Swiss museum probes 'king of clowns' Nazi links


Agnès PEDRERO
Fri, 23 June 2023 

Born in 1880, Grock -- real name Adrien Wettach -- grew up in the Bernese Jura mountains above the city of Biel in northern Switzerland (Fabrice COFFRINI)

Grock became known as the "king of clowns" but the Swiss entertainer who made the world laugh is now in the spotlight over his connections with Adolf Hitler.

A Swiss museum, which has recently acquired Grock's archive, is researching links between the performer -- considered by peers to be the greatest musical clown of his time -- and the dictator of Nazi Germany.

In the first half of the 20th century, Grock's success rivalled that of Charlie Chaplin. But while Chaplin satirised Hitler, Grock seems to have welcomed him into his dressing room.

Last month, the Neues Museum Biel took possession of around a thousand items from Grock's collection.

Sound recordings from shows, letters, photographs and musical scores were donated by Grock's 74-year-old great-nephew Raymond Naef.

Via Naef, Grock's stage costumes and musical instruments were donated by Switzerland's Knie family circus dynasty.

But the Neues Museum Biel did not want to put on a Grock exhibition without first exploring the artist's life off-stage, where he developed a reputation as a shrewd businessman.

"It's the museum's responsibility. It's absolutely necessary," the art and history museum's director Bernadette Walter told AFP.

- Hitler telegram -

Wettach published several autobiographies and his great-nephew Naef wrote a book and curated a 2002 exhibition about Grock's career -- but until now, no historian has investigated the nature of his Nazi connections.

"Grock says in his autobiography that Hitler came to his dressing room, and that Hitler saw his shows 13 times," said Walter, though the museum has not yet verified the claim.

The museum did not consider turning down his archive, which entails conducting lots of research -- something Walter compared to the investigations that cultural institutions carry out into artworks looted by the Nazis.

"A museum must also tell stories that are not always spotless," the director said, arguing that the past should not simply be forgotten.

At a May 12 online auction, the museum tried to buy, for research purposes, a seasonal greetings telegram that Grock sent to Hitler in 1942.

"We know that he met Hitler and (Joseph) Goebbels," the Nazi propaganda chief, and that he performed for wounded German soldiers, said Walter, but whether he had any political allegiances remains a mystery.

Grock performed in Germany before the Nazis came to power in 1933, and the museum wants to see whether he adapted his stage show afterwards.

Grock always said he was apolitical and his autobiography mentions his shows in Britain, France and the United States, said Walter.

"He played when he was paid. We know that Grock was opportunistic, but that cannot be used as an excuse."

- No joke -

Laurent Diercksen, who wrote the 1999 book "Grock: An Extraordinary Destiny", said the acrobat, juggler and multi-instrumentalist "didn't give a damn about politics" and focused on "success".

"We cannot judge him on a single letter, an isolated act or one revelation taken out of context," the journalist told AFP, finding it a shame that the great music hall artiste might primarily be remembered for his "so-called Nazi sympathies".

Born in 1880, Grock -- real name Adrien Wettach -- grew up in the Bernese Jura mountains above the city of Biel in northern Switzerland.

He chose his pseudonym in the early 1900s, when he replaced Brock in Brick and Brock, a famous duo of the time.

Grock died in 1959 aged 79, with his sketches known to audiences around the world.

"He brought laughter to an era when there wasn't much to laugh about," said his great-nephew, who nonetheless recalled that Grock's connections with the Nazis had caused family disputes.

But he wanted Grock's collection to be publicly accessible for historical research and potentially be exhibited, adding that people needed to distinguish between the art and the artiste.

"We do not destroy the houses built by the architect Le Corbusier simply because he was also a bit of a fascist," Naef concluded.

apo/rjm/rox/ach

UK
Inspirational mother who recently battled cancer, covid and norovirus reaches 100


Jessica Barnes
Fri, 23 June 2023 

Louisa Langley will celebrate the milestone birthday this Saturday (Image: Supplied)

FORMER Rylands Wire worker says she must reach her 100th birthday because she has ‘just renewed her fridge-freezer insurance’.

