UK airline emissions on track to reach record high in 2024


Gwyn Topham

 Transport correspondent

THE GUARDIAN

Fri, 19 April 2024

Ryanair emitted 13.5% more CO2 in 2023 and easyJet was up by 4.8%.

Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

Emissions from UK flights are rapidly returning to pre-pandemic levels, with CO2 pollution from aviation on track to reach a record high this year.

The increase means the sector may breach a key plank of the government’s Jet Zero strategy, which pledged to not surpass 2019 figures on the way to reaching net zero emissions from aviation by 2050.

Several airlines are already emitting more than ever before, according to analysis from the campaign group Transport & Environment (T&E) based on UK and EU carbon reporting and other flight data.

Related: Campaigners warn over failure to curb Europe’s ‘runaway’ transport emissions


It estimates that Ryanair emitted 13.5% more CO2 in 2023 than it did in 2019, with easyJet up by 4.8% and Jet2.com up by 26.3%. British Airways was still by far the UK’s most polluting airline, although its emissions remain 18% below 2019 levels.

Last year, 940,000 flights departed from UK airports, emitting a total of 32 mn tonnes of CO2, 89% of 2019 levels, according to T&E. It said there had been remarkable levels of growth in comparison to 2022 alone, with long-haul flight emissions 28% higher, and that the data suggested aviation emissions could reach a record high in 2024.

BA, Ryanair and easyJet have announced continued planned expansion of between 7% and 9% for 2024.

Although the newer planes with lower fuel consumption ordered by airlines such as Ryanair mean they have boasted of lower emissions for each passenger, the rapid growth in traffic means their overall pollution figures are growing inexorably.

As well as warning that the UK government’s Jet Zero roadmap towards more sustainable aviation risks going off course well before 2050, T&E urged policymakers to reconsider how airlines are taxed given the limitations of the emissions trading scheme (ETS).

The UK’s ETS only covers flights wholly within the UK, the European Economic Area and Switzerland. That means that long-haul flights in and out of the UK – accounting for the majority of emissions – escape without charge while domestic or European flights pay for each tonne of CO2.

British Airways, whose emissions grew an estimated 25% in 2023, pays less under the ETS than easyJet or Ryanair, despite producing almost three times as much CO2 because of its long-haul network. Virgin Atlantic, which only flies to destinations outside Europe, paid nothing at all in ETS. Wizz Air paid £34.23 for each tonne of CO2 emitted, according to T&E.

BA would have paid another £350m annually under an ETS system that included long-haul flights, T&E added.

Ryanair itself has called for an overhaul of the system, demanding the extension of the UK and EU ETS to all flights. However, reform of the scheme to include long-haul flights has proved difficult in the past, with the US and China threatening to derail previous EU attempts to find a fairer global solution.

Future additional emissions from all flights will be liable for offsets under the Corsia system agreed by the UN body, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), before the pandemic – but it is not mandatory worldwide until 2027 and campaigners fear the impact will be negligible due to the likely cost to airlines.

T&E has called for a kerosene tax. Matt Finch, the UK policy manager at T&E, said: “Some airlines had their most polluting year ever in 2023, and there is a good chance that many more will get that badge of dishonour in 2024.

“The UK government is apparently committed to charging polluters to help pay the clean-up costs they cause, but it is wilfully ignoring charging airlines, despite their growing climate impact. That’s the directly opposite approach they’re taking to the nation’s drivers at the petrol pump.”

The Department for Transport was approached for comment.

A BA spokesperson said: “As this report recognises, [our] emission levels are below where they were in 2019. We are proud of the 10% reduction in our carbon intensity we’ve delivered since 2019 and are working hard towards our target of net zero by 2050.”

Ambulance driver killed while aiding Palestinians injured in attack by Israeli settlers in the West Bank

Mia Alberti, Abeer Salman, Eyad Kourdi and Tim Lister, CNN
Sat, April 20, 2024 a

An ambulance driver from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society was killed while transporting Palestinians injured in an attack by settlers in the West Bank on Saturday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.

The 50-year-old driver, Mohammed Awad Allah Mohammed Musa, was killed when the ambulance was hit by gunfire, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) told CNN. Israeli settlers fired the shots, it said.

In a separate incident the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) detained another ambulance crew at the entrance of the Thabet Thabet hospital in Tulkarm, West Bank, the PRCS reported.

In pictures shared by the organization, the ambulance crew is seen siting inside an IDF vehicle while surrounded by IDF soldiers. PRCS says the crew was detained and interrogated while trying to carry out “humanitarian work.”

CNN has reached out to the IDF for comment.

IDF soldiers detain an ambulance crew at the entrance of the Thabet Thabet hospital in Tulkarm, West Bank. The ambulance crew is seen siting inside an IDF vehicle while surrounded by soldiers. - Palestinian Red Crescent Society

Earlier on Saturday, the IDF said security forces had killed “10 terrorists” in an ongoing operation at the Nur Shams refugee camp, just East of Tulkarm, in the occupied West Bank.

It said in a statement that “IDF and Israel Border Police forces are continuing extensive counterterrorism activity in the area of Nur Shams. Thus far, the security forces eliminated 10 terrorists during encounters, apprehended eight wanted suspects, exposed explosive devices and routes, and conducted searches in structures.”

It said eight IDF soldiers and one Border Force officer were lightly or moderately injured.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health condemned both the detention of the ambulance crew and “the deliberate killing of an ambulance driver…on Saturday evening, while he was performing his humanitarian duty in transporting (people with) injuries from settler gunfire near the town of Al-Sawiya, south of Nablus.”

The ministry said in a statement that it “urgently calls on international health organizations, human rights institutions, and the International Committee of the Red Cross to urgently act to curb the escalating practices of the occupation and settlers against treatment centers and medical crews, and to allow them to perform their humanitarian duty.”

“The targeting of medics, ambulances, treatment centers, medical staff, obstructing their movement, and preventing them from reaching the wounded, constitutes a blatant and clear violation of international humanitarian law and international norms and treaties,” the ministry said.

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More than 14 Palestinians killed as violence flares in West Bank

Ali Sawafta and Nidal al-Mughrabi
Updated Sat, April 20, 2024 
   

NUR SHAMS, West Bank (Reuters) -Israeli forces killed 14 Palestinians during a raid in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, while an ambulance driver was killed as he went to pick up wounded from a separate attack by violent Jewish settlers, Palestinian authorities said.

Israeli forces began an extended raid in the early hours of Friday in the Nur Shams area, near the flashpoint Palestinian city of Tulkarm and were still exchanging fire with armed fighters well into Saturday.


Israeli military vehicles massed and bursts of gunfire were heard, while at least three drones were seen hovering above Nur Shams, an area housing refugees and their descendants from the 1948 war that accompanied the creation of the state of Israel.

The Tulkarm Brigades, which groups forces from numerous Palestinian factions, said its fighters exchanged fire with Israeli forces on Saturday.

The West Bank, a kidney shaped area about 100 km (60 miles) long and 50 km wide that has been at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since it was seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

The Gaza war has overshadowed continuing violence in the territory, including regular army raids on militant groups, rampages by Jewish settlers in Palestinian villages, and street attacks by Palestinians on Israelis.

