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Netherlands to return treasures to Indonesia and Sri Lanka

Mattea Bubalo - BBC News
Fri, July 7, 2023

The "Lombok Treasure", looted by Dutch soldiers in 1894 is being returned to Indonesia

The Netherlands is set to hand back hundreds of precious artefacts taken from Indonesia and Sri Lanka during its colonial period.

Objects to be returned include a gem-encrusted bronze cannon and a looted cache of jewels from the "Lombok treasure".

A report had urged the government to return items if countries request them.

The agreed restitution comes as the Netherlands increasingly confronts its colonial past.

Other countries have also began returning precious looted artefacts in recent years . Notable examples include British and German museums signing over some of the so-called Benin Bronzes stolen from Nigeria during a large-scale 1897 British military expedition.

"[This is] the first time that we are returning objects that should never have been in the Netherlands," Culture Minister Gunay Uslu said.

"But we are not just returning objects. We are actually starting a period in which we are more intensively cooperating with Indonesia and Sri Lanka."

Among the collections to be handed back to Indonesia is the so called "Lombok treasure" - a trove of jewels, precious stones, gold and silver which was looted by the Dutch colonial army from a royal palace on Indonesia's Lombok island in 1894.

A bronze cannon, thought to be exchanged as a gift between Sri Lankan aristocracy, will also be returned

Sri Lanka will take back a lavishly decorated 18th Century bronze cannon, currently on display at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, thought to have been a gift from a Sri Lankan aristocrat to the King of Kandy in the 1740s.

The cannon is believed to have fallen into Dutch hands in 1765, when Dutch troops attacked the Sri Lankan kingdom of Kandy.

Culture Minister Uslu said the government was acting on recommendations laid out in a 2020 report by a Dutch committee investigating art taken during the colonial era.

The committee urged the government to be "willing to return unconditionally" any cultural objects looted in former Dutch colonies if requested by the source country.

"The Netherlands must assume responsibility for its colonial past by making the recognition and redress of this injustice a key principle of the policy on colonial collections," the report said.

The country has been wrestling with its legacy more openly in recent years.

On Saturday, King Willem-Alexander formally apologised for the Netherlands' role in the slave trade, saying he felt "personally and intensely" affected.

The country became a major colonial power after the 17th Century, holding territories across the globe, and Dutch slave traders trafficked more than 600,000 people.

Wagner Group shooting down a Russian command plane may be gift that keeps on giving for Ukraine's beleaguered air defenses

Michael Peck
Thu, July 6, 2023

A Russian Il-22 seen by British Royal Air Force Typhoons along the Baltic coast in May 2019.Royal Air Force

Wagner Group mercenaries shot down several Russian military aircraft during the revolt in June.


Among them was an Il-22M, which is designed to control and coordinate ground and air forces.


The loss of one of Russia's few Il-22M could hinder its air force's ability to operate over Ukraine.

Under normal circumstances, the Wagner Group mercenaries who shot down a flying command post would have received medals. Instead, they may end up in jail — or worse.

Wagner Group's abortive revolt last month didn't just end with its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, fleeing the country and its troops being absorbed into the Russian military. It also saw Russian forces fire on each other, destroying several helicopters and, most crucially, an irreplaceable Il-22M (codenamed "Coot-B" by NATO), a Cold War-era Il-18 transport modified for use as a command center and radio relay to control air and ground forces.

"The loss of this aircraft is likely to have a negative impact on Russian air and land operations," the British Ministry of Defense said in an update published on June 29.

Russia is estimated to have only 12 Il-22Ms. Russia also has 19 Il-20M and Il-22 electronic signals-intelligence aircraft — also based on the Il-18 — but losing an Il-22M is particularly costly.

A Russian Il-20M landing in July 2006.NIKITA SHCHYUKIN/AFP via Getty Images

"These special mission aircraft have played a key role in orchestrating Russian forces in their war against Ukraine," the Ministry of Defense said. "As high value assets they have operated within the safety of Russian airspace, far beyond the range of Ukrainian air defense systems."

The Il-22M or its US counterpart, the E8-C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System, a Boeing 707 airliner converted into a command post and surveillance aircraft, are airborne hubs for the integration of forces on and over the battlefield. Tight coordination between disparate capabilities — jets and missiles or electronic warfare and satellite communications — is the glue that provides cohesion to modern military operations.

Russia still has 10 A-50 airborne warning and control system aircraft similar to the US E-3 Sentry, but with only a dozen Il-22Ms to start — and all of them in heavy use — even the loss of one could have an impact, especially if Russia wants to increase its air operations over Ukraine.

"There is a realistic possibility that current tasking levels may have to be reduced to safely manage the remaining fleet," the Ministry of Defense said. "This will likely undermine Russia's ability to command and coordinate its forces, particularly during periods of high tempo operations."

An E-8C Joint STARS aircraft flying in September 2017.US Air Force/Greg L. Davis

Russian air force command-and-control difficulties could benefit Ukrainian forces, which have at times struggled to keep up with Russian aerial attacks. Not that Russia has always made good use of its command-and-control aircraft.

