Energy consumption and temperatures rising quickly
The climate crisis is dire. Energy consumption - and temperatures - are rising at a far greater rate than emissions cuts and a recent UN report predicts that global fossil fuel production in 2030 is set to be more than double the level deemed consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees.
Renewable energy sources aren't profitable enough for capitalist corporations to spend on them in the amounts required to make a serious difference.
Money speaks loudest in our world, and so Spaceship Earth remains on an uncertain trajectory. The world's dependence on fossil fuels is increasing, despite many governments' commitments to decarbonise. However, even where small efforts ARE being made - wind and solar farms, etc. - buffoons like Greenhalgh are ready to condemn them for spoiling the view from the ramparts of their cosy little castles!
Clearly, this man Greenhalgh is no intellectual, but surely to God he can do better than this! Does he not embarrass himself?
The hot air he generates is only making matters worse.
Lyndon Morgans,
Blackwood.
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Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Telegraph
Israel gives tour of UN aid left ‘rotting' in Gaza
Israel has given a tour of a large storage site within Gaza containing what it claims to be 1,000 lorries-worth of aid that the UN has failed to deliver. The move on Thursday intensified a row with the international community, which has become increasingly critical of starvation levels in the Strip. Amid escalating warnings of famine, Israel has in recent days sought to blame the UN and major NGOs for not distributing available supplies, saying it has placed no restrictions on them doing so. It released well-produced drone footage showing what appeared to be aid packages across a multiple-hectare site within the perimeter wire. Israeli journalists were subsequently shown around the facility near the Kerim crossing, with one senior IDF officer criticising the ' famine narrative ' he said was propagated by Hamas. Colonel Abdullah Halabi, from the defence ministry's Coordinator of Government Activity in the Territories (COGAT) unit, said: 'The State of Israel allows the entry of humanitarian aid beyond the standards of international law, without restriction. As long as the international community makes an effort to bring in the aid, we will allow them to bring it in.' Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, has reposted pictures of the footage on social media, saying 'UN food is either looted by Hamas or rots in the sun'. But the UN has said that, in practice, Israel is not facilitating the distribution of its aid in Gaza. Stéphane Dujarric, the UN spokesman, said the country was imposing 'tremendous bureaucratic impediments' and 'tremendous security impediments'. He said: 'Frankly I think there is a lack of willingness to allow us to do our work.' This comes against a backdrop of severe denunciations of Israel's conduct in Gaza by the UK, France, Australia, Canada and others. On Thursday, Sir Keir Starmer condemned the 'unspeakable' and 'indefensible' suffering of Gazans, reiterating Labour's support for a Palestinian state, while France went further by promising to formally recognise such an entity in September. The full details of why the UN and its NGO partners are unable to deliver aid into Gaza are not clear. But it is believed that the organisation had to adapt its delivery routes and methods from its traditional patterns because of the deteriorating security and humanitarian situation, and that Israel is not facilitating this on the ground. On Thursday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that the previous day, Israel had facilitated only eight of 16 requested movements of aid. The UN believes that around one quarter of the Strip's approximately two million residents are now facing famine. Israel imposed a blockade of aid deliveries at the beginning of March, claiming that Hamas routinely seizes supplies and uses them to finance its terror operations and maintain control over the civilian population. Since the end of May, a new system was opened using the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US contractor which requires civilians to walk to a handful of large purpose-built distribution centres to collect aid. The system has been associated with repeated mass shootings, with the UN accusing Israel of killing more than 1,000 civilians near the sites. Israel has rejected the claims, admitting only to firing warning shots or shots 'near' Palestinians, and blaming Hamas for the chaos. Israeli army radio was reported citing a military official that Israel would allow foreign countries to parachute aid into Gaza starting on Friday. A parallel prong of aid – principally delivered by the UN – is technically in place, but because of the fragmentation of Gazan society, the body is no longer able to safely deliver food, water, medical supplies and fuel into population centres in the way it did before March. Trucks are routinely looted by desperate civilians or by