‘How Keir Starmer can avoid the sudden rise and fall of Australian Labor Party’

Will Prescott

 17th March, 2024

Photo: Juergen Nowak/Shutterstock

Despite having assumed power without any great popular enthusiasm at the May 2022 federal election, the Australian Labor Government under newly-minted Prime Minister Anthony Albanese quickly established dominance in the opinion polls. Two years later, however, and with an election due in 2025, that poll lead has all but evaporated.

Although Labor’s 2022 victory was hardly emphatic — its share of the primary vote, just 32.6%, was the lowest for a winning party since the 1930s — the new Government’s popularity quickly soared. It even captured a previously Opposition-held seat at an April 2023 by-election, a feat that no other Australian government had managed since 1920.

Despite having inspired little enthusiasm as Opposition Leader, Albanese’s own personal approval ratings climbed, and by September 2022 he established a 39 percentage point lead as preferred Prime Minister over the new Leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton. Unfortunately for Albanese and his government, however, the honeymoon has well and truly come to an end. Two main factors are to blame.

Defeat in the Voice referendum dealt blow to government

First, the Government was badly damaged by the failure of the Voice referendum in October 2023. During the 2022 election, Albanese pledged to hold a referendum on whether to create a constitutionally-entrenched indigenous advisory body, which would have been known as the Voice. In Australia, the constitution can only be changed by a popular vote.

Albanese invested substantial political capital into the referendum campaign. Unfortunately for him and the ‘yes’ campaign, the conservative Opposition under Peter Dutton fiercely campaigned against it. Sensing an opportunity to land a blow against his Labor opponent, Dutton came out strongly against the Voice. Deprived of bipartisan support and plagued by voter confusion about how it would actually work, the Voice suffered a crushing defeat, with over 60% of the electorate voting ‘no’.

In addition to the political embarrassment, the Voice debacle created the perception that the Government was ignoring the bread-and-butter issues of concern to most voters.

Ongoing cost of living crisis has dented Labor support

This ties into the Government’s second problem — the failure to resolve the ongoing cost-of-living crisis has further dented popular enthusiasm for the Albanese Government. Much like the UK, Australian voters have been battered by a combination of higher inflation, rapid interest rate rises and soaring housing costs. Despite inflation having since fallen from 7.8% to 4.1% and interest rates having now stabilised, the damage to the Government’s standing has been done.

The combined effect of both these problems is reflected in the opinion polls. According to Newspoll, generally acknowledged as Australia’s leading pollster, the ALP’s two-party preferred vote lead —  the most relevant polling indicator under Australia’s preferential voting system — slumped from 57-43% in September 2022 to 52-48% in November 2023. Another poll released in late February 2024 even had the Coalition ahead of Labor, albeit by a narrow margin of 51-49%.

‘Voter goodwill is finite’

Although its parliamentary majority is at serious risk, it is still unlikely that Anthony Albanese’s Labor Party will lose power at the next election. Australia’s last one-term Government fell in 1931, and Albanese’s is hardly the first Australian Government to suffer mid-term blues.

More problematically for Dutton, it remains difficult to see how the Coalition will come close to picking up the 21 seats necessary to secure a majority in the 151-member House of Representatives. Labor’s victory at last Saturday’s Dunkley by-election in outer Melbourne, albeit with a reduced majority, suggests that the Coalition has not made sufficient inroads into the suburban seats it needs to win back.

Making matters worse, the so-called ‘Teal’ independents, who occupy eight formerly safe Coalition seats, appear to be entrenching themselves, potentially shielding the Labor Government should its majority fall.

There are several key lessons that Sir Keir Starmer’s UK Labour Party can draw from the Albanese Labor Government. Although voters may rapidly warm to a newly elected Prime Minister, especially after the turmoil of recent years, voter goodwill is finite.

The public may take issue if a Starmer Government is seen as spending too much time on cultural and constitutional issues. Above all, unless the new administration is seen to prioritise and address the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, its honeymoon could well prove short-lived. 

Will Prescott

Will Prescott is a researcher at Bright Blue.

View all articles by Will Prescott

How the miner’s strikes revolutionised the role of women in Britain

Noora Mykkanen

METRO UK

Published Mar 17, 2024
Miners’ strikes opened new doors for working-class women

Forty years ago, the miners’ strikes helped revolutionise the role of women in the UK by forcing them ‘out of their comfort zone’ and into the frontlines of a battle to save their communities.

Over 142,000 miners went on strike across England, Scotland and Wales from 1984 to 1985 to oppose looming pit closures which put livelihoods and entire communities at risk.

