Wednesday, August 03, 2022

California Venture Capitalist Blake Masters Wins AZ GOP Senate Primary

Roger Sollenberger
Wed, August 3, 2022

Rebecca Noble/Reuters

Venture capitalist turned upstart Senate candidate Blake Masters easily won the Arizona Republican primary on Tuesday, racking up another victory for candidates backed by former President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Peter Thiel.

Masters, a 35-year-old Bitcoin hawk with no political experience, rode Trump’s late-game support to a come-from-behind win, after failing for months to woo swing state conservatives with a steady stream of radical and at times dystopian right-wing rhetoric threaded with anti-immigrant and racist tropes.

In the end, Masters outperformed runner-up Arizona energy mogul Jim Lamon. Masters will now face incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) in the general election.

Peter Thiel Invests Big in Firms His Favorite Candidates Love to Hate

For months, the Arizona race showed no clear frontrunner, but after escalating his election denialism to score Trump’s endorsement in June, Masters surged. By primary time, he was resting on a double-digit lead.

By contrast, JD Vance—another Trump-Thiel pick—claimed less than one in three Ohio Republicans in May. Missouri attorney general Eric Schmitt, a Senate candidate who received Thiel money and an ambiguous endorsement from Trump, also won his GOP Senate nomination Tuesday night, though Trump was less than clear about who he was actually endorsing in the race.

Masters, who grew up in Arizona, had recently returned to the state after years in the Bay Area, where he worked under Thiel’s wing as COO of Thiel Capital. He entered the race rating relatively low in name recognition, especially compared to Arizona Attorney General turned Trump nemesis Mark Brnovich. But Masters adopted a native advertising approach to publicity, and quickly began accumulating earned media as a polarizing provocateur.

His success, however, came as a surprise to many. At the beginning, Masters’ outsider platform appeared like a strange fit for Arizonans. He leaned heavily on abstract “new right” political theory, anti-immigrant fear bait, longform podcast interviews, and niche, largely untested policy proposals (like a “strategic reserve” of Bitcoin)—an odd match for the swing state’s typical voter profile.

Still, thanks in large part to Trump, the tech investor was able to lock up enough votes to offset, or possibly win over, his stiffest competition: Arizona’s sizable population of suburban moderates and retirees.

Blake Masters’ Views on Gay Marriage May Surprise His Political Master Peter Thiel

While Masters—a thirtysomething Bitcoin millionaire and Silicon Valley transplant who was dogged throughout his campaign by allegations of racism, hypocritical corporate and technocratic cronyism, and veiled anti-semitism—might seem an unlikely flagbearer for that all-important demographic, those voters will only become more critical as the general election approaches. There, Masters must overcome a popular Democratic moderate in Kelly, an effort that may force Masters to soften his rhetoric.

He’ll have to balance that against the Trump brand if he wants to energize the grassroots, because if fundraising is any measure of enthusiasm, Masters has a steep hill to climb. Almost all of his financial firepower has come from a group entirely separate from his campaign—a super PAC mainly fueled by Thiel’s whopping $15 million investment. The bulk of the super PAC’s other high-dollar contributions come from executives in tech and financial sectors, most of them bearing some connection to the crypto world.

But Arizonans have simply not opened their pocketbooks. Exactly four of the super PAC’s fifty-plus donors hail from Arizona, according to FEC data. And of his campaign’s $5 million, more than 90 percent comes from out-of-state, with Californians accounting for about one in every five dollars. In fact, Masters has given more money to his campaign than Arizona citizens have—his $680,000 in personal loans outweigh his total in-state contributions by about $200,000. His latest loan, in July—more than four months after he claimed to resign from Thiel’s company—still lists his employer as Thiel Capital.

But Masters received loads of free airtime from another powerful ally—the most influential media figure in conservative politics, Fox News entertainer Tucker Carlson. The late-night host quickly recognized a fellow traveler in Masters’ nationalist agenda, offering full-throated support and numerous appearances on his program, the most watched show in cable news history. (Brnovich, by contrast, got the support of Carlson’s late-night colleague Sean Hannity.)

Blake Masters Blames Gun Violence on ‘Black People, Frankly’

But the same nationalist rhetoric that appealed to the Carlson crowd—resounding with the false “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory embraced by white supremacists—attracted more controversial supporters, including Andrew Anglin, founder of the neo-Nazi publication The Daily Stormer.

Anglin gave Masters his “forceful endorsement” in June, following a viral incident at a campaign event where Masters appeared to grab a 73-year-old protester by the neck and push him out of the room. Last month, Masters rejected Anglin’s support, saying he had “never” heard of Anglin and dismissing news reports of the endorsement as part of an effort to “smear anybody who believes in common sense border security as some kind of ‘Nazi.’”

Ultimately, Masters’ media savvy overcame the substantive support that top immigration officials threw behind his top competitor, Lamon, who received endorsements from former Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf, along with the former Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the former Chief of the Border Patrol.

Masters reaped endorsements from TV officials like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), and Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO).

But despite staking out positions on immigration, guns, abortion, and gay marriage that poll well outside the main, the tech entrepreneur has made a “guarantee” that he will beat Kelly, a former Navy pilot and astronaut, by “five points.”

“‘Oh, I’m an astronaut. Have you heard I’m an astronaut?’” Masters said at an event in April, as reported by Mother Jones. “‘You know, when I’m on the space station and I look at that big blue ball I realize we’re all in it together.’ And it’s like, ‘Shut up, Mark.’”

But Masters will also have to overcome his own baseless theory that Democrats are using immigration policy to stack the electoral deck.

“Obviously, the Democrats, they hope to just change the demographics of our country,” he said in an April podcast interview. “They hope to import an entirely new electorate. Then they call you a racist and a bigot.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.


Blake Masters, ultra-MAGA Republican who blamed gun violence on 'Black people,' wins Arizona Senate primary


Andrew Romano
·West Coast Correspondent
Wed, August 3, 2022 

Republican candidate for Senate Blake Masters speaks to supporters during a campaign event at the Whiskey Roads Restaurant & Bar on July 31, 2022 in Tucson, Arizona. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Blake Masters, an ultra-MAGA candidate endorsed by former President Donald Trump, won the marquee GOP Senate primary in Arizona Tuesday night, setting up a general-election showdown with his more traditional Democratic rival that will test whether the way to win a key swing state in 2022 is by channeling the animosities of the far right — or by trying to appeal to a broader coalition.

With more than 70% of precincts reporting, Masters —a 35-year-old “anti-progressive” venture capitalist propelled to the front of a crowded primary field by at least $15 million in super PAC funding from powerful Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, his longtime boss and mentor — clinched his party’s U.S. Senate nomination early Wednesday morning, defeating wealthy solar power executive Jim Lamon and state Attorney General Mark Brnovich.

