CRYPTOZOOLOGY

Are big cats prowling the UK? What science tells us

Egil Droge, Researcher of Conservation, University of Oxford
Fri, 25 August 2023 

THE CONVERSATION

Exploring the British countryside? Unlikely, says big cat expert. Karel Bartik/Shutterstock

Rumours that there are big cats in Britain stubbornly keep cropping up. The thought of a large predator lurking in the rural landscapes of Britain is an exciting one.

The most recent widely published claim of a big black cat in the UK does actually show a photo of a big cat species, which can be identified by the small ears relative to the size of the head. But this image turns out to have been photoshopped. The original image can be found on Getty Images, using the search term “big black cat sitting in grass”.

Dragonfly Films, the documentary makers who unearthed the photo, did not respond to a request for comment.

Often the story goes that big cats, once held in captivity, were set free to roam the British countryside when it became illegal for people to keep them as pets in 1976.

But the scientific evidence flies in the face of these tales.

First, it didn’t become illegal to keep big cats as pets. It just became a lot harder to keep them legally. In 2022 a survey of local council data found nearly 2,500 dangerous wild animals are kept by private collectors in England, including a cheetah, mountain lion and snow leopard living in Cornwall. You need to get an annual licence from your local authority, the premises have to be inspected and you must get third party liability insurance.

I’ve always been sceptical about these claims that big cats live in the British countryside.

Large cats leave their traces

I’ve worked with large carnivores in Africa since 2007 and it’s obvious if big cats are around. You would regularly come across prints of their paws along roads. The rasping sound of a leopard’s roar can be heard from several kilometres. Livestock, mostly cattle, goats and sheep, would be attacked. Often leopards kill more than one animal in an attack. In Africa, where there are scavengers such as vultures and hyenas who move quickly, leftovers are quickly cleaned up, but you can still regularly find some remains of kills.

Wild prey, such as our large deer populations, wouldn’t completely protect livestock from big cats. There are many studies and reports of livestock being killed by large cats in areas where there also is a lot of wild prey.

Technology is also making it easier for biologists to detect wild animals.

Jaguars, leopards, tigers, snow leopards, both species of clouded leopards, and even lions are now routinely studied with camera traps. A camera trap is automatically triggered by movement within its view, like that from an animal or a human being. These camera traps can reveal information about big cats’ presence, absence, habitat use and preference, activity patterns and even diet.

DNA advancements have made it easier than ever to reveal which species is in an area. A saliva swab from a kill, hairs found on or near a carcass and faeces can show which species, and often which individual animal, left it. Environmental DNA, which is collected from water, soil or even the air, can also be used these days. For example, DNA found in soil in tracks made by animals can confirm the species that left the prints.

Cats often mark their territory using faeces, so they put it in places where they think other animals will notice it, which also makes it easier to find for researchers.

When I was studying wildcats in Zambia, my team often saw female cheetahs and their cubs but rarely encountered males.

With trained detection dogs we surveyed the area and collected faeces the dogs indicated was from cheetahs. DNA analysis revealed the scats came from seven male, and 12 female cheetahs. Without the DNA analysis we wouldn’t have realised so many males were in the area. The DNA analysis also detected more females than we had seen in previous years. In Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium DNA samples taken from faeces, and carcasses of livestock, are routinely taken to see if wolves were responsible for attacks.

However, proof like this can be falsified. You can take photos of a toy. DNA samples like hair can be planted.

The big giveaway

Let’s assume there are big cats roaming free in UK. Large cats like leopards and jaguars have home ranges of several dozen to several hundred square kilometres. There is no reason to believe they would have smaller ranges here. In the UK, there are no uninhabited areas of this size. They would encounter roads, they would cross paths where their paw prints would be noticed by walkers.

If there truly was a big cat on the prowl, the tell-tale sign would be repeated attacks on sheep. As anyone who ever kept a cat would know, cats chase things which move away from them. Big cats are no different and if sheep run away when seeing a big cat, they would chase them, and grab them.

There is no native population of big cats living in the UK. So any such big cats would have been born in captivity and with no hunting experience. Sheep in confined fields would be an irresistible target. Farmers would be quick to sound the alarm, and rightly so.

In July 2023, German authorities launched a full-scale sweep of Berlin and the surrounding woods after a video snippet of a lioness circulated online. No zoos reported a missing animal, yet the report was taken seriously. Shortly afterwards, authorities gave the all-clear. Similarly, in the UK, authorities responded quickly when a young lynx escaped a Welsh zoo in 2017 and killed it upon recapture.

There are sometimes vague photos or videos of big cats, but never clear photos or videos – or clear photos of paw prints, which would be easy to obtain because prints don’t move. But it’s the absence of attacks on sheep in such cases that is remarkable, and a tell-tale sign there isn’t a big cat out there roaming the UK countryside.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Egil Droge works at the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, a research group within the Department of Biology at the University of Oxford.

