Will white women abandon Republicans and vote for Kamala Harris?

Carter Sherman

THE GUARDIAN
Tue 8 October 2024

Demonstrators march during the fourth annual Women’s March in Washington DC on 18 January 2020.Photograph: Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images

White women voters have been the backbone of the GOP for decades – but polls indicate their support for the party may erode this November, thanks to younger white women who are moving left at breakneck speed.

In the weeks after the 2016 presidential election, after Donald Trump stunned the world by defeating Hillary Clinton, media outlets seized on white women to explain his shock win. Forty-seven per cent of white women voted for Trump, while 45% backed Clinton, according to an analysis of validated voter files by the Pew Research Center.

Trump’s success with white women highlighted a longstanding truth: this group votes for Republicans. Over the last 72 years, a plurality of white women have voted for the Democratic candidate in only two presidential elections – in 1964, when Lyndon Johnson won 44 states, and in 1996, when Bill Clinton ran in a three-way race. Trump’s lead with white women even grew in 2020, when 53% supported him. In contrast, 95% of Black women voted for Joe Biden in 2020, along with 61% of Hispanic women, Pew found.


But quite a bit has changed since 2020 – especially for women. The US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022, transforming abortion rights into a major election issue. Kamala Harris took over as the Democratic candidate from Joe Biden, becoming the first woman of color to secure a major-party nomination for president. All this raises the question: will 2024 be the year that white women, who make up almost 40% of the national electorate, finally join women of color in supporting the Democrats?

Well, not necessarily. But the gap very well may shrink.

There are signs that younger white women are peeling off from the GOP – a trend that is linked to a steady drift by all young women to the left.

“Young women of color and young white women, in my research, are pretty uniformly liberal and feminist,” said Melissa Deckman, CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute and author of the recent book The Politics of Gen Z: How the Youngest Voters Will Shape Our Democracy. “I think Harris’s selection as the nominee now – as opposed to Biden – has really further made them enthusiastic about voting. So I strongly suspect that young, white women voters are going to defy the longer-term trend of white women in general voting for Republicans.”

Young women are increasingly queer, increasingly secular and getting married later in life – all characteristics that tend to be linked with liberalism and support for the Democratic party. (People who identify as liberal are very likely to be Democrats, though the inverse is not necessarily true – not all Democrats identify as liberal.)Interactive

Related: Young women are the most progressive group in American history. Young men are checked out

Between 2011 and 2024, liberal identification among white women rose by 6%, according to a Gallup analysis shared with the Guardian. Such identification also rose by 6% among Black women, but fell by 2% among Hispanic women.

Gen Z is the most diverse generation of Americans yet, but Gallup research suggests that doesn’t explain young women’s leftward drift. Between 2017 and 2024, 41% of white women between the ages of 18 and 29 identified as liberals – 2 percentage points more than their peers of color.

Young women are also unusually involved in politics. Women have long outvoted men, but in 2020, 60% of 18- to 29-year-old white women voted – more than any other group of youth voters, according to an analysis of AP VoteCast data by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. Fifty-five per cent voted for Biden.

Trump’s 2016 victory may have something to do with these trends. Raised by Democratic-leaning independents, Chloe Fowler said Trump’s election was a critical inflection point in her political evolution. She was a sophomore in high school when Trump won; the day after, somebody in her school hallway shouted gleefully: “Grab ’em by the pussy!”

“Things like that stick with us,” recalled Fowler, who is white. A few months later, her mom took her to the Women’s March in Omaha, Nebraska. “That was a very pivotal moment for me, honestly – doing a bunch of chants with her and wearing the pink cat ear hats.”

Fowler is now the vice-president of Nebraska Young Democrats. The 23-year-old has been phone-banking furiously in her home district – Nebraska’s second congressional district, which may end up deciding whether Trump or Harris becomes president.
‘Why is this race so close?’

A September 19th News/SurveyMonkey poll recently found that white women narrowly prefer Harris to Trump, 42% to 40%, with a 1% margin of error. The remaining 8% can make or break the election, of course. The gender gap is larger: compared with white men, white women prefer Harris by a 6-point margin.

A majority of Black women support Harris, that poll found, as do pluralities of Hispanic and Asian American women.

