Judge sides with young activists in first-of-its-kind climate change trial in Montana

AMY BETH HANSON and MATTHEW BROWN
Updated Mon, August 14, 2023 


 Lead plaintiff Rikki Held listens to testimony during a hearing in the climate change lawsuit, Held vs. Montana, at the Lewis and Clark County Courthouse on, June 20, 2023, in Helena, Mont. A Montana judge on Monday, Aug. 14, sided with young environmental activists who said state agencies were violating their constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment by permitting fossil fuel development without considering its effect on the climate.

 (Thom Bridge/Independent Record via AP, File)

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A Montana judge on Monday sided with young environmental activists who said state agencies were violating their constitutional right t o a clean and healthful environment by permitting fossil fuel development without considering its effect on the climate.

The ruling following a first-of-its- kind trial in the U.S. adds to a small number of legal decisions around the world that have established a government duty to protect citizens from climate change.

District Court Judge Kathy Seeley found the policy the state uses in evaluating requests for fossil fuel permits — which does not allow agencies to evaluate the effects of greenhouse gas emissions — is unconstitutional.

Judge Seeley wrote in the ruling that “Montana’s emissions and climate change have been proven to be a substantial factor in causing climate impacts to Montana’s environment and harm and injury” to the youth.

However, it’s up to the state Legislature to determine how to bring the policy into compliance. That leaves slim chances for immediate change in a fossil fuel-friendly state where Republicans dominate the statehouse.

Julia Olson, an attorney representing the youth, released a statement calling the ruling a “huge win for Montana, for youth, for democracy, and for our climate.”

“As fires rage in the West, fueled by fossil fuel pollution, today’s ruling in Montana is a game-changer that marks a turning point in this generation’s efforts to save the planet from the devastating effects of human-caused climate chaos,” said Olson, the executive director of Our Children's Trust, an Oregon environmental group that has filed similar lawsuits in every state since 2011.

Emily Flower, spokesperson for Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, decried the ruling as “absurd” and said the office planned to appeal. She criticized Seeley for allowing the plaintiffs to put on what Flower called a “taxpayer-funded publicity stunt.”

“Montanans can’t be blamed for changing the climate," Flower said in an email. "Their same legal theory has been thrown out of federal court and courts in more than a dozen states. It should have been here as well, but they found an ideological judge who bent over backward to allow the case to move forward and earn herself a spot in their next documentary.”

Attorneys for the 16 plaintiffs, ranging in age from 5 to 22, presented evidence during the two-week trial in June that increasing carbon dioxide emissions are driving hotter temperatures, more drought and wildfires and decreased snowpack.

The plaintiffs said those changes were harming their mental and physical health, with wildfire smoke choking the air they breathe and drought drying out rivers that sustain agriculture, fish, wildlife and recreation. Native Americans testifying for the plaintiffs said climate change affects their ceremonies and traditional food sources.

“I know that climate change is a global issue, but Montana needs to take responsibility for our part,” lead plaintiff Rikki Held, 22, testified during the trial. “You can’t just blow it off and do nothing about it.”

The state argued that even if Montana completely stopped producing C02, it would have no effect on a global scale because states and countries around the world contribute to the amount of C02 in the atmosphere. A remedy has to offer relief, the state said, or it’s not a remedy at all.

But Seeley said the state's attorneys failed to give a compelling reason for why they were not evaluating greenhouse gas impacts. She rejected the notion that Montana’s greenhouse gas emissions are insignificant and noted that renewable power is “technically feasible and economically beneficial," citing testimony from the trial indicating Montana could replace 80% of existing fossil fuel energy by 2030.

“Every additional ton of GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions exacerbates plaintiffs’ injuries and risks locking in irreversible climate injuries,” she wrote.

State officials tried to derail the case and prevent it from going to trial through numerous motions to dismiss the lawsuit. Seeley rejected those attempts.

Since its founding, Our Children's Trust has raised more than $20 million to press its lawsuits in state and federal court. No previous attempts reached trial.

Carbon dioxide, which is released when fossil fuels are burned, traps heat in the atmosphere and is largely responsible for the warming of the climate. This spring, carbon dioxide levels in the air reached the highest levels they’ve been in over 4 million years, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration said earlier this month.

Greenhouse gas emissions also reached a record high last year, according to the International Energy Agency.

July was the hottest month on record globally and likely the warmest that human civilization has seen, according to scientists.

Netflix users left ‘howling’ after ‘wild inclusion’ in new Gal Gadot film Heart of Stone

Jacob Stolworthy
Mon, 14 August 2023 

Netflix viewers watching Heart of Stone were left blindsided by the costume of choice for one character.

The new spy thriller, which was released on Friday (11 August), stars Gal Gadot as an international agent who must protect an artificial intelligence system from falling into enemy hands.

Her attempts lead her to Senegal, where she falls into danger and is chased by a team of locals who have been bribed by the film’s villain, Parker (Jamie Dornan).

It’s here that many viewers noticed one of the locals chasing Gadot’s character was wearing something they didn’t expect to see: a Middlesborough FC shirt from the 2009/10 season.

“How the hell did this happen?” one perplexed fan asked, adding: “Sat watching the new @GalGadot film and a bloody Boro fan is trying to kill her!!!”

Another called it a “wild inclusion”, stating: “Did not expect to see an old @Boro shirt in #HeartOfStone.”

One viewer said they had to “rewind it to double-check” it was actually a Middlesborough shirt.

“Just watched Heart of Stone on @NetflixUK, and a random mercenary is just casually wearing an old @Boro top,” they wrote.

A vintage Middlesborough FC shirt in Netflix film ‘Heart of Stone’ (Netflix)

Find more reactions to the unexpected moment below.