They stood up against the National Coal Board and the Conservative government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher with 20,000 jobs on the line.

Miners’ strikes became one of the biggest industrial disputes in British history (Credits: Doncaster Free Press / SWNS)

Some protests saw violent clashes between campaigners and the police (Credits: Doncaster Free Press/SWNS)

The board had its eyes set on mines it deemed unprofitable, and in early March 1984 the government said 20 collieries would shut.

This prompted the National Union of Miners (NUM) to declare a national strike, and picket lines began to appear in mining villages and towns throughout the country.

One such village was Sacriston, a mining community in County Durham, where Anna Lawson lived with her family.

Now 66 and living in County Durham, Lawson spoke to Metro about the impact of the strikes and how it opened new doors for working class women like her.
‘No going back for women after the strike’

One of UK’s biggest industrial disputes was about ‘fighting for survival’, Lawson said.

If the nearest pit was shut, the village would be classed as category D, which meant it was up for demolition.

Women collected food parcels and ran soup kitchens for struggling miners in Doncaster (Credits: Doncaster Free Press/SWNS)

She said: ‘The women’s song says when you’re fighting for survival you have nothing to lose, because if you don’t save the pit, it will be a hell of a struggle to save the community’.

However, pits began to close fast after the industrial action ended, with only 15 pits out of 174 remaining open in 1994.

The eventual closures hit coal towns hard, leaving many families to struggle amid mass unemployment.

Downfall of the coal industry is still felt in many former mining towns, many of which have never recovered.

As the villages fought for survival and started to crumble, women played a vital role in keeping their communites together.

Women have ‘always had a role in emergency situations when men have gone to war’, Lawson explained, and this was no different.

Trade union leader Arthur Scargill and his wife Anne at national women’s demonstration against pit closures (Credits: PA)

Miners at a protest in Doncaster (Credits: Doncaster Free Press / SWNS)

But the strikes also opened up a world of opportunities women didn’t think were possible until then.

Summarizing her role, Lawson said: ‘We fed the children and the striking miners.’

But just those eight words highlighted the questions of ‘where did the food come from, where did the knowledge to cook it come from’, she added.

‘To do that women had to make links in the wider community.

‘We were fundraising, educating, being educated and we learned as we went along. And as we went along, we became more politicised. We wrote speeches, we empowered each other.’

‘It took everybody out of their comfort zone, but they hadn’t realised they were in one. That was really important.

A road in Doncaster after a clash during a protest

 (Credits: Doncaster Free Press/SWNS)

‘I don’t mean to be rude, but a lot of people were in their own bubble and believed what was in the papers’.

At the time, Lawson had three children, including a toddler who was ‘very much part of the strikes’ and she was also in the process of separating from her husband.

She was brought up in an educated family with teacher parents and three brothers with ‘very advanced’ political views. Both sides of her family had worked in the mines all their lives, although her father managed to ‘escape it’.

However, she was still ‘expected to do the ironing’ when she lived at home.

Speaking of her grandparents, she said: ‘Their parents were born in the 1800s.

‘I think the gender stereotypes were still in our existence, in our memory and background.’

Taking action in the face of social injustice was ‘just natural’ for Lawson who was nicknamed ‘Anna with the banner’ already before the strikes.

A protest to ask for a 24-hours strike to support miners outside a TUC conference on September 4, 1984. (Credits: B. Gomer/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

She said: ‘There was a need and I was there and I just dived in.

‘We were different to the coastal pits – they could see the closures coming, but we had absolutely no idea’.


Lawson also joined the Women Against Pit Closures campaign, a national movement that grew out of local groups.

The Sacriston women started to learn ‘how to do things properly’ as the strikes went on.

They opened a welfare hub in an empty cobblers shop. It sold things not found elsewhere in the village and it had books at the back.

It was run by ‘only women’ which the men ‘didn’t like very much’, she noted.

If someone’s power was going to be cut off, the campaigners ‘put a line around it’.
Protesters outside the TUC (Trades Union Congress) conference hall in Brighton (Credits: Popperfoto via Getty Images)

She said: ‘That’s when I got really interested in welfare law.

‘There is a moratorium even now where people with a disability, with kids under a certain age and elderly can’t have their electricity cut off. That came off the strikes’.

After the strikes, many women she knew took ’employment opportunities they would not have taken before’, she said.

‘Many went into university and professions they would not have considered. We set an example to our children and that continues in our children and now in our grandchildren’.

Lawson herself took the plunge into welfare law, practicing and teaching it for a decade.

The strikes had showed women across the country that their role in protest was ‘not just feeding the children, but about solidarity, education and communication’, Lawson said.

