A windfarm off the Cumbrian coast. The crown estate commands hefty option fees from developers to secure areas of the seabed to build windfarms. Photograph: Rob Arnold/Alamy
Environmental group accuses king’s property management company of ‘milking for profit’ its monopoly ownership of seabed
Greenpeace is threatening to sue King Charles’s property management company, accusing it of exploiting its monopoly ownership of the seabed.
The environmental lobby group alleges the crown estate has driven up costs for wind power developers and boosted its own profits, as well as the royal household’s income, due to the “aggressive” way it auctions seabed rights.
The crown estate, as the legal owner of the seabed around England, Wales and Northern Ireland, is responsible for auctioning offshore wind rights. It has benefited from the huge growth in the industry, commanding hefty option fees from renewable energy developers to secure areas of the seabed to build their windfarms.
Will McCallum, co-executive director at Greenpeace UK, said the estate should be “managing the seabed in the interest of the nation and the common good, not as an asset to be milked for profit and outrageous bonuses”.
“We should leave no stone unturned in looking for solutions to lower energy bills that are causing misery to millions of households,” he said.
Nicholas Stern, pictured, led a review that concluded climate action would cost less than the damage caused by inaction. Photograph: David Levenson/Getty Images
Lord Stern says fossil-fuelled growth is futile as the damage it causes ends in economic self-destruction
Investment in climate action is the economic growth story of the 21st century, while growth fuelled by fossil fuels is futile because the damage it causes ends in self-destruction, the economist Nicholas Stern has said.
The plummeting costs of clean technologies, from renewable energy to electric cars, plus the healthier and more productive societies they enable, meant investments could simultaneously tackle the climate crisis and faltering economic growth, and bring millions of people out of poverty, he said.
This requires big changes in policies and levels of investment and Stern, at the London School of Economics, acknowledged that the geopolitical environment was currently difficult but he said making the rational argument was vital. The US president, Donald Trump, recently called climate change a “con job” and is backing fossil fuel companies to “drill, baby, drill”.
“I’d say to Trump: ‘You’ve got children and grandchildren – think about the science, think about the risks,’ and I’d give examples about the wildfires in California,” said Stern. “I’d point out to him that his place in Florida is going to be extremely vulnerable to more intense hurricanes, sea level rise and storm surges. The people and places he loves are under severe risk.
Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.Orcas comment on killer apes destroying the planet by continuing to burn fossil fuels.Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Flood waters surrounding houses in Wraysbury, Berkshire in January 2024. Greater London and Yorkshire and the Humber are two regions at particular risk in the coming years. Photograph: Daniel Leal/AFP/Getty Images
Every constituency projected to be at greater risk, with many areas likely to be uninsurable, Guardian investigation finds
Millions more homes in England, Scotland and Wales face devastating floods, and some towns may have to be abandoned as climate breakdown makes many areas uninsurable, a Guardian investigation has found.
New analysis from the insurance industry, seen by the Guardian, reveals the extent of concern in the sector, with bosses warning that large swathes of housing and commercial property in densely populated areas will be at greater risk.
Separately, experts have said that some towns may need to be abandoned as homes and businesses struggle to get insurance in areas repeatedly battered by storms and rising sea levels.
Densely populated areas including London, Manchester and parts of north-east England, are likely to be worst hit. Experts also say London’s flood defences need to be updated urgently to protect the capital from devastating floods.
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Orcas comment on killer apes destroying the planet by continuing to burn fossil fuels.Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Demonstrators in Chicago on October 8 (Photo: Saja Bilasan)
“The oath we took as soldiers absolutely comes with an asterisk, and this is it,”: Veteran activists in Portland urge National Guard Troops to defy Trump’s orders
A US federal judge issued a temporary restraining order on October 9, blocking the Trump administration’s deployment of hundreds of National Guard troops to Chicago. Hundreds were already stationed in the midwestern city at the time of this ruling. This comes days after a separate judge blocked the deployment of the National Guard to Portland, Oregon.
Currently, there are around 500 National Guard troops in the greater Chicago area, 2,400 in Washington, DC, and 100 still in Los Angeles down from a peak of 4,700 in June.
With the support of the Governor of Tennessee, the state’s National Guard troops are set to begin patrolling the city of Memphis. Unlike Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, Tennessee’s Republican governor Bill Lee is supportive of Trump’s federal takeover efforts and therefore is sending troops from his own state to Memphis – thus eliminating the legal obstacles Trump has faced in other states.