Heart of Stone was called “drab” and “forgettable” in The Independent’s review by film critic Clarisse Loughrey.

The film comes days after it was reported that as third Wonder Woman film would not be moving ahead – despite Gadot’s claims otherwise.

In December 2022, just days after Gadot expressed excitement about returning as the superhero character, it was announced that DC would not be moving forward with the franchise.

The news landed after James Gunn and Peter Safran stepped in as chiefs of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), with The Hollywood Reporter claiming that a treatment for the film “did not fit in with” the studio’s plans.

Gadot, who at first said she felt “empowered” by the decision, then claimed in an interview with ComicBook.com: “What I heard from James and from Peter is that we’re gonna develop a Wonder Woman 3 together.”

Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman (Warner Bros)

She went on to state in a more recent interview with Flaunt magazine while promoting Heart of Stone ahead of the SAG-AFTRA Hollywood strikes: “I was invited to a meeting with James Gunn and Peter Safran, and what they told me, and I’m quoting: ‘You’re in the best hands. We’re going to develop Wonder Woman 3 with you. [We] love you as Wonder Woman – you’ve got nothing to worry about.’ So time will tell.”

However, Variety is reporting that there are no active plans to develop a new Wonder Woman film, and that there was never any definitive discussion with Gadot about returning as the character.

This has prompted widespread confusion, with many fans questioning whether either Gadot or Gunn and Safran had been dishonest about the future of the project.

Heart of Stone receives brutal Rotten Tomatoes score


Brenna Cooper
Mon, 14 August 2023

The first reviews are in for Gal Gadot's latest film Heart of Stone, and it's bad news for the espionage thriller.

The movie, which landed on Netflix on August 11, stars Gadot as Rachel Stone, an intelligence agent tasked with preventing a powerful AI tool, which can hack into any system in the world, from falling into dangerous hands.

Jamie Dornan and Alia Bhatt also star in the Tom Harper-directed film as an MI6 agent and super-hacker, respectively.

At the time of writing, Heart of Stone has a score of just 30% on Rotten Tomatoes from 93 reviews. While critics praised the film's action sequences and Gadot's acting, overall it received a negative response for its generic spy-action plot and overused twists.

Here's what the reviews have said.

Netflix

Related: Heart of Stone ending explained: does Gal Gadot's Rachel survive?

Digital Spy

"Despite having the main ingredients for a traditional-yet-enjoyable spy thriller – a solid leading star, notable action sequences, multiple worldwide locations, unexpected plot twists — Heart of Stone lacks soul.

"Perhaps, because of being too worried in finding the perfect formula or hitting as many markets as possible, some of these Netflix originals are lacking what Rachel Stone keeps fighting for in Heart of Stone: a genuine human heart beating at the centre of it all."
CNN

"Gadot makes a striking protagonist even when she's a mere mortal who can't deflect bullets. Yet the structure of Heart of Stone doesn’t help by beginning in the middle and providing little in the way of backstory to separate Stone from any number of other cinematic spies."
The Observer

"There's very little that’s original in this Bond-alike adventure... The screenplay is a rudimentary thing – scaffolding to support the set pieces – that starts to creak whenever it attempts any depth of character. But the action is terrific."

Netflix

Related: Heart of Stone director explains unexpected relevance of Netflix movie

The Independent

"Heart of Stone is an ideological mess. AI is great until it’s not, and then it’s fine because Gal Gadot can just kick someone in the face. It’s conflicted without embracing that conflict, resulting in a film that’s really about nothing at all."
Empire

"The real problem here is an absence of truly compelling characters, especially the lead; Gadot's role is too blandly written for her to have anything substantial to grip on to.

"Heart Of Stone is a perfectly watchable and often daft bit of fun, but its mission to supersede Ethan Hunt might prove to be impossible."
IGN

"Gadot is game but the nonstop action provides her almost no consequential downtime to build a realistic character. And even then, outside of the opening prologue, the action devolves into a loud mush of increasingly implausible and cliched scenarios."

Heart of Stone is in limited UK cinemas and on Netflix from August 11.

Fitch Spares Israeli Rating, Delivers Tepid Warning on Risks

NICER THAN THEIR U$ RAATING

Galit Altstein
Mon, 14 August 2023 



(Bloomberg) -- Israel’s credit score was affirmed with a stable outlook by Fitch Ratings, in a surprise reprieve for the government following months of protests over a planned judicial overhaul that’s rattled investors.

Fitch kept the sovereign rating at A+, its fifth-highest investment-grade level and on par with Saudi Arabia and Malta. In a statement on Monday, it said the government’s divisive plan “has been watered down but remains highly controversial.”

“Our base case assumes limited impact from the judicial changes beyond the protests’ impact on consumption and a delay in some capital investment decisions, although risks of a greater impact remain,” it said.

Israel’s currency traded little changed against the dollar as of 4:11 p.m. in Tel Aviv. With a loss of about 10% since late January, the shekel is among the five worst performers among a basket of major currencies tracked by Bloomberg.

The reassurance followed months of warnings from the three major credit assessors over the risks facing Israel as a result of the fallout from political and social tensions.

In a joint statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich seized on Fitch’s remarks as evidence of “what we have been saying all along — Israel’s economy is strong, stable and solid.”

“Israel is good for business,” they said. “Those who invest in Israel — benefit.”

Netanyahu returned to power following elections last year by forming a pact with far right, ultra-Orthodox and nationalist parties. The coalition soon rolled out plans to reduce the power of the courts, triggering mass protests from opponents who feared an erosion of the country’s democracy.

