Climate change: Is this a 'day of reckoning' for big oil - and what's at stake?

Activists are taking on oil majors in court and in the boardroom, after companies proved 'completely immune' to previous attempts.

Victoria Seabrook
Climate reporter @v_seabrook
Wednesday 26 May 2021

It's time for big oil to change, say campaigners

The oil industry today faces a "day of reckoning" on its climate change policies, green groups have said, as activists takes it on in the boardroom and in court.

These "three big tests" have the potential to "change the status quo" in the fossil fuel industry, Michael Coffin, senior analyst at financial think tank Carbon Tracker, told Sky News.

Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil are all facing relatively new lines of attack from campaigners and shareholders, who are trying to force the oil majors align their targets with the Paris Agreement.

In Paris in 2015, 195 countries agreed to try to limit global temperature rise to 2°C or even 1.5 above pre-industrial levels.

Scientists warn emissions must therefore fall by about 45% from 2010 levels by 2030.

Big oil says its targets are ambitious enough

But oil majors have prioritised "net zero" rather than emissions reductions targets, campaigners say, which is why they are finding new ways to fight the companies.

Three separate campaigns come to a head today, in what has been described as "a day of reckoning" by climate think tank E3G and charity Global Justice Now.

But what exactly can we expect?

What are activist investors up to Chevron's AGM?

A climate proposal that effectively demands Chevron sets an ambitious target to slash its emissions could pass at its AGM today.

Activist investors Follow This, which filed the motion, has this year already attempted an investor rebellion at Shell, last week gaining 30% support, and at BP.

The group's founder, Mark van Baal, has been filing such motions since 2016 and believes shareholder pressure is "the only way we can change big oil".

Oil majors have "proven to be completely immune" to science and public opinion, he told Sky News in an interview.

The world must slash carbon dioxide emissions by 45% by 2030 to meet the Paris Agreement goals, scientists say

He said investors are now realising "all these investments are at risk, and therefore we are going to force the parties who can make or break the Paris climate agreement, big oil, to change rapidly.

"That's the big change which you see happening today."

Chevron did not responded to a request for comment.

Why is Shell in court?

For the first time in history a fossil fuel company could today be told in court to align its policies with the climate goals set out in the Paris Agreement.

Friends of the Earth in the Netherlands and other groups who brought the legal action are demanding Shell commits to reducing its CO2 emissions by 45% by the year 2030.

A verdict is expected at 1400BST at the District Court of the Hague.

Nine de Pater from Friends of the Earth, who is leading the campaign, told Sky News: "Because all these different social pressures that have been tried in the past did not work out, we only saw one option left and that was legal action."

Shell, which has committed to going net-zero by 2050, told Sky News in a statement that it "agreed that action is needed now on climate change", but it did not believe this would be achieved by this court action.

Friends of the Earth believes this is the first time a court has considered telling an oil major to change its policy, as opposed to, for example, provide compensation.

Will ExxonMobil's board turn one third green?

Activist investor Engine No.1 has singled out four of the 12 ExxonMobil board members it hopes to replace with directors who have "experience in successful and profitable energy industry transformations".

Shareholders will vote on the 12 positions on Wednesday morning Eastern Time.

In a statement on Monday Engine No.1 claimed ExxonMobil had for years "refused to take even gradual material steps towards being better positioned for the long-term in a decarbonizing world", and its efforts to fight off changes to the board "[spoke] volumes about ExxonMobil's future intentions".

ExxonMobil spokesperson Casey Norton told Sky News the company had "supported the Paris Agreement since its inception".

"Wind and solar power are important, but alone they cannot meet the energy needs of the key sectors (power generation, industrial and commercial transportation) that generate the vast majority of emission," he said.

Financial think tank Carbon Tracker called ExxonMobil "laggards" on climate, ranking it last in its 2020 analysis of company targets.

Dorothy Guerrero, head of policy at Global Justice Now, said shareholder revolts alone would not go far enough to "deliver justice for the communities devastated by oil companies".

"But, if successful, they too will show the tide is finally turning against fossil capital."

Climate change: Is this a 'day of reckoning' for big oil - and what's at stake? | Climate News | Sky News

IMF calls for equitable recovery from Covid crisis
 

IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva. Photo: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg


Ana Monteiro
May 26 2021 

The struggle of emerging-market nations to claw their way out of pandemic-induced the economic crisis can spill over to hurt the developed world, which should be doing all it can to ensure better access to vaccines and a more equitable recovery, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said.

Poorer nations are faced with the risk of interest rates increasing while their economies aren’t growing, and may find themselves “really strangled” to service debt, especially if it’s dollar-denominated, IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said yesterday in a virtual event hosted by the Washington Post.

“That is not only danger for them, it is a danger for global supply chains, it’s a danger for investor confidence – in other words, it has a ricochet impact on advanced economies,” she said.

“Closing our eyes to this divergence can harm not only those countries and their people, which is bad enough.

“It can harm the global recovery and it can harm investor sentiment in a way that we see to be significant and requiring very close attention.”

Measures taken by the Biden administration to stimulate the US economy are, on balance, translating into “good news” for other countries because of the spillover effect of demand, the IMF chief said.

Ms Georgieva said she’s concerned about 2022 and beyond.

She said even a relatively small increase in interest rates, combined with a possibly stronger dollar, could create problems for corporate and sovereign debt, which was high even before the crisis.

Countries should now be looking at whether their sovereign positions are strong enough, and companies should examine whether restructuring is needed, “while conditions are very clearly favourable,” Ms Georgieva said.

“The next couple of years are going to be absolutely critical. We have to step up and then shrink this very dangerous divergence,” she said.