In the first week of its invasion, low-flying Ukrainian fighters were able to pop up and ambush high-flying Russian jets, according to a report published last year by Britain's Royal United Services Institute think tank. A possible reason for that was "poor dissemination of surveillance information from the radar to the Il-20M 'Coot' airborne command post and relay aircraft passing information from ground networks to patrolling Russian fighters," the report said.

The airborne command posts couldn't even communicate directly with air-defense units or with Russian fighters on combat air patrols.

"Because the Russian air operation is subordinated to the Ground Forces, surveillance information is not typically relayed directly between A-50M and fighters on CAP or to long-range GBAD [ground-based air defense] units such as S-400 batteries," the report said. "Instead, information is normally relayed via the military district command post or a combined arms army command post, then either directly or via an Il-20M relay aircraft to the GBAD units and fighter patrols."

A Russian Il-22 and a Su-27 were intercepted by RAF Typhoons along the Baltic coast in May 2019.Royal Air Force

Indeed, command and control is the Achilles heel of the Russian military, which inherited the rigid command structure of its Soviet predecessor. In Ukraine, Russian airpower has been unable to form the complex air packages used by Western air forces, which use AWACS aircraft to coordinate fighters, strike aircraft, and electronic-warfare planes, Justin Bronk, an airpower expert at RUSI, said.

On the other hand, Russian pilots aren't trained to take the initiative, as Western pilots are. "Instead, Russian pilots are trained to perform narrower mission profiles under tighter command and control arrangements in smaller formations," Bronk said in a report published in April by the US-based research organization CNA.

All of which puts a premium on Russia's flying command posts. If losing just one of a dozen Il-22Ms puts a crimp in Russian ground and air operations, then the underlying problem isn't a lack of airborne control centers but rather a rigid and fragile command system — and losing one of those valuable airborne control centers to ostensibly friendly forces only makes things worse.

"In the short term the psychological shock of losing a large number of aircrew in this manner will almost certainly damage morale within the Russian Aerospace Force," the British Ministry of Defense concluded.

Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine, and other publications. He holds a master's in political science. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Wagner troops leave Central African Republic after 'refusing contracts with Russia'

Sky News
Fri, July 7, 2023

High-level officials in Bangui have confirmed the departure of Wagner personnel from the Central African Republic (CAR).

Senior sources from CAR's ministry of defence and an official from the Russian embassy have revealed around 400 Wagner employees left the capital on two planes on Wednesday, confirming local reports of Wagner disengagement.

One ministry of defence official said the Wagner Group personnel who left refused to sign new contracts with Russia's ministry of defence.

He revealed between 1,300 and 1,400 Wagner employees still remained in the country but that around a hundred were packing up to leave Bouar, a key base on the trading route with Cameroon.

Bouar is a critical stronghold against rebels incentivised to take control of the base and disrupt the lucrative timber trade - a massive threat to the country's President Faustin-Archange Touadera, who Wagner is contracted to protect.

CAR's government signed a defence deal with the Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov after a reported meeting in October 2017.

The security and political support offered to President Touadera's regime in exchange for access to mining operations began when the first Wagner mercenaries arrived in January 2018.

During their five years of operation, Wagner has been accused of carrying out mass atrocities against the local population.

Now, in the fallout of Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin's failed coup against Russia's armed forces in Moscow, the nature of the group's presence in CAR is vulnerable to change.

A second source from the highest ranks of CAR's ministry of defence confirmed that "hundreds" of Wagner personnel had left and that there was still confusion within government on future dealings with Russian security involvement.

He added there was eagerness to continue security contracts with Russia, and if Moscow wanted to change its relationship with Wagner as an implementing force then the CAR government would accept it.

Shortly after Prigozhin's halted march to Moscow on 25 June, an adviser to President Touadera and former minister Fidele Gouandijika said: "In 2018, CAR signed a defence agreement with Russia and not with Wagner.

"If Russia has no agreement anymore with Wagner it will send us a new contingent.

"Maybe the chef will change but the Wagner soldiers will continue operating for Russia."

Flights to 'unknown destinations'

Reports of Wagner departures have been circulating since Wednesday but a plane carrying personnel out of Bangui was documented as early as Monday.

Africa-focused security analyst Ian Cox has been monitoring aircraft movements in Wagner's areas of operations on the continent since Prigozhin's attempted coup.

"Over the past week there has been a notable increase in Russian-made Ilyushin Il-76 strategic airlifters passing through Entebbe, Uganda, going to and from unknown destinations further into the region," he said.

"A notable exception being a Russian registered Il-76 which arrived in Bangui on July 3 from Russia and departed the same day to Entebbe.

"This aircraft then departed to Dubai on July 6 before flying to Tyumen, Russia on the morning of July 7."

A senior Ugandan military commander told Sky News the aircraft was carrying personnel when it left Entebbe, Uganda's main airport.

Read more:
Wagner 'perfecting blueprint for state capture' in CAR

Wigs, guns and gold found in raid of Prigozhin's palace

The plane's final destination, Tyumen, a city in Russian Siberia, is home to one of the two Wagner recruitment centres that reopened after Prigozhin's failed rebellion.