Born on Halifax Close in Padgate back in 1923, Louisa Langley is described as ‘an inspiration to all her family’.

One of four siblings, and having grown a flourishing family of her own, Louisa will soon be expecting a letter from King Charles III and Queen Camilla, as she celebrates her milestone birthday this Saturday.


Starting work in the office at Rylands Wire Works as a teenager, this is where Louisa eventually met her beloved husband and the father of her children, Walter.

Warrington Guardian: Louisa Langley and Walter met when they were eighteen while working at Rylands Wire works in Warrington

Louisa Langley and Walter met when they were eighteen while working at Rylands Wire works in Warrington (Image: Supplied)

A whirlwind romance, the 18-year-olds met and fell in love but only three months later Walter was called up for the Army.

Louisa’s daughter, Maureen Baxter-Smallwood said: “Dad was called away to Burma during the war and was away for three years, he was not allowed to come home.”

“Mum waited for him. He used to write poems and letters to her all the time. She still has the book of poems he wrote to her.”

Upon Walters return to Warrington after the end of the Second World War, the pair got married in 1947 at St Mary’s Church and their first child Dave was born a year later.

Warrington Guardian: Louisa and Walter married after he returned from Burma during the Second World War

Louisa and Walter married after he returned from Burma during the Second World War (Image: Supplied)

Their second child, Maureen was born a few years after that in 1953 and Louisa stayed at home to look after the children until they were of school age, when she went back to work as a cleaner at Boots in Warrington.

As a family, Maureen said how both her and her brother have ‘extremely happy childhood memories’ visiting different holiday locations across the country.

“All the holidays we went on were in this country. One of my first memories was in a Butlins Chalet.

“We used to go to Wales a lot and we had lots of happy memories.”

Maureen said how in later life, Louisa and Walter would enjoy visiting the St Stephen’s Club in Orford every weekend and would play bingo and listen to live music.

“They also loved going walking around the shops in Birchwood and they would go and use the toning tables together. They were both very active together up until their 70s and 80s.”

Sadly Walter died in 2011 and Maureen said the family did not know how their mum would continue without him.

Warrington Guardian: Louisa will celebrate her 100th birthday on Saturday surrounded by family and friends

Louisa will celebrate her 100th birthday on Saturday surrounded by family and friends (Image: Supplied)

“When dad died, we did not know if she would cope without him. He took good care of her and looked after her for all of their life together,” she said.

But as the admirable figure head she is known to be, Louisa has continued to surprise her family with her strong will and strength.

Maureen said the last decade has been particularly testing for Louisa.

“She survived cancer of the womb eight years ago. She got through it no problem.

“She said to me ‘I am not going anywhere because I have just renewed my fridge-freezer insurance for another five years’.”

After battling cancer Louisa suffered a fractured spine, before then contracting and overcoming Covid and a spout of norovirus.

“After everything that she has been through, she has come back smiling,” Maureen added.

Warrington Guardian: Louisa has battled cancer, covid and norovirus in the last 10 years of her life but has 'still come out smiling'

Louisa has battled cancer, covid and norovirus in the last 10 years of her life but has 'still come out smiling' (Image: Supplied)

Lousia now lives in a bungalow in Culcheth and receives full time care by a team of ‘adoring’ carers who are continuously caught off guard by Louisa’s impeccable sense of humour.

“The carers love her and are so good to her. She is always making them laugh.”

Summarising her mum’s character, Maureen said: “She is very tough and an inspiration to all the family.”

Louisa will be joined by her two children, six grandchildren, five great grandchildren and her great-great grandchild, along with all her family and friends and carers to celebrate her 100th birthday at the Village Club in Culcheth.

Maureen added that Louisa’s secret to living a long and healthy life is her ‘little tot of whiskey she enjoys of a night’.

