A file photo of the Admiral Grigorovich, which reportedly fired warning shots at a yacht in the Channel. Photograph: MoD Crown Copyright/PA
Ministry of Defence investigates after shots apparently fired within 500 metres of vessel near Isle of Wight
The Ministry of Defence is investigating reports that a Russian frigate, the Admiral Grigorovich, fired warning shots within 500 metres of a British yacht sailing a little over 20 miles south of the Isle of Wight.
No injuries or damage have been reported by the yacht, which is continuing its journey. A boat from HMS Tyne has visited the yacht to gather details and check the crew are safe.
The incident comes a few days after the UK seized a Russia-linked oil tanker off the coast of the Isle of Wight, the first time British forces have led the seizure of a sanctioned vessel since the start of the war against Ukraine.
THE Court of Appeal decision to uphold the government’s absurd ban on Palestine Action as a “terrorist” group shows the need for a political revolt against the decree.
The definition of terrorism is being stretched to include any criminal damage to property done with a political motive, as we saw with Friday’s sentencing of the Filton Four. There, Mr Justice Johnson cited defendants’ aim to “influence the government” as evidence in favour of treating their attack on an arms factory belonging to Israeli firm Elbit Systems as a terrorist act.
The Court of Appeal is similarly sweeping. “The whole premise of Palestine Action is to cause damage to property,” it charges, before adding: “At no stage has Palestine Action suggested that its terrorist activities were either a mistake or an aberration.” “Damage to property” has by sleight of hand become “terrorist activities.”
Judges’ reference to the Suffragettes, in order to contrast their direct action to Palestine Action’s so-called terrorism, is again misleading; they state that the latter has “caused injury as well as property damage” (so did some Suffragette activities) and that its use of “secret cells to avoid … detection and prosecution” adds to the case for it being terrorist.
Elbit’s production of weapons used in a genocide against the Palestinians is described as “lawful business” despite the cases against Israel and Israeli leaders at the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court. And speculation about future activities is given as much weight as anything that has actually been done (“The future threats and risks posed to third party individuals and property by Palestine Action are perhaps the most important factors … the home secretary is in the best position to assess those future threats and risks”).
All this simply shows that the courts are not a defence against authoritarian government.
Denying that the ban has had a chilling effect on freedom of protest, when police have arrested thousands of people for sitting down in public holding placards, is ludicrous; so is trusting ministers to tell the truth about groups they want to ban (the home secretary who pushed the ban through, Yvette Cooper, prepared the ground with baseless smears that Palestine Action might be funded by Iran).
Evidence-free froth about links to foreign states is doubly dangerous: it provides an excuse to suppress dissenting voices at home and raises international tensions when the risk of world war is again real, thanks in no small degree to the belligerence of our own government and its trigger-happy allies.
If the government cannot be turned from its repressive path judicially then this needs to happen politically. Even if Palestine Action can appeal to the Supreme Court, that won’t stop plans to give police powers to ban marches based on their “cumulative impact” or the prosecutions of peace movement leaders like Ben Jamal and Chris Nineham. We need a mass movement that forces ministers to back down.
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.Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Judges’ references to the Suffragettes are ridiculous. Are they suggesting that the Suffragettes didn’t plot secretly to kidnap cabinet ministers and subject them to forced feeding? Is it suggested that they published all their plans and intentions publicly so that here was no element of surprise? Are they saying that Suffragette bombers and arsonists campaigning for suffrage were not terrorists while Palestine Action opposing genocide are?
I consider that a horse crop whip only stings very briefly by the way, there is the crack of a whip but hardly painful and extremely short-lived, doesn’t leave any marks.
Judge Johnson had proved his fascist credentials through rulings much earlier in the Filton trial than his vicious sentencing. Indeed, he had arguably already shown them when he released Tommy Robinson from a prison sentence, or when as a barrister he had chosen to work for the intelligence services and Ministry of Defence.
But in his incredibly vicious sentencing, Johnson did something quite extraordinary. It was not just that he added a “terrorist connection” to the sentencing – a possibility deliberately kept secret from the jury. But in sentencing he recounted the prosecution version of events in its entirety to justify his sentences, including explicitly setting out all the details of alleged violent disorder of which the defendants had been acquitted.
Here’s injustice Jeremy Johnson handing down the sentences at today’s disgusting stitched up Palestine Action trial.
Any faith I ever had in the fairness of the British justice system is completely is dead. pic.twitter.com/3c86cjplOz
In short Johnson used the “terrorist connection” to ignore the ruling of the jury and sentence them as though they had in fact been found guilty of all the things that Johnson had systematically rigged the trial to try to get them found guilty of – and failed.
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We should remember that three of the four defendants were convicted of nothing except for criminal damage. They were found not guilty of aggravated burglary and of violent disorder. For a first offence of criminal damage, an absolute maximum of about three years imprisonment might be given in the most extreme circumstances. That would result in spending one year and two months in jail before release on parole – less time than the activists have already spent in prison on remand.
