It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
[Brief] On Monday, a commercial fishing vessel began taking on water and sank just off the coast of Galicia, according to local search and rescue authorities.
On Monday, the 2005-built fishing vessel El Cañavera reported that it was in danger of sinking just one nautical mile off Punta Candelaria, a cape just north of the port of Cedeira on Galicia's northwestern coast. The crew abandoned ship into a liferaft and their vessel sank by the stern about five minutes later.
SAR authorities responded to the call and dispatched a rescue helicopter, along with the rescue launches Salvamar Shaula and LS Pardo Bazan. The fishing vessel Brisas de Cedeira was nearby, and within 20 minutes, it reached the life raft and rescued all four crewmembers in it. All were delivered safely to Cedeira.
Courtesy Salvamento Maritimo
"They were asking for help and we had them practically in sight, we were ten minutes away from them," said the skipper of Brisas de Cedeira, Angel Gonzalez, speaking to La Voz de Galicia. "But after five minutes it disappeared."
The boat's bow remained in the air as of Monday, so the position of the wreck was marked and broadcast to reduce the risk to shipping. The cause of the casualty is under investigation.
Bulker Reports Explosion in Cargo Holds Off North Carolina Coast
Explosions are reported to have damaged the forward cargo holds on the bulker (Anglo Shipping file photo)
The UK-flagged bulker Anglo Marie Louise (114,727 dwt) has returned to an anchorage off Virginia after reports that the bulker suffered an explosion on November 27. There are no indications of injuries to the crew and the vessel remained seaworthy, although according to the report it has suffered damage.
“It is reported that the vessel has sustained damage to the No.1 and No.2 cargo hatches as a result of the explosion,” writes claims consultant WK Webster in its report of the incident.
The bulker, which was built in 2011 at China New Times Shipyard, departed Baltimore, Maryland on November 23. The explosion occurred while the vessel was approximately 150 nautical miles east of North Carolina on November 27. The vessel has now anchored off Virginia Beach near the entrance to Chesapeake Bay.
The same ship was also involved in an incident in March 2024 when it blacked out while maneuvering on the Mississippi River near New Orleans. A dispatcher from Moran tugboat company detailed the incident in a social media posting reporting the Anglo Marie Louise careened out of control on the river and was heading for the Nashville Avenue wharf. Two tugs were able to intercept the vessel before it hit another docked vessel or the wharf.
Previously, the ship was cited for issues during port state inspections in the early 2020s. Its most recent inspections however reflected no problems.
The vessel is registered in the UK and managed by Anglo Shipping in London. It is 837 feet (255 meters) in length.
ECOCIDE
Cleanup Under Way for Fuel Oil Spill in San Juan Harbor
Fuel oil on the dock, Puma Energy, San Juan (USCG)
On Thursday, the U.S. Coast Guard responded to a spill between a tanker and a fuel dock in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The spill was quickly shut off and contained, and cleanup is under way.
At about 1930 hours on Wednesday, Sector San Juan received notice from the U.S. National Response Center that a spill had occurred at the Puma Energy fuel dock in San Juan Harbor. During a transfer of No. 3 fuel oil from the tanker Dubai Green to the pierside receiving facility, about 1,000 gallons spilled into the water. The crew detected the spill when they spotted a sheen on the water, and they shut down the transfer operation. Video from the scene shows fuel oil all over the receiving dock, including sections of the gantry above the pier.
The sheen covered an area of about 300 feet by 12 feet, and cleanup crews deployed about 1,000 feet of boom to prevent it from spreading. Puma Energy brought in Marine Spill Response Corporation to perform a cleanup, and Puma hired local subcontractor All Environmental Services to assist. The work to remove petroleum from the containment area and from small pockets in the harbor will likely take several days.
Coast Guard environmental response officers are investigating the spill and overseeing the cleanup. In the meantime, the Coast Guard has advised local fishermen and members of the public to stay clear of the area and avoid touching contaminated materials.
"We are investigating and overseeing clean-up efforts to ensure the right resources are brought into this response to remove this pollution threat and mitigate the marine environmental impacts in the affected area as best as possible," said Chief Warrant Officer Jamie Testa, Coast Guard Federal On-Scene Coordinator for the incident. "This incident highlights the importance of fuel facilities and vessels having updated response plans in place and that those plans are exercised frequently to ensure the quickest and most efficient response possible."
Freighter Runs Aground on Egypt's Red Sea Riviera, Spilling Fuel
On Friday, a coastal freighter ran aground on a reef off El Quseir on the Red Sea coast of Egypt, spilling an unknown quantity of fuel.
The 300-foot coastal freighter VSG Glory was under way on a slow voyage from the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeidah, Yemen to Port Tawfiq, Egypt, carrying 70 tonnes of fuel oil in her tanks. AIS data shows that she had been loitering in the Red Sea for more than a month, rarely making more than three knots and often doubling back on her course.
Courtesy Pole Star
On Friday, after another low-speed dogleg just offshore, she drifted west and ran aground on a reef north of Al-Quseer (El Qosier), an ancient city and tourism destination on Egypt's Red Sea Riviera. The area is known for its near-shore diving attractions, including coral gardens and submerged caverns.
According to Al Jazeera, all 21 crewmembers were safely evacuated. Local environmental conservation group HECLA reports that the vessel suffered flooding in way of the engine room, and photos from the scene show that the stern is low in the water.
Courtesy HECLA
Courtesy HECLA
The location of the grounding is right off the shore of two upscale resorts, and the spill lightly contaminated the beach. First responders have installed about 600 feet of pollution control boom around the stricken vessel, HECLA reported.
