… on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

Author: dizzy

  • Head of UK’s leading anti-monarchy group arrested at coronation protest

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    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/may/06/head-of-uks-leading-anti-monarchy-group-arrested-at-coronation-protest

    The head of the UK’s leading republican movement and five other organisers of an anti-monarchist protest at the coronation have been arrested on King Charles III’s procession route.

    Graham Smith, the chief executive of Republic, had been collecting drinks and placards for demonstrators at the main site of the protest on Trafalgar Square when he was detained by police on the Strand in central London.

    The group had been walking behind a rental van full of hundreds of placards when they were stopped by police. The Met police had tweeted earlier this week that they would have a “low tolerance” of those seeking to “undermine” the day.

    Harry Stratton, a director at Republic, who arrived as Smith and the others were detained, said: “They were collecting the placards and bringing them over when the police stopped them.

    “The guys asked why and they were told: we will tell you that once we have searched the vehicle. That’s when they arrested the six organisers. We asked on what grounds they had been arrested but they wouldn’t say. It is a surprise as we had had a number of meetings with the police. They had been making all the right noises.”

    The arrest, at about 7.30am, came as hundreds of anti-monarchist protesters had gathered at Trafalgar square with large flags and wearing yellow T-shirts as they looked to catch both the eye of the world’s media and a king on his coronation day.

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    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/may/06/head-of-uks-leading-anti-monarchy-group-arrested-at-coronation-protest

    dizzy: I have been concerned at the recent attacks on the right to protest by the UK government. These excessive powers need to be defeated so that the right to protest is respected.

  • Ultra-rich private jet travel has soared since the pandemic – and emissions followed

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    https://www.energymonitor.ai/policy/ultra-rich-private-jet-travel-has-soared-since-the-pandemic-and-emissions-followed/

    The private jet sector has boomed since the start of the pandemic, reveals a report from the progressive think tank Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and nonpartisan organisation Patriotic Millionaires. While there was a drop in private flights in 2020, the sector picked up quickly again and saw an unprecedented number of 5.3 million business jet operations in 2022.

    Compared to 2019, the number of flights globally and in the US increased by around a fifth last year. A 2022 study found that because of the increased flights, private jet emissions have increased by 23%. In the last two decades, the global private jet fleet size increased 133% – from 9,895 in 2000 to 23,122 in mid-2022.

    Private jet travel is reserved for the few. The typical private jet owner has a net worth of $190m, according to the report. Since private jets emit at least ten times more than commercial planes per passenger, these ultra-rich private flyers are causing a disproportionate amount of emissions.

    Awareness about the environmental costs of private jets has been increasing, putting frequent flyers under scrutiny. Celebrity Kylie Jenner made headlines last summer when she used her private jet for a short hop of just 17 minutes, a trip that would have taken less than an hour by car. A Twitter account tracking private jet flights of celebrities – since suspended, together with a similar account tracking Elon Musk’s flights – showed that this trip was far from unusual for the rich and famous.

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    https://www.energymonitor.ai/policy/ultra-rich-private-jet-travel-has-soared-since-the-pandemic-and-emissions-followed/

  • The impact of the filthy rich and their private jets

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    Vid also exposes rich Davosians and the Murdoch family as climate destroying high users of private jets.

    My ticket to the London event seems to be delayed in the post ;)

  • Extinction Rebellion calls out HSBC’s Greenwash at AGM in Birmingham

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    At 10:30am this morning, around fifty protesters descended on HSBC’s annual general meeting at the Eastside Rooms in Birmingham to call out the bank’s shameful climate policies. It comes as the bank announces soaring quarterly profits of $12.9 billion.

    Members of Extinction Rebellion Midlands and Money Rebellion arrived with a bath of greenwash, while a group of ‘dirty scrubbers’ dressed in pinafores and headscarves offered to clean up the bank’s soiled image in return for cash. 

    Inside the conference centre protesters brought the AGM to a standstill as they unfurled banners, sang songs, the dirty scrubbers reappeared with dramatic skits, and people repeatedly called out HSBC’s broken promises over its climate pledges, accusing them of ‘climate genocide’ and ‘lies’. Security eventually removed protesters after 45 minutes of disruption. 

    HSBC has invested $145bn in fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement in 2016 and the bank’s climate pledges have been tarnished by a series of damaging exposes. 

    In December, HSBC made a surprise announcement that it was updating its energy policy and would stop new investment in oil and gas fields in an apparent change of policy. However, it’s climate pledges to date have been revealed as mere greenwash. in January, it was revealed that HSBC had given energy giant RWE a secret $340m loan as bulldozed a village to expand a coal mine in Germany, just three months after the bank had pledged to stop financing new coal. Last October, investigators showed that HSBC’s $1 trillion investment in ‘sustainable financing’ and ‘green bonds’ was being used by fossil fuel companies to bankroll mines, pipelines, and oil rigs.[4] 

    Questions have also been raised about the bank’s pledge to stop direct funding of fossil fuel projects, while continuing to indirectly fund fossil fuel companies like Saudi Aramco, ExxonMobil and Shell. The bank is also financially supporting ConocoPhillips, the company behind the controversial Alaskan oil drilling Willow project. Despite its various pledges HSBC invested a total of $11.074b in fossil fuels last year.

    Andrew Taylor from Money Rebellion said: “HSBC continues to fund new devastating coal,oil and gas projects. These projects destroy the health and livelihoods of communities who live near them, and are fuelling climate chaos. We will use every tool in the box to stop HSBC and other banks from pursuing this deadly business plan – from disrupting their AGMs to building the biggest bank boycott in history.”

  • Government blocks attempts to prevent foreign influence in elections

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    https://leftfootforward.org/2023/05/government-blocks-attempts-to-prevent-foreign-influence-in-elections/

    MPs have voted down attempts to prevent foreign influence in UK elections yesterday [Wednesday], in a move which has drawn strong criticism from political transparency campaigners.

    The House of Commons yesterday voted against tightening the rules on foreign interference in elections after the government whipped its MPs to oppose an amendment to the National Security Bill proposed by the House of Lords.

    253 MPs voted to oppose the amendment, all of whom were either Tories or independent MPs who were elected as Tories. 134 MPs backed the Lords’ proposals – with Labour, the Liberal Democrats, the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Greens all voting in support. Just one Tory – Julian Lewis – voted to tighten foreign interference in elections.

    …

    https://leftfootforward.org/2023/05/government-blocks-attempts-to-prevent-foreign-influence-in-elections/