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/w/cornell-woolrich/black-alibi.htm

REST IN POWER

Isabel Crook, Maoist English teacher who spent her life in China supporting the regime – obituary

Telegraph Obituaries
Isabel Crook
Canadian anthropologist and educator

Fri, 25 August 2023 

Isabel Crook with Xi Jinping in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in 2019 after being awarded the Friendship Medal - Wang Ye/Xinhua/Alamy

Isabel Crook, who has died aged 107, was born in China to Canadian missionaries but became an ardent Maoist; she devoted most of her life to the country, working as an English teacher at Peking First Foreign Languages Institute (now the Beijing Foreign Studies University, or BFSU) and collaborating with her husband David Crook, an English communist, on studies of land reform and revolution in rural China.

In 2019 China’s president Xi Jinping presented her with the country’s Medal of Friendship, a prize “reserved for foreigners who have made contributions to China’s socialist modernisation and promoted co-operation with other countries”. The Medal, according to the Canadian Globe and Mail, had only been awarded eight times, recipients including Vladimir Putin, Raúl Castro, former president of Cuba, and Nursultan Nazarbayev, authoritarian president of Kazakhstan.

Politics aside, Isabel Crook and her husband did much good in their adopted country, where they were credited with laying the foundation for foreign-language education, including devising a curriculum and compiling textbooks for English teaching – and helping to equip diplomats of the “New China” with English-language skills. But at the same time they stood accused of wilful blindness to the crimes of the Communist regime.

On October 1 1949 Isabel Crook had been one of the few foreigners invited to see Mao Zedong declare the founding of the People’s Republic, arriving in Tiananmen Square in the back of a Communist army truck. She kept the faith over the next half-century as tens of millions died of starvation or were massacred as a result of such policies as the Great Leap Forward (1958-62) and the Cultural Revolution (1966-76).

Isabel Crook in her younger days

By some estimates between 60 million to 80 million people may have perished due to Mao’s policies, making him responsible for more deaths than Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin combined. Her husband, Isabel Crook explained, had persuaded her early on that violent revolution was necessary: “He convinced me by saying if you had a very serious acute illness, that could be cured with an operation, would you not have an operation rather than go on suffering?”

The Crooks were imprisoned as suspected spies during the Cultural Revolution. But nothing could shake their faith. There would, David Crook wrote to an American friend from Qincheng prison, be “painful experiences” during a revolution: “But the gains are the overwhelming aspect, not the losses.” Isabel, who was arrested in 1968, recalled writing to their friends abroad after her husband’s arrest the previous year, that “David has gone to the countryside to teach the peasants. I wasn’t going to give anyone the satisfaction of gloating over China’s difficulties.”

Recalling her own incarceration in a 2019 interview with Nicholas Shakespeare in The Spectator, Isabel Crook said, “When I was locked up, I read Volumes I-IV of Mao’s complete works three and a half times... I loved his rare shafts of humour.”

Isabel Brown was born on December 15 1915 in Chengdu, the capital city of south-west China’s Sichuan Province, to Homer Brown, dean of education at West China Union University, and his wife Muriel, née Hockey, who ran kindergartens and schools for disabled children. At the time of Isabel’s birth China’s last emperor, Puyi, was still living in the Forbidden City after abdicating three years earlier.

The Crooks' 1979 book

As a child, Isabel became interested in China’s many ethnic minorities and, she wrote later, “sharply critical of the lifestyle most of the missionaries led, with their large houses, many servants and imported comforts which contrasted with the far lower standard of living of their Chinese fellow Christians”.

After graduating in sociology and anthropology at Toronto University, in 1938 she returned to China, where she carried out anthropological fieldwork in villages in south-west China. “It was then I first came to realise revolution was needed for the poor farmers,” she recalled.

It was in the summer of 1940 that she met David Crook, a committed member of the British Communist Party who had fought as a volunteer in Spain, been recruited to Stalin’s NKVD and sent to China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. “I wanted to find something to do, a cause,” Isabel recalled. “I wrote to my mother and I said: ‘Please send me some of those religious books so I could get a cause.’ I read them. I didn’t get any cause. And it was just at that time that I met David Crook, and he was a communist. And when he talked... I liked passion. I decided that my cause would be communism.”

They married in London in 1942. David then joined the RAF and served during the war in India, Ceylon and Burma while Isabel joined the British Communist Party and served as a nurse in the Canadian Women’s Army Corps.

Prosperity's Predicament revisited research Isabel Crook had undertaken decades earlier

At the end of the war, inspired by Edgar Snow’s book Red Star Over China (1938), they returned to the country, then in the throes of civil war between the Chinese communists and nationalist Kuomintang, and in 1947 evaded a nationalist blockade to cross into a Communist-controlled area in northern China. After presenting a letter of introduction from the British Communist Party the couple was able to settle in Shilidian (“Ten Mile Inn”) – a village in Hebei province where, as Isabel recalled, they “first experienced the salutary practice of criticism and self-criticism”.