Thousands of Palestinians have been arrested and hundreds killed during regular operations by Israeli army and police since the start of the Gaza war, most members of armed groups, but also stone-throwing youths and uninvolved civilians.

On Saturday, Palestinian health authorities said at least 14 Palestinians, two of whom were identified by Palestinian sources and officials as a gunman and a 16 year-old boy, were killed during the raid, one of the heaviest casualty totals in the West Bank in months. Another man was killed on Friday.

The Israeli military said a number of militants were killed or arrested during the raid, and at least four soldiers were wounded in exchanges of fire.

In a separate incident, the Palestinian health ministry said a 50-year-old ambulance driver was killed by Israeli gunfire near the village of Al-Sawiya, south of the city of Nablus, as he was making his way to transport people injured during the attack on the village.

It was not immediately clear whether he was shot by settlers. There was no immediate comment from the military.

GAZA STRIKES CONTINUE

In Gaza, where fighting has continued despite the withdrawal of most of Israel's combat forces earlier this month from southern areas, the death toll passed 34,000, Palestinian health authorities said on Saturday.

Israeli strikes hit the southern city of Rafah, where over one million Palestinians are sheltering, as well as Al-Nuseirat in central Gaza, where at least five houses were destroyed, and the Al-Jabalia area in the north, health officials and Hamas media said.

In Rafah, a strike hit a house and killed a father, daughter and pregnant mother, Hamas and Palestinian media outlets said. Doctors at the Kuwaiti hospital were able to save the baby, medics said, making the baby the family's only surviving member.

Five other Palestinians were killed in a separate Israeli air strike on the city before midnight, health officials said.

The Israeli military said troops were carrying out raids in central Gaza, where they were engaged in close quarter combat with Palestinian fighters.

Overall, Israeli strikes in Gaza killed 37 Palestinians and wounded 68 over the past 24 hours, Palestinian health authorities said.

Rafah is the last Gaza area that Israeli ground forces have not entered in a more than six-month war aimed at eliminating the Islamist Hamas group that rules the enclave, following the Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, that killed some 1,200 Israelis and foreigners.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced wide international opposition to the plan to attack Rafah, where the military says the last remaining organised brigades of Hamas are located and where the remaining 133 Israeli hostages are believed to be held.

(Nidal al-Mughrabi reported from Cairo, additional reporting by Maayan Lubell and James Mackenzie in Jerusalem, editing by Mark Heinrich, Frances Kerry, Mike Harrison, Sandra Maler and Cynthia Osterman)

Two Palestinians killed by Israeli troops in fresh West Bank violence

FRANCE 24
Sat, April 20, 2024



Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. The Israeli army said it had “neutralised” two assailants who had attempted to stab and shoot troops. The deadly incident comes after at least 14 people were killed during a multi-day Israeli raid further north in the West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent said on Saturday. Read our liveblog to follow today's developments in the Middle East.

Summary:

Israeli strikes on the southern Gaza city of Rafah overnight killed at least 13 people, including nine children, health officials said Sunday.


Israeli forces killed at least 14 Palestinians during a multi-day raid in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent said on Saturday. An ambulance driver was also killed as he went to pick up wounded from a separate attack by Jewish settlers, the Palestinian health ministry said.


The US House of Representatives approved a $26 billion military aid package for Israel on Saturday that includes around $9 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza.


The US House of Representatives passed billions of dollars in new military aid to Israel which continues to prosecute its war against Hamas, despite growing international concern for the fate of civilians in Gaza.


(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP & Reuters)

US sanctions ally of Israeli minister, entities backing 'extremist' settlers

Simon Lewis
Updated Fri, April 19, 2024 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on an ally of Israel's far-right national security minister and two entities that raised money for Israeli men accused of settler violence, the latest actions aimed against those Washington blames for an escalation of violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The sanctions, in addition to those already imposed on five settlers and two unauthorized outposts already this year, are the latest sign of growing U.S. frustration with the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The moves on Friday, which freeze any U.S. assets held by those targeted and generally bar Americans from dealing with them, hit two organizations that launched fundraising campaigns to support settlers accused of violence and targeted by previous sanctions, the Department of the Treasury said in a statement.

The Biden administration's moves against Israeli settlers have upset right-wing members of Netanyahu's governing coalition who support the expansion of Jewish settlements and ultimately the annexation of the West Bank, where Palestinians envisage a future state.

They come as the complex relationship between Washington and its ally Israel is tested by the war in Gaza and as the Biden administration urges Israel to show restraint in responding to retaliatory strikes by Iran.

Washington sanctioned Ben-Zion Gopstein, founder and leader of the right-wing group Lehava, which opposes Jewish assimilation with non-Jews and agitates against Arabs in the name of religion and national security. Gopstein has said Lehava has 5,000 members.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said members of the group had engaged in "destabilizing violence affecting the West Bank."

"Under Gopstein’s leadership, Lehava and its members have been involved in acts or threats of violence against Palestinians, often targeting sensitive or volatile areas," Miller said in a statement, warning of additional steps if Israel does not take measures to prevent extremist attacks amid an escalation of violence in the West Bank in recent days.

The European Union also said on Friday it had agreed to take sanctions against Lehava and other groups linked to violent settlers.

A spokesperson for Israel's embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Gopstein, the most prominent Israeli figure targeted by U.S. sanctions, is a close associate of and has family ties to National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who himself lives in a West Bank settlement.

Ben-Gvir, like Gopstein, was a disciple of the late Meir Kahane, an ultranationalist rabbi whose Kach movement was listed by Washington as a specially designated global terrorist organization.

Ben-Gvir on Friday slammed what he called harassment against Lehava and "our dear settlers who have never engaged in terrorism or hurt anyone," labeling the allegations against them a "blood libel" by Palestinian groups and anarchists.

"I call on Western countries to stop cooperating with these antisemites and end this campaign of persecution against the pioneering Zionist settlers," Ben-Gvir said in a statement released by his office.

CROWDFUNDING

Since the 1967 Middle East war, Israel has occupied the West Bank of the Jordan River, which Palestinians want as the core of an independent state. It has built Jewish settlements there that most countries deem illegal. Israel disputes this and cites historical and Biblical ties to the land.

The Biden administration in February said settlements were inconsistent with international law, signaling a return to long-standing U.S. policy on the issue that had been reversed by the previous administration of Donald Trump.

One entity targeted on Friday, Mount Hebron Fund, launched an online fundraising campaign that raised $140,000 for settler Yinon Levi, the Treasury said, after he was sanctioned on Feb. 1 for leading a group of settlers that assaulted Palestinian and Bedouin civilians, burned their fields and destroyed their property.

It said the second entity, Shlom Asiraich, raised $31,000 on a crowdfunding website for David Chai Chasdai, who the United States sanctioned for initiating and leading a riot that included setting vehicles and buildings on fire and causing damage to property in the Palestinian town of Huwara, resulting in the death of a Palestinian civilian.

“These types of enforcement actions against entities helping violent settlers evade U.S. sanctions are what give sanctions teeth," said Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, director of research for Israel-Palestine at Democracy for the Arab World Now, a human rights group that has highlighted efforts by supporters to evade sanctions against settlers.