There was ‘absolutely no going back’ to the ‘convenient stereotypes’ and women returning to being wives like many had done when the World Wars ended, she stressed.

Many Sacriston women ‘didn’t want it to be over’ when the strike was declared over, she said laughing.

‘The men went back to work, but we found ways forward because we were already on a roll’, she said.

‘The women’s role in the strike created a legacy of protest art and protest music that has a universality for women who are in conflict or struggle wherever they may be’, she concluded.

Mercedes rolls out humanlike robots for ‘dull and repetitive’ factory tasks

Matt Oliver
Fri, 15 March 2024 

Each one can lift weights of up to 55 pounds and is designed to operate alongside human colleagues - Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes has installed humanlike robots in one of its factories as part of a trial to offload more physically demanding and repetitive tasks to indefatigable machines.

The “Apollo” robots, made by Texas-based start-up Apptronik, are roughly the size of a typical factory worker at 5ft 8 inches and weigh 160lbs. Each one can lift weights of up to 55 pounds and is designed to operate alongside human colleagues.

So far, the machines are being used to bring parts to the production line for workers, who then take care of assembly. In future they could also be used to inspect components as well.

The trial, first reported by the Financial Times, is part of efforts to automate “some physically demanding, repetitive and dull tasks for which it is increasingly hard to find reliable workers”, Mercedes said.


Jörg Burzer, a board member at Mercedes-Benz Group, said: “To build the most desirable cars, we continually evolve automotive production: Advancements in robotics and AI open up new opportunities also for us.

“We are exploring new ways robotics can support our skilled workforce in manufacturing.

“This is a new frontier and we want to understand the potential both for robotics and automotive production.”

Jeff Cardenas, co-founder and chief executive of Apptronik, said the trial setup was “a dream scenario”.

He added: “Mercedes plans to use robotics and Apollo for automating some low-skill, physically challenging, manual labour – a model use case which we’ll see other organisations replicate in the months and years to come.”

Tesla has been demonstrating its own robots that can pick up eggs without breaking them - Tesla

Fellow German carmaker BMW said it was also poised to deploy similar machines in January, after joining forces with California-based Figure.

Figure’s machines are similarly designed and take breaks every five hours to walk themselves to charging stations.

Rival carmaker Tesla, which is run by billionaire Elon Musk, has been demonstrating its own “Optimus” robots that can squat without falling over and pick up an egg without breaking it.

In a video released in December, Tesla showed off a machine that it said could walk 30pc faster than previous iterations. The robot also weighed 10 kilograms less, and boasted improved balance and hand movements.

Human-shaped robots are seen as useful for factory spaces because they are the right size to navigate spaces designed for humans.

So far, none are as quick and dexterous as human beings, however, meaning that the time when they can fully replace their fleshy overlords remains some time away.

US tech giant Amazon is testing robots that can grab and move items with their hands - JASON REDMOND/AFP

In the meantime, companies including Amazon and Ocado have already begun to revolutionise industrial work with other types of robots that work in separate spaces to humans.

These are often deployed in fenced-off areas of warehouses – where human workers do not typically venture – to quickly and efficiently sort goods.

For example, Amazon’s “Sequoia” robots – which look similar to large robot vacuum cleaners – can scoot around warehouse floors carrying large shelves of goods on top of them, picking out items needed by human staff who then package them up for delivery.

More recently, the US tech giant has also been testing more humanoid robots, made by the company Agility Robotics.
These can grab and move items with their hands and are being used for collecting plastic boxes left behind after human employees have emptied them of items.

 UK

LABOUR LOOKOUT

Remembering Tony Benn: hero of our movement, lasting voice for peace & socialism

14th March 2024Leave a Commenton Remembering Tony Benn: hero of our movement, lasting voice for peace & socialism

“Do not Arab & Iraqi women weep when their children die? Does not bombing strengthen their determination? What fools we are to live as if war is a computer game for our children or just an interesting little Channel 4 news item.”

We are proud to republish a below one of many important speeches Tony Benn made in Parliament against imperialist wars in the Middle East, to mark 10 years since he passed. His legacy and ideas are as important as ever today – the ‘Labour Outlook’ Team.

Tony Benn’s speech to the House of Commons on 17 February 1998, during a debate on the bombing of Iraq

I have very little time. I want to develop my argument. There are many others who want to speak. I hope that the House will listen to me. I know that my view is not the majority view in the House, although it may be outside this place.