Jane Junn, a political science professor at the University of Southern California, says what is often misunderstood as a “gender gap” between male and female voters is really a race gap. While women as a whole may end up voting for Harris – a September New York Times/Siena poll showed that 54% of women planned to vote for Harris, compared with 40% of men – white women, Junn predicted, will remain Republicans in 2024. “If all of a sudden, the white women were like: ‘Oh, my God, I’m burning my bra and my Barbie shoes and my long fingernails and all the plastic sprays I put into my body’ – we’re not seeing that,” Junn said. “Why is this race so close? It’s so close because these groups remain fairly consistent in their partisan loyalty.”Interactive

Polling from Galvanize Action, an organization that seeks to mobilize moderate women – especially in the critical “blue wall” states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan – has found the race in a dead heat among moderate white women, who are split 43% to 44% in favor of the former president. These women, who Galvanize Action defines as not ideologically entrenched as Democrats or Republicans, account for more than 5 million voters in those three states.

Trump has the edge when it comes to these women’s top issues of the economy and immigration, but the women polled by Galvanize Action trust Harris more on democracy and reproductive freedom.

“Even among women who say that economy or democracy is their No 1 issue, a good segment of those people also say: ‘I’m not going to vote for anyone that won’t protect abortion,’” said Jackie Payne, Galvanize Action’s executive director and founder.

Related: Where will abortion be on the ballot in the 2024 US election?

Democrats are hoping that abortion rights-related ballot measures – which voters will decide on in the battlegrounds of Arizona, Nevada and Nebraska’s second congressional district – will spur turnout among their base. However, white women may in effect vote split-ticket, simultaneously voting for a pro-abortion rights measure and for Republicans. More than half of white women voted for Ohio’s 2023 abortion-related ballot measure – but more than 60% of white women supported Mike DeWine, the Republican governor who signed a six-week abortion ban into law, in 2022, just months after Roe fell.

“This is going to be all about turnout. This is going to be a very, very close election,” said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers. “The Democratic party counts on women. They count particularly on Black women to turn out. Will they be more energized?”

Why Chinese workers are under attack from militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan

Arpan Rai

THE  INDEPENDENT
Mon 7 October 2024 


Why Chinese workers are under attack from militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan


As Chinese workers and development projects increasingly come under attack in Pakistan, security experts say separatist militants see the foreign presence as a threat to local resources and their grip on the restive South West.

Two Chinese nationals were killed in a bombing near the international airport of the southern Pakistani city of Karachi on Sunday. The attack, which took place around 11pm outside Pakistan’s Jinnah International Airport, targeted a van of Chinese nationals, just a week before the high-level Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

Shortly after, separatist militant group, Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), from Pakistan’s troubled southwestern Balochistan province claimed responsibility, stating that it used a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device targeting “a high-level convoy of Chinese engineers and investors”.


China has supported its smaller Asian allies Pakistan and Afghanistan with financial and infrastructure aid for decades and invested significantly in its defence and technology. But its resources are now prime targets for dozens of terrorist groups in the region, experts said.

“Sunday night’s attack is part of a larger pattern of attacks by Baloch separatist militants and Pakistani Taliban factions targeting Chinese nationals and interests in Pakistan,” said security analyst Ihsanullah Tipu Mehsud.

Security officials work on the site of an explosion that caused injures and destroyed vehicles outside the Karachi airport, Pakistan, Monday, 7 Oct 2024 (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

This is one of the biggest terrorist attacks since 2018 targeting Chinese workers in Pakistan, Mr Mehsud told The Independent, including the November 2018 attack on Karachi Chinese Consulate which killed four, July 2021’s Dasu suicide attack which killed nine Chinese nationals, BLA’s attack on the Pakistan Stock Exchange in June 2020, and their suicide attack in April 2023 which killed three Chinese tutors.

This is the second major attack on Chinese nationals. Earlier in March, a suicide car bombing killed five Chinese workers in Pakistan’s Shangla district. The Chinese engineers, who were employed on the site of a hydropower project in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, were on their way to the Dasu Dam In Afghanistan. The December 2022 attack targeted Kabul’s China Town and wounded five Chinese nationals in a hotel where Beijing’s investors were staying.