(Reporting by Simon Lewis; additional reporting by Henriette Chacar and David Ljunggren, editing by Susan Heavey, Chizu Nomiyama and Deepa Babington)



EU sanctions extremist Israeli settlers over violence in the West Bank

Mared Gwyn Jones

euronews
Fri, April 19, 2024

EU sanctions extremist Israeli settlers over violence in the West Bank


A  political agreement on the move emerged among the bloc's 27 member countries last month, but technical work has delayed its implementation, prompting many countries - such as France and Belgium - to unilaterally impose national sanctions.

Some 490,000 Israelis live in settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which are considered a breach of international law. Attacks on Palestinians in the occupied territory have surged since the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas last October, causing around 460 deaths, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Four individuals and two entities responsible for settler violence will as of Friday be blacklisted under the EU's human rights sanctions regime, meaning they will be banned from travelling to the bloc and their financial assets frozen.

The sanctioned entities are Lehava, a far-wing Jewish supremacist organisation, and Hilltop Youth, whose activities were recently halted by the Israeli Defense Forces for multiple incidents of violence and abuses against Palestinian civilians.

Two leading figures of Hilltop Youth, Meir Ettinger and Elisha Yered, are also targeted.

The move comes amid escalating violence in the West Bank, where tensions have deepened since a 14-year-old boy from a settler family was killed last Saturday.

NGO Human Rights Watch says Israeli settlers are displacing Palestinian communities by destroying their homes, and are responsible for assaults, torture and sexual violence against Palestinians.

The EU's high representative for foreign policy, Josep Borrell, has previously said that settler violence is one of the biggest obstacles to future peace in the region since settlers oppose the two-state solution which would give statehood to Palestinians.

The bloc has also repeatedly censured Benjamin Netanyahu's government for backing projects aimed at expanding settlements in the West Bank and areas around Jerusalem, and called for such decisions to be reversed.

In January, several members of the Israeli government joined a far-right conference promoting the construction of Jewish settlements in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

The formal approval of the sanctions also comes as the bloc carefully calibrates its stance on the Middle East conflict following a rapid escalation in tensions between Israel and Iran.

Since Iran launched an unprecedented aerial attack on Israeli territory last Saturday, EU leaders have doubled down on their stance of solidarity with Israel but also urged Netanyahu's cabinet to exercise restraint.

Some capitals, however, want Brussels to toughen its stance on Netanyahu. Spain and Ireland have led calls to review the bloc's trade deal with Israel - the Association Agreement - to exert pressure on its government to exercise restraint in its Gaza offensive.

On Friday, Belgium's deputy prime minister Petra De Sutter claimed Belgium would "take the lead" to "re-evaluate" the EU-Israel Association Agreement.

"We call for an EU-wide import duty on products coming from illegal Israeli settlements," De Sutter said.

A note drafted by the EEAS - the EU's diplomatic arm - last December urged the EU to "enforce continued, full and effective implementation of existing EU legislation and bilateral arrangements applicable to settlements products."

Under EU legislation, Israeli products made by settlers should be clearly labelled as such and subject to less preferential customs arrangements, but the rules are not strictly enforced.

Aftermath of an Israeli raid at Nur Shams camp

Analysis

Will Britain hold its armed forces accountable for alleged war crimes in the Middle East?

In-depth: Britain's secretive special forces have operated across 19 countries, including the Middle East, but there's been a lack of government accountability.




Jonathan Fenton-Harvey

The New Arab.
13 March, 2024

Last week, five British special forces soldiers were arrested for alleged war crimes during their deployment in Syria two years ago.

They stand accused of using excessive force in the killing of a suspected militant, found with a suicide vest nearby, although the suspect was reportedly not wearing it when killed. The five soldiers deny these charges, saying they believed he posed a genuine threat.

The soldiers will be investigated by the Defence Serious Crime Unit (DSCU), which focuses on allegations of criminal activity by British armed forces.

In the past, Britain’s record of investigating alleged war crimes committed by its forces has been woeful, with ministers and senior military officials accused of covering up extrajudicial killings and other crimes, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"In both Iraq and Afghanistan, there's been a glaring shortfall in how the UK authorities held members of the military to account over horrific alleged misconduct, and this must not be repeated with Syria"

Only one soldier has ever been prosecuted over an unlawful killing in Iraq, despite increasing indications of war crimes. That record has triggered mounting calls for independent judicial oversight to bring justice for the victims.


“In both Iraq and Afghanistan, there’s been a glaring shortfall in how the UK authorities held members of the military to account over horrific alleged misconduct, and this must not be repeated with Syria,” Kristyan Benedict, Crisis Response Manager for Amnesty International UK, told The New Arab.

A damning indictment

The arrests follow a public inquiry last year over allegations of special forces committing war crimes in Afghanistan. A series of damaging media reports and a legal challenge lodged by several Afghan families, who say dozens of their relatives were unlawfully killed in raids between 2010 and 2013, prompted that investigation.

Since the Afghanistan tribunal commenced, with the Ministry of Defence, or MoD, naming special forces for the first time, more allegations have surfaced.

In 2011, Gen. Gwyn Jenkins, who is now the second most senior officer in the British armed forces, received warnings that Special Air Service, or SAS, soldiers may have executed handcuffed detainees in Afghanistan, thus committing a war crime.

RELATED

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In-depth

Jonathan Fenton-Harvey

While legally obliged under British law to report any evidence suggesting a war crime to the military police, Jenkins instead opted to “lock up” this disturbing evidence within a classified dossier, according to the BBC Panorama investigation, effectively silencing these allegations.

It also emerged that the special forces blocked applications from eight Afghan commandos who had fought alongside British troops to relocate to the UK. Some Afghan forces had witnessed alleged war crimes, triggering fears that these commandos may provide evidence in the public inquiry, according to the BBC.

As King’s College London researcher Elizabeth Brown wrote, the inquiry suggested a failure to investigate deaths promptly and attempts to cover up the incidents, with patterns indicating extrajudicial killings had occurred.

The investigation also includes reports that weapons were planted alongside victims who were unarmed civilians, while soldiers had turned off their cameras before raids.

According to Brown, if only some of the allegations presented were true, “they would represent a damning indictment of Britain’s Special Forces, and of the wider British armed forces’ ability to self-police”.

Britain's record of investigating alleged war crimes has been woeful, with ministers and senior military officials accused of covering up extrajudicial killings and other crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Operating in the shadows

Britain’s military forays into Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya are well known. Yet traditionally, the UK has refused to comment on special forces’ activities, leaving much of the public in the dark about their operations.


These elite teams operate in the shadows of Britain’s geopolitical aims, with a degree of operational autonomy compared to other branches of the army. The MoD has also traditionally upheld a policy of not commenting on SAS activities.

When they do attract attention, it’s often when they’re involved in controversy or when operations go wrong.

According to Iain Overton, Executive Director at Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), the use of special forces represents an attempt to “be everything, everywhere, all at once,” underpinning London’s ambition “to appear to be a power worth its seat at the UN Security Council,” despite having relatively limited resources.

"Given the SAS has been operational in at least 19 countries in the last decade, this is clearly an unacceptable lack of accountability and oversight, a failure that is now being seen in arrests and inquiries"

“It’s a post-colonial legacy that is, at best, an overstretch and one that appears invariably to lead to ill-defined policy goals. At times, it seems to be more about bombast than effectiveness,” he told The New Arab.