VSG Glory is an 8,000 tonne freighter built in 1994, and her owners have used the Comoros flag registry since August 2023. She is owned and operated by a company in Basrah, Iraq, and has accumulated multiple deficiencies at every port state control inspection since 2019 (and more than 200 over her lifetime). Recently recorded issues include oil accumulation in the engine room, fire system maintenance, adequacy of food provisions, officer qualification documents, and various health-related issues in the accommodations.
Supply Vessel Hits Leg of a Jackup Rig at North Sea Oilfield
On Sunday night, an offshore supply vessel hit a jackup rig at a position in the UK North Sea, forcing the rig operator to partially evacuate as a precautionary measure.
At about 2215 hours on Sunday night, a PSV hit one of the legs of the rig Valaris 120, located at a platform about 150 miles to the east of Aberdeen, Scotland. About 128 workers were aboard the rig at the time of the allision, and 52 nonessential personnel were flown off to Aberdeen by helicopter. The partial evacuation took three flights, lease operator Harbour Energy said in a statement.
"People are our priority, and everyone onboard the rig and the vessel is safe and well," Harbour Energy said. "Our incident response teams have been mobilized and are in liaison with the relevant authorities."
Valaris 120 is a heavy duty harsh environment jackup built in 2013, and it was part of the former Ensco fleet. It has a maximum drilling depth of 40,000 feet and can operate in up to 470 feet of water. At the time of the casualty, the jackup was in elevated position near Harbour Energy's Judy platform, a small manned production installation with output of about 34,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. Its lifetime is being extended through subsea tieback developments to nearby prospects, including the Talbot field and the Jocelyn South exploration well. Harbour also planned for two infill wells at the Judy field and a rig-based well intervention campaign during 2024.
Valaris 120 recently secured a three-year contract extension with Harbour Energy, running from 2025 through 2028. The day rate was not disclosed.
More than 130 killed as Syrian rebels seize territory from army in Aleppo province
Syrian rebels on Wednesday launched a massive offensive against the Syrian regime in Aleppo province, making the first territorial gains since a ceasefire came into force in 2020, army and rebel sources said. More than 130 have been killed in the fighting, according to a Syrian war monitor.
Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ride in military vehicles in the eastern outskirts of the town of Atarib, in Syria's northern province of Aleppo on November 27, 2024, during clashes with the Syrian army.
A Syria war monitor on Thursday said clashes between the army and jihadists killed more than 130 combatants in the worst fighting in the country's northwest in years, as the government also reported fierce battles.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions launched a surprise attack on the Syrian army in the northern province of Aleppo on Wednesday.
The toll "in battles ongoing for the past 24 hours has risen to 132, including 65 fighters from HTS", 18 from allied factions "and 49 members of regime forces", said the Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.
Some of the clashes, in an area straddling Idlib and Aleppo provinces, are less than 10 kilometres (six miles) southwest of the outskirts of Aleppo city.
HTS, led by Al-Qaeda's former Syria branch, controls swathes of much of the northwest Idlib area and slivers of neighbouring Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces.
An AFP correspondent reported heavy, uninterrupted clashes east of the city of Idlib since Wednesday morning, including air strikes.
A military statement carried by state news agency SANA said that "armed terrorist organisations grouped under so-called 'Nusra terrorist front' present in Aleppo and Idlib provinces launched a large, broad-fronted attack" on Wednesday morning.
It said the attack with "medium and heavy weapons targeted safe villages and towns and our military sites in those areas".
The army "in cooperation with friendly forces" confronted the attack "which is still continuing", inflicting "heavy losses" on the armed groups, the military statement said, without reporting army losses.
Key highway
The Observatory said HTS was able to advance in Idlib province, taking control of Dadikh, Kafr Batikh and Sheikh Ali "after heavy clashes with the regime forces with Russian air cover".
"The villages have strategic importance due to their proximity to the M5 international highway", the monitor said, adding the factions, which already took control of two other locations, were "trying to cut the Aleppo-Damascus international highway".
The Observatory said that "Russian warplanes intensified air strikes", targeting the vicinity of Sarmin and other areas in Idlib province, alongside "heavy artillery shelling" and rocket fire.
Syria's conflict broke out after President Bashar al-Assad repressed anti-government protests in 2011, and spiralled into a complex conflict drawing in foreign armies and jihadists.
It has killed more than 500,000 people, displaced millions and battered the country's infrastructure and industry.
The Idlib region is subject to a ceasefire -- repeatedly violated but still largely holding -- brokered by Turkey and Damascus ally Russia after a Syrian government offensive in March 2020.
By AFP November 27, 2024 Brazil, the world's largest coffee producer, faces a record-breaking drought this year - Copyright AFP/File Saul Loeb
The price of Arabica coffee hit the highest level since 1977 on Wednesday, approaching a record high as drought in top producer Brazil this year hits supplies.
A pound (453.6 grams) of Arabica beans listed in New York struck 320.10 US cents, extending the commodity’s rally over 2024.
The all-time high is 337.50 US cents, seen in 1977.
Brazil, the world’s largest coffee producer, faced a record-breaking drought this year which has raised significant concerns for 2025/2026 crops amid already tight supplies.
This is despite “significant rains” in October, leading to an “excellent flowering”, according to Guilherme Morya, senior analyst at Rabobank.
He added that farmers were selling less than was needed to meet demand.
Analysts said that price support came also from geopolitical factors such as disruptions to shipping in the Red Sea, potential US tariffs and future European Union regulation on deforestation.
