China to Expand Domestic Cruises by Acquiring ex-Costa Ship from Seajets

Seajets had planned to launch a party cruise operation calling the ship the Goddess of the Night (Ny

Published Nov 17, 2025 7:16 PM by The Maritime Executive

China looks to resume expansion of its domestic cruise market after a long hiatus following the COVID-19 pandemic. In the latest reports online, Tianjin Orient International Cruises, which was launched two years ago to restart the market from Tianjin, is now poised to acquire a second, larger cruise ship.

Travel agents in China are reporting that the company is acquiring the former Costa cruise ship Costa Magicia, which was sold in 2023 to Greece’s Seajets. The 102,780 gross ton cruise ship has been idle since the pandemic, first held by Carnival Corporation for sale, and since 2023 owned by Marios Iliopoulos’s Seajets, a Greek inter-island ferry company. Iliopoulos emerged as a speculator in cruise ship tonnage during the pandemic. It was the 24th cruise ship sold by Carnival Corporation as part of its pandemic-related downsizing.

Seajets briefly flirted with entering the cruise business, announcing the launch of a company called Neonyx Cruises and reactivating the ship, which was then named Mykonos Magic, as the Goddess of the Night. The plan was to launch a short party cruise service to the Greek Islands in the summer of 2024. The ship was refitted, but in June 2024, shortly before her entry into service, she was chartered as housing for security personnel during the G7 summit in Italy. Local media reported that the ship "was in terrible sanitary conditions, with dirty and damaged accommodation, unusable toilets, dilapidated showers, flooded cabins." Neonyx later canceled its cruises, saying it would start in 2025.

Databases are showing the vessel has been renamed Vision. According to the media reports, it is being prepared to sail to China, where it will undergo a complete renovation. It is due to enter service in 2026 for Tianjin Orient International Cruises.

The company acquired its first cruise ship, now called Dream, at the beginning of 2023 from Sanya International Cruise Development Co., which had purchased the 77,500 gross ton ship from Carnival Corporation and renamed it Charming for Chinese cruises. Sanya was a joint venture between Cosco Shipping, China National Travel Service (HK) Group, and China Communications Construction Co. that was launched to capitalize on the restart of the Chinese cruise market. The ship, which was built in 1998 by Fincantieri operated by Princess Cruises. It had started sailing from China, marketed to the domestic market, and then successfully restarted cruising from Tianjin in northern China in July 2023.

Seajets also owns the former Oceania of P&O, which is a sister ship to the Dream operated by Tianjin. It also still has the former Majesty of the Seas from Royal Caribbean and the former Veendam from Holland America. The company had said it planned to add additional ships to its Neonyx operation.

Nothing will change until the political system is freed from the clutches of corporations and the super-rich

Prem Sikka 

Yesterday
Left Foot Forward

The law is being used to enforce existing power structures for the benefit of the few

We are all brought up to value ‘the rule of law’ as it provides stability, predictability, accountability and protection of human and property rights. We are frequently told that no one is above the law and all persons have access to courts. However, all is not well.

The traditional explanations of ‘the rule of law’ assume that the state is an umpire who receives inputs from citizens. These are processed and the output is laws. This is silent on how class, money, bribery, corruption, power shapes laws, or even prevents issues from being considered. The law is being used to enforce existing power structures for the benefit of the few. Occasionally, a few crumbs are thrown to pacify the masses but these concessions and can be withdrawn, as shown by the government’s push to cut disability benefits.

It is hard to recall any public petitions, marches or protests demanding unchecked profiteering, austerity, poverty, poor housing, homelessness, low wages and pensions, long queues for hospital appointments, sewage in rivers, cuts in education spending, gender pay gap, or closure of thousands of libraries and community centres. These are imposed because the rich and powerful demand laws to protect their wealth. The poorest 20% pay a higher proportion of their income in taxes than the richest 20%. Corporations and the rich fund political parties, hand consultancies to legislators and control means of production to colonise the legal system. The countervailing power of the low and middle class income households is weak, trade unions have been emasculated and protests are made difficult. For example, the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 empowers the police to ban noisy protests, and radicalism amongst the young has been squeezed out by £267bn of student debt.

Governments amplify the agenda of corporations and the rich. They tell workers that wage rises are inflationary but remain silent on ever increasing executive pay, dividends and share buybacks. Wages are taxed at marginal rates of 20% – 45% plus national insurance contributions (NIC). The returns on investment of wealth are taxed at lower rates. Capital gains are taxed at marginal rates of 18% to 32%, and no NIC is payable. Dividends are taxed at marginal rates of 8.75% to 39.35% and no NIC is levied.

Firing workers and rehiring at lower pay and inferior working conditions has become a widespread practice. P&O Ferries knowingly violated UK employment law and fired nearly 800 workers without notice and replaced them with cheaper agency workers to boost profits. No government department prosecuted the company. Delivery firm DPD has sacked drivers who criticised pay cuts. Grand Theft Auto maker Rockstar Games has been accused by a trade union of sacking staff to stop them from unionising. The Employment Rights Bill, soon to become law, will not end these practices. There is a huge inequity between the rights of workers and employers. Workers must have a ballot to withdraw labour; employers do not need one to withdraw capital and close operations. Secondary picketing is unlawful but secondary production is permitted.