John Lechner, an independent researcher studying Wagner in CAR, put these findings to a Wagner source in Bangui who dismissed them and said "local guys are unaware".

"Wagner forces are clearly moving both within CAR and out - and everyone in Bangui is trying to figure out whether this reflects rainy season patterns and standard rotations or if it is something different," said Mr Lechner.

"The news that Prigozhin is back in Russia, potentially having his assets returned, is making it even harder to read the tea leaves."

3 New Zealand tour operators plead guilty to safety breaches in deadly eruption of volcano


Fri, July 7, 2023

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Three helicopter tour operators pleaded guilty on Friday to safety breaches when New Zealand’s White Island volcano erupted in 2019, claiming 22 lives.

Volcanic Air Safaris Ltd., Kahu NZ Ltd. and Aerius Ltd. were to go on trial in Auckland District Court next week along with six other entities and people following the tragedy at the island, which had been a popular tourist attraction.

There were 47 people on White Island, the tip of an undersea volcano also known by its indigenous Maori name Whakaari, when superheated steam erupted, leaving most of the 25 who were not killed with severe burns.

Many people question why tourists were allowed to visit the island after experts monitoring seismic activity raised the volcano’s alert level two weeks before the eruption.

The three helicopter operators admitted that they had failed to ensure the health and safety of staff and tourists.

Many of those killed and injured were tourists who had been traveling from Australia aboard the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Ovation of the Seas. Of those killed, 14 were Australian, five were American, two were New Zealanders and one was from Germany.

The judge-only trial is scheduled to start Monday and take 16 weeks.

Each of the organizations faces a maximum fine of 1.5 million New Zealand dollars ($927,000). Each individual charged faces a maximum fine of NZ$300,000 ($185,000).

The three operators that pleaded guilty will now appear in court in August.

The Associated Press

Countries agree to slash shipping emissions but not enough to stay within warming limits

Fri, July 7, 2023


Maritime nations agreed Friday to slash emissions from the shipping industry to net zero by about 2050 in a deal that several experts and nations say falls short of what's needed to curb warming to agreed temperature limits.

Countries at the meeting of the United Nations' International Maritime Organization in London, seen as key to curb global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times, signed a deal for shipping emissions to reach net zero “by or around” 2050. The less firm deadline was agreed to take account of “different national circumstances.”

The plan also calls for shipping emissions to be slashed by at least 20% but aiming for 30% by 2030 and at least 70% but working toward 80% by 2040 despite a push from Pacific nations — backed by Canada, the United States and the U.K. — for more ambitious targets. Experts calculate the industry must cut its emissions by 45% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050 to keep on track with 1.5 C temperature goal.

IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim said Friday the deal “is in many ways a starting point for the work that needs to intensify even more over the years and decades ahead of us.”

“With the revised strategy that you have now agreed on, we have a clear direction, a common vision, and ambitious targets to guide us to deliver what the world expects from us,” Lim said to member states.

The German government welcomed the agreement, calling it “an important milestone for ensuring that international shipping makes a fair contribution to reaching the temperature goals of the Paris agreement.”

Transport Ministry spokesman Florian Druckenthaner said Germany had “lobbied massively” for the goal of net zero emissions by 2050.

Asked by The Associated Press whether Germany feels bound by the new targets, despite the fact that the interim goals are “indicative,” Druckenthaner said they are targets “we support and share.”

Ajithkumar Sukumaran, one of India's representatives at the talks, said the nation is "happy with the outcome but are still apprehensive of the extent to which the spirit of this declaration is going to be transformed to reality, particularly in ensuring that developing countries do not get affected by these emission targets.”

Sukumaran called for the IMO to put mechanisms in place to assess that the targets set in the deal are in fact being implemented.

Environmentalists are unhappy with the deal as it doesn’t set 2050 as a hard date for net zero emissions or keep in line with the warming limit set in the Paris agreement.

“There is a clear disparity between its (the IMO’s) goals and those set by the Paris Agreement’s crucial 1.5 C target — a divergence that we can ill afford,” said Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at Climate Action Network International.

One analysis suggests both the less and more ambitious interim targets would see the shipping industry use up its carbon budget — a calculation of the amount of carbon dioxide various industries and countries can emit before global warming limits are breached — by early next decade.

“We do not have the time to wait for regulation or alternative fuels to catch up,” said Diane Gilpin, founder and CEO of Smart Green Shipping in a press statement. "We need to move with urgency and work with what we have.”

Shipping currently accounts for almost 3% of greenhouse gas emissions, according to the IMO. A European Parliament report warned that share could increase dramatically by 2050 if steps aren’t taken to reduce the sector’s reliance on fossil fuels.

A decision on introducing a shipping levy on carbon emissions to help pay to for investment in cleaner fuels and technologies and support developing countries' green ambitions has been deferred.

Simon Bennett, the deputy secretary general of International Chamber of Shipping, which represents 80% of the world’s commercial fleet, said the group “greatly welcomes the ambitious agreement” but urged the IMO to agree to the group's proposal of a voluntary levy on emissions.