“It is clearer and clearer that this (supply situation) is going to have a significant impact on the consumer,” John Plassard, senior asset specialist at Mirabaud group, told AFP.
Companies are preparing to negotiate their coffee contracts early next year, with food giants like Nestle set to pass on price increases to customers.
The Swiss group announced this month that it would increase prices and reduce the size of its coffee bags to protect margins.
– Keep on buying –
In London, some coffee drinkers approached by AFP on Wednesday vowed to keep on buying their beans, but owing to recent price hikes added that they had already begun to buy fewer cups in cafes.
“I’ve noticed that the prices have gone up,” said Julie, 34, as she held a cup of coffee not long purchased from a coffee shop.
“I prefer to buy packs and brew it at home. It’s rare for me to buy it in the shop, but it used to be more frequent.”
Nicky, 26, said she was not ready to give up purchasing cups of coffee in stores.
“I would still pay for it. Maybe that’s me being financially reckless.”
She described coffee drinking as “a lifestyle, it’s how people start their day”.
Vietnam has also faced supply concerns this year for its cheaper Robusta bean that is used for instant coffee, as the country faced dryness during the growing period. Robusta, listed in London, is trading at around $5,200 per tonne, after reaching a record price of $5,829 in mid-September.
In Bosnia, the path to renewables runs through its coal mines
By AFP November 28, 2024 Bosnia's coal-fired Kakanj power plant
- Copyright AFP ANDY BUCHANAN Rusmir SMAJILHODZIC
At 250 metres underground, the dust is thick and oxygen is in short supply at the Mramor mine in northeastern Bosnia.
The facility is the largest underground mine in the country and has long provided the fuel for the nearby Tuzla power station.
But its future — like that of mines across the country — is now all but settled, as the Balkan nation prepares to decarbonise the country by 2050.
Until then, mining continues to be done the old-fashioned way in Mramor — with picks, shovels and dynamite, veteran digger and union representative Senad Sejdic, 52, told AFP.
The work is backbreaking but Sejdic remains hopeful that the anticipated arrival of a modern excavator will make reaching the seam’s premium coal an easier task.
“It would allow us to increase the annual haul from 140,000 tonnes to nearly 400,000 and to work in better safety conditions,” said Sejdic.
Beyond the economic stakes, Sejdic has as emotional investment: his father was killed in a mining accident in the same area in 1990 that left 180 dead.
Yet the bid to harvest more coal at this site goes against the prevailing current, as the world seeks cleaner energy sources to limit pollution and global climate change caused by carbon emissions.
Coal remains the biggest polluter in Bosnia, where it fuels power plants and homes, with the country burning through approximately 13 million tonnes a year.
“Approximately 3,300 people die prematurely each year in Bosnia due to exposure to air pollution,” or nearly 10 percent of all deaths, according to a 2019 World Bank report.
The capital Sarajevo — where thousands of homes are heated by coal — was ranked as the most polluted city in the world on Tuesday by the air-quality data platform operated by Swiss company IQAir.
– Power exporter –
Despite its cost to public health, coal remains a lucrative industry in Bosnia.
The government estimates the country has around 2.6 billion tonnes of exploitable coal still underground.
Bosnia also remains the only net exporter of electricity in the Western Balkans.
Nearly 30 percent of its annual production of around 15,000 GWh is sent abroad, according to the national electricity distributor. This earned the country 430 million euros ($453 million) of revenue in 2023, the national statistics office said.
But, like other countries in the region, Bosnia has committed to fully decarbonising its energy sector in the next 25 years.
With the deadline inching closer, the challenge remains stark.
Thermal power plants produce between 55 and 70 percent of Bosnia’s electricity at any given time, according to the statistics office.
Hydroelectric plants churn out most of the remaining power used in Bosnia, while just four percent of electricity comes from solar or wind.
“To replace the 2,300 MW produced by thermal power plants, 5,000 MW would be needed from wind turbines or more than 10,000 MW from solar” costing billions of euros in investment, according to Edhem Bicakcic, an energy expert and investor in renewables.
“We very much hope to have access to European funds to carry out this transition,” Bicakcic added.
– ‘An opportunity’ –
To decarbonise the economy, a complex plan has been drawn up that will see the gradual phasing out of its carbon-intensive energy sources.
The public utility company Elektroprivreda BiH will shut two of the six production units on its two coal-powered plants by 2027, said the company’s executive director Fahrudin Tanovic.
To continue using its other four blocks from 2028, the company intends to invest more than 170 million euros to install desulphurisation and denitrification systems at its power stations.
“But by 2027 we must in the short term accelerate coal production to ensure sufficient quantities of electricity before acquiring larger renewable energy sites,” said Tanovic.
But some still question whether there is the political will to see through the transition process.
For Denis Zisko, an environmental activist with the association Aarhus Centar based in Bosnia, the country’s leaders still “lack the political courage” to say openly that mines do not have a future in the country.
“The energy transition is not a problem, it is an opportunity for development,” he told AFP.
He said the coal industry will suffer when the European Union introduces its carbon tax — which is set to be applied gradually to exports from non-EU member Bosnia and across the region in 2026.
But shuttering Bosnia’s coal mines and power plants is likely to come with painful costs.
In March, the closure of mining operations at the last functioning pit at the Zenica complex after 144 years left its 600 employees without an income.
To add to their woes, the employees’ pensions and taxes had not been covered by the mine for years.
According to official figures, mines across Bosnia face similar dilemmas.
“I have been working in the mine for twenty years,” one 47-year-old miner who did not want to give his name told AFP.
“But my contributions have only been paid for four years.”
