News
Climate Activists Block Private Jets in Netherlands
Hundreds of climate activists in the Netherlands halted private jets from leaving Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on Saturday. Protesters from Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion sat around private jets.
Greenpeace Netherlands’ Dewi Zloch stated that the activists want “fewer aircraft, more trains, and a ban on unneeded short-haul flights and private jets.”
According to military police, several demonstrators were dragged away for being on airport premises without authorization.
In response to Greenpeace’s open letter, Schiphol’s new CEO, Ruud Sondag, stated that the airport aims to be an “emissions-free airport by 2030 and net climate-neutral aviation by 2050.” And we have a responsibility to lead the way in that,” he said, admitting that it needed to happen faster.
More than 120 international leaders will attend this year’s United Nations climate talks, which begin on Sunday in the Red Sea beachfront resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Thorny issues on the agenda for the Nov. 6-18 negotiations include further reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing financial aid to impoverished countries dealing with the effects of climate change.
Egypt is facing a storm of criticism as it prepares to host the COP27 climate meeting beginning Sunday, which rights groups claim is a crackdown on protestors and activists.
After Egyptian dissidents abroad called for protests against President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on November 11, during the United Nations climate conference, rights groups accused the Egyptian authorities of arbitrarily detaining activists.
Human rights organizations claim that security officers have set up checkpoints on Cairo streets, stopping people and examining their phones for anything relevant to the scheduled protests.
According to the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF), an NGO, 93 climate activists have been imprisoned in Egypt in recent days.
According to national security prosecution investigations, several arrested allegedly sent demonstration footage using social chat applications.
Some were also accused of using social media inappropriately, distributing false information, and joining terrorist organizations, a repressive allegation regularly employed by the state establishment against climate activists.
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Friends of the Earth, and many other organizations have all spoken out in support of the arrested climate activists.
Climate protestors have flung tomato soup, scattered potatoes, and even attached themselves to iconic paintings in recent weeks.
The climate activists stated that their activities were intended to draw attention to the use of fossil fuels and the global environmental catastrophe.
Last month, two activists spilled tomato soup on Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers at London’s National Gallery.
“Which is more valuable, art or life?” the two activists posed to others in the gallery. “Is it more valuable than food?” More than just justice? “Do you care more about preserving a picture or preserving our world and people?”
Two more climate activists spread potatoes on a glass-covered painting by French painter Claude Monet inside a German gallery several weeks later.
Another protester hung his head from the glass covering of a famous painting by Johannes Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring, in Amsterdam’s The Hague.
A climate activist who stuck his head to Vermeer’s painting said, “How do you feel when you witness something beautiful and priceless supposedly being destroyed before your eyes?” in a viral video. “Where is that sensation when you watch the planet being destroyed?” he asked.
The protests were in response to a recent incident in which protestors threw paint at the Mona Lisa in the Louvre.
Climate activists also bonded themselves to a replica of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, Sandro Botticelli’s Primavera at Florence’s Uffizi Gallery, and a sculpture at the Vatican.
Alex De Koning is a spokesperson for Just Stop Oil, the organization responsible for tossing soup cans onto Van Gogh’s painting.
He stated that the organization will target paintings and artwork “unless the government makes a significant statement about the closure of new fossil fuel assets in the U.K.”
“There are still people who are far more offended about that action than the 33 million people in Pakistan who floods have uprooted,” he told Euronews.
However, University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann expressed concern that the activists’ activities would harm their cause.
According to the Associated Press, such moves will turn off those who are “natural allies in the climate war.” Some of those people, according to Mann, “will associate such behaviours with climate advocacy and activism.”
Dana Fisher is a University of Maryland social scientist. She claimed that the protestors appeared to have targeted paintings with glass covers to inflict minimal damage.
“These approaches are explicitly focused toward attracting media attention,” she told the Associated Press.
People’s attention has traditionally been drawn to attacks on artwork.
A supporter of women’s suffrage slashed The Toilet of Venus, a famous Spanish artist Diego Velazquez’s painting, in London’s National Gallery in 1914.
An Iranian artist sprayed the words “Kill Lies All” on Pablo Picasso’s anti-war masterpiece Guernica at the Museum of Modern Art in New York during the Vietnam War.
The paint was removed, and the museum official shortly after the individual vandalized the mural.
Mona Lisa, the most renowned painting of all time, has been assaulted more than any other work of art. Over the years, people have thrown rocks, chemicals, paint, and even a teacup at da Vinci’s picture.
The Louvre has subsequently placed the Mona Lisa behind bulletproof glass, keeping people at a safe distance.
Following the Girl with a Pearl Earring incident, a Dutch cultural official stated, “Everyone has the freedom to make a statement.” But, please, respect our common heritage. Climate Activists attacking vulnerable objects of art is not the proper course of action.”
Climate Activists Blame Climate Change on Heat Wave in UK
World
India, At UN, Is Mum About Dispute With Canada Over Sikh Separatist Leader’s Killing
UNITED NATIONS — As he addressed world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, India’s top diplomat avoided addressing his country’s dispute with Canada over the assassination of a Sikh separatist leader. However, he indirectly criticized how other nations respond to “terrorism.”
Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar devoted most of his speech to praising India’s rising global stature and aspirations for leadership, highlighting its recent tenure as chair of the Group of 20 industrialized nations and presiding over a substantial summit meeting last month.
However, he also stated that the international community must not “allow political expediency to determine responses to terrorism, extremism, and violence.”