Bennett said a levy would create a market for cleaner fuels that are currently not scalable or too expensive for the industry.

Some environmentalists are supportive of the idea of a levy, but say the ICS proposal hampers more ambitious ideas from going ahead.

The IMO’s targets are revised every five years. The previous target was for the shipping industry to cut its emissions by at least half from 2008 to 2050.

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Associated Press writer Frank Jordans contributed from Berlin.

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Follow AP’s climate change coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Sibi Arasu, The Associated Press

As extreme heat gets worse, expert calls for access to cooling as a human right

The Canadian Press
Fri, July 7, 2023 



TORONTO — As summer heat waves intensifyand advocates sound the alarm on the lack of protections for the most vulnerable populations, one extreme weather expert is calling for access to cooling to be treated as a human right.

Much of Ontario experienced a multi-day heat event this week, with the humidex reaching up to 40 C in some areas. The planet's average temperature hit new records in the last few days, rising to an unofficial high of 17.18 C on Tuesday and Wednesday, breaking Monday's short-lived record of 17.01 C, according to the University of Maine's Climate Reanalyzer.

Blair Feltmate, head of the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo, has sought to bring attention to the need for greater heat adaptation as Canada is set to experience higher daily temperatures and longer heat waves under climate change.

Feltmate's research projects that between 2050 and 2080, almost all major Canadian cities will see an increase in maximum daily temperature between 3 C and 5 C, and the number of summer days above 30 Cwill double, triple, or quadruple in some cases.

In Toronto, that looks like maximum daily temperatures increasing to around 38 C, and the number of days exceeding 30 C rising from 15 to 16 days per summer up to 60.

"We need to think of access to cooling as a fundamental human right because if we don't make that provision literally people are going to die, Canadians are going to die, not just in the hundreds but potentially into the thousands," said Feltmate. He pointed to extreme heat events that led to more than 600 deaths in B.C. in 2021 and more than 80 deaths in Quebec City in 2018.

"As hot as it is now, and (Wednesday) set a new global record for the planet in terms of overall temperature, things are going to get hotter going forward."

Feltmate said there are approximately 500,000 people in the Greater Toronto Area who live in apartment buildings that are at least 40 years old and eight storeys or higher. If a major heat wave happened to coincide with an extended electricity outage, residents of those buildings could be without air conditioning, fans, elevator access or even water flow.

"The results could be lethal," he said.

Avoiding those deadly situations requires immediate steps to reduce heat stress. Feltmate said that could look like backup electricity generation for a couple of days for all apartment buildings, or subsidies for small,portable air conditioners,similar to a new B.C. program offering such ACs to low-income households.

Awnings over windows, window glazing to limit direct sunlight, trees and vines planted in and around buildings to provide shade can all reduce the impact of heat on residential buildings, Feltmate said.

Improving insulation and airtightness can also cut heating and cooling costs, he said.

Municipalities should play a large part in improving cooling access, he said, in particular to mitigate the "heat-island effect," in which urban areas are significantly warmer than surrounding areas. Dark and tarred buildings, roads and other infrastructure absorb and retain more heat from the sun than natural landscapes, contributing to warming between 3 and 5 C.

The heat-island effect could be combated with white, "cool" roofs or more trees and vegetation, among other design considerations.

But these actions require a combined response from all levels of government, particularly on the federal level, Feltmate said, as cities and towns would be better equipped to make such changes if directed by Ottawa.

Last week, Canada released its new national climate adaptation strategy, which will tie future federal infrastructure transfers to the provinces to projects that incorporate adaptation efforts.

One of the targets is for 80 per cent of health regions to have a plan to protect people from extreme heat by 2026, something officials said could include making sure there are adequate cooling centres available during heat waves. Another is the elimination of all heat-related deaths by 2040.

Some municipalities are getting ahead of the curve. Hamilton is poised to become one of Canada's first municipalities to require landlords install air conditioning to ensure indoor temperatures don't exceed 26 C, after an "adequate temperature" bylaw was passed by council in May.

Changes can't come fast enough for people most vulnerable to extreme heat, such as those who live and work outside and are already bearing the brunt of climate change, advocates say.

Chris Ramsaroop, an organizer with advocacy group Justice for Migrant Workers, called on Ontario to enact immediate emergency measures to protect the province's farm workers from the heat, including sheltering and cooling periods, access to free water, shade requirements and shutting down farms in extreme crisis events.

He said many of those workers, who fear threat of deportation for speaking out, are facing hot working conditions in greenhouses and are experiencing headaches and near-fainting due to the heat, but have been expected to keep up theregular pace of work.

"It's imperative the province enact steps and measures to protect all workers who have to endure this heat," said Ramsaroop.

In a statement, provincial Labour Minister Monte McNaughton called Ontario's farm workers "heroes" who are protected by health and safety laws, "regardless of their passport."

"As we experience increasing heat waves and the hazards of forest fire smoke, and a changing nature of outdoor work, we will not hesitate to take further action to protect those who put food on the table for families across our province," he said. The Ministry of Labour added it conducts inspections to ensure employers are meeting health and safety standards and urged workers who feel unsafe to report their concerns.