On Election Day, Masters will face off against incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly in a race that will help determine control of the closely divided Senate.

After midnight, a second MAGA candidate, state Rep. Mark Finchem, also won the GOP nomination for Arizona secretary of state. And a third, former Phoenix news anchor Kari Lake, was locked in a close battle for the party's gubernatorial nod with her establishment rival, real estate developer Karrin Taylor Robson.

"We won today seven-out-of-10 Election Day votes,” Lake told her supporters Tuesday night, claiming — erroneously — that "there is no path to victory for my opponent and we won this race. Period.”

Lake also alleged that "if we don’t win, there’s some cheating going on" — a possible hint that she could challenge the results in the days ahead.


Republican gubernatorial candidate for Arizona Kari Lake speaks to supporters during a campaign event at the Whiskey Roads Restaurant & Bar on July 31, 2022 in Tucson, Arizona.
(Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Both Lake and Finchem have parroted Trump’s lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him — and vowed to do whatever it takes to prevent another Trump loss in the future. Masters has also declared that “Trump won in 2020.”

For all three election deniers, these displays of fealty were sufficient to snag Trump’s sought-after support, which he bestowed in person at a July 22 rally in Prescott Valley.

On the same day, Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence was campaigning across the state for Robson, who has refused to say the 2020 election was rigged. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey — another prominent Republican who, like Pence, resisted Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 result — also endorsed Robson, along with Finchem’s main rival, Beau Lane.

If Lake ultimately joins Finchem and Masters on the winner’s podium, they would cement a Trump sweep in the Grand Canyon State — and combine to form perhaps the most pro-MAGA slate of candidates anywhere in America.

But the problem for Republicans is that Arizona is hardly America’s most pro-MAGA state.

“With the national mood turning so strongly against the Biden administration and Democratic control of Congress, Republican candidates should have a relatively easy time recapturing seats in Arizona this cycle,” says Robert Robb, a longtime columnist for the Arizona Republic and former GOP political consultant. “But these candidates are weak candidates. Whatever this ‘new right’ thing is, I don’t think that it necessarily fits Arizona.”


Mark Finchem, a Republican candidate for Arizona Secretary of State, waves to the crowd as he arrives to speak at a Save America rally Friday, July 22, 2022, in Prescott, Ariz. 
(Ross D. Franklin/AP Photo)

From Pennsylvania to Georgia to Nevada, GOP primary voters have repeatedly rankled Republican strategists and delighted their Democratic counterparts this year by nominating candidates who could prove too extreme to be electable — and who risk blowing otherwise very winnable midterm contests because of it.

Arizona is now ground zero for this phenomenon — and Masters is Exhibit A.

His MAGA transformation has been total. Before 2016, Masters was a purist libertarian who persuaded friends to become pro-choice, described the borders between countries as just “line[s] in the sand” and favored “unrestricted” immigration. At 19, he wrote an essay that approvingly quoted Nazi leader Hermann Goering to argue that the “U.S. hasn’t been involved in a just war in over 140 years.” (Responding to a recent Jewish Insider story about that essay, written in opposition to the Iraq War and published on the website of radical libertarian Lew Rockwell, Masters admitted he “went too far.”)

At Stanford Law, Masters took a course on startups taught by Thiel, then a libertarian himself — and a Silicon Valley outlier. Galvanized by Thiel’s contrarian thinking, Masters posted his detailed class notes on Tumblr; David Brooks wrote an entire New York Times column about them. Then Thiel and Masters spun those same notes into a book called “Zero to One.” Masters spent the next eight years serving in top positions at Thiel’s foundation and venture capital firm. In 2016, Thiel backed Trump, and Masters followed him to Trump Tower to help with the transition after the election.

The key lesson of Thiel’s course — “Instead of being slightly better than everybody else in a crowded and established field,” as Brooks put it, “it’s often more valuable to create a new market and totally dominate it” — appears to be the strategy behind Masters’ campaign as well.

“I definitely approach politics with an entrepreneurial lens,” Masters told the Stanford Review last September. “President Trump showed me that new things are possible in politics. You can think of his administration as a start-up of sorts. It was disruptive. … I think sounding different and looking different is how you break through.”


Former President of the United States Donald J. Trump delivers remarks at the America First Agenda Summit hosted by America First Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., United States on July 26, 2022.
(Kyle Mazza/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

To that end — breaking through by sounding "different" — Masters has cradled a short-barreled rifle in one ad while declaring that it “wasn’t designed for hunting.” “This,” he said “is designed to kill people.”

He has characterized the Democrats who are “running the country” — “Biden, Pelosi, Schumer, Mark Kelly” — as “psychopaths.” He has embraced a national abortion ban. He has touted the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, as a "subversive thinker [who is] underrated". He has said he wants to slash legal immigration in half because “we do not need hundreds of thousands of people from India and China to come in every year to take coding jobs.” He has promoted the conspiracy theory that Democrats are plotting to win elections by “importing” immigrants to replace native-born voters. He has called Jan. 6 a "false flag operation," claiming that “one-third of the people outside of the Capitol complex on January 6 were actual FBI agents hanging out." And he has blamed “Black people, frankly” for America’s “gun violence problem.”

The question now is whether this MAGA-centric strategy will work as well in Arizona’s general election as it worked in the GOP primary. So far, general-election polling is scant — but Kelly tends to lead Masters by double-digit margins in the most recent soundings.

The irony, says Robb, is that the thing that has so radicalized Arizona Republicans is the very thing that could doom them in November: the closeness of the state's elections.

One-third of Arizona voters are Latino; one-third are independents. In the Trump Era, those dynamics seem to have pushed the one-time Republican stronghold away from Trumpism, not toward it.

“Arizona rejected Trump and Trumpism — big time,” explains Robb. “From 2008 until 2018 Arizona had not elected a single Democrat to statewide office. In 2018, we elected a Democratic U.S. Senator, two Democratic statewide officers [including Hobbs], and Republicans lost their advantage in the legislature. They now have the thinnest margin that they've had during that entire period. And of course Trump himself barely won in 2016 before losing in 2020.”

“There’s a model of what would make this election a slam dunk for Republicans — which is, you don't run against Trump, but you run independent of Trump,” Robb continues. “But Republicans are not doing that. They're embracing Trump and Trumpism, comprehensively. Biden and his administration should be on the ballot this election cycle. But these candidates are putting Trump on the ballot — and he does not play well in Arizona.”


Trump and Thiel Tag-Team Arizona GOP Primary to Boost Blake Masters

Mark Niquette
Tue, August 2, 2022 


(Bloomberg) -- Former President Donald Trump and billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel are aiming for a second Republican primary victory as they work to bolster 2020 election denier Blake Masters in Arizona’s US Senate contest.