But the six-year sentences given by Johnson … – having a terrorist connection – are not eligible for parole. The activists will serve the full six years in jail: that is five times the length of sentence that might normally be expected in this case.
And all to ensure that there is no interruption to Israel’s ability to commit Genocide or Starmer’s complicity in it.
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.
A man is arrested during a protest in support of Palestine Action. Photograph: Guy Smallman/Getty Images
Judges overturn decision of high court that government proscription of group under Terrorism Act was wrong
The high court was wrong to rule that the ban on Palestine Action under anti-terrorism laws was unlawful, the court of appeal has concluded.
A five-strong panel, including the two most senior judges in England and Wales, overturned February’s decision of the lower court that the proscription of the direct action group, the first to be banned under the Terrorism Act, was wrong.
The court of appeal’s decision will come as a relief to the government whose ban attracted widespread condemnation as well as a civil disobedience campaign defying proscription, during which more than 3,000 people have been arrested.
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.
Scientists say a crucial Atlantic system is more likely to collapse than previously thought. But the billionaire death cult that steers humanity’s destiny doesn’t do existential crises
The poor and middle pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the very rich pay lawyers – and the ultra-rich pay politicians. It’s not an original remark, but it bears repeating until everyone has heard it. The more money billionaires accumulate, the greater their control of the political system – which means they pay less tax, which means they accumulate more, which means their control intensifies.
They reshape the world to suit their demands. One of the symptoms of the pathology known as “billionaire brain” is an inability to see beyond their own short-term gain. They would sack the planet for a few more stones on the pointless mountain of wealth. And we can see it happening. Last week delivered the biggest news of the year so far, perhaps the biggest news of the century. But partly because billionaires own most of the media, most people never heard it. We might find ourselves committed to a civilisation-ending event before we even learn that such a thing is possible.
The news is that the state of a crucial oceanic circulation system has been reassessed by scientists. Some now believe that, as a result of climate breakdown changing the temperature and salinity of seawater, it is more likely than not to collapse. This system – known as the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (Amoc) – delivers heat from the tropics to the North Atlantic. Recent research suggests that if it shuts down, it could cause both a massive drop in average winter temperatures in northern Europe and drastic changes in the Amazon’s water cycles. This could help tip the rainforest into cascading collapse and trigger further disaster.
Amoc’s shutdown is likely also to cause an acceleration of sea level rise on the east coast of the US, threatening cities. It could also raise Antarctic temperatures by roughly 6C and release a vast pulse of carbon currently stored in the Southern Ocean, accelerating climate catastrophe.
Even when the countervailing effects of generalised global heating are taken into account, a further paper proposes, the net impact in northern Europe would be periods of extreme cold – including events in which temperatures in London fall to -19C, in Edinburgh to -30C and in Oslo to -48C. Sea ice in February would extend as far as Lincolnshire. Our climate would change drastically, with the likelihood of far greater extremes, such as massive winter storms. Rain-fed arable agriculture would become impossible almost everywhere in the UK.
Penny Holliday, Femke de Jong and Sjoerd Groeskamp
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Several Amoc monitoring initiatives are at a risk of being defunded and could be discontinued at any moment. While we can’t go back in time to do more observations, we can improve our observation strategy for the future.
Instead, the Trump administration has proposed budget cuts to Nasa, NOAA and NSF – agencies that together provide about 50% of the total Amoc monitoring budget. Last week the US announced the descoping of the Ocean Observing Initiative which was part of a programme observing the Amoc.
The recently launched European OceanEye initiative has allocated €50m for ocean observations and is a great incentive to continue Amoc observations. However, before OceanEye is up and running, the research vessels that service the present-day observing systems will already have to be financed, planned and packed.
In short: monitoring, understanding and forecasting the Amoc is at risk. Without sustained Amoc observations, we cannot know what lies ahead. An Amoc collapse may be imminent, a century away, or, if we act boldly to limit climate change, it might be averted altogether.
For too long, understanding and monitoring the Amoc was viewed as an academic pursuit. Instead, it should now be treated as what it truly is: an urgent, global priority. There is an acute and essential need to construct an alternative international funding strategy to secure long-term Amoc monitoring that realises a robust, continuous and open-access Amoc monitoring program to provide the knowledge to build a safer and more resilient world.
The cost of all Amoc monitoring adds up to about €25m a year. Meaning that for five cents per person per year, the EU can maintain one of the world’s most important climate monitoring systems that impacts our everyday lives and improves resilience to the climate crisis.
We therefore urge the EU, the UK and other international partners to step up, make haste, get organised and collaborate to assure long-term continuation of Amoc monitoring before it is lost.
Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.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.Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
