'This was fear': Imperial CEO hears of impacts from oilsands leaks, apologizes

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 


OTTAWA — The head of Imperial Oil heard Thursday how a nine-month delay before informing downstream communities about a seeping tailings pond on a company oilsands mine created weeks of fear and rumours.



"This was not uncertainty, this was fear," Conservative member of Parliament Laila Goodridge told Imperial CEO Brad Corson, who was testifying before the House of Commons environment and sustainability committee.

The hearing was struck after two releases of toxic oilsands tailings water from the Kearl mine north of Fort McMurray, Alta. The committee was questioning Corson on why it took so long for First Nations and governments to find out what was happening with both the tailings pond seepage and overflow from a mine containment pond.

Goodridge, who represents Fort McMurray, said she visited one of the First Nations communities during that nine-month gap.

"I had elders telling me, 'We don't know what's going on, but don't drink the water,'" she said. "There was just a vacuum of information.

"People were afraid."

Corson repeatedly apologized for keeping people in the dark.

"I am deeply apologetic," he said.

"Imperial strives to build strong and lasting relationships with Indigenous communities based on mutual respect, trust and shared prosperity. We have broken this trust."

Seepage, originally described as discoloured water, was discovered in May. Corson acknowledged Imperial knew by August it was tailings, which have since been found to have left levels of toxic chemicals exceeding environmental limits in immediately adjacent waters.

But no notification was provided until February to leaders of six area First Nations.

"We did not speak directly with the leaders and we did not provide regular updates," he said. "We didn't want to go back to the communities until we fully understood the situation and had a plan."

Corson faced repeated questions about what Imperial was doing to clean up the mess.

He repeated findings that suggest no effects to area wildlife or to downstream drinking water.

He blamed the overflow on equipment and process failures, and the seepage on a layer of groundwater that was shallower than anticipated.

He said the company has 200 people working on remediation. It has dug trenches to intercept the ongoing seepage and installed more than 300 wells to pump it out and monitor its composition. It won't happen again, he said.

"I do believe (the pond) is a safe structure," he said.

Michael McLeod, an MP from the Northwest Territories riding of Deh Cho downstream from Kearl, was skeptical.

"As long as (the tailings ponds) exist, we're under the threat of leakage," he said.

"I've had the reassurances all my life that this isn't going to happen. Yet here we are."

Corson said he supported plans from federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault to create a working group with different levels of government, First Nations and industry to improve communication around what goes on in the oilsands. The group would also address concerns about seepage from all oilsands tailings ponds.

"The concept of bringing stakeholders together ... to work together to improve the communication process and to improve the management of tailing for this industry is positive," he said.

On Monday, the committee heard from First Nations leaders, who expressed fear and anger about how their communities were left ignorant about what was going on while their people continued to use lands next to the releases. They said the Alberta Energy Regulator has lost its credibility and called for it to be disbanded.

Next Monday, the committee expects to hear from Laurie Pushor, head of the Alberta regulator.

The committee hearings are one of three investigations going on into the Kearl releases. Alberta's Information Commissioner has begun a probe into whether the regulator had a duty to inform the public as soon as it heard about the problem, and the regulator's board is commissioning its own third-party review.

The environmental group Greenpeace is also calling for Imperial to be charged over releases of the toxic wastewater.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 20, 2023.

— By Bob Weber in Edmonton

The Canadian Press

Hydro-Québec scores legal victory in Maine over $1B US transmission line project

Story by CBC/Radio-Canada • Yesterday 

Hydro-Québec has scored an important legal victory in a courtroom south of the border to allow its $1-billion US transmission-line project in Maine to go ahead.


Maine Superior Court has ruled in favour of Hydro-Québec and its U.S. partners in a court case regarding the utility's project to build a transmission line.© Paul Chiasson/Canadian Press

The transmission line, which would span 336 kilometres between Quebec and Maine, is a pivotal part of the provincial utility's plan to sell hydroelectricity to the commonwealth of Massachusetts.

On Thursday, Maine Superior Court ruled in favour of Hydro-Québec and its U.S. partners. According to local media reports, the court found that the project already had the necessary permits prior to being rejected by 59 per cent of voters in a referendum in November 2021. Work was suspended a few weeks later.