Trump’s endorsement and $15 million from Thiel to a super political action committee backing Masters have helped him emerge as the front-runner in polls over solar power company founder Jim Lamon and Attorney General Mark Brnovich in the fractured GOP primary to face Senator Mark Kelly in a November race that will help determine party control of the upper chamber.

“If you want to win a Republican primary, having money and Trump’s endorsement is a great combination,” said pollster Robert Cahaly of the Atlanta-based Trafalgar Group.

A Masters primary win would follow a victory for Trump and Thiel in May helping venture capitalist and author JD Vance win a crowded Republican US Senate primary in Ohio.

Trump publicly endorsed Masters, 35, in June and then held a July 22 rally for him and his other endorsed candidates in Arizona, including gubernatorial aspirant Kari Lake.

Recent polling, including Cahaly’s last survey of the race conducted July 25-27, showed Masters with a lead over Lamon, with Brnovich lagging and retired Air Force General Michael McGuire and former state representative Justin Olson in the single digits.

Masters has touted Trump’s backing, parroted the former president’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and voicing his staunch opposition to illegal immigration, a hot-button issue in the border state.

The GOP winner will face Kelly, a former astronaut and businessman who is unopposed for the Democratic nomination and in 2020 won a special election that flipped the seat by defeating appointed incumbent Senator Martha McSally, a Republican.

Trump’s involvement in primaries has clouded Republicans’ prospects to take control of the evenly divided Senate. Vance is mired in a tight race against Democratic US Representative Tim Ryan in Republican-leaning Ohio.

In Pennsylvania, polls show Trump-backed Mehmet Oz trailing Democrat Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman to replace retiring US Senator Pat Toomey, a Republican. Herschel Walker, Trump’s pick for US Senate in Georgia, also trails incumbent Democrat US Senator Raphael Warnock.

Masters, who ran Thiel’s private foundation and venture capital fund until March, has been criticized for past inflammatory comments, including an April 11 podcast interview in which he blamed gun violence on “black people, frankly.” In college writings, he questioned US involvement in World War II. He also has supported the “replacement theory” pushed by white nationalists and supremacists.

Lamon, who contends that there were “irregularities” in the 2020 election, has largely self-financed his campaign with $14 million and has led the GOP field in spending on advertising for the primary, with $12.3 million, according to AdImpact.

He’s promoted himself as “an America First conservative” -- a reference to Trump’s mantra -- and also run an ad with people wearing Trump and Lamon campaign apparel saying the former president “made a mistake” endorsing Masters.

Lamon, who said he sold the DEPCOM Power Inc. company he founded to a unit of Koch Industries Inc. last year to focus on his Senate campaign, also has a website attacking Masters as “fake” that says, “California Big Tech is spending $15 million trying to make Fake Blake Masters seem conservative.”

The Saving Arizona PAC supporting Masters, funded with the $15 million from Thiel and $100,000 each from Bitcoin billionaires Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, has spent 10 times the amount on advertising for the primary as Masters’s campaign, $10.9 million to $1.9 million, according to AdImpact.

Thiel also contributed $15 million to a super PAC backing Vance in Ohio. Representatives for Thiel and Trump didn’t immediately responded to messages left for comment.

Club For Growth Action, which played a major role helping Representative Ted Budd win North Carolina’s US Senate GOP primary, also spent $1.4 million on ads touting Trump’s endorsement of Masters over Lamon, according to AdImpact. Additionally, the Crypto Freedom PAC spent $2.4 million supporting Masters and attacking Lamon.

Stan Barnes, a former Arizona state senator and GOP political consultant, said the race -- which has been marked by a flood of negative ads -- will be competitive. But Masters had the Trump endorsement and the money to amplify that with primary voters.

“In a confused and ugly primary, the thing that stands out is the Trump endorsement,” Barnes said.

Still, support by Masters and Lamon for Trump’s false election claims could hurt them with independent voters in a general election race against Kelly, said Phoenix-based pollster Paul Bentz.

Arizona has become more of a swing state in recent years, and Kelly, a former astronaut, would be favored against Masters or Lamon because he’s solid with the Democratic base and appeals to swing voters, according to Mike Noble, chief of research for OH Predictive Insights.

“He’s in the best position he could ask for, given how bad the environment is for Democrats right now,” Noble said.




Canadian warships deployed to Arctic for two-month, multinational mission

Tue, August 2, 2022 a



HALIFAX — Two Royal Canadian Navy warships have set sail from Halifax to take part in a multinational mission to the Arctic.

The Arctic patrol ship HMCS Margaret Brooke was joined on Tuesday by HMCS Goose Bay, a Kingston-class coastal defence vessel. They will be joined later this week by HMCS Harry DeWolf, another Arctic patrol ship.

The three ships are expected to participate in a two-month, Canadian-led deployment called Operation Nanook. The Canadian Armed Forces says the vessels will work alongside ships from the United States Coast Guard, the Royal Danish Navy and the French navy.


Among other things, the mission calls for community relations in the Far North and for scientific trials and patrols along the Northwest Passage to promote Arctic security.

The mission will be the first operational deployment for the 103-metre HMCS Margaret Brooke, which was delivered to the navy in July 2021. The voyage will also mark the second trip to the Arctic for HMCS Harry DeWolf, the first Arctic offshore patrol ship built at the Halifax Shipyard as part of Canada's national shipbuilding strategy.

"Together, they exemplify our navy’s versatility and capabilities, continuing to push the boundaries of where the (navy) operates," the military said Tuesday in a statement.

"Operation Nanook demonstrates the (navy's) capability to deploy forces in the Arctic, and contributes to maritime domain awareness by conducting presence patrols along the Northwest Passage."

The annual operation to the Arctic, which started in 2007, features up to four deployments throughout the year.

The latest deployment comes less than two months after Canada and Denmark settled a 50-year-old dispute over a tiny Arctic Island. On June 14, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly signed a historic deal with Danish Foreign Affairs Minister Jeppe Kofod, which divided ownership of the uninhabited island between Ellesmere Island and Greenland.

At the time, Joly said the agreement ended the "friendliest of all wars," which involved both nations leaving bottles of spirits on the island with little notes for one another while removing each other's flags.

After the signing of the deal, the foreign ministers symbolically exchanged bottles of spirits, with notes attached, to end the "whisky war."

In a pointed reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, Joly said the deal with Denmark had been struck "at a very important time in our history because we know that authoritarian leaders believe that they can … draw boundaries by force."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 2, 2022.

The Canadian Press
Trump had the chance to kill Al Qaeda's leader but didn't because he didn't recognize the name, report says
Sophia Ankel
Tue, August 2, 2022 

The Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed by a US drone strike, Biden announced Monday.

Then-President Trump had the option to kill al-Zawahiri but chose not to, NBC reported in 2020.

Trump wanted to kill Osama bin Laden's son instead because it was the only name he knew, NBC said.