Governments bend laws to transfer vast amount of wealth to corporations and their controllers. The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) is one such example. Under PFI, the government contracts with the private sector to design, build, finance and maintain long-life public assets, such as schools, hospitals, roads, prisons, office buildings bridges and tunnels. Since its inception in 1992, around £60bn of private money has gone into 700 PFI projects. In return, the government will pay £306bn. The government has revived PFI and now calls it Public-Private Partnership (PPP).

Corporate funded think-tanks, with easy access to policymakers, urge governments to cut benefits, pensions, free schools meals, education spending, and charge fees for seeing family doctors, but oppose tax rises on the rich. Such think-tanks have shaped laws to secure vast subsidies or free cash for corporations. Recipients include auto, steel, film, shipbuilding, oil, gas, biomass, semiconductor and internet companies. No equity stake is taken by the government. Full details are not published as the contracts are considered to be ‘commercially sensitive’ which prevents public and parliamentary scrutiny.

Despite public concern, laws have been enacted to privatise public services and boost corporate profits. Water, energy and other companies have skinned customers for years. Prison services are outsourced, enabling companies to make vast profits. The NHS doles out contracts to private sector cataract clinics with profit margins of 32%-43%. Local authorities spend around 61% of their budgets on social care, which is mostly controlled by the private sector. Profitability among the largest care home chains ranges from 11% to 42% of revenues. 15 largest children’s home providers made average annual profit of 23% per year. Companies providing residential care to children have pre-tax profit margins of 19%-25%. On 18th November 2024, the government said “We will crack down on care providers making excessive profit … put a limit on the profit providers can make”. A year later, nothing more has been heard. Instead, the government enacted laws to continue with the two-child benefit cap, impose disability benefit cuts and snoop on benefit claimants’ bank accounts.

Laws are enacted to make tax concessions to assets managers of private equity. The top marginal rate of tax for them will be 34.1%, instead of 45%. The NHS drugs prices could be increased by 25% to appease companies. Banks welcomed public bailouts but oppose accompanying regulation. Obedient governments have reversed the post-2008 crash laws. The cap on bankers’ bonuses has been removed. Capital adequacy requirements for banks are being watered down. The regulators’ duty of customer or public protection in almost all sectors has been diluted. Now they must balance their duty of customer protection with the goal of promoting economic growth. Chancellor Rachel Reeves sought to protect bank profits by overriding the Supreme Court hearing case against banks for mis-selling car loans. The Chancellor said that she was “considering overruling the Supreme Court’s decision with retrospective legislation, in order to help save lenders billions of pounds, in the event that it ruled in favour of consumers”. The same concern is not shown for victims of bank scandals. For example, the Financial Conduct Authority, the Serious Fraud Office and corporate-funded City of London Police have been unwilling to investigate HBOS frauds dating back to 2003. They have been content for Lloyds Bank (owner of HBOS since January 2009) to investigate. It promised a report, the Dobbs Review, in 2018. However, no report has been published, and Ministers fob-off parliamentary questions .

The poor are denied financial privacy. The Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill assumes that all recipients of universal credit; employment and support allowance; and state pension credit are likely to commit fraud. The state is taking powers to snoop on their bank accounts without any court order or right of appeal. Money for assumed frauds can be removed directly from their bank accounts. The government estimates that this will recover up to £1.5bn in the next five years.

No equivalent power is taken to monitor human traffickers, narcotics smugglers, directors of bankrupt businesses, banks selling dud products, or the tax avoidance industry. In 2023-24, HMRC failed to collect £46.8bn of taxes due to error, avoidance, evasion and fraud, which is around £500bn since 2010. The National Audit Office concluded that wealthy elites are dodging more tax than had been estimated by HMRC. In 2023-24, HMRC issued 456 penalties to wealthy individuals (individuals earning more than £200,000 a year, or with assets over £2 million, in any of the last three years) totalling £5.8 million, compared to 2,153 penalties totalling £16.2 million in 2018-19. The number of wealthy individuals prosecuted following HMRC’s criminal investigations was 30 in 2019-20, 5 in 2021-22, and 25 in 2023-24. The same benevolence is applied to accountants, lawyers, bankers and finance experts enabling tax abuse. Just five prosecutions were brought in 2023-2024, down from 16 in 2018-2019.

The low/middle income families can’t easily get legal advice or hire lawyers. Legal-aid is scarce. Even if they can cobble something together they won’t get a timely hearing. There is a backlog of 78,329 Crown Court and 361,027 Magistrates’ courts cases. The courts deliver interpretation of law, not justice. People have been in prison for over 20 years for stealing a phone. There are 8,493 ‘unreleased’ prisoners serving indeterminate sentences, often for petty crime. The law becomes blinkered when dealing with the well-off. The Post Office scandal shows that with the aid of corporations and lawyers, hundreds of innocent postmasters were convicted of fraud and forced to hand millions of pounds to the Post Office. After 26 years and despite tons of evidence, no beneficiary from the scandal has been forced to compensate the victims or charged for false criminal prosecutions. The treatment of people affected by Grenfell, Windrush, cladding, mortgage prisoners, infected blood, Hillsborough and other scandals, shows how selective the rule of law is.

Nothing will change until the political system is freed from the clutches of corporations and the super-rich.

Prem Sikka is an Emeritus Professor of Accounting at the University of Essex and the University of Sheffield, a Labour member of the House of Lords, and Contributing Editor at Left Foot Forward.

