controlled council has responded by advising those people eligible for pension credit who have not applied it to do so. So far, 4,000 people in the town who qualify have not submitted applications. However, Independent Coun Tony Whyte told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that he could understand why people are not applying for it.

READ MORE: Teenager seriously injured after shooting with two arrested in attempted murder probe

“I’ve checked and the forms for claiming pension credit run to 23 pages and there 243 questions,” he said. “It’s designed to prevent people from claiming it and it puts a lot of elderly people off.”

The protest was organised by Independent Coun Maureen O’Bern. She said: “The pensioners in this town feel they have been betrayed.

“People have are having to choose between eating and heating, and it’s a disgrace that Labour Government is doing this. We’ve organised this protest because we believe pensioners should stick up for themselves. They’ve paid into the country all their lives.”

Army veteran James Taylor, 66, was of the protesters. He said: “Any pensioner over the age of 85 is likely to have done National Service [when young men aged between 17 and 21 had to serve in the armed forces, ending in 1960]. Some 395 men died on national service or were casualties.

James Taylor

“Those pensioners have paid in blood for the right to claim their winter fuel allowance. This move by the government is appalling.”

Jill Gaskell, 62, is the daughter of a late former Labour Wigan councillor. She said: “I don’t know if my father would have agreed with what the Government is doing, but regardless of that, I would’ve been against it.

“There are people in Wigan terrified of putting their heating on.” Kathy Grundy, a retired legal secretary, is also furious over the cut. “It’s just not fair,” she said. “I’m lucky, I paid into three private pension schemes and I’ve looked after myself, so I won’t be getting anything. But there are others who aren’t so fortunate, so I’m here to fight for them.”

Tracey Waddicor, 60, has just retired as a care worker. “I’m have been seeing the difference this making and the deprivation it is creating already,” she said. “I’ve seen people living in one room, trying to keep warm. A house is not a home with no heating. People will die as a result of this.”

Tracey Waddicor

Jordan Gaskell, 21, said he had come out to support the elderly. “It going to take a long time, but one day, hopefully, I will be elderly. The young should stick up for the old. We should all stick together.”

Jordan Gaskell

David Hull, 75, said: "I've lost my winter fuel allowance. I can't believe that Labour's been in for such a short time and done something so bad. I am extremely angry."

David Hull

The winter fuel allowance is a tax-free annual payment to help pensioners pay their winter heating bills, currently totalling £200 per eligible household where the oldest person is under 80, and £300 for households containing a person aged 80 or over.

It was first introduced in winter 1997 under Tony Blair's Labour government. Back then it was £20 (or £50 for those in receipt of means-tested benefits), but it has steadily increased over the years.

In the years since, pensioners' incomes have been protected by the triple lock guarantee introduced by David Cameron's government.

Nonetheless, experts have called the announcement a blow to struggling pensioners, warning it could leave vulnerable older people in dire straits financially. A government spokesperson said: “We are committed to supporting pensioners – with millions set to see their state pension rise by up to £1,700 this parliament through our commitment to the Triple Lock.

“Over a million pensioners will still receive the winter fuel payment, and our drive to boost pension credit take up has already seen a 152 per cent increase in claims. Many others will also benefit from the £150 warm home discount to help with energy bills over winter while our extension of the Household Support Fund will help with the cost of food, heating and bills.”

Siberian burial site with 18 sacrificed horses may reveal mysterious origin of ancient warrior culture

Vishwam Sankaran

THE INDPENDENT
Tue 8 October 2024 


Siberian burial site with 18 sacrificed horses may reveal mysterious origin of ancient warrior culture


A 2,800-year-old Siberian burial mound containing 18 sacrificed horses appears to resemble those of the Scythians, suggesting that horseriding Steppe culture originated farther to the east.

The nomadic Scythians of the Eurasian Steppes did not build settlements and were famous for their horse-focused culture and distinctive art depicting animals in specific poses. They were exceptional horsemen and warriors, and feared adversaries of the ancient Greeks, Assyrians, and Persians between 900 and 200BC.

While the Scythians are known to have migrated from Central Asia to southwest Russia and Ukraine, their exact origins remain shrouded in mystery.


“The Scythians have sparked the imaginations of people since the days of Greek historian Herodotus,” said anthropologist Gino Caspari from the Max Planck Institute in Germany.