I regret that I shall vote against the Government motion. The first victims of the bombing that I believe will be launched within a fortnight will be innocent people, many, if not most, of whom would like Saddam to be removed. The former Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for Huntingdon, talked about collateral damage. The military men are clever. They talk not about hydrogen bombs but about deterrence. They talk not about people but about collateral damage. They talk not about power stations and sewerage plants but about assets. The reality is that innocent people will be killed if the House votes tonight—as it manifestly will—to give the Government the authority for military action.

The bombing would also breach the United Nations charter. I do not want to argue on legal terms. If the hon. and learned Member for North-East Fife (Mr. Campbell) has read articles 41 and 42, he will know that the charter says that military action can only be decided on by the Security Council and conducted under the military staffs committee. That procedure has not been followed and cannot be followed because the five permanent members have to agree. Even for the Korean war, the United States had to go to the General Assembly to get authority because Russia was absent. That was held to be a breach, but at least an overwhelming majority was obtained.

Has there been any negotiation or diplomatic effort? Why has the Foreign Secretary not been in Baghdad, like the French Foreign Minister, the Turkish Foreign Minister and the Russian Foreign Minister? The time that the Government said that they wanted for negotiation has been used to prepare public opinion for war and to build up their military position in the Gulf.

Saddam will be strengthened again. Or he may be killed. I read today that the security forces—who are described as terrorists in other countries—have tried to kill Saddam. I should not be surprised if they succeeded.

This second action does not enjoy support from elsewhere. There is no support from Iraq’s neighbours. If what the Foreign Secretary says about the threat to the neighbours is true, why is Iran against, why is Jordan against, why is Saudi Arabia against, why is Turkey against? Where is that great support? There is no support from the opposition groups inside Iraq. The Kurds, the Shi’ites and the communists hate Saddam, but they do not want the bombing. The Pope is against it, along with 10 bishops, two cardinals, Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Perez de Cuellar. The Foreign Secretary clothes himself with the garment of the world community, but he does not have that support. We are talking about an Anglo-American preventive war. It has been planned and we are asked to authorise it in advance.

The House is clear about its view of history, but it does not say much about the history of the areas with which we are dealing. The borders of Kuwait and Iraq, which then became sacrosanct, were drawn by the British after the end of the Ottoman empire. We used chemical weapons against the Iraqis in the 1930s. Air Chief Marshal Harris, who later flattened Dresden, was instructed to drop chemical weapons.

When Saddam came to power, he was a hero of the West. The Americans used him against Iran because they hated Khomeini, who was then the figure to be removed. 927 They armed Saddam, used him and sent him anthrax. I am not anxious to make a party political point, because there is not much difference between the two sides on this, but, as the Scott report revealed, the previous Government allowed him to be armed. I had three hours with Saddam in 1990. I got the hostages out, which made it worth going. He felt betrayed by the United States, because the American ambassador in Baghdad had said to him, “If you go into Kuwait, we will treat it as an Arab matter.” That is part of the history that they know, even if we do not know it here.

In 1958, 40 years ago, Selwyn Lloyd, the Foreign Secretary and later the Speaker, told Foster Dulles that Britain would make Kuwait a Crown colony. Foster Dulles said, “What a very good idea.” We may not know that history, but in the middle east it is known.

The Conservatives have tabled an amendment asking about the objectives. That is an important issue. There is no UN resolution saying that Saddam must be toppled. It is not clear that the Government know what their objectives are. They will probably be told from Washington. Do they imagine that if we bomb Saddam for two weeks, he will say, “Oh, by the way, do come in and inspect”? The plan is misconceived.

Some hon. Members—even Opposition Members—have pointed out the double standard. I am not trying to equate Israel with Iraq, but on 8 June 1981, Israel bombed a nuclear reactor near Baghdad. What action did either party take on that? Israel is in breach of UN resolutions and has instruments of mass destruction. Mordecai Vanunu would not boast about Israeli freedom. Turkey breached UN resolutions by going into northern Cyprus. It has also recently invaded northern Iraq and has instruments of mass destruction. Lawyers should know better than anyone else that it does not matter whether we are dealing with a criminal thug or an ordinary lawbreaker—if the law is to apply, it must apply to all. Governments of both major parties have failed in that.

Prediction is difficult and dangerous, but I fear that the situation could end in a tragedy for the American and British Governments. Suez and Vietnam are not far from the minds of anyone with a sense of history. I recall what happened to Sir Anthony Eden. I heard him announce the ceasefire and saw him go on holiday to Goldeneye in Jamaica. He came back to be replaced. I am not saying that that will happen in this case, but does anyone think that the House is in a position to piggy-back on American power in the middle east? What happens if Iraq breaks up? If the Kurds are free, they will demand Kurdistan and destabilise Turkey. Anything could happen. We are sitting here as if we still had an empire—only, fortunately, we have a bigger brother with more weapons than us.

