Shell is suing Greenpeace – threatening a multi million dollar lawsuit and a protest ban. We need your help to fight in court.
Earlier this year, six Greenpeace International activists managed to board and occupy a moving Shell oil platform. The platform was making its way towards the North Sea to unlock new oil wells.
Our demand was clear: Shell must stop drilling for new oil and gas, and start paying up for causing decades of climate damage.
The protest continued for 13 days and almost 4,000km. During this time, Shell reported record annual profits of nearly $40bn. But they won’t pay a penny towards fixing the climate chaos they’ve caused.
Like so many of us, the activists who occupied Shells’ platform all experience the climate crisis in different ways – from rising energy bills and flooding to heatwaves and typhoons. This protest took the fight for climate justice straight to Shell, in a way they couldn’t ignore. Standing with millions of people worldwide, who are losing their lives, loved ones and homes to climate breakdown caused by fossil fuel giants.
Well, we got Shell’s attention. Now they’re suing Greenpeace UK and Greenpeace International, threatening a multi million dollar lawsuit and a protest ban.
These bullying tactics threaten the global fight for climate justice. Will you help us stand up to Shell and donate today to the Stop Shell Appeal?
A glowing quartz rod at the end of an experiment in absorbing solar radiation, in which it reached a temperature of 1,050°C. Solar process heat above 1,000°C can decarbonize industrial applications such as cement manufacturing and metallurgical extraction. Emiliano Casati, Leo Allgoewer and Aldo Steinfeld
Industrial processes like smelting metals or manufacturing cement can be carbon-intensive, as they typically rely on fossil fuels to generate enough energy to produce high temperatures. But researchers have found a way to use solar thermal trapping, rather than fossil fuels, to reduce the emissions of some industrial processes.
“To tackle climate change, we need to decarbonize energy in general,” said corresponding author Emiliano Casati, of ETH Zurich, Switzerland, as reported by Science Daily. “People tend to only think about electricity as energy, but in fact, about half of the energy is used in the form of heat.”
Scientists used semitransparent materials, including synthetic quartz, to capture sunlight with a thermal trapping effect. The team connected a synthetic quartz rod, partially lined with platinum, to an opaque silicon carbide disk, which would absorb the sunlight, and exposed one end of the quartz rod to concentrated solar radiation.
After exposing one end of the rod to the concentrated solar radiation, the silicon carbide disk reached 1,050 degrees Celsius (1,922 degrees Fahrenheit), hot enough for smelting metal or cooking cement, among other industrial processes. While that end reached over 1,000 degrees Celsius, the other end of the quartz rod stayed at a temperature of 600 degrees Celsius (1,112 degrees Fahrenheit). The researchers published their findings in the journal Device.
Kemi Badenoch and Nir Barkat. (Photo: Department for Business / Flickr)
Britain’s business secretary wants to strike a new trade deal with Israel amid its brutal onslaught on Gaza.
Badenoch is negotiating with an Israeli minister who threatens to “wipe out” its enemies
UK-Israel trade talks took place a week after the IDF killed three British aid workers
She decided to continue arms exports to Israel at the same time
The UK government, led by business secretary Kemi Badenoch, has been trying to finalise a new trade agreement with Israel throughout its invasion of Gaza.
The latest – and fifth – round of negotiations between officials of the two countries began on 8 April.
That was just seven days after three British aid workers were killed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Gaza.
The talks on a free trade agreement (FTA) continued even as UN agencies reported over 33,000 Palestinians had been killed by Israel and the Israeli government announced a date had been set for invading Rafah.
These negotiations were hosted by the UK, with a delegation of Israeli officials travelling to London for in-person discussions.
“An upgraded trade deal will play to British strengths and unlock trade for our world-leading services and digital sectors”, the UK’s Department for Business and Trade noted.
The negotiations are another aspect of Britain’s complicity in genocide, adding to its military and diplomatic support for Israel as it engages in mass attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure in Gaza.
On the same day the trade talks began in April, Badenoch also authorised continued British arms exports to Israel.
Keir Starmer last week controversially welcomed Tory defector Natalie Elphicke into the Labour fold | Carl Court/Getty Images
The party may have a 30-point lead in the polls, but its lack of real offering to voters will soon cause problems
It’s widely agreed that England and Wales’ local election results were terrible for the Conservative Party, which lost 474 councillors, and not particularly good for the Labour Party, which gained only 186.
But many commentators still miss the current mood among Labour supporters. The party’s 30-point lead in a new YouGov poll has been extensively covered, but not the fact that its should-be supporters are hardly rejoicing at the news.
Because while many voters have distaste verging on outright anger at Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives, and would certainly take pleasure in seeing them ousted from government, they have little enthusiasm for the Labour alternative.
Analysis of the local elections’ voting figures suggests Labour is headed for a much smaller lead at the general election than polls suggest; likely one sufficient to ensure it ends up in government but not anything like a landslide. In these circumstances, the tensions within the party, and how they are reflected in the attitudes of its voters, become significant – and may cause Keir Starmer serious problems in office.