In response to this week's heat alert, Toronto activated its Heat Relief Network, which includes cooling locations such as libraries, community centres, private malls and municipal pools.

However, community worker and longtime advocate for the homeless, Diana Chan McNally, said many of those spaces are inappropriate for people experiencing homelessness, who may be subjected to harassment.

"Having an unhoused adult, for example, cool off in a children's splash pad is obviously going to set off some alarm bells," she said, criticizing the city for not having dedicated emergency cooling centres as it did in the past.

The City of Toronto said it "recognizes the need for additional services to help meet the complex needs of those living outdoors during heat warnings but the city continues to face significant financial pressures."

Chan McNally said emergency weather will come in all seasons, so there needs to be a shift from thinking of seasonal spaces in the summer or winter to year-round, 24-7 dedicated emergency weather spaces.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 7, 2023.

Tyler Griffin, The Canadian Press

If you’re not terrified, ‘you’re not paying attention’: Politicians, activist urge action amid record-breaking temperatures

Local Journalism Initiative
Fri, July 7, 2023 

This week, average global temperatures are smashing records left and right, which “should fill everyone with anxiety,” says Green Party deputy leader Jonathan Pedneault.

The previous record of 16.92 C from 2016 was surpassed on Monday, which clocked 17.01 C. Tuesday was hotter still at 17.18 C, and The Associated Press reports that Wednesday could continue this upward trend.

The heat records come as 334 fires across Canada are burning out of control, in part exacerbated by a changing climate.

In June, the federal government warned this year’s wildfire season may be especially severe, and that prediction has come to fruition as forest fires have caused tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes over the last month.

“The fire season here has been devastating to so many communities and people who struggled with asthma and other lung conditions,” Pedneault told Canada’s National Observer in a phone interview.

“It's a public emergency, it's a health emergency, and yet we have a government that continues as though all of this was reversible and as though we were going to meet the urgency of the time with the half-assed measures that they have in place,” Pedneault said.

The federal government recently released its final climate adaptation strategy, which includes $1.6 billion over five years to put measures in place to reduce the risk of climate-related disasters; protect human health, nature and biodiversity; build resilient infrastructure; and support both the economy and workers.

At a time when we need drastic action to change our economic system and adapt our communities, the Liberal government continues to “subsidize Big Oil and praise Big Oil for their wonderful contribution to the building of their so-called green economy,” said Pedneault.

One of the main drivers of climate change is the burning of fossil fuels, like coal, oil and gas. The fires that are destroying the homes, livelihoods and health of Canadians are intrinsically linked to the continued expansion of oil and gas production, said Canadian climate activist Tzeporah Berman in a phone interview with Canada’s National Observer.

“If you're not terrified right now and angry, you're not paying attention,” said Berman, who is the international program director with Stand.earth and chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative.

“But it's also so frustrating,” she added. “Because we have the ability to address this crisis … we have the technology and capabilities to create a cheaper, safer and cleaner future,” said Berman, pointing to the reduced cost of renewable energy sources like wind and solar that can reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

“But the oil companies are holding us back from the policies that will save lives in the future,” said Berman.

“It's not a tragedy, it's a scandal.”

Canada’s oil and gas production is forecast to increase between now and 2030. To keep global temperature rise from exceeding 1.5 C (at which point, there will be irreversible consequences for both humans and the environment), the world’s greenhouse gas emissions must peak before 2025 at the latest and be reduced by 43 per cent by 2030, according to research by the world’s leading climate scientists with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

In 2022, the federal government approved a major offshore oil project off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, which has since been postponed partly due to cost increases in the oil sector.

Constructive criticism is part of the process and when it comes to climate change, “we always need to do more,” said Manitoba MP Terry Duguid. He says his government is “working very hard,” certainly harder than any previous administration.

“We are the only government, I think, in our history as a country that has taken climate change and emissions reduction seriously, and it’s working,” said Duguid, parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Alongside the newly announced National Adaptation Plan, Duguid pointed to his government “investing billions in emissions reductions and building … the clean energy economy.”

“We always need to do more, but we've got a plan, and we are on track with that plan to meet our emissions reductions by 2030 on to net zero by 2050,” he said. The climate plan is “evergreen” and “being adjusted all the time to meet the changing landscape,” Duguid added.

The federal government is banking on a suite of proposed investment tax credits to usher Canada into a low-carbon economy. Over the next 11 years, more than $80 billion is earmarked for these tax credits, which target clean electricity, hydrogen, carbon capture, critical mineral extraction and manufacturing of clean technology related to electric vehicles, nuclear and energy storage.

While it's easy to become desensitized to constant reports of record-breaking heat, it's impossible to ignore the “extremely scary” impacts of climate change: from hurricane Fiona’s destruction to flooding in B.C. to severe wildfires across the nation to the deadly heat dome that killed more than 600 people in B.C. two summers ago, said NDP MP Laurel Collins.

“It's really the inaction of governments that has put us on a path where we are going to see these occurrences more and more,” said Collins.