“The Baloch militants’ propaganda is heavily focused on Chinese presence in Balochistan and they consider it as a threat to their influence and resources. They believe China’s financial and technical assistance to Pakistan strengthens the government’s grip on the region, undermining their activities and influence,” said Mr Mehsud, who is also the co-founder of The Khorasan Diary, a digital news and research platform specialising in tracking and analysing militancy in the region.

This perception fuels their attacks on Chinese nationals, investments, and projects, he added.

A car is seen damaged at the site of an explosion that caused injures and destroyed vehicles outside the Karachi airport, Pakistan, Monday, 7 Oct 2024 (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

“This is not merely an attack but a larger security and intelligence failure by Pakistan in protecting Chinese nationals, mostly engineers working on major projects,” said Abdullah Khan, a senior defence analyst and managing director of the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies.

“They also show something critical: most of the attacks are moving targets and vehicles in transit carrying workers,” he said, adding that it meant there was obviously a security breach.

The BLA seeks independence for the province of Balochistan, located in Pakistan’s southwest and bordering on Afghanistan and Iran. BLA specifically targets Chinese interests, in particular the strategic port of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea, accusing Beijing of helping Islamabad exploit the province.

Security issues have affected China’s billions of planned investments, including under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor which is part of Chinese president Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road.

In August prime minister Shehbaz Sharif said the attacks by separatist militants were aimed at stopping development projects that form part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). “The terrorists want to stop CPEC and development projects,” he said in a televised address to cabinet, adding that the militants also wanted to drive a wedge between Islamabad and Beijing.

Security officials stand guard at the site of an explosion that caused injures and destroyed vehicles outside the Karachi airport, Pakistan, Monday, 7 Oct 2024 (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

But the predictable civilian losses will not deter China from sending its nationals to the region, Mr Khan added, stating that Mr Xi visited Pakistan in April 2015 for the massive CPEC project investment when the country was facing its worst surge in terrorism.

“The Chinese are very much aware that this is a conflict zone where they are pursuing these projects because when they had started the CPEC in Pakistan in 2015, that was the time Pakistan was facing the highest degree of terrorism in the country with tremendous terrorist attacks in 2014,” Mr Khan said.

“Their investment projects are development projects in Pakistan which they will continue despite these challenges,” he said.

Pakistan is preparing to host the SCO summit in capital Islamabad, which was roiled by protests and clashes over the weekend between police and supporters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan. High-level Chinese representation and the first visit by an Indian foreign minister in a decade are expected at the summit next week, which authorities have vowed to secure.


A Pakistani separatist group claims bombing that killed 2 Chinese near Karachi airport

ADIL JAWAD and MUNIR AHMED

AP
Mon 7 October 2024

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — A Pakistani separatist group claimed responsibility for a late-night bombing that targeted a convoy with Chinese nationals outside the country's largest airport, killing two workers from China and wounding eight people, officials and the insurgent group said Monday.

The attack by the Baloch Liberation Army outside the airport in the southern port city of Karachi was the latest deadly assault on the Chinese in Pakistan and came a week before Islamabad is to host a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a security grouping founded by China and Russia to counter Western alliances.

The explosion, which the BLA said was the work of a suicide bomber, also raised questions about the ability of Pakistani forces to secure high-profile events or foreigners in the country. Among the wounded were also police officers who were escorting the Chinese convoy when the attack happened.

Pakistani news channels broadcast videos of flames engulfing cars and a thick column of smoke rising from the scene. Troops and police cordoned off the area. On Monday, counterterrorism officials were investigating how the attacker reached Karachi, Pakistan's largest city.

The spokesman for the separatist group, Junaid Baloch, said Monday that one of their suicide bombers targeted the convoy of Chinese engineers and investors as they left the airport. The Baloch Liberation Army is mainly based in the restive southwestern Balochistan province but it has also attacked foreigners and security forces in other parts of Pakistan in recent years.

The Chinese Embassy in Islamabad said Chinese staffers working at the Port Qasim Electric Power Company — a coal-powered power plant that's a joint China-Pakistan venture — were in the convoy when it came under attack around 11 p.m. on Sunday. Two Chinese nationals were killed and one was wounded, the embassy said and added, without elaborating, that there were also Pakistani casualties.