Much of the discontent stems from suspicions that under Starmer, Labour is now on the centre-right and will not deliver the major reforms needed to help the millions of ordinary people struggling to make ends meet. Even in one of the few areas where Starmer previously seemed to offer hope, workers’ rights, there are suggestions that his policy will soon be watered down.
This sense that the party will continue the current government’s status quo has only been strengthened by Labour welcoming two Tory defectors into its fold in recent weeks. One of them, Natalie Elphicke, is a determinedly right-wing politician, whom many would have said was on the far right of her previous party. Some very angry Labour MPs have contrasted her official reception with the ongoing exclusion of Diane Abbott and Jeremy Corbyn from the parliamentary party.
Starmer is also keen to play tough on defence matters, presenting Labour as strong on military spending, and determined to maintain a vastly expensive nuclear programme and Britain’s vain attempt to be a world power.
This will likely be met with opposition from many of the party’s supporters, who have objected to the UK’s involvement in numerous failed wars in the past 25 years – including Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Libya and now Gaza.
Whatever happens in Gaza, Labour will also be left with a legacy of deep mistrust over its failure to speak up for Palestinians. The ‘Gaza rebellions’ at the local elections earlier this month, which contributed significantly to the party failing to pick up the Tories’ lost votes, were hurried affairs organised late in the day. If organisers plan earlier for the general election, they may well have a much greater impact.
Then there is the issue of the climate crisis, which looms increasingly large, especially among younger voters. Labour’s U-turn on its £28bn pledge to invest in a rapid period of decarbonisation has struck a discordant note, and many find it difficult to accept claims by shadow climate change and net zero secretary Ed Miliband that the party is still on track to make Britain a “clean energy superpower”.
Labour may also soon have a problem among its own ranks. Many of the party’s 30 or so socialist-leaning MPs are keeping their heads down in the run-up to the general election for fear of suspension and deselection. This will change once the election is called. Some incoming new radicals may also be elected – who knows, even the odd socialist or two might slip through. It is certainly reasonable to think that Starmer, whether heading for a majority or minority Labour government, will have up to 40 MPs with a radical bent.
Where they will become significant will be when Labour runs into serious trouble a year or so into the new Parliament, when the multitude of toxic legacies left by 14 years of Conservative government emerge. At that point, if all Labour can offer on most policy areas is little more than modest change, British politics will become far more intens
Much of the discontent stems from suspicions that under Starmer, Labour is now on the centre-right and will not deliver the major reforms needed to help the millions of ordinary people struggling to make ends meet. Even in one of the few areas where Starmer previously seemed to offer hope, workers’ rights, there are suggestions that his policy will soon be watered down.
This sense that the party will continue the current government’s status quo has only been strengthened by Labour welcoming two Tory defectors into its fold in recent weeks. One of them, Natalie Elphicke, is a determinedly right-wing politician, whom many would have said was on the far right of her previous party. Some very angry Labour MPs have contrasted her official reception with the ongoing exclusion of Diane Abbott and Jeremy Corbyn from the parliamentary party.
And while Labour may claim to be the party of fiscal fairness, there is little faith in it getting truly serious about controlling tax avoidance and evasion, and even less about wholesale tax reform. Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has also already ruled out a wealth tax, despite the richest 1% of Britons holding more wealth than 70% of people in the UK.
Starmer is also keen to play tough on defence matters, presenting Labour as strong on military spending, and determined to maintain a vastly expensive nuclear programme and Britain’s vain attempt to be a world power.
This will likely be met with opposition from many of the party’s supporters, who have objected to the UK’s involvement in numerous failed wars in the past 25 years – including Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Libya and now Gaza.
Whatever happens in Gaza, Labour will also be left with a legacy of deep mistrust over its failure to speak up for Palestinians. The ‘Gaza rebellions’ at the local elections earlier this month, which contributed significantly to the party failing to pick up the Tories’ lost votes, were hurried affairs organised late in the day. If organisers plan earlier for the general election, they may well have a much greater impact.
Then there is the issue of the climate crisis, which looms increasingly large, especially among younger voters. Labour’s U-turn on its £28bn pledge to invest in a rapid period of decarbonisation has struck a discordant note, and many find it difficult to accept claims by shadow climate change and net zero secretary Ed Miliband that the party is still on track to make Britain a “clean energy superpower”.
Labour may also soon have a problem among its own ranks. Many of the party’s 30 or so socialist-leaning MPs are keeping their heads down in the run-up to the general election for fear of suspension and deselection. This will change once the election is called. Some incoming new radicals may also be elected – who knows, even the odd socialist or two might slip through. It is certainly reasonable to think that Starmer, whether heading for a majority or minority Labour government, will have up to 40 MPs with a radical bent.
Where they will become significant will be when Labour runs into serious trouble a year or so into the new Parliament, when the multitude of toxic legacies left by 14 years of Conservative government emerge. At that point, if all Labour can offer on most policy areas is little more than modest change, British politics will become far more intense – with a chance of some truly progressive thinking at last coming to the fore.