 

Launch Sinks After Colliding With Tanker in Amsterdam, Killing One

The collision occurred in the Afrikahaven section of Amsterdam's Western Docklands (Alf Van Beem / public domain file image)

Published Oct 27, 2025 8:25 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

One person has been found dead and one more remains missing after a collision between a tanker and a harbor launch in Amsterdam's harbor, according to local media. 

On Sunday evening, the small water taxi KP 17 got under way from a tanker terminal in Ruigoord, on the western outskirts of the port of Amsterdam. It headed north, its AIS track shows, intending to enter the Noordzeekanal. But when it neared the junction with the busy waterway, it was hit by a tanker, dragged, then sunk at an unknown position, according to local outlet Schuttevaer. 

There were two people on board, both employees of the punt's owner. Both went missing in the sinking, and a large-scale search was launched shortly after. Officials scaled back the effort about 2200 hours, citing the amount of time elapsed and the diminishing likelihood of finding survivors. The National Underwater Search Team and local police divers joined the operation on Monday, and they recovered a body from the water at about 1700 hours that evening, reports NH Nieuws. As of Monday, the authorities were still working to confirm the identity of the victim, according to NL Times. 

Plans are in the works to raise the wreck of the punt, but this will not happen immediately; the authorities believe there are no bodies in it, and are focusing the earch effort elsewhere for now. 

The KP 17 was owned by a water taxi and line-handling company, De Koperen Ploeg ("The Copper Plow"). The firm is a century-old specialist in tendering operations, delivering goods and people to ships throughout the Port of Amsterdam.

Two Dead, 20 Injured as Russian Floating Crane Capsizes in Sevastopol

Floating crane under construction is Sevastopol fell over killing two people (Investigative Committee)

Published Oct 28, 2025 3:46 PM by The Maritime Executive

Russian authorities are saying a criminal investigation exploring possible negligence will be launched after a floating crane capsized in Sevastopol on October 28. The Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhaev, said two people had been killed and a total of 20 injured when the crane fell onto its side in Yuzhnaya Bay.

Media reports state that the crane was undergoing a lifting test during the afternoon when it capsized. At least 15 people were reported to have fallen into the water and were being given medical attention, with seven reported to have been taken to a hospital. The two individuals who died, The Moscow Times reports, were identified as an electro-mechanic and a sailor.

The crane named Gregory Prosyankin was being built to support construction and maintenance work on nuclear submarines and surface vessels, The Moscow Times reports.

The project has been plagued by delays and financial problems. The crane was first announced in 2018 with a capacity to lift a maximum of 700 tons. It is 6,200 tons displacement. The project was intended to be completed by 2020.

Reports are that the crane was approximately 65 percent complete. Work was stopped in 2023, the newspapers report, and plans were being considered to disassemble the crane and move it away from the Sevastopol Marine Plant to be completed at another yard. It is unclear when work resumed on the crane.

Razvozhaev said the Main Investigative Department would be conducting the investigation into what was termed “an abnormal situation.”
 

Crewmember Dies in Accident at Sea on P&O Cruise Ship

British cruise ship Arvia was at sea when the accident occurred killing one crewmember (P&O file photo)

Published Oct 27, 2025 7:21 PM by The Maritime Executive

The British press and maritime authorities are reporting that a crewmember was killed yesterday aboard the P&O cruise ship Arvia. The ship was two days into a two-week cruise to the Caribbean from the UK.

The Arvia, which is 185,581 gross tons, is one of the largest cruise ships in the world, and with her sister ship Iona, is the largest operating from the UK. The Arvia was introduced by the UK’s P&O Cruises in 2022 and is 344 meters (1,128 feet) in length with accommodations for more than 6,600 passengers and approximately 1,800 crew.

P&O confirmed in a brief statement that there had been an onboard accident. It said its thoughts and prayers were with the onboard friends and family members. The company provided no further details.

While registered in Bermuda, the cruise ship is under the authority of the British, and the UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch listed the incident today. It is posted it as a “lift shaft” (elevator) accident that happened on October 26. MAIB reports that it will investigate on behalf of the Bermuda Shipping and Maritime Authority.

The cruise had been en route to its first port in Tenerife. However, Puerto de A Coruña, on the northern Spanish coast, reported that the Arvia made a stop on October 26 from 3:00 p.m. into the night “following a workplace accident.” The ship stayed till around midnight and has resumed its trip to Tenerife.

 

Crewmember Dies in Accident at Sea on P&O Cruise Ship

British cruise ship Arvia was at sea when the accident occurred killing one crewmember (P&O file photo)

Published Oct 27, 2025 7:21 PM by The Maritime Executive

The British press and maritime authorities are reporting that a crewmember was killed yesterday aboard the P&O cruise ship Arvia. The ship was two days into a two-week cruise to the Caribbean from the UK.

The Arvia, which is 185,581 gross tons, is one of the largest cruise ships in the world, and with her sister ship Iona, is the largest operating from the UK. The Arvia was introduced by the UK’s P&O Cruises in 2022 and is 344 meters (1,128 feet) in length with accommodations for more than 6,600 passengers and approximately 1,800 crew.

P&O confirmed in a brief statement that there had been an onboard accident. It said its thoughts and prayers were with the onboard friends and family members. The company provided no further details.