Last August, the Maine Supreme Court ruled that referendum was unconstitutional. It also sent the case back to the Superior Court level in order to have a ruling on the issue of permits.

Related video: Hydro-Québec needs to bury power lines to minimize future outages, expert says (cbc.ca) Duration 3:17 View on Watch

Hydro-Québec's partner in Maine, NECEC, has already spent nearly $450 million US on the project, which is about 43 per cent of the total projected cost, according to documents presented in court.

If the project were abandoned, Hydro-Québec estimates that it would lose nearly $530 million on top of potentially losing $10 billion in revenue over 20 years.

The utility also claimed it had spent an additional $160 million as of the end of last year in connection with agreements it has struck in connection with the project.

The utility has said that the deal with the state of Massachusetts would reduce greenhouse gases by three million tonnes, the equivalent of taking 700,000 cars off the road.

"We are satisfied with the ruling. This was our biggest legal obstacle to the project," said Lynn St-Laurent, a spokesperson for Hydro-Québec.

Hydro-Québec had initially hoped for the transmission line to be up and running by December 2022, but the legal wrangling caused significant delays.

St-Laurent said it's too early to know when work can resume and when the project will be completed, especially since there is a possibility that Thursday's ruling will be appealed.

Microsoft agrees to buy $50m Foxconn parcel in Wisconsin

Story by The Canadian Press • Wednesday


MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Microsoft has agreed to buy a $50 million parcel of land in southeastern Wisconsin meant for Foxconn after the world's largest electronics manufacturer failed to fulfill grandiose promises to build a massive facility that would employ thousands of workers.



Microsoft plans to build a $1 billion data center on the 315-acre (127-hectare) parcel in Mount Pleasant, a village of about 27,000 people in Racine County, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of Milwaukee. It's unclear how many people the center might employ. Paul Englis, Microsoft's director of global community research and engagement, told the Racine County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that such centers typically employ 300 to 400 people.

The village already is home to a Foxconn Technology Group manufacturing facility. The Taiwan-based company is best known for making Apple iPhones. The company announced plans in 2017 to build a $10 billion facility in Mount Pleasant that would employ 13,000 people.

Wisconsin's governor at the time, Republican Scott Walker, and then-President Donald Trump praised the decision, with Trump boasting the plant would be the “eighth wonder of the world.”

The state agreed to provide Foxconn with nearly $3 billion in tax breaks. The company never delivered on its promises and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers scaled back the tax breaks to $80 million contingent on the number of jobs created and investments. The company qualified for just $8.6 million in tax credits last year after creating 768 eligible jobs and making a $77.4 million capital investment by the end of 2021.

According to a fact sheet describing the Microsoft project compiled by southeastern Wisconsin economic development groups, the parcel of land is part of a tax-increment financing district that includes the Foxconn campus. Property taxes collected in such districts can be used to subsidize development.

Foxconn spent $60 million to help Mount Pleasant officials buy the property to create the district, said Mia Tripi, a spokesperson for the village and Racine County.

Foxconn would receive the proceeds from the land sale to Microsoft as partial reimbursement of what Foxconn spent to acquire land for the district in 2017, according to the fact sheet. Microsoft would be eligible to recoup 42% of property taxes paid on new construction, up to $5 million annually.

Microsoft must begin the first phase of construction by July 2026 and begin the second phase by July 2033.

The tech sector has been contracting after pandemic-era expansions brought on a boom in demand for workplace software. Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, hasn't been immune to the trend, announcing in January that it planned to cut 10,000 workers and consolidate leased office locations. Company officials said then that the layoffs amounted to less than 5% of their total employee base.

___

This story has been corrected to show that Paul Englis spoke to the Racine County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday — not Thursday.

Todd Richmond, The Associated Press

Is Pierre Poilievre deliberately muddying the waters on the CBC's Twitter label?

Story by David Said, PhD Candidate/Researcher, Political Science, University of Guelph 

THE CONVERSATION • Yesterday 

Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, is attempting to mislead Canadians into believing that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is an untrustworthy news source after it was labelled “government-funded media” by Elon Musk’s Twitter.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre rises during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in March 2023.© THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick Doyle

In response, CBC paused its activity on Twitter, objecting to any suggestion the government has any control over its journalism.