Waste pickers battle for recognition at plastic treaty talks
PRECARIAT PLASTIC PROLETARIANS
By AFP November 28, 2024 Waste pickers are seeking recognition in any new treaty to curb plastic pollution - Copyright AFP/File Michele Spatari Roland DE COURSON
As diplomats negotiate behind closed doors in Busan on a treaty to curb plastic pollution, the waste pickers who are on the front lines of the problem are fighting for recognition.
Between 20 and 34 million people are believed to work as waste pickers worldwide, playing a crucial role in recovering recyclable material.
“We’re the biggest business in the world,” 54-year-old Maria Soledad Mella Vidal, a Chilean waste picker, told AFP.
“We don’t have money, infrastructure or machinery… but we are extremely proud because our contribution to the environment is real.”
Representatives of nearly 200 nations are gathered in South Korea to agree on a landmark deal to curb plastic pollution that litters the planet.
Just nine percent of plastic is currently recycled globally.
But estimates suggest over half of what is recycled is recovered by waste pickers.
Johnson Doe joined the sector at 16 in Ghana’s capital Accra.
“There was no formal job around, so the only work to do was to be a waste picker,” he told AFP.
Every day, the 39-year-old waits for waste trucks to arrive at one of the city’s dumps so he can collect recyclable items for sale to an intermediary.
He earns three dollars a day on average, “enough to sustain myself”, he said.
After more than two decades in the job, plastic no longer holds any secrets for him.
“We can tell,” he said, examining a plastic bottle placed before him and rattling off the different plastic components.
“I love this job,” he added. “But what we need is integration, respect and inclusion.”
– ‘We should be involved’ –
As observers, waste pickers can sit in on negotiations, but do not have the right to participate despite their direct experience with the problem.
“If there is a discussion… we should be involved,” Doe said.
Mella Vidal, the waste picker from Chile, is also an expert on plastics and wants a ban on single-use items, which is under discussion in the negotiations.
She also wants a redesign of plastic products to facilitate recycling, giving the example of the pill strip for the paracetamol she is taking to combat a cold.
“It’s PS (polystyrene). It has no value in the market. And on top of that, there’s a thin layer of aluminium stuck on top. It’s an eco-design problem, like yoghurt pots,” she said.
Mella Vidal no longer works at dump sites, which have disappeared with new rules in Chile on sanitary landfills.
Instead, she gets up at 5:00 am to scour the street for recyclables before waste trucks pass through, sorting what she finds in the courtyard of her house.
“No machine can replace the relationship between a waste picker and waste,” she said.
“A nail or a piece of glass can jam a sorting machine. Nothing stops us.”
In 2022, a UN resolution recognised the contribution of waste pickers to the fight against plastic pollution, and the sector wants that enshrined in any deal in Busan.
– A growing movement –
They say it would open the door to legal recognition of their work.
“A lot of people prejudge us. They think we’re criminals or drug addicts,” said Mella Vidal.
The profession is also dangerous, exposing workers to toxic chemicals, poorly regulated work sites and even violence.
In 1992, 11 waste pickers were killed in Colombia by security guards who planned to sell their corpses to a medical school.
A twelfth was able to escape and alert police.
The crime shocked Colombia and helped galvanise a movement.
March 1, the day the massacre was uncovered, is now International Waste Pickers Day. About 460,000 people now belong to the International Alliance of Waste Pickers, a union whose members attend international meetings like the negotiations in Busan. Among their demands is better health protection given the toxic substances to which they are regularly exposed.
“We are not getting support from the government or from anybody,” said Doe.
“And it’s because we are not mentioned in the policies. So if we have a legal treaty that mentions waste pickers, we will have support.”
Pelicot trial: ‘There’s no such thing as ordinary, accidental, involuntary rape’
Analysis
Prosecutors in France’s mass rape trial denounced the “casualness” of defendants who claimed their rape of Gisèle Pelicot was unintentional as they wrapped up their case on Wednesday, requesting lengthy jail terms and calls for a wider societal reckoning with the scourge of sex abuse and rape.
As she wound up her marathon closing speech, a painstaking summary of the decade-long horror inflicted on Gisèle Pelicot, the public prosecutor paused to reflect on the wider significance of the drama unfolding in Avignon.
For three consecutive days, Laure Chabaud had laid out the verdicts and punishments sought for dozens of men accused of raping Pelicot while she was drugged and rendered unconscious by her husband Dominique, her partner of 50 years, whom she has since divorced.
Chabaud and her fellow prosecutor called for a maximum 20-year prison sentence for the ex-husband, who has admitted enlisting dozens of strangers online to rape his sedated wife. They also sought jail terms of between 10 and 18 years for 49 co-defendants, and a four-year sentence for the last of the accused.
Such a verdict would “deliver a message of hope to all victims of sexual violence”, Chabaud told the court in southern France on Wednesday as she sought to draw lessons from the most notorious rape trial in modern French history.
03:01
“With your verdict, you will make clear that there is no such thing as ordinary rape; that there is no such thing as accidental or involuntary rape,” she said. “You will send a message to the women of this country that it is not inevitable that they should suffer, and to the men of this country that it is not inevitable that they should act.”
‘A rape is a rape’
Stretching over three days, the prosecution’s closing statement mirrored the extraordinary nature of a trial that has roiled France since early September and made headlines around the world.
The affaire Mazan, after the small town in Provence where the Pelicot couple lived, has sparked horror, protests and debates about male violence and the shortcomings of French laws on rape. It has also made Gisèle Pelicot an international feminist icon and champion of women’s fight against sexual abuse.