Though the effort was briefly suspended in March, negotiations to find a compromise between Netanyahu’s cabinet and the opposition eventually broke down. In late July, parliament passed legislation that prevents judges from voiding government decisions they deem “unreasonable” during a session that was boycotted by opposition lawmakers.

Different Paths

Netanyahu and his supporters argue that the current system has given judges too much power. Opponents say the country’s political structure means the judiciary is the only real check on politicians.

In an interview this month, Netanyahu said his government would also seek to change the way judges are selected, prompting a backlash from Israel’s opposition and protest movement. Though the prime minister promised to negotiate, he said the government would move forward with the measure if it gets enough support for it from the public.

“The changes may have a negative impact on Israel’s credit metrics if the weakening of institutional checks leads to worse policy outcomes or sustained negative investor sentiment or weakens governance indicators,” Fitch analysts led by Cedric Julien Berry said in the report. “Fitch considers the current measures are unlikely to trigger a material exodus of talent and capital in the high-tech sector.”

The rating company attributed much of the decline in funds raised by Israel’s high-tech industry this year to “global trends” and said it was hard to estimate how much the political turmoil had affected investors.

“Uncertainty generated by the judicial changes only partly explains this,” Fitch said. “The sector’s diversification and maturity provide substantial resistance to shocks, although some segments are likely to suffer from more constrained funding options.”

Bloomberg Businessweek

Analysis-US loss of AAA badge a reminder of 'regime shift' for government debt

Yoruk Bahceli
Sun, August 13, 2023 

Traders work on the floor of the NYSE in New York

(Reuters) - Financial markets barely flinched when Fitch stripped the United States of its top credit rating, but it served as a reminder of longer-term structural risks investors in government bonds are yet to grasp.

The immediate focus in the aftermath of the Aug. 1 downgrade has been on U.S. governance, but Fitch Ratings also flagged higher rates driving up debt service costs, an aging population and rising healthcare spending, echoing challenges that reverberate globally.

David Katimbo-Mugwanya, head of fixed income at EdenTree Investment Management, a 3.7 billion-pound ($4.71 billion)charity-owned investor, said with the move highlighting reflecting elevated debt levels at a time when interest rates will likely remain high, debt sustainability was back in focus.

"I think it really brings home that shift being a regime shift rather than a cyclical one," Katimbo-Mugwanya said.

Pressures investors will eventually face include ageing populations, climate change and geopolitical tensions.

Such risks are making some investors, including hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, bet on rising longer-term borrowing costs. Yet many investors say factors at play are too complex and their impact too far out to influence their investment decisions.

"The rating agencies are not looking at them in a systemic way. And the investors even less," said Moritz Kraemer, former head of sovereign ratings at S&P Global, now chief economist at German lender LBBW.

WARNING SIGNS

There is no shortage of research sounding alarm.

Without cuts to age-related spending, median net government debt will rise to 101% of gross domestic product in advanced and 156% in emerging economies by 2060, S&P Global Ratings said in a study this year.

S&P said the assumption that governments would prioritise servicing debt over spending promises had rarely been tested at such high debt levels.

It expects policy steps that will make ageing-related costs more manageable. Not taking them would see creditworthiness deteriorate and half the governments it rates would have metrics associated with junk credit ratings while even top-rated governments would lose the highest ratings, S&P said.

For the European Union and the euro area, where public pensions and healthcare play a major role, the European Commission and European Central Bank have also flagged costs related to ageing as a key risk to debt sustainability.

Japan is one major economy where financing costs remain low even as its debt exceeds 260% of GDP and it has one of the world's oldest populations. But that reflects high domestic ownership of government debt and ultra loose monetary policy - a hard act to follow with higher inflation.

On the environmental front, a study last week showed a failure to curb carbon emissions will raise debt-servicing costs for 59 nations within the next decade.

"These long-term risks may not possess a well-established historical precedent, making reliance solely on historical data for risk assessment a challenge," said Gael Fichan, head of fixed income at Swiss private bank Syz Group.

For now, despite the steepest increases in borrowing costs in decades, investors still see little risk in holding governments' longer-term debt.

For example, the New York Fed estimates longer-term U.S. Treasuries still yield less than rolling over short-term debt - a legacy of central bank government bond buying.

However, as central banks now roll off that debt and government financing needs rise, that should reverse, investors say. A recent rise in long-dated bond yields in reaction to a surge in U.S. borrowing needs was a case in point.

"As the supply of long-dated Treasuries rises, investors may demand higher term premia to compensate for the added risk of holding bonds with longer maturities," Fichan said.

Kraemer, the former S&P official, said it was "unreasonable" that shorter and longer-term government debt were rated the same.

POLICY WATCH

Greater focus on longer-term risks should bring scrutiny of government policies.

Policy "is going to matter more especially in terms of the fiscal side of things about how the governments are reacting to the various promises to the electorate and what they're trying to achieve," said Kshitij Sinha, a fund manager at Canada Life Asset Management.

It will be crucial whether governments can bring down relative debt levels by boosting economic growth, and here climate change is both a challenge and opportunity.

"The green transition will require quite some investments... that will also increase the overall debt levels further, but down the road… you will profit from it," said Martin Lenz, senior portfolio manager at Union Investment, which manages 424 billion euros.

Still, with higher debt an economic reality, few governments are left with the coveted AAA rating.

"Can there be a world without AAA sovereigns? Yeah, I think there can be, We've seen this happening in the corporate space, for example," LBBW's Kraemer said, adding that out of dozens of AAA-rated U.S. companies in 1980s now there were only two left.

($1 = 0.7854 pounds)

(Reporting by Yoruk Bahceli, additional reporting by Davide Barbuscia, editing by Tomasz Janowski)

UK

All the strikes taking place in August including RMT, doctors and airport staff

Carlo Simone
Mon, 14 August 2023

Junior doctors are one prominent group which has been striking (Image: Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire)

Strikes have become almost a common part of life in Britain now, and that is no different in August 2023, with several different industries walking out.

