Jamaicans shun UK royal visit, demand slavery reparations

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Dozens of well-known leaders in Jamaica including professors and politicians are demanding an apology and slavery reparations as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge prepare for a trip to the former British colony.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The group is rejecting the visit of Prince William and Kate scheduled for Tuesday, part of a larger trip to the Caribbean region that coincides with the 60th anniversary of Jamaica’s independence and the 70th anniversary of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

“We see no reason to celebrate 70 years of the ascension of your grandmother to the British throne because her leadership, and that of her predecessors, have perpetuated the greatest human rights tragedy in the history of humankind,” read a letter published Sunday ahead of the couple’s visit and signed by 100 Jamaican leaders.

The weeklong royal tour of Central America and the Caribbean that began on Saturday was taken at the behest of the queen, who is William’s grandmother. The trip aims to strengthen Britain’s ties with Commonwealth countries, but it’s off to a rocky start and comes as some countries consider cutting ties to the monarchy like the eastern Caribbean island of Barbados did in November.

Local opposition forced the royal couple to cancel a visit to a cacao farm in Belize that was planned for Saturday, while the upcoming trip to Jamaica has angered some who say they are still waiting for an apology and slavery reparations.

Jamaica lawmaker Mike Henry, who has long led an effort to obtain reparations that he estimates at more than 7 billion pounds, told The Associated Press in a phone interview that an apology is only the first step for what he described as “abuse of human life and labor.”

“An apology really admits that there is some guilt,” he said.

Hundreds of thousands of African slaves toiled in Jamaica under more than 300 years of British rule and faced brutal conditions. There were numerous bloody rebellions, with one woman called “Queen Nanny” leading a group of formerly enslaved Africans known as Jamaican Maroons whose guerrilla warfare became renown and battered British forces. “Queen Nanny” remains the sole female of Jamaica’s eight national heroes.

During their two-day stay in Jamaica, Prince William and Kate are expected to celebrate Bob Marley’s legacy, a move that also has riled some Jamaicans.

“As a Rastafarian, Bob Marley embodied advocacy and is recognized globally for the principles of human rights, equality, reparations and repatriation,” stated the letter of those demanding an apology.

The group said that it would be celebrating 60 years of freedom from Britain, adding that it is saddened “that more progress has not been made given the burden of our colonial inheritance. We nonetheless celebrate the many achievements of great Jamaicans who rejected negative, colonial self-concepts and who self-confidently succeeded against tremendous odds. We will also remember and celebrate our freedom fighters.”

Dánica Coto, The Associated Press

UH OH

13,700 UCP members have registered for upcoming leadership review

Jessika Guse 

GLOBAL NEWS

Premier Jason Kenney will have quite the crowd at his leadership review come April.

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh Alberta Premier Jason Kenney speaks to the media while attending the Global Business Forum in Banff, Alta., Thursday, Sept. 26, 2019. 

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

An internal United Conservative Party email obtained by Global News states 13,718 members have so far registered for the event in Red Deer.

Saturday was the last day to sign up to become a new voting member at the special general meeting. Those who already had memberships are able to register for the event up until April 9.

Voting is scheduled from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Cambridge Hotel in Red Deer, where the website states the hotel can hold up to 2,000 guests in its conference room.

Read more:
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s leadership review deadline looming

The email, sent to constituency presidents, goes on to say the UCP membership has more than doubled and that it's "not unreasonable" the party membership could get as high as 20,000.

Members aren't required to stay after they cast their ballot. The premier will need more than 50 per cent of the vote in order to remain as the UCP party leader.

CONTINENTAL GENERAL STRIKE

Canadian Pacific railway workers must answer lockout, threat of back-to-work law by expanding struggle

Keith Jones

WSWS.ORG

The contract dispute between Canadian Pacific Railway and the 3,000 engineers, conductors and yard workers it employs at its operations across Canada has rapidly escalated into a class confrontation whose outcome will have a major impact on the class struggle throughout North America.

CP Rail workers on the picket line in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan 

(Credit: Teamsters Division 510)

The workers, whom CP Rail locked out at 12:01 a.m. Sunday, are determined to put an end to a brutal work regimen that ravages their family lives and imperils their personal safety and that of the public. They are also fighting for improved wages and pensions after years of stagnating incomes and successive concessions contracts. Earlier this month, the workers voted by 96.7 percent in favour of strike action.

However, due to the sabotage by the Teamsters union, it was Canadian Pacific, Canada’s second and North America’s sixth largest railway, that took the offensive.

With its lockout, CP Rail is mobilizing big business and the political establishment on both sides of the Canada-US border to press the Justin Trudeau-led federal Liberal government to rush a back-to-work law through Parliament. Such a law would strip the rail workers of their rights to strike and bargain collectively and empower a government-appointed, pro-big business arbitrator to dictate their terms of employment.

On cue, Canada’s largest business lobby groups, from the blue-chip Business Council of Canada and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, along with the premiers of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, are imploring the government to force the CP Rail workers back on the job. So too are numerous US business organizations and senators and governors from more than half a dozen Western and Plains states.

In demanding state intervention against the CP Rail workers, these forces are cynically invoking the impact of the shutdown of the railway’s Canadian operations on supply chains and consequently consumer prices and workers’ jobs. This is a fraud. As evidenced by the North American ruling class’s ruinous pandemic policy, which that has led to both mass death and socio-economic dislocation for working people, and their proxy war against Russia in Ukraine and the attendant blitzkrieg of economic sanctions, their concern is not the rational functioning of the economy but amassing greater profits and advancing their predatory imperialist interests on the world stage.

The Trudeau Liberal government has repeatedly illegalized or threatened to illegalize worker job actions. Last April it used an emergency law to break a strike of Port of Montreal longshore workers, and in December 2018 it criminalized a campaign of rotating strikes by postal workers.

Its preference, however, is to rely on the trade union bureaucracy, with which it enjoys a close partnership, to smother the CP Rail workers struggle.

Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan claims the Liberal government wants a “negotiated deal.” But the language he is using makes clear the negotiations, which continue under a federal mediator despite CP Rail locking out the workers and agitating for a back-to-work law, are a sham. Even as it publicly avows support for “negotiations,” the government is readying a back-to-work law and threatening, behind closed doors, to strip rail workers of their rights, if it has not already issued an explicit ultimatum to the Teamster bureaucrats as to when a “deal” must be reached.

“We want a resolution, and we want it now,” declared O’Regan on Sunday. “This work stoppage could not have happened at a worse time.”

Rank-and-file CP Rail workers have taken the measure of the Trudeau government, which has spent the past two years blustering about being “pro-worker” while funneling unprecedented sums into the coffers of big business and the financial oligarchy and spearheading the ruling elite’s “profit before lives” pandemic policy. “I can guarantee Trudeau will force us back to work, without even thinking about the workers’ lives,” a CP Rail conductor told the World Socialist Web Site, “He will force us back regardless of our strike demands.”

The CP Rail workers have powerful enemies arrayed against them. Yet still more powerful are their potential allies among the tens of millions of workers across North America who confront the same essential problems—deteriorating living standards, unsafe working conditions, austerity, speedup and war—born of the capitalist ruling elite’s relentless drive to extract ever greater profits.