President Donald Trump had the chance to kill the leader of Al Qaeda but didn't because he didn't recognize the terrorist leader's name, NBC News reported in 2020.

Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in a US drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Saturday, President Joe Biden announced Monday.

His death, which has been praised by many world leaders, is the biggest blow to Al Qaeda since its founder, Osama bin Laden, was killed by US Navy SEALs in 2011.

But plans for al-Zawahiri's execution could have been carried out far earlier, according to an NBC News report published in February 2020.

Intelligence officials briefed Trump many times about senior terrorist figures the CIA wanted to track down and kill, mentioning al-Zawahiri, NBC News reported.

Two people familiar with the briefings told NBC News that Trump chose not to pursue al-Zawahiri because he didn't recognize his name and instead suggested targeting bin Laden's son, Hamza bin Laden.

"He would say, 'I've never heard of any of these people. What about Hamza bin Laden?'" one unnamed former official told NBC News.

A Pentagon official also told the news outlet: "That was the only name he knew."

The Department of Defense and a spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.

Even though bin Laden's son was widely seen as an emerging figure in the terrorist group, he was not believed to be planning any attacks at the time, NBC News reported.
'The president's preference for a "celebrity" targeted killing'

Trump confirmed in 2019 that the younger bin Laden had been killed in a US counterterrorism operation earlier on in his presidency.

"Despite intelligence assessments showing the greater dangers posed by Zawahiri, as well as his Iran-based lieutenants al-Masri and Saif al-Adil, and the unlikelihood Hamza was in the immediate line of succession, the president thought differently," the former CIA official Douglas London wrote in Just Security in 2020.

He added that Trump's "obsession" with bin Laden's son "is one example of the president's preference for a 'celebrity' targeted killing versus prioritizing options that could prove better for US security."

In his address announcing al-Zawahiri's death, Biden said that after "relentlessly seeking Zawahiri for years under Presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump, our intelligence community located Zawahiri earlier this year."

"This mission was carefully planned, rigorously minimized the risk of harm to other civilians, and one week ago, after being advised that the conditions were optimal, I gave the final approval to go get him, and the mission was a success."

Al-Zawahiri helped Osama bin Laden plot the September 11, 2001, attacks, which directly killed nearly 3,000 people.




Trevor Noah Appalled by Trump’s Ivana Golf Course Burial Tax ‘Scam’

Matt Wilstein
Mon, August 1, 2022 

Comedy Central

“This is one of the wildest things ever,” Trevor Noah said on Monday night’s Daily Show. And even though the bar couldn’t be higher when it comes to Donald Trump scandals, he wasn’t exaggerating.

The host was talking about the recent death of the former president’s first wife, Ivana Trump. “Well, it turns out The Donald may have managed to turn even that into a scam,” Noah said, explaining that Don Jr., Eric and Ivanka’s mother’s burial at Trump’s New Jersey golf club may have been an elaborate way for the business to avoid paying taxes on the land.

“Wow, wow, wow, wow!” Noah said as the audience groaned. “A lot of people say, ‘I’ll pay taxes over my dead body!’ Trump means it. Just someone else’s body.”

The host said that this just feels like a “step too far” for Trump and that he “wouldn’t even laugh at” the idea if it was a bad joke premise.

John Oliver Dances on Boris Johnson’s Political Grave

“If somebody said to me, ‘Donald Trump’s ex-wife died, he’s probably going to bury her on his golf course to save on taxes,’ I’d be like, ‘That’s not cool, man,’” he added. “But it turns out, Trump was like, ‘Say more… I’m going to send this to my accountant.’”

Later in the segment, correspondent Desi Lydic managed to work an even better joke about the scandal into an unrelated bit. “God, I feel for all of Trump’s wives,” she said. “Even in the afterlife, they still have to deal with his balls coming at them.”

Trevor Noah Spots The ‘Serial Killer’ Law Trump’s Now Using To His Advantage


Ed Mazza
Tue, August 2, 2022 



Trevor Noah said former President Donald Trump has somehow managed to turn the death of ex-wife Ivana Trump into a tax scam.

Trump’s first wife, who died in July after a fall at the age of 73, was laid to rest last week at his Bedminster Golf Club in New Jersey, which could give the property certain tax benefits.

“Wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow,” Noah said. “A lot of people say, ‘I’ll pay taxes over my dead body.’ Trump means it ― for someone else’s body.”

Noah also wondered how this tax break had passed in the first place.

“All this tax break does is incentivize you to be a weirdo,” Noah said. “Who came up with this? It almost feels like the law was written by a serial killer. Just like: ‘There shoul
d be a law that if you bury a body in your yard, you don’t have to pay taxes anymore.’”

Trump's Early Plans For Garish Bedminster Mausoleum Were Buried By Local Officials

Donald Trump’s plans to build a grandiose family mausoleum with 19-foot stone obelisks on the grounds of his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, were shot down in 2007 by local officials who found the design garish and out of character with the area.

Now there’s a single grave on the course — for Ivana Trump, the ex-wife of the former president and mother of his three oldest children. Following her July 20 funeral, she was buried not far from the clubhouse and behind the first tee in a bare plot with a spray of flowers and small granite plaque.

The grave appears to come with tax advantages for Trump and his golf course.

New Jersey tax code provides a “cemetery” with a “trifecta of tax avoidance,” with breaks for property, income and sales taxes, Brooke Harrington, a Dartmouth sociology professor and self-described tax researcher, wrote on Twitter. The state requires no minimum number of graves to qualify as a cemetery, she added.

The tax code says any land dedicated to cemetery purposes is exempt from all taxes. Cemetery companies are specifically exempt from paying any real estate taxes or personal property taxes on their lands, as well as business taxes, sales taxes, income taxes and inheritance taxes.

In the New Jersey Law Revision Commission, a “cemetery company” is defined as “a person, corporation, association or other entity that owns or operates a cemetery, reported Business Insider.

It’s unclear whether Trump, who famously pays almost no federal income tax, intends to pursue the tax advantages and how much money is at stake.

The cemetery business idea has been kicking around for a while in the Trump family.

Tax documents from the Trump Family Trust, published by ProPublica, show the trust sought in 2014 to designate a property in Hackettstown, New Jersey, about 20 miles from the Bedminster golf course, as a nonprofit cemetery company.

Trump’s early mausoleum idea in 2007 got nowhere.

Bedminster’s then-Mayor Robert Holtaway argued before the city council that the over-the-top structure could attract the wrong kind of people, The New Yorker reported. He compared it to a place “in Austria where a Nazi war criminal was buried” that “became a tourist attraction,” according to the magazine.

Trump suggested the mausoleum could have versatile uses — such as a spot for weddings, and over the years submitted various other plans for cemeteries on his property.