Pakistani security officials say a police bomb disposal unit in Sindh province, where Karachi is the capital, had cleared the road outside the airport ahead of the movement of the Chinese convoy, which was being escorted by police and security officials in several vehicles.

Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced the bombing, saying it was a “heinous terrorist attack near Karachi airport.”

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he was shocked and saddened, describing the attackers as “enemies of Pakistan” and promising the perpetrators would be punished.

“I strongly condemn this heinous act and offer my heartfelt condolences to the Chinese leadership & the people of China, particularly the families of the victims,” he wrote on the social media platform X.

“Pakistan stands committed to safeguarding our Chinese friends," he added. "We will leave no stone unturned to ensure their security & well-being.”

Later, Sharif met with the Chinese Ambassador Jiang Zaidong to assure him that he would personally supervise the investigation into the attack.

Earlier, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi briefed Zaidong about the investigations.

Authorities estimate that the BLA, which Pakistan and the United States have designated a terrorist organization, has around 3,000 fighters. It regularly targets Pakistani security forces but has also in the past attacked Chinese nationals.

According to Abdullah Khan, a senior defense analyst and managing director of the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, BLA has preferred attacks on “moving targets” but its ability to launch high-profile attacks has increased in recent years.

More BLA attacks around the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit next week cannot be ruled out, Khan told The Associated Press.

Pakistan hosts thousands of Chinese workers as part of Beijing’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, which is building major infrastructure projects.

The outlawed BLA has long waged an insurgency seeking independence and has repeatedly warned against any Chinese working in Balochistan.

The Sunday night attack followed deadly attacks in August that killed more than 50 people in Balochistan. Sharif at the time said the attackers sought to harm Chinese-funded development projects.

The oil- and mineral-rich Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest but also least populated province. It is also a hub for the country’s ethnic Baloch minority whose members say they face discrimination and exploitation by the central government. Along with separatist groups, Islamic militants also operate in the province.

In March, in northwestern Pakistan, a suicide bombing killed five Chinese engineers and their Pakistani driver as they headed to the Dasu Dam, the country's biggest hydropower project. In April, five Japanese workers were unharmed when a suicide bomber targeted their van as they were on their wat to a factory in Karachi. One bystander was killed.

In July 2021, at least nine Chinese nationals working on a dam and four Pakistanis were killed when a suicide bomber targeted their bus in northwestern Pakistan. Local authorities first said it was a road accident but Beijing insisted it was a bombing, which Islamabad later confirmed.

In 2022, three Chinese teachers and their Pakistani driver were killed when an explosion ripped through their van at the University of Karachi campus.

___

Ahmed reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writer Ken Moritsugu and AP researcher Yu Bing in Beijing contributed to this report.


Chinese workers targeted in deadly Pakistan airport suicide blast

Sophia Saifi and Simone McCarthy, CNN
Mon 7 October 2024 

Two Chinese nationals were killed and one was injured in a suicide attack near Karachi’s international airport Sunday evening, China’s embassy in Pakistan said Monday, marking the latest in a string of violence against China’s personnel and investments in the country in recent years.

At least seven others were injured, according to rescue workers at the scene, where a massive blast set cars ablaze and was heard throughout the city.

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) separatist group claimed responsibility in a statement and said the blast was a suicide attack targeting a convoy of Chinese engineers and investors leaving Jinnah International Airport, Pakistan’s largest and busiest aviation hub. The Chinese embassy said the attack targeted a convoy carrying Chinese staff of an electric power company.

A senior Pakistani security official confirmed to CNN that it was a suicide attack and said authorities were investigating the background of the bomber.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif “strongly condemned” the incident and offered “heartfelt condolences to the Chinese leadership [and] the people of China,” in a statement posted on X.

“Pakistan stands committed to safeguarding our Chinese friends. We will leave no stone unturned to ensure their security [and] well-being,” he wrote.

A vehicle is seen on fire at the site of the explosion outside the Karachi airport. - Mohammad Farooq/AP

The incident follows a spate of terror attacks earlier this year that Pakistan’s government said were aimed at disrupting its close ties with Beijing. It also comes days before Islamabad is set to host a meeting of heads of government from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a security grouping spearheaded by China and Russia.

