Monthly Archives: March 2025

Why is an ‘ethical’ investor funding arms companies?

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https://www.declassifieduk.org/why-is-an-ethical-investor-funding-arms-companies

Is Norway’s money being invested responsibly? (Photo: Andrzej Rostek / Alamy)

Scandinavian countries are often held up as models for a better society. None more so than Norway, flush with North Sea oil wealth, which it can invest responsibly.

The money is put aside in a sovereign wealth fund, owned by the Norwegian government and managed by the country’s central bank, Norges Bank. It is the largest such fund in the world, worth £1.4 trillion.

Called the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), or just the Oil Fund, it is supposed to adhere to ethical guidelines by excluding certain companies from its portfolio.

That’s if they are involved in serious violations of human rights – especially in conflicts – gross corruption, the production of nuclear weapons and more.

However, in outright contradiction to these guidelines, the GPFG invests billions of pounds in many of the world’s largest arms companies. In fact, it owns stakes in exactly half of the world’s top 100 arms companies, accumulating at almost £14 billion. 

This includes arms companies here in the UK that supply Israel – despite Norway recognising the state of Palestine as recently as May 2024 and excluding companies from the GPFG involved in activities violating international law.

So why is Norwegian money finding its way into Britain’s arms industry, which supplies Israel? 

Arming Israel

Among these investments is QinetiQ in which the GPFG holds over £46 million in shares. 

The British defence tech firm has collaborated with the Israeli military to develop the Watchkeeper drone system, a joint project with Israel’s Elbit Systems, a company dropped from the fund in 2009 for supplying surveillance systems for the separation barrier in the West Bank. 

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Article continues at https://www.declassifieduk.org/why-is-an-ethical-investor-funding-arms-companies

Continue ReadingWhy is an ‘ethical’ investor funding arms companies?

‘No One Voted for This’: #TeslaTakedown Actions Pick Up Steam

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Original article by Eloise Goldsmith republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

People participate in a “TeslaTakedown” protest against Elon Musk outside of a Tesla dealership in Irvine, California, March 1, 2025. (Photo: Frederic J. Brown / AFP)

“We need an alternative to watching things unravel from our couches,” said one of the organizers behind the protests.

Protests at Tesla showrooms and dealerships that are united by the slogan #TakedownTesla are picking up steam—with over 65 actions planned around the country and in Europe through the end of this week, and dozens scheduled for Saturday alone.

Tesla, billionaire Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company, has become a site of resistance in the growing movement against the GOP megadonor’s central role in the second Trump administration.

Since Trump’s inauguration, Musk and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency have helped oversee punishing cuts to the federal workforce, infiltrated government agencies, and gained access to computer systems with sensitive personal information.

Because Musk is unelected, the protest movement urges people to make their voices heard as consumers—by selling their vehicles, getting rid of their stock in Tesla, and showing up to protest.

Already, protests have taken place in Devon, Pennsylvania; Berkley, California; Tucson, Arizona; Washington, D.C., and elsewhere. Signs at protests include messages likes “Musk is the Fraud” and “Tesla Funds Fascists,” in part a reference to Musk’s apparent Nazi salute during a post-inauguration celebration.

“No One Voted for This,” assert the organizing materials provided on the #TeslaTakedown website.

Actor and director Alex Winter, one of the core organizers behind the protests and the creator of the movement’s website, said that #TakedownTesla started on Bluesky between friends and activists and grew, according to Business Insider. It grew after Winter created the website to help centralize the effort.

“There have now been protests outside of Tesla locations in over 100 cities, and the movement is picking up speed and going global,” wrote Winter in a piece for Rolling Stone that was published on February 21.

“We need an alternative to watching things unravel from our couches, that inspires hope and shows that we still have the capacity to oppose those who want to tear the fabric of our society apart and extract their own benefit from the wreckage,” he continued.