Poilievre is suggesting Twitter’s designation is proof the CBC lacks editorial independence and is a Liberal government propaganda tool.

But that’s not what Twitter’s label is actually suggesting. For Poilievre to try to persuade Canadians that the label confirms CBC is an extension of the Liberal government is disingenuous and improperly discredits the legitimacy of government-funded enterprises.

Public plea

In early April, Poilievre made a public request to Musk to label the CBC “government-funded media,” saying Canadians should be protected against disinformation and manipulation by state media. From the outset, Poilievre was conflating news organizations that receive government funding as public broadcasters to state media outlets, which are controlled editorially by ruling governments.

After the request was granted, he again took to Twitter to signal that the public broadcaster has officially been exposed as “government-funded media,” thereby suggesting that it can no longer be considered trustworthy.

What Poilievre apparently forgot to mention is that there are important differences in Twitter’s seemingly arbitrary verification labels. Failing to explain these differences suggests he’s just trying to score political points or, worse, is intentionally misleading Canadians.

According to Twitter’s media account label policies, there’s a distinction between the “government-funded” and “state-affiliated” labels.

The “government-funded” title is used to indicate that some or all of the media outlet’s funding is provided by government.

The “state-affiliated” label, on the other hand, is used to describe media outlets that are directly controlled by the state in terms of editorial content via a variety of ways, including financial resources, direct or indirect political pressure or control over the production and distribution of media content.

Not a warning

The “government-funded” label doesn’t appear to suggest any sort of warning or raise cause for concern about the outlet’s objectivity and independence. Instead, it reads simply as describing a media entity that receives funding from the government.

The “state-affiliated” label, however, is an indication of political interference in a media outlet’s journalism.

Poilievre appears to deliberately conflate the two labels, which suggests he wants Canadians to believe that the Liberal government is exerting direct political control over the CBC because it receives funding from the government.

Not only is this misleading but it appears to exploit three connected challenges:

Most Canadians are unaware of how government agencies and systems work;

The majority of Canadians get their news from social media;

Younger Canadians are more trusting of information received from social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Grasping the nuances

Not everyone understands the nuances of how Canadian government works and fewer recognize the complexity of the institutions that make up the administrative state, which the CBC is part of as a Crown corporation.

In order for the public to be protected against disinformation, the complexities of the Canadian government shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand the way they apparently were by a spokesperson for CBC. That spokesperson insisted that all Canadians know the CBC/Radio-Canada is publicly funded and its editorial independence is protected by law via the federal Broadcasting Act.

Like many other Crown corporations — including Canada Post, Via Rail and the Bank of Canada — the CBC is a state-owned enterprise designed to carry out functions at an arm’s length from the government. Crown corporations operate similarly to large for-profit companies, but they’re public organizations that fulfil both commercial and public policy objectives.

In light of this, there’s nothing unsurprising or scandalous about designating the CBC as “government-funded” since it’s a Crown corporation, not the arm of a political party. The CBC has cast a critical eye on governments of all stripes and at all levels since its inception, whether those governments were Conservative, Liberal or NDP.

The CBC logo is projected onto a screen in Toronto in 2019

 THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tijana Martin

Taxpayer funds

Nearly two-thirds of the CBC’s funding come from taxpayers and is therefore subjected to parliamentary oversight. The public broadcaster maintains editorial independence, regardless of what party’s in power, and receives its funding through a vote in Parliament.

Overlooking this fact makes it easier to believe that the CBC perpetuates “Trudeau propaganda,” which is no more true than if the CBC is accused of peddling “Poilievre propaganda” if he wins the next federal election.

This doesn’t mean the CBC, like any news organization, is without flaws — and perhaps there’s cause to re-evaluate the role Canada’s national broadcaster plays in the country’s rapidly evolving society.

But misleading Canadians by conflating Twitter’s media account verification labels, as Poilievre has done, is not the way forward.

While Poilievre is correct that Canadians should be shielded from disinformation and manipulation, they should also be cautious of politicians misleading them on complex issues regarding the independence and impartiality of government agencies.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

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Clorox to cut 4% of non-production workforce

Story by Reuters • 

(Reuters) - Clorox Co on Thursday said it would cut about 200 positions, or 4% of its non-production workforce, as it looks to keep a lid on costs amid worries of an economic slowdown.