“Those over 600 people who died in B.C. from the heat dome … the vast majority of them were low-income folks, seniors who do not have cooling options in their homes,” said Collins, pointing to the need for widespread building retrofits, including programs for low-income people and apartment buildings.

Berman urged Canadians “who are choking from smoke” and watching fires sweep across the country to hold our elected officials accountable and demand the government “stand up to the influence of the fossil fuel industry, who are making this crisis worse.”

“We don't currently have a plan. The government at a provincial and federal level has bought into the oil industry's delusion that we can continue to expand production while introducing some technologies to reduce emissions,” said Berman.

Carbon capture technology is a key part of the federal government’s plan to reduce emissions produced from oil production, and it has proposed a tax credit worth an estimated $18 billion over the next decade to help companies adopt this technology. It does not address the vast majority of emissions that are produced when fossil fuels are burned, and environmentalists warn the costly technology could lock in fossil fuel production at a time when all the science points to a speedy phaseout.

“Even if you've never done it before, we need people to be writing and calling their MLAs and MPs, telling them it's a priority that we stop expanding oil and gas,” said Berman.

— With files from The Associated Press

Natasha Bulowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer

'Missed opportunity' for Canada at summit on climate reform of developing world loans

The Canadian Press
Fri, July 7, 2023 



OTTAWA — Foreign-aid and climate advocates say Ottawa needs to do much more to help developing countries brace for climate chaos without going broke, after Canada's uninspiring contribution to a summit last month that aimed at reforming global finance.

French President Emmanuel Macron hosted the summit in Paris, convening leaders from Africa and small island states, along with rich countries and financial institutions.

The New Global Financing Pact was intended to start transforming the systems developing countries use to take on debt, seek bailouts and pay off loans, such as through the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

The meeting came as countries across the developing world face devastating natural disasters, pandemics and inflation that have made them unable to pay back loans, with little funding left to fulfil their pledges to protect biodiversity.

Caroline Brouillette, the head of Climate Action Network Canada, said the multilateral development banks aren't working in the face of "converging climate and debt crises."

"Lending more money just further fuels that cycle of debt," Brouillette said.

The federal Liberal government says it supports the reform of international financial institutions and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly highlighted the issue to the United Nations General Assembly last September.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also co-chairs a United Nations group advocating for the Sustainable Development Goals along with Barbadoes Prime Minister Mia Mottley. The pair have been pushing for international financing reform to help Caribbean states facing rising sea levels and increasingly severe storms.

But advocates say Ottawa has not shown how it plans to push for financing system reforms, and they noticed Canada's comparatively low-profile presence at Macron's summit last month.

Attendees included Macron and Mottley, who co-hosted the event, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

Canada sent International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan to Paris, instead of Trudeau, Joly or Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.

"The message I kept hearing from my colleagues from civil society across the world, including from the Global South itself, was, 'Where is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau?'" Brouillette said.

The "political signal" of sending a leader "says something about the level of importance that is accorded to an issue," she said.

She said she was also puzzled that Canada wasn't a signatory to a joint letter calling for global financing reform, published in The Guardian newspaper ahead of the summit.

The letter was signed by U.S. President Joe Biden, as well as the leaders of South Africa, Brazil, Senegal and all G7 countries except Italy and Canada. The signatories are part of the steering committee that worked together to launch the summit, which Canada was not involved in either.

The letter said developing countries should be able to see economic growth while lowering carbon emissions, instead of being left to face the brunt of climate change.

Canada did publish a similar op-ed in the same newspaper with New Zealand and Australia, but it was signed by Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, not Trudeau.

The summit ended with a drafted statement and relatively small pockets of financing from various countries. From Canada, there was $50 million for a program aimed at attracting financing projects helping women and minorities in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Jean-François Tardif, a researcher with Results Canada, said he was hoping Canada would have announced something in Paris about the actual topic at hand, which is the reform of multilateral develop banks.

"It was a missed opportunity," said Tardif.

A Global Affairs Canada news release said that while in Paris, Sajjan raised the need for "a new feminist financial architecture" and a mix of public and private investment to reverse the backsliding on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Guilbeault's office noted in a statement Ottawa's ongoing work on biodiversity and multilateral work to secure US$100 billion in financing for climate initiatives.

Tardif noted Canada was among the first countries to push for multilateral development banks to repackage unused loans on their balance sheets in order to get more money flowing to countries in need.

It also was also among the first to re-appropriate a one-time IMF asset used to finance COVID-19 vaccines, known as special drawing rights, and divert it to poorer countries.

That move has allowed countries with limited foreign reserves to take out more loans. However, Ottawa has diverted three times as much of this currency for Ukraine as it has for Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean combined, according to an analysis by the ONE Campaign.

Tardif says countries like Canada could divert more of these untapped reserves and push for debt-suspension clauses, which would cost little but help developing countries get back to making progress on fighting extreme poverty.

"Canada needs to continue that leadership, and not just sit on its laurels," he said

Both Tardif and Brouillette are hoping countries pledge more cash and especially financial reforms, at a series of upcoming conferences.

Finance ministers and central-bank governors from G20 countries will meet in India next week, while the Green Climate Fund will have its replenishment conference in October.