NYC MAYORAL RACE

Evelyn Yang breaks down in tears over ‘racist’ cartoon mocking husband Andrew

By Julia Marsh and Bruce Golding

May 25, 2021

Mayoral candidate Andrew Yang’s wife broke down in tears Tuesday over a cartoon that portrayed her husband as a tourist visiting Times Square.

An original version of the political cartoon, posted online by its artist, portrayed Yang with nothing but slits for eyes, an old anti-Asian stereotype.

“It’s not funny. It’s racist. It’s toxic,” Evelyn Yang said during a press conference with her husband in Queens.

She said the cartoon, which was later published by the New York Daily News with the candidates’ eyes added in, “perpetuates the trope of the Asian foreigner.”

“Not only does this dehumanize Asians, it promotes racism against them,” she said. “What message does this send to all the Asians who are afraid to go outside?”Evelyn Yang called the cartoon racist and toxic.Oliya Scootercaster/FNTV

Evelyn Yang — the mother of two young boys — also choked up with emotion while saying, “It’s very hard to explain this to our children.”

“Words matter, art matters, representation matters — so let’s be better than this,” she said.

“Every time you make a joke about Andrew not being a New Yorker, you are telling Asian Americans that they don’t belong.”

The cartoon at issue was first posted Monday afternoon on Twitter by Bill Bramhall, the editorial cartoonist for the Daily News, apparently in response to Andrew Yang’s assertion that Times Square was his favorite subway stop.“This is a city for everyone,” Andrew Yang said.Lev Radin/Sipa USA

The Daily News then published a slightly modified version Tuesday that added eyes to Andrew Yang’s face.

Earlier, Evelyn Yang — who was born and raised in Queens — tweeted the cartoon side by side with another featuring a crude stereotype of a person with slits for eyes, buck teeth and wearing traditional Chinese garb while saying, “HARRO AMELLICA!” next to a hotel bellhop carrying a stack of oversize Chinese food takeout boxes with wire handles.

“Every time you make a joke about Andrew not being a New Yorker, you are telling Asian Americans that they don’t belong,” Evelyn Yang said. Dan Herrick“Which one is from 2021,” she wrote.

During Tuesday’s news conference, Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Queens) displayed a copy of the original version and called on the Daily News to apologize and remove the cartoon from its website.

Andrew Yang also said, “Some of my opponents in the race have characterized us as more New York than others.”

“That is wrong,” he said.

“This is a city for everyone.”

Yang later posted a statement on Twitter that said the cartoon “subtly approves racism at a time when people are being beaten on the street on the basis of who they are.”

He also tied it to the “history of casting immigrants and children of immigrants as perpetual foreigners or even subhuman — a stereotype which has been used to divide and exclude people for hundreds of years.”

The Daily News didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

A phone number listed in Bramhall’s name was not in service Tuesday and emails seeking comment that were sent to four accounts tied to him all bounced back as undeliverable.

 

Crying ‘Self-Defense’ To Cover Up War Crimes

by Daniel Larison Posted onMay 26, 2021

Whenever the U.S. or one of its client states launches attacks on others or commits war crimes against a civilian population, they claim they are acting in self-defense. This takes a legitimate exception to the U.N. Charter’s prohibition on the use of force and twists it into a catch-all justification for criminal aggression and violations of the laws of war. While the right to self-defense is supposed to protect weaker nations against more powerful predatory states, the rhetoric of self-defense has been hijacked by the most interventionist governments. These governments have used this language to add a patina of legality to the latest war of choice or punitive military action.

When the US illegally invaded Iraq in 2003, the Bush administration asserted that this was a case of "anticipatory self-defense" on the absurd grounds that Iraq’s government might pose a dire threat to the US someday in the future. That is how a preventive war that blatantly violated the UN Charter was sold as "defense" to the American public, and to this day this war of aggression is still often referred to wrongly as a war of preemption. Soleimani’s illegal assassination was another instance when the US took aggressive action against a foreign military and initially claimed that it was done to prevent an "imminent attack." The Trump administration later dropped that false claim, but still maintained that the assassination was a defensive measure. The motto might as well be, "if we do it, it’s self-defense."

The Saudi coalition has tried to portray its aggressive war on Yemen as a defensive action when Saudi Arabia and the UAE are the ones that have been violating Yemen’s sovereignty every day for the last six years. The US has accepted this preposterous redefinition of aggression as defense throughout the war, and supporters of the war have routinely pointed to Yemeni retaliation for the bombing campaign as proof that the US needs to protect the Saudis from their neighbors. Claiming self-defense functions as a ready-made excuse for any military action that the US and its clients want to take, and it is also used to deflect criticism from their indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas.

Then there is Israel, which routinely launches attacks on targets in other countries in the name of "defending" themselves and dresses up its bombing of civilians in Gaza as defensive in nature. Israel has launched hundreds of attacks on Iranian targets inside Syria in just the last four years. Israel was not being attacked during this period, nor was it in any danger of being attacked. Israel’s sponsorship of the attacks inside Iran against nuclear scientists and facilities is not seriously disputed. These aggressive actions are almost always spun as "defense" against an imaginary future Iranian bomb, but they are no more defensive or legal than the invasion of Iraq was.

While every state does have a right to defend itself against attack by another state, Israel’s relationship to the Palestinians under its rule is different in important ways that make the usual self-defense refrain ring hollow. Israel remains the occupying power over East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza. Even though Israel withdrew from Gaza, it continues to control its access to the outside world and it has placed the territory under siege since 2007. An occupying power’s responsibilities include providing for the security and welfare of the people under its control, and it is obliged to protect civilians under its charge. Obviously, the Israeli government doesn’t accept or take its responsibilities as an occupying power seriously, and it treats the Palestinians that it rules over as colonial subjects to be suppressed whenever and however they see fit.