“But the origins of their culture have long remained hidden in remote corners of the Eurasian steppes.”

Overview of one of the earliest and largest burial mounds in the Eurasian steppes (Trevor Wallace)

A new study, published in the journal Antiquity on Tuesday, details one of the earliest examples of a royal burial mound unearthed in southern Siberian. It contains fragmented remains of a woman and 18 horses. They were likely sacrificed to honour a member of the elite buried within the mound, the study notes.

Some of the animal remains still have brass bits lodged between the teeth.

The grave also contains Scythian artefacts and horseriding equipment.

The findings link the burial in Siberia to the funerary rituals of the later Scythians, described in historical texts as living thousands of kilometres to the west .

The grave dates from the late ninth century BC, making it one of the oldest known burial mounds to show evidence of a Scythian burial.

“Unearthing some of the earliest evidence of a unique cultural phenomenon is a privilege and a childhood dream come true,” Dr Caspari said.

Finds from the burial site in southern Siberia (Antiquity)

Archeologists say that the burial has similarities with graves from the Late Bronze Age in Mongolia. This suggests that Scythians funerary rituals could originate even further east and south.

“Our findings highlight the importance of Inner Asia in the development of transcontinental cultural connections,” Dr Caspari said.

“The findings also suggest that these funerary practices played a role in the broader process of cultural and political transformation across Eurasia, contributing to the emergence of later pastoralist empires.”

SPACE-COSMOS

Nasa spacecraft receives laser signal from 290 million miles away

Andrew Griffin
Mon 7 October 2024 

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is depicted receiving a laser signal from the Deep Space Optical Communications uplink ground station at JPL’s Table Mountain Facility in this artist’s concept (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Nasa has successfully sent a laser signal about 290 million miles, smashing previous records and potentially transforming our exploration of the solar system.

The milestone was reached by Nasa’s Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration, which is exploring whether it is possible to use lasers to send messages deep into space. Lasers can send data at rates up to 100 times that of the radio frequencies used today, allowing for more complex and high-definition data, but they also require much greater precision to work.

It was sent to the Psyche spacecraft, which launched in October 2023. Its main mission is to study an asteroid with the same name, but it is also carrying the Nasa experiment to test laser communication through space.

The distance – which equates to about 460 million kilometres – is roughly the same as that between the Earth and Mars when they are their most distant.

Nasa hopes that the laser technology can help empower future crewed missions to Mars, among other exploration of our solar system, and so the successful test marks a major breakthrough.

“The milestone is significant. Laser communication requires a very high level of precision, and before we launched with Psyche, we didn’t know how much performance degradation we would see at our farthest distances,” said Meera Srinivasan, the project’s operations lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a statement.

“Now the techniques we use to track and point have been verified, confirming that optical communications can be a robust and transformative way to explore the solar system.”

Nasa administrator Bill Nelson sent his congratulations to the team involved, on Twitter/X. “This extraordinary achievement will transform the way we explore the solar system,” he wrote.

Late last year, Nasa announced that it had successfully completed one such transmission from 10 million miles away. In the time since, it has broken through a whole set of records as Psyche continues to travel further from Earth.

That also included the first ultra high-definition video beamed from space. That happened late last year – when Psyche sent pictures of a cat named Taters.

As the distance from Earth increases, the speed of the connection is reduced. When it was 33 miles away, the spacecraft could receive data at its maximum rate of 267 megabits per second – but when the latest record was broken, in summer, it was hitting maximums of only 8.3 megabits per second.

Something Massive Is Shifting Deep Inside the Moon

Maggie Harrison Dupré

FUTURISM
Mon 7 October 2024 


Moon Goo
Something is moving inside of the Moon. Yes, you read that correctly.

A recent study from scientists at NASA and the University of Arizona found that a layer of low-viscosity goo sits between the Moon's rugged mantle and its metal core. This goo is rising and falling beneath the lunar surface — not unlike, say, ocean tides — which they concluded is likely caused by the gravitational push and pull of the Sun and Earth.

"Just like the Moon raises tides on the Earth, the Earth (and Sun) raise tides on the Moon," reads the study, published last month in the journal AGU Advances. The researchers describe their findings as the "first measurement of the Moon's yearly gravity changes due to tides."