The Pine-Sol manufacturer joins a list of companies - from tech firms to retailers such as Bed Bath & Beyond Inc and Wayfair Inc - that have reduced their workforce in the face of growing recessionary fears in the United States.

"We're on track to generate ongoing annual savings of approximately $75 million to $100 million, with benefits beginning this fiscal year," Chief Executive Officer Linda Rendle said in a blog post.

"Transformation isn't a one-time event, and we'll continue to implement changes as we execute this transformation," she added.

The household staples maker said in February that it had planned for more layoffs over the next few months in a bid to rein in costs.

In September, Clorox said as a result of its streamlining efforts, it had eliminated nearly 100 positions in 2022, or roughly 2% of its non-production workforce.

As of June 30, 2022, the company employed about 9,000 people worldwide, with 72% in the United States.

(Reporting by Granth Vanaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

Twitter removes section of Hateful Conduct Policy protecting transgender users

Story by MobileSyrup • Tuesday

Twitter has changed its Hateful Conduct Policy to get rid of protections for its transgender users, which was first spotted by the nonprofit organization Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and reported by The Verge.



In the Hateful Conduct Policy, Twitter used to have a line that included “repeated slurs, tropes or other content that intends to dehumanize, degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category,” but removed the part that read “targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals.”

GLAAD used Wayback Machine to learn that Twitter removed the inclusion of misgendering and deadnaming people back on April 8th. Twitter originally added the misgendering and deadnaming back in 2018 to cover transgender users.


DailymotionCalls for greater legal protection for transgender people
1:48

Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, states that this is another example of how unsafe the company is for its users and advertisers.

TikTok and Pinterest prohibit misgendering and deadnaming in their hate and harassment policies. Meta has also stated that it will “prohibit violent or dehumanizing content directed against people who identify as LGBTQ+ and remove claims about someone’s gender identity upon their request.”

According to The Verge, Twitter hasn’t completely gotten rid of its protections; however, the choice to remove misgendering and deadnaming seems like it’s purposefully attacking the trans community.

Source: GLAAD, The Verge

FASCIST FLORIDA

DeSantis signs bill eliminating unanimous jury decisions for death sentences

Story by Sydney Kashiwagi • Yesterday 

Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Thursday that will no longer require juries agree unanimously to recommend death sentences, reducing the number of jurors need to recommend a death sentence to the lowest threshold of any state with capital punishment.

SB 450 reduces the number of jurors needed to recommend a death sentence from 12 to 8.

The bill was prompted by a jury’s decision last year to not hand the death penalty to Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz. A jury recommended Cruz receive a life sentence without the possibility of parole instead for the February 2018 shooting at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Of the 12 jurors in Cruz’s trial, three voted against the death penalty.

The move left some family members of the victims disappointed and upset.

“A few months ago, we endured another tragic failure of the justice system. Today’s change in Florida law will hopefully save other families from the injustices we have suffered,” Ryan Petty, the father of Parkland victim Alaina Petty, said in a statement Thursday.

Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, an anti-death penalty group, warned that the new law would be challenged immediately and could lead to more wrongful convictions.

“If one of the primary justifications for the death penalty is to provide solace and finality to victims, instituting this new unconstitutional statute almost certainly does the opposite,” FADP’s Director Maria DeLiberato, said in a statement. “This change is a return to Florida’s prior scheme - which the United States Supreme Court has already found unconstitutional - and which required nearly 100 new penalty phase trials. Many of those are still pending. This new law will be immediately challenged, and there will be extensive litigation, plunging the system - and victims’ families in particular - into decades of uncertainty and chaos.”

The ACLU of Florida also slammed the new bill.

“Florida already has the highest number of death row exonerations in the country. With this bill and others, Florida is rapidly widening the net of who will be sent to death row with absolutely no consideration for the flaws that will inevitably lead to the harm of more innocent people,” Tiffani Lennon, the executive director of the ACLU of Florida, said in a statement.

