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Author: dizzy

  • Liverpool council approves ‘timebomb’ with ‘3-mile blast radius’ for site among 30,000 people

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    https://skwawkbox.org/2024/01/09/liverpool-council-approves-timebomb-with-3-mile-blast-radius-for-site-among-30000-people/

    Campaigner Gary Woollam and Garston independent councillor Sam Gorst after the council’s decision

    Dirty tactics and diverted emails as council ramrods through permission for Veolia to process Flixborough-disaster waste chemical in vast quantities – with no benefit to locals

    On Monday afternoon, Liverpool City Council’s planning committee approved plans for corporate giant Veolia to vastly increase its processing of a hugely explosive waste chemical, Cyclohexanone, in the middle of a residential area of some 30,000 people.

    Cyclohexanone was the chemical involved in the 1974 Flixborough disaster in Lincolnshire, when a failure at an ICI plant processing some 47,000 tonnes of the chemical a year caused an explosion that killed 28 workers, severely wounded dozens of others and damaged buildings more than three miles away.

    The new Veolia applications would see an additional 56,000 tonnes a year – broken down into two separate applications of 28,000 tonnes each, on top of a current capacity of around 56,000 (according to Private Eye). Government rules mean stricter vetting for applications of 30,000 tonnes a year. The company wants to take the waste chemical from Intel production facilities in Ireland.

    During the meeting – described by veterans of Liverpool planning meetings as unprecedented in the number of councillors and officers in attendance – campaigners told the planning committee of the great risks and that one of the key recommendations of the inquiry into Flixborough was that Cyclohexane waste should never be processed close to residential areas. The council had already approved the processing of around 28,000 tonnes at the site – yet according to campaigners not a single document relating to safety issues has been filed by Veolia in its new or 2021 applications.

    …

    Local independent councillors and residents accused the council of a complete failure to properly consult with local residents and health professionals. The area’s largest health centre has joined locals in objecting to the new development.

    When campaigners asked for independent experts to assess the hazards, they were told that ‘we have to trust the [council] officers, they’re independent’. Last month, council officers were exposed diverting emails from campaigners away from their intended recipients – and Cllr Gorst has said that many emails to him and his independent colleague Cllr Lucy Williams had also been diverted:

    …

    Continue reading the article at https://skwawkbox.org/2024/01/09/liverpool-council-approves-timebomb-with-3-mile-blast-radius-for-site-among-30000-people/

  • Israel Threatens to Bar Gazans From Returning to Their Homes in the North

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

    Residents and emergency workers carry out a search and rescue operation around the rubble of the building destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on January 8, 2024.  (Photo: Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images)

    “To explicitly describe forced displacement as a tactic of war two days before a major international trial on your war strategy begins is… an interesting choice.”

    Israeli officials reportedly plan to tell U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday that Palestinians displaced from their homes in northern Gaza will not be allowed to return unless Hamas agrees to free additional hostages.

    Denying a displaced population the right to return home is a violation of international humanitarian law, as many observers noted in response to Axios reporting on the Israeli threat. Around 130 hostages are still being held in Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.

    “Israel is basically telling their weapon supplier that they’re going to use those weapons for ethnic cleansing—a war crime and an aspect of genocide,” wrote Mohammad Alsaafin, a senior producer at AJ+. “Under both U.S. and [international] law, the U.S. would be required to stop facilitating this. Biden’s choice is Israel or the rule of law.”

    Unnamed senior Israeli officials told Axios on Monday that “while Israel doesn’t in principle oppose allowing Palestinians to return to northern Gaza, officials will tell Blinken such a move needs to be part of a new hostage deal.” One official was explicit: “We are not going to allow Palestinians to go back to their homes in northern Gaza if there is no progress with the release of hostages.”

    The Axios story was published hours before Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv to meet with Israeli leaders as the deadly assault on Gaza entered its fourth month.

    The U.S. has backed Israel’s latest war on the Gaza Strip from the start, supplying the country with more than 10,000 tons of military equipment and obstructing cease-fire efforts on the world stage.

    U.S. law prohibits weapons transfers to countries that are “more likely than not” to use them to commit war crimes, but the Biden administration has refused to formally assess whether Israel is complying with international law and dismissed calls to apply conditions to its military assistance.

    Last week, the U.S. State Department rebuked two high-ranking Israeli ministers for demanding the permanent expulsion of Gazans from the Palestinian enclave, much of which has been destroyed by Israel’s relentless bombing campaign. The U.S. insisted the ministers’ comments were not representative of the Israeli government’s position—a claim that Axios‘ reporting calls into further question.

    “To explicitly describe forced displacement as a tactic of war two days before a major international trial on your war strategy begins is… an interesting choice,” HuffPost senior diplomatic correspondent Akbar Shahid Ahmed wrote on social media late Monday, referring to the International Court of Justice’s upcoming hearings on South Africa’s genocide case against Israel.

    Around 90% of Gaza’s population has been displaced by Israel’s assault, which has destroyed more than two-thirds of all structures in the northern part of the strip. In recent weeks, Israeli evacuation orders have pushed increasingly desperate, starving Gazans into an ever-smaller segment of the enclave.

    Israel said Monday that it is now focusing its military campaign on central and southern Gaza.

    “The fighting will continue throughout 2024,” said Daniel Hagari, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces.