The British Government have everything at their disposal. They are permanent members of the Security Council and have the European Union presidency for six months. Where is that leadership in Europe which we were promised? It just disappeared. We are also, of course, members of the Commonwealth, in which there are great anxieties. We have thrown away our influence, which could have been used for moderation.

The amendment that I and others have tabled argues that the United Nations Security Council should decide the nature of what Kofi Annan brings back from Baghdad and whether force is to be used. Inspections and sanctions go side by side. As I said, sanctions are brutal for innocent 928 people. Then there is the real question: when will the world come to terms with the fact that chemical weapons are available to anybody? If there is an answer to that, it must involve the most meticulous observation of international law, which I feel we are abandoning.

War is easy to talk about; there are not many people left of the generation which remembers it. The right hon. Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup served with distinction in the last war. I never killed anyone but I wore uniform. I was in London during the blitz in 1940, living where the Millbank tower now stands, where I was born. Some different ideas have come in there since. Every night, I went to the shelter in Thames house. Every morning, I saw docklands burning. Five hundred people were killed in Westminster one night by a land mine. It was terrifying. Are not Arabs and Iraqis terrified? Do not Arab and Iraqi women weep when their children die? Does not bombing strengthen their determination? What fools we are to live as if war is a computer game for our children or just an interesting little Channel 4 news item.

Every Member of Parliament who votes for the Government motion will be consciously and deliberately accepting responsibility for the deaths of innocent people if the war begins, as I fear it will. That decision is for every hon. Member to take. In my parliamentary experience, this a unique debate. We are being asked to share responsibility for a decision that we will not really be taking but which will have consequences for people who have no part to play in the brutality of the regime with which we are dealing.

On 24 October 1945—the right hon. Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup will remember—the United Nations charter was passed. The words of that charter are etched on my mind and move me even as I think of them. It says: We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our life-time has brought untold sorrow to mankind”. That was that generation’s pledge to this generation, and it would be the greatest betrayal of all if we voted to abandon the charter, take unilateral action and pretend that we were doing so in the name of the international community. I shall vote against the motion for the reasons that I have given.

Fatah 'surprised' by Palestinian groups' concerns over President Abbas decision to form new government


'The leadership of Hamas is disconnected from reality and the Palestinian people,' says Fatah party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas

Ikrame Imane Kouachi |16.03.2024 -

RAMALLAH, Palestine

The Fatah movement of President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday expressed "surprise" at Palestinian groups voicing concerns about the formation of a new government led by Mohammad Mustafa without national consensus.

The Fatah said in a statement that “the leadership of Hamas is disconnected from reality and the Palestinian people.”

“It has not yet sensed the extent of the catastrophe that our oppressed people are experiencing,” the statement added.

The party expressed "surprise and disapproval at Hamas' talk of exclusivity and division."

“President Mahmoud Abbas has the right, under the Basic Law, to do everything that is in the interest of the Palestinian people,” the party said, adding that “assigning Mohammad Mustafa to form the government falls within the core of the president's political and legal responsibilities."

“The priority of all Palestinians today is to stop the war immediately, prevent displacement, provide relief to our afflicted people, rebuild the Gaza Strip, end the division, and reunify the Palestinian homeland,” it said.

Earlier on Friday, several Palestinian groups condemned President Abbas' announcement of a new government, fearing it would further divide the nation.

The Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and National Initiative groups issued a joint statement in which they questioned the feasibility of replacing one prime minister with another "from the same political environment."

"Taking individual decisions and engaging in superficial and empty steps such as forming a new government without national consensus only reinforces the policy of unilateralism and deepens division," the statement said.

On Thursday, Abbas appointed Mustafa as prime minister and asked him to form a new government.

Even though the prime minister-designate is not a member of the Fatah movement, he is a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's Executive Committee.

Israel has waged a retaliatory offensive on Gaza since a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7. The offensive has killed over 31,500 victims and injured more than 73,500 others amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Palestinian enclave, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

About 85% of Gazans have been displaced by the Israeli onslaught amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in an interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi

Fatah hits back at criticism of new PM by Hamas, other Palestinian groups

By

 AFP

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah party hit back at criticism on Friday by Hamas and other factions over his appointment of a new prime minister they said could deepen divisions as the war with Israel in Gaza rages.

Abbas appointed Mohammed Mustafa, a long-trusted adviser on economic affairs, as prime minister on Thursday and tasked him with forming a new government. 