India has frequently attacked Pakistan at the United Nations over what New Delhi perceives as Pakistan’s sponsorship of terrorism. This time, however, the remark could be interpreted as an attack on Canada, whose representative is scheduled to speak at the United Nations later on Tuesday.
As a result of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s statement last week that India may have been involved in the June murder of a Canadian citizen in a Vancouver suburb, relations between the two countries have reached their lowest point in years.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, was murdered by masked assailants, but Canada has not yet provided any public evidence of Indian involvement in the murder. India had designated him as a terrorist because he led the remnants of a once-powerful movement to establish an independent Sikh homeland, Khalistan.
India’s top diplomat avoided addressing his country’s dispute with Canada over the assassination of a Sikh separatist leader.
The Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs dismissed the allegation as “absurd” and accused Canada of harboring “terrorists and extremists.” It also asserted that the allegations were politically motivated, indicating that Trudeau sought domestic support from the Sikh diaspora.
“Such unsubstantiated allegations seek to divert attention away from Khalistani terrorists and extremists, who have found refuge in Canada and continue to threaten India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the ministry said in a statement released last week.
However, they have long accused Canada of allowing Sikh separatists, including Nijjar, unfettered reign.
Even though the active insurgency ended decades ago, the Modi administration has warned that Sikh separatists are attempting a comeback. New Delhi has urged nations such as Canada, where Sikhs account for more than 2% of the population, to do more to prevent a separatist revival.
After the G20 summit, Canada’s allegation obscured India’s diplomatic moment. Jaishankar sought to refocus attention on his country’s ambitions in the international arena, noting that India is the world’s most populous nation and a growing economic superpower.
“When we aspire to be a leading power, it is not for self-promotion, but to assume more responsibility and make more contributions,” he explained. “The goals we have set for ourselves will distinguish us from those who rose before us.”
SOURCE – (AP)
Entertainment
Spain Charges Pop Singer Shakira With Tax Evasion For A Second Time And Demands More Than $7 Million
BARCELONA, SPAIN — Spanish prosecutors have charged Colombian pop sensation Shakira with failing to pay 6.7 million euros ($7.1 million) in tax on her 2018 earnings, authorities announced Tuesday. This is Spain’s most recent fiscal accusation against the Colombian singer.
Prosecutors in Barcelona alleged in a statement that Shakira used an offshore company based in a tax refuge to avoid paying the tax.
According to the statement, she has been notified of the allegations in Miami, where she resides.
Shakira is already scheduled to be tried in Barcelona on November 20 for a separate case involving her residence between 2012 and 2014. Prosecutors allege she neglected to pay 14.5 million euros in taxes in this instance.
Prosecutors in Barcelona have asserted that the Grammy winner spent more than fifty percent of the 2012-2014 period in Spain and thus should have paid taxes in the country, even though her official residence was in the Bahamas.
Spanish prosecutors have charged Colombian pop sensation Shakira with failing to pay 6.7 million euros ($7.1 million) in tax on her 2018 earnings.
Last July, Spanish tax officials launched a new investigation against Shakira. Prosecutors have decided to file charges after reviewing the evidence compiled over the past two months. No trial date has been set.
Llorente y Cuenca, the public relations firm previously managing Shakira’s affairs, had no immediate comment.
Last July, it was stated that the artist had “always complied with the law and followed the advice of her financial advisors.”
Since she began dating the now-retired football player Gerard Pique, Shakira, whose full name is Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, has been linked to Spain. The couple, who have two children, resided in Barcelona until the end of their 11-year relationship last year.
In the past decade, Spain’s tax authorities have cracked down on football superstars such as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo for not paying their entire tax obligations. These athletes were found guilty of tax evasion but were spared prison time due to a provision that enables judges to forego sentences of less than two years for first-time offenders.
SOURCE – (AP)
Entertainment
Toymaker Lego Will Stick To Its Quest To Find Sustainable Materials Despite Failed Recycle Attempt In 2023
COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Lego stated on Monday that it remains committed to its quest to find sustainable materials to reduce carbon emissions despite the failure of an experiment to use recycled bottles. Lego is the world’s largest toy manufacturer.
After more than two years of testing, Lego “decided not to proceed” with producing its trademark colorful bricks from recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottles because “the material did not reduce carbon emissions.”
Nonetheless, the toymaker remains “fully committed to making Lego bricks from sustainable materials by 2032,” according to the company’s website.
Two years ago, the private company that manufactures bricks from oil-derived plastic began researching a potential transition to recycled plastic bottles made of PET plastic, which does not degrade in quality when recycled.
The company stated that it had invested “more than $1.2 billion in sustainability initiatives” to transition to more sustainable materials and reduce carbon emissions by 37% by 2032.
The company reported that it was “currently testing and developing Lego bricks made from a range of alternative sustainable materials, including other recycled plastics and plastics made from alternative sources such as e-methanol.”
Nonetheless, the toymaker remains “fully committed to making Lego bricks from sustainable materials by 2032,” according to the company’s website.
E-methanol, also known as green methanol, is composed of residual carbon dioxide and hydrogen and is produced by splitting water molecules using renewable energy.
The company said it would continue to use bio-polypropylene, the sustainable and biological variant of polyethylene — a plastic used in everything from consumer and food packaging to tires — for elements in Lego sets such as leaves, trees and other accessories.
Long-term, “we believe that this will encourage increased production of more sustainable raw materials, such as recycled oils, and help support our transition to sustainable materials,” the report stated.
The company was founded by Ole Kirk Kristiansen in 1932. The name comprises the Danish words leg and godt, meaning “play well.” The brand name was created without knowledge of the Latin Lego, meaning “I assemble.”
SOURCE- (AP)
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