The past year has witnessed an ongoing wave of worker struggles across Canada and the US, as workers seek to resist a further erosion of their real wages as a result of surging inflation, claw back pension cuts and other concessions and demand protection from the pandemic. These include strikes by Vale miners in Sudbury, Ontario, New Brunswick public sector workers, Volvo Truck workers in Virginia, Kellogg’s workers at multiple US plants, and the ongoing strike of 4,500 educators in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

In recent days CP Rail workers in discussions with the WSWS have painted a harrowing picture of the punishing schedules and work rules the company imposes through a brutal disciplinary regime and its indifference to workers’ safety.

“We are called the ‘backbone of Canada,’ but our industry just makes up its own rules,” one worker told the WSWS.

Said another veteran rail worker, “They have effectively reduced the well trained, hardworking men and women of CP into a position of folding under the constant pressure of fear of dismissal for speaking up when the actions requested of them would put either themselves, their fellow co-workers, or the public at elevated risk.”

The working conditions faced by the CP Rail workers are akin to those of workers throughout basic industry and transport, across the gig economy and even increasingly for professional workers in Canada and internationally. The ruling class’ drive to keep schools open amid the COVID-19 pandemic, so that students’ parents can be forced to keep churning out corporate profits, has demonstrated that its indifference to the health and well-being of teachers and students, as well as railway workers and meatpackers.

Two factors account for the ruthlessness with which Canadian Pacific and the ruling class as a whole have responded to the rail workers’ struggle. First, they see it as cutting across their plans—especially those of Canada’s oil and agri-business companies and the railways that transport their merchandise—to profiteer from the war against Russia. Second and more fundamentally, they fear it will serve as a catalyst for a broader mobilization of the working class.

The greatest obstacle to CP Rail workers expanding their struggle and making it the spearhead of a working class counteroffensive is the Teamsters and more generally the corporatist trade unions as a whole. For decades, the unions in Canada, as around the world, have systematically suppressed the class struggle while integrating themselves ever more fully into corporate management and the state.

Since negotiations between CP Rail and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) began last September, the union has done everything to demobilize the rank and file. This includes keeping workers in the dark about the negotiations.

As the lockout deadline approached, the TCRC bowed to CP Rail’s demand that the 24 major outstanding issues in the dispute be settled by binding arbitration. That is, it agreed to surrender workers’ right to strike and any means of fighting for their just demands. Only then, according to TCRC spokesman Dave Fulton, management “moved the goal posts” and announced it would go ahead with the lockout unless the union allowed it to dictate terms that would ensure the arbitrator would be compelled to do its bidding across the board.

With the workers now locked out, the union has formally proclaimed a strike. But they have no intention of doing anything to rally working class support. This is underscored by the TCRC leaders’ readiness to remain at the bargaining table even as CP Rail bays for a government back-to-work law, accuses workers of striking illegally and vows, in the words of CEO Keith Creel, to explore “all avenues to address this egregious behaviour.”

Workers’ fundamental democratic rights, especially the right to strike, have been under increasing attack for decades. Rail workers, at both Canadian Pacific and Canadian National Rail, Canada’s largest railway, have repeatedly been targeted, especially over the past 13 years.

Not only have the unions bowed to back-to-work laws and policed them. Terrified of the development of an insurgent working class movement, they have increasingly relied on the adoption or threat of these laws to provide a pretext for their short circuiting of workers’ struggles.

A special place in this political theater is reserved for the trade union-sponsored New Democratic Party (NDP). NDP provincial governments have themselves repeatedly adopted strikebreaking laws, but as a rule the social democrats condemn them in parliament while working with the union bureaucracy to corral workers back to work with claims that the “struggle must continue” in the capitalist courts and at the ballot box.

Yesterday, federal New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh announced his party would not back legislation stripping CP Rail workers of their right to strike and bargain collectively, saying that to do so at this time would be “cavalier.” This is meaningless posturing of the worst kind. If and when the Liberals do introduce such a law, it will quickly pass thanks to the support of the official opposition Conservatives. Otherwise, the NDP will continue to prop the minority Liberal government in parliament as they have since 2019.

Indeed, on Monday evening it was revealed that the NDP was about to sign a “supply and confidence” agreement with the Liberals, under which Canada’s social democrats will pledge to keep the Trudeau government in power until 2025. This under conditions in which the Liberal government is playing a leading role in pressing the NATO powers to take an even more belligerent stance against Russia in the war over Ukraine, and at home is pivoting from “pandemic relief and stimulus” to austerity.

The CP Rail workers should follow the lead and join forces with the workers at BNSF, North America’s largest railroad, who recently formed the BNSF Workers Rank-and-File Committee to mobilize workers in struggle against the company, independently of and in opposition to the pro-company unions.

Last week, the BNSF Workers Rank-and-File Committee issued a statement “ Support strike action at Canadian Pacific! For a united movement of North American railroaders against wage cuts and brutal working hours! ” that called on workers at CP to form a rank-and-file committee of their own and link up with BNSF workers to “discuss a common strategy and build a powerful movement, organized through rank-and-file committees, independent of both the pro-corporate unions and the corporate political parties in each country.”

Like the CP Rail workers, the BNSF workers are facing state attack. The US courts have issued an injunction barring them from striking or taking any job action to oppose management’s imposition of a punitive “Hi-Viz” attendance policy.

The big business line-up against the Canadian Pacific workers and the injunction against the BNSF workers underscore that workers are fighting not just a particularly reactionary employer, but rather the ruling class as a whole, its political representatives and state. Consequently, they confront a political struggle.

Militant industrial action—including preparations to defy a back-to-work law—must be tied to the fight for a workers’ government that would institute socialist policies in opposition to the ruling class agenda of unending pandemic, low wages, brutal working conditions, austerity and war.

THIRD WORLD USA
Aging in the shadows: A crisis of older undocumented workers awaits Illinois

2022/3/21 
© Chicago Tribune

Rocio Pillado, center, visits her parents, Gregorio Pillado and Martina Alonso, as they take Rocio's dog for a walk in Chicago on March 14, 2022. 

- Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/TNS

CHICAGO — In a cold basement apartment on the Southwest Side, Gregorio Pillado and Martina Alonso count pennies and pray for relief.

Pillado, 79, has been working at a nearby meatpacking plant for 20 years, lifting thousands of pounds of frozen meats into large vats, eight hours a day, five days a week. His $16 an hour pretax is the married couple’s only source of income. With it, they manage to pay for their groceries, medicines, utilities and their $800 monthly rent — but not much else.

Alonso, 69, used to bring in money by catering small parties and selling bags of chopped-up nopales (prickly pear), but she had to stop after she fell and injured her wrist months ago.

Pillado’s health has declined dramatically over the last few years. First he had to get a pacemaker implanted. Then he had surgery to remove a hernia. Now he has another hernia, but he doesn’t know whether he’ll be able to get it removed. His health problems make him incapable of handling his old workloads, and he worries about if — or when — he’ll get fired.

“Ya no tengo la misma fuerza y energía que antes.”I don’t have the same strength or energy as I once did, Pillado said.

“Se me quita el sueño cuando me pongo a pensar en qué pasaría si Gregorio perdiera su trabajo.” Alonso said she loses sleep ruminating over what would happen if her husband of 50 years lost his job.

Pillado and Alonso have no savings, no retirement plan and no authorization to live in the U.S.

They’re far from alone. There are at least 3,900 undocumented immigrants age 65 and older living in Illinois. But by 2030, the number of undocumented seniors in the state will top 55,000 — a 1,300% increase in just a decade, according to a report published by Rush University Medical Center last year.