“We ate millet and sweet potatoes, wore suits of homespun cloth, lived in peasant homes and slept on kangs, heatable brick beds... We were witness to the land reform which soon spread across China in a movement which changed history,” she recalled in an autobiographical piece. Based on their study, the couple wrote a book entitled Revolution in a Chinese Village: Ten Mile Inn, published in London in 1959.

The book was praised by the Communist Party of Great Britain as a “seminal work, which has been bringing the achievements and challenges of the Chinese agrarian revolution to life for English-speaking readers”. In fact during the land reform period, landlords were subjected to mass killing by the CCP and former tenants, with the estimated death toll ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions. Mao himself estimated that as many as 2-3 million were killed.

The Crooks returned to Shilidian several times, reporting on progress in The First Years of Yangyi Commune (1966) and Ten Mile Inn: Mass Movement in a Chinese Village (1979), studies which, Beverley Hooper observed in Foreigners under Mao (2016), were regarded by non-leftist reviewers as “as much reflections of the authors’ revolutionary romanticism as scholarly analysis”.

In 1948 they were planning to return to Britain to write up their research but were asked by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party to stay to teach English to future diplomats at a new foreign affairs school in Beijing. From the outset, they insisted on being “regular members” of the teaching staff, so that they could become, in Isabel’s words, “participants in the Chinese revolution at the grassroots level”.

In 1958, during the Great Leap Forward, the Crooks were sent for three weeks of agricultural labour to a remote village, David describing the work as “a kind of redemption... poetic justice for Britain’s pillage of China”.

Isabel Crook, then aged 103, is carried into the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in 2019 to receive her Friendship Medal from Xi Jinping - Liu Bin/Xinhua/Alamy

He was clearly aware of the subsequent terrible famine when an estimated 30 million people died of starvation, but placed most of the blame on adverse natural conditions, admitting that he felt “bound more than ever to be loyal and unquestioning”. Thereafter, apart from the period in which they were locked up during the Cultural Revolution, they remained at the school from its inception to their retirement in the 1980s.

They struck a rare note of dissent in 1989 when they visited student hunger-strikers in Tiananmen Square with bottled water and plastic sheets, and wrote to the communist People’s Daily hoping “that no attempt will be made by China’s leaders to settle the present crisis by force”.

After David’s death in 2000, Isabel, who continued to live in a modest apartment on the BFSU campus, revisited the research she had begun before they met and in 2013 published Prosperity’s Predicament: Identity, Reform, and Resistance in Rural Wartime China (1940-1941), with Christina Gilmartin and Yu Xiji.

In 2019 a new Chinese ambassador to Canada held Isabel Crook up as an example of good bilateral ties between the two countries, a year after two Canadians – a former diplomat and a businessman – had been incarcerated by Beijing on allegations of espionage. But David Mulroney, a former Canadian ambassador to China, was withering: “Not only is the example of Isabel Crook unlikely to inspire much more than compassion for her suffering on behalf of such an unworthy cause, but... we are also reminded that the Communist Party of China has a long history of capriciously locking up foreigners.

“Isabel Crook fits the classic description of what China’s Communist Party calls an ‘old friend’... Such individuals tend to maintain an unwavering devotion to China, despite the fact that another feature common to ‘old friends’ is a long spell in one of Mao’s brutal, Cultural Revolution-era prisons.”

Isabel Crook is survived by three sons.

Isabel Crook, born December 15 1915, died August 20 2023

UK

The natural party of government? After five PMs in seven years, the Conservatives seem all at sea

Geoffrey Wheatcroft
Thu, 24 August 2023 


Late one night in 1867, Benjamin Disraeli, chancellor of the exchequer in Lord Derby’s Tory government, cunningly thwarted a Liberal wrecking amendment in the Commons to his second reform bill. Having written to Queen Victoria at 2am, he went to the Carlton Club, where he was cheered and toasted as “the man who rode the race, who took the time, who kept the time, and who did the trick”. The following year he became prime minister.

Much the same words may have been used in the small hours of 13 December 2019, when Boris Johnson pranced about Conservative central office in London, pumping his fists in the air as his adoring staff and colleagues embraced him. In the less than five months he had been Tory leader and prime minister, Johnson had purged his parliamentary party of some of its best and most honourable people, had precipitated a general election by dubious and possibly unlawful means, had then fought the election on a promise to “Get Brexit done” – and had won the Tories’ largest parliamentary majority for more than 30 years. Here was another leader who had ridden the race and done the trick.

And there the comparison ends. After defeat by William Gladstone and the Liberals at the 1868 election, the Tories returned with a crushing victory in 1874. Disraeli spent six more years at No 10, ending his days as the Earl of Beaconsfield and Knight of the Garter, adored by Victoria, ruefully admired by Bismarck, and with the Primrose League founded in his memory.