While registered in Bermuda, the cruise ship is under the authority of the British, and the UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch listed the incident today. It is posted it as a “lift shaft” (elevator) accident that happened on October 26. MAIB reports that it will investigate on behalf of the Bermuda Shipping and Maritime Authority.

The cruise had been en route to its first port in Tenerife. However, Puerto de A Coruña, on the northern Spanish coast, reported that the Arvia made a stop on October 26 from 3:00 p.m. into the night “following a workplace accident.” The ship stayed till around midnight and has resumed its trip to Tenerife.

 

TUI Revised UK Strategy Transferring Newbuild Orders Away from Marella

Fincantieri will build two more large ships for TUI Cruises, sisters to Mein Schiff Flow which was floated in May 2025 (Fincantieri)

Published Sep 29, 2025 6:23 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

TUI Group, which markets Mein Schiff in Germany and Marella Cruises in the UK, is revising its strategy for the UK. The group is transferring the first-ever newbuild order planned for Marella to TU Cruises, its joint venture with Royal Caribbean Group.

The move is part of a “strategic realignment of its cruise operations,” the parent company TUI AG said in a financial community press release. It said the goal is to strengthen TUI Cruises' long-term growth platform in Europe and the UK and to diversify the operation into the UK and Europe. The group highlights that it is following an “asset-right approach” that will harness TUI Cruises’ strong financial position and growth capabilities. TUI AG is working to lower its financial net leverage ratio strongly below 1.0 times in the mid-term, the company reiterated.

The order, as initially announced in March 2025, was part of what it said would be a refleeting of Marella Cruises, thereby replacing a significant proportion of the capacity of the current fleet. The group acknowledged a background of an aging Marella fleet. The cruise line, which was launched in the 1970s as part of the Thomson Holidays tour operations, was rebranded Marella in 2017, but has always worked with second-hand ships. Its current fleet consists of two ships, Marella Discovery and Marella Discovery 2, built in 1996 and 1997 for Royal Caribbean International, and three ships, Marella Explorer, Marella Explorer 2, and Marella Voyager, built in 1995, 1996, and 1997 for Celebrity Cruises.

The order was valued at more than €2 billion but was subject to Marella completing binding shipbuilding contracts and financing. TUI said it was also continuing to explore partnership options for the UK operation, which is not part of the JV with Royal Caribbean Group. TUI Cruises owns Mein Schiff and the ultra-luxury and explorer cruise brand Hapag-Lloyd Cruises.

Under today’s agreement, Marella has released the building slots at Fincantieri to TUI Cruises, and TUI has entered into new shipbuilding contracts with the Italian shipbuilder. The originally planned ships would have been smaller, designed specifically for the English market, and used design and high-quality materials to redefine premium cruising in the UK. They were scheduled for delivery in 2030 and 2032. Fincantieri will reimburse Marella’s down payment made with the Memorandum of Agreement signed in March.

TUI Cruises plans to build two larger ships, which will be sisters to the Mein Schiff Relax (157,651 gross tons) delivered in April 2025 by Fincantieri, and a sister ship, Mein Schiff Flow, floated in May and is due for delivery in 2026. Known as the inTUItion Class, they are 1,092 feet (333 meters) in length, making them the largest in the current Mein Schiff fleet of eight ships, and the first to be equipped with dual-fuel LNG and MGO (Marine Gas Oil) fueled engines. They have accommodations for 3,984 passengers.

The intent is that Marella Cruises will continue its operations with its existing fleet, TUI Group reports. The cruise ships have been significantly refurbished, but they are older and smaller than P&O Cruises, which Carnival Corporation added new ships in 2015, 2020, and 2022. P&O’s oldest cruise ship was built in 2000.

How we can fight back against the right-wing coup

Prem Sikka

8 August, 2025

Left Foot Forward

For a better future the power of corporations and wealthy elites must be curbed and reversed

What ails Britain is a recurring question.

The evidence of ailment is all around us. The gross domestic product, considered by many to be an indicator of wealth generation, barely grew by an average of 1.5% between 2009 and 2023. Successive governments expect the private sector to investment in new and emerging industries, but that hasn’t happened. Despite recent record low rates of interest, inflation and corporation tax, the UK has languished at the bottom of the G7 league for investment in productive assets in 24 out of last 30 years. It ranks 28th among 31 OECD countries.

A large proportion of the population lacks the financial strength to buy goods and services necessary for a vibrant economy. The average real wage has declined to the 2008 level, leaving 16m Britons, including 5.2m children, to live in poverty. 24m people, 36% of the population, live below socially acceptable living standards. The state pension is less than 50% of the minimum wage. One in every 200 households in the UK is experiencing homelessness, and the homelessness rate is the highest in OECD countries. The poorest 20% of households in Slovenia and Malta are better off than the equivalent in the UK. Meanwhile, the rich have got richer. The UK’s 50 richest families hold more wealth than 50% of the population.

The above isn’t an accident. It is the planned outcome of the right-wing coup that began in the late 1970s and continues to accelerate. The ultra-rich and corporations didn’t accept the post-war social settlement of a mixed economy, rising living standards, worker and consumer rights. They undermined the social settlement through obedient media, think-tanks, subservient politicians and academics. Trade unions and working class bought into the narrative of rising living standards, worker and consumer rights and rarely mounted an effective challenge to the rising power of corporate elites.