Most undocumented immigrants arrived in the country decades ago and have lived here without a viable pathway to citizenship. Mexican immigrants will make up two-thirds of the undocumented older adult populations in Illinois, followed by immigrants from Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeastern Asia, and Central America.

Now, this generation of immigrants faces the prospect of having lived and died in the shadows. Undocumented immigrants are blocked from accessing social programs that many seniors rely on, such as food stamps, public housing, Medicare and Social Security Insurance — programs that they pay billions of dollars into every year. Their families and communities weave a patchwork of formal and informal resources to make up the difference.

“The social cost for families of these older adults not having access to services that they desperately need is huge,” said Padraic Stanley, a program coordinator and social worker at Rush and one of the report’s lead authors.

Without a social safety net, many undocumented seniors are forced to work until they drop, said Adela Carlin, a public aid lawyer who’s helped dozens of immigrants in the Chicago area access charity funds. “When you’re undocumented, there’s no such thing as a retirement age,” she said. “You work until you can’t anymore.”
‘There was no future there for us’

Pillado and Alonso’s story mirrors that of many other undocumented seniors in Illinois. The couple immigrated to Chicago with their younger daughter, Rocio Pillado, then a teenager, in 2000. They came to Illinois at the tail end of a three-decades-long massive Mexican migration wave that’s been in sharp decline since 2008. The couple’s elder daughter had already come to Chicago a few years prior, and their only son stayed in Mexico to raise his own family.

Emigrating from Mexico to the U.S. without breaking the law was impossible for the family. Without a family member who’s a citizen, an employer to sponsor their green card applications, or a credible fear of persecution in Mexico that would qualify them for asylum, there was no legal pathway for Pillado, Alonso and Rocio to move to the U.S. The same goes for migrants without a sponsor or asylum case from China, Pakistan, Nigeria or any other country that has had 50,000 or more residents immigrate to the U.S. in the past five years.

“Queríamos una casa bien bonita,” said Alonso. They wanted to build a small house in their hometown, a dim prospect if they had stayed in Mexico.

Before they immigrated, Pillado, who never received a formal education, sold churros on the street while Alonso worked on and off at warehouses and factories. “There was no future there for us,” Alonso said.

The family hired coyotes to help them cross the border illegally. Pillado came first, hoping to secure a job, but he was quickly apprehended and detained by immigration officers. When they hadn’t heard from Pillado for months, Alonso and Rocio made their way to the border, hoping to reconnect with him on the other side. But immigration officials had deported Pillado back to Mexico. When he found out his family had left for the U.S., he crossed the border again as quickly as he could. He wasn’t caught the second time. “I came back for my family,” he said.

Under current immigration law it’s nearly impossible for the family to legalize its status — especially for Pillado, whose prior deportation puts him on the fast-track for immediate removal from the country if immigration officials apprehend him. And even if Alonso and Rocio managed to get a green card sponsor, they would have to leave the U.S. for at least three years, and up to 10, before being allowed to come back legally — assuming the application even goes through, which in itself takes years to process and often ends up costing thousands of dollars in application fees and lawyers fees.

These roadblocks are rooted in a 1996 law signed by then-President Bill Clinton. In essence, the law — known as the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act — made it harder for people to legally immigrate to the U.S. and made it easier for the federal government to deport them. Many immigration scholars agree that these restrictions incentivized undocumented immigrants to hunker down in the U.S., freezing them in place at the risk of being banished from the country.

So, in Chicago, that’s what Pillado, Alonso and Rocio did.

Back up plan? ‘Sell nopales’

It didn’t take Pillado long to secure a job at the meatpacking plant; and Alonso and Rocio found work through temp agencies. They kept expenses low by living together in a small apartment in the Back of the Yards neighborhood. The two-unit building they lived in was owned by a distant family member who lived upstairs. The idea was to pay off the mortgage together and get some equity out of it, so they could return to Mexico to retire.

The three of them lived in the apartment for about seven years, but the house went belly-up during the Great Recession, forcing the family to spend much of its savings on moving and finding a new place to live. Then in 2016, an even greater tragedy hit the family: The couple’s son in Mexico unexpectedly died at age 35, leaving his wife and three children behind.

“Nunca lo volví a ver, es el dolor más grande que tengo,” I never saw him again. It’s the deepest pain I carry, Alonso said. The couple now sends money to their grandchildren in Mexico every time they can — another reason why they keep working into their old age. “Para la escuela o lo que necesiten,” for school or whatever they need, she said.

In the five years since their son’s death, Pillado and Alonso’s dream of returning to their homeland has faded. Without their son to take care of them in Mexico, the couple now depend exclusively on their daughters in their twilight years. Their elder daughter now has two children of her own, meaning that most of the caretaking duties fall on Rocio, 36, who’s also undocumented.

With many social services cut off to undocumented seniors, family members and community organizations are forced to fill in the gaps left by the state. That compounds the historic income and health inequities between undocumented immigrants and citizens, Carlin said. “There’s always been a generational and a racial wealth gap, and so these workers started behind everybody else,” she said. “And they’re not able to catch up by age 65 or 70.”

And research shows that as undocumented immigrants get older, they begin to rely more heavily on their children for basic needs like food and housing, which puts a burden on the next generation. Rob Paral, a Chicago demographer and expert on the state’s immigrant population trends whose research was used in the Rush report, estimates that 70% of undocumented immigrants age 55 and older in Illinois live in multigenerational households, compared with 28% of native-born older adults.

Rocio lived with her parents well into her 30s, moving with them from the two-flat in Back of the Yards to their cramped basement apartment in West Lawn. She put off her own dreams of buying a house to continue to care for them.

When she finally moved into her own apartment with her longtime partner in November, they rented a place a short drive away from her parents’ basement unit. “I felt like I needed to start building my own life. I know that they need me, but I also needed to start doing things on my own,” she said.

But Rocio remains her parents’ primary caretaker. She brings them groceries, helps pay their bills, and takes days off work to take them to their doctor’s appointments. Those trips, which became more frequent over the last few years, eventually cost her a job at a warehouse.

It didn’t take long for Rocio to find a new job. But it quickly dawned on her that at some point soon, her parents won’t be able to work anymore — and that she’s their only lifeline.

Like her parents, Rocio dreams of owning a house, one big enough to fit her and her parents. But she’s unsure how long it’ll take her dream to materialize; she makes less than $20 an hour and is unable to save much at the end of the month. Rocio hopes that Congress provides her and her parents with a viable path to citizenship. But even then, she puts her parents ahead of herself. “Si a mi me pusieran a escoger entre ellos y yo,” If I had to choose between giving citizenship to my parents or me, she said, “yo diría ellos.” I would say to them.

For now, the family’s plan is for Pillado to keep working and for Alonso to start cooking again — if she recovers. And if Pillado loses his job, “pues a hacer lucha con los nopales,” Alonso said with a half smile. Sell nopales, I guess, she said.

———

Gregorio Pillado, 79, takes a nap following dinner and a long shift at work in Chicago on Dec. 16, 2021. - Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Martina Alonso, 69, prays inside St. Mary Star of the Sea Church in Chicago on Dec.16, 2021.. - Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/TNS

In the early morning hours of Feb. 10, 2022, Martina Alonso, 69, left, helps Gregorio Pillado, 79, get ready to depart for his job in a meatpacking plant in Chicago. 

- Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Sinclair, Upton-The Jungle (1906)

https://d1lexza0zk46za.cloudfront.net/.../usinclair-+the-jungle-1906.pdf · PDF file

THE JUNGLE By Upton Sinclair (1906) Chapter 1 It was four o'clock when the ceremony was over and the carriages began to arrive. There had been a crowd following all the way, owing to the exuberance of Marija Berczynskas. The occasion rested heavily upon Marija's broad shoulders—it was her task to see that all things went in due form, and after the best home traditions; and, …

• File Size: 1MB

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The Jungle | Upton Sinclair | Lit2Go ETC

https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/77/the-jungle

The Jungle is a novel by American author and socialist Upton Sinclair

Gregorio Pillado prepares to take prescription medicine after getting home from his job on Feb. 25, 2022. - Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Chicago Tribune

AT LEAST ITS NOT A NFT
Christie's to auction Warhol portrait of Marilyn Monroe estimated at $200 million
Agence France-Presse
March 21, 2022

A journalist takes photos during a press preview March 21, 2022 in New York as Christie's announces "Shot Sage Blue Marilyn" by Andy Warhol will lead its Marquee Week of sales in May

 (TIMOTHY A. CLARY AFP)

Christie's announced Monday that it will sell Andy Warhol's 1964 "Shot Sage Blue Marilyn" portrait of Marilyn Monroe for an estimated $200 million.

The auction house said it expects the painting to become the most expensive 20th century artwork when it goes up for auction in New York in May.

In a statement, Christie's described the 40 inch (100 centimeter) by 40 inch silk-screen work as "one of the rarest and most transcendent images in existence."

Alex Rotter, head of 20th and 21st century art at Christie's, called the portrait "the most significant 20th century painting to come to auction in a generation."

"Andy Warhol's Marilyn is the absolute pinnacle of American Pop and the promise of the American Dream encapsulating optimism, fragility, celebrity and iconography all at once," he said in a statement.

Warhol first began creating silkscreens of Monroe following her death in August 1962.

The pop artist produced four known as the "Shot Marilyns," all equal in size with different colored backgrounds.

The "Shot Sage Blue Marilyn" portrait has her with a pink face, ruby lips, yellow hair and blue eye shadow set against a sage-blue backdrop.

At an unveiling at Christie's headquarters in Manhattan, Rotter said the portrait stood alongside Sandro Botticelli's "Birth of Venus", Leonardo Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" and Pablo Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon as "categorically one of the greatest paintings of all time."

Christie's is selling the work on behalf of the Zurich-based Thomas and Doris Ammann Foundation.

All proceeds of the sale will benefit the foundation, which works to improve the lives of children around the world.

In 1998, Sotheby's sold the orange Marilyn one for $17 million.

ABOLISH THE SECOND AMENDMENT
Sarah Huckabee Sanders has just 33 words for the largest mass shooting this year

COMPLETELY PREVENTABLE

David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement
March 21, 2022

Sarah Sanders appears on Fox News (screen grab)

On Saturday night what the State Police described as a “ gunfight” broke out at a car show in Dumas, Arkansas, leaving a 23-year old victim dead and 27 others injured – including six children, 19 months and older. It is the largest mass shooting of the year. Republican gubernatorial candidate Sarah Huckabee Sanders had just 33 words to say about the devastating shootout in her state.

Arkansas’s current governor, Republican Asa Hutchinson, issued this statement on Sunday, calling the mass shooting “a total disregard of the value of life.”

The car show is part of an event that “provides family-friendly entertainment and raises money for scholarships and school supplies for underprivileged youths.”

Sarah Huckabee Sanders also issued a statement, on Twitter only, not on any other of the social media accounts listed on her campaign website. “Prayers,” she offered, calling it “senseless and tragic,” and thanking law enforcement. It was just 33 words.

The Gun Violence Archive reports two of the children injured were one-year-olds, one was 8 years old, one 9, and one 11.

Huckabee Sanders just three days earlier, as veteran political commentator Charles Pierce has expertly noted, praised Arkansas as “God’s Country” because “you can get a 12 pack and a 12 gauge shotgun at your neighborhood Edward’s Food Giant!”

The photo she tweeted includes her, her husband, a Huckabee Sanders campaign bus, and signs advertising guns and ammo.

“God’s Country is apparently located somewhere between Deadwood and Tombstone. God should move to a better neighborhood. She’s not safe where She is,” observed Pierce.

Huckabee Sanders has said nothing more about the horrific gun violence, at least nothing on her social media accounts or published in news online.

US Capitol breach investigation expands to director of San Diego security company

2022/3/18 
© The San Diego Union-Tribune

Jacob Anthony Angeli Chansley, known as the QAnon Shaman, amid the U.S. Capitol riot in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021. -  FNORD

Brent Stirton/Getty Images North America/TNS

SAN DIEGO — The FBI is investigating the founder of a San Diego-based security company for his alleged participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol, according to a cellphone search warrant affidavit filed in federal court Thursday.

Jonathan Humphreys, 27, has been under investigation for several months, since Google geolocation data placed at least one of his devices inside the Capitol the afternoon of the violent insurgence, the affidavit states. Investigators later identified a man they believe to be Humphreys on Capitol surveillance cameras, as well as body-worn camera footage from Washington, D.C., police and in images sent in by tipsters, according to the affidavit.

The FBI searched Humphreys’ University City condominium and pickup truck for evidence in November, court records show. The investigation is ongoing, and no charges have been filed.

In an interview with task force officers in November, Humphreys acknowledged he had been in the Capitol during the riot and confirmed he was depicted in an image shown to him by the FBI, the affidavit states.

Humphreys, who is the founder and director of Humphreys National Security Company, declined to comment when reached Thursday by phone.

The investigation adds to a growing list of local ties to the insurrection, which aimed to prevent the certification of the results of the presidential election.

Ashli Babbitt, who lived in Ocean Beach and owned a pool supply company, was fatally shot by a Capitol police officer while attempting to breach an inner window during the takeover attempt.

Two current or former San Diegans have been criminally charged. On Tuesday, a federal judge in Washington sentenced Jeffrey “Alex” Smith, a Colorado resident who recently moved from Coronado, to three months in prison and two years of probation on a misdemeanor charge of illegally parading in the Capitol. The sentence confirmed an earlier tentative ruling in the case. And earlier this month, Philip Weisbecker, a county resident, pleaded guilty to the same charge.

According to investigators, Humphreys — dressed in a black business-style overcoat, blue-striped tie, black slacks and dress shoes — entered the Capitol through a broken window next to the Senate Wing doors.

Camera footage and geolocation data show that he roamed the building, taking photos with his phone and a body-worn camera attached to his lapel, according to the affidavit, which includes numerous surveillance images. Investigators say Humphreys appeared to lead a large group of people to the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Some followers subsequently broke down the doors to the California Democrat’s suite of offices, the affidavit says.

Later, Humphreys allegedly wandered into the Rotunda, where he lit a cigarette and then confronted a line of police officers attempting to push the mob out of the area, the affidavit states. The footage appears to show Humphreys turn his back on the riot line of officers and push against them with his back.

“At least two separate officers pushed back on Humphreys with their hands and batons,” the affidavit reads. “Over the course of a minute, Humphreys pushed against the officers twice, both times with his back.”