Waiving her right to anonymity, Pelicot pushed for graphic images that her husband filmed of the rapes to be presented in the courtroom, showing that she was unconscious and inert, sometimes audibly snoring. In their closing arguments, the prosecutors praised her courage and her desire to make shame change sides, so it falls on rapists and not their victims.
Throughout the trial, feminist campaigners have plastered the walls of Avignon with messages of support for Pelicot and of condemnation for the accused men and the wider “rape culture” they have come to symbolise. Some of the messages quoted the defendants, who told the court they raped “unwillingly”, out of “curiosity” or “fatigue”, acting through “my body, not my brain”.
Some of the accused have faced boos and jeers from members of the public lining up outside the courthouse. Banners hung opposite the building this week read “20 years for each of them” and “a rape is a rape”.
Gisèle Pelicot and her lawyers walk past a banner reading "A rape is a rape, 20 years for each" near the courthouse in Avignon on November 26, 2024.
Kicking off closing arguments by some 30 defence lawyers, Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer Beatrice Zavarro told the court on Wednesday that her client had “accepted and admitted the harm of which he is accused”.
Zavarro, who described herself as the “Devil’s adocate”, recalled that Dominique Pelicot had been a “good husband, father and grandfather” according to all who knew him. She plunged back into his traumatic childhood – which he claims included sexual abuse – and shaky mental state to explain his “perversity”, while also insisting that he was not the “conductor” many of his co-defendants painted him as – an accusation their lawyers are expected to pursue as they deliver their closing remarks from Thursday.
While Zavarro said she was not surprised by the 20-year sentence requested for her client, several other defence lawyers have described the demands as “staggering” and “out of proportion”, alleging that prosecutors were under pressure from “public opinion”. Most defence lawyers are expected to argue that their clients were manipulated by Gisèle Pelicot’s former husband.
According to government figures, between 2017 and 2022 more than two thirds of convictions for aggravated rape led to prison sentences of 10 years or above.
In previous testimony, many of the accused said they believed Dominique Pelicot's claim that they were participating in a libertine fantasy, in which his wife had consented to sexual contact and was only pretending to be asleep. Others said they thought the husband’s consent would be enough. More than half also argued that they were not in their right minds when they abused Gisèle Pelicot, a claim not backed up by any of the psychological reports compiled by court-appointed experts.
Dominique Pelicot had previously told the court that all of his co-defendants understood exactly what they were doing when he invited them to his home in Provence between 2011 and 2020 to have sex with his unconscious and unwitting wife. A watershed moment
In her closing arguments, prosecutor Chabaud lamented the “inappropriate casualness” displayed by some of the defendants during the proceedings. She said claims they had “no intention” of raping Gisèle Pelicot would not make their responsibility “disappear”.
“In 2024, we can no longer say ‘she didn’t say anything, she agreed’, that’s from another era,” Chabaud told the court. She hoped that the sentences handed down at the verdict, due no later than December 20, would lead the defendants to “a real and profound awareness” of their actions, “particularly with regard to the notion of consent”.
The public prosecutor expressed hopes that the landmark trial would herald a fundamental change in society, describing the proceedings in Avignon as “a stone in the edifice that others after us will continue to build”.
“There will be a before and an after” this trial, Chabaud said in a phrase also used on Monday by Prime Minister Michel Barnier, whose government unveiled new measures to combat violence against women, including raising awareness about the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse.
The trial has notably given fresh impetus to calls to introduce the notion of consent in French laws governing sexual abuse. Several lawmakers were in Avignon to attend the court hearings this week, including Green MP Marie-Charlotte Garin, the deputy head of a parliamentary fact-finding mission tasked with redefining rape in French criminal law.
Catherine Le Magueresse, a former president of the European Association Against Violence toward Women in the Workplace, said the Pelicot trial had highlighted the need to "come up with a positive definition of consent”. Speaking to AFP, she commended the prosecutors for their concern “to reach out to a wider audience and provide the legal elements needed to understand the issues at stake in this trial, particularly on the question of intentionality, which lies at the heart of the defendants' strategies”.
Le Magueresse said Gisèle Pelicot’s ordeal highlighted the need to provide sex education in schools and rethink the way we approach relations between women and men.
“The Pelicot trial has affected every one of us and raised difficult questions about the social attitudes of some men,” she said. “What have we done wrong as a society to produce men who are capable of such inhumane behaviour?”
France unveils new measures to protect women in wake of Pelicot affair
Analysis
France announced on Monday a new campaign to combat violence against women, including raising awareness about the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse, as the country reckons with a mass rape trial that has shocked the public.
The French government announced on Monday, November 25 new measures to combat violence against women, including state-funded test kits, the ability to file complaints at more hospitals and increased emergency aid.
“These last months the French have been deeply moved by the incredible courage of Gisèle Pelicot,” said Barnier, referring to the mass rape trial that has sent shockwaves across France and beyond. Dominique Pelicot is on trial for raping and recruiting dozens of strangers to rape his heavily sedated, now ex-wife Gisèle for almost a decade in the southeastern French village of Mazan, where the couple lived and where most of the events took place.
To combat the “as yet little-known issue of chemical submission”, Barnier announced that the French national health insurance programme will be providing state-funded test kits in several regions on a trial basis. No timetable has yet been defined for this initiative.
A campaign to raise awareness of chemical submission will also be spearheaded by the M'endors pas (Don't sedate me) association co-founded by Gisèle Pelicot's daughter and the helpline of France's Reference centre for substance-facilitated aggression (Centre de référence sur les agressions facilitées par les substances) in partnership with the French Order of Pharmacists.