Maryam Jamshidi called attention to the colonial context of Israeli violence against Palestinians recently in an article for Boston Review: "In various ways, this long-standing war on Gaza has much in common with the colonial wars waged by European imperial powers in the nineteenth century – including Israel’s legal acrobatics to justify and legitimize its attack on Palestinians." Israel ignores international law when it comes to their treatment of the Palestinians under its control, and it claims the right to crack down on any resistance to its rule much as the colonial powers used to do. The Israeli government tries to have things both ways by taking advantage of the law to justify using force and then ignoring it when it requires them to fulfill their obligations to the occupied population.

Jamshidi continues: "Expanding on this position, legal scholar and human rights attorney Noura Erakat and others have shown, occupation law requires that occupying forces defend themselves through the use of traditional police powers. This police authority is "restricted to the least amount of force necessary to restore order and subdue violence." Though there are some situations where lethal violence can be used, it must be "a measure of last resort." And while even military force may be permitted in exceptional circumstances, it must be "circumscribed by concern for the civilian non-combatant population." As Erakat argues, Israel’s use of the far more expansive right of self-defense may protect its "colonial authority," but it comes at the "expense of the rights of civilian non-combatants" under occupation law."

No one can seriously claim that Israel’s 11-day bombing spree in Gaza earlier this month qualifies as the "least amount of force necessary." Israel’s campaign in Gaza killed more than 200 people, including the massacres of entire extended families killed in their homes, and it left more than 90,000 people displaced and homeless in the middle of a pandemic. The Israeli military committed many war crimes in its prosecution of this campaign, including the destruction of whole block towers to inflict collective punishment on the population, and it failed in its duty to protect civilian lives in the territory that it effectively occupies. If it were almost any other government in the world that had done this, the US would be denouncing them and threatening to make them a pariah.

Slaughtering defenseless people in a besieged prison territory is not self-defense, and we should reject arguments that claim otherwise. The policy implications for the U.S.-Israel relationship are clear. Our government needs to stop subsidizing and arming a government that launches such attacks against people living under occupation. The US should demand a lifting of the blockade on Gaza at once. And the next time that Israel starts bombing civilians in Gaza, our government should condemn their war crimes and penalize the officials responsible.

Daniel Larison is a contributing editor and weekly columnist for Antiwar.com and maintains his own site at Eunomia. He is former senior editor at The American Conservative. He has been published in the New York Times Book Review, Dallas Morning News, World Politics Review, Politico Magazine, Orthodox Life, Front Porch Republic, The American Scene, and Culture11, and was a columnist for The Week. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Chicago, and resides in Lancaster, PA. Follow him on Twitter 

Palestinians Delivered Two Heavy Blows to the Israeli Narrative


by Sami Hamdi | May 25, 2021

In breaking Israel’s monopoly on the narrative and dispelling its aura of “invincibility,” the Palestinians have delivered two heavy defeats on Netanyahu and the Israeli establishment that neither is likely to ever truly recover from.

People survey rubble from a building previously destroyed in an air-strike following a cease-fire reached after an 11-day war between Gaza's Hamas rulers and Israel, in Gaza City, May 21, 2021. Palestinians have been able to effectively share images and footage of Israel's brutality with the world. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Israel and Hamas finally reached a ceasefire agreement for the Gaza Strip on May 20, a day after US President Joe Biden implored Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek de-escalation, amid mediation attempts by Egypt, Qatar, and the United Nations.

In the days prior to the ceasefire, diplomatic efforts had intensified to bring about a de-escalation to the Israeli attacks on Palestinians, which have seen Gaza bombarded, the Holy Mosque of Al-Aqsa stormed with troops, and the residents of Sheikh Jarrah subjected to violent attempts at forcible dispossession of their property and homes.

The conflict, which began in early May, caused a significant loss of life with over 227 Palestinians and 12 Israelis killed. Netanyahu sought to rescue his political career by taking a heavy-handed offensive approach, after failing to form a coalition government. Moreover, the Israeli establishment has escalated its attempts to “ethnically-cleanse” East Jerusalem following stubborn resistance on the part of Palestinians, who refused to relocate despite relentless harassment, arbitrary restrictions, and open provocation including home squatting from more extreme elements of Israeli society.

There is little doubt that Netanyahu will emerge stronger domestically from this recent bout of the decades-long conflict between the Israeli occupation and the Palestinians. It is expected that he will hold onto power through emergency rule before pushing for a new election in order to secure another bid to form a government. The alternative for Netanyahu would be to stand trial on corruption charges, which he is loath to do and therefore keen to maintain immunity.

Netanyahu is likely to experience the political “gains” as a pyrrhic victory in the wider context of how this latest war has unfolded.

However, Netanyahu is likely to experience the political “gains” as a pyrrhic victory in the wider context of how this latest war has unfolded. Indeed, the Palestinians have inflicted two heavy defeats on Israel that the latter is unlikely to ever recover from.
Changing the Narrative

The first resounding victory that the Palestinians have delivered on Netanyahu is the successful breaking of Israel’s monopoly over the narrative, discourse, and terminology with which the wider conflict is often broached. For the first time, the conflict is being discussed through terms that more accurately reflects the realities on the ground. The words “apartheid,” “occupation,” and “colonization” have become normalized in mainstream discussion.

“Apartheid” initially gained traction the month prior to the conflict in a Human Rights Watch report dated April 27, which followed a prior Paper by Israeli Rights Organization B’Tselem released on January 12.

However, it took off after Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted “apartheids states aren’t democracies.” Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib also brought the terminology to the Congress floor in May, in what was an undeniably powerful and symbolic moment given the US’ long-standing tradition of providing unquestionable immunity to Israel’s actions in the past. John Oliver used the term in an episode (now removed from the Show’s HBO channel) of the “Last Week Tonight” while an increasing number of celebrities and public personalities – including Mark Ruffalo, Lena Headey, and Roger Waters – have also propagated the language of “apartheid” and “Israeli war crimes.”