There have been plenty of negotiations related to pay and conditions for hundreds of thousands of workers in different fields over the last year or so.

These have mainly come from rail workers, NHS staff, teachers, airport security staff and many more.


For some of these groups there seems to be no end in sight for both the Governments and the unions to reach an agreement.

Bournemouth Echo: The RMT is one group which is going on strike for a day in August

The RMT is one group which is going on strike for a day in August (Image: PA)

Here are the remaining strikes that are scheduled for the remainder of August 2023.
August 2023 list of strikes

The list of strike dates below are accurate as of the time of writing (Monday, August 14).
RMT to strike once again

The Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) said 20,000 of its members in 14 train operators would walk out on August 26 and September 2.

The union said it had been left with “little choice” but to take further action as it had seen no improved or revised offer from the Rail Delivery Group.

The 14 train operating companies affected by the new strikes are: Chiltern Railways, Cross Country Trains, Greater Anglia, LNER, East Midlands Railway, c2c, Great Western Railway, Northern Trains, South Eastern, South Western Railway, Transpennine Express, Avanti West Coast, West Midlands Trains and GTR (including Gatwick Express).
Consultant doctors to strike

The British Medical Association (BMA) has announced that consultant doctors will be taking strike action for 48 hours.

This will be from 7 am on Thursday, August 24 to 7 am on Saturday, August 26.

On the NHS website it says: "During the two days of action, BMA has advised that consultants will provide Christmas Day cover, meaning they will continue to provide an emergency care only level of service."
Gatwick strikes

Unite has announced strikes by ground handlers and passenger assistance workers at Gatwick Airport during mid and late August.

Bournemouth Echo: Strikes at Gatwick Airport could cause some disruption

Strikes at Gatwick Airport could cause some disruption (Image: PA)

Members who work for the ground handling company Red Handling will walk out for four days from August 18, and a further four days from August 25, which includes the August bank holiday weekend.

Meanwhile, members of the union employed by Wilson James, which operates Gatwick's passenger assistance contract, will walk out for three days from August 18, and a further three days from August 22.
Birmingham Airport strikes

Indefinite strike action is set to commence on Tuesday, August 15 by tanker drivers and operators who refuel planes at Birmingham Airport.

Female Man Utd fans to protest potential Mason Greenwood return

Sofia Fedeczko
Mon, 14 August 2023

Female United fans protest the possible return of Mason Greenwood for the start of the 2023/24 season. Credit: Female Fans Against Greenwood's Return

Manchester United fans will be protesting Mason Greenwood’s possible return to the squad tonight as the team starts the 2023/24 season with a match against Wolverhampton at Old Trafford.

The 21-year-old was arrested in January 2022 and charged in October the same year for one count of attempted rape, one count of controlling and coercive behaviour and one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The charges were eventually dropped in February 2023 by the Crown Prosecution Service following the withdrawal of key witnesses and the emergence of new evidence.

The group Female Fans Against Greenwood’s Return posted a statement on Twitter demanding that the club “abide by their duty of care” to its female fans and staff and “zero tolerance approach to acts of violence against women by refusing to bring Mason Greenwood back into the squad.”

The statement continues: “The situation is clear – taking Greenwood back legitimises and normalises sexual assault and domestic abuse. It tells other players, and the men and boys that look up to them, that abusing women is acceptable, without consequence, and won’t affect you or derail your career.

“It also tells us, as women, that we don’t matter. It tells female MUFC employees that their employer is happy to make them work alongside an abuser, and tells hundreds of thousands of female fans that supporting the team we love involves supporting men who abuse women like us.”

Female Fans Against Greenwood’s Return describe Greenwood as a player who “has consistently demonstrated an attitude of extreme arrogance, entitlement and exceptionalism; and who has shown nothing but disregard and contempt for what it means to represent this great club.”

The statement concludes: “To the decision makers at the club, remember; this goes beyond football. The decision is a reflection of you, your morals; of who you are as individuals, and as humans. Will you stand with abusers, or with the abused? History will judge your choices. Make sure you choose well.”

It was previously announced that a decision on Mason Greenwood’s return would be made in advance of tonight’s game. However, the BBC reported on Friday 11 August that the announcement had been delayed while the club consults with their women’s team, which currently has three members playing in the national team at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

The attacker last played for Manchester United in January 2022 but was suspended after his arrest. The suspension was lifted after the CPS dropped the case.

Opinion

Catholicism held my family in its sway for decades – but it hid from me a vital truth

Georgina Lawton

THE GUARDIAN
Mon, 14 August 2023 

Photograph: Wim Wiskerke/Alamy

In the wake of the Pope’s recent visit to Lisbon, where I live, I’ve been thinking a lot about my relationship with Catholicism – largely because I don’t really identify as one any more, after years of being brought up in the faith.

My disillusionment with the church developed over time, like a creeping mould. With news of each sexual abuse scandal and coverup, I found it harder to align myself with its values. But my central reasons for quitting religion are closer to home.

After my father was diagnosed with cancer in 2014, I prayed harder than ever. But my prayers remained unanswered, and he died in 2015, aged 55. I was raised in a white household, with two white parents and my younger brother, who is also white. But there was no reason given for my appearance – and I am not white. After my dad’s death, I confirmed via DNA tests that my mother had an affair with a black man (who I still know nothing of), and that my father and I are not related in the biological sense. The news that my whole life had been something of a lie broke me into pieces.