In October, the government entrusted a similar mission to Senator Véronique Guillotin, of the centrist Radical Movement party, and MP Sandrine Josso, of the centre-right Democratic Movement party. The latter recommended that pharmacies be allowed to issue a “morning-after" test kit via medical prescription to women who think they may have been drugged. Contained in the kit would be urine sample bottles, useful addresses and full instructions on how to access the results, to be used as evidence.
“We feel that the [Pelicot] trial has raised awareness of this type of violence,” said Mine Günbay, director general of the national federation Solidarité Femmes (Women’s Solidarity), who has noted a significant increase in women calling 3919, the national number dedicated to female victims of violence. “Women are speaking out,” said Günbay. “It's very important that a parliamentary report be written up and that resources also be made available to deal with this issue.”
The security services recorded 271,000 victims of domestic violence in 2023, according to the French interior ministry. This type of violence accounted for 93% of the calls handled by 3919.
Expanded system for filing complaints in hospitals
The French government also announced the expansion of the system enabling female victims of violence to file a complaint in a hospital with an emergency or gynaecology department.
While this system, whereby the hospital itself contacts the police or the public prosecutor's office to lodge a complaint, is already available in many French hospitals, it will be extended to 377 facilities by the end of 2025.
“Hospitals and doctors are often the first professionals that women go to, sometimes even before the police ... It is therefore essential that the police come directly to the hospital so that a complaint can be lodged,” added Gunbay, who advocates these systems that “effectively facilitate the victim's journey” and calls for “continued training of police, justice and health professionals”.
Increased universal emergency aid
Günbay also welcomed the increase in universal emergency aid to help victims of domestic violence and support them when they leave their homes.
The budget for this aid will increase from €13 million in the 2024 finance bill (projet de loi sur les finances, or PLF) to €20 million in the 2025 PLF, according to the government. This measure has benefitted 33,000 people, who have received an average of €800, since it was launched at the end of 2023.
“It's a one-off helping hand that's much in demand by the women we support in their dealings with the CAF [Caisses d'Allocations Familiales, the French government agencies responsible for distributing various social benefits and allowances to families], but it doesn't get them out of the violent situation,” said Günbay. The director of Solidarité Femmes nonetheless welcomed the announcement of these measures, “which are nothing new to the associations, but which are more in line with what has been thought out and undertaken as part of the Grenelle [governmental-level consultations] and ministerial plans”.
The government's plan also calls for every French regional department to have a specialised women's centre by the end of 2025.
‘€2.6 billion are needed for a real plan to combat discrimination’
In total, “we have managed to obtain a 10 percent increase in the budget” devoted to gender equality, which has risen to €85.1 million (€+7.7 million) in the PLF 2025, Secretary of State Salima Saa said during an interview on French public radio network Franceinfo on Monday morning.
But the budget increase still falls far short of what is needed for the associations, which are calling for a total budget of €2.6 billion per year and a “comprehensive framework law” to replace the current legislation, which they deem “fragmented and incomplete”.
“We, the feminist associations, are asking for [this total sum] to combat all forms of violence against women. This includes the issue of prevention from a young age, training for professionals, psycho-trauma centres and shelters for women and their children. The €85 million will not be enough. We need €2.6 billion to be able to really combat the problem,” said Günbay.
The director of Solidarités Femmes said she is very worried about the drop in funding for local authorities, which also finance associations in their area. “In addition to this budgetary ‘women's rights’ envelope, our associations receive funding from local authorities on a departmental and regional level as well as from the local authorities, municipalities, etc. As a result, we have several associations in our network that are in a very precarious economic situation. I just learned this very morning [Monday] that a post funded by the Pays de la Loire region [in western France] had been cut. It was an essential post, because it enabled us to coordinate with a large number of associations across the region.”
“We'll only consider the fight against violence against women to be a major national cause once we have €2.6 billion designated to combat violence against women,” said Günbay, who is now waiting for the "welcomed" but "insufficient" governmental measures to be implemented.
With AFP and Reuters
This article has been translated from the original in French by Mariamne Everett.
Uber and Bolt unveil women-only service in Paris
By AFP November 28, 2024 Uber has 1,500 women drivers working in Paris
- Copyright AFP/File Mauro PIMENTEL
Two rival ride-hailing platforms announced on Thursday options allowing Parisian women to order a car driven by a female driver in a bid to ensure “greater safety” for its customers.
The “Uber by Women” option, available from Thursday, comes at no extra cost but with potentially longer waiting times.
Uber launched a similar scheme in other European countries as the company grapples with a litany of sexual assault or harassment claims against their drivers.
The change will ensure “greater safety” for its women customers, said Uber, with some 1,500 female drivers already available in Paris.
There is a reminder on the app that the option is for women only, and drivers can cancel if a man tries to use it, the platform told AFP.
“Waiting times … could be higher than with other options, 15 minutes on average compared to four minutes” for a standard order, Uber said.
But the ride-share company also hopes the change will attract more women drivers by offering them a “substantial reduction” on the fees charged for each ride.
Uber by Women is an “excellent way of increasing the attractiveness of the ride-hailing profession to women who would otherwise not consider it”, said Uber’s head in France, Laureline Serieys.
European rival Bolt also announced the launch of a similar option in France called “Women by Women”, set to roll out by the end of 2024.
“It is essential to guarantee the safety of all women using ride-hailing services,” said France’s Bolt director Julien Mouyeket.
“The ‘Women for Women’ category embodies this commitment, meeting the safety expectations of female users while protecting female drivers,” he added.