Chicago’s Mayor Brandon Johnson called the judge’s order a “win for the people of Chicago and the rule of law.” The previous day, Trump called for the jailing of both Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker for “failing to protect Ice Officers”. But Johnson asserted that, as protests against violent ICE raids continue in Chicago, that there is “no rebellion,” there are “just good people standing up for what is right.”
Federal troops blocked in Portland
Trump announced the deployment of federal troops to Portland on September 27, characterizing the West Coast city as “war ravaged” and claiming that ICE facilities were under attack by “Antifa, and other domestic terrorists.”
According to federal judge Karin Immergut, who was appointed by Trump during his first term, there is “substantial evidence that the protests at the Portland ICE facility were not significantly violent or disruptive in the days – or even weeks – leading up to the President’s directive ordering the deployment of troops to Oregon.”
Top Trump adviser Stephen Miller described Immergut’s ruling as a “legal insurrection.”
On September 22, Trump announced that he was declaring “Antifa” a domestic terrorist organization, despite the fact that Antifa is a decentralized movement with no central organization attached.
Amid attempts by the Trump administration to militarize the city, Portland residents have continued to protest. Demonstrations continued against ICE, including a march to the ICE facility in Portland in the early afternoon of Saturday, October 4 – which was attacked by federal agents deploying tear gas, smoke canisters, and pepper balls at protesters. Protesters outside the ICE facility also experienced similar brutal crowd control tactics by federal agents once again that evening – including tear gas, flash-bang grenades, and pepper balls – despite no clear provocation by demonstrators.
Portland veterans urge National Guard members to disobey
On October 6, dozens of veterans, some with anti-war veteran group About Face, held a press conference, with some speakers and signage urging National Guard members to disobey Trump’s orders. Several signs read “Trump is the real enemy within,” referencing the President’s previous statements claiming that he is sending troops to so-called “Democrat-run” cities to protect from “invasion from within”. Other signs read: “Veterans say: Duty to disobey”, “No war in Portland”, and “Guard, go home.”
“Trump is signaling in very clear terms he wants to go to war in American cities,” said Portland City Councilor Mitch Green, an Army veteran who served in the US invasion of Afghanistan, at the press conference. “He said he wants to use Portland as a training ground and that soldiers should do ‘whatever they want’ to protesters. While it’s unclear what the role of the National Guard will be, these threats are as serious as anything in American history. The oath we took as soldiers absolutely comes with an asterisk, and this is it.”
Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.
Protesters take part in a demonstration outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in Whitehall, London, calling for the government to protect the crew of Madleen, June 9, 2025
Jewish campaigners condemn Starmer’s claim that demonstrations against genocide are ‘un-British’
JEWISH campaigners have condemned Sir Keir Starmer’s “insulting” claim that demonstrations against genocide were “un-British.”
The Prime Minister’s remarks, made today, came ahead of several student protests on the anniversary of October 7, and the national march for Palestine this weekend.
An inter-university march set off in the capital from King’s College at 2pm, before passing the London School of Economics, University College London and ending at the gates of SOAS.
Joining them was Mark Etkind, the son of a Holocaust survivor, who said: “As we speak today, weapons made in Britain are contributing to the deaths of children and others in Gaza — that has to stop now in order to save those lives, so these brave student protesters have to keep demonstrating until that genocide stops.”
He accused the government of having slandered the students, making them out to be insensitive to October 7, “while ignoring the obvious fact that their priority is to … oppose the ongoing conflict which Britain unfortunately is complicit in.”
Rallies also took place in Sheffield, Glasgow and Edinburgh, where the institution’s principal emailed students warning them to “think carefully about their actions” ahead of the protest.
Edinburgh’s Justice for Palestine Society called it a “blatant attempt to suppress campus discourse on an ongoing genocide.”
Writing in the Times, Sir Keir said it was “un-British to have so little respect for others,” echoing comments made by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who described Palestine protests held following Thursday’s attack on a Manchester synagogue as “fundamentally un-British.”
Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, media officer for Jewish Voice for Liberation, said: “Those who protest are in despair at our government’s abject failure to take any kind of meaningful action to make the bombing, shooting, burning and starvation stop.
“For leaders of that government to accuse protesters of ‘un-Britishness’ is both insulting and counterproductive.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.Vote Labour for Genocide.
Protesters take part in a demonstration outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in Whitehall, London, calling for the government to protect the crew of Madleen, June 9, 2025