In 2014, The Trump Organization filed plans to build twin graveyards at Bedminster, The Washington Post reported. One would be a 284-plot cemetery offering gravesites for sale. The other would include 10 plots overlooking the first tee for Trump and his family.

“Mr. Trump ... specifically chose this property for his final resting place as it is his favorite property,” his company wrote in the plans.

Trump’s parents and his brother Fred are buried together at All Faiths Cemetery in Queens, New York.

Ivana Trump, the first person buried at Bedminster, died July 14 at age 73 in her Manhattan home after a fall down the stairs. Her death was ruled accidental.


CHAPARONES FOR TOURISTS
NASA says retired astronauts must act as sherpas on private flights to the ISS



Amrita Khalid
·Contributing Writer
Wed, August 3, 2022 

NASA will soon require a retired astronaut to serve as mission commander on all private flights to the International Space Station, according to an agency notice posted today. The policy — which has yet to be finalized — is intended to both increase passenger safety and reduce any strain on existing ISS operations. The former astronaut would provide “experienced guidance for the private astronauts during pre-flight preparation through mission execution." A number of changes also impact space tourists themselves, including new medical standards for private astronauts, more lead time for private research projects, changes to the policy for return cargo and additional time for private astronauts to adjust to microgravity.

According to the notice, the new changes were a result of “lessons learned” on last April’s Axiom Space flight, where passengers paid $55 million each to fly on the first private astronaut mission to the ISS. The hectic, two-week trip — where passengers also worked on their own research — took a toll on both the ISS crew and the Axiom crew themselves, according to interviews with astronauts following the mission’s return.

The Ax-1 mission actually had a former NASA astronaut at its helm — Michael López-Alegría, who currently is the Chief Astronaut at Axiom. The company was considering crewing future missions without a professional astronaut on board as that would free up space for an extra (paying) passenger on board, Axiom president Michael Suffredini said at a press conference earlier this year. The new policy by NASA is likely an effort to prevent such unsupervised missions.

Capable astronauts aren’t exactly a dime a dozen. Currently, there are well over 200 living retired NASA astronauts, according to the agency’s website — though it’s unclear how many would be willing to command future missions or meet the medical requirements. NASA itself is in the middle of an astronaut shortage — its current corps of 44 astronauts is the smallest since the 1970s. An agency report from January said a lack of working NASA astronauts could complicate future missions to the ISS and the moon.
INTERSECTIONALITY
Climate campaigners take aim at 'hotel detention' with asylum protest at Aberdeen's Castlegate

Campaign groups Migrants Organising for Rights and Empowerment (MORE) and Climate Camp Scotland (CCS) staged a joint rally in the Castlegate this morning to call for changes to the treatment of asylum seekers.



ByJamie Saunderson
Trainee reporter
 2 AUG 2022
MSP Maggie Chapman was among the crowd. (Image: CCS)
MEMBER OF SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT

Climate activists taking part in a five-day camp at Aberdeen's St Fittick's Park joined forces with migrant campaigners to protest so-called 'hotel detention' today. Campaign groups Migrants Organising for Rights and Empowerment (MORE) and Climate Camp Scotland (CCS) staged a joint rally in the Castlegate this morning to call for changes to the treatment of asylum seekers.

The UK's practice of accommodating asylum seekers in hotels while they wait for permanent housing has come under fire from human rights activists. Although the government says it is a temporary measure, activists claim the system amounts to the 'warehousing' of people.

In June, we revealed more than 450 displaced people and asylum seekers were being housed in hotels in the Granite City. More than 250 of these were Ukrainian, while in February we discovered nearly 120 Afghans were in the same situation.

At today's gathering, speakers told the crowd of more than 50 people of their own experiences with the asylum system at the Mercat Cross. Drumming and chanting also rang out while Green MSP Maggie Chapman was spotted in the crowd.

Yvonne Blake of MORE said: ‘‘As the climate crisis intensifies, more and more people from the global south experience displacement, loss of ancestral land, culture, and lives. Droughts, wars, and floods are all consequences of carbon pollution caused by the West.

"Yet in Britain, asylum seeking people faces government hostility. Some people have been detained in hotels for up to nine months, and in that period have had to move between four hotels.

"Currently here in Aberdeen, there are over 100 men in hotels without access to employment, and education. These conditions do not prevent people fleeing persecution.

"What we need are safe routes, and for people to be treated with utmost dignity, respect, as set out in the UN Refugee Convention. While immigration is a reserved matter, the Scottish Government and councils have a duty of care and can do more, for example around access to education which is a devolved matter."

Duncan Harbison, a spokesman for CCS, added: "The UK Government has a responsibility to help displaced people since the UK and the fossil fuel industry have been responsible for a hugely disproportionate amount of global pollution which is forcing people from their own homes.

READ MORE Aberdonians urged to choose city council worker to become 'People's Champion'

"For the UK to ignore problems it helped create, and treat people who deserve support in such an inhumane way is completely unjustifiable, and so we are here in solidarity with those experiencing hotel detention."

The camp is in its final day after protesters took 'direct action' against many of the Granite City's energy businesses during their stay. Yesterday, they stormed the Port of Aberdeen in a 'mass trespass' to oppose plans to industrialise the Torry green space where they have been staying.
'We get it': BP's boss expresses sympathy for customers as firm posts near record profits
THAT AND A BUCK WILL GET YOU A COFFEE

Tuesday 2 August 2022 
Joel Hills
Business and Economics Editor


ITV News Business and Economics Editor Joel Hills reports on how bumper profits from energy firms have prompted growing calls for minister to tax companies further to help households with rising bills

It’s raining oil and gas money at BP and the deluge is forecast to continue for the foreseeable.BP’s business breaks even when Brent oil hits $40 a barrel. Between April and June a barrel of Brent averaged $114.This morning, BP reported a profit for the period of $8.5 billion (£6.9 billion) - a near record high.

BP chief executive officer Bernard Looney.
Credit: AP

“We’re capturing the upside from higher market prices,” explained BP’s boss, Bernard Looney, this morning.That’s one way of putting it. Others are less generous.“A slap in the face to struggling families,” is the Lib Dem’s take. “Fossil fuel companies are laughing all the way to the bank,” exclaims Greenpeace, urging the government to “bring in a proper windfall tax on these monster profits”.In the space of just two years BP has swung from a record loss (£4.7 bn in 2020) to eye-popping profitability without really having done anything differently.

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The whole of the industry cut investment in the first year of the pandemic, inadvertently creating the perfect conditions for oil and gas prices to head into the stratosphere as pandemic restrictions lifted before shooting into outer space when Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine.Oil majors everywhere suddenly finds themselves awash with cash at a time when motorists are paying record prices at the pump and households and businesses face crippling energy bills.