Within three months of his own election triumph, Johnson was faced with the pandemic crisis – which he was totally unequipped to deal with – and by the summer of 2022 he had been ejected by his own party, to be replaced by Liz Truss, in an even more absurd and even shorter-lived tenure. In Randolph Churchill’s phrase, Disraeli’s career saw “failure, failure, failure, partial success, renewed failure, ultimate and complete triumph”. Johnson has known enough ups and downs himself, but today, less than four years after his victorious election, his career has ended in ultimate and complete failure, for himself – and maybe for the Tories.

If the fall of Thatcher, or the way it was done, poisoned the party for years, the recent poison was inflicted by the cynicism behind the rise of Johnson. As Dominic Lawson, an intelligent Brexiter, has said, “Boris Johnson was never in favour of Brexit, until he found it necessary to further his ambition to become Conservative leader.” Since the Tories knew that, their relationship with him was always transactional. He was useful for a time, but he was dumped as soon as he became more liability than asset. And yet the Tories are suffering from “long Boris”, a grievous affliction that could still prove terminal.

If Rishi Sunak was meant to offer calm and efficiency after mountebankery and pandemonium, it hasn’t worked. A technocrat isn’t what is needed at present, and the skills Sunak presumably showed while making money as a banker are different from those a political leader requires. He looks more and more “in office but not in power”, unable to cope with everything from the small boats crisis to inflation and low productivity. And one effect of the Tories’ destructive civil wars has been to leave Sunak with one of the most unimpressive cabinets in living memory.

After a torrent of scandals and a string of byelection defeats, this August finds polls in which the Tories are looking at a wipeout in next year’s election. Eighteen years ago I published a book called The Strange Death of Tory England, and was later mocked in the rightwing press when the Tories staged a revival. But maybe that title was only premature.

Modern European political history has seen few things more remarkable than the Conservative party. There has been something called a Tory party in England for 350 years. Its name originally came (with a certain historical irony) from the Irish Gaelic tóraí for an outlaw, thence a Royalist rebel against Cromwell’s murderous oppression, thence again a supporter of the Stuart crown and the Church of England. After the “glorious revolution” had deposed James II in 1688 and the Hanoverians arrived in 1714, the Tories went into internal exile. As AJP Taylor asked, “What sense had ‘church and king’ in an age of latitudinarian bishops and German princes?”

But the Tories had begun to show their remarkable capacity for shapeshifting and chameleon adaptation. By the second half of the 18th century they were in power, by the early decades of the 19th century they were for a time a party of reaction. And yet they soon began to illustrate Bismarck’s dictum about English politics: that progressive administrations take office to pass reactionary measures and reactionary administrations take power to pass progressive measures, notably in the Tory case Catholic emancipation in 1829 and the Second Reform Act in 1867.

Related: Powerless in the face of Britain’s crises, Rishi Sunak has now entered his self-pitying era | Nesrine Malik

A vein of sheer obscurantism could always be found, from Lord Eldon, early in the 19th century, saying that all change was change for the worse, including change for the better, to Lord Salisbury later in the century with his maxim: “Whatever happens will be for the worse, and therefore it is in our interest that as little should happen as possible.”

And yet the Tories refashioned themselves over and again, as a party of patriotism and public welfare, particularly in the 1920s, when Neville Chamberlain laid the foundations for so much of that social security we now take for granted. In the 1950s Rab Butler said that “the Conservatives have never believed in laissez-faire”, and in the 1980s Margaret Thatcher did her best to contradict him. In all, by continually adapting themselves to changing times, the Tories have held office alone or in one form of coalition or another for 90 out of the last 150 years, always displaying a ruthless hunger for power.

Now something has gone wrong, or gone missing. In 2002 Theresa May told the party conference they were in danger of becoming “the nasty party”, but this was a misunderstanding. They have always been that, and as Lee “fuck off back to France” Anderson shows, they still are. But nobody ever voted for the Tories because they were “nice”. Their success was founded not on amiability but on competence, and that’s what has been destroyed by the farcical recent turbulence, with five prime ministers in the past seven years.

For a century and a half the Tories had a plausible claim to be “the natural party of government”. Today, they barely look capable of governing at all. Forty years ago Thatcher brimmed with ideas, some of them right and some of them demonstrably wrong, but the Tories now have no idea at all. They have run out of time, run out of excuses – and maybe run out of purpose.

Geoffrey Wheatcroft is a journalist and the author of The Strange Death of Tory England. He is writing a further book about the Tories’ recent turmoil and implosion

UK
Public expects Starmer will become prime minister, poll finds

Christopher McKeon, PA Political Reporter
Fri, 25 August 2023 

A majority of the public expects Sir Keir Starmer to become prime minister, a new poll has found.