The recent Syria arrests have spotlighted special forces’ role in that country. During Syria’s war, not only did special forces join the fray to back up British airstrikes against the Islamic State (IS), but they also previously assisted anti-Assad rebels in 2012 – even before the British parliament voted against putting British troops on the ground against Bashar Al-Assad’s regime in 2013, to deter the use of chemical weapons.

The fixation on operational secrecy was so intense that when SAS sniper Matt Tonroe was killed in Syria in 2018 due to an accidental grenade detonation from a US ally, his official designation was stated as a member of the Parachute Regiment.

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Britain's complex colonial legacy in Yemen

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A Yemeni journalist

Their actions didn’t end there. In Yemen, special forces had advised Saudi-led coalition operations against the Houthis, while later dropping humanitarian aid for impoverished civilians.

Stepping up their actions, around 40 SAS forces were deployed in August 2021, to hunt down Houthi rebels following a reported drone attack by the faction on the Israeli-operated “Mercer Street” oil tanker.

As Yemen once again comes into focus, following UK-US airstrikes on Houthi targets as they step up attacks on Red Sea shipping, the use of special forces was tabled for possible missions such as disabling the engines of Houthi boats.

Traditionally, the UK has refused to comment on special forces' activities, leaving much of the public in the dark about their operations. [Getty]

Lack of transparency

While the use of special forces to assist the Saudi-led coalition raised further concerns that the UK was “taking sides” in the war, they also triggered criticisms in parliament that British troops may have fought alongside child soldiers recruited by the Coalition, many as young as thirteen, highlighting the lack of parliamentary oversight.

And during the 2011 revolution in Libya, not only did special forces assist in hunting down Muammar Gaddafi, who was later killed by Libyan rebels, they remained in the country until 2019 to support countering IS which had emerged post-revolution, while 20 troopers were deployed to Tunisia to preventing illegal crossings from IS in Libya.

After special forces fired a missile which blew up an IS-owned truck packed with explosives, then-chairman of the House of Commons foreign affairs committee Crispin Blunt called for “proper accounting” and “clarity” over what the special forces were doing in Libya, despite stressing the need to support Libya’s post-revolution government.

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Jonathan Fenton-Harvey

Also operating in Ukraine, Sudan and Somalia, SAS forces were also recently on ‘standby’ in Cyprus to assist Israel’s assault on Gaza, with the stated aim of rescuing British national hostages taken by Hamas. Although the MoD declined to give any details on possible SAS operations in that context.

With aims to punch above its weight in terms of resources, the use of special forces to project power on a budget has inevitably led to blowback.

“The government still refuses to speak about Special Forces' actions in parliament and there is no oversight by any select committee,” said Iain Overton.

“Given the SAS has been operational in at least 19 countries in the last decade, this is clearly an unacceptable lack of accountability and oversight, a failure that is now being seen in arrests and inquiries,” he added.

"The UK needs to demonstrate that it can hold members of its own forces accountable, especially for crimes committed overseas"
The need for accountability

Despite efforts to project a positive and pro-rule-of-law image of its foreign policy, a primary concern remains the pervasive political will to avoid holding its armed forces accountable.

This pattern is historical. A notorious instance is the 1919 Amritsar Massacre in British-ruled India. In that dark episode, Colonel Reginald Dyer, who ordered his troops to open fire on a peaceful Indian gathering, killing and injuring thousands of men, women, and children within ten minutes, escaped prosecution and was merely dismissed from his position.

Even after the dissolution of Britain as a colonial power, that trend persisted as Britain followed the United States into various wars, including Iraq.

An International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation concluded in 2020 that war crimes were committed in Iraq, as dozens of Iraqis reported torture, assault, deliberate hydration and starvation, and religious and sexual degradation. However, the court didn’t take any action, nor did Britain.

On the contrary, the government pursued its Overseas Operations Act following the investigation, which in its final form prevents the prosecution of soldiers if they took place over five years ago, while limiting the time to bring a claim for personal injury or death to six years. That bill would have made prosecutions virtually impossible.

Yet advocacy from rights groups including Human Rights Watch and Freedom from Torture, as well as opposition in the House of Lords, ensured the original bill was watered down, ensuring that time limits would not apply to war crimes, torture, and genocide.

However, legal experts and rights groups still feel there is room for improvement.

“The justice system has a lamentable track record of applying the principle of command responsibility,” Clive Baldwin, Senior Legal Advisor at Human Rights Watch, told The New Arab. “The UK needs to demonstrate that it can hold members of its own forces accountable, especially for crimes committed overseas,” he added.

"Military investigations need to be completely independent and outside of the chain of command, as well as beyond governmental influence. Preventing criminal investigations is also a crime under human rights law,” Baldwin said.

“Independent judicial oversight is necessary to ensure justice is delivered for alleged victims, whether in Iraq, Afghanistan or Syria.”

Legal advocacy and media pressure have driven a shift towards transparency. It will be prudent to monitor whether recent investigations, including those concerning Syria and Afghanistan, will ensure accountability is upheld.

“The recent scandals should be a wakeup call for future governments to ensure that the SAS are not only held to account but reined in and reformed.”

Jonathan Fenton-Harvey is a journalist and researcher who focuses on conflict, geopolitics, and humanitarian issues in the Middle East and North Africa.

Israel yet to provide evidence to back UNRWA 7 October attack claims – UN

Julian Borger in New York

THE GUARDIAN
Fri, March 1, 2024 

Palestinian people queue for food distributed by a charity in Deir al Balah, central Gaza. Allegations against 12 employees led major donors to suspend funding to UNRWA.Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images


A month after Israeli allegations that a dozen United Nations staff were involved in the 7 October Hamas attack, UN investigators have yet to receive any evidence from Israel to support the claims, though they expect some material to be forthcoming “shortly”.

The allegations against the 12 employees of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA) led 16 major donors to suspend contributions totalling $450m at a time when more than 2 million Gazans are facing famine. UNRWA says it is approaching “breaking point” and only has sufficient funds to continue functioning for the next month at most.

The UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) launched an investigation on 29 January in the wake of the Israeli allegations initially presented to UNRWA in January, and delivered an update on its work to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, on Wednesday.

Related: Israel is deliberately starving Palestinians, UN rights expert says

Diplomats who saw the OIOS preliminary report said it contained no new evidence from Israel since the initial presentation of the claims in January – which were not backed by any proof. In summarising the findings, the UN spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, confirmed that the investigation had yet to receive corroborating material from Israel.

“OIOS investigators have reviewed the initial information received by UNRWA from Israeli authorities,” Dujarric said on Thursday. “The investigation remains ongoing. OIOS will seek to corroborate additional information and to compare the information obtained with materials held by Israeli authorities, which OIOS expects to receive shortly.

“OIOS staff are planning to visit Israel soon to obtain information from Israeli authorities that may be relevant to the investigation,” Dujarric said, adding that the investigators had described member state cooperation as “adequate”.

He said that the investigators had consulted other member states and visited the UNRWA headquarters in Jordan to review information on UNRWA staff and operations, including electronic communications and data on the use of UN vehicles.

Following news of the OIOS report, the EU announced it would resume funding of UNRWA, with payment of €50m immediately to be followed by a further €32m once the investigation was completed and a range of reforms implemented.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that an assessment by the US national intelligence council, assessed with “low confidence” that a handful of UNRWA staffers had participated in the 7 October attack on southern Israel, in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed.