“We understand, we get it,” insisted Looney this morning. He explained that BP was “helping” to numb the pain that many of its customers feel by investing in its UK business and creating jobs.


BP triples profits to £6.9bn as energy prices soar amid cost of living squeeze


BP also expects to pay bumper taxes on its bumper profits - the North Sea alone will generate £1 billion in revenues for the Treasury this year. The government’s new Energy Profits Levy will raise even more money, although Mr Looney declined to offer guidance on how much more.The contrast in fortunes between energy companies and their customers is stark and is set to get starker.BP predicts oil and gas prices will “remain elevated”. The longer these exceptional profits persist the higher the risk that BP’s policy of “maximising returns” for shareholders will enrage its customers, the greater the likelihood of further political intervention.

For now though, the business continues to throw-off “surplus cash” at an astonishing rate - $6.5 billion (£5.3 billion) between April and June alone.

BP is using much of this money ($3.5 billion) to buy back shares and reduce net debt.Fair enough, shareholders are entitled to a share of the spoils and resizing the balance sheet seems perfectly sensible.But it is both striking and perhaps odd that BP is choosing not to use any of the windfall that has fallen into its lap to ramp-up its investment in renewable energy.The company plans to hit net zero emissions by 2050.

BP sees earnings hit 14-year high amid anger over energy firm profits

Holly Williams, PA Business Editor
Tue, August 2, 2022 a

BP has revealed second-quarter profits more than trebled to a 14-year high as it joined rival Shell in reaping the benefits of soaring oil and gas prices.

The oil giant reported underlying replacement cost profits – its preferred measure – jumping to a far better-than-expected 8.5 billion US dollars (£6.9 billion) for the three months to June 30, up from 2.8 billion US dollars (£2.3 billion) a year ago.

BP delivered cheer to investors, with a 10% rise in the dividend shareholder payout and by ramping up its share buyback plan with another 3.5 billion US dollars (£2.9 billion) due before the end of September.

Yet the result comes as households are struggling to meet rocketing bills and anger is mounting anger over massive profits from oil and energy firms following bumper results from Shell and British Gas owner Centrica last week.

BP also warned that there is not expected to be any let up with energy prices over the summer, forecasting that crude oil and gas prices will remain high over the third quarter due to supply disruption from Russia.

Households across Britain have been warned they could face an annual energy bill of £3,615 this winter in the latest grim analysis by energy consultant Cornwall Insight.

Joshua Warner, market analyst at City Index, said it was a “recipe that should continue to deliver bumper earnings for BP and other oil and gas giants”.

The Government is introducing a windfall tax on the profits of energy companies, but it has faced criticism for giving strong incentives to allow companies to invest in oil and gas, while there are no tax incentives in the policy for green investment.

But BP’s reported half-year figures were impacted by a massive 24.4 billion US dollar (£19.9 billion) hit from the firm’s move to ditch its near-20% stake in Russian oil producer Rosneft in response to the Ukraine war.

This left it with statutory replacement cost losses of 15.4 billion US dollars (£13 billion), against profits of 5.7 billion US dollars (£4.7 billion) a year earlier.

BP chief executive Bernard Looney insisted the group was continuing to “perform while transforming”.

He said: “Our people have continued to work hard throughout the quarter helping to solve the energy trilemma – secure, affordable and lower carbon energy.

“We do this by providing the oil and gas the world needs today – while at the same time, investing to accelerate the energy transition.”
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BP earnings soar as energy firm profits from rising prices


DANICA KIRKA
Tue, August 2, 2022

LONDON (AP) — BP said its earnings from April to June almost tripled from a year earlier, increasing pressure on governments to intervene as energy companies profit from high oil and natural gas prices that are fueling inflation and squeezing consumers.

Net income jumped to $9.26 billion in the second quarter from $3.12 billion in the same period a year ago, London-based BP said Tuesday. It said it expects oil and gas prices to remain high due to disruptions in supply caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

BP’s earnings come as energy companies worldwide scoop up record profits. British rival Shell last week posted an unprecedented $18 billion quarterly profit. Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil reported net income of $17.85 billion, and San Ramon, California-based Chevron earned $11.62 billion.

Nick Butler, a visiting professor at Kings College London and a former BP vice president, said the figures are likely to make BP and other oil companies uncomfortable given the pain high energy prices are causing for consumers.

“I think BP’s very sensitive to the reputational problems of making money at this level,” Butler told the BBC. “I think there’s a real case here, which I think people in the companies would be very open to, for the government calling together the industry to find a plan to get us through the winter without putting these very high prices onto ordinary consumers.”

British regulators have increased the annual energy price cap for household gas and electricity bills by 73%, to 1,971 pounds ($2,408), since Oct. 1. Cornwall Insights, an energy and utility consultant, on Tuesday estimated that the cap would jump a further 70%, to 3,359 pounds, this fall as regulators try to keep pace with wholesale gas prices.

In the United Kingdom, where inflation reached a 40-year high of 9.4% in June, the government has announced a 25% windfall profits tax on the earnings of oil and gas companies that come from British operations.

BP said Tuesday that the windfall profits tax would increase the headline tax rate on its North Sea operations to 65% from 40%. The company said it plans to set aside $800 million to cover the bump.

The opposition Labour Party said the government should do more to help consumers.

“People are worried sick about energy prices rising again in the autumn, but yet again we see eye-watering profits for oil and gas producers,” Rachel Reeves, the party’s spokeswoman on treasury issues, said in a statement. “Labour argued for months for a windfall tax on these companies to help bring bills down, but when the Tories finally U-turned they decided to hand billions of pounds back to producers in tax breaks.”

Brent crude, a benchmark for international oil prices, averaged $113.83 a barrel in the second quarter, up 65% from a year earlier, according to BP. Natural gas prices more than doubled over the same period, rising as Russia's war in Ukraine worsened an energy crunch and as Moscow has reduced or cut off natural gas supplies to a dozen European Union countries.

The high prices pushed BP's underlying replacement cost earnings, an industry standard profit measure that excludes one-time items and the value of inventories, to $8.45 billion in the second quarter from $2.80 billion in the same period last year.

The soaring earnings allowed BP to return billions of dollars to shareholders, with the company boosting its dividend by 10% and announcing plans to buy back $3.5 billion in shares. BP said it expects to increase dividends by about 4% annually through 2025.

BP shares rose 4.3%, to 409.8 pence, in afternoon trading on the London Stock Exchange, outpacing the 0.2% gain in the benchmark FTSE 100 Index.

The company also said it was investing in plans to increase the production of renewable energy and reduce reliance on fossil fuels as the company seeks to cut net carbon emissions to zero by 2050. The company said it increased its pipeline of renewable energy projects by 10% in the first half of the year, primarily through an option to develop offshore wind farms off the east coast of Scotland and a global solar energy initiative.