Some 56% of people told pollster Ipsos UK they thought it was “likely” the Labour leader would succeed Rishi Sunak, with only 28% saying they thought it was unlikely.

That figure equals the previous high point for Sir Keir recorded in October 2022, amid chaos on the bond market and the collapse of Liz Truss’s government.

The poll of 1,038 British adults, conducted between August 11 and 13, painted an almost universally positive picture for Labour – and a bleak one for the Conservatives.

As well as public expectation that he will become Prime Minister, Sir Keir continued to lead Mr Sunak on favourability by 30 points to 27, and outpolled his opponent on all but three of 12 key traits Ipsos asked about.

These included whether the two leaders understood the problems facing Britain, with 47% saying Sir Keir did against 32% saying the same of the Prime Minister.

Some 37% said Sir Keir was in touch with ordinary people, against just 17% saying Mr Sunak was, while the Labour leader enjoyed a six-point lead on whether he would make the country a better place.

A majority of the public said it was clear what Rishi Sunak stands for, but the Prime Minister trailed his opponent on most questions in the Ipsos poll. (Yui Mok/PA)

The two men were tied on 37% as to whether they pay attention to detail, while Mr Sunak led by one point on whether they had “a lot of personality” and by five points on being good in a crisis.

Mr Sunak began his premiership with relatively good favourability ratings, especially compared with his wider party, and some suggested he would therefore be able to improve the Conservatives’ ratings.

However, the Ipsos poll suggests that that has not been the case so far, with Labour the only party to enjoy a net positive favourability rating and 53% of people saying they had an unfavourable image of the Conservative Party.

With just 23% of people saying they had a positive image of the Tories, only Reform UK recorded a worse net favourability rating.

One brighter spot for Mr Sunak is that voters seem much clearer about what he stands for than they do about Sir Keir, with 52% to 46%.

Keiran Pedley, Ipsos director of politics, said: “As it stands, the British public expect Keir Starmer to be Prime Minister. A majority are unfavourable towards the Conservative Party and Starmer leads Rishi Sunak on several key leadership traits.

“However, with many still unsure what Starmer himself stands for, the Labour leader will hope he can set out a compelling vision for the country in the coming months to seal the deal with the electorate.”

'Likely to cause offence': Anti-monarchy billboards blocked by media giant, Alba say


Xander Elliards
Fri, 25 August 2023 

Alba had looked to place anti-monarchy billboards with the media giant Global

 (Image: Alba)

A MEDIA giant has rejected an anti-monarchy billboard from Alba, saying it may cause offence.

Global, which runs radio stations LBC and Heart as well as a large outdoor advertising arm, said it would not carry the adverts from Alex Salmond’s party.

It comes after the same firm refused to display an Alba advert which depicted Rishi Sunak as a vampire because it “slandered” the Prime Minister, according to an email seen by the BBC.

In a new email seen by STV, Global has rejected a billboard showing a profile of King Charles III, a banned symbol, and the words: “It’s time for an independent republic of Scotland.”

READ MORE: Complaint submitted to Ofcom amid row over Alba's Rishi Sunak vampire advert

Global said in an email to Alba that if the image was “deemed to be politically persuasive with the use of something that is likely to cause offence, likely to get complaints and likely to have to be removed/replaced then we’re told that we can’t carry it”.

Alba said they had offered to redesign the advert to instead include a crown, but Global said this would still be a direct reference to the royals.

Chris McEleny, the party’s general secretary, said: “The Alba Party have already had our campaign in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election interfered with by the blocking of our messaging that aimed to highlight Westminster seizing Scotland’s vast oil resources but with Global having such a huge billboard footprint in Scotland the issue of political censorship is now a growing concern.

READ MORE: Outrage after 'excrement' smeared on Alba Party anti-monarchy billboard

“We have a potential General Election next year and the current situation is that media giants will get to decide which messages the public get to see and which messages they don’t.

“Therefore if you wanted to campaign for an independent Scotland with an elected head of state you wouldn’t be allowed to display an image of King Charles on the advert in fear that it would ‘upset the royals’.

“This is a ridiculous situation to be in – we must not allow interference in our democratic right to campaign in elections.”

Global has been approached for comment.

On Tuesday, The National reported how a complaint had been submitted to Ofcom over Global's radio stations' alleged failure to cover the news that the firm had rejected the Sunak vampire advert.

World’s largest sugar producer India to make a call on export ban amid global food price crisis

Stuti Mishra
Fri, 25 August 2023 

A labourer carries a sack of sugar at a warehouse in Jammu, India (AP)

As speculation swirls around the possibility of India imposing a ban on sugar exports for the first time in seven years, the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) has denied an immediate ban was on the cards but added that a decision could be taken in the next few weeks.

A potential decision to ban sugar exports by the world’s second-largest exporter of the commodity could have significant global repercussions amid already increased prices internationally, with fears triggering of further inflation on global food markets.