The Israeli mission at the UN referred queries about the investigation to the foreign ministry in Tel Aviv. The foreign minister, Israel Katz, has said that the government would “give them all the materials that prove UNRWA’s involvement in terrorism and their damage to the future of the region”.

Since the initial allegations against 12 UNRWA workers, nine of whom are believed to be still alive, Israel has claimed that a total of 190 UNRWA employees, including teachers, have also been Hamas or Islamic Jihad militants. The Israeli military also said that a tunnel had been found under UNRWA’s headquarters in Gaza and that guns and ammunition had been found in the headquarters building.

The head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, said the agency “​​did not know what is under its headquarters in Gaza”, which he pointed out had been abandoned since an Israeli order to evacuate in October. He said that in times of relative peace, UNRWA inspected its premises every quarter, and always protested if its neutrality had been violated.

Israel has long called for UNRWA, established in 1949, to be dismantled, but with 30,000 staff, (13,000 in Gaza) it dwarfs every other UN agency, which have a combined total of about 200 employees in Gaza.

“It is a little bit shortsighted to believe that UNRWA can just technically hand over all its activities to other UN agencies or NGOs,” Lazzarini told journalists in Jerusalem on Thursday.

“It’s an agency [that’s] quite unique because we are … primarily providing government-like services to one of the most destitute communities in the region,” he said.

“The World Food Programme itself has said that it cannot stave off starvation which is already impacting hundreds of thousands of people,” Christopher Gunness, a former UNRWA spokesperson, said. “That can only be done by UNRWA, with its 13,000 workers, its warehouses and its food distribution centres.”

“The OIOS report is a ladder on which all the defunding donors can climb down if they wish to and avoid accusations of complicity in starvation and genocide, as well as bowing to the political agenda of Israel’s far right,” Gunness said.

Parallel to the OIOS inquiry, a broader review of UNRWA’s activities and neutrality is under way, led by a former French foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, and supported by three Nordic research organisations.

The Colonna review was commissioned by Guterres in January, before the Israeli allegations were made. It is expected to provide a progress report in mid-March, which could prompt a resumption of funding from major donors, before the agency runs out of money altogether, diplomats at the UN said. The review group is expected to deliver a final report in mid-April

European Commission to resume UNRWA funding as doubt cast on Israeli claims about staff involvement in Oct. 7 attack

Patrick Hilsman
Fri, March 1, 2024 


The European Commision said Friday that it will resume funding for the UNRWA after reports cast doubt on Israeli government claims that employees had been involved in the Oct. 7 attacks. File Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI

March 1 (UPI) -- The European Union will resume funding for the United Nations Relief Works Agency as international agencies and media reports cast doubt on Israeli government claims that employees took part in the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel.

"Following the exchange of letters with UNRWA confirming its commitments, the commission will proceed disburse a first tranche of EUR 50 million out of the EUR 82 million foreseen for UNRWA for 2024," the European Commission said in a press release Friday.

In January, the Israeli government claimed 12 UNRWA employees were involved in the Oct. 7 attacks inside Israel.

The accusations prompted the U.S. government, as well as the governments of multiple contributing states, to halt aid to UNRWA, and the organization subsequently fired employees.

"We stand by the Palestinian people in Gaza and elsewhere in the region. Innocent Palestinians should not have to pay the price for the crimes of terrorist group Hamas," said European Commision President Ursula von der Leyen.

"They face terrible conditions putting their lives at risk because of lack of access to sufficient food and other basic needs. That is why we are reinforcing our support to them this year by a further EUR 68 million," von der Leyen said.

Earlier this month, UNRWA commissioner general Phillipe Lazzarini said the employees had been fired without evidence and that the claims were under investigation.

"If the investigation tells us that this was wrong, in that case at the U.N. we will take a decision for how to properly compensate them," Lazzarini said.

Multiple news reports, including from the Daily Beast and Britain's Channel 4, found that Israeli reports alleging UNRWA staff involvement in the Oct. 7 attacks were unsubstantiated.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. intelligence community assessed the claims as plausible with "low confidence."

Sources told the Wall Street Journal that a U.S. intelligence report contained passages referring to the potential of Israeli government bias affecting the validity of the claims.

The United Nations subsequently has cast doubt on the allegations, saying they were presented without evidence.

"UNRWA has not received any information, let alone any evidence, from the Israeli Authorities or any other member state about the ... claim," the UN said in a press release.

"The names of the 12 individuals against whom allegations were made were all shared multiple times with Israel and other member states," the United Nations said. "Prior to January 2024, UNRWA did not receive any indication from the relevant authorities of any involvement of its staff in armed or militant groups."

In February, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres also reaffirmed his commitment to UNRWA, calling the organization "the backbone of all humanitarian response in Gaza."

According to Gaza's Ministry of Health, more than 30,000 people have been killed by the Israeli military since Oct. 7.

European Commission lifts suspension of €50 million in aid for UNWRA

DPA
Fri, March 1, 2024 

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, stands in the plenary chamber of the European Parliament and speaks. A central point of the debate was the EU's defense policy. Philipp von Ditfurth/dpa


The European Commission released suspended EU funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) worth €50 million ($54 million) on Friday.

"Innocent Palestinians should not have to pay the price for the crimes of terrorist group Hamas," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement.

The EU executive arm also announced a further €68 million in aid for the region to be distributed by the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) and other organizations.

The commission suspended the funding for UNRWA and demanded an independent audit of the agency after Israel accused about a dozen employees of being involved in the October 7 terrorist attacks led by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Based on commitments from UNRWA to carry out this investigation and to review safeguards to prevent staff's involvement in terrorist activities, the commission said it decided to release the €50 million in funding meant for the month of March.

A further two disbursements of EU aid, each worth €16 million, is to be released pending UNRWA's success in implementing the review, the commission said. Restored funding for UNRWA amounts to €82 million.

Another €125 million in aid has already been allocated to Palestinians for 2024 with the first sums distributed on Friday, the commission added.

In addition to the new funding announced worth €68 million, this brings the total amount of EU aid for the Palestiians for the year to €275 million.

European Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi, who pushed unsuccessfully to suspend aid in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 attacks, said the EU executive arm was "diversifying its assistance for the innocent Palestinian people in Gaza."

Várhelyi stressed that it was "essential that UNRWA delivers on the agreed measures and conditions for [the EU's] continued assistance."

This includes checking UNRWA staff for links to the October 7 attacks as well vetting staff during recruitment processes and on a continuous basis, he said.

Várhelyi said UNRWA was also to increase checks to protect assets from misuse.

As well as staff links to the October 7 attacks, the main UN aid agency for Palestinians in Gaza has been under heavy scrutiny after the Israeli military said it discovered a Hamas command tunnel running under UNRWA's headquarters.

Earlier von der Leyen said she was "deeply disturbed by images from Gaza" after Israeli soldiers opened fire on a crowd at an aid convoy.

"Every effort must be made to investigate what happened and ensure transparency," von der Leyen said on X, formerly Twitter.

EU to continue funding UNRWA as it probes alleged staff involvement in Oct 7 attacks

Mared Gwyn Jones
Fri, March 1, 2024 

EU to continue funding UNRWA as it probes alleged staff involvement in Oct 7 attacks


The Commission confirmed on Friday morning that it will proceed with the €82 million payment foreseen for UNRWA in 2024, with a first €50-million tranche to be paid next week.

