Two activists from Just Stop Oil Belgium each sentenced to two months in prison with one month suspended
Two Belgian climate change activists who last week targeted the Johannes Vermeer painting Girl with a Pearl Earring have been sentenced to two months in prison by a Dutch court, of which one month was suspended.
One activist glued his head to glass covering the painting at a museum in The Hague. The artwork was not damaged, gallery staff said.
Continue reading...UK prime minister says he will now attend talks in Egypt next week
Rishi Sunak has reversed on his decision to skip Cop27 and will attend the climate summit in Egypt next week.
“There is no long-term prosperity without action on climate change,” the prime minister said.
Continue reading...Alaa Abd El-Fattah has been on hunger strike for six months and will refuse water from 6 November, the first day of the climate summit
The majority of living Nobel prize for literature laureates have called on world leaders attending the Cop27 climate conference in Egypt this week to help free thousands of political prisoners in the country, including the writer Alaa Abd El-Fattah who is six months into a hunger strike and “at risk of death”.
The letter, organised by Abd El-Fattah’s UK publishers Fitzcarraldo Editions and Seven Stories Press, has been signed by 13 Nobel prize for literature winners: Svetlana Alexievich, JM Coetzee, Annie Ernaux, Louise Glück, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Kazuo Ishiguro, Elfriede Jelinek, Mario Vargas Llosa, Patrick Modiano, Herta Müller, Orhan Pamuk, Wole Soyinka and Olga Tokarczuk.
Continue reading...Search continued for two people swept off ute near Boorowa as prime minister said he hoped for positive news
Anthony Albanese says he is concerned about two men missing in flood waters after their ute was washed off the road in central New South Wales.
As the Riverina town of Gundagai braced for its worst flooding in 33 years, the State Emergency Service undertook 39 flood rescues in the 24 hours to Wednesday morning.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Peter Hain to table amendment in House of Lords to protect single energy market
A Labour peer is launching a bid to avert a fresh energy crisis with potential power cuts and drastic electricity price rises in Northern Ireland as a result of proposed Brexit legislation.
The former Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain will table an amendment to the Northern Ireland protocol bill in the House of Lords on Wednesday to protect the so-called single energy market (SEM), which allows power to be traded with the island of Ireland as one economic unit.
Continue reading...Budget forecast doesn’t predict wage price spiral: finance minister
The Reserve Bank says it wants to avoid a wage price spiral. Does Gallagher think the government’s policies are risking that?
The bank obviously will keep looking at that … we’re not seeing that, the budget in its forecast doesn’t predict that.
Looking at the regulatory arrangements is our first inclination. That work is under way, I can’t give you a timeframe on the completion of that.
Continue reading...Berlin urges International Seabed Authority to prioritise nature as it debates rules and warns seabed mining may ‘destroy ecosystems’
Germany has called for a pause in the controversial deep-sea mining industry, saying not enough is known about the likely impacts of digging up the ocean floor for metals.
While other nations, including Spain and New Zealand, have previously called for a temporary halt to any exploitation of deep-sea metals, Germany, the world’s fourth biggest economy, is the most significant nation to voice its opposition to date. The country holds two of the 22 licences for exploration of the seabed.
Continue reading...Concern over country’s human rights record after Indian Ajit Rajagopal arrested on walk to raise awareness about climate crisis
The arrest of an Indian climate activist by Egyptian security forces has renewed alarm about the regime’s dire human rights record as it prepares to host the Cop27 UN climate summit.
Ajit Rajagopal, an architect and activist from Kerala in south India, was arrested on Sunday afternoon shortly after setting off on an eight-day walk from Cairo to Sharm el-Sheikh as part of a global campaign to raise awareness about the climate crisis.
Continue reading...Mouthe’s temperate autumn is extra proof of climate crisis, say weather experts
For the first time in 140 years, the village of Mouthe – officially recognised as France’s coldest – reported a frost-free October.
A temperate autumn is additional proof of the reality of the climate crisis, weather experts say.
Continue reading...Calls by countries such as UK and US to halt auction for drilling permits in the world’s second-largest rainforest branded ‘galling’
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has criticised the west for pressuring it to halt oil and gas exploration in the Congo basin rainforest, while continuing to search for fossil fuels in their own countries.
The Congo basin, more than half of which is located in DRC, is the last rainforest on Earth that sucks in more carbon than it releases and is second only to the Amazon in size. The DRC announced in July that oil and gas permits in parts of the rainforest would be auctioned off. The blocks up for sale include areas in Virunga national park, as well as critically endangered gorilla habitats and the world’s largest tropical peatlands, which store the equivalent of three years of the world’s fossil fuel emissions.
Continue reading...Missed deadline for money pledged to assist developing countries sends ‘strong negative signal’ ahead of Egypt summit, say experts
The British government has come under fire for sending a “strong negative signal” ahead of the Cop27 climate summit in Egypt, by failing to make $300m (£260m) of promised climate finance payments.
The UK has already caused upset among developing countries hit hardest by the climate crisis, after a statement from Downing Street that Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, would not attend Cop27 due to his focus on domestic issues.