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

  • Supreme Court Rejects Bid by API, Exxon, and Koch to Kill Climate Case

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

    An oil and petroleum refinery is shown in St. Paul Park, Minnesota. (Photo: jferrer/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

    “Big Oil companies will continue fighting to escape justice, but for the third time in a year, the U.S. Supreme Court has denied their desperate pleas,” said one campaigner.

    For the third time in less than a year, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday allowed a key case against the fossil fuel industry to proceed in state court, delivering a win for the movement to make polluters pay for driving the climate emergency.

    “This decision is another step forward for Minnesota’s efforts to hold fossil fuel giants accountable for their climate lies and the harm they’ve caused,” said Center for Climate Integrity president Richard Wiles, pointing to the previous denials of other cases last April and May.

    “Big Oil companies will continue fighting to escape justice, but for the third time in a year, the U.S. Supreme Court has denied their desperate pleas to overturn the unanimous rulings of every single court to consider this issue,” he continued.

    “It’s time for these polluters to give up their failed arguments to escape state courts.”

    As legal leaders of dozens of U.S. states and municipalities have launched climate lawsuits in recent years, the fossil fuel industry has attempted to evade accountability by shifting the cases to federal court—a strategy that’s proven unsuccessful.

    Wiles argued that “after three strikes, it’s time for these polluters to give up their failed arguments to escape state courts and prepare to face the evidence of their climate deception at trial.”

    The U.S. Supreme Court’s Monday decision came in a case filed in 2020 by Democratic Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison against ExxonMobil, Koch Industries, and the American Petroleum Institute (API), based on the state’s consumer protection laws.

    “The fraud, deceptive advertising, and other violations of Minnesota state law and common law that the lawsuit shows they perpetrated have harmed Minnesotans’ health and our state’s environment, infrastructure, and economy,” Ellison said at the time.

    The justices declined Big Oil’s request to review the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ March decision that the case belongs in state court. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, an appointee of former GOP President Donald Trump, would have taken the case, in line with his position last year.

    https://twitter.com/mjs_DC/status/1744367314848329902?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1744367314848329902%7Ctwgr%5Ebd59e8fdf397707f19f31bca3942ccd4439fceb4%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fsupreme-court-minnesota

    “I appreciate the court’s consideration and decision,” Ellison said in a statement Monday. “It aligns with 25 federal court decisions across the country, all of which have found that cases like ours rest on these defendants’ failures to warn and their campaigns of deception around their products’ contributions to the climate crisis. The court’s decision confirms these cases are properly filed in state courts.”

    “Taken together, the defendants’ behavior has delayed the transition to alternative energy sources and a lower-carbon economy, resulting in dire impacts on Minnesota’s environment and enormous costs to Minnesotans and the world,” he stressed. “Now, the case can move forward in state court, where it was properly filed, and we can begin to hold these companies accountable for their wrongful conduct.”

    Cassidy DiPaola, communications director for Fossil Free Media and the Make Polluters Pay campaign, declared Monday that “today’s decision is an important step forward for accountability and justice.”

    “The Supreme Court has now laid out an unmistakable path forward,” she added, “for not only Minnesota’s consumer protection case against ExxonMobil, Koch Industries, and API, but the dozens of cases against the fossil fuel industry popping up across the county.”

    This post has been updated with comment from Keith Ellison.

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

  • A million undecided voters believe Brexit has failed and want Labour to pursue closer ties to the EU

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    https://leftfootforward.org/2024/01/a-million-undecided-voters-believe-brexit-has-failed-and-want-labour-to-pursue-closer-ties-to-the-eu/

    In all but one constituency in the UK, more voters said they wanted Keir Starmer to seek a closer UK-EU relationship

    Party positions on Brexit could play a major role in winning over a million undecided voters at the next general election, a new poll has found.

    The poll, carried out for campaign group Best for Britain, found that a million undecided voters could be persuaded to vote Labour, if it pledges to pursue closer ties with the European Union.

    The poll findings come at a time when public regret at Brexit is at an all-time high. The latest poll by Best for Britain found that in all but one constituency in the UK, more voters said they wanted Keir Starmer to seek a closer UK-EU relationship, with undecided voters – who will be crucial in the general election – even more critical of Brexit.

    …

    https://leftfootforward.org/2024/01/a-million-undecided-voters-believe-brexit-has-failed-and-want-labour-to-pursue-closer-ties-to-the-eu/

  • Sadiq Khan praised for rolling out free school meals for all primary pupils in London for another year

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    https://leftfootforward.org/2024/01/sadiq-khan-praised-for-rolling-out-free-school-meals-for-all-primary-pupils-in-london-for-another-year/

    The move will save families up to £1,000 per child over the two-year period, according to analysis by City Hall.

    The Mayor of London is being praised for rolling out free school meals for another year for primary school pupils across the city, as families grapple with the cost of living crisis with millions more pushed into poverty under Tory austerity and soaring bills.

    Sadiq Khan put forward plans worth £140 million to extend universal provision of hot meals for the 2024/25 school year, after piloting the approach in state-funded primaries across the Capital from September.

    The move will save families up to £1,000 per child over the two-year period, according to analysis by City Hall.

    The Mayor of London said that he was ‘thrilled to extend this lifeline for another year’.

    Research from the Child Poverty Action Group, shows that nationally, around 800,000 children who are living in poverty are currently missing out on free school meals, due to restrictions on eligibility.

    Khan’s scheme provides lunches for every other London pupil not already covered under government funding.

    …

    https://leftfootforward.org/2024/01/sadiq-khan-praised-for-rolling-out-free-school-meals-for-all-primary-pupils-in-london-for-another-year/