It's a fascinating discovery that works to confirm decades-old theories about the makeup of Earth's only natural satellite — while raising some mysterious new questions, too. After all, how did the magma-like layer get there in the first place? What's its exact composition? And perhaps most crucially, what's keeping it hot enough to stay in its malleable, goo-like form?
Profound Implications

For their study, the scientists analyzed new data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter — which were deployed to (respectively) collect gravitational information and conduct more generalized lunar surveillance — to measure monthly and annual tidal movements on the Moon for the first time.

What they found, they argue in the research, could only be consistent with the existence of a deeper, "partial melt" beneath the Moon's rocky mantle, itself comprised of magnesium-iron silicate mineral and pyroxene.

"Only models with a softer layer at the bottom of the mantle match all our measurements," reads the study.

But again, this finding yields an important new question. As the scientists wrote, "such a soft layer, often thought to be partial melt, needs to be maintained." In other words, there's gotta be a reason why this semi-molten layer remains warm and pliable enough to move around.

As you can tell, there are still plenty of known unknowns where lunar inner workings are concerned — but if nothing else, this research has the texture of the kind that opens the door to further revelations in lunar geology. And that's to say nothing of the present: Today, we know just a little bit more about Earth's smaller, cosmic companion than we did before.

Or as the scientists who authored the study wrote: "The existence of this zone has profound implications for the Moon's thermal state and evolution."

More on Moon goo: Scientists Detect Huge Caverns Under Surface of Moon

VW CEO: Chinese automakers should be allowed to avert tariffs by investing in EU

Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume in Beijing · Reuters

Reuters
Sat, October 5, 2024 

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The CEO of German carmaker Volkswagen said the European Union should consider adjusting planned tariffs against China-made electric vehicles to make allowances for investments made in Europe.

"Instead of punitive tariffs this should be about mutually giving credit for investments. Those who invest, create jobs and work with local companies should benefit when it comes to tariffs," VW CEO Oliver Blume told Sunday paper Bild am Sonntag an interview.

The European Union will press ahead with tariffs on China-made electric vehicles, the EU executive said on Friday, even after the bloc's largest economy Germany and German carmakers rejected them, exposing a rift over its biggest trade row with Beijing in a decade.

The proposed duties on EVs built in China of up to 45% would cost carmakers billions of extra dollars to bring cars into the bloc and are set to be imposed from next month for five years.

The Commission, which oversees the bloc's trade policy, has said they would counter what it sees as unfair Chinese subsidies after a year-long anti-subsidy investigation, but it also said on Friday it would continue talks with Beijing.

VW's Blume told Bild am Sonntag that there was a risk that retaliatory tariffs by China would hurt European carmakers.

(Reporting by Ludwig Burger, editing by Franklin Paul)

Romania's top court removes far-right candidate from presidential race

Reuters
Sun, October 6, 2024 

Von der Leyen seeks approval from EU lawmakers for another term as European Commission President


BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romania's top court has removed a pro-Russian far-right politician from the list of presidential candidates in upcoming elections, prompting concerns about democratic values from candidates across the political spectrum.

European Union and NATO member Romania is due to hold a two-round presidential election on Nov. 24 and Dec. 8, with parliamentary polls in between.

Nearly 20 politicians have officially entered the running, with opinion polls showing voter preferences highly fragmented.


Among them is Diana Sosoaca, leader of SOS Romania, a small ultra-nationalist eurosceptic opposition party which surprisingly won two seats in the European Parliament in June.

Romania's Constitutional Court met on Saturday to discuss legal challenges brought against six candidacies.

It rejected five but accepted challenges against Sosoaca without explaining its decision.

Sosoaca, who was live on Facebook at the time of the ruling, told her followers: "This proves the Americans, Jews and the European Union have plotted to rig the Romanian election before it has begun."

"From this moment, we have clear proof that in Romania dictatorship and utter lack of democracy are being discussed."

The court typically releases detailed explanations of its rulings at a later date. Politicians across the political spectrum said the ruling was an unprecedented threat to democratic values.

Because the nine-member court is politically appointed, many politicians also accused it of interference.

Opinion surveys show leftist Social Democrat Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu is likely to go through to the second round of the presidential election, but it is unclear who he will run against.