A major aim of the ongoing coup is to restructure the state to empower corporations and wealthy elites, and discipline the working class so that it would not challenge the new regime.

After the Second World War, the state rebuilt society by directly investing in essential industries such as water and energy, and emerging new industries such as biotechnology, information technology and aerospace. The coup stripped the state of its entrepreneurial role and transformed it into a guarantor of corporate profits. Privatisation of publicly-owned industries, outsourcing of public functions and private finance initiative (PFI) were early signs of the transformation.

Welfare of capital has become the overriding function of the state. Almost everything ranging from oil, gas, energy, shipbuilding steel, water, rail and telecommunications has been privatised at knockdown prices. Despite privatisation, vast cash subsidies continue to be handed to oil, gas, biomass, auto, shipbuilding, steel, rail, internet, semiconductor and other industries. This is accompanied by 1,180 tax reliefs, mainly to corporations and the rich. The full cost of subsidies and tax reliefs is not known. At the same time, successive governments have declared war on social security benefits for the poor.

Abuses and failures by big businesses are covered-up. The Post Office scandal and the Grenfell Towers fire are reminders of how the state shields corporations. Despite over 1,135 criminal convictions no water company has had its licence to operate withdrawn. Since 2020, twenty of the largest energy companies have racked up operating profits of over £514bn, directly leading to higher rates of inflation and poverty, and destruction of energy intensive businesses. Despite the 2007-08 crash and numerous scandals, the finance industry has been deregulated. Regulators in every industry are required to promote growth and competitiveness of industry. In the race-to-the-bottom consumer protection is diluted.

To increase corporate control of society, the state is dismantling vital public services. Large parts of the National Health Service (NHS) have been privatised. The NHS increasingly functions as a shell outsourcing contracts to the private sector. One study estimated that privately owned cataract surgeries had profit margins of between 32% and 43%. Children’s care has long been privatised since the 1980s. Now over 83% of children’s care homes are controlled by corporations, raking in average profits of 23% a year. The public purse cost ballooned from £3.1bn in 2009-10 to £7bn in 2022-23. In 2023-24, local authorities spent £32bn on adult social care, mostly provided by private sector with profit margins of up to 42%. The quest for profits pays little regard to the quality of service. 804 of the 816 adult care homes forcibly closed by the regulators during the period 2011 to 2023 were owned by for-profit organisations. 48 of the 53 children’s homes forcibly closed by the regulator during the period 2014 to 2023 were operated by corporations. Despite the failings, the state promotes privatisations and remains guarantor of corporate profits.

The second major strand of the coup has been to weaken workers and working class solidarity in the belief that insecure and impoverished people won’t challenge the social order. The Thatcher government legislated to weaken trade unions. It imposed stringent strikes ballots, banned secondary picketing and imposed financial penalties for taking strike action. The same didn’t apply to corporations for withdrawal of capital or secondary production. Workers increasingly faced insecure employment through ‘fire and rehire’ on inferior working conditions, and zero-hour contracts. Real wage cuts and freezes became the norm and the real average wage has hardly risen 2008. The Employment Rights Bill 2025 individualises worker rights and does not restore sectoral collective bargaining. Individuals are in no position to challenge the might of corporations. This was typified by P&O Ferries which knowingly illegally sacked 800 workers, but faced no action from the state.

The poorest 20% of households pay a higher proportion of their income in taxes compared to the richest 20%. Wages are taxed at marginal rates of 20% to 45%; compared to capital gains at marginal rates of 18% to 32%, and dividends at the rates of 8.75% to 39.35%. In opposition, Chancellor Rachel Reeves promised to tax private equity bosses’ remuneration as income instead of capital gains. As some of the wealthiest people, they would have faced a marginal income tax rate of 45%. But when in office she agreed to tax their remuneration as capital gains and an upper limit of 32%. Most Britons can’t fund political parties, hand consultancies and freebies to legislators, and cannot secure access to policymakers to have their voice heard.

People can take their anger to the streets but will face the might of the repressive apparatus of the state. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 criminalises protests on the grounds that they are ‘too noisy’ and inconvenience others. The Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Act 2021 enables the government to authorise state and non-state actors to commit murder, torture, rape and phone-tapping with complete immunity from prosecution and without any court order because it is “in the interests of the economic well-being of the United Kingdom”. The Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill currently going through parliament gives the state powers to snoop on benefit claimants’ banks accounts without any court order, if fraud is suspected. There is no right of appeal and the state can directly remove money from the bank accounts. None of this applies to tax evaders, money launderers, disqualified company directors or legislators claiming false expenses.

The dissent in public spaces is suppressed. Most media outlets are controlled by corporations and wealthy elites sympathetic to the coup. The word ‘socialism’ is increasingly confined to negative spaces. When the Labour party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn sought to develop an alternative path built on equitable distribution of wealth, mixed economy, public ownership of utilities and limits on industry-military complex, there was orchestrated media hostility. A military general threatened mutiny. After securing leadership of the Labour Party with radical promises, Sir Keir Starmer expelled Jeremy Corbyn from the party, and abandoned most of the promises. Purging the left has been one of his major aims. He removed the party whip from seven MPs for opposing the two-child benefit cap. Another four MPs were suspended for tabling amendments to a Bill cutting disability benefits.