Video: British Farmers Block Ferry Ports to Protest Government Budget
REACTIONARY LAND OWNERS WHO USE FARM LABOUR
Holyhead Port and the Stena Line ferry terminal were blocked in an overnight protest by the farmers ( Gareth Wyn Jones on social media)
Farmers across the UK are angrily speaking out against the proposed Labour Government budget which they say is the latest blow to their way of life and the future of the UK’s farms. Seeking to influence the government and call attention to their demands, the farmers have staged a series of protests and overnight blockaded the Welsh port of Holyhead.
According to media reports, around 40 to 50 farmers turned out to the port of Holyhead shortly after 10 p.m. local time on Wednesday, November 27. Farmers took the roads on their tractors and blocked the primary exit from the port shortly before the evening ferry from Ireland was due to arrive at 10:30 p.m. local time.
Stena Line which operates the ferry port and the port authority confirmed that the access roads were blocked. The farmers were carrying signs including “No Farmers No Food No Future.” Traffic Wales reported “heavy congestion” in the port area that continued till approximately 0400 Thursday morning when the farmers left in what organizers called a “peaceful protest.”
Foot traffic and private cars were permitted to leave the ferry and the port area via a separate gate. Trucks however were stranded in the port during the protest.
The farmers are demonstrating against what they called a “disastrous budget,” and a long heritage of anti-farm policies. They are incensed over a government proposal in the new budget that would impose a 20 percent inheritance tax starting in 2026. Farms and groups including Save British Farming and the Farmers for Farmers of Kent argue farmers will be forced to sell their properties to pay the tax.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves responded for the government saying that “only a very small number of agricultural properties” will be affected.
The farmers began their protest including a march on London which was called a landmark event. Reports said more than 10,000 farmers and their supporters descended on London to express their anger and demand changes including excluding agricultural land from the inheritance tax. Organizers called the London march a “warm-up act” promising to continue their protests.
During the day on Wednesday, November 27, farmers also took to the roads in Dover another of the UK’s busiest ports. Reports said at least 100 tractors drove through the streets of Dover going slow to disrupt traffic. They called on the government to “stop betraying British farming and rural communities.”
Farmers in France last week also blocked the port of Bordeaux with a protest over French and EU trade regulations. They were calling for stopping an agreement to increase trade between the EU and South America. The French organizations, like their British counterparts, have promised to return with more protests at French ports.
French farmers wall off public buildings in protest over regulations
PROPRIÉTAIRES TERRITORIAUX RÉACTIONNAIRES QUI UTILISENT LA MAIN-D’ŒUVRE AGRICOLE
By AFP November 28, 2024 Protesters erected a brick wall in front of France's agricultural research institute - Copyright AFP Gregoire CAMPIONE
French farmers blocked off entrances to two public buildings in Paris on Thursday in protest at “constraints” imposed by regulatory agencies, which they say result in lost production.
Around 100 farmers erected a cardboard wall in front of France’s food safety agency ANSES, south of Paris, after placing breeze blocks barring the way into INRAE, the country’s agricultural research institute in the capital.
This follows demonstrations on Tuesday against a planned free trade deal between the European Union and South America’s Mercosur bloc, which France opposes over concerns it would hurt its domestic agricultural industry.
Farmers fear any agreement would open EU markets to cheaper meat and produce from South American competitors, who are not forced to adhere to strict EU rules on pesticides, hormones, land use and environmental measures.
Thursday’s protesters — led by the heavyweight FNSEA farmers’ union — say they are also feeling the sting of restrictions imposed by France’s regulatory agencies on products like insecticides.
There are no “effective, alternative solutions”, said Remi Pierrard, a beet and cereal grower in the town of Provins, who said he has seen “productivity losses of up to 50 percent each year”.
“We’ve been banned from using an insecticide that protected beetroot. Now we have to use a sprayer, which is far less effective,” Pierrard said.
The French government says that pesticides pose a danger “health and the environment”, with exposure to the chemicals linked to cancer and Parkinson’s disease.
Farmers say that institutions like INRAE could help them be more efficient but are instead foisting regulations on them that undermine production.
“We’re funding a national institute that costs a billion euros a year but all it does is impose constraints on us,” said the head of a young farmer’s association, Donatien Moyson, referring to INRAE.
“We’re here to fight against obstacles to agriculture,” he added.
Elsewhere, farmers in the southern city of Nice dumped manure and sheep’s wool in front of the regional prefecture, according to local press.
French Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard condemned the protests as “attacks on people and property”, telling AFP such actions “undermine the legitimate demands of farmers”.
Canada watchdog sues Google over ‘anti-competitive’ ad tech
By AFP November 28, 2024 Google's advertising practices are also subject to investigations or proceedings in Britain, the EU and the United States - Copyright AFP/File Josh Edelson
Canada’s competition watchdog announced Thursday it was taking Google to court, accusing the company of “anti-competitive behavior” in online advertising.
Ads are typically bought and sold through automated auctions and managed by businesses using ad tech — a system that also decides which online advertisements people see when they visit websites.
A Competition Bureau investigation found that Google is the largest provider of these tools in Canada.
Commissioner Matthew Boswell said in a statement it “has abused its dominant position… by engaging in conduct that locks market participants into using its own ad tech tools.”
The watchdog accused Google of giving its own tools preferential access to ad inventory, at times selling ads at a loss to block rivals, and dictating terms for the use of others’ ad tech tools.
Boswell said he would ask a tribunal to level the playing field by forcing Google to sell two of its ad tech tools and pay an unspecified penalty.