A recent report by Reuters, quoting three government sources, said the south Asian country was expected to ban mills from exporting sugar in the next season beginning in October due to reduced cane yields this year caused by lack of rains.

“Our primary focus is to fulfil local sugar requirements and produce ethanol from surplus sugarcane,” an unnamed government source told the news agency.

“For the upcoming season, we will not have enough sugar to allocate for export quotas.”

Indian government sources, however, told news channel CNBCTV18 that a decision is yet to be taken.

The outlet quoted a source as saying that decisions regarding the sugar export policy for the 2023-24 period would be taken “at an appropriate time based on available estimates of sugarcane and the sugar season”.

“While it’s tempting to speculate on exports at this stage, we will approach the government in September/October, depending on the crop situation and the availability of sugar surplus,” ISMA stated, according to the outlet.

Aditya Jhunjhunwala, president of ISMA, also told The Economic Times newspaper that there is no official intimation from the government on any potential sugar export ban yet. However, he added that the government and the industry will be “looking at the final numbers of the crop” and “we will know that only after middle of October or maybe end of September”.

Concerns are already rising even before a decision is reached as the absence of India, a major player in the global sugar market, could potentially drive benchmark prices in New York and London.

In the ongoing season, Indian sugar mills were permitted to export a modest 6.1 million tonnes until 30 September, a significant reduction from the record-breaking 11.1 million tonnes allowed in the preceding season, according to Reuters.

This decision came after India’s top cane-growing districts saw half the average amount of rain this year and its sugar production could fall as much as 3.3 per cent – to 31.7 million tons – for the season starting October.

This comes after the country also limited its exports of non-basmati white rice in a move that took about a fifth of international rice stocks off the market.

The International Monetary Fund has raised concerns over India’s rice export ban, saying it could have the same global impact as the suspension of Black Sea grain deal. Last year, India’s move to ban wheat exports led to a global outcry.

The Indian government has been trying to stabilise domestic prices of key crops as the south Asian nation suffers through repeated wraths of the climate crisis – heatwaves, droughts and erratic rainfall have all impacted crop production this year.

Prices of some home staples have skyrocketed in recent days, particularly of tomatoes, leading to shortages, robberies and even consumers travelling to neighbouring Nepal to find supplies.

Couple victims of homophobic attack as they returned from UK Black Pride

Miriam Burrell
Fri, 25 August 2023 

(Michael Smith/BBC)

A couple heading home from Black Pride were treated in hospital after falling victim to a homophobic attack while waiting at a bus stop in Brixton, south London.

Teacher Michael Smith and his boyfriend, performer Nat Asabere, were waiting on Brixton Road when a stranger approached and assaulted them as a bus pulled up around 11pm last Saturday.

Mr Smith had to receive stitches in his lip after he said he was punched in the face. He recalled running onto the bus for safety, with blood pouring from his lip and onto his clothes.

“All of a sudden, a stranger who was also waiting at the bus stop, hit the guy who I was with and then started hitting me in the face,” he wrote on Just Giving.

“Luckily the bus we were getting turned up and we ran on it. That’s when I noticed blood on my t-shirt and it was coming from my mouth. I was punched so much that I had a split lip.

“Obviously, the experience was horrible. I was in shock and so confused what happened. But I’m not going to let this get to me.

“I am not looking for sympathy or pity because I see myself as being lucky. There have been LGBTQ+ people who have been hurt a lot worse than me, or even killed.”

(Michael Smith/BBC)

The attack comes less than a week after two men were stabbed outside LGBTQ+ nightclub Two Brewers in Clapham and taken to hospital, in a separate homophobic attack.

Last week Metropolitan Police released CCTV images of a man they want to speak to as part of their investigation, while Mayor Sadiq Khan vowed to “never stop fighting for the safety, rights and dignity of the LGBTQ+ community”.

In a post on Instagram, one of the victims, named only as Neil, wrote: “I could never be prouder or more gay than I am today”.

Following the incident on Saturday, Mr Smith set up a JustGiving page to raise money for Stonewall, a charity which supports LGBTQ+ people and who campaigns to drive change in public attitudes and public policy.

In a video posted to social media, Mr Smith said he has experienced a “rollercoaster of emotions” and wanted to “channel those emotions to make something that was absolutely horrible and turn it into something positive”.

He said: “I don’t want people to be scared of going out, I don’t want people to be worried or anxious because you shouldn’t be. If anything, be proud of who you are.

“Just celebrate yourself because if anything, this has made me stronger, this has made me proud of being gay.”

Metropolitan Police are investigating the incident as a homophobic attack. Although it is unclear what if anything was said to them, the couple believe the assault was motivated by homophobia.

Detective Sergeant Simon Allen said: “This is a horrific and truly shocking attack and we know that this is likely to concern local people, especially those from the LGBT+ community.