The coup has not been bloodless. Some 300,000 people a year die whilst waiting for a hospital appointment in England. A study reported that between 2012 and 2019, government imposed austerity caused 335,000 excess deaths in England and Scotland i.e. nearly 48,000 a year. Around 128,000 people, including 110,000 pensioners, a year die in fuel poverty.

The right-wing coup is a major cause of stagnant economy and social tensions. For a better future the power of corporations and wealthy elites must be curbed and reversed. A sustainable economy and just society cannot be built without a counter revolution based on humanity, compassion, justice and equitable distribution of income and wealth. Against all the odds our predecessors challenged dominant discourses and secured a modicum of rights by building communities and solidarity with oratory, pamphlets, music, street theatre, plays, songs, poetry, oral histories of the marginalised, protest marches and resistance strategies. Can we not do the same or more?

Taming corporations is the key issue of our times

Prem Sikka 

11 July, 2025 
Left Foot Forward

To appease corporations, people may raze mountains, divert rivers, clear forests, cover countryside in tarmac and shower subsidies upon them, but they have no loyalty to any place, people or product.

There is a crisis of democracy. People can vote for whichever political party they want, but corporations always win as they fund the parties and legislators; control media and almost everything else. Their interests are promoted by obedient governments. People may elect a party that promises greater investment in education, healthcare and the environment or promises of redistribution of income and wealth but they are soon disciplined by threats of economic turbulence caused by flight of capital.

Taming the corporations is a key issue of our times. They wield enormous power over our lives, but people have little or no say in their affairs. The state gives birth to corporations and nurtures them through legal frameworks, social infrastructure, property rights, subsidies, tax perks and limited liability which enable privatisation of profits and socialisation of losses. The supposed bargain is that corporations will serve society, but that is not the case.

To appease corporations, people may raze mountains, divert rivers, clear forests, cover countryside in tarmac and shower subsidies upon them, but they have no loyalty to any place, people or product. Dodging taxes, abusing customers, exploiting workers, violating human rights and environmental damage are all normalised. Corporations remain the private fiefdom of executives.

At every stage of life, we are abused. Companies like Nestlé and Danone dominate 85% of the baby formula market and hike prices at will to boost profits and dividends. 15 largest children’s home providers make an average 23% profit per year, leaving little for front line services. Supermarkets profiteer from high food and fuel prices. Big pharmaceutical companies have made over £12bn excess profit from just 10 NHS drugs, which had profit mark-ups of up to 23,000%.

Instead of competing corporations such as Barratt Redrow, Bellway, Berkeley Group, Bloor Homes, Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey and Vistry exchanged details about house sales including pricing, number of property viewings and incentives to disadvantage customers. Companies such as Brown and Mason, Cantillon, Clifford Devlin, DSM, Erith, JF Hunt, Keltbray, McGee, Scudder and Squibb colluded to rig bids for demolition and asbestos removal contracts. In 2017, faulty cladding killed 72 people in the Grenfell Tower fire. No one has been charged and thousands of people are stuck with faulty cladding and unsaleable houses.

For most people, earning a decent living is a struggle whilst company execs collect up to 575 times the median employee pay. The case of P&O Ferries illegally sacking 800 workers shows that companies have no qualms about violating laws because governments don’t inconvenience large corporations. The average real wage is unchanged since 2008. Between 2016 and 2023, some 3m workers were denied the minimum wage. Culprits are rarely prosecuted. Trade unions can help but their members are targeted. Balfour Beatty, Carillion, Costain, Kier, Laing O’Rourke, Sir Robert McAlpine, Skanska UK and VINCI PLC collaborated to secretly blacklist trade unionists and deprive them of employment. Abused employees are silenced and bullied into agreeing out of court settlements and signing non-disclosure agreements.

A cost of living crisis is caused by unchecked profiteering. Since the pandemic, electricity and gas supply companies have increased their profit margins by a whopping 363%. Since 2020, big energy companies have made operating profits of £514bn, a major cause of poverty and destruction of industries. Since privatisation in 1989, water companies have levied inflation-busting charges on customers, but haven’t built a single new reservoir. Instead, they paid nearly £85bn in dividends. They dump raw sewage in rivers and flout laws to boost profits. Despite over 1,135 criminal convictions they remain in control of a vital resource.

Thalidomide, mad cow, cancers and obesity epidemic caused by food high in fat, salt, sugar and chemical additives, are some examples of diseases and disabilities manufactured in corporate boardrooms by wealthy executives living in leafy suburbs. Companies don’t bear the social cost of irresponsibility.

The finance industry is riddled with frauds and fiddles. Numerous financial products, including pensions, endowment mortgages, precipice bonds, mini-bonds, split capital investment trusts, interest-rate swaps, car loans and payment protection insurance have been missold, leaving millions in misery. JPMorgan, HSBC, Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank and Bank of New York Mellon have defied money laundering crackdowns by moving staggering sums of illicit cash for shadowy characters and criminal networks. Puny fines are ineffective.

40% of the world’s dirty money is routed through the UK and its offshore satellites. Governments can check it by taking out Unexplained Wealth Orders (UWO) and prosecuting the beneficiaries. Since 2018 only seven UWOs have been issued to recover just £22m. No one has been prosecuted. No government has sought to cleanse the finance industry. Instead of strengthening public interest protection duties of regulators, the UK government now requires regulators to promote growth of the finance industry.