AUSTERITY KILLS
UK
Opinion
I watched Cameron and Osborne at the Covid inquest. They are still in denial about the damage they inflicted on Britain

Andy Beckett
Fri, 23 June 2023 

Photograph: UK Covid-19 Inquiry/PA

David Cameron’s government feels so long ago. Seven years of almost constant Tory turmoil, upheaval in all the other parties, huge strikes and economic crises, the war in Ukraine and the pandemic catastrophe: together, they make Cameron’s calm resignation statement outside 10 Downing Street in 2016, and his jaunty humming afterwards, seem like something from another, less frightening era.

In some ways, the worse things get in this country, the better it is for Cameron’s reputation. Even the most damaging acts of his six-year tenure – from calling the Brexit referendum to imposing austerity to the military intervention in Libya – are steadily disappearing behind the subsequent disasters under Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. The social liberalism of Cameron’s premiership can be overstated: he only overcame Tory opposition to same-sex marriage with Labour support. But his liberalism seems more of an achievement now that his party has reverted to being reactionary.

Meanwhile, some voters and journalists have simply lost interest in his government. When he gave evidence at the Covid inquiry this week, half the seats in the modestly sized hearing room for reporters and members of the public were not occupied. Given how unpopular the Conservatives are currently, being semi-ignored is arguably a kind of victory.

And yet, the dividing line between the Toryism of the Cameroons, as they were once a little indulgently known, and the more obviously nasty and chaotic Conservatism that has followed is not as solid as anyone tempted to be nostalgic for the Cameron years might imagine. To a significant, yet increasingly forgotten extent, Cameron’s premiership was not a contrast to today’s Conservatism but its origin.

It was as his home secretary that Theresa May said in 2012: “The aim is to create, here in Britain, a really hostile environment for illegal immigrants.” At the same year’s Tory conference, held when half those in poverty were in working families, the chancellor, George Osborne, chose to speak instead about people “sleeping off a life on benefits”. Putting people into crude, socially divisive categories for political advantage was not something the Cameron government invented, but it was a strikingly aggressive practitioner of the strategy. The Conservative victory in the 2015 election, their first outright win for 23 years, ensured that the party would continue to divide and rule.

Both Cameron and Osborne have earned a lot of money, while millions made poorer by their policies have continued to suffer

Osborne is a less polite kind of elite Englishman than Cameron, and so during their government he often played the aggressive role. Yet Cameron’s own politics have long mixed mildness with harsher elements. In his Downing Street memoir, defensively titled For the Record and published during Johnson’s premiership, there are some indirect criticisms of unnamed Tories for making the party “less liberal” and less of “a broad church”. But there are also passages that may surprise Cameron’s centrist admirers, such as Tony Blair and Keir Starmer’s speechwriter Philip Collins. On austerity, Cameron writes: “My assessment now is that we probably didn’t cut enough … The job we started still needs to be finished.” In that crucial respect at least, he thinks his successors have not been rightwing enough.

Since being forced from office by their Brexit blunder, at the young political ages of 49 and 45 respectively, Cameron and Osborne have tried to reinvent themselves. Osborne has become a political commentator on TV, who smiles and laughs knowingly to signal his distance from the partisan scowler he used to be. Cameron, blamed more for Brexit, perhaps because of his apparent insouciance after the result, has been more low-profile, except when exposed in 2021 for lobbying the government on behalf of the disgraced financier Lex Greensill. Both Cameron and Osborne have earned a lot of money since leaving parliament, while millions made poorer by their policies have continued to suffer.

The duo’s appearance before the Covid inquiry was a rare chance, it seemed, to hold them to account for their overconfident government. It has been widely concluded by authorities on the NHS and public health that austerity worsened the pandemic, and in the hearing room Cameron sometimes seemed nervous. He took frequent sips of water, and punctuated some of his answers with small coughs and stutters.