"We're not trying to reshuffle the chairs on the Titanic deck. It's about more money, so that the Titanic floats," Tardif said.

"Either Canada will actually be there as part of the leading pack that sets us on the road to a sustainable future — or we'll be the ones that will hope for the best, and hope somebody else takes the leadership."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 7, 2023.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press

B.C. port strike enters day seven as union, employers association trade barbs

The Canadian Press
Fri, July 7, 2023 


VANCOUVER — The strike by thousands of workers at more than 30 British Columbia ports has entered its seventh day, as their union and the association representing B.C. maritime employers trade barbs about the stalled contract negotiations.

The president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada, which represents about 7,400 striking workers, told a solidarity rally on Thursday that the BC Maritime Employers Association has walked away from the table three times.

Rob Ashton told the crowd the employers are waiting for the federal government to do their "dirty work instead of treating workers with respect" by negotiating.

The BC Maritime Employers Association later issued a statement saying it has learned of layoffs in related industries due to the job action and the strike has potentially disrupted $4.6 billion worth of cargo.

The association called on the union to return to bargaining under "a voluntary mediation-arbitration process."

Dock workers have been off the job since Canada Day to back demands for improved wages and provisions against contracting out and automation, but negotiations stalled Monday over maintenance issues.

Federal Labour Minister Seamus O'Regan is urging the two sides to use mediators and resume talks, while officials in Alberta and Saskatchewan have joined with business organizations in calling for federal legislation to end the strike.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 7, 2023.

The Canadian Press

US labor secretary sees no need for now to step into talks between UPS, Teamsters

Julie Su at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on her nomination to be Labor Secretary, on Capitol Hill in Washington

By Kanishka Singh

Fri, July 7, 2023

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Acting U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su said on Friday she does not see a need at this stage to step in to urge parties to reach a deal in contract talks between the Teamsters Union and United Parcel Service.

"That is right," Su said on CNN when asked if she felt there was no need for her to intervene at this stage. She added she expected the bargaining process to be respected by the parties.

The Teamsters Union said on Wednesday UPS "walked away" from negotiations over a new contract, a claim the company denied, lobbing its own accusation that the union had stopped negotiating.

The two sides have traded salvos in statements as they attempt an agreement to prevent a strike when the current contract, which covers some 340,000 workers, expires at the end of July.

Workers of UPS have already authorized a strike should the talks break down. Such a labor action would be the first since 1997 for UPS workers, when a strike lasted 15 days, cost the company $850 million, and sent some customers to rivals

Both the union and company officials have said before that they wanted a deal finalized to prevent a strike, which could put millions of daily deliveries at risk.

After missing out on wage increases during the pandemic, unions are now pushing back on contract offers from companies grappling with labor shortages, seeking higher pay and better working conditions.

Su recently helped negotiate a crucial contract deal between U.S. West Coast seaport employers and a union representing 22,000 workers.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by David Holmes)

Strike action could hit summer holiday flights in Europe

Tom Espiner & Katy Austin - BBC News
Fri, July 7, 2023 

Woman looking at airport departure board

European flights during the summer holiday period could be affected by strike action by air traffic managers.

Eurocontrol, which manages flights over Europe, has said one of its unions could take industrial action, although no dates have been announced yet.

Negotiations are continuing with the union and other unions, Eurocontrol said.

Industry group Airlines UK urged Eurocontrol "to reach agreement as soon as possible".

Another industry body, Airlines for Europe, said the possible impact of any strike action "remains to be determined".

Eurocontrol said it was "making every effort to keep negotiations open and to find a constructive way forward".

One of its trade unions, Union Syndicale Bruxelles, has "announced a period of six months during which industrial action could take place".

It said the action could affect its Network Manager Operations Centre, which handles more than 10 million flights a year.

Prior to the pandemic, it had daily peaks managing more than 37,000 flights, and Eurocontrol said the centre played a pivotal role in managing, streamlining and improving air traffic.

Eurocontrol stressed that it was in "ongoing dialogue" with the union.

"As no notice of specific industrial action has been received, it is premature to speculate on any potential impact," it said.

Airlines for Europe said any strike action would not affect Eurocontrol's air traffic control services and "therefore its impact on passengers could be limited".

The BBC has approached Union Syndicale Bruxelles for comment.

Aviation in Europe is facing a particular set of challenges this summer.

Demand for flights is returning to pre-Covid pandemic levels, and European airspace is being constricted by Russia's war in Ukraine.

But there is a shortage of air traffic controllers, and some strikes are already planned - for example, there is an air traffic strike in Italy on Saturday 15 July.

Plane taking off with sunset in background

Airlines UK said its members were "looking forward to a busy summer, meeting growing demand for travel and carrying millions of people on holidays".

It said airlines have "made huge efforts since the pandemic to build resilience into operations".

An agreement between Eurocontrol and union members would "avoid any potential disruption for airlines and their customers", it said.

It added that air traffic controllers were already having to work within "a more constrained European airspace" due to Russia's Ukraine war.

Travel expert Simon Calder said the union involved did not have a reputation for militancy, and that instead this was a "cry for help" over staffing levels.