The executive will also pledge an additional €68 million in emergency support to Palestinians across the region, to be paid through international partners such as the Red Cross and the Red Crescent, as concerns mount over the Israeli offensive in the besieged Gaza Strip.

In late January, the Commission launched a review of its support to UNRWA after Israel accused a dozen staff members of involvement in Hamas’ October attacks, which killed over 1,200 Israelis and provoked a war in Gaza that has claimed the lives of some 30,000 Palestinians.

The bloc’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell and humanitarian aid commissioner Janez Lenarčič have both said that Israel is yet to provide evidence to back its allegations.

Some Western nations - including Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States - decided to temporarily suspend aid in response to the accusations, dealing a devastating blow to the donor-reliant agency, which says its deliveries of humanitarian cargo have halved since January.

Other countries such as Spain, Ireland and Belgium, continued or increased their support.

The Commission's decision to proceed with payments was taken in light of the steps taken by UNRWA to audit its recruitment procedures, bolster its internal oversight mechanisms and vet its 30,000-strong workforce.

EU neighbourhood commissioner Olivér Várhelyi said that UNRWA's commitment to "introduce robust measures to prevent possible misconduct & minimize risk of allegations is welcome."

It is seen as a lifeline for the agency, which had warned it could shut down by the end of February unless donations resumed. It also puts pressure on other nations to review their decisions to withhold funding. Later on Friday, Belgium announced it was committing payments to UNRWA for 2024-2026, with development minister Caroline Gennez warning that "defunding means death sentence for 10,000s".

A Commission spokesperson said that discussions with UNRWA regarding the conditions in order to safeguard the flow of aid had continued until earlier on Friday.

The bloc's humanitarian aid to Palestinians - which amounts to €125 million in 2024 - continued unabated whilst the review was underway. Friday's announcement brings the EU's support to Palestinians to a total of €275 million this year.

Lenarčič commended the commitment of an additional €68 million in aid, warning that "thousands of lives are at stake."
A lifeline for UNRWA

The decision comes as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza deepens.

On Thursday, at least 112 were killed when the Israeli military opened fire on a crowd of hungry Palestinians, as an aid convoy moved in to Gaza City, in the north of the strip.

The massacre has been condemned by EU leaders, including Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.


The condemnation marks a turn of rhetoric for von der Leyen, who has throughout the conflict maintained a strong pro-Israeli stance.

European Council President Charles Michel also said on social media platform X that he was "shocked and repulsed" by the killing, adding that "international law does not allow for double standards."

The deadly attacks follow repeated warnings from UNRWA that the humanitarian situation in the north of the enclave has hindered the delivery of aid due to dangerous conditions.

In February, UNRWA chief Phillippe Lazzarini said in Brussels that UN agencies were unable to operate with the minimum required protection because many of the local police force had been killed or were reluctant to assist aid convoys due to fears for their safety.

The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) later announced it had decided to pause its deliveries to the north of Gaza "until conditions are in place that allow for safe distributions."

It means pockets of famine have appeared in the north, with the WFP's Famine Review Committee warning over 500,000, almost one in four of the population, could fall into famine by May.

Lazzarini has said that the exodus of donors has stripped UNRWA of $450 million (€418 million) this year alone, and that he is engaged with a number of countries to assess their expectations to allow the release of funds.

Borrell and other leading EU voices have consistently highlighted that UNRWA's work in Gaza is irreplaceable, and that to withdraw funding would have "dangerous repercussions on regional stability and would affect Europeans too."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims that UNRWA is "totally infiltrated" by Hamas and has called for the agency to be dismantled.

Profits of UK’s private train-leasing firms treble in a year

Gwyn Topham 

Transport correspondent

The Guardian
Sun, 18 February 2024 

Unions have urged a windfall tax on the dividends, describing the financing of trains as a ‘racket’ without risk to the leasing firms.

Photograph: Richard Saker/The Guardian

Private firms that lease out trains for Britain’s railway have seen their profits treble in a year, with more than £400m paid in dividends, official figures show.

The rolling stock companies paid out a total of £409.7m to shareholders and profit margins rose to 41.6% in 2022-23, according to the Office of Rail and Road, as the rest of the railway was told to make swingeing cuts and salaries were frozen. Taxpayer subsidies are still running at twice pre-pandemic levels.

Unions have urged a windfall tax on the huge dividends, describing the financing of trains as a “racket” without risk to the leasing firms.


Financial analysis by the ORR, the rail regulator, shows that although the total in leasing costs paid by train operators fell slightly last year to £3.1bn, it is still almost 30% higher than five years ago, in a period when overall rail industry staff costs remained static.

The ORR said the rolling stock companies, or Roscos, paid dividends of £409.7m in 2022-23, up from £122.3m a year before. Their net profit margins went up from 14.3% to 41.6%.

Since the collapse of franchising, train operating companies are now on management contracts of margins of about 2%. Train operators’ contracts are now structured for the government to make up the shortfall between revenue and costs, meaning taxpayers are now effectively paying the £3.1bn spent last year on leasing trains, almost a quarter of total industry costs.

“Hell and high water” clauses protect lease contracts on rolling stock despite passenger revenue virtually disappearing in 2020 during the pandemic. According to well-placed sources, the Department for Transport did not attempt to renegotiate or reschedule lease payments to rolling stock companies, despite demanding Network Rail and train operators find huge savings.

The three rolling stock companies are Eversholt, Porterbrook and Angel Trains. They were created at privatisation with the controversial sell-off of state-owned British Rail trains, and still lease the majority of UK trains. They have paid cumulative dividends of around £2bn in the last decade, and the highest-paid directors earn almost twice as much as the chief executive of Network Rail, Andrew Haines.

According to its latest accounts, filed last year, Eversholt, a subsidiary of Li Ka-shing’s Hong Kong firm CK Hutchison, paid dividends of £40.7m in 2022, while its chief executive, Mary Kenny, was paid £1.075m.

Porterbrook, owned by a group of shareholders led by Luxembourg-based insurer Allianz and Canadian pension fund AIM, paid dividends of £80m in 2022, while chief executive Mary Grant was paid £1.2m.

Angel Trains, majority-owned by the Canadian pension fund PSP, paid dividends of £124.6m, and chief executive Malcolm Brown was paid £900k.

Mick Lynch, general secretary of the RMT union, said the firms neither built nor commissioned trains but were taking huge profits: “If a traditional company invests, researches, spends its capital, then they’ve got the right to make a return – but the rolling stock leasing companies don’t do that. They are a middle person between essentially now the taxpayer and the manufacturers.

“These fancy financial instruments and leasebacks are just another version of PFI, which has been a disaster for our hospitals and local councils. It’s legal, but there is a racket going on, where the structure of rolling stock leasing has just created massive dividends and massive profits entirely without risk.”

Most rail fares in England are due to rise by 4.9% next month.

Labour has said that if elected, it will bring train operating companies into public ownership as contracts expire, but it declined to comment on the Roscos.

Bringing rolling stock back into public ownership was complicated, Lynch admitted: “But at least Labour could look at a windfall tax on these Roscos to get some of our money back.”