The ease with which Palestinians have been able to access social media means that they have been able to bypass the traditional monopolies on information.

This phenomenon has been made possible by the unique circumstances in which Israel’s latest attacks have taken place under. This is the first time that an offensive has been fought in a time of decentralized media. The dominance of social media and the ease with which Palestinians have been able to access it means that they have been able to bypass the traditional monopolies on information, which mainstream media outlets have enjoyed in the past.

Moreover, this is the first time that there is a Palestinian generation who grew up with social media and who is especially attuned to its effectiveness and accustomed to is usage. Palestinians have been able to effectively send videos, live feeds, and images across multiple applications and networks to share with the world. These posts have had such a significant impact on global opinion that an agitated Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz urgently met with Facebook and TikTok executives on May 14 to demand that pro-Palestine content be taken down under the pretext of “incitement” and “hate speech.”

The surge in social media usage by Palestinians has also provided fuel for media outlets to better access information on the ground, further enabling Palestinians to discredit much of the Israeli narrative that has been propagated on mainstream networks. Videos of child victims rendered homeless by Israel’s bombardment of Gaza are now being broadcast by prominent media outlets.

Accordingly, Palestinian commentators who have drawn attention on social media have been invited on prominent platforms such as CNN, MSNBC, NBC, and others, to present their narrative against Israeli commentators and former diplomats. Sky News has provided live coverage of Jerusalem with its reporters regularly expressing alarm and dismay at the practices of Israel’s security forces against the local population.

Israel’s frustration at the media coverage has been such that it decided to bomb the offices of Al Jazeera and the Associated Press in Gaza. Though Israel claimed it had provided evidence of Hamas operations in the building to the US, Secretary of State Antony Blinken was swift to deny such claims and told a news conference in Copenhagen that he had seen no such evidence. The Jerusalem Post also published a condemnation of Turkish media that it accused of inciting anti-Israel sentiment.

[Social Media Companies Help Israel Hide Evidence of War Crimes]

[UN Must Act to Halt Israel’s Ethnic Cleansing of Sheikh Jarrah in Occupied East Jerusalem]

FARMERS' STIR: AHEAD OF 'BLACK DAY' PROTEST, DELHI POLICE WARNS AGAINST GATHERINGS DURING LOCKDOWN

PTI / Updated: May 25, 2021,


NEW DELHI: With farmer unions observing 'black day' on Wednesday on completion of six months of their stir against the Centre's agri laws, the Delhi Police has urged people not to hold gatherings due to the Covid situation and the ongoing lockdown and said it is keeping a tight vigil to deal with any situation at the protest sites on the city's borders.
Action will be taken against those who try to take the law into their hands, Delhi Police PRO Chinmoy Biswal said, adding that the force is already present at all borders points, including the protest sites of Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur, and will not allow any illegal activity or entry.

Samkyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of protesting unions, had announced that farmers will observe May 26 as 'Black Day' to mark the completion of six months.
Last week, twelve major opposition parties, including the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Left parties, SP, NCP and DMK had extended their support to the protest.

In the wake of the SKM's announcement, the Delhi Police on Tuesday urged the people to follow Covid guidelines and not to come out of their houses and gather unnecessarily due to the ongoing coronavirus situation in the national capital.

"In last over one month, we have witnessed a severe situation in the national capital due to the coronavirus in which several people lost their lives. Police and administration took several steps to control the situation.

"With the help of people, the lockdown was successfully followed in Delhi due to which the situation is gradually getting better in the national capital," he said.

Biswal said, "We urge people not to gather as the virus could spread and the cases escalate. We appeal to the citizens to observe Covid- appropriate behaviour and lockdown which is still imposed in the city. There is no permission of gathering and demonstration due to the ongoing situation".

According to a statement released by the Samkyukt Kissan Morch on Tuesday, this farmer's movement "is running on truth and non-violence and will be completing six months of its historical struggle on Wednesday".

"SKM requests all Indians to celebrate and mark Buddha Poornima tomorrow, so that truth and non-violence find a strong place back in our community, at a time when attempts are being made to erode these basic values in our society," the statement said.
Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission has issued notices to the Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh governments over allegations of flouting of Covid safety norms by farmers protesting at the borders against the farm laws.

It has asked them to file within four weeks action taken reports regarding the steps taken to control the spread of Covid-19 infection at the protest sites.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the NHRC said that India is reeling under a "scary" second wave of the coronavirus pandemic and these protesters are not only putting their lives in danger but also posing a risk to the others in rural areas as "potential carriers" of the virus.
"The complainant has also stated that more than 300 farmers have died during this ongoing protests due to several reasons, including Covid infection. The cases of black fungus, etc, are also rising.

"He has sought the intervention of the Commission apprehending that situation may become more worrisome as the farmers, in large numbers, are planning for observing May 26, 2021 as 'Black Day,'" the rights panel said.

On Tuesday, SKM also appealed to all citizens to mark the 'black day' by hoisting black flags from their homes, vehicles and other places.

Farmer leaders said that farmers should wear black turbans and black chunni on this day.
Kulwant Singh, a farmer leader, said that they will fix black flags at every border.

"On Wednesday, there will be black flags fixed at the three borders of the city where farmers are protesting. The protesting farmers will observe the black day at the borders and no one will try to enter the national capital. It will be very peaceful and we are urging the citizens across the nation to support the farmers by putting black flags at their homes and other possible places," Singh said.

Thousands of protesting farmers reached Delhi borders on November 26 last year to protest against the Centre's three new farm laws.

On Republic Day, a tractor parade that was to highlight the demands of the farmer unions to repeal three new agri laws dissolved into anarchy on the streets of the city as tens of thousands of protesters broke through barriers, fought with police, overturned vehicles and hoisted a religious flag from the ramparts of the iconic Red Fort.