Osborne was more prickly, listening to one question from the inquiry’s lawyer with his arms tightly folded, and talking over others. But the interrogation of each politician lasted little more than an hour, and neither lost their composure, or conceded that austerity had been an error in any way. On the contrary, they both claimed that it had made the pandemic bailouts possible, by rescuing the government’s finances. It was just the kind of move that Johnson would have made: presenting a contentious or discredited policy as a triumph.

Tories are usually confident in public. But since Cameron’s haughty premiership, despite often being unpopular and apparently out of their depth, and despite presiding over a national decline with few parallels in the rich world, this self-regard has thickened further, into a disdain for scrutiny. It frustrates the party’s enemies, and anyone else who wants to probe the government. “Please, just let me ask my question,” said the Covid inquiry’s lawyer to Osborne, as he talked over her once again.

Time may finally be running out for this version of Conservatism. As Johnson recently discovered, cocky and slapdash Tories may thrive in the theatrical parts of our political system – such as a parliament where members are usually forbidden from calling each other “liars” – but the more patient and factual world of select committees and official reports can be a much less hospitable environment.

The Covid inquiry hopes to publish an interim verdict on Britain’s “preparedness and resilience” for the pandemic in 2024, also likely to be when the next election is held. The report may make it impossible to continue to insist, as Osborne did this week, that public spending cuts had “no connection whatsoever” to the inequalities exploited by the virus.

Yet understanding how the Cameron government left us vulnerable to Covid ought to be just the start. From failing to tame the City after the financial crisis to appeasing the Tory far right, from fragmenting England’s school system to making Truss a minister for the first time, the Cameroons’ mistakes have haunted us for years. Whenever this Tory era ends, they should not be allowed to saunter away from the wreckage.

Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist

UK
Private firm to be awarded £1m health contract at new asylum accommodation site


Lizzie Dearden
Fri, 23 June 2023 

(AFP via Getty Images)

A private company is to be awarded a £1.1m contract to provide health services at one of the government’s controversial new large asylum accommodation sites.

The NHS trust covering the disused RAF Wethersfield site in Essex said it was making the agreement without any competition “for reasons of extreme urgency”, after being told 1,700 asylum seekers would be moved there.

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick announced the plan in March, but it has been delayed by legal challenges launched by the local council and residents, as well as refurbishment work and safety checks.


The transformation of Wethersfield is part of a wider government scheme to reduce the £6m-a-day cost of housing asylum seekers in hotels by using military bases, a former prison and vessels.

But costs are rapidly mounting, with The Independent previously revealing a £1.6bn contract had been handed to barge operator Corporate Travel Management, while separate funding is paid to police forces, ports, private contractors, councils and health bodies.

A new contract published on Wednesday said Commisceo Primary Care Solutions would be providing health assessments for people arriving at Wethersfield and a dedicated medical centre on-site.

It said the NHS Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board was extending and expanding an existing contract with the firm, and that the total estimated value was £1.1m over 18 months.

A document seen by The Independent said the contract was negotiated without a prior call for competition because of “extreme urgency brought about by events unforeseeable for the contracting authority”.

“The authority was informed by NHS England in Q4 2022-23 of the likely siting of asylum accommodation and support centre at Wethersfield,” it added.

“The authority was required to identify a provider of this service at pace as the initial go live was planned for April.”

The NHS trust said normal competitive procedures “could not be complied with” in the time period before it was told Wethersfield would open start housing people, adding: “As such, the authority have undertaken an analysis of the market and deemed Commisceo to be in the best position to ensure delivery of primary medical services.”

Although the notice was published on the government’s website as an “awarded contract”, NHS Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board said the document was a notice of intention and the contract had not yet been awarded.

A spokesperson said: “Arrangements are being established to meet the primary health and care needs of asylum seekers expected to be housed at Wethersfield.

“The Integrated Care System will continue to work closely with colleagues to make sure that we are able to provide appropriate care for those in need.”

Commisceo Primary Care Solutions has been operating since 2014 and already provides services for several NHS trusts, including a GP surgery at Basildon University Hospital and an urgent treatment centre in Chelmsford.