I’ve written about the impact of this in columns and in my book, Raceless, but more recently I have been interrogating how religion played a part in the racial silence that hung over my world for so long. People joke about Catholic guilt, but Irish Catholic guilt is an altogether more serious affliction. My mother was raised on a farm in County Clare, where dinner and leisure time were granted only after mass and chores were completed. Adultery was a cardinal sin. And because no one challenged her about raising a black child (my father included), she chose never to face up to what was right in front of her.

But to blame my ambivalence about religion entirely on my mum’s choices would be too easy. The point at which I lost total and utter faith in the Catholic church was a more direct encounter: the day I visited a priest while we were grieving, and he revealed himself to be a cold egomaniac. My mother, my brother and I visited him to discuss my father’s funeral. First he told us that our hymn choices (including All Things Bright and Beautiful, to reflect my Dad’s love of gardening and being outside) were “childish” and “unsuitable” for a funeral. Our requests for certain readings were also shut down. The priest seemed to be on a power trip. I remember how we sat silent and in shock that, in our time of need, he was proving to be nothing like the pillar of support we needed.

I had decided that I would write my father’s eulogy – but the priest had other ideas. “You’ll break down and hold up the service. You won’t be able to do it,” he said. I was taken aback, but stood my ground. No one would read my father’s eulogy but me – we had been very close.

I still remember the priest’s words: “Funerals drag on. No one wants to hear a long eulogy. It’s boring,” he said. My jaw dropped. He then said he wanted it to be three minutes long, and that he wanted to see it first. At this, I balked. “Forget it, Father,” I said, and we walked out. I have rarely been inside a church since. My connection to Catholicism had begun to sever.

Related: I tried to quit the Catholic church, but the Catholic church wouldn’t quit me. Now what? | Monica Dux

Witnessing the priest’s unbridled arrogance and superiority that day, I felt I had an insight into how so many others were able to get away with more heinous acts. When you deem a man a “liturgical icon” of Jesus Christ, as Catholics do, and provide him with food and housing and protection from the recourse of the law, self-importance and abuse of power often follows.

As a child I was taught that I was born with original sin, and that I should audit my private conduct at all times, repenting in confession at mass. At my Irish Catholic mother’s behest, I attended Sunday school at my local parish in order to receive my confirmation, and volunteered to read the Bible before the local congregation. I attended a Catholic comprehensive school once run by nuns (although they had departed by the time I started), and learned that repeating the Church’s stances – parrot-like – on abortion, sex, gay marriage and euthanasia would earn me top marks in my exams. But, looking back, I find so much of what I learned to be hypocritical. When I also consider the impact that silence and shame had on my female friends and their sex lives, I am a little angry, too.

Although I visited the Vatican with my mother a few years ago, I am no longer a practising Catholic. I wouldn’t send any hypothetical future kids to a Catholic school while attitudes to women’s bodies are still so antiquated and harmful. I’m grateful for the community and connection that came from my schooling, but you can get that at secular schools, too. For now my Catholicism is on pause.

Georgina Lawton is the author of Raceless: In Search of Family, Identity and the Truth About Where I Belong

Opinion

Even in Greek towns razed by wildfires, people don’t blame the climate crisis. That must change


Christy Lefteri

THE GUARDIAN
Mon, 14 August 2023

Photograph: Yannis Kolesidis/EPA

During the summer of 2021, I flew to Greece to learn more about the wildfires there. I wanted to hear people’s stories, to understand what it meant to be displaced by environmental disaster. I have family in Greece and Cyprus and the approach of each summer causes a lot of anxiety. That year, fires were raging in Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Croatia and Cyprus, and I was three months pregnant. Feeling Evie growing inside me made me wonder what kind of world she would live in – and made me all the more determined to learn as much as I could about what people had experienced.

I spent a lot of time in Mati, a small town on the east coast of Greece, less than 20 miles from Athens. There, I talked to local people, and their experiences profoundly moved me. In a cafe that had survived the fire, a hub of safety and community for survivors, I met brave children who now have to live with terrible scars, physical and emotional. I met a man who could not even speak to me, his eyes filling with tears, and he told me that he had no words in a way that has stayed with me ever since.

The fire that ripped through their town, killing dozens of people, took place on 23 July 2018; three years later, most people still looked frightened, as if they could never feel safe in their homes again. One woman said to me: “Here you do not need to ask anyone where they got their scars, how they got burned, everyone knows.”


I was expecting to hear a lot about loss; I was not expecting to learn so much about the attribution of blame. I came to understand how desperately people needed to blame a tangible entity – a person, a group of people, the government. Indeed, this was understandable and justifiable. The allegations of arson and of the mishandling of the fire needed to be explored, investigated and dealt with.

What surprised me, however, was that any mention of the bigger issue, of the climate crisis and global heating, was shut down immediately and completely. It was made clear to me that this subject was unacceptable. Survivors felt that these issues had nothing to do with what they had suffered, and that the people actually accountable needed to pay.

Relatives and friends of the fire victims at Mati light lanterns in their memory on the fifth anniversary of the blaze. Photograph: Orestis Panagiotou/EPA

As a local man took me around the town and the surrounding forest, he described what the area had looked like before the fires wreaked devastation upon his home. What once had been lush and fertile was now parched and burned. I could sense the anger of local people – and I was angry too, and sad. It felt natural to me that these townspeople needed someone to blame – for a sense of justice, for closure. I understood this urge.

But when it comes to climate breakdown, attributing blame to just one person, one corporation, one country, is impossible. In Mati, the fire didn’t rage so hard because someone had set off a spark – it raged so hard because years of global heating had dried up the land, part of a cascading set of unsustainable practices and inaction that had set our planet on fire. And now, two years after I first started researching and writing my book, the fires are even worse.