More than 300 policemen were injured in the incident.

Renault, Nissan and Hyundai face shutdowns in India over workers' COVID fears

Workers have protested and some are planning strikes until safety and healthcare demands are met

REUTERS
May 25th 2021 


CHENNAI, India — Automakers Renault, its alliance partner Nissan and Hyundai face temporary factory closures in India due to growing unrest among workers concerned about rising COVID-19 infections.

Workers at Renault-Nissan's car plant in the southern state of Tamil Nadu will go on strike on Wednesday because their COVID-related safety demands have not been met, a union representing the workers told the company in a letter on Monday.

Hyundai said it would suspend operations at its plant, also in Tamil Nadu, for five days starting Tuesday, after several workers staged a brief, sit-in protest on Monday amid rising cases in the state.

"The management agreed to close the plant after workers expressed concerns over safety after two employees succumbed to COVID," E. Muthukumar, president of the Hyundai Motor India Employees Union, told Reuters.

The unrest highlights the challenges companies face in India amid a huge wave of COVID-19 infections, an overwhelmed health system and a shortage of vaccines which is making employees more fearful.

Tamil Nadu is one of the worst hit states with more than 30,000 cases a day last week. The state, an auto hub known as India's Detroit, has imposed a lockdown until May 31 but allowed some factories, including auto plants, to continue operating.

The strike threat at the Renault-Nissan plant came ahead of a court hearing on Monday over allegations from workers that social distancing norms were being flouted and factory health policies did not sufficiently address the risk to lives.

Renault-Nissan has said it is following COVID-19 safety protocols.

At the hearing, a lawyer for the workers argued that while the company had reduced the number of shifts, production numbers had not been cut and the headcount remained the same leading to crowding on the factory floor.

The company told the court it had reduced the workforce to around 5,000 from 8,000. It also said it had vaccinated employees over 45 and was willing to inoculate those under 45 if vaccines were made available.

The two-judge bench presiding over the case said that while the health of workers is paramount, if industries go down there will be no place for them to work. They also said the company must not take advantage of the exemption granted by the state and should reduce production to meet only necessary export orders.

"The production should have fallen ... You also have to assuage the feeling of the workers," said the court, which will next hear the case on May 31.

The union, which represents about 3,500 workers at the plant, said in its May 24 letter to Renault-Nissan that workers would not return until they felt safe.

The workers' demands include lower production so there is better social distancing, vaccinations and higher insurance cover to include medical expenses for their families.

Nissan, which owns a majority stake in the plant, declined to comment.

 BMJ OPINION

It is more urgent than ever that we end the criminalisation of poverty

May 21, 2021

The story of inequalities in health has been a long one, beginning, in the NHS era, with the Black report and progressing through the Health Divide, the Acheson report, to the Marmot report in 2010. Since the Acheson report, governments have embedded reducing inequality in health policy. The duty to reduce inequality was enshrined in the Health and Social Care Act of 2012. The aspiration has not been turned into concrete policy and service change. In many cases, government austerity policies have worked to increase inequalities. According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, in their Destitution in the UK report, local and national government are the biggest creditors on poor people.  

Organisations like the Revolving Doors Agency have brought a growing awareness of inequalities in health in the criminal justice system and how NHS and Directors of Public Health should respond. However, there has been little acknowledgment that it is how poorer people are being managed, judged, and sentenced that is unequal. The system suggests, it is a crime to be poor. 

Poorer socio-economic groups are over-represented in the criminal justice system. This situation becomes even more obvious when poverty is combined with other factors, such as coming from a minority ethnic background or suffering from mental ill health. There seem to be several reasons behind this disproportionality. There are clear examples of the impact of laws falling disproportionally on the poor. 

In England, but not in Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland, magistrates have the power to commit someone to prison for up to three months for owing council tax. This is despite the fact that owing tax is a civil debt, it is not a crime.

The Vagrancy Act 1824, passed to deal with soldiers returning destitute from the Napoleonic Wars, made it a criminal act to sleep outdoors. Charities have long campaigned to repeal the Act. Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has hinted that the 19th-century law which criminalises rough sleeping could finally be scrapped. Responding to a question by Nickie Aiken MP during a debate on the latest rough sleeping figures, Jenrick said he believed the Vagrancy Act should be “consigned to history” and the Government would provide an update soon. We are still waiting for this to happen.

The Vagrancy Act 1824 (section 3) makes begging a criminal offence; it enables the arrest of anybody who is begging. It is a recordable offence and carries a level 3 fine (currently £1,000). Furthermore, local councils can apply to have an Anti-Social Behaviour Injunction imposed on someone whose behaviour is regarded as anti-social. Breaching such an injunction may lead to a hearing in a county court under civil, not criminal, law. The penalty can be imprisonment, suspended or immediate, of up to two years. 

School exclusion is a well-travelled road to exploitation by criminal gangs, leading to involvement in the criminal justice system. Recent reports reveal that exclusion rates for Black Caribbean students in English schools are up to six times higher than those of their white peers in some local authorities, highlighting what experts have called an “incredible injustice” for schoolchildren from minority ethnic backgrounds. Traveller children were also excluded at much higher rates. And exclusion rates for mixed-race students were more than four times higher than their white peers in several local authorities.

In England and Wales parents whose children miss school are deemed to have committed the offence of truancy, even if they didn’t know their child had skipped school. Lack of support for children with special educational needs in some schools may lead to children feeling unable to go to school, and refusing to go. Parents with fewer financial resources to find and employ tutors and other support will be disproportionately affected by the law which makes missing school a criminal offence for the parent. In Scotland truancy is a child welfare not a criminal law issue.

Additionally, the poor also get criminalised from law enforcement targeting certain crimes, from having inadequate resources to defend themselves in court and from a lack of support through the different stages of the criminal justice process. Some of these predicaments have long-term effects, causing intergenerational cycles of poverty and criminality. 