The contract said the “earliest potential start date” for Wethersfield had subsequently moved to 1 July, but the High Court will not hear a legal challenge against the government’s plans until 12 July.

Councils covering RAF Wethersfield and a Lincolnshire military base being turned into asylum accommodation launched the case after Suella Braverman declared an “emergency” to bypass normal planning permission.

They are arguing that the situation does not meet the threshold for an emergency under planning law, and that the sites are not suitable for vulnerable people in light of the pressure on local services and community impact in rural locations.

The former Wethersfield RAF base is in a rural area (PA) (PA Wire)

Ministers have argued the new sites are necessary to reduce spending on hotel places for asylum seekers, which are currently costing £6m a day, and avoid the risk of homelessness if supply runs out.

A National Audit Office report released last week said that by the end of April, the Home Office was accommodating 109,000 destitute asylum seekers, including 48,000 in hotels, because of a lack of proper accommodation and soaring decision backlogs.

While being grilled by parliament’s Home Affairs Committee, the home secretary said the new sites would “be delivered very soon, and we will be seeing asylum seekers relocated to those sites in the next few months”, and that she aimed to procure more locations for large-scale accommodation.

The Home Office said the first asylum seekers would be moving into military sites this summer, with a spokesperson adding: “Delivering accommodation on surplus military sites will provide cheaper and more orderly, suitable accommodation for those arriving in small boats whilst helping to reduce the use of hotels.

“We are continuing to work extremely closely with local councils, the local NHS and police services, to manage any impact and address the local communities’ concerns, including through substantial financial support.”

UK
Prisons ‘a potential time bomb’, Commons committee finds


Flora Bowen, PA
Fri, 23 June 2023

The prison service is a “potential time bomb”, a senior MP has said as a survey finds half of operational staff do not feel safe at work.

Discontentment with pay, working conditions, and senior management is high among the 6,582 prison officers working in England and Wales who were surveyed by the House of Commons Justice Committee.

The survey, which was carried out between February 10 and March 6 2023, was conducted as part of a wider inquiry into the staffing of prisons by the Justice Committee, with a full report due later this year.


Nearly two thirds of Band Two staff, who support prison officers with administrative tasks, said they do not feel valued for the work they do, while three quarters of staff in bands three to five, who deal directly with prisoners, agreed with this statement.

A general view of HMP Liverpool (Peter Byrne/PA)

Concerns around harassment and safety were highlighted by the survey, with 50% of staff in bands three to five agreeing they do not feel safe at the prison they work in, and less than a quarter of bands two to five staff agreeing that physical working conditions at their prison are adequate.

More than 70% of staff in band two and more than 80% of personnel in bands three to five said that staff morale is not good at the prison they work in.

Nearly three quarters of staff in bands three to five and 40% of band two staff experienced verbal abuse from prisoners in the last three months, with around one in five staff in bands two to five saying they had experienced bullying and/or verbal abuse from a colleague in that period.

These findings correlated with officers’ reported stress levels at work, with seven in ten staff in band three to five and 50 % of band two staff saying they are stressed a few times a week or more at work.

Responding to the results of the survey, chairman of the Justice Committee and Conservative MP for Bromley and Chislehurst Sir Bob Neill said: “This is a shocking survey.

“We’ve known as a committee for some time that there are severe staff shortages in prisons and that many prison officers are unhappy with their lot.

“They don’t feel they can carry out vital rehabilitation work with prisoners.

“But when I learn from this survey that fully half of our prison staff do not feel safe at work, that is still deeply concerning.

“This position is not acceptable.

“The Government risks failing in its duty of care to prison staff and prisoners alike.

“We are sitting on a potential time bomb.

“It must be defused.”

HMP Lincoln (Joe Giddens/PA)

Financial resources and management were also considered inadequate, with around two in three staff across bands two to five agreeing they do not have the tools and resources to do their job effectively.

Attitudes towards salary and benefits received were largely negative, with the large majority of staff in bands two to five saying their salary does not accurately reflect the roles and responsibilities of their job.