Within parts of the rail industry, there is significant support for Roscos. One senior source said: “They’ve made big bucks, but we’ve got thousands of new trains … If [buying trains] was on the government books, schools, the NHS or police would have got the spending first.”

Roger Ford, industry editor of Modern Railways, said competition had improved since the post-privatisation triopoly, while some direct government procurement had proved worse value for money: “The Intercity Express trains which the government procured with a 27-year maintenance contract was much more expensive than leasing – and makes it very difficult to change things.”

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “By taking on the financial risk, rolling stock companies drive up the quality of our trains while freeing up billions of pounds to be spent on schools, hospitals and roads. Although ultimately for operators, we have spent over a decade working to introduce competition into the market and drive down costs.”

A Porterbrook spokesperson said it had invested over £3bn in passenger and freight vehicles in the last 30 years, supporting more than 100 UK companies and 7,000 jobs.

“We’re able to invest in groundbreaking innovation for the railway because of the funding that our shareholders provide, and in the normal course of business, when appropriate, dividends are paid.

“This funding has allowed Porterbrook to invest over £350m in significant fleet upgrade programmes, £12m in the development of the UK’s first hydrogen-powered train, HydroFLEX, to support net-zero targets, and over £10m upgrading the Long Marston Rail Innovation Centre in Warwickshire to support innovation and maintenance for our customers and the railway”.

An Angel Trains spokesperson said the firm had invested more than £1.5bn over a decade and spent most of the money on services from small and medium-sized firms.

“In the last year alone, in excess of £250m was spent on rolling stock. This substantial financial risk is borne by our shareholders and business, not the UK taxpayer, and is crucial to driving change in our rail network.”

They said the dividend was the first paid in three years and represented an annual return of 4.1% for shareholders, while every Angel Trains company, including the Jersey-based parent companies, was registered for tax in the UK.

Eversholt declined to comment.

UK 

Train drivers will keep striking to ‘raise profile’ of pay dispute, says Aslef 

Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent
Sun, 28 January 2024

Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

Train drivers will keep striking to “raise the profile” of their dispute after half a decade without a pay rise, the Aslef union has warned, before another week of rolling strikes across England.

Aslef’s general secretary, Mick Whelan, has said he believes that the government will make renewed efforts to see train companies use controversial new anti-strike laws, despite the union forcing a climbdown this time round.

An overtime ban will begin to disrupt services from Monday, before trains are halted for 24 hours at national train operators around England in rolling strikes from Tuesday.

Related: Train drivers call off extra strike days after LNER minimum service law U-turn

Drivers will strike at Southeastern, Southern/Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Thameslink and South Western Railway on Tuesday 30 January; at Northern Trains and TPE on Wednesday 31 January; at LNER, Greater Anglia and C2C on Friday 2 February; at West Midlands Trains, Avanti West Coast and East Midlands Railway on Saturday 3 February; and at Great Western, CrossCountry and Chiltern on Monday 5 February.

No trains at all are likely to run at most operators on their respective strike days, with other services likely to be much busier where they provide alternative routes for passengers.

The set of strikes was expected to be the first test of the minimum service levels legislation, designed to allow train operators to run 40% of the normal timetable. Only LNER, one of the three operators directly run by the Department for Transport, planned to use the new powers to demand that drivers break the strike. An immediate escalation by Aslef, which called five additional days of strikes at LNER, prompted a climbdown.

Rail industry bosses as well as unions had made clear their reservations in consultations and select committee hearings ahead of the strike laws being introduced, which could also be applied in health, education and firefighters disputes. Labour has said it will immediately repeal the laws if elected.

Speaking to the Guardian before the latest industrial action, Whelan said: “We made the point that it was unworkable, we believed it was terribly unsafe. We made the point, which was borne out by the government’s own impact assessment, that it would lead to more strife. Rather than trying to resolve the situation, they tried to introduce forced labour into the country, to our eternal shame.

“First time they’ve tried it, they’ve backed off. I’m of the view they’ll try it again. Nobody can tell us how to safely do it.”

Separately, the Public and Commercial Services Union said on Saturday it would use the Human Rights Act to challenge the minimum service law. The announcement was made by the PCS general secretary, Mark Serwotka, at a rally to mark the 40th anniversary of the ban on trade unions at the GCHQ headquarters.

After the threatened extended rail strikes on the London-Newcastle-Edinburgh mainline, and potential for more elsewhere, the more localised 24-hour disruption of rolling walkouts may be a relief for passengers. However, given the lack of progress in more than 18 months of strikes, what does Whelan hope to achieve?

“Well, there are two choices in life – to do something or do nothing. And we don’t actually have the choice to do nothing,” he said.

“I’ve got drivers who in February [will] have gone five years without a pay deal – half a decade. People who put their lives at risk during a pandemic, to get other key workers to work and move food and medicine around the country.”

The strikes would, Whelan said, “keep raising the profile of our dispute until somebody comes to the table to resolve it with us. I’d happily go back into talks tomorrow to find a way forward – even though we’ve been crapped on from a great height twice before when we’ve gone into long-term talks.

“We’ve gone in in good faith, and at the end the Rail Delivery Group and the government behaved dishonourably and deceitfully. Still, we have to find a way to resolve it.”

An overtime ban starting on Monday will apply at all of the companies throughout the strike period. It is likely to cause additional disruption for operators such as TransPennine Express that rely on rest day working.

The RDG has advised passengers to check before they travel, while those who have to travel should expect disruption, plan ahead and check when their first and last train will depart.

A spokesperson for the RDG said: “There are no winners from these strikes that will unfortunately cause disruption for our customers. We believe rail can have a bright future, but right now taxpayers are contributing an extra £54m a week to keep services running post-Covid.

“Aslef’s leadership need to recognise the financial challenge facing rail. Drivers have been made an offer which would take base salaries to nearly £65,000 for a four-day week before overtime – that is well above the national average and significantly more than many of our customers that have no option to work from home are paid.”

A DfT spokesperson said: “The transport secretary and rail minister have already facilitated talks that led to this fair and reasonable offer from industry – Aslef bosses should put it to their members so we can resolve the dispute, which has already happened with the RMT, TSSA and Unite unions.

“With passenger revenues not having recovered since the pandemic, the taxpayer has had to prop up the railways with £12bn in the past year alone – these strikes will not change the need for urgent workplace reforms that Aslef continue to block.”

Train strikes start this week: Here’s everything you need to know

Guy Taylor
Mon, 29 January 2024 

Train drivers have announced strikes ARE OFF

Brits are facing yet more disruption this week as train drivers from the Aslef union walk-out in an ongoing feud over pay and working conditions.

A combination of strikes and a ban on overtime working will take place on separate days between Monday 29 January and Tuesday 6 February, affecting 17 train companies.

There will be no services at all on some days, while others will see services start later and finish much earlier than usual, typically running between 7:30am and 6:30pm.


It comes despite the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT), which represents signalling staff, reaching a breakthrough agreement with government late last year, which averted disruption through Christmas and up to Spring.

Planned strikes at LNER scheduled to take place over the following week were called off after the operator agreed not to put minimum service levels in place during the primary set of walk-outs.
The dates:

Monday 29 January: overtime ban.

Tuesday 30 January: full strike action on Southeastern, Southern, Gatwick Express, South Western Railway, Great Northern and Thameslink.