Much of the unfairness of judging the poor will be obvious to prison health services and mental health colleagues. Large proportions of the prison population are there because of their inability to cope, with low level mental ill health, addictions and poverty. They are in prison largely because of inadequate support and inappropriate care in the community, and through the criminal justice system. Only one in 10 calls to South Wales police are crime related; the rest are complex welfare, vulnerability, and safeguarding matters. The police receive one call every four minutes relating to mental health problems. Resources such as court diversion of vulnerable defendants are still unevenly available and applied. 

It is necessary for us to address these grotesque inequalities in health and justice, as we seek to Build Back Fairer after the covid pandemic. 

The covid-19 pandemic in the UK has had a dramatic impact on household debt and financial security. The Department for Work and Pensions has seen applications for Universal Credit soar since lockdown was imposed in March 2020. As of the start of May 2020, 1.8 million claims had been received since 16 March—six times the usual claimant rate. Local news reports have also shown that more people than ever are applying for council tax reductions and are struggling to keep up with payments. There appear to have been temporary respites for some of the most vulnerable—through suspension of benefit sanctions, debt-deduction payments and evictions for non-payment of rent. However,  many are extending their debt through credit card usage and built up rent debt; many expect to be homeless when evictions are again permitted. As the precariousness of household finances worsens through the economic hit of the coronavirus pandemic, it is essential that we protect those most financially vulnerable. In these circumstances it is more important and more urgent than ever that we end the criminalisation of poverty.

Rona Epstein, Honorary Research Fellow, Coventry Law School, Coventry University   

John Middleton, Honorary Professor of Public Health, Wolverhampton University; President, Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region  

BURMA

Karenni resistance fighters open new front against junta


The Karenni People’s Defence Force went on the offensive over the weekend, but now faces an overwhelming show of force

Myanmar Now
Published on May 26, 2021

Members of the Karenni People’s Defence Force in Demoso, Kayah State (Demoso People Defence Force/Facebook)
As armed resistance to the Myanmar military’s February 1 coup continues to grow around the country, a new front has opened in the struggle between regime forces and civilians fighting back with homemade weapons.

Since late last week, major clashes have been reported in an area of southern Shan State and northern Kayah (Karenni) State about 200km east of the capital Naypyitaw and about the same distance north of Kayin State’s Hpapun (Mutraw) District, which has also seen a dramatic escalation of hostilities.

Unlike the situation in Kayin State, where the conflict is between the military and the Karen National Liberation Army, an established ethnic armed group, the fighting in Shan State’s Pekhon Township and Demoso, Bawlakhe and Loikaw in Kayah State mainly involves regime forces and the Karenni People’s Defence Force (KPDF), part of the nationwide anti-coup resistance movement.

The KPDF goes on the offensive

The KPDF went into action last Friday after soldiers entered Demoso, a town less than 20km south of the Kayah State capital Loikaw, the day before and opened fire in residential areas. According to the KPDF, the regime’s troops also used explosives during their assault on the town, which resulted in the arrest of 13 people, including four civil servants who had defected from the regime.

The KPDF’s first response was to seize and burn down three outposts in Demoso and Bawlakhe townships with the help of a local ethnic armed group. Three police officers were killed during those initial clashes

The group made it clear that it had prepared carefully ahead of the attacks, which it saw as part of the nationwide resistance movement called for by the National Unity Government.

“When the People’s Defence Force was formed, we started setting up township communication offices. We built our own strongholds to protect people. We warned [the junta’s authorities] from the beginning not to cross the line,” said a KPDF member who was involved in the fighting in Demoso, speaking on condition of anonymity.



A member of the KPDF smashes the sign of the Moebye police outpost after the group seized it on May 23. (Supplied)

After the regime faced casualties in Demoso, it approached the KPDF for negotiations the next day, he added.

However, the KPDF members did not respond to this overture because they didn’t trust the military council, which they knew was sending reinforcements to Demoso.

Rather than back off, the civilian-led resistance force overran another local police outpost on Sunday morning, this time in Moebye, a town in southern Shan State’s Pekhon Township, on the border with Kayah State.

Regime troops suffered heavy casualties in the attack on the Moebye police outpost, where at least 20 of the junta’s forces were killed and four police officers were taken into custody by the KPDF.

“They call it a police station, but there were only three or four police there and all the others were soldiers. We ambushed the station because it had become a military outpost,” said the KPDF member.


Local Karenni resistance fighters set the Moebye police station on fire after capturing it on May 23. (Kantarawaddy Times)

The Karenni youth-led resistance force spent two days preparing to overrun the police station, he added. On Sunday morning, they surrounded it and warned the soldiers and police inside to drop their weapons and surrender, he said.

“If they had just surrendered their weapons, it would have been better for both sides. There wouldn’t have been so many casualties, and we wouldn’t have had to waste our time or bullets,” he said.

At around 9:30am, the KPDF opened fire from outside the entrance to the station and a shootout began.

“Some of them ran, and some of them took cover to fight back. But most fled, and there weren’t enough holding us back, so there were a lot of casualties,” said the KPDF member, who estimated that there were around 30 soldiers and police at the station.

Three hours later, between 15 and 20 members of the regime’s forces were killed, and four more were captured alive, he added.

One KPDF member was killed, and four others were injured.

KPDF members carry handmade guns used in the fight against the regime forces. (Demoso People Defence Force/Facebook)

Fending off reinforcements

Later the same day, the KPDF launched two more attacks to prevent military reinforcements from entering the area.

The reinforcements were coming in three trucks from Pekhon in the north and six from Loikaw in the south. The first group was attacked in Hkwang Mai, a village on the way from Pekhon to Moebye.