Similarly, around eight in 10 staff in bands three to five and six in 10 staff in band two said they were not satisfied with the benefits package they receive.

The survey’s findings also showed a lack of confidence in senior management, with nearly two thirds of staff in bands three to five saying they do not trust senior managers concerning decisions about the prison they work in.

Asked whether they planned on leaving the prison service, around one in three band two staff, and over two in five staff in bands three to five said they intended to quit in the next five years.

These reported intentions highlight an ongoing staffing issue in the service, following a loss of 600 staff in prison officer and custodial manager roles between November 2021 to November 2022, according to the Justice Committee.

A Prison Service spokesperson said: “Our hardworking frontline staff work day-in, day-out, to rehabilitate offenders and protect the public – and it is vital they have the right tools and equipment to keep them safe.

“That’s why we’re further improving safety in our jails by investing in PAVA spray and body worn cameras, as well as x-ray body scanners to keep out the dangerous contraband that fuels violence behind bars. We’re also boosting training on the job and prison officer pay to help us hire and retain the best people.”

UK
Local businesses 'named and shamed' for not paying minimum wage


Fintan McGuinness
Fri, 23 June 2023 

202 businesses were "named and shamed"

(Image: PA/Department for Business and Trade)

Two businesses with a WD postcode have been named and shamed by the government for not paying minimum wage.

The Department for Business and Trade has released a list of more than 200 employers that have failed to pay their lowest paid staff the minimum wage.

The companies have since paid back what they owe to their staff and faced financial penalties after an investigation between 2017 and 2019.

McNicholas Construction Services Limited, based in Elstree, failed to pay the minimum wage to 704 workers, meaning a total of £170,517.57 was owed.

The average arrears per worker was £242.21, owed from between January 2013 and March 2018.

Of the 202 businesses named following the investigation, McNicholas had underpaid workers by the seventh highest total, with WHSmith owing the most followed by Lloyds Pharmacy, Marks and Spencer, and Argos.

All Day Recruitment Limited, based in Rickmansworth, failed to pay £4,896.57 to 25 workers.

The average arrears per worker was £195.86 between April 2016 and January 2017.

Deducting pay from wages, failing to pay workers correctly for their working time, and paying incorrect apprenticeship rates accounted for 99% of the ways the businesses underpaid workers.

The government acknowledged not all minimum wage underpayments are intentional, but added that there is “no excuse for underpaying workers”.

‘Chilling’: Human Rights Watch, Greta Thunberg slam France for shutting down climate group

Charlotte Elton
Fri, 23 June 2023 


Climate activists in France are being “systematically targeted with repression,” Greta Thunberg has warned, as outrage over the dissolution of an environmentalist group grows.

On Wednesday, the French government shut down the environmental activist group Les Soulevements de la Terre (‘Earth Uprisings’).

Authorities accuse the group of provoking violence - but campaigners insist that the crackdown is disproportionately harsh.

Speaking at a climate finance summit in Paris, 20 year-old Thunberg expressed concern over increasingly tough anti-protest laws.

"We are seeing extremely worrying developments where activists all over the world are experiencing increased repressions just for fighting for our present and our future," the Swedish activist warned.

New Zealand climate activist faces 10 years in jail for forged email to oil executives


‘Now we sue the state’: Greta Thunberg joins activists in lawsuit against Swedish government

"For example, here in France just the other day, they are paying the price for defending life and for the right to protest."

NGOs have called the crackdown “chilling” and “hostile.”

“Dissolving an independent organisation undermines lawful activism and will have a serious chilling effect on the rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly,” said Eva Cosse, senior Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch.

Protestors at the Global Climate Finance Summit in Paris, Friday, June 23, 2023. Greta spoke at the summit on Thursday. - AP Photo

“Instead of dissolving environmental groups, the government should live up its commitment to protect the environment and investigate the concerns these groups raise.”