Florida once required a simple majority, or 7-5, vote for a death sentence. But the US Supreme Court ruled the state’s sentencing process unconstitutional in 2016, because a judge was allowed to overrule a life recommendation and impose the death penalty.

That was followed by a Florida Supreme Court ruling that found the jury must be unanimous to impose the death penalty, and Florida lawmakers adopted the unanimity requirement soon after. But the Florida Supreme Court reversed that ruling in 2020, and while acknowledging the legislature had already changed the law, the ruling gave the legislature discretion to revise the statute.

“Once a defendant in a capital case is found guilty by a unanimous jury, one juror should not be able to veto a capital sentence,” DeSantis said in a statement. “I’m proud to sign legislation that will prevent families from having to endure what the Parkland families have and ensure proper justice will be served in the state of Florida.”

SB 450 found broad support among Florida lawmakers. The legislation’s sponsors framed it as an attempt to curtail the influence of “activist jurors” who, critics say, lie about their openness to considering the death penalty when questioned during jury selection. The bill leaves in place requirements a jury be unanimous to find guilt, and Florida judges will still be allowed to overrule a death penalty recommendation and impose a life sentence instead.

Additionally, if less than 8 jurors determine a defendant should be sentenced to death, the jury’s recommendation to the court needs to be a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, according to the bill.

Nearly all 27 states that have the death penalty require a unanimous jury to recommend or sentence a capital defendant to death. Currently, the only exception is Alabama, where a judge can impose a death sentence if 10 of 12 jurors recommend it.

CNN’s Melissa Alonso and Dakin Andone contributed to this report.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com

US gun safety group’s chilling new ad calls for assault weapons ban

Story by Joan E Greve • Yesterday 

A gun safety group has created a provocative new ad campaign calling for the renewal of a federal assault weapons ban, in the wake of several devastating mass shootings across the US that involved the use of military-style rifles.

The ad, released on Thursday by the gun safety group Brady and shared exclusively with the Guardian, features a US navy veteran of the Vietnam war reading a chilling account of coming under gunfire and being struck by a bullet.

“I remember someone picking me up as they ran. They put me down on the floor and covered me with blankets,” the veteran says in the ad. “Someone was screaming – took me a moment to realize it was me. But I survived.”

The veteran then reveals that the writer of those words was not a fellow service member but Josh Stepakoff, who was six years old when a mass shooter attacked his Jewish community center in 1999. The ad ends with the message, “Assault weapons belong in war zones, not our communities. Ban assault weapons.”

The campaign also includes images showing a casket draped in an American flag, an honor given to soldiers killed in battle, in everyday places that have been the site of mass shootings, such as schools and grocery stores.

“These weapons and their tactical features are designed for the battlefield and not for civilian hands,” said Christian Heyne, Brady’s vice-president of policy. “These are not scenarios that exist in the rest of the industrialized world. This ad is really attempting to sort of tell that story in a powerful way.”

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According to a Politico-Morning Consult poll taken in late January, 65% of US voters support banning assault-style weapons while 26% oppose the policy. Heyne suggested that the ad could help viewers better understand the very real ramifications of this policy debate.

“As advocates, this is one of our chief goals, to connect with people in an emotional way,” Heyne said. “We’ve got to break through a lot of this noise and remind people that what we’re talking about is very clearly and very simply that weapons of war are tearing our communities apart.”

Brady’s push for the renewal of the 1994 federal assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004, comes just weeks after another school shooting devastated a US community and reinvigorated calls for action to address gun violence. Last month, a shooter wielding an AR-15 military-style rifle attacked the Covenant school in Nashville, killing three children and three adults. The shooting prompted Joe Biden to once again call on Congress to pass a federal assault weapons ban.

“We’ve continued to see Republican officials across America double down on dangerous bills that make our schools, places of worship and communities less safe,” Biden said earlier this month. “Congress must ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, require safe storage of firearms, eliminate gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability, and require background checks for all gun sales, and state officials must do the same.”

Last year, House Democrats managed to pass a bill banning assault weapons, but the proposal stalled in the Senate. Now that Republicans control the House, Democrats’ chances of passing the bill during this session of Congress are virtually nonexistent. But gun safety groups have seen progress at the state level; Washington is expected to soon enact an assault weapons ban, becoming the 10th US state to do so.