“Our people have continued to work hard throughout the quarter helping to solve the energy trilemma — secure, affordable and lower carbon energy,” Chief Executive Bernard Looney said. “We do this by providing the oil and gas the world needs today — while at the same time investing to accelerate the energy transition.”

Environmental groups criticized the company for moving too slowly.

“While households are being plunged into poverty with knock-on impacts for the whole economy, fossil fuel companies are laughing all the way to the bank," said Doug Parr, chief scientist for Greenpeace UK. “The government is failing the U.K. and the climate in its hour of need."
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BP Boosts Returns as Oil Refining and Trading Drive Profit Beat



Laura Hurst
Tue, August 2, 2022 a

(Bloomberg) -- BP Plc hiked its dividend and accelerated share buybacks to the fastest pace yet after an “exceptional” result in oil refining and trading lifted profits above even the highest expectations.

The oil and gas industry is boosting returns to shareholders as the cash rolls in, even while the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatens the global economy. BP said it expects prices to remain high and highlighted its investments in additional supplies.

“Today’s results show that BP continues to perform while transforming,” Chief Executive Officer Bernard Looney said in a statement on Tuesday. The company is “providing the oil and gas the world needs today -- while at the same time investing to accelerate the energy transition.”

Following in the footsteps of most of its peers, the London-based company said it will repurchase $3.5 billion of shares over the next three months, adding to the $3.8 billion it already bought back in the first half. It also increased its dividend by 10%.

Shares of the company rose 4.5% to 409.8 pence as of 9:30 a.m. in London.

The dividend was increased to 6 cents a share, an improvement from a previous commitment to raise the payout by around 4% annually through to 2025. Net debt fell to $22.82 billion at the end of the period, down from $32.7 billion a year ago.

The results showed BP is “delivering across all three key areas: earnings/cash, capital discipline and shareholder distributions,” Redburn analysts wrote in a research note.

BP’s second-quarter adjusted net income was $8.45 billion, the highest since 2008 and comfortably beating even the highest analyst estimate. This wasn’t just driven by high crude and natural gas prices -- the company’s refineries earned strong margins and its oil traders delivered an “exceptional” performance.

The company never discloses how much profit its oil traders generate, but did say that adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization for its refining and trading unit was $3.73 billion, compared with just $301 million a year ago.

Gas trading fared worse, delivering an “average” result for the quarter, the company said. That in part was a result of a halt to operations at the Freeport liquefied natural gas facility in the US, which will lead to significant reduction in the number of cargoes it expects to receive.

Political Pressure


The oil sector’s sky-high profits come at a politically tricky time for an industry accused of profiteering from the fallout from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression, while also failing to invest enough in new drilling. Alongside its earnings statement, BP published an extensive list of investments it is making in the UK, where the rising cost of energy has become a hot political issue and the North Sea oil and gas industry has already been hit by a windfall tax.

That hasn’t stopped calls for further taxation. Friends of the Earth campaigner Sana Yusuf said that a much tougher windfall tax on oil and gas profits is needed. “It beggars belief that these companies are raking in such huge sums in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis,” she said in a statement.

Collectively, the world’s five major international oil companies made more money in the second quarter than ever before, raking in more than $60 billion.

With recession fears gathering pace, there has been speculation that the second quarter could end up marking the high point for Big Oil this year. BP said it expects oil and natural gas prices, and refining margins, to stay high in the third quarter because of disruptions in Russian supply, relatively low inventories and reduced spare capacity.

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
UK
Transport workers in London to launch 24-hour strike as part of pay disputes

ALAN JONES,
 PA INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT
2 August 2022, 



Transport workers on London Underground and the Overground network will take 24-hour strike action in separate disputes later this month, the biggest rail workers’ union confirmed on Tuesday.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union will walk out on August 19, in between strikes on August 18 and 20 on Network Rail and 14 train operators in the long-running row over pay, jobs and conditions.

Tube workers have been locked in a dispute over pensions and jobs for more than six months while Overground workers employed by Arriva Rail London will strike over pay.

The union gave Transport for London until Tuesday to give assurances that there would be no job losses, no detrimental changes to pensions and no changes or imposition of working conditions.

RMT members on Arriva Rail London have rejected a 5% pay offer.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “This strike action by our members on LU and the Overground is yet another demonstration of how transport workers refuse to accept a raw deal.

“TfL have had ample opportunity to be transparent about the funding they will receive and to give tube workers the assurances they need.

“Yet they have totally failed to give those guarantees.

“And Arriva Rail London, a company swimming in money, refuses to give our members a pay rise that will deal with the escalating cost of living crisis.

“There will be significant disruption on August 19 but TfL and Arriva Rail London bear responsibility for this break down in industrial relations.”

We’re not going away!’: Striking BT workers threaten more walkouts and label CEO ‘food bank Phil’

BT workers focused their anger on CEO Philip Jansen, who has accepted a pay rise of 32%, as they began a second day of national strikes.

EVIE BREESE
1 Aug 2022


BT and Openreach workers across the UK have taken part in a second day of strike action calling for a “substantial” pay rise as BT Group hikes its prices and reports £1.3billion in profit.

Striking workers focused their anger on CEO Philip Jansen, who reportedly accepted a 32 per cent pay rise and now earns £3.5million a year. They dubbed him “food bank Phil” in reference to a food bank set up in a BT call centre for the company’s own staff, which was exposed by The Big Issue.

“Jansen, food bank Phil, we’re not going away!” Communication Workers Union (CWU) general secretary Dave Ward told striking workers outside the BT Tower in London, where around 50 people stood on the picket line.

“This dispute is moving on, and we’re focusing very much, Jansen, on your future. We will call for him to go… You can afford to pay our members the money they deserve.”

Openreach and BT workers have manned around 400 picket lines across the UK, the CWU has claimed, where they have asked members of the public to drop off food to hundreds of picket lines across the country.

Speaking to The Big Issue, Ward accused BT of “adding to spiralling inflation” by “blatantly profiteering on top of inflation to make sure their own earnings, those of shareholders and of the company, continue to grow beyond inflation”.

Ward confirmed the union would be prepared to take further strike action if BT fails to offer a better deal. He also emphasised the financial toll strike action had on workers, saying the CWU will “come up with other ways to pile on the pressure on BT.”

BT has put its broadband and telecoms prices up by around 13 per cent, adding £53 a year to the cost of a BT Fibre Essential deal.

Labour MP Kate Osborne joined the picket line in central London to “stand shoulder to shoulder with workers in their struggle for better pay and conditions.”

The MP for Jarrow represents workers at EE North Tyneside, where a food bank was set up for staff to use if their pay won’t stretch to the end of the month.

“This food bank is actually in the north-east, in my area,” she told The Big Issue. “It says an awful lot about the state of this country. It’s good that they’re helping (each other) but it’s disgraceful that it’s got to this.”