The more I spoke to people, including climate scientists, the more I came to see that there is often a gap that separates science from public awareness and debate. In her book Engaging With Climate Change, the psychoanalyst Sally Weintrobe says that “many people who accept anthropogenic global warming continue to locate it as a problem of the future”. To my astonishment, this seemed to apply even to people who had themselves been affected directly by wildfires. Perhaps the reality is too huge and too painful, the guilt too much to bear?

Related: ‘Our daughter asked if we were going to die’: diary of a tourist in Greek wildfires

As humans, we can be loving and reparative, but we can also be destructive – something that is very hard to accept in ourselves. Weintrobe argues that we often disown our own destructiveness and place it all in another person or entity. I could see this happening. I could even feel it in myself. It is normal for us to focus entirely on possible arson or mistakes that may have been made, because they are real and easier to resolve, and to turn away from our contribution to this colossal catastrophe that is unfolding around us.

Listening to people’s stories helped to keep me grounded in the present, to accept what was really happening and to empathise with the human story beyond the statistics and the crisis imagery on the news. These stories are surrounding us now. We just need to listen carefully. My research forced me to really look at myself in the mirror. To understand that I have contributed and continue to contribute to the climate emergency.

Chris Rapley, a professor of climate science at University College London, says “fundamental attitudinal and behavioural changes are required in which we weave into our every action the need to respect and protect our environmental life-support system”. Weave into our every action. What does this mean? Where can it take us? How would things unfold if we really all did this? Maybe I am an optimist, but I believe we can do it. It requires each and every one of us to sit down with ourselves in a quiet place and open our hearts and really take it in, breathe it in: our world, our beautiful world, and what we are doing to it.

Christy Lefteri is the author of the international bestseller The Beekeeper of Aleppo. Her next novel, The Book of Fire, is published on 17 August

UK

Opinion
Can Sunak’s rightwing war on ‘woke’, migrants and the environment save the Tories


John Redwood, Tom Jones, Faiza Shaheen, Mark Pack and Natalie Bennett

THE GUARDIAN
Mon, 14 August 2023 


In the face of Labour poll leads, Rishi Sunak and his government appear to be increasingly focused on rightwing campaigns related to the culture wars, migration and opposition to environmental initiatives and targets. Do you think this is, or could be, a credible strategy?

John Redwood: Stop the swearing and stick to the pledges

People expect clear, family-friendly language from politicians in their published comments. They want messages that reflect reality and tell us something we need to know about the actions and plans of the government and opposition.

The recent use of swear words and loose language by some on both sides of the migration debate creates much heat but little light on a sensitive subject. Left and right agree that the people smugglers are evil, exploiting some vulnerable asylum seekers and some economic migrants who are persuaded to try to cheat the system. All agree we need to stop the dangerous small boats. None of us want to see people drowning.

The government’s best strategy to win back lost support ahead of the next election is to stick with the prime minister’s five pledges. Tougher language is not going to be the answer. The government is best advised to say less than it can deliver, to provide a pleasant surprise over the next year as we run up to an election.

There are ways to get prices down quicker and get growth a bit faster, if the government adopts more supportive measures for the self-employed, small business and investment. As a country we need to grow more of our own food, produce more of our own energy and make more of our own goods. There are ways to stop dangerous boats and ways to bring waiting lists down. Bring them on.

John Redwood is the Conservative MP for Wokingham

Tom Jones: Voters expect action, not toothless gestures

Looking at the polls, it is easy to conclude that Abraham Lincoln had a brighter future when he picked up his tickets at the box office than the Conservatives do at the next election. Rishi Sunak’s strategy to reverse this is to win back the 2019 electorate by using cultural issues as a “wedge” to demonstrate how Labour is still out of step with the values of Workington Man.

But the fact is, after delivering an 80-seat majority, those who lent their vote in 2019 have a right to ask for higher interest than ministers waging a culture war. That’s the crux of the credibility issue: after 13 years in power, voters expect action, not politically toothless gestures against cultural left-liberalism. Credibility can only be earned by doing what Conservative governments are elected to do; that is to govern conservatively, rather than complain about their inability to do so.

But there is also a huge danger: it is all too easy for cultural grievances to descend into incoherent messaging based on individual issues. That is a dangerous game to play in politics, as it makes it more difficult to develop a narrative, which voters thrive on.

As the psychologist Robert Cialdini said: “People don’t counter-argue stories … if you want to be successful in a post-fact world, you do it by presenting accounts, narratives, stories and images and metaphors.” When the average person spends so little time thinking about politics, stories are a convenient way of transferring complex concepts into a simply understood, concise narrative. Without that, we’re sunk.

Tom Jones is a Conservative councillor in North Yorkshire and author of the Potemkin Village Idiot substack

Faiza Shaheen: This is a desperate effort to distract us with lies and hate

Faiza Shaheen

Seeing the success of the anti-Ulez approach in Uxbridge, Sunak has added a new line to his divide-and-rule playbook: “pro-motorist” v “anti-motorist”. The more desperate the prime minister and his fellow Tories are to hide the disaster they have created across our economy and public services, the more they aim to distract us with lies and hate.

In Chingford and Woodford Green, where I am the Labour parliamentary candidate, it is not our first Ulez rodeo. In 2018, local Tories made a big push to scare people, but by 2019 when the policy had been put in place, public resistance largely dissipated because most realised it didn’t affect them. Until the Uxbridge and South Ruislip byelection last month, the expansion of Ulez had not really come up on the doorstep, but with a new effort from local Tories it is beginning to reemerge.

One diehard Tory voter told me last weekend, “Labour is making everyone buy an electric car!” I expect a lot of this misinformation will be shown up for exactly what it is when the policy comes into place later this month. There is, however, a big lesson here on the need to consider the distributional effects from the beginning of any scheme, or risk an understandable public backlash.