“We stand with you in our utter disgust and are doing all we can to trace the suspect involved in this cruel and unprovoked attack.

“We have carried out a number of CCTV enquiries and we are now appealing for help from members of the public to assist with our investigation.

“We believe there were several people in the immediate area at the time of the incident, who may be potential witnesses and we would urge those people to come and speak with police.”

The force said in a statement: “The incident was reported to police the following day, Sunday 20 August.

“While the investigation is ongoing, at this stage the incident is being treated as a homophobic attack. At this time no arrests have been made.

“The victims are currently being supported by a dedicated LGBT+ Community Liaison Officer. Their role is to support individuals who have been involved in hate crimes towards the LGBT+ community.”

Sexual orientation hate crimes in England and Wales rose by 41 per cent to 26,152 for the year ending March 2022, according to Home Office data.

It’s the largest annual percentage increase since records began in 2012, the BBC reports.

UK

Read the letter in full: Barge asylum seekers tell of 'terrifying experience'

Dorset Echo
Fri, 25 August 2023 

The Bibby Stockholm barge (Image: PA)

Dear Madam/Sir,

We, as a group of 39 asylum seekers from different countries, are writing to describe and explain our concern regarding the current situation.

We are writing to explain that we were running from persecution, imprisonment and harsh tortures, with hearts full of fears and hope from the countries we were born in, to find safety and freedom in your country and our new refuge.

It is hard to Imagine that we, who used to live under harsh tortures and danger of persecution in our country, have been forced to leave our homes, our jobs and our families, and some of us haven't seen our families for months.

This abandonment and separation from our family has been bitter and painful, and has been accompanied day by day with anxiety and nervous stresses and only a combination of hope and fear remains within us.

We arrived in Britain with the hope of a better future and, at the very least, some mental peace away from worries and past stresses.

For about 6 months, or for some individuals, a year, we have experienced unemployment without income, the ability to study, or basic rights.

Despite all the hardships and discomforts of life in temporary hotels, we were informed that we would be moved from one place to another: the Barge "Bibby Stockholm."

A harsh tragedy that requires no explanation from your knowledge.

We were contacted by support organisations and lawyers and the recommendations given to us not to go on the Barge, unconsciously, this mindset has arisen for all of us that they intend to take us to an unsafe, frightening, and isolated place.

Because we are law-abiding individuals and wish to be recognized as responsible and good citizens in society, we decided to accept the authorities' decision and, despite all the stress and disappointments, act according to the written directive from the Home Office.

In doing so, our first priority was to respect the government's decisions and follow the laws.

Therefore, without the slightest protest, we boarded the ship.

Even though we felt that the ship was largely a place for troublemakers and lawbreakers. But as individuals who want to adhere to laws and civic values, we accepted this decision.

This decision was very difficult, and we accepted it courageously and without the smallest objection.

But how can one imagine to what extent we will move forward in this unknown darkness?

Given that the government had repeatedly been warned about various dangers and disasters, stating that if they continued with their plans, those inside the ship would be endangered.

After days of fear, disappointment, and stress, the appointed day finally arrived, and under the heavy media pressure, we were transferred to our place of exile by "Home Office" buses.

A confined and floating space on the water with strict security regulations, while none of us were criminals or had committed any wrongdoings, and we had no access to the city and normal life.

Small rooms and a terrifying residence.

When we entered the ship, it felt as if we were entering a world full of new anxieties and fears.

On one hand, the fear of facing the questions of journalists prevented us from leaving the ship, and on the other hand, no one knew what awaited us in terms of our physical and mental health, even the compassionate messages and sympathetic looks of friends had become unbearable for us.

During the few days of staying on the ship, we experienced very difficult conditions. Fear of the future, concern about the new country's situation, and the possibility of disease spreading in confined environments were among the issues we faced.

The lack of sufficient information about our situation and future caused doubt and uncertainty. Stress and anxiety were evident in all of us, and we had no plans for the future.

During our stay on the barge, we were informed of concerning incidents: some people on board had fallen ill, but strangely, the official permission to release this news was not given.

Also, in a tragic incident, one of the asylum seekers attempted suicide, but we acted promptly and prevented this unfortunate event. Considering the ongoing difficulties, it's not unexpected that we might face a repeat of such situations in the future. Some friends even said they wished they had the courage to commit suicide, and our personal belief is that many of these individuals might resort to this foolishness to escape from problems in the future.

These events indicate the tensions and problems we have faced in these difficult conditions and emphasise the greater importance of our mental and physical well-being in these environments.

On the morning of August 11th, news spread about the presence of an epidemic on the ship.

Some of us displayed symptoms of Legionella disease, but no one responded to us, the Home Office did not contact us, and everyone was in shock and fear.

In the afternoon of that day, as the last individuals to learn about this problem, we were informed that we would temporarily be moved to a new location, so that the ship's conditions could be reevaluated. We were compelled to comply with this request.