While he appears to plant his feet for the first push, investigators say, a hand is visible on Humphreys’ arm during the second push “leading to the possibility that another person was pushing Humphreys into the officers” in that instance.

When interviewed by the FBI, Humphreys told the investigators he went to the Capitol as part of a security contract for his company, and that other security guards were part of the contract, but “he declined to name the other guards or who or what he was hired to guard,” the affidavit says.

In his online company profile, Humphreys describes himself as a former Marine who was discharged after a training injury. The company specializes in deploying security guards as well as installing security systems. Its website highlights its “America First Policy,” which includes favoring veterans for hire and using American-made products.

“Above all else, HNSC is a company comprised of patriotic countrymen and women who are dedicated to the protection of The Constitution of the United States and the American People,” the policy states, in part.

WHITE SUPREMACY 

Tesla: White workers tormented Black war-blast victim with rocket-warning sounds, suit claims

2022/3/19
© The Mercury News

A Black former quality manager for electric car maker Tesla — who says he previously worked as a military contractor and was traumatized after serious blast injuries in Afghanistan — is claiming in a lawsuit that White co-workers tormented him with ringtones set to sound like incoming-rocket warnings, among other race-based abuses.

Marcellous Cage alleged in his lawsuit against Tesla that the company fired him for racist reasons and because he reported life-threatening safety violations in the plant.

“Mr. Cage was fired for two reasons: his commitment to safety and his race,” the lawsuit filed in Alameda County Superior Court claimed.

The legal action follows a slew of similar race-based lawsuits, including one filed in February by California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing, which claimed Black workers at the company’s Fremont facility were paid less than White workers, denied advancements, and faced daily racist abuse, including a noose drawn in a bathroom next to a reference to lynching and a racial slur. In October, a San Francisco federal court jury awarded a Black former worker almost $137 million after he sued Tesla over experiencing “daily racist epithets” in a workplace where colleagues drew swastikas and left racist graffiti and drawings around the facility.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Cage’s lawsuit and other suits claiming Tesla allowed widespread racism in its facilities.

Cage said in his suit, filed last month, that Tesla hired him in November 2018 as a project-quality manager, and charged him with creating and launching quality-control and inspection programs for construction work. He worked at both the Fremont factory and Tesla’s battery plant in Nevada, according to the suit.

About a month after his hiring, at the Nevada facility, Cage noticed that a White Tesla contractor he was working with had a phone ring tone that sounded like the rocket-alert warning Cage had experienced while working in Afghanistan, the suit claimed. “Mr. Cage quietly explained, in the presence of several co-workers, that hearing this particular ringtone was extremely disturbing to him, as he had been severely injured in explosions in Afghanistan two different times,” according to the suit. The man refused Cage’s request to change the tone, “opting instead to maliciously … keep the ringtone for the sole purpose of tormenting Mr. Cage,” the suit claimed. Then a White Tesla superintendent and several other White workers set their phones with the same tone, “purely to harass Mr. Cage,” the suit claimed.

In the Fremont factory, swastikas and the n-word were carved and scrawled in employee bathrooms throughout Cage’s employment, with Tesla taking no action, and similar racist symbols were routinely inscribed in portable toilets at the Nevada plant, the suit claimed.

Cage was subjected to hostile, racist treatment from the start of his work at Tesla, the suit alleged. Within his first two weeks, a White superintendent accused Cage — one of two Black workers on a 30-person team — of stealing stickers from him. Instead of asking about the stickers, the man and several other workers broke into Cage’s locked filing cabinet “on a vigilante mission to purportedly look for the missing stickers,” the suit claimed. Cage complained to higher-ups, who took no action, the suit alleged. When Cage stopped working on a project that was not compliant with regulations, a Tesla contractor threatened to beat him up and called him “boy,” the suit alleged. In another alleged incident, Cage’s manager, questioning his expense report, made a racist reference to barbecue, the suit claimed.

Cage also alleged that Tesla management failed to correct numerous serious safety violations because “Tesla’s commitments to unrealistic production goals and frantic efforts to ramp up its production, often to make good on rash promises, overrode any commitment to employee safety.”

The company, formerly headquartered in Palo Alto until a recent switch to Texas, last year was fined more than $140,000 for 22 worker-safety violations related to accidents and complaints at the Fremont factory, government data show.

Cage alleged in his suit that Tesla did not properly track worker injuries, and when Cage reported the problem to management, the company blamed employees for not reporting their injuries, the suit claimed.

While Cage was working at the Fremont plant, he discovered that unqualified inspectors from a contractor had been inspecting “critical construction elements” for more than two years, putting Tesla out of compliance with state and local codes, the suit alleged. “Tesla ignored the issues Mr. Cage raised, and even engaged the same firm for more inspection work soon thereafter,” the suit claimed.

In early 2020, Cage was reassigned to administrative work in a move by Tesla “intentionally designed to muzzle any future reporting by Mr. Cage,” the suit claimed. “The Director of Construction even expressly told him before the transfer: ‘Do not report any more deficiencies.’”

Later that year Cage was “deeply troubled to learn that several Tesla employees were severely injured as a result of safety code violations,” and he escalated his reporting to senior company leadership, the suit alleged. He was fired three months later, according to the suit.

Cage is seeking unspecified damages.

Ron DeSantis ‘Stop Woke’ Act could bar Disney from diversity trainings

Florida's new ‘Stop Woke’ act will stop private companies from doing diversity training

Jade Bremner
THE INDEPENDENT

Following passage of the so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is set to sign into law another controversial piece of legislation – the Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees (WOKE) Act – which could bar companies from diversity training.

Critics warn that the “Stop Woke” Act – introduced by the governor to codify orders prohibiting Florida schools from perceived “critical race theory” curriculum – could censor lessons on racism and promote a dishonest reading of history.

The “Individual Freedom” bill also applies to workplace diversity training sessions, which could be considered an unlawful employment practice subject to a lawsuit.

The legislation could bar companies from suggesting that “an individual’s moral character or status as either privileged or oppressed is necessarily determined by his or her race, color, sex, or national origin”.

During debate, bill sponsor and Republican state Rep Bryan Avila specifically singled out the Walt Disney Company’s Reimagine Tomorrow as a programme of concern, claiming that the company educates its employees about “systemic racism” and "critical race theory".

Disney says Reimagine Tomorrow is about "amplifying underrepresented voices and untold stories" and builds on Disney’s longstanding commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion."

Following revelations that Disney entities donated tens of thousands of dollars to Republican legislators who supported the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, prompting Disney officials to publicly oppose the bill, Governor DeSantis and other Republican officials have attacked the company, a political heavyweight in the state and the state’s largest private employer.

ESPN employees recently joined Disney staff in walkouts over Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

The company’s LGBT+ staff and allies also organised walkouts to protest the bill.

Governor DeSantis released a statement on his proposed "Stop Woke" bill in December 2021.

“In Florida, we are taking a stand against the state-sanctioned racism that is critical race theory,” he said. "We must protect Florida workers against the hostile work environment that is created when large corporations force their employees to endure CRT-inspired ‘training’ and indoctrination.”

Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nuñez added that she is proud to stand alongside the governor on this bill and with the "woke-free state of Florida".

Florida's Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran said that the state's "classrooms, students and even teachers are under constant threat by critical race theory advocates," and added that "schools should be empowering students with great, historically accurate knowledge and giving those students and their families the freedom to draw their own conclusions.”