Still, gun safety advocates hope to see action at the federal level, and they point to data suggesting an assault weapons ban could help make mass shootings less deadly and may even prevent them from happening. One analysis released in 2019 found that mass-shooting fatalities were 70% less likely to occur when the federal assault weapons ban was in effect, while another study from 2021 concluded that the ban prevented 11 public mass shootings between 1994 and 2004.

The data underscores the urgent need to take action against assault weapons at the federal level, Heyne said. He said inaction is no longer an option.

“The answer can’t be to just put our hands up in the air and to do nothing. If we want to stop the reality that we’re living in, it will require proactive steps to accomplish it,” Heyne said. “Our leaders should have the courage to protect the most vulnerable among us.”

Montana Republicans are trying to censure a transgender legislator for castigating them about a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors

Story by mhall@businessinsider.com (Madison Hall) • Yesterday 


Montana Public Affairs Network© Montana Public Affairs Network

Democratic Montana Rep. Zooey Zephyr is the state's first openly transgender legislator.
She gave an impassioned speech on Tuesday admonishing Republicans for trying to ban gender-affirming care for children.
Following her speech, Montana's Freedom Caucus demanded Zephyr be censured.

A group of Republicans in Montana's House of Representatives are calling to censure state Rep. Zooey Zephyr for admonishing the legislature for attempting to pass a bill banning children from receiving gender-affirming care.

"If you are forcing a trans child to go through puberty when they are trans, that is tantamount to torture. This body should be ashamed," Zephyr said.

Following Zephyr's comments, Montana House Majority Leader Sue Vinton rose in opposition.

"I speak on behalf of our caucus. We will not be shamed by anybody in this chamber. We are better than that," Vinton said.

Related video: Republican-led state legislatures target gender affirming care (MSNBC)

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MSNBCHouse Republicans pass transgender school sports ban

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KTVQ Billings, MTGianforte sends gender-affirming care bill back to Legislature

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"If you vote yes on this bill, I hope the next time there's an invocation, when you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands," Zephyr responded.

The GOP-led legislature passed the governor's requested amendments to the Youth Health Protection Act later Tuesday, barring children from receiving access to puberty blockers and other gender-affirming healthcare, though it hasn't been signed by Gov. Greg Gianforte just yet.

Later that day, the Montana Freedom Caucus took to Twitter, demanding Zephyr be censured "For attempting to shame the Montana legislative body and by using inappropriate and uncalled-for language during a floor debate over amendments concerning Senate Bill 99."

Additionally, the caucus also misgendered Zephyr, the first openly transgender member of the Montana legislature, in the letter.

House Minority Leader Kim Abbott, in a statement to the Helena Independent Record, admonished the Montana Freedom Caucus for disrespecting her colleague.

"The language used by the so-called Freedom Caucus, including the intentional and repeated misgendering of Rep. Zephyr, is blatantly disrespectful and the farthest thing imaginable from the 'commitment to civil discourse' that these letter writers demand. I find it incredibly ironic that these legislators are making demands of others that they refuse to abide by themselves," Abbott said.

Zephyr defended herself in a press release on Wednesday, standing by her comments.

"I stand by my accurate description of the devastating consequences of banning essential medical care for transgender youth," Zephyr wrote. "The recently passed Senate Bill 99 is part of an alarming trend of anti-trans legislation in our state."

Despite the Montana Freedom Caucus' call to censure Zephyr, there's yet to be an official vote on the matter, and it's unlikely a censure vote would pass — the Montana Free Press reported Abbott said there's a "zero percent chance" of it actually happening.

‘Nobody is left’: brutal fighting lays waste to wealthy central Khartoum

Story by Jason Burke and Zeinab Mohammed Salih in Khartoum • Yesterday 

On one street is a small cafe where diplomats, successful businesspeople and visiting dignitaries enjoyed smoothies and burgers under umbrellas set against the blistering sun. On another is a showroom for custom-designed kitchens imported from Europe, a once well stocked pharmacy and a fast-food joint. Down dusty potholed roads, there are villas behind high walls and apartment blocks where chandeliers hang above shining marble stairways.