Pakistan is a strategic ally of China and a key link in Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s ambitious Belt and Road infrastructure initiative. Projects under the program’s umbrella have faced mounting security challenges, including as Pakistan grapples with a surge in violence from militant and terrorist groups in recent years.

In its statement Monday, China’s embassy called on Pakistan to “take all necessary measures to protect the safety of Chinese citizens, institutions and projects in Pakistan.”

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has yet to comment. Monday marks the last day of China’s weeklong national day holiday.

Security officials on Monday examined the site the Sunday night blast. - Fareed Khan/AP

Beijing has invested tens of billions of dollars in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship Belt and Road project launched in 2015 that links China’s western Xinjiang region to Pakistan’s Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea with a network of roads, railways, pipelines and power plants.

But Chinese-funded projects have sparked resentment from locals in parts of Pakistan, who say they have benefited little from the developments. The anti-China sentiment is particularly strong among separatist groups in Balochistan.

The BLA, which claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack, is the most prominent of several separatist groups in the restive southwest province.

Earlier this year, the BLA claimed responsibility for assaults on a Pakistani naval air base and a government complex outside the Chinese-funded strategic port of Gwadar.

In a separate incident in March, five Chinese workers and their local driver were killed in a suicide blast in northwest Pakistan, when a bomber rammed a vehicle into the workers’ convoy as it traveled from the capital to the Dasu dam, the country’s largest hydropower project.

Pakistan’s military said those attacks were aimed at destabilizing the country’s internal security and its relationship with China. They followed other violent incidents in recent years targeting Chinese nationals and projects.

In November 2018, the BLA claimed responsibility for an attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi, which killed four people. Six months later, a separatist group attacked a luxury hotel in Gwadar, often used by Chinese nationals working at the port. In June 2020, the BLA said it was responsible for another deadly attack on the Pakistan Stock Exchange, in which a Chinese-led consortium owns a 40% stake.

In August last year, BLA militants opened fire on a Pakistani military convoy in Gwadar as it was escorting a delegation of Chinese nationals to a construction project. Two militants were killed and no harm was caused to any military personnel or civilians, according to the Pakistani military.

This story has been updated with additional information. CNN’s Azaz Syed and Saleem Mehsud in Islamabad contributed reporting.


Pakistan Orders Inquiry as Two Chinese Killed in Militant Attack

Ismail Dilawar
Mon 7 October 2024



(Bloomberg) -- Pakistan is investigating an attack in the port city of Karachi that killed two Chinese citizens on Sunday, as the South Asian nation struggles to curb rising militancy targeting interests of its key economic partner.

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The militants targeted a security convoy of Chinese workers working at the Port Qasim Electric Power Co. near Karachi’s airport, Chinese embassy in Pakistan said in a statement. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack and vowed to protect Chinese nationals, according to a statement by the Prime Minister’s Office on Monday.

Pakistani authorities are trying to protect about 2,500 Chinese nationals working on different projects from roads to power under the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. The efforts are failing though. Militant attacks increased by 47% to 717 this year to September and killed 834 people in Pakistan, according to the data compiled by Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies.

Five Chinese nationals working at a power project in Pakistan’s northwest region were killed in an attack in March that Islamabad blamed on Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, an offshoot of Afghanistan’s Taliban group. Baloch Liberation Army, a group of militants fighting security forces, claimed responsibility for the latest attack, Dawn newspaper reported,

China asked Pakistani authorities to probe the attack and protect its citizens and projects, its embassy said in a statement.

The attack comes a week before Pakistan hosts the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in Islamabad. The China-led SCO is a Eurasian grouping of countries that includes Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar will attend summit, the first visit to Pakistan by an Indian foreign minister since 2015.

These attacks are also hurting efforts by the Sharif government to revive an economy with the help of the International Monetary Fund’s three-year $7 billion loan secured last month.

Sharif has said China along with Saudi Arabia and the UAE were key in rolling over loans and help Pakistan secure the IMF loan. It also comes at a time Pakistan is looking to inject some fresh momentum to projects under China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

--With assistance from Kamran Haider.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for BALOCHISTAN 

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)