But the factions said in a statement Friday that “making individual decisions, and engaging in formal steps that are devoid of substance, like forming a new government without national consensus, is a reinforcement of a policy of exclusion and the deepening of division”. 

Such steps point to a “huge gap between the (Palestinian) Authority and the people, their concerns and their aspirations,” they said. 

The other signatories were Islamic Jihad, the second-largest militant group in Gaza, the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Palestinian National Initiative, a political party which seeks a third way between Fatah and Hamas. 

Mustafa replaces Mohammed Shtayyeh, who resigned less than three weeks ago citing the need for change after the Hamas attack of October 7 triggered war with Israel in Gaza. 

He accepted the appointment and said in a letter to Abbas published on Friday he was “well aware of the severity of the… dire circumstances that the Palestinian people are going through”. 

Fatah hit back at Hamas late Friday, accusing the Islamist movement in a statement of “having caused the return of the Israeli occupation of Gaza” by “undertaking the October 7 adventure”. 

This led to a “catastrophe even more horrible and cruel than that of 1948”, a reference to the displacement and expulsion of some 760,000 Palestinians from their lands at the creation of Israel, they said.

“The real disconnection from reality and the Palestinian people is that of the Hamas leadership,” said Fatah, accusing Hamas of not having itself “consulted” the other Palestinian leaders before launching its attack on Israel.

The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of around 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli figures. 

The retaliatory Israeli military offensive in Gaza has killed at least 31,490 people, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. 

Mustafa, 69, now faces the task of forming a new government for the Palestinian Authority, which has limited powers in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Control of the Palestinian territories has been divided between Abbas’s Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip since 2007.

Analysts have said Mustafa’s closeness to Abbas would limit chances for major reform of the Palestinian Authority. 

The United States and other powers have called for a reformed Palestinian Authority to take charge of all Palestinian territories after the war ends. 

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has rejected post-war plans for Palestinian sovereignty.

 Climate activists hold protests in German cities

Activists from Last Generation block roads in Berlin, Cologne, Bremen, Leipzig, other cities to highlight climate crisis

Alperen Aktaş |16.03.2024 - Update : 16.03


COLOGNE, Germany

Climate activists from the Last Generation organization held protests in several cities in Germany on Saturday.

Activists took to the streets in cities, including capital Berlin, Cologne, Bremen, Leipzig, Karlsruhe, Freiburg, Stuttgart, Regensburg, Munich, and Rugen, blocking roads to draw attention to the climate crisis.

In Cologne, Last Generation activists, known for starting sudden actions without notifying the police, sat on the road with banners and blocked traffic for a while.

Later, police intervened and reopened the road for traffic.

The demonstrators, highlighting the climate crisis, demanded that politicians in the country make more efforts to address the issue.

*Writing by Alperen Aktas from Istanbul

Climate protesters under fire in Europe: UN expert

By

 AFP

Environmental activists are increasingly facing hostility across Europe, a UN expert said, warning that the very right to protest was “at risk” in countries usually considered beacons of democracy.

Michel Forst, the UN special rapporteur on environmental defenders, told AFP in an interview this week that he was deeply troubled by the hardening tone against climate activists in countries including France, Austria, Germany and Britain.

Government ministers have been throwing about terms like “eco terrorists” and “Green Talibans” to describe non-violent activists, he claimed, also blaming some media reporting for contributing to an increasingly hostile public attitude.

“It creates a sort of chilling effect,” warned Forst, an independent expert appointed under the UN’s Aarhus Convention — a legally-binding text that provides for justice in environmental matters.

“Currently, the right to protest is at risk in Europe.” 

Forst said he had recently visited several European countries after receiving complaints that activists faced treatment that allegedly violated the convention and international human rights law.

Following a visit to Britain, he publicly voiced alarm at the “toxic discourse” and “increasingly severe crackdown” on environmental defenders.

– ‘Regressive laws’ –

Forst charged that “regressive laws” in Britain were being used to slap climate activists with harsh penalties, with one activist sent to prison for six months for a 30-minute slow march disrupting traffic.

Another activist had been sentenced to 27 months behind bars in the UK, he said.

He also decried harsh sentences in other countries, including Germany.

Forst travelled to France last month following complaints about a crackdown on a drawn-out anti-motorway protest near the southwestern city of Toulouse.

Activists, called “squirrels”, who have been squatting in trees destined to be chopped down to make way for the A69 motorway, have accused law enforcement of denying them access to food and water and using floodlights to deprive them of sleep.

Forst said he had been blocked from bringing food to the activists, and was “shocked” by what he found. 

“Obviously, deprivation of food, of drinking water, of sleep is clearly against international law,” said Forst, a French national.