Dissolving an independent organisation should be a measure of last resort only, the group insist.
Why has the French government banned Earth Uprisings?

Les Soulèvements de la Terre encompasses multiple environmental activist associations across France.

Founded in early 2021, the group undertake direct action protests like blockades and land occupations.

In March, it was part of a demonstration against a giant reservoir in Sainte-Soline, western France. Protestors clashed with police; 30 officers were injured and two activists were left in comas.

After the incident, the government vowed to dissolve the group.

Government spokesman Olivier Véran said that activists “whipped up violence” and “invited rioters from across Europe.”

Watch Greta Thunberg being carried away by police during anti-wind farm protest in Norway


Paris protest in support of extremist climate activist group SLT

But France’s human rights’ organisation insist that police started the violence, firing teargas grenades and rubber bullets at peaceful protesters.

In June, UN experts criticised French authorities for excessive force, urging police to exercise proportionality.

Soulèvements de la Terre has vowed to fight on.

“Trying to silence the Soulèvements de la Terre is a vain attempt to break the thermometer instead of worrying about the temperature,” they said in a statement.

“[We] cannot be dissolved because it is multiple and alive. You don't dissolve a movement, you don't dissolve a revolt.”

ZIONIST KRISTALLNACHT

Israel admits failings over attacks on Palestinians

Gareth BROWNE
Fri, 23 June 2023 

Foreign diplomats inspect the damage done to Palestinian homes in an arson spree by Jewish settlers in the West Bank village of Turmus Ayya earlier this week (AHMAD GHARABLI)

The Israeli army acknowledged Friday it "failed" to prevent an attack by Jewish settlers on a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank, during which one villager was killed.

Revenge attacks on Turmus Ayya and other villages followed the killing of four Israelis by Palestinian gunmen on Tuesday, which militant group Hamas said was in response to an Israeli army raid on Jenin refugee camp which killed six Palestinians the previous day.

Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said troops had tried to prevent Israelis from attacking Turmus Ayya but they were stretched too thin.

"We didn't have, in the first wave, enough forces in the area they chose," he told journalists on Friday.

"We failed this time," Hagari added.

Turmus Ayya residents told AFP they saw between 200 and 300 Israelis rampaging through their village on Wednesday, attacking residents and damaging dozens of houses and cars.

A delegation from more than 20 diplomatic missions, including those of the European Union and the United States, visited the village on Friday to inspect the damage.

The EU's top representative to the Palestinians, Sven Kuehn von Burgsdorff, blasted Israel for failing to meet its obligations to protect Palestinians.

"There was no attempt or effort to stop the settlers," he said.

Israeli police said on Friday they had arrested three people in connection with the violence, without giving details.

Turmus Ayya is home to a significant number of Palestinian-Americans and residents voiced their anger at the lack of action from Washington.

"We are helpless," Yaser al-Kam, 33, told AFP.

"I'm speaking on behalf of this peaceful town where 80 per cent to 90 per cent of residents are US citizens. We hold passports, does this passport matter?" Al-Kam asked.

The 25-year-old Palestinian killed Wednesday, Omar Jabara, was a US Green Card holder, a US official told AFP.

The United Nations human rights chief, Volker Turk, warned "the violence, along with the inflammatory rhetoric, serve only to drive Israelis and Palestinians deeper into an abyss."

Israel's extreme-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, insisted what was needed in the West Bank was a large-scale "military operation".

"Terrorists eliminated, not one or two, but tens and hundreds, and if necessary even thousands," said Ben-Gvir, himself a settler.

gb/rsc/kir

UK
Farmers' damning views on Brexit revealed in industry magazine survey

Xander Elliards

THE NATIONAL
Fri, 23 June 2023 

Image: Tim Mossholder on Unsplash)

THREE-QUARTERS of farmers think Brexit has had a negative impact on the UK economy, according to a survey conducted by an industry magazine.

Farmers Weekly’s poll of more than 900 people in the farming industry further found that 69% of them said leaving the EU had negatively impacted their business.