The governor said the legislation will prevent schools from “teaching kids to hate our country or to hate each other. We also have a responsibility to ensure that parents have the means to vindicate their rights when it comes to enforcing state standards.”

Opponents of the bill claim there is little evidence that critical race theory is being taught in public K-12 classrooms and that the legislation merely provides Republican officials another opportunity for discretionary policing that will discriminate against people of colour when exercising their first amendment rights.

Under Donald Trump’s administration, federal agencies were ordered to identify “un-American propaganda” or any "critical race theory" training in its contracts and spending. President Joe Biden reversed the order, but Republican state legislators across the US have proposed their own bans on critical race theory.

Disney workers stage daily walkouts to protest ‘Don’t Say Gay’ and demand protections for LGBT+ staff

‘How dare they’: Florida Republican claims Disney ‘bullying’ GOP after CEO suspends donations over ‘Don’t Say Gay’

DeSantis attacks Disney over ties to China after CEO speaks out against ‘Don’t Say Gay’

ICYMI

Coldest place in the world sees record-breaking heat wave

ANTARCTICA
Tyler Hamilton
Sat, March 19, 2022,

The Weather Network

Coldest place in the world sees record-breaking heat wave

It's tough to imagine an unprecedented heat wave at -10°C to -20°C, but that's the recent reality across Antarctica.

It's not even close. The coldest place on earth is Antarctica, although temperatures soared to more than 30 degrees above normal on March 17.

To grasp what's normal for this part of the world, think of the coldest temperature ever recorded in Edmonton, Alberta. That's roughly -50°C.

deg

We'll start at the Concordia research station, 3234 metres above sea level, where the mercury surged to -12.2°C. An average high in mid-March is more like -50°C. Consequently, this station saw a 36-degree temperature anomaly. Just for a second, imagine Toronto recorded a high of 40°C this past weekend. That's the kind of extreme anomaly we're looking at here.

The most famous Antarctic station of them all, Vostok, climbed to a balmy -17.7°C, eclipsing a monthly record by almost 15°C. This is also a sharp contrast to last winter, where the April-October period was the coldest on record -- increasingly rare in a warming world.

degrees

The Antarctica heat dome is even more extreme than British Columbia's unprecedented event in June 2021. B.C's heat dome saw temperatures reach 25 degrees above normal, where some stations broke all-time temperature records by nearly six degrees.

The ability for these records to be obliterated during the second half of March is unfathomable. The continent is quickly plunging into the cold season. This time of year, nearly 30 minutes of daylight are vanishing per day.

A strong low drove warmth well inland across the ice sheet, while the associated atmospheric river allowed more moisture to reach the continent, permitting temperatures to surge. The normally dry, arctic climate had more moisture to work with over the ice sheet, allowing heat to radiate towards the surface.

Iran debt should have been settled years ago - Zaghari-Ratcliffe

British-Iranian woman jailed by Iran criticises UK government for length of time it took to secure her release from Tehran jail.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has said she should have been released from detention in Iran six years ago but the British government failed her. (AFP Archive)

Aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has accused Britain and Iran of treating her like a political pawn, saying it should not have taken six years for London to secure her release from detention in Tehran.

Appearing at a news conference in parliament in London, the 44-year-old said she would always be haunted by her time in prison but would slowly work to rebuild her life with her daughter, 7, and husband away from the spotlight.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who holds both British and Iranian citizenship, returned to Britain last week from Iran, where she was held for six years after being convicted of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment.

She returned alongside another dual national, Anoosheh Ashoori, after London resolved what it called a parallel issue - repaying to Tehran a $526 million debt dating back to 1979 for the purchase of military tanks that were never delivered.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe said she had been told shortly after her arrest that the Iranians wanted "something off the Brits", and she could not understand why it had taken six years, and five different foreign secretaries, for it to be resolved.

"I mean, how many foreign secretaries does it take for someone to come home? Five?" she asked. "What's happened now should have happened six years ago."

READ MORE: Making sense of Iran’s ambitions in post-Soviet states



A spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said all foreign ministers had worked hard to secure her release.

"The government, including the prime minister, was committed to securing Nazanin's release as soon as possible. It was always entirely in Iran's gift to release detained dual nationals," he told reporters.

"All the foreign secretaries who have taken on this role have worked hard with officials to secure the release. It has been extremely complicated, it has been very difficult work."

Famous for a week

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested by Revolutionary Guards at Tehran airport on April 3, 2016, while trying to return to Britain with her then 22-month-old daughter Gabriella from an Iranian New Year's trip to see her parents.

Her family and her employer, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, denied the charge against her. The Thomson Reuters Foundation is a charity that operates independently of Thomson Reuters and its news subsidiary Reuters.

"I have been a pawn in the hands of the two governments over the past six years," she said. Zaghari-Ratcliffe thanked her family, friends and journalists for keeping her case in the spotlight, and said she was determined not to hold a grudge for the rest of her life.

She added that she only believed she was going home when she finally stepped on to the plane.

"Gabriella told me on the phone one day when I was in Iran, 'Mummy you do realise that you are very famous, and then it's me, and then it's daddy'," she said, adding that she told her daughter it would be better to have a "normal" life.

"And she said, 'Oh you're not going to be famous forever. Maximum a week'."

US watchdog plans to make companies reveal greenhouse-gas emissions

Climate action rules announced by SEC chair Gary Gensler expected to face opposition from Republicans and industry groups

Gary Gensler said the proposed rules would ‘would provide investors with consistent, comparable, and decision-useful information’. 

Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

Dominic Rushe
Mon 21 Mar 2022 

The US’s top financial watchdog proposed on Monday that publicly traded companies report information on their greenhouse-gas emissions and even those of their suppliers and consumers in one of the Biden administration’s most sweeping environmental actions to date.

The new Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules faces staunch opposition from some politicians and members of the business community and will be open to public comment for at least two months before final rules are released.



Oil companies blame clean energy transition for market volatility

“I am pleased to support today’s proposal because, if adopted, it would provide investors with consistent, comparable and decision-useful information for making their investment decisions, and it would provide consistent and clear reporting obligations for issuers,” said the SEC chair, Gary Gensler.

The proposal, which has been in the works for over a year, would force companies to make public the extent of their carbon footprint. While some companies including Apple and Microsoft now publish detailed analyses of their emissions, others have been reluctant to improve disclosure.

Under the proposal publicly traded companies would have to report greenhouse-gas emissions and obtain independent certification of their estimates. Some companies would also be required to report emissions from both their supply chains and consumers, known as Scope 3 emissions.

Republicans and some industry groups have already begun lobbying against the new requirements, which they argue would increase costs and go beyond the SEC’s mandate.

In a speech last year Gensler said the rules would introduce consistency to company reporting at a time when investors were increasingly concerned about the impact of climate on businesses.

“Today, investors increasingly want to understand the climate risks of the companies whose stock they own or might buy. Large and small investors, representing literally tens of trillions of dollars, are looking for this information to determine whether to invest, sell, or make a voting decision one way or another.

Investors are looking for consistent, comparable, and decision-useful disclosures so they can put their money in companies that fit their needs,” he said.

Factbox-Countries and companies shun Russian crude over Ukraine invasion

Fri, March 18, 2022

Industrial facilities of the PCK Raffinerie oil refinery in Schwedt/Oder

(Reuters) - Russian gas flows to Europe remain stable, but Western sanctions over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and voluntary actions by buyers are starting to impact its crude oil and oil product sales.