Although the role is largely ceremonial, the president's powers include nominating the prime minister after elections and appointing judges and prosecutors. They also include oversight of foreign policy, meaning the new president will play a critical role in Romania's commitment to supporting Ukraine.

(Reporting by Luiza Ilie; editing by Giles Elgood)

Elon Musk makes it clear he’s got no regrets over Kamala Harris assassination post

“Why they want to kill Donald Trump?” the post read.

“And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala,” 

Joe Sommerlad
Tue 8 October 2024 

Elon Musk made it clear he has no regrets over his X post pondering why no one had tried to assassinate Kamala Harris or Joe Biden, when he sat down for an interview with Tucker Carlson on Monday night.

On Sunday September 15, the CEO of X, Tesla and SpaceX sparked outrage when he responded to a social media post about the second alleged assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

“Why they want to kill Donald Trump?” the post read.

“And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala,” Musk responded, followed by the pondering face emoji.

Musk joined former Fox News host Carlson on X on Monday, where he was asked about the scandal.

“I made a joke that no one’s even trying to kill Kamala because it’s pointless,” he said. “What do you achieve? Nothing. They’ll just put in another puppet.”

“It’s deeply true,” conservative commentator Carlson responded.

“Some people interpreted it as I was calling for people to assassinate [Harris], but I was like… doesn’t it seem strange that no one has even bothered to try,” Musk continued, laughing. “No one tries to assassinate a puppet.”

The tech mogul’s post came after accused would-be gunman Ryan Wesley Routh was caught allegedly pointing a rifle through the fence at Trump’s Florida golf course while the Republican presidential nominee was playing a round.

Elon Musk was interviewed by Tucker Carlson on X on Monday October 7 2024 

(Tucker Carlson/X)

Authorities said that Routh was spotted by Secret Service agents who opened fire, causing him to flee the scene. The suspect was apprehended soon after.

Musk later deleted his comment following uproar.

In a follow-up post, he added: “One lesson I’ve learned is that just because I say something to a group and they laugh doesn’t mean it’s going to be all that hilarious as a post on X.

“Turns out that jokes are way less funny if people don’t know the context and the delivery is in plain text.”

Musk came out in support of Trump earlier this summer following the first attempt to kill the former president at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.

The endorsement cemented the tech entrepreneur’s personal shift towards the right since the Covid-19 pandemic and was followed by him conducting an X Spaces interview with Trump, who has, in turn, touted Musk as a future member of his potential second administration to be tasked with cutting inefficiency in the workings of the federal government.



Musk has said he would be “willing to serve” in a prospective second Trump administration and appeared alongside the candidate at his return to Butler on Saturday, announcing himself to the crowd in excitable fashion as a member of “Dark MAGA” and warning that the future of the country is at stake if Harris and Tim Walz win in November.

Having gone all-in on Trump, Musk admitted to Carlson on Monday that he is “f***ed” if Trump does not emerge victorious on November 5.

“It does seem that way,” the pundit laughed.

“I’m like, ‘How long do you think my prison sentence is going to be? Will I see my children?’ I don’t know,” Musk responded.

“I have no plausible deniability and I’ve been trashing Kamala non-stop!”

Elon Musk’s America PAC offers bounty for contact info of millions of registered voters in battleground states

Fortune · (Jabin Botsford—The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Christiaan Hetzner
 Mon, October 7, 2024

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is paying a bounty for voter registration data with the help of a petition as he seeks to return Donald Trump to the White House this November.

The world’s wealthiest entrepreneur confirmed his political action committee, America PAC, will offer a $47 reward for the name, address, and phone number of each registered voter in battleground states who signs an online statement in favor of rights already protected by the Constitution.


The amount, symbolic for the 47th presidency to which Trump aspires, will go to the person who refers the swing state voter.

“Goal is to get 1 [million] voters in swing states to show support for free speech & right to bear arms,” Musk posted on Sunday. “Easy money.”

Under the offer, which expires on Oct. 21, only individuals in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, and North Carolina stand to receive a reward.

Voters in Musk’s adopted state of Texas, for example, are not eligible for the reward even if they are registered to cast a ballot in the 47th presidential election—regardless of their support for the Constitution.

Since the petition is not affiliated with Trump's Republican Party, signatories are not directed to the RNC website. Instead they must enter their personal data—including name, postal address, email address, and cell phone number—directly into the America PAC database.