Auditors, the self-appointed police force of capitalism, are mired in scandals. None noticed that the Post Office didn’t keep proper accounting records and prosecuted innocent postmasters. The audit quality reports show that major accounting firms still don’t meet the feather-duster UK standards. Malpractices only come to light after scandals. For example, PwC programmed its audit partner to spend just two hours on the audit of BHS. KPMG submitted false information and documents to the regulator investigating audit failures at Carillion.

Pandora Papers, Paradise Papers, Bahamas Leaks, LuxLeaks, Swiss Leaks and Panama Papers are some of the episodes that shed light on the destructive tax abuse and illicit financial flows industry dominated by accounting and law firms and banks. They face little retribution. In 2023-24, fewer than five criminal cases were brought against those who aid tax dodgers. The Criminal Finances Act 2017 gave government powers to prosecute companies for tax evasion. Since its introduction, there have been no prosecutions or convictions of corporations”.

The privatisation of healthcare created new exploitative opportunities for corporations. Newmedica, Optegra, SpaMedica, CHEC and ACES are major beneficiaries as the NHS doles out cataract surgery contracts to the private sector. In 2023-24, they made a profit of £169m on the back of profit margins of 32%-43%. Care services for senior citizens are dominated by corporations. Some £1.5bn a year is taken out of the care sector in the form of shareholder returns, leaving less for front line services.

Death is the last chance for corporations to exploit people and they don’t miss it. Regulators complain that funeral directors don’t clarify the prices and bereaved relatives can’t easily haggle.

The above examples are a tiny glimpse of corporate power and abuses. Governments do little to make corporations accountable to the people. Companies such as Alphabet, Apple, Amazon, ExxonMobil, Microsoft, Nvidia, Shell, Walmart and others employ thousands of workers and their revenues exceed the gross domestic product (GDP) of many a nation state. This gives them enormous clout to discipline elected governments by withholding investment, shifting production and tax dodges through complex structure. Corporate hunger for profits knows no limits. In the 1930s Giant corporations and banks collaborated with Nazi Germany as it was profitable. US corporation IBM directly supplied the Nazis with technology which was used to transport millions of people to their deaths in the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Treblinka. In the1950s Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, now part of BP helped to overthrow the government of Iran. Any government resisting corporations can always be toppled. Elon Musk, the controller of Tesla Corporation, is willing to fund Reform UK to advance his ideological project and erode remnants of democracy in the UK.

We have a choice. We can have either democracy and public accountability or rampant corporate power with enormous wealth and power concentrated in the hands of a few business executives, but not both. Corporations must be brought under democratic control. Yet the political system is unable or unwilling to call them to account. Political parties, governments and pressure groups are bought off. Unaccountable corporate power is damaging the fabric of society, the structure of families, the quality of life and the very future of the planet.

A proportional representation voting system has a better chance of enabling people to speak. This must be accompanied by a total ban on receiving and giving of political donations to parties and spurious corporate consultancies for legislators. No one should be allowed to own more than one media outlet. All large corporations must have worker elected directors on their boards and employees must vote on executive pay. Directors must be made personally liable for abuses. Essential industries must be in public ownership with workers and consumer elected directors on boards. Section 172 of the Companies Act 2006 must be reformed so that directors advance the welfare of stakeholders, not just shareholders. Giant corporations must be broken-up to increase competition and reduce their threat to the people. The libel laws need to be changed to favour the citizen rather than powerful corporations. Companies should not be able to conceal any information that could prevent injury, disease and harm to people. The public’s ‘right to know’ should take priority over concerns about corporate secrecy and confidentiality.

The above suggestions are not a panacea but provide a modest start to build a democratic society.

Prem Sikka is an Emeritus Professor of Accounting at the University of Essex and the University of Sheffield, a Labour member of the House of Lords, and Contributing Editor at Left Foot Forward.

How the global shipping industry has grown over the years

05:40

BUSINESS © FRANCE 24


Issued on: 09/06/2025 - 

As France hosts a UN conference on protecting the ocean, NGOs have denounced the fact that large shipping companies are sponsoring the event, calling them some of the biggest polluters. The maritime transport sector accounts for 3 percent of global CO2 emissions, as dry cargo shipments have more than doubled since 2000. Plus, the US and China have started a new round trade talks in London, with Beijing's export control of rare earths firmly in focus. 

By:

Yuka ROYERFollow

Caroline BAUM

Sails, batteries and AI: What a green revolution in maritime transport might look like

Analysis


The maritime transport sector emits as much greenhouse gas as the aviation industry, which is why the world’s major private maritime players now face the challenge of creating their own green transition plan. As the UN Ocean Conference gets under way in Nice, FRANCE 24 takes a look at where the sector currently stands and what options are on the table for a greener future at sea.


Issued on: 09/06/2025 - 
FRAJCE24
By: Cyrielle CABOT

The world's first self-propelled, electric container ship MV Yara Birkeland is moored at Langkaia in Oslo, on November 19, 2021. © Torstein Boe, NTB, AFP/ File picture


Over the weekend, it was time for the key players of the maritime industry – ship owners, port authorities and others – to meet in Monaco for the Blue Economy and Finance Forum, one of the many special events held on the sidelines of the June 9-13 United Nations Ocean Conference. The key goal of the meeting was to come up with a plan on how to decarbonise maritime transport. Because while the UN summit focuses on protecting the oceans, the many ships that cross them are also a big part of the problem.