While only a few countries, including the United States, Canada and Australia, have imposed outright bans, some buyers in Europe are shunning Russian oil to avoid reputational damage or possible legal troubles.

Some 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of Russian oil and products may not find their way to market beginning in April, the International Energy Agency estimates.

Russian officials, however, expressed hope that supplies would remain stable, while oil exports and transit from the country's western ports and Druzhba pipeline were expected to rise in the second quarter.

Following are actions announced by countries and major European energy companies:

WHO IS STILL BUYING RUSSIAN OIL?

BULGARIA

Neftochim Burgas refinery, owned by Russia's Lukoil , could use 100% non-Russian crude if need be, up from 40% currently, a government official said.

CHINA

China is the second-largest Russian oil importer after the European Union, and the IEA says seaborne shipments could even increase. Petro-Logistics, which monitors oil production, is seeing more Russian crude heading to China.

EUROPEAN UNION

The 27-member bloc, which relies on Russia for 40% of its gas and 27% of its crude imports, is split over curbing Russian intake but a plan to ditch Russian fossil fuels over the longer-term is expected by the end of May.

FRANCE

Russian crude oil accounted for 9.5% of total imports in 2021, but the French Association of Petroleum Industry (Ufip) said alternative supplies can be found, adding it is already moving away from Russian diesel.

GERMANY

Russian crude accounts for about 14% of intake at Germany's largest refinery, Miro..

Germany's PCK Schwedt refinery, 54% owned by Rosneft, is fed via the Druzhba pipeline, as well as the landlocked Leuna refinery, majority-owned by TotalEnergies.

HELLENIC PETROLEUM

Greece's biggest oil refiner said Russian crude accounted for about 15% of its feed in the second half of 2021 but can be replaced. It has already secured additional supplies from Saudi Arabia.

HINDUSTAN PETROLEUM,

India's state refiner bought 2 million barrels of Russian Urals for May loading, according to trading sources.

INDIAN OIL

India's top refiner bought 3 million barrels of Urals for May delivery, trade sources said.

ISAB

Italy's largest refinery, owned by Swiss-based Litasco SA, which is controlled by Lukoil, was working as normal as of March 4. It processes various crudes.

MOL

The Hungarian oil group says it continues to be supplied by the Druzhba pipeline. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has repeatedly opposed sanctions on Russian oil and gas.

NETHERLANDS

Neither the Dutch government nor Rotterdam Port have banned Russian oil. Around 30% of the oil that goes through Rotterdam is Russian. Around 20 million tonnes of Russian oil products go through the port annually.

PKN Orlen

Poland's largest refiner has said it is buying Russian crude for its refineries in Poland, Lithuania and the Czech Republic, but was prepared for "any scenario", including a complete suspension of Russian supply.

TURKEY

Turkey has no plans to stop buying Russian crude and related products. It opposes sanctions on Moscow. Tupras is the largest refiner in Turkey.

WHO HAS STOPPED BUYING RUSSIAN OIL?

AMPOL

The Australian refiner says it has not bought Russian crude oil or products since the conflict started.

BP

The British oil major, which is abandoning its stake in Rosneft, will not enter into new deals with Russian entities for loading at Russian ports, unless "essential for ensuring security of supplies".

BRITAIN

Britain said it would phase out imports of Russian oil by the end of 2022.

CANADA

Canada has said it will ban Russian crude imports, and is also looking into banning refined products. It has not imported Russian crude oil since 2019, but in 2021 bought naphtha, diesel and gasoline.

CEPSA

The Spanish firm owned by Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala and private equity firm Carlyle, has stopped buying Russian crude, natural gas and oil products and doesn't expect its position to change in the foreseeable future.

ENI

The energy group, 30.3% owned by the Italian government, is suspending purchases of Russian oil. No Russian crude will be used at Germany's Bayernoil refinery, which both Eni and Rosneft have stakes in.

EQUINOR

Norway's majority state-owned energy firm has stopped trading Russian oil as it winds down its operations in the country.

GALP

The Portuguese oil and gas company has suspended all new purchases of petroleum products from Russia or Russian companies.

MAERSK

The Danish shipping group has stopped buying Russian oil for its vessels.

NESTE

The Finnish refiner has Russian oil contracts lasting until the end of the year, but is not making any new supply agreements.

OMV

The Austrian oil and gas firm has said it is not refining any Russian crude grades in its European refineries, and has no intention to do so in the "near future".

PREEM

Sweden's largest refiner, owned by Saudi billionaire Mohammed Hussein al-Amoudi, has "paused" new orders of Russian crude, which accounted for around 7% of its purchases, replacing it with North Sea barrels.

REPSOL

The Spanish firm has stopped buying Russian crude oil in the spot market.

RWE

The German utility said it would stop new supply deals for Russian gas or oil.

SHELL

The world's largest petroleum trader will stop buying Russian crude and phase out its involvement in all Russian hydrocarbons.

TOTALENERGIES

The French company has stopped buying oil from Russia, although one of its landlocked refineries in Germany continues to receive Russian crude by pipeline.

VARO ENERGY

The Swiss refiner, which owns the Cressier refinery in Switzerland and has a 51.4% share in Germany's Bayernoil refinery, said it had not entered into new Russian crude deals since the invasion, and wasn't planning to, while its previous contracts had expired.

VIVA ENERGY

The refiner, which operates in Australia under the Shell brand, has stopped buying Russian crude.

UNITED STATES

The United States, the world's biggest oil consumer, imposed a wide ban on Russian oil and gas imports on March 8.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Compiled by Nerijus Adomaitis and Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

FOCUS: Resource-poor Japan cautious about sanctions targeting Russian energy

共同通信社 15/03/2022

While some Western countries have been backing away from energy resources from Russia as part of sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, resource-poor Japan is taking a more cautious approach due to its heavy dependence on energy imports

.

© 共同通信社

The United States announced earlier this month it will ban Russian oil and other energy imports in what is largely a symbolic move to punish Moscow over its aggression as Washington is not a major importer of Russian oil.

Britain also said that it will phase out imports of Russian oil by the end of the year.

But experts said it is not easy for Japan and its companies to follow suit, including giving up their stakes in the Sakhalin 1 and Sakhalin 2 large-scale oil and gas projects in the Russian Far East due to their importance to Japan's energy security.

Japan's energy self-sufficiency rate was as low as 11.2 percent as of fiscal 2020 through March 2021, according to Japan's Agency for Natural Resources and Energy.

Russia accounted for 3.6 percent of Japanese crude oil imports, and 8.8 percent of its liquefied natural gas imports in 2021, data from the Japan External Trade Organization show.

The response of the Japanese government and companies to the Sakhalin 1 and Sakhalin 2 projects has been in focus since oil majors Shell PLC of Britain and American Exxon Mobil Corp. announced ends to their respective involvements in them following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Japan's Sakhalin Oil and Gas Development Co., invested in by the government as well as trading houses Itochu Corp. and Marubeni Corp. among others, owns a 30 percent stake in Sakhalin 1.

Trading houses Mitsui & Co. and Mitsubishi Corp. hold a 12.5 percent and 10 percent stake, respectively, in the Sakhalin 2 project, in which Russian energy giant Gazprom PJSC has about a 50 percent stake. The joint venture produces most of Japan's gas imports from Moscow.