Tesla’s stock experienced a bump after Trump’s election, but the company’s share price has plummeted more than 40% from it’s post-election peak in December, wiping out those gains. The tumbling of its stock meant that February was Tesla’s second-worst month on record, only eclipsed by the 37% loss the stock experienced in December 2022, according to Yahoo Finance.

In Europe, where Musk has promoted far-right political parties, Tesla sales have slumped.

On Monday, one observer shared a visual of Tesla’s stock declining and wrote “Turns out pissing off a good deal of the global population isn’t good for business,” along with #TeslaTakedown.

Original article by Eloise Goldsmith republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Continue Reading‘No One Voted for This’: #TeslaTakedown Actions Pick Up Steam

Fury at Reeves’s war on the poor

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/fury-at-reevess-war-on-the-poor

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves attending the Make UK Conference at the QEII Centre in London, March 4, 2025

UNIONS, MPs and campaigners reacted with fury after the Treasury backed plans to slash billions from welfare spending in an “outrageous attack” on the poorest.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves was today urged to tax the rich instead after government sources said the cuts were necessary as the “world has changed” since her autumn budget.

The furore was sparked after an early draft of Budget watchdog the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) forecast was leaked to the BBC.

It suggests that the £9.9 billion of headroom it said she had against her self-imposed fiscal rules in October have been wiped out by lower expected economic growth and higher government borrowing costs.

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Prime Sir Keir Starmer last week announced a £6bn a year rise to military spending, to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2027.

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National secretary of the People’s Assembly Ben Sellers said that Sir Keir Starmer and Ms Reeves are not interested in the alternatives to targeting the disabled and most vulnerable as they “are wedded to a pernicious and militaristic neoliberalism which is failing all over the world.”

And a Momentum spokeswoman said: “The Labour government’s decision to prioritise military spending whilst cutting welfare budgets will bring further austerity to Britain.”

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn MP accused Labour of “a total betrayal of what voters were told at the election.”

Original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/fury-at-reevess-war-on-the-poor

Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves wear the uniform of the rich and powerful. They have all had clothes bought for them by multi-millionaire Labour donor Lord Alli. CORRECTION: It appears that Rachel Reeves clothing was provided by Juliet Rosenfeld.
Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves wear the uniform of the rich and powerful. They have all had clothes bought for them by multi-millionaire Labour donor Lord Alli. CORRECTION: It appears that Rachel Reeves clothing was provided by Juliet Rosenfeld.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.

Continue ReadingFury at Reeves’s war on the poor

No kant do: Eurovision bars Malta’s entry over title’s similarity to C-word

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https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/mar/05/kant-malta-eurovision-entry-censored-title-similarity-c-word

Miriana Conte said she had been notified that the European Broadcasting Union had ruled against the word ‘kant’. Photograph: Eurovision 2025/Youtube

Singer Miriana Conte told to change title and lyrics owing to suggestive play on Maltese word for ‘singing’

Malta’s contestant at this year’s Eurovision contest will have to change the title and lyrics of her song owing to the phonetic resemblance between the Maltese word for “singing” and the C-word, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has ruled.

Miriana Conte, 23, will represent Malta at the five-day music event in Basel, Switzerland, on 13 to 17 May after winning the Maltese song contest last month with her song Kant.

While kant, from the Latin cantus, does mean “singing” and does not have a rude meaning in Maltese, the play on the English slang word for female genitalia is clearly intentional.

The chorus of Conte’s empowerment anthem contains the phrase “serving kant” – a queer or drag slang phrase roughly meaning “to express boldness”.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Conte said she had been notified that the EBU had ruled against her using the word “kant”.“While I’m shocked and disappointed, especially since we have less than a week to submit the song, I promise you this: the show will go on – Diva NOT down,” she wrote.

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https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/mar/05/kant-malta-eurovision-entry-censored-title-similarity-c-word

Keir Starmer justifies why he has to travel abroad so much
Keir Starmer justifies why he has to travel abroad so much
Continue ReadingNo kant do: Eurovision bars Malta’s entry over title’s similarity to C-word