While I can’t yet see a sizeable shift on the doorstep, and polling data shows that we are not as polarised on climate policies as other countries, we cannot afford to be complacent. The Tories saying the same thing repeatedly on TV, online and in print will mean some of the lies and hate will sink in – especially while many working- and middle-class people feel economically insecure. The only way to counter this is to call it out, focus on the real issues facing people’s everyday lives and propose solutions that will address them.

Faiza Shaheen is a visiting professor in practice at the London School of Economics and the Labour party parliamentary candidate for Chingford and Woodford Green. She is the author of Know your place: How society sets us up to fail and what we can do about it

Mark Pack: Voters don’t want a government that punches down

Mediocre fiction is full of caricatured villains whose selfishness means they don’t care about people who aren’t like them and whose myopia mean they are happy to damn the future. They are great plot fodder for middlebrow fiction, but sadly Sunak seems to think they should also be a role model for being prime minister.

Talking up culture wars, claiming to be tough on immigration and finding excuses for pollution is unlikely to work for him, however, as it misunderstands why the Conservatives are polling at the levels of support Labour sunk to under Michael Foot in 1983.

It is, after all, the Liberal Democrats – not the rightwing populists of Reform – who have taken four seats off the government with record-breaking swings in byelections this parliament. The message from voters to Lib-Dem canvassers in those contests was very consistent. It was about the NHS and the cost of living, about sewage and failing public services. It was about being fed up with the Conservatives, their lockdown parties and their failures on the mainstream issues.

That’s borne out by pollsters too. The cost of living and the NHS are consistently the top-rated issues. Even Conservative voters want the most polluting vehicles to pay higher taxes and Conservatives are more supportive of the 2050 net zero target than voters in general.

A government punching down on vulnerable people or trashing green policies isn’t what voters in those four byelection wins were looking for. That is a political route to failure.

Mark Pack is president of the Liberal Democrats and author of Polling Unpacked: The History, Uses and Abuses of Political Opinion Polls

Natalie Bennett: A Tory slump isn’t enough. Labour needs to show courage

Samuel Johnson’s maxim clearly has to be updated. The “last refuge of a political scoundrel” is now culture war. Our prime minister is following the Trumpian lead of attacking the principled, the innovative and the honest in the hope of energising voters who value noise over substance, aggression over compassion.

Sunak is no William Pitt the Elder, for this is clearly the desperate last stand of a discredited government out of ideas. It is clearly detached from the reality of the world now in the climate crisis, as people from fire-devastated Maui to winter-baked Santiago can testify. Sunak won’t acknowledge that treating refugees decently is absolutely a British value, as demonstrated by compassion league tables that regularly put the UK at the top.

This should be a strategy that sees the Tories slump to under 100 seats. But the danger for the UK lies in a failure from the largest opposition party to do its job and oppose: to present the positive alternatives of climate action, welcome for refugees and respect for the rule of law.

Many voters have already concluded that “politicians are all the same”, and turned their back on the depressing Westminster theatre, potentially leaving the field to a noisy minority who are convinced by three-word slogans.

Keir Starmer would do well to ponder another Johnson quote: “Courage is the greatest of all virtues, because if you haven’t courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.”

Natalie Bennett is a former leader of the Green party

UK

Priti Patel blasts government’s ‘secretive’ 5-year plan to house asylum seekers on RAF base

Lizzie Dearden
Mon, 14 August 2023 

Priti Patel (PA)

Former home secretary Priti Patel has accused the government of being “secretive about its intentions” to house asylum seekers on a former military base.

Ministers claim that accommodating 1,700 migrants at RAF Wethersfield in Essex will be cheaper than hotels, but a leaked Home Office memo showed that “value for money” will not be achieved unless the site is used for five years.

Suella Braverman declared an “emergency” earlier this year to bypass normal planning permission for the development, but the process only allows 12-month use and is the subject of a looming legal challenge in the High Court.


Her predecessor Ms Patel, who is the MP for the nearby constituency of Witham, has opposed the use of Wethersfield for asylum accommodation and maintained it is “unsuitable”.

In a letter to Ms Braverman and immigration minister Robert Jenrick on Monday, she said the leaked memo showed they planned to use the site for longer than previously disclosed, and that local representatives had been given “no clarity” on timescales.

“The lack of a direct response to my questions relating to the length of time the Home Office plans to use the site for asylum accommodation gives the impression that the Home Office is being evasive,” she wrote.

“Clear answers now need to be provided by the Home Office and the government must be transparent rather than evasive. The lack of clarity has been alarming and staggering and I trust you will resolve this urgently.”

Ms Patel said official government statements had said only that the site would be “temporary” and under “constant review”, adding: “This suggests that the government is being secretive about its intentions, but the local community and partners need to know what the government’s plans are.

“In planning terms, the temporary Class Q use is for twelve months only but it seems that the government are intending on using the site for longer than that.”

Ms Patel demanded urgent answers to questions on how long Wethersfield would be used for, financial modelling for the site and the average costs of housing asylum seekers there.

The use of Wethersfield as asylum accommodation is subject to legal action and strong local opposition (AFP via Getty Images)

The internal Home Office memo, published byThe Telegraph, said a senior civil servant was “satisfied with value for money” for Wethersfield, the Scampton military base in Lincolnshire and a former prison in Sussex, subject to certain conditions.

Wethersfield and HMP Northeye, in Bexhill, would have to be used “across the five years planned for the sites”, the memo said, and Scampton would have to be used for three years.

It added: “This [analysis] assume we are in hotels for that period. If we are not, and/or if our costs are higher than we have estimated, there could be issues on value for money.”