They are “considered acts of torture in international texts”, he added. 

– ‘Dangerous’ –

Forst said that European media coverage often focuses exclusively on the drama around demonstrations and not on the climate crisis prompting the protests.

The world is in a very “dangerous time”, he said, but the general public often do not understand why young people are “blocking access to airports, or gluing their hands on the floor”.

As a result, states have felt justified in developing new policies and laws, paving the way for police crackdowns, and increasingly harsh sentences. 

In Britain, he said that some judges were even barring environmental defenders from using the word “climate” to explain their motivation to the jury.

Forst said that he was investigating whether big companies, especially in the oil and energy sector, might be lobbying to increase the pressure on climate activists.

“The most dangerous” companies were even “using security forces, connections with the mafia… to target and sometimes to kill defenders,” he said.

Forst said he was currently organising consultations in Latin America and Africa with environmental activists there who are facing attacks by companies.

He is also investigating whether companies based in Europe are, through local subsidiaries, contributing to attacks on activists.

And the expert blasted European countries for “a double standard” by supporting environmental defenders in other parts of the world but “not protecting their defenders inside Europe”.

by Nina LARSON

 

Thai PM vows to curb air pollution in tourist hotspot Chiang Mai

By

 AFP

Thailand’s prime minister promised Saturday to tackle air pollution as he visited tourism hotspot Chiang Mai, which had among the world’s worst air quality for the second day in a row.

The picturesque historic city is hugely popular with visitors but annually suffers dire air quality in the early months of the year when farmers burn crops.

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, who is on a four-day northern tour, acknowleged his government needs to tackle the smog.

“Even if the pollution level is lower than last year at this time, we are still concerned and will find solutions to improve the livelihood of the people,” he told reporters.

His visit came as Chiang Mai topped air monitoring website IQAir’s list of the world’s most-polluted cities for the second consecutive day.

Levels of PM 2.5 pollutants — small enough to enter the bloodstream through the lungs — were at 224 on Saturday afternoon, 20 times higher than the World Health Organization’s guidelines.

Earlier, Srettha visited the Command Centre for Wildfires and PM2.5 Prevention in the city’s Mae Taeng district.

After meeting with workers, he told reporters he was working with local authorities to study the impact of transnational haze. He added that he would impose regulations on farmers who burnt stubble, without giving further details.

Earlier this year, Srettha’s cabinet approved a Clean Air Act aiming to tackle the issue.

It follows a government body warning this month that more than 10 million patients sought treatment for pollution-related diseases last year in Thailand.

Srettha’s visit to Chiang Mai coincided with that of ex-PM and controversial billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, as well as opposition MP and former Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat.

Thaksin — on his first public outing since his release from a jail sentence following his return from self-exile — also spoke about PM 2.5, calling it “the biggest problem”.

Syria’s Plight Seems Forgotten as Nation Enters 14th Year of Civil War

March 16, 2024 
By Lisa Schlein

Syrians attend a gathering to mark 13 years since pro-democracy protests swept the country in the rebel-held city of Idlib, in northwestern Syria, on March 15, 2024.

GENEVA —

As Syria enters its 14th year of civil war with no political resolution in sight, United Nations aid agencies are appealing to the international community to remember the plight of millions of people who continue to suffer from violence, devastation, destitution and abuse.

Thirteen years of crisis have taken an unimaginable toll on the Syrian people, and U.N. agencies warn the crisis continues to wreak havoc on the population, worsening an already dire humanitarian situation.

In marking the grim anniversary, Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria Adam Abdelmoula and Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis Muhannad Hadi issued a joint statement Friday warning that “the level of needs has never been higher.”

They estimate that 16.7 million people require humanitarian assistance, many of them victims of last year’s destructive earthquakes, which have created a “crisis within a crisis.”

“Today, a record number of people go to bed hungry every night, the health care system is unable to adequately meet people’s needs, basic services are unavailable, and millions of children remain out of school,” they said.

Civilians ride in a truck as they flee Maaret al-Numan, Syria, ahead of a government offensive on Dec. 23, 2019.

Additionally, they note that after 13 years of warfare, Syria is facing some of the worst conflict-related violence in years, “leading to civilian casualties, displacement and destruction across the country.”

The United Nations reports more than 350,000 civilians have been killed and more than 12 million people have been forced to flee for safety inside and outside the country.

“The displaced have suffered hugely and continue to,” Matthew Saltmarsh, U.N. refugee agency spokesperson, told journalists Friday in Geneva, noting that now more than ever, Syrian refugees and internally displaced people need the world’s support.