Google spokesman Dan Taylor said the company is prepared to fight the allegations that he said “ignore the intense competition (in this sector) where ad buyers and sellers have plenty of choice.”
France’s competition watchdog fined Google 220 million euros in June 2021 for favoring its own services in the online advertising sector.
Google’s advertising practices are also subject to investigations or proceedings in Britain, the EU and the United States.
The technology giant and the US government faced off in a federal court this week in a case revolving around Google’s alleged unfair domination of online advertising.
If the judge finds Google to be at fault, a new phase of the trial would decide how the company should comply with that conclusion.
Thursday, November 28, 2024
Norway faces WWF in court over deep sea mining
By AFP November 27, 2024 Protesters hold placards during a demonstration against seabed mining outside the Norwegian Parliament building in Oslo - Copyright NTB/AFP Javad Parsa
The World Wide Fund for Nature’s (WWF) Norwegian chapter will have its day in court Thursday, after it sued Norway for opening up its seabed to mining before performing sufficient impact studies.
Already Western Europe’s largest oil and gas producer, Norway could become one of the first countries to authorise seabed mining, arguing the importance of not relying on China for minerals essential for renewable technology.
While deep-sea mining is contentious due to its potential impact on vulnerable marine ecosystems, Norway’s parliament in January formally gave its green light to open up parts of its seabed to exploration.
“We believe the government is violating Norwegian law by now opening up for a new and potentially destructive industry without adequately assessing the consequences,” Karoline Andaur, CEO of WWF-Norway, said in a statement.
Norway “must halt the rushed process, must actively support a national and global moratorium — a temporary ban on seabed mining until there is sufficient knowledge,” Andaur said in an online meeting earlier in November.
With their lawsuit, WWF-Norway is also calling on the Norwegian government to stop giving public support to mining companies for the exploration phase and to allocate these funds to independent research institutions.
That would help “to close the many knowledge gaps about marine life”, Andaur said.
The trial will run until December 5.
– Possible dangers –
On April 12, Norway’s Ministry of Energy announced that it was opening up an area of the Norwegian Sea and Greenland Sea to exploration, with the aim of awarding the first licences in the first half of 2025.
Within the area, which is the size of the United Kingdom, it has designated locations covering 38 percent of the area suitable for exploration for a first licensing round.
“Before any exploitation can begin, it has to be shown that the proposed exploitation can take place in a sustainable and responsible manner,” Astrid Bergmal, state secretary at the energy ministry, told AFP in an email.
The first projects will also have to be approved by parliament, Bergmal added.
“The first phase will consist of mapping and exploration, which has little environmental impact,” she said.
But critics see this stage as a first step towards exploitation.
According to several NGOs, opening up the seabed poses an additional threat to an ecosystem that is little-known and has already been weakened by global warming.
Possible dangers include the destruction of marine habitats and organisms, noise and light pollution, as well as the risk of chemical leaks from machines and species being displaced.
Norwegian authorities meanwhile stress that by allowing the prospecting they want to fill in the gaps in knowledge.
In early 2023, the Norwegian Offshore Directorate published a report concluding that “substantial resources are in place on the seabed” including minerals such as copper, zinc and cobalt.
COP16 biodiversity talks to restart in February: UN
By AFP November 28, 2024 Bleached and dead coral around Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef, in April 2024 - Copyright AFP/File Joe Klamar
Crunch United Nations talks to find funding to curb the destruction of nature will resume in Rome in February, the UN said on Thursday, after negotiations this month in Colombia ended without a deal.
The largest summit yet on biodiversity — the so-called COP16 talks in Cali, Colombia — were aimed at boosting efforts to protect nature from deforestation, overexploitation, climate change and pollution.
But the meeting, which stretched hours into extra time, ended on November 2 with no agreement on a roadmap to ramp up funding for species protection. Many delegates had already left for home by then, meaning the Colombian presidency was unable to establish a quorum.
The new round of talks will be held at the headquarters of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization from February 25 to 27 to tackle issues “left unresolved following the suspension of the meeting”, the UN said in a statement.
“In the weeks to come, and during our meeting in Rome this February, I will work alongside parties to build the trust and consensus needed to achieve Peace with Nature,” said Colombia’s Environment Minister Susana Muhamad, the COP16 president.
She added that securing a key financial accord “will be central to our efforts”.
Money has been a particularly thorny subject at recent UN environment negotiations, as nations face global political and economic uncertainties.
Negotiators at fractious UN climate talks were able to approve a deal in the early hours of Sunday morning after two weeks of chaotic and bitter wrangling, but the $300 billion a year pledge from wealthy historic polluters was immediately dismissed as insultingly low by many poorer nations.
– Deadlocked –
The Cali summit, which drew an unprecedented 23,000 participants, was tasked with assessing, and ramping up, progress toward reaching a range of targets set in Canada two years ago to halt humankind’s rapacious destruction of the natural world by 2030.
They include placing 30 percent of land and sea areas under protection, reducing pollution, and phasing out agricultural and other subsidies harmful to nature.
For this purpose, it was agreed in 2022 that $200 billion per year be made available to protect biodiversity by 2030, including the transfer of $30 billion per year from rich to poor nations.
The Cali meeting did make advances on Indigenous representation and gene profit sharing.
But negotiators, largely split between poor and rich country blocs, were deadlocked over the biggest ask — to lay out a detailed funding plan.
That was despite new research showing that more than a quarter of assessed plants and animals are now at risk of extinction.
Only 17.6 percent of land and inland waters, and 8.4 percent of the ocean and coastal areas, are estimated to be protected and conserved.
Courtesy HECLA