During the height of the Covid pandemic in 2020, many older air traffic controllers retired, and have yet to be replaced, he said.

He said he expected this potential dispute to be resolved before it reached the stage of a strike.

But a more pressing concern was a lack of air traffic controllers in general, with impacts already being felt through "a series of cancellations every day in the UK".

This comes as demand for air travel rebounds after the pandemic, he added, with Friday being the busiest day for air travel since 2019.

Last summer, holidaymakers were affected by sustained disruption to flights due to staff shortages, and across 2022 as a whole more than a third of UK flights were delayed.

Having axed thousands of jobs during the worst of the Covid pandemic, many aviation businesses including airports could not get new staff in place quickly enough.

But at Easter this year, airports and airlines told the BBC they were confident they had enough staff to avoid any travel chaos.

This summer, having raised staffing levels, disruption instead could come from industrial action.

Travel to France from the UK has already been affected this year by some strikes.

US jobs growth weakest in more than two years


BBC
Fri, July 7, 2023

people ordering at a restaurant

US jobs growth slowed last month in a sign that the weight of higher interest rates may be starting to slow the world's largest economy.

Employers added 209,000 jobs in June, the smallest gain in more than two years, the Labor Department said.

That was fewer than expected, though the unemployment rate still fell to 3.6%, down from 3.7% in May.

The labour market is being watched closely, as the US central bank lifts borrowing costs to fight inflation.

Hiring has remained strong, despite the Federal Reserve's benchmark interest rate jumping to more than 5% in little over a year.

That held true in June, when analysts said the 209,000 jobs added were more than enough to accommodate growth in the labour force, despite it being the smallest number since December 2020.

Line chart showing the monthly growth of US jobs. In June 2023, the US economy added 209,000 jobs.

Wages also continued to climb, with the average hourly pay up 4.4% from a year ago.

But the monthly report comes alongside other data, such as a drop in job vacancies, that suggest the labour market may be cooling.

"Today's jobs report is slightly weaker than many expected," said Richard Flynn, managing director at Charles Schwab UK.

"The labour market remains tight, but investors will likely interpret these numbers as a sign that cracks are beginning to emerge."

Economists have been predicting a slowdown for months, as higher interest rates force consumers to cut back spending in other areas and make borrowing for business expansions more costly.

But jobs growth had consistently outpaced forecasts and a strong hiring report from private payrolls processor ADP earlier this week raised expectations for a repeat.

The ADP figures triggered a sell-off in shares on Thursday, as investors adjusted bets on how far rates might have to climb.

However, the Labor Department report painted a slightly different picture, showing government and healthcare firms driving the hiring in June.

Retailers and transportation firms shed jobs, while leisure and hospitality businesses added just 21,000 positions - keeping overall employment in that sector below pre-pandemic levels.

Analysts said they still expected the US central bank to raise rates again at its meeting this month.

Though inflation in the US has fallen sharply since last year, at 4%, it remains higher than the Federal Reserve's 2% target.

Forecasts released by the bank at its last meeting indicated that most officials thought they would need to push interest rates higher to stabilise prices.

"Jobs growth has slowed but remains too strong to justify an extended Fed pause. More significantly, with average hourly earnings surprising to the upside, wage pressures are still too strong," said Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management.

"Today's report will give the Fed little reason to hold off from hiking at the July meeting."

Black unemployment rate spikes for second month in a row

An employee hiring sign with a QR code is seen in a window of a business in Arlington

By Safiyah Riddle
Fri, July 7, 2023 

(Reuters) - The U.S. Black unemployment rate jumped for a second consecutive month, hitting a 10-month high in what in the past has signaled a broader weakening in the job market and approaching recession.

The Black unemployment rate rose to 6.0% last month from 5.6% in May, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Friday. In April, the gap between white unemployment narrowed to 1.6% as Black unemployment fell to 4.7%, both measures reaching the lowest levels since the Labor Department began tracking rates half a century ago.

The Black unemployment rate had shot up in May by nearly a percentage point, its largest monthly increase - outside the COVID-19 pandemic - since 2009, putting some economists on alert to see if it would become indicative of a wider trend. With June's increase, the jobless rate among African Americans has climbed 1.3 percentage points in the space of two months, widening the gap with the rate for whites - unchanged in that time - to 2.9 points from April's record-low 1.6 points.

A spike in the Black unemployment rate can be a strong predictor of an impending recession, since Black workers have historically been the first to be fired during an economic downturn. The fact it did not reverse at all in June heightened fears of recession.

"We typically see that Black unemployment rate rises by more than other groups and I don't necessarily have any strong reason to suspect that that wouldn't be the case were we to head into another recession," Valerie Wilson director of the think-tank Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy said ahead of the monthly report.

Wilson said the economic stimulus during the pandemic contributed to the relatively strong economic recovery for African Americans in the past year, but that these gains could be temporary.

The overall unemployment rate fell to 3.6% in June from 3.7% in May, and payrolls increased by 209,000 jobs, fewer than the 306,000 added in May.

(Reporting by Safiyah Riddle; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)