Eligible voters may only list one person as their referrer, and the PAC intends to make sure the info it bought is worth the money. "Before payment is made America PAC will verify the accuracy of all information of the referrer and referree," it stipulates.


Once that is done, Musk's political vehicle has all the relevant data it needs to deploy canvassers to their neighborhood to ensure voters do show up on polling day.

Neither Musk nor America PAC responded to a request for comment from Fortune.

The 1-million-voter target may not seem like much, but campaign experts often note that Biden won the electoral college and, with it, the presidency by a margin of just 44,000 votes in a handful of states that flipped from red to blue.

Set against that number, 1 million potential new Trump voters could easily affect the election outcome.
It could cost Musk millions

On Sunday, the Tesla CEO made his first campaign appearance alongside Trump in Butler, Pa., where a would-be assassin made an attempt on the life of the former president this summer.

That day in July also marked the start of Musk’s public endorsement of the former president.

“President Trump must win to preserve the Constitution. He must win to preserve democracy in America,” he told the crowd.


Left in power, the Democrats would find a way to do away with Americans’ inalienable rights protected under law, he claimed.


Should Harris be declared the victor next month, Musk added, “this will be the last election—that’s my prediction.”

With his 200 million followers on X, Musk has become Trump’s most vocal and valuable champion. Yet his wholesale partisanship has driven a split within the Tesla community that broadly skews progressive.

“As you can see, I’m not just MAGA, I’m Dark MAGA,” Musk said at the rally, sporting a Make America Great Again baseball cap colored black instead of red.

In theory, America PAC’s move to buy voter data could get expensive for Musk.

Pennsylvania—the biggest battleground state prize on the electoral map with 19 electoral votes up for grabs—has nearly 8.7 million registered voters as of the start of this year, according to the latest official data.

Of that total, 40% are Republicans with another 15% unaffiliated with either of the two main parties. Musk could even end up paying for the contact info of registered Democrats.

If he only got 1% of the state’s total, it would cost him $4 million.

Should his PAC achieve the full 1 million to sign the petition in support of rights already guaranteed by the Constitution, that would be $47 million right there, assuming each signatory was claimed as a referral.
Musk stands to wield heavy influence in Trump White House

For Musk, it would nonetheless be a shrewd investment.

Biden’s administration has taken a robust approach to regulation in a number of areas, enraging Silicon Valley billionaires like Musk and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen.

By comparison, Trump has a record of weakening federal regulators, like the EPA, that bind businesses in red tape.

Not only has he praised Musk’s culling of the workforce at Twitter, he’s also considering granting Musk’s wish for widespread authority to cut the federal workforce as part of a potential new “Department of Government Efficiency.”

It’s possible that the entrepreneur would first target agencies that have vexed him and his business interests.

For example, Musk threatened last month to sue the Federal Aviation Administration over what he called “regulatory overreach,” and he’s already sued the National Labor Relations Board.

But with a relatively paltry amount of cash, Musk’s various companies stand to gain significantly from a second Trump administration.

Regulations mean little if they are not actively enforced—and Musk could wield considerable influence over agency resources like personnel.

Trump, who got elected in part thanks to a claim that he was rich enough not to be bought, is facing high legal costs and is now heavily dependent on Musk’s backing to mobilize voters.

Earlier this year, Trump installed his daughter-in-law as chair of the Republican Party, and ever since, he has pioneered the use of outsourcing—a common business practice—in political campaigning.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

'God save the Tsar!': Putin hailed in Russia on 72nd birthday

Updated Mon, October 7, 2024 

By Guy Faulconbridge

MOSCOW (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin was hailed a 'tsar' on his 72nd birthday on Monday by some supporters who said the former KGB spy had raised Russia up from its knees and would deliver victory against the West in the Ukraine war.

Putin, who took the Kremlin's top job just eight years after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, is the longest serving Kremlin leader since Josef Stalin who died at his dacha outside Moscow in 1953 aged 74.

Cast by Western leaders as an autocrat, killer and war criminal, Putin has seen his popularity rise inside Russia since he ordered thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, according to Russian opinion polls.

"God save the Tsar!," wrote ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue Alexander Dugin, who has long advocated the unification of Russian-speaking and other territories in a vast new Russian empire which he says must include Ukraine.