In analysis of its poll, which was run from late May to early June ahead of the seven-year anniversary of the Brexit referendum on June 23, the magazine said that both animal and arable farmers took a very negative view of leaving the EU.

The sentiment was strongest among vegetable farmers (81% had a negative view) and pig farmers (79%).

READ MORE: Question Time Brexiteer reveals jaw-dropping reason she voted Leave

Both of these sectors were hit hard by staffing problems after Brexit. In August 2022, the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) said that as much as £60 million worth of crop had been left to rot in the field for lack of workers to harvest it.

And in late 2021 reports focused on a crisis in pig farming, with hundreds of thousands of animals sitting on farms long after they should have gone to slaughter, again due to labour shortages.

But in other farming sectors, the view of Brexit was also overwhelmingly negative. Farmers Weekly reported 70% of cereal farmers, 76% of oilseed rape farmers, and 68% of cow and sheep farmers said leaving the EU had negatively impacted their business.

However, among Leave-voting farmers, the magazine reported a more positive view of the impact of Brexit.

Among this subset, just 36% reported a negative impact on their business from leaving the EU. One-third (30%) of them said Brexit had actually proven “fairly” or “very positive”, against just 12% who took this view among farmers as a whole.

Patricia Gibson, the SNP’s rural affairs spokesperson at Westminster, said a return to the European Union was “essential to securing long-term economic prosperity for Scottish farmers”.

She went on: “The impact of Brexit is being felt in every sector across Scotland, but arguably none more so than in our farming communities.

“Like many, ahead of the EU referendum, farmers were misled and lied to by the likes of Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak, and Nigel Farage.

“However, what they were left with was mountains of red tape and bucket-loads of Brexit bureaucracy.

“What Brexit has done, though, is underline how threadbare the case for continued Westminster control has become for Scotland.

“Only the SNP are offering a real alternative through independence at the next general election – which is essential to securing long-term economic prosperity for Scottish farmers.”

UK
Bimini protests Conservative anti-trans proposals at Glastonbury


Joe Goggins
Fri, 23 June 2023

Bimini lashed out at the government's anti-trans manoeuvring. (Photo: Press)

Bimini protested Conservative government proposals to rob trans people of vital rights and protections on stage at Glastonbury last night (June 22).

Performing on the Greenpeace stage the night before the festival got underway in earnest, the RuPaul’s Drag Race UK star paid moving tribute to the trans community, saying: “If it wasn’t for trans people, I wouldn’t be able to stand on this stage right now. Trans people are the reason we got our rights, they were at the forefront of the Stonewall riots. If you’re a true ally, support trans people.”

Bimini also displayed a placard which read “Bin The Tories Anti-Trans Ban”. Back in April, Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch signalled that she was considering changing the legal definition of ‘sex’, in such a manner that would strip trans people of protections currently guaranteed under the 2010 Equality Act. Badenoch’s move to have ‘sex’ legally refer only to ‘biological sex’ – i.e. gender assigned at birth – would mean that trans women would no longer be considered legally women, and trans men would not longer be considered legally men.

Badenoch’s recommendation came with the backing of Downing Street, and the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has endorsed the potential change. It has been dismissed on Twitter by Grey Collier, a trans human rights lawyer and former legal director of the EHRC, as “nonsense”, “unworkable” and “legally illiterate”, but the Tories may yet move forward with it as they attempt to stoke culture wars ahead of a likely general election next year.

Bimini finished as a runner-up on the second season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK in 2021. Glastonbury kicks off in earnest today (June 23), with Arctic Monkeys confirmed to go ahead with their headline set after Alex Turner successfully shook off his laryngitis. Also performing arr mystery band The Churnups, widely rumoured to be Foo Fighters, as well as Royal Blood, Fred again.. and Hot Chip. Guns N’ Roses will headline at Worthy Farm tomorrow (June 24), before Elton John plays what is set to be his final UK show on the Pyramid Stage on Sunday (June 25).