Photograph: Marwan Ali/AP© Provided by The Guardian

These central Khartoum neighbourhoods, once the most sought-after addresses in Sudan’s capital city, are now so dangerous that residents cannot wait to flee. For almost a week, they have been the stage for a brutal power struggle, shattered by shelling, grenades and automatic rifle fire that trapped tens of thousands in their homes.

Some have managed to escape. On Thursday, people continued to stream out of central Khartoum and, to a lesser extent, the twin city of Omdurman across the Nile.

Omer Belal, a resident of Khartoum 2, a neighbourhood close to major ministries and the fiercely contested international airport, has sent his family to distant relatives in al-Hajj Yousif, on the eastern outskirts of the city.

“I could be the last person to leave. I am just waiting for the explosions to stop for a bit,” Belal said. “There was random artillery strike and my neighbour’s house was hit by a huge rocket. Entire neighbourhoods and the areas around us are empty … Nobody is left here.”

Nearly 300 people have been killed and thousands more injured since the fighting erupted on Saturday, according to numerous estimates. Medics say the true toll is likely to be much higher.

The conflict has pitted soldiers loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of Sudan’s transitional governing sovereign council, and the regular army against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti. Their power struggle has derailed a shift to civilian rule and raised fears of a long, brutal civil war.

Both came to power in 2019 after the fall of the dictator Omar al-Bashir, who had ruled for nearly 30 years. They then joined forces to marginalise civilians and crush the pro-democracy protest movement that had been crucial in the fall of the former regime. Now they have turned their guns on each other in an attempt to win uncontested control of Sudan’s precious resources and its crumbling but still powerful state.

Related video: Khartoum's residents search for safety and food as fighting enters fifth day (France 24) Duration 1:41  View on Watch

The wealthy neighbourhoods in the centre of Khartoum have suffered most in this brutal fight because they are closest to key strategic locations, such as the defence headquarters where Burhan is believed to have his command bunker, the presidential palace and the airport.

But the damage also has another cause. Hemedti and his fighters see themselves as underdog insurgents from Sudan’s margins who are taking on an establishment that has monopolised power and wealth for too long. The young men who fill the ranks of the RSF are recruited in Hemedti’s home region – distant Darfur, 530 miles (850km) to the south-west of the capital – and see the streets where they are now fighting as bastions of the political, cultural and economic elite that has paid them little or no attention.

So too does their commander.

“Bashir kept the relatively affluent elite onside and Burhan has been trying to do the same … Hemedti seems less interested in their support and seems unconcerned about collateral casualties or damage to their neighbourhoods,” said Dr Nick Westcott, the director of the Royal African Society and a professor of diplomacy at SOAS in London.

“The RSF soldiers have little to lose. They are experienced and tough fighters. The Sudanese armed forces are used to living in barracks, regular meals et cetera, so Hemedti feels confident he can prevail.”

Of those fleeing the centre of Khartoum, many have headed for Wad-Madani, a city 80 miles south-east of the capital, where thousands spent their first night in their cars on the streets

“People just took anything that was going on to the south of Khartoum and fled, whether on a lorry or a minibus … Many of us do not even have any cash,” said Majid Maalia, a human rights lawyer and former resident of Khartoum 2 whose apartment was hit by an airstrike shortly after he left on Thursday morning.

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on Thursday became the latest foreign leader to call for an end to the conflict, in separate phone calls with Burhan and Hemedti. But even a temporary truce seems a distant prospect and successive ceasefires have collapsed within minutes.

“There is no other option but the military solution,” Burhan told the television network Al Jazeera.

In 2019, Hemedti made a chilling promise to a crowd of supporters in northern Khartoum. Speaking days after his RSF forces had attacked and dispersed a peaceful pro-democracy sit-in in front of the military headquarters, killing more than 200 people, the warlord said that if the protests had continued for a month rather than just the three days, his men would have reduced Khartoum to a “ghost town” resembling those in Darfur depopulated by decades of conflict. “These expensive buildings … [would] only be inhabited by cats,” Hemedti said.

For Belal and other residents of what has now become a battleground, this vision has been realised and there is little hope of any return to pre-conflict normality even when the fighting eventually stops.

“If you survive the shooting, you will die with hunger,” he said. “This is an absurd war.”