Continue reading...Activist among 30 people in three states and ACT to report visits from officers at request of NSW police ahead of mining forum
Counter-terror police in Queensland have visited the home of an environmental activist following a request from New South Wales ahead of planned protests at a mining conference in Sydney.
The activist is one of about 30 people across four jurisdictions to report visits from police in the past week ahead of the International Mining and Resources Conference, which starts on Wednesday.
Continue reading...We’ve been bringing you some of the news about rain causing more flooding in NSW. Here are some visuals from Wagga Wagga in southern NSW and the Newell highway in the state’s central west.
Jacinta Allan avoids question of whether families returned from Syria would be welcome in Victoria
The first group of families the wives and children of Islamic State fighters arrived in Sydney over the weekend from Syria and are now living in the community in Sydney. Will Victoria accept returnees?
I was with the premier [Daniel Andrews] on Sunday at a at a media event… where the premier was asked this direct question and I’ll give to you the answer he gave on Sunday which is these are very sensitive security matters. They are primarily the province of the federal government, it would not be appropriate -
As a matter of principle, will you accept them [in] Victoria? Or have you asked for them not to come during the election campaign?
We’ve not, Patricia. There is a … As I think we’ve seen from the media reporting around this issue, this is a very careful matter. There is a very -
Sure, but as a matter of principle, do you think returning citizens – they’re Australian citizens – should be allowed to live in Victoria?
I would really direct you to the federal government and the federal … I think you would appreciate that this is not a simple yes or no proposition because there needs to be robust and careful assessments that are not undertaken by the Victorian government. They’re undertaken by the federal government and the federal Department of Home Affairs.
And if they do all the checks and balances, should they be welcome in Victoria?
Firstly it’d be entirely inappropriate to cut across that and secondly, I am in no position to run a commentary.
Continue reading...Comes as Victorian and federal governments announce $877m package for flood recovery
Victoria has endured its wettest month on record, the State Emergency Service says, as it warned the flood risk may continue across the state for up to two months.
On Tuesday the SES’s chief of operations, Tim Wiebusch, said October was both Victoria’s wettest month on record and the busiest for his volunteers.
Continue reading...Merged Australian-UK firm will convert Porsche 911s, Mini Coopers, Land Rovers and Land Rover Defenders into EVs
An Australian startup adding modern technology to classic Land Rovers will become part of one of the biggest electric vehicle conversion companies in the world this week after merging with a British firm.
Melbourne-based Jaunt Motors will partner with Zero EV to create Fellten, which will operate across Australia, the UK and North America.
Continue reading...Company struggling to find investors willing to fund effort to build giant £3.8bn ‘gigafactory’ in north-east
The UK government-backed battery startup Britishvolt is on the brink of entering administration with the potential loss of almost 300 jobs, after it struggled to find investors willing to fund its effort to build a giant £3.8bn “gigafactory” in north-east England.
The company had considered an administration as early as Monday, two sources with knowledge of Britishvolt’s operations told the Guardian. Britishvolt has lined up the accountancy firm EY to carry out the administration if it goes ahead.
Continue reading...Before Cop27, Lee White also says broken promises on funding leave sense of betrayal
The world will only take meaningful action on the climate crisis once people in rich countries start dying in greater numbers from its effects, Gabon’s environment minister has said, while warning that broken promises on billions of dollars of adaptation finance have left a “sense of betrayal” before Cop27.
Lee White said governments were not yet behaving as if global heating was a crisis, and he feared for the future he was leaving to his children. He said the $100bn of promised climate finance from rich nations was not reaching poor countries, which was driving distrust in the UN climate process.
Continue reading...Assam, Nagaland and Manipur officials also confiscate catapults and nets to ensure birds can recuperate
Officials in north-east India have banned the use of guns and airguns and confiscated catapults and nets in an effort to safeguard the small Amur falcons that make an autumn pit stop on their way to sunny South Africa.
Forest officers were patrolling areas of Assam, Nagaland and Manipur states to make sure no one disturbs the long-distance travelling raptors who stop briefly in India.
Continue reading...Visitors to Sharm el-Sheikh also face extensive searches and video surveillance in taxis
Across Sharm el-Sheikh, a slim strip of manicured resorts, asphalt and concrete near the southern tip of the Sinai peninsula, teams of workers are putting the finishing touches to preparations for the UN’s Cop27 climate conference.
Sparkling new buses are ready to drive down the enlarged highways that cut across desert landscape, flanked by smooth shiny new walkways adorned with angular sculptural arches. A field of glittering solar panels run by a company with ties to the Egyptian military will be online in time for the conference, as well as a new shopping mall.
Continue reading...Sixteenth tropical cyclone to affect the Philippines this season caused deadly floods and landslides
Tropical Storm Nalgae swept through the Philippines on Saturday with sustained winds of 60mph.
Heavy rain caused the most damage, with significant flooding and landslides. Dozens of people have died and 170,000 sought shelter in evacuation centres.
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