“Some trees were cut down and put across the road in Hkwang Mai, so they had to start walking from there. There was a short fight and the PDF members there had to retreat a bit. But the reinforcements didn’t get to the police station in Moebye until after we overran it,” the KPDF member said.

The six trucks from Loikaw were ambushed at Kone Thar, a village about halfway between Loikaw and Moebye.

“The PDF youths in Kone Thar also held them off for a while. After a brief shootout, they retreated. These reinforcements also arrived only after we’d captured the station. They had to walk the whole way,” said the KPDF member.

The KPDF burned down any structure in the police station compound that the soldiers could use for shelter and dispersed before the reinforcements reached the scene.

“After we scattered, the reinforcements went into the station to observe the situation of their fellow soldiers. Then they started firing their guns. They kept it up late into the night, threatening residents,” the KPDF member said.

Although Light Infantry Battalion 422 is stationed only a mile away, near the Moebye dam—the main dam of the Lawpita hydropower project—it didn’t send any troops to the police station to defend it. Instead, it simply fired at the KPDF fighters from a distance, according to a member of the group who took part in the attack.

Likewise, troops based at an outpost in Waryikawkhu, a village about five miles from the Moebye police station, fired heavy artillery but did not provide any other support, he added.

The Global New Light of Myanmar, a junta-run newspaper, said on Monday that “some of the security members were killed in the attack” in Moebye and some were still “missing”.

The report described the local resistance force as “terrorists” and said the police outpost was attacked by a combined force of about 100 armed fighters.

Resistance fighters in Demoso also attempted to capture a police station in the town during a three-hour battle on Sunday afternoon, local media reported. However, the KPDF members were forced to retreat when army reinforcements, including some in armoured vehicles, arrived.


KPDF members carry handmade guns used in the fight against the regime forces. (Demoso People Defence Force/Facebook)

Civilians fall victim to reprisals

Following the attacks, regime forces started raiding local villages and terrorising civilians by opening fire with guns and heavy artillery.

One victim was a 50-year-old woman who was injured after being shot by soldiers while riding from Moebye to Loikaw on her motorbike.

At around 8pm on Sunday, a man on a motorbike was also shot on the Moebye-Loikaw road. He sustained a stomach wound and later died.

The next day, the military imposed day-time curfews in Moebye and Loikaw.

The junta’s armed forces are now stationed at the burned-out police station and a football field near Moebye, according to a local resident. He said the soldiers fired shots randomly on their way to Loikaw and Pekhon.

Around 50 youths were arrested on Monday but were later released after questioning. Those still in Moebye are currently taking shelter in the town’s churches, the local added.

More than 10,000 villagers from the surrounding area have fled their homes, while many inside the town are unable to leave due to the regime’s campaign to crush the armed uprising with lethal force.

“Some people don’t want to leave, but those who do can’t anyway, because there’s no way out. They’re afraid they’ll be shot at if they try to leave,” said a Moebye resident who spoke to Myanmar Now on Tuesday.

At least nine civilians have been killed since Monday, including a young man who was shot in the head by regime troops who had tied his hands behind his back.

Lt-Gen Soe Htut, the junta’s minister for home affairs, arrived in Kayah on Tuesday. The junta-run Global New Light of Myanmar reported on Wednesday that Lt-Gen Soe Htut had “inspected” Moebye and Pekhon police stations and provided "cash assistance" to the police, soldiers, and their family members from coup council chairman Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing.

The report, however, did not mention the casualties at and damage to the Moebye police outpost after it was attacked by Karenni resistance fighters.

It said Lt-Gen Soe Htut also visited Loikaw prison to inspect “prison healthcare services, accommodation and meals.”



Church_3.Jpeg

Four people were killed when the military fired shells at a church in Kayan Tharyar village in Loikaw

Meanwhile, there were also reports that the military was using drones as part of its offensive against resistance forces.

“There were drones. Every time one passed, shells fell immediately. They were so fast we couldn’t keep up with them. They’re very advanced,” said a KPDF fighter from Demoso.

On Monday, multiple military planes were seen landing at Loikaw’s airport, carrying soldiers and equipment.

Armed only with handmade weapons, the KPDF fighters are up against a military that is far better equipped. There are even concerns that the regime could start carrying out airstrikes, as it has been doing in Kayin State since late March.

Despite the prospect of an overwhelming show of force, however, many resistance fighters remain convinced that it is still possible to defeat the junta.

“I’d like to call on the entire nation to rise up. Then this dictatorship could end in a short time,” said one KPDF member.

Editor's Note: This article was updated on May 26 to include details of Lt-Gen Soe Htet's visit.

UN envoy warns of possible civil war in Myanmar
By The Associated Press • Updated: 24/05/2021

Anti-coup protesters flash the three-finger salute during a demonstration against the military takeover, in Yangon, Myanmar, Monday, May 24, 2021. - Copyright AP Photo

The United Nations special envoy for Myanmar warned Monday of possible civil war in the country, saying people are arming themselves against the military junta and protesters have started shifting from defensive to offensive actions, using homemade weapons and training from some ethnic armed groups.

Chrisrine Schraner Burgener told a virtual UN news conference that people are starting self-defence actions because they are frustrated and fear attacks by the military, which carried out a coup on February 1 against the democratically elected government, and is using “a huge scale of violence.”

A civil war “could happen,” she said, and that’s why for the past three weeks from her base now in Thailand she has discussed with many key parties the idea of starting an inclusive dialogue that would include ethnic armed groups, political parties, civil society, strike committees and the army, known as the Tatmadaw, as well as a small group of witnesses from the international community.




“Clearly it will not be easy to convince especially both sides to come to a table, but I offer my good offices ... to avoid more bloodshed and civil war which would last a long time,” Schraner Burgener said. “We are worried about the situation and clearly we want that people on the ground ... decide how they want to see the country going back to normal.”