Hiroshi Hashimoto, head of the gas group at the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan, said he believes it is "unrealistic" for Japan to pull out of the Sakhalin projects in view of the potential blow to the Japanese economy and people's lives.

"Japan is in a different position from oil majors from other countries rich in their own resources," Hashimoto said, stressing the importance of the Sakhalin projects for stable energy supplies to Japan.

Japan has been promoting energy imports from Russia due to its geographical vicinity and the necessity to reduce its reliance on the Middle East. Sakhalin island, which hosts the two projects, is located north of Japan's northern main island of Hokkaido.

The Sakhalin 1 project, from which Exxon Mobil announced its withdrawal, was launched in 1995 and has been supplying Japan with crude oil since 2006.

Meanwhile, the Sakhalin 2 venture, the project exited by Shell, has an annual output capacity of about 10 million tons of LNG, with Japan, China and South Korea among the major importers. It began LNG exports in 2009.

Taisuke Abiru, senior research fellow at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, said the Sakhalin 2 project is not "simply a corporate venture" for Japan.

"There have been concerns over the project in light of the risk to the companies' reputations. But Mitsui and Mitsubishi seem to recognize its importance in ensuring Japan's energy security," he said.

Both companies have said they will continue discussions about the project with the Japanese government and other relevant stakeholders.

Hashimoto said Japan would have to find alternative energy sources if it pulls out of the projects, which could lead to higher energy prices. The country might need to turn more to renewable energy or nuclear power generation, or ask people to save energy to make up for the loss.

Senior Japanese government officials and business leaders have also underlined the country's difficult position, expressing reluctance to reach a decision immediately.

Koichi Hagiuda, Japan's industry minister, said last week Japan should take a "wait-and-see" approach over joining Western nations in pulling the plug on the energy projects.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told a press conference earlier this month that ensuring a stable energy supply is a "national interest that must be protected with maximum" efforts.

He said a decision on the Sakhalin 1 venture, which involves the Japanese government given its stake in Sakhalin Oil and Gas Development Co., must be made following a sufficient assessment of the situation from the standpoint of stabilizing Japan's energy supply and security.

Hashimoto of the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan, said Tokyo must also consider when mulling pulling out of the projects whether companies from other countries would simply take Japan's place in the ventures, rendering the sanctions step ineffective.

As the Ukraine crisis continues, the world faces the issue of how to deal with Russia and how much they should depend on the country, Abiru of the Sasakawa foundation said.

"Russia is one of the largest natural gas and crude oil producers, so it is difficult to completely remove Moscow from the global economy in the short run," he said.

But for Japan, Abiru said, continuing participation in the two Sakhalin projects may bring benefits in the long run.

"The relationship between Japan and Russia has worsened due to the Ukraine crisis. But if the two countries continue energy cooperation, it may be a catalyst for improving ties in the future," he said.

© 共同通信社

Ukraine war: Japanese firms’ Russia ties in firing line as pressure mounts over invasion

Japanese firms have largely taken a wait-and-see approach so far. Prominent companies are likely to feel more heat as Western investors pare back ties to Russia

Corporate executives say privately they are worried about reputational damage, as government officials hint Japan cannot just walk away from Russian energy

Reuters in Tokyo

People protest in Tokyo on Sunday against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Photo: EPA

Japanese firms are under deepening pressure over their ties to Russia and are scrambling to assess their operations, company and government insiders said, after Western rivals halted businesses and condemned Moscow for invading Ukraine.

While environmental, social and governance (ESG) investors have previously targeted companies in Japan for fossil fuels, scrutiny over Russia could become intense. Executives say privately they are worried about reputational damage, a sign corporate Japan is – however reluctantly – becoming more responsive to pressure on social issues.

Japan’s trading houses, commodities giants long seen as quasi-governmental arms integral to Japan’s energy supply, have big ties to Russia. Last year Russia was Japan’s second-biggest supplier of thermal coal and its fifth-largest of both crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG).

A Japanese-made liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier is seen anchored near an LNG plant on the Russian island of Sakhalin. Photo: Reuters

“The energy issue has implications for national and public interest, so it has to be discussed properly with the government,” said one trading house insider, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity.

“But we also have to think about our corporate value and about how we explain this to our shareholders. It’s a difficult position.”

Gulf exporters stay neutral as Europe fears for Russian gas supplies
9 Mar 2022


Mitsui & Co and Mitsubishi Corp have stakes in the giant Sakhalin-2 LNG project Shell is now exiting. Itochu Corp and Marubeni Corp have invested in the Sakhalin-1 oil project that ExxonMobil is pulling out of.

Mitsui and Mitsubishi said they would consider the situation, together with the Japanese government and partners. Itochu and Marubeni declined to comment on their plans related to Sakhalin-1.

Japanese firms have largely said they are watching the situation. Those that have halted activity have tended to cite supply-chain disruption rather than human rights.

A senior executive at a carmaker said management at his company was holding daily meetings to gauge the impact of financial sanctions and the implication for parts supply.

“We’re also discussing reputational risk and how to deal with the news from the point of view of human rights and ESG – of course we’re aware of that,” said the executive.

“But we can’t just immediately decide we’re going to pull out because we can’t tell how long the Ukraine crisis will continue.”

Japanese firms typically do not face the same level of scrutiny from shareholders, customers, regulators and even their own employees that Western companies now confront, said Jana Jevcakova, the international head of ESG at shareholder services firm Morrow Sodali.

“Most Japanese companies still don’t have a majority of international institutional investors. Those that do will very shortly, or already are, feel the pressure.”

Reliant on Russia

A manufacturing executive said his company felt a responsibility to local staff in Russia but was also concerned about the risk of saying nothing.

“Japanese companies have been slow to react. Too slow. And I can’t agree with that,” he said. “If we keep quiet and just continue manufacturing and selling, we will likely face a risk to our reputation.”

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has unveiled steps to help cushion the blow from higher oil prices, but it is unclear what the government will do about broader dependence on Russia. Japan’s imports from Russia totalled around US$11 billion in 2020.

Government officials say privately Japan cannot just walk away from Russian energy, even as they acknowledge the peril.

People march in the central Japanese city of Nagoya on Sunday to protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Photo: Kyodo

“If Japan remains invested in Russia, that itself runs the risk of drawing criticism” should the conflict be prolonged, said an official close to Kishida.

In a moment of rare outspokenness for the leader of a state-owned lender, the head of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation said last week that “it would not be right” for companies to stick to business as usual in Russia. Toyota Motor Corp and Nissan Motor Co have stopped exports to Russia, citing logistics issues, with Toyota halting local production.

Nissan, Mazda Motor Corp and Mitsubishi Motors Corp are all likely to stop local production when parts inventories run out, they say.

Japan’s most prominent companies are likely to feel more heat as Western investors themselves pare back ties to Russia.

Russian warships in waters off Japan in ‘warning’ over Ukraine


“We believe good corporate citizenship includes support of governmental sanctions, as well as closing down activities that might fall outside the current sanctions,” said Anders Schelde, chief investment officer at Danish pension fund AkademikerPension, which has US$21.3 billion of assets under management and US$342 million exposure to Japanese equities.

“From a financial point of view this might mean companies suffer short-term losses, but given the long-term stigmatisation of Russia that is likely, the long-term cost will not change much.”