"Putin rules the country confidently and unhurriedly. And it shall always be so - well, almost," Dugin added in his birthday greeting, posted on his Telegram messaging channel minutes after midnight.

Unlike most of Russia's historical leaders, Putin has no visible successor. He also has no serious rivals, according to multiple Russian sources.

He is now locked into what Russian officials say is the gravest confrontation with the West - whose combined economies are at least 20 times bigger than Russia's - since the depths of the Cold War.

Opponents say early setbacks in the invasion illustrated Russia's weakness, though U.S. generals say Moscow quickly learned from its failures and has adapted to the demands of the biggest land war in Europe since World War Two.

Russia, like Ukraine, has suffered huge losses of men in the war, and in 2023, Putin faced a failed mutiny by Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the mercenary Wagner group. Prigozhin's plane crashed two months to the day since the mutiny.

WAR LEADER

Putin, born in Leningrad just seven years after World War Two, has promised Russians victory in the Ukraine war, which he casts as a proxy conflict between holy Russia and an arrogant West which he says humiliated Russia as the Soviet Union crumbled.

As the West stepped up its support for Ukraine with hundreds of billions of dollars in pledged aid, Putin doubled down on his bet on war and used the West's reaction to depict the conflict as an existential battle for Russia's future.

According to a report published on Monday by Moscow-based Minchenko Consulting, Russians are increasingly seeing Putin as a figure who has managed to transform the global order, to their benefit.

"In domestic politics, Vladimir Putin every year acquires completely new features of the archetypal image of the Creator, who creates a new world order in which Russia will have a completely new role," Minchenko Consulting said.

Western leaders have repeatedly said that Putin cannot be allowed to win the war, and that if he does, the West's enemies will be emboldened and Putin might try attacking a NATO member, an assertion that Putin has repeatedly dismissed.

Russian forces are advancing in Ukraine and Putin has hiked defence spending to Cold War levels.

Currently, Russia controls a little under one fifth of Ukraine - including Crimea which it annexed in 2014, about 80% of Donbas in eastern Ukraine, about 71% of the Kherson region and 72% of Zaporizhzhia region.

Opponents have either left Russia, died or are silent. Russia's opposition, almost all abroad, are divided and have failed to find a new leader since the death of Alexei Navalny in an Arctic prison in February.

Navalny described Putin's Russia as a brittle criminal state run by thieves, sycophants and spies who care only about money. He had long forecast Russia could face seismic political turmoil, including revolution.

"With Putin, we shall be victorious," Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the Russian parliament, said on Monday. "A strong president is a strong Russia."

(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Andrew Heavens)

Japan prosecutors won't appeal Hakamada death row acquittal: media

Agence France-Presse
October 8, 2024


Iwao Hakamada (L) is the fifth death row inmate granted a retrial in Japan's post-war history (STR/JIJI PRESS/AFP)

Japanese prosecutors have decided not to appeal against last month's acquittal of the world's longest-serving death row prisoner, Iwao Hakamada, local media reported Tuesday.

After a long fight for justice led by his sister, a court declared on September 27 that Hakamada, 88, was innocent of the quadruple murder for which he spent 46 years waiting to be executed.

The regional tribunal ruled that investigators had tampered with evidence and said the ex-boxer had suffered "inhumane interrogations meant to force a statement".

He was first convicted in 1968 of robbing and killing his boss, the man's wife and their two teenage children.

A retrial was granted in 2014 and Hakamada was released from prison, although legal wrangling meant the proceedings only began last year.

Japanese media, including broadcaster NHK and Kyodo News, reported that prosecutors had decided not to appeal against the latest ruling, paving the way for it to be finalized.

The office of the public prosecutor declined to comment when contacted by AFP. A supporters group for Hakamada said they had no first-hand confirmation.

Japan and the United States are the only two major industrialized countries that still use capital punishment. It has strong public support in Japan, where scrapping it is rarely discussed.

Hakamada is the fifth death row inmate granted a retrial in Japan's post-war history. All four previous cases also resulted in exonerations.

Japan's last execution took place in July 2022, of a man who killed seven in a truck-ramming and stabbing rampage in Tokyo's popular Akihabara electronics district in 2008.

© Agence France-Presse