Osborne’s role as Shadow Northern Ireland Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) may put her in the shadow cabinet group ordered by leader Keir Starmer not to support workers on picket lines.

Ex-shadow transport minister Sam Tarry was last week sacked for doing just that. Asked whether his sacking changed her support of the strikes, Osborne replied: “No, not at all. I’ll always be on the picket lines supporting workers.”

Engineer Joe Brennan at the picket line outside BT Tower. Image: Evie Breese

Joe Brennan, an engineer who has worked for BT for 37 years, told The Big Issue: “A lot of people (working for BT) have been struggling for a long time and really it’s got a lot worse. A lot of people, especially the younger people, will struggle to survive.

“Having working people having to go to food banks is disgusting. You can’t say you have a proper business if your people aren’t paid enough that they can have the food they need to eat.”

The CWU rejected the £1,500 flat rate pay rise imposed by BT on its employees in April, saying it amounted to a real terms pay cut when viewed alongside inflation.

That rise came after the minimum wage went up on April 1, meaning that for workers on the lowest pay, a pay rise was necessary to prevent wages slipping below the legal hourly rate.

BT has called the flat rate pay rise “the highest pay award in more than 20 years”.

A BT Group spokesperson said: “We have confirmed to the CWU that we won’t be re-opening the 2022 pay review, having already made the best award we could.

“We’re balancing the complex and competing demands of our stakeholders and that includes making once-in-a-generation investments to upgrade the country’s broadband and mobile networks, vital for the UK economy and for BT Group’s future – including our people.

“While we respect the choice of our colleagues who are CWU members to strike, we will work to minimise any disruption and keep our customers and the country connected. We have tried and tested processes for large scale colleague absences to minimise any disruption for our customers and these were proved during the pandemic.”

Hitachi Rail workers launch three-day strike


A Hitachi Javelin train passes over the Medway railway bridge near Rochester in Kent.

STRIKES by Hitachi Rail workers will continue until they are offered a “just pay settlement,” transport union RMT has warned.

A three-day walkout by its members at the rail company is set to end tomorrow, but the union warned that passengers could face more disruption unless improvements are made to wages and working conditions.

Workers are seeking an agreement on breaks, leave entitlement, shift length and pay in line with Hitachi workers in Doncaster and the firm’s North Pole maintenance section.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “Our members know the value of their work and will not be short-changed by Hitachi Rail.

“Private rail operators need to stop trying to play workers off against one another.

“I congratulate our members on this strong industrial response, and RMT will support further stoppages until they receive a just settlement.”

A company spokesperson said it was disappointed by the industrial action but pledged to “continue to work with RMT to find a solution.

“In the meantime, we have contingency plans in place to mitigate any potential impact on passenger service.”

Cross-border rail travellers hit as thousands of train drivers strike

By Reporter
July 31, 2022,
Members of ASLEF train driver's union forming a picket line at the entrance to Edinburgh Waverley station, as train strikes loom around the country.

Cross-border rail travellers faced huge disruption yesterday when thousands of drivers staged another one-day strike.

Members of Aslef in seven train companies, including LNER, which runs on the East Coast Main Line, walked out, crippling services across the UK.

Disruption affected football fans travelling to the opening Saturday of English leagues, and people going to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Ahead of the strike, LNER warned passengers in Scotland not to travel on Saturday because there was a reduced timetable and no trains travelled north of Edinburgh. The last LNER train to London left Edinburgh yesterday afternoon, with no evening service available.

The majority of services north of the border have returned to normal after the resolution of a dispute with ScotRail drivers, but yesterday’s strike is not the last one set to disrupt routes in Scotland. Aslef train drivers strike again on August 13, while workers at Network Rail, as well as 14 other operators, will walk out on August 18 and 20.

Yesterday, members of Aslef mounted a picket line at Edinburgh Waverley from 9am until midday, with the union saying they were receiving strong public support despite the disruption the strike was causing.

Relations between the Government and rail unions have worsened after Mick Whelan, general secretary at Aslef, accused the UK Government’s Transport Secretary Grant Shapps of lying about negotiations over the strikes

Shapps had written in The Times: “The ‘Two Micks’, Lynch of the RMT and Whelan of Aslef, are taking the taxpayer for a ride, but not in the way they are meant to. RMT is stalling on reform and Aslef is dragging its feet in negotiations while both call more strikes. Enough.”

In response, Mr Whelan told Times Radio yesterday morning: “I say Mr Shapps is lying, quite simply, quite clearly.

“We’re not dragging our feet in negotiations, we negotiate with 14 private companies, we do not work for the government or the DfT (Department for Transport).”

Steve Montgomery, chairman of the Rail Delivery Group, said: “We’re really disappointed that the Aslef leadership has decided to impose yet more uncertainty and disruption for passengers and businesses in a week which has already seen a strike by the RMT.”

He added: “Like any service or business, we must move with the times and cannot continue to ask taxpayers or passengers for more money when we should instead respond to the huge changes in travel behaviour post Covid.”

Meanwhile, Hitachi rail workers are to strike for three days from today. Members of the RMT whose jobs include maintenance, are in dispute over pay and issues including breaks, leave entitlement and shift length.

RMT general secretary Lynch said: “Our members know the value of their work and will not be short-changed by Hitachi Rail.”

Train strikes are expected to cause disruption for travellers to the Commonwealth Games

Around 5,000 train drivers are striking today, Saturday, July 30, which is expected to cause widespread disruption with the launch of the English Football League season and the Commonwealth Games.

By Jon Cooper
Saturday, 30th July 2022,

The Aslef union members and drivers from seven operators are walking out over pay during a 24-hour strike affecting train services across England including Southeastern and West Midlands Trains.

Travellers looking forward to the start of the English Football League season, the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and a Lady Gaga concerted are likely to be affected.

The latest strike adds to a very difficult summer for passengers after a series of walkouts.

A 24-hour drivers' train strike by Aslef union members on July 30 is expected to cause disruption to those travelling to the Commonwealth Games and for the start of the English Football League season.

Affected train services include Arriva Rail London, Greater Anglia, Great Western, Hull Trains, and Heathrow Express.

Also no trains will be running on Southeastern while operators including Great Western Railway – which operates between England and Wales – and LNER will also have severely-reduced services.

The disruption to the London Overground and Greater Anglia will affect travel for the Lady Gaga's Chromatica Ball in Tottenham and West Midlands Trains will only operate a shuttle between Birmingham New Street and Birmingham International for the Commonwealth Games.

Passengers are advised to check the latest information before they travel and to allow extra time for their journey.

More strikes are planned in August by Aslef and the RMT union in the row over pay, jobs and conditions.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has accused union leaders of being militant for bringing the country to a standstill and he has dubbed them the "aristocrats of the public sector".