He said that more than 5 million Syrians have taken refuge in five neighboring countries, while more than 7.2 million are displaced inside Syria.

“These numbers are huge,” he said. “Back in 2015, Syrian refugees dominated the headlines as they moved in search of safety. Sadly, they no longer command that attention, and their plight seems to have been relegated.”

Although Syria perhaps has been forgotten, he said, “Syria remains the world’s largest forced displacement crisis” and cannot be ignored.

He said UNHCR’s humanitarian operations are suffering from a severe cash crunch. He noted that 6% of the agency’s $466.6 million appeal to aid displaced Syrians inside the country has been received, and 10% of its $1,49 billion appeal to assist refugees and host communities has been funded.

“The decline in funding has forced UNHCR and other humanitarian agencies to make difficult choices about what and who to prioritize,” he said, warning that the lack of funding “risks pushing children into labor, gender-based violence, early marriages, school dropouts.”

UNICEF reports that nearly 7.5 million children in Syria need humanitarian assistance, “more than at any other time during the conflict.”

Syrian children read books in a refugee camp near Amman, Jordan, on June 5, 2023.

The U.N. children’s agency warned that repeated cycles of violence and displacment, a devastating economic crisis, disease outbreaks and last year’s earthquakes “have left hundreds of thousands of children exposed to long-term physical and psychosocial consequences.”

It said more than 650,000 children under the age of 5 are chronically malnourished, and a recent survey in northern Syria found that 34% of girls and 31% of boys suffered from psychosocial distress.

“The sad reality is that today, and in the days ahead, many children in Syria will mark their 13th birthdays, becoming teenagers, knowing that their entire childhood to date has been marked by conflict, displacement and deprivation,” said Adele Khodr, UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“A generation of children in Syria has already paid an unbearable price for this conflict,” she underscored. “Ultimately, children need a chance. They need a long-term peaceful solution to the crisis.”

That assessment is shared by Geir Pedersen, U.N. special envoy for Syria, who, in marking “this solemn anniversary of the conflict,” said that “only the unwavering pursuit of a political solution to end this conflict can restore hope to the Syrian people.”

Since he was appointed to his post in 2019, Pedersen has worked doggedly to draft a new constitution as part of a U.N.-mediated negotiated peace process for Syria. Previous meetings of the so-called Syrian Constitutional Committee have failed to make any inroads in the process.

Prospects appear bleak. The committee last met in June 2022. Pedersen says he hopes to convene another meeting in Geneva next month. However, the proposition already has encountered a stumbling block.

While the opposition Syrian Negotiations Committee has accepted the invitation to attend the upcoming meeting, his spokesperson Jennifer Fenton, told journalists in Geneva that “Pedersen has also received communication from the co-chair nominated by the Syrian government declining the invitation.”

She said that Pedersen soon will travel to Damascus.

Syria landmine blast kills 16 truffle hunters: monitor

Scores of Syrians are killed annually in the vast Syrian desert which is littered with landmines, as they search for much-sought after truffles.

The New Arab Staff & Agencies
16 March, 2024

Truffle hunters risk death by searching for the sought-after product in Syria's desert [Getty/file photo]

At least 16 people searching for truffles in the north Syria desert were killed Saturday after their vehicle hit a landmine, a war monitor said.

Between February and April each year, hundreds of impoverished Syrians risk their lives searching for truffles in the vast Syrian desert, or Badia - a known hideout for jihadists that is also littered with mines.

"Sixteen civilians including at least nine women were killed and others seriously wounded" when their small truck hit a mine in an area where Islamic State (IS) group extremists are present in Raqqa province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Britain-based Observatory said the truck was carrying more than 20 civilians who were searching for desert truffles, which fetch high prices in a country battered by 13 years of war and a crushing economic crisis, after Syrian regime leader Bashar al-Assad began a ruthless crackdown on peaceful protesters amid the onset of the Arab Spring in 2011.

Recent weeks have seen repeated deadly mine blasts as Syrians hunt for truffles.

Authorities have frequently warned against the high-risk practice.

Earlier this month, gunmen thought to be linked to IS killed 18 people, mostly civilians, in a desert attack on a group of truffle hunters, the Observatory had reported.

Last month, state media said a landmine left by IS killed 14 people foraging for truffles in the Raqqa desert.

'The poor man's meat': Truffle season in Iraq

In March 2019, IS lost its last scraps of territory in Syria following a military campaign backed by a US-led coalition, but jihadist remnants continue to hide in the desert and launch deadly attacks.

They have ambushed civilians as well as Kurdish-led forces, Syrian government troops and pro-Iran fighters, while also mounting attacks in neighbouring Iraq.