Wednesday 31 January: full strike action on TransPennine Express and Northern.

Thursday 1 February: overtime ban.

Friday 2 February: full strike action on C2C, Greater Anglia and LNER.

Saturday 3 February: full strike action on Avanti West Coast, West Midlands Trains and East Midlands Railway.

Sunday 4 February: overtime ban

Monday 5 February: Strikes at Great Western, CrossCountry and Chiltern.

Tuesday 6 February: overtime ban.
Background:

Industrial action by both Aslef and the RMT union has caused disruption since May 2022, as high inflation stokes issues with worker’s pay packets and Britain’s railways continue to endure a chequered post-Covid recovery.

In April 2023, Aslef, which represents train drivers, rejected the offer of a four per cent pay rise over the next two years in exchange for a guarantee they would accept changes to driver training practices and negotiate changes in working schedules at individual operators.

The standard salary for rail workers was £45,919 in 2022, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). For train and tram drivers, median pay is just under £59,000.

Talks stalled throughout 2022 as the government and Aslef consistently accused the other party of failing to show up at the negotiating table.

Rail unions are also furious at new government legislation which enforces trade union workers to apply a minimum level of service in key sectors during strikes.

Mick Whelan, ASLEF General Secretary, said: “We have given the government every opportunity to come to the table but it is now a year since we had any contact from the Department for Transport. It’s clear they do not want to resolve this dispute.

“Many members have now not had a single penny increase in pay for half a decade, during which time inflation has soared and, with it, the cost of living. We didn’t ask for an increase during the pandemic, when we worked through lockdown, as key workers, risking our lives, to move goods around the country and enable NHS and other workers to get to work.”

A spokesperson for Rail Delivery Group said: “There are no winners from these strikes that will unfortunately cause disruption for our customers. We believe rail can have a bright future, but right now taxpayers are contributing an extra £54m a week to keep services running post covid.

“ASLEF’s leadership need to recognise the financial challenge facing rail. Drivers have been made an offer which would take base salaries to nearly £65,000 for a four-day week before overtime – that is well above the national average and significantly more than many of our customers that have no option to work from home are paid. Instead of staging more damaging industrial action, we call on the ASLEF leadership to work with us to resolve this dispute and deliver a fair deal which both rewards our people, and makes the changes needed to make services more reliable.

“While we are doing all we can to keep trains running, unfortunately there will be reduced services between Monday 29 January to Tuesday 6 February, so our advice is to check before you travel and follow the latest travel information.”

'Ticking time bomb’: How abandoned war weapons are poisoning the Baltic sea

ByMared Gwyn JonesPublished on 29/09/2023 - 

A staggering 300,000 tonnes of deadly wartime weapons lie scattered on the Baltic seabed.

The Baltic, a strategic waterway connecting major European nations, is now one of the most polluted bodies of water on Earth as unexploded grenades, bombs, missiles and chemical agents were hastily abandoned in the ocean following the two world wars.

Sea dumping was then considered a swift, safe and cheap solution to get rid of unwanted munitions with many dumped by the Allied forces in 1945 as they feared a guerrilla uprising in post-Nazi Germany.

For a century, these weapons have been festering at the bottom of the Baltic ocean, slowly leaking toxic chemicals including TNT, mustard gas, phosgene and arsenic. 

As EU environment commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius meets ministers from the Baltic states in Lithuania on Friday to discuss solutions, experts tell Euronews that the problem has been ignored for too long.

An ecological disaster

Chemicals released from undersea munitions change the acidity and temperature of the seawater, destabilising ecosystems. They also cause cancer in many species, and remnants of munitions have even been found in fish tissue.

Experts fear consuming fish caught close to dumping sites could lead to a build-up of carcinogens in humans.

Terrance Long, Founder of the International Dialogues on Underwater Munitions, told Euronews that more public awareness is needed to pressure governments into action.

"Underwater munitions are leaking toxins that are harming marine ecosystems and endangering our sea life. Whether you're a staunch climate change advocate or not, this issue affects us all," Long told Euronews

"The TNT in munitions can burn and bleach corals and create an influx of nutrients that provoke harmful algae blooms. Mustard gas breaks down into inorganic arsenic which spreads across the seafloor, killing everything in its wake. The chemicals also affect the photosynthesis of plankton and the hatching rate of crustacean eggs," he explained.

“That’s the situation in the Baltic today. We cannot save the seas unless we accept the realities in the water," he added.

A sonar camera shows the chemicals ingested by planktonsIMUD

Even though scientists have for decades provided evidence to back such concerns, politicians have been dragging their feet, given the difficulty in defining legal liabilities for the forgotten weapons.

And while the public is acutely aware of the dangers of plastic and microplastic pollution in our oceans, little is known about the dangers of dumped munition for animal and human safety.

Politicians “need to prioritise”

Industrial activities that risk interfering with munitions such as dredging, offshore wind farms and bottom trawl fishing, as well as fears weapons could be retrieved by criminals, have brought the problem to political attention.

Earlier this year, Germany announced a €100 million programme to pilot ammunition recovery and destruction.

The collapse of fish stocks in the Baltic - provoked by a toxic cocktail of munition chemicals, fertilisers, industrial waste and sewage - has also severely impacted the fishing industry and placed pressure on governments to act. In August, the European Commission imposed new catch limits for two fish species in the Baltic.

EU environment commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius will meet EU ministers in Palanga, Lithuania on Friday to discuss the state of the Balti

"If we compare behaviours and statements from governments, there is remarkable difference. But above all there is a low level of action," Claus Böttcher, an independent consultant for JPI Oceans, told Euronews.

Terrance Long also feels that states’ failure to include any reference to undersea munitions in the Chemical Weapons Convention shows governments are trying to shrug off responsibility.

"Treaties often demand compromises that can dilute the treaty's effectiveness, particularly when it comes to safeguarding the environment," he explained. "Governments might be protected by treaties, but that doesn't absolve them of the consequences of their actions."

Technological solutions exist

But Böttcher believes there has been positive momentum in the past decade to achieve the paradigm change needed.

Engineers, scientists, policymakers and financiers are finally coming together to identify the best ways of safely destroying the weapons.

Advancements in marine technology, including the use of artificial intelligence, are making detecting and mapping undersea munitions easier. Some munitions are disarmed using water jets before they are removed from the seabed, while others are recovered to be detonated or incinerated on land.

"We've developed technology that prove a clean-up of the ocean floor is possible. Munitions are visible and tangible and can be removed," Böttcher said.

Both experts say conventional and chemical weapons need to be treated with the same level of priority. Weapons also need to be monitored more closely, as some carry a minimal explosive risk due to the unstable condition of the chemicals they contain. 

These technological solutions could also be vital for a clean-up of the Black Sea when the war in Ukraine eventually draws to an end. Although little is known about munition dumping in the region, experts say governments must learn from the mistakes of the past to avoid a disastrous repeat.

Experts welcome potential EU action, but call for a coordinated global response to a problem that touches so many parts of the planet.

"Baltic Sea ministers should seriously consider calling on the United Nations to convene an International Conference on Underwater Munitions," Long said.

"The Baltic Sea is part of what I call the heart and lungs of the planet," he added. "As the earth is all one body, if our heart and lungs are sick, it affects us all."