The memo also said that the Bibby Stockholm barge in Dorset would need to hold 1,000 people to “provide value for money”. But the vessel’s capacity is 500 and it was evacuated on Friday following the discovery of dangerous legionnella bacteria in the water system.

The Home Office moved the first asylum seekers into Wethersfield on 12 July - as a hearing over the base began at the High Court - and cases of tuberculosis and scabies have since been reported.

Local councils and residents have launched a legal challenge against the use of the former RAF base, as well as RAF Scampton and HMP Northeye, alleging that the government has acted unlawfully.

The High Court heard that Ms Braverman’s attempted planning bypass covered an “emergency” development for 12 months, but Home Office documents indicated that Wethersfield could be used for much longer.

Asylum seekers were moved into Wethersfield last month despite an ongoing legal challenge (PA) (PA Wire)

Alex Goodman KC said Wethersfield could be occupied for up to five years or “as long as it remains expedient to do so”, amid rocketing Channel crossings, a record asylum backlog and the suspension of unlawful plans to deport small boat migrants to Rwanda.

He argued that a series of statutory assessments, including on the environmental impact of housing 1,700 asylum seekers at Wethersfield, were wrongly based on an assumption it would only be used for a year.

The councils are also arguing that the current use of hotels for asylum seekers is not an emergency that qualifies for emergency planning permission, despite lawyers representing Ms Braverman claiming a shortage of accommodation created a risk of homelessness.

Last month, a parliamentary committee was told that the Home Office was holding 5,000 empty hotel beds for asylum seekers as a “buffer” for expected high crossings.

The case could make or break the government’s “alternative accommodation” policy, which is core to Rishi Sunak’s vow to move migrants out of hotels.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Delivering accommodation on surplus military sites will provide cheaper and more orderly, suitable accommodation for those arriving in small boats whilst helping to reduce the use of hotels.

“These accommodation sites will house asylum seekers in basic, safe and secure accommodation as they await a decision on their claim.

“We understand the concerns of local communities and will work closely with councils and key partners to manage the impact of using these sites, including liaising with local police to make sure appropriate arrangements are in place.”

UK

Government distances itself from ‘Lavatory Tsar’ claims as it is mocked over public toilets strategy

Adam Forrest
Sun, 13 August 2023 


Rishi Sunak’s government has distanced itself from the idea of a “Lavatory Tsar” after it was mocked for its new public toilets strategy.

Mr Sunak and his equalities minister Kemi Badenoch were ridiculed following a report that the government was planning to introduce a toilets commissioner to address the closure of public toilets.

But it is understood that the plan is not being considered. Although it was discussed in parliament after being raised by a Labour MP, it was rejected by the government amid fears that it would increase bureaucracy.

It came as the government weighed into a fresh “culture war” row over bathrooms, announcing plans to crack down on gender-neutral toilets. New shops, public buildings and offices will be ordered to provide single-sex facilities, as the PM and Ms Badenoch engaged in a “war on woke” row with transgender rights groups on the issue.

Launching her new crackdown, the equalities minister said that the widespread switch to gender-neutral toilets had removed the “fundamental right” of women and girls to “privacy, dignity and safety”.

Trans rights groups have argued that gender-neutral toilets can help to combat discrimination, since trans people can face difficulties using male or female toilets.

But the Sunak government argues that communal cubicles and hand-washing facilities have led to “dignity and privacy concerns” among women who feel “unfairly disadvantaged”.

Pledging to halt the increasing use of gender-neutral facilities, the government is changing regulations to specify that all new non-residential buildings must offer separate single-sex toilets for women and men.

Self-contained, private unisex toilets should be provided in new buildings if there is space – but should not be put in at the expense of single-sex toilets.

“It is important that everybody has privacy and dignity when using public facilities,” said Ms Badenoch. “Yet the move towards ‘gender-neutral’ toilets has removed this fundamental right for women and girls.”

Sign for a non-binary gender neutral toilet (PA)

There was confusion over a report in The Sunday Telegraph which claimed that ministers planned to appoint a Lavatories Tsar.

Labour’s mayor of Newham Council compared it to John Major’s much-mocked “cones hotline” fiasco in the early 1990s, when the then Tory PM was ridiculed for his focus on minor traffic issues during a major economic recession.

But the government later made clear that it had no plans to bring in a tsar, pointing out that it had rejected a Labour amendment to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill in October to have a commissioner for public loos.

However, some on social media questioned the government’s sense of priorities for focusing on bathroom rows during a cost of living crisis.

One Twitter user said voters “can’t pay our rent, mortgages, fuel bills, or buy food” while ministers were tackling the issue of “sex-segregated lavatories”.

Rishi Sunak has been accused of ‘ugly culture war’ (PA Wire)

And Tory MP Caroline Nokes defended the use of gender-neutral toilets. “What matters most when it comes to toilets is design,” the equalities select committee chair told Pink News.

“I always point at Portcullis House in parliament, which has bathrooms on every floor. Nobody refers to them as gender-neutral bathrooms – they are just bathrooms.”

The government has previously been accused of using gender-neutral toilets and other trans-related issues to stoke divisions in a “war on wokeism”.

Labour’s Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, told The Independent in June that Mr Sunak was exploiting the trans debate as a “wedge issue in an ugly culture war”.

The PM was also accused of transphobia after a leaked video saw him mocking Ed Davey for “trying to convince everybody that women clearly had penises”. But No 10 insisted the joke was at the expense of the Lib Dem leader, not of a minority group.

It comes as the government prepares to set out new guidance to schools on trans issues when parliament returns next month.

The delayed document is widely expected to tell headteachers to consult parents if their child talks about a desire to transition socially to a different gender.