Currently, we are staying in an old and abandoned hotel. The sense of isolation and loneliness has taken over us, and psychological and emotional pressures have increased significantly. We even lack the desire to live and perform any tasks. The absence of tranquillity, comfort, and basic needs has become our daily concerns. Striving for a freedom that is deteriorating in these exhausting conditions.

With hope for your understanding and attention, we have expressed all the mentioned matters in this letter. We kindly request that you consider our situation as a priority and support us through the necessary guidance and assistance during these difficult times. We are individuals who are tired of the challenges that have arisen and no longer have the strength to face them.

Even the presence in religious places, which were the only source of solace, warmth, and acquaintance with kind and sympathetic individuals for us, has become confusing due to these numerous relocations.

Now, we seek refuge in you and hope to walk alongside you on this path with your support and unity. We believe that with our joint effort, we can overcome these unfavourable conditions and achieve the peaceful and secure life that we aspire to.

Respectfully and hopefully, The 39 refugees who were placed on the Bibby Stockholm

Dozens of reindeer have been killed for crossing into Russia, as Norway fixes Arctic fence

Euronews Green
Fri, 25 August 2023 

Dozens of reindeer have been killed for crossing into Russia, as Norway fixes Arctic fence


Norway is rebuilding a dilapidated reindeer fence along its border with Russia in the Arctic to stop the animals from wandering into the neighbouring country. These are costly strolls for Oslo, which has to compensate Moscow over loss of grassland.

So far this year, 42 reindeer have crossed into Russia seeking better pastures and grazing land, according to Norwegian officials.

The reindeer barrier along the Norway-Russia border spans 150 kilometres and dates back to 1954. The Norwegian Agriculture Agency said a stretch of about 7 kilometres between the Norwegian towns of Hamborgvatnet and Storskog would be replaced.

The construction, with a price tag of 3.7 million kroner (around €496,000), is to be completed by 1 October, the agency said.

How expensive are the reindeer crossings for Norway?

People work to build a new fence along the border with Russia, next to Storskog, Norway, 23 August 2023. - HT Gjerde Finnmark/AP

The work is a challenge, however, as the workers have to stay on the Norwegian side of the border “at all times" during construction, "which makes the work extra demanding,” said Magnar Evertsen of the agency. If a worker crossed into Russian territory, without a Russian visa, that would amount to illegal entry.

The reindeer crossings bring on a lot of additional bureaucracy. Russia has sent two compensation claims, the agency said.

One claims is for nearly 50,000 kroner (€6,700) per reindeer that crossed into Russia to graze in the sprawling Pasvik Zapovednik natural reserve in the Russian Murmansk region. The other claim is asking for a lump sum of nearly 47 million kroner (around €6.3 million) in total for the days the animals grazed in the park, which consists mostly of lakes, rivers, forests and marshland.

The agency said that of the 42 animals that entered Russia this year, 40 have been brought back to Norway and the remaining two are expected to come back soon.

The latest right-wing panic? Joe Biden is coming for your ceiling fans!

Kelly McClure

SALON

Fri, August 25, 2023

Photo by Gado/Getty Images

Much like any attempt to tighten up gun safety policies (or gas stoves, for that matter) tends to lead to a "MY COLD DEAD HANDS!" panic, news that the U.S. Department of Energy is proposing a new rule that would make ceiling fans more energy efficient is sending right-wingers into a flurry of heated emotion — with Joe Biden as the first choice for where to hurl the blame.

As Newsweek points out in their coverage of this, using intel from a DOE spokesperson, "These proposed standards, which are required by Congress [and] wouldn't take effect until 2028, would give Americans more energy efficient options to choose from, and would save hardworking taxpayers up to $369 million per year, while substantially reducing harmful air pollution—a crucial fact that some have conveniently failed to mention." They add that, "Biden has made climate change and the green energy transition a massive focus of his administration by passing laws like the Inflation Reduction Act . . . and has also has taken smaller steps to reduce the nation's carbon footprint as well, such as establishing stricter regulations for gas stoves and dishwashers." And while none of this accurately translates to him personally ripping appliances out of the wall, the intent here does not compute for a certain faction of the population. Texas Congressman Ronny Jackson is a good example of this, expressing his all-caps concern to social media on Friday with the message: "GET YOUR FILTHY TYRANT HANDS OFF OF MY CEILING FANS!!"

According to a proposed rule from the DOE published on June 22, "DOE's analyses indicate that the proposed energy conservation standards for ceiling fans would save a significant amount of energy." Where's the issue? Well, another Congressman, Ben Cline from Virginia, will present you with one, adding his own take on the matter: "First, they went after your car. Then, they targeted your gas stoves. Now, they are coming for your ceiling fans. America will continue to reject the Biden Climate Police's authoritarianism." Wait till these men learn about sunscreen! In the wake of that event, Biden could very well be accused of coming for the sun.