Calling the situation in Myanmar “very bad,” she pointed to more than 800 people killed, over 5,300 arrested, and more than 1,800 arrest warrants issued by the military.


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The U.N. envoy also cited reports of unconfirmed deaths, injuries, and damage to houses and civilian property in the town of Mindat in western Chin state, where the junta declared martial law because of armed resistance to military rule. She also pointed to new reports of increased violence in Kayah state — also known as Karenni state — in eastern Myanmar and in southern Shan state.

Myanmar for five decades had languished under strict military rule that led to international isolation and sanctions. As the generals loosened their grip, culminating in Aung San Suu Kyi’s rise to leadership in 2015 elections, the international community responded by lifting most sanctions and pouring investment into the country. The coup took place following November elections, which Suu Kyi’s party won overwhelmingly and the military contests as fraudulent.


Suu Kyi appeared in court in person for the first time since the coup on Monday on a variety of charges, amid threats by the military to disband her National League for Democracy party which won 82% of the vote in November’s election. Her lawyer, Min Min Soe, said Suu Kyi wanted to tell Myanmar’s people that the party was founded for them, and “the NLD will exist as long as the people exist.”

Schraner Burgener called the military’s attempt to ban the NLD “unacceptable” and said, “I also hope the NLD will survive because this is the will of the people.”

The UN envoy had an hour-long meeting with the junta’s military commander, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, on the sidelines of a meeting last month of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, known as ASEAN, which includes Myanmar. ASEAN issued a five-point action plan that calls for stopping violence, constructive dialogue, appointment of an ASEAN special envoy as mediator, humanitarian aid and the mediator’s visit to Myanmar.

But Schraner Burgener said a day later general Hlaing said he would consider the five points when the situation in Myanmar is stable. And on Sunday he reportedly said in an interview with Chinese television “that he doesn’t see those five points can be implemented.”

“So clearly it’s up to ASEAN how to react,” she said. “Clearly, we should be aware that time is ticking and we have not a lot of time to see action on the ground, because time will just play in the hands of the military junta.”

Schraner Burgener said the Tatmadaw declared on Sunday that it had changed the rules for the retirement age of the commander-in-chief which means Hlaing “could stay for life in this position.”

After her meeting with general Hlaing, which they agreed to keep private, the U.N. envoy asked to go to Myanmar to continue the discussion, but she said he replied “still it’s not the right time.” She said she isn’t giving up her efforts because she believes people would probably be encouraged by her presence. She still has an office in the capital, Naypyitaw, and said she receives daily reports from many people in the country.

Schraner Burgener stressed that the UN is trying to stop the violence, which started with the military coup.

“Clearly it’s sad to see that people have to use arms,” she said.

Local citizens have formed a so-called People’s Defence Force with the National Unity Government, which “must try and bring them under a single command structure,” Schraner Burgener said, and protesters are shifting to offencive actions. Every day, she added, “explosions” happen anywhere, which is scaring the people.

Schraner Burgener said ethnic armed groups told her in meetings that they support the people and now have “a common enemy,” but she said it’s difficult to see how their mainly home-made weapons can go up against “a very strong army who have a lot of lethal weapons.”

Myanmar civil war looms as civilian fighters strike back, UN says

Handmade weapons and minimal training may be no match for the military, which staged a coup in February

The attacks are part of a wider upsurge in violence that has occurred since the military overthrew elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1. AFP

A UN envoy said on Monday that a recent spate of attacks by increasingly organised civilian fighters on Myanmar's security forces is pushing the country closer towards civil war.

UN negotiator Christine Schraner Burgener said so-called People’s Defence Force (PDF) units have staged a series of strikes against police and security forces in recent days.

The attacks are part of a wider upsurge in violence that has occurred since the military overthrew elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1 and then launched a deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

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“Protesters have started to shift from defensive to the offensive, with sometimes home-made weapons or receiving military training from certain ethnic armed organisations,” Ms Schraner Burgener told reporters via video link from Thailand.

“The people are really frustrated and fearing attacks. And they just told me that they need to have self-defence. And if this leads to a civil war – [it] could happen.”


PDF fighters seized a police station in the town of Mobye on Sunday, killing at least 13 soldiers, torching the building and detaining four men, likely police officers, according to local media.

Ms Schraner Burgener said PDF units were setting off “explosions” at military targets across the country and that there is a “huge long list” of reports she has collected about attacks staged by the increasingly organised armed civilians.

An anti-coup shadow government is stitching together PDF units from across the country “under a single command structure”, added the UN envoy, though she questioned whether it could effectively threaten the military, known as the Tatmadaw.

“The weapons, they are mostly handmade,” Ms Schraner Burgener said in answer to a question from The National.

“It's difficult to combat with a very strong army [that] still has a lot of lethal weapons.”

Some ethnic militias that have fought the central government for greater autonomy for decades have rallied behind the protesters, bringing fighting to the peripheries of the country.

At the weekend, shooting broke out near the Chinese border and an armed ethnic group opposed to the junta launched an attack on a jade mining town near the Indian border.

Myanmar has been in chaos and its economy paralysed since the putsch. More than 800 people have died and more than 5,000 have been arrested since the military moved to crack down on dissent.

The country’s deposed leader Ms Suu Kyi appeared in person at a court hearing on Monday for the first time since her government was ousted by the military, her lawyer told Reuters.

The 75-year-old appeared to be in good health and held a face-to-face meeting with her legal team for about 30 minutes before the hearing, said her lawyer Thae Maung Maung.

Ms Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who struggled for decades to build up democracy in the country, is among the thousands of people detained since the coup. She faces charges that include illegally possessing walkie-talkie radios to violating a state secrets law.

Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing has justified his power grab by citing alleged electoral fraud in the November elections, which Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won in a landslide.