Today, the shipping sector accounts for around 3 percent of the world’s CO2 emissions – almost the same amount as the aviation industry. In Europe, it is even worse, and accounts for 14.2 percent of transport-related greenhouse gases, and about 4 percent of all emissions. The reason for this is that most ships are powered by heavy fuel oil, a dirty by-product of oil refining and one of the worst offenders when it comes to pollution and greenhouse gases.

Although international measures have helped reduce emissions for individual ships in the past few years, the growing number of freight vessels – the biggest polluters – means that total emissions still continue to climb.

Net-zero by 2050: a huge challenge


To come to terms with this, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has set an ambitious target for the shipping industry of net-zero emissions by 2050.

It is a huge challenge. “Shipping is one of the most difficult sectors to decarbonise,” said Pierre Marty, a maritime transport expert and lecturer at the French engineering school Centrale Nantes. “For cars, the solution came quickly with the development of electric vehicles and batteries. For planes, the industry immediately went for synthetic kerosene. But it’s harder for the shipping sector because there is no one-size-fits-all solution,” he said.

Read more Will travelling by plane ever be carbon neutral? Researchers have their doubts

From leisure yachts to bulk carriers and container ships, they all have different needs depending on their size, the distance they travel and how many port stops they do. “What works for one ship might be useless for another,” Marty said, but noted they all have one common challenge: “to meet high energy demands in the often limited space on board”.

To make a real difference, he said, the focus needs to be on larger vessels. Although they only make up 25 percent of the global fleet, container ships, bulk carriers, LNG and chemical tankers account for around 80 percent of maritime CO2 emissions. They also often travel longer distances and use more energy.

Electric ships?


Among the many solutions that have been studied in recent years, electrification is one of the most promising so far. As with cars, it would involve equipping a ship with a battery that would be recharged when docked in port.

“This solution has already been adopted by some leisure boats and smaller container ships,” Fanny Pointet, head of maritime transport at the NGO Transport and Environment, said. “But it’s not at all adapted to long-distance vessels. You can’t recharge batteries in the middle of the ocean,” she said.

“An intermediary and alternative solution would be to use the batteries just for moving in and out of ports,” she suggested. “This would not only help reduce emissions, but also lower air pollution.” British-owned P&O Ferries is one of the companies that has already announced it is equipping its Dover-Calais ferries with hybrid engines for this purpose.

Biofuels, LNG and synthetic fuels

Another option is for vessels to switch to alternative fuels like biomethanol. In September, Danish shipping giant Maersk surprised the industry by presenting a 32,000-ton container ship (capable of carrying 2,100 containers) powered by biomethanol from forestry and agricultural waste.

“But again, this isn’t scalable in the long term because we don’t have enough biomass to meet global demand,” Pointet remarked.

Some civilian actors have instead turned to liquefied natural gas (LNG), but that, too, has its consequences. LNG is mostly made up of methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas, and the European Environment Agency and the European Maritime Safety Agency have both warned of the rise in methane emissions because of the sector’s increased use of LNG.

“That leaves green hydrogen and synthetic fuels, which are widely seen as the most sustainable solutions,” Pointet said. But, Marty added, “these [technologies] are in between development and commercialisation at the moment. They are not mature enough yet, and therefore very expensive.”

Shapes, speed and AI


Aside from turning to greener fuels, another key lever is to make ships more energy efficient in and of themselves.

This is where ship design would come in, with designers potentially equipping vessels with sails, propulsion-enhanced propellers and optimising their hull shapes.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can also help make the industry greener.

“With AI, it is possible to plot routes that would require the least energy by taking winds and currents into account,” Pointet said.

Another point of discussion is reducing engine power and speed limits. One recent study showed that by just lowering average global speeds by 10 percent, CO2 emissions would be reduced by 13 percent. It would also halve the risk of whale collisions and slash underwater noise by 42 percent.

“In the end, the ship of the future will most likely combine a bit of everything; hybrid engines, better hull designs and alternative fuels – all adapted to the specific needs of each vessel,” Pointet said.

And if the ships advance, so will the ports that host them. “The priority here is electrification in ports,” Pointet said. “Because even when ships are docked, many of them, like passenger ships, often need to keep their engines running to maintain services onboard.”

The massive cost of going green


But, both experts concluded, massive investments – to the tune of between $8 billion and $28 billion (€7.5 billion and €26 billion) a year – are needed until 2050 to embark on this green maritime revolution . And that is without counting the infrastructure that would be needed to make and distribute green fuels.

To anticipate these massive costs, some 100 delegations brought together by the IMO in April agreed to create a global carbon pricing mechanism. According to the plan, all ships will as of 2028 have to meet CO2 emissions quotas by using cleaner fuels. Those who exceed the limits will be fined hundreds of euros per ton of CO2 emitted.

According to researchers working at the shipping and ocean transport department at the University College of London, this measure alone could generate between $30-40 billion in revenues by 2030.

But, Pointet warned, exemptions of various kinds could undermine the measure's impact. “And there are still many other questions pending, especially [regarding] what kind of fuels will qualify as clean energy.”

Before going into effect, the carbon pricing mechanism must be approved in a second IMO vote scheduled for October. That means that the industry heavyweights and oil-rich nations opposing the plan still have time to try to sink the deal.

This article was adapted from the original in French by Louise Nordstrom.