armed gangs. The situation has fuelled a bitter war of claim and counterclaim between Israel and the UN, whose relations were already at an all-time low. Among the un-evidenced accusations levelled by anonymous Israeli government sources is that the UN has requested the Hamas-run 'blue police' to escort its trucks. On Friday, the row spilled over onto the BBC's Today Programme when David Mencer, a spokesman for Benjamin Netanyahu 's office, accused Nick Robinson of telling lies. In a bad-tempered exchange, Mr Mencer described the UN programme as a 'billion-dollar racket' and said any food shortages were engineered by Hamas. He said Israel had offered to provide security to deliver the aid at the Kerem crossing, saying it would provide two weeks' worth of food for every person in Gaza. 'The UN is working in cooperation with Hamas to restrict the amount of aid to its own people,' he claimed. The spokesman did not give a reason for why the UN would deliberately restrict aid deliveries. The OCHA said, regarding Wednesday's aid efforts: 'The facilitation of humanitarian movements inside Gaza, out of 16 attempts to coordinate such movements yesterday, only eight were facilitated – including the collection and transfer of limited fuel. 'Two other movements were initially approved but then faced impediments on the ground, three were outright denied – including the retrieval of medical supplies – and the remaining three had to be cancelled by the organizers. 'OCHA and its partners emphasize that the aid that they have been able to bring into Gaza over the past two months is nowhere near sufficient to meet people's survival needs.' It comes as Medecins Sans Frontieres said the rate of malnutrition among young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women at its clinics in Gaza had tripled in the last two weeks, and now stood at 25 per cent. Reuters reported that an analysis by the US agency for international development, completed in June, found no evidence of systematic theft of aid by Hamas. The analysis examined 156 incidents of theft or loss of US-funded supplies reported by US aid partner organisations between October 2023 and May this year. USAID has now been largely shut down, thanks to Donald Trump's government spending cuts, and the leaked documents were heavily criticised by a state department spokesman. It came as footage emerged appearing to show ultra-nationalist Israelis blocking the road to prevent aid trucks from getting into Gaza. A spokesman for UNICEF, the UN humanitarian body for children, said Gaza was on the brink of running out of specialised therapeutic food needed to save the lives of severely malnourished children.
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Trump's journey to opening his new Scottish golf course
Donald Trump 's third foreign trip as president is a sentimental journey to open a golf course named for his mother at a northern outpost of his sprawling business empire – with some pressure tactics thrown in. The president heads to the UK Friday to golf with world pros, take stock of the seaside dunes that line his new course – and try to score a dream that would bring an infusion of attention and cash to his most acclaimed Scottish golf course. For Trump, 79, whose business empire has grown to include media ventures, meme coins, NFTs , and signed collectibles, golf has always been a more tangible pursuit. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, the former Auburn University football coach who has golfed with Trump, says the president's attachment to the details of the game and the business was evident on a recent outing. 'I've been with him on his courses playing golf – he takes those little flags and puts them. He said, 'I'm going to put 300 palm trees on this course,"' Tuberville told the Daily Mail. 'And he'll go around and personally put the flags where he wants the tree. He really takes interest in his course, personally,' he said. Trump gushed about his new Scottish course , in Aberdeenshire, when he broke ground on it in 2023. 'It's one of the great pieces of land anywhere in the world … Some people say it's the greatest course ever built. And views of things that nobody's ever seen before. Some of the best views I've ever seen,' Trump said, amid overhead views of misty dunes and future fairways. His son Eric calls it the 'greatest 36 holes of golf.' Now, the president will get to tout it again – this time with the national media in tow. He's landing in Scotland later Friday for a trip that will include visiting his sprawling properties in Aberdeen and Turnberry and a ribbon-cutting ceremony for his new course. And he'll hammer out details of a huge trade deal with the UK during talks in between rounds of golf at his Scottish course Monday with Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Trump's new MacLeod course is named after his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod. She was born on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides and grew up in the town of Tong. MacLeod migrated from Scotland to the U.S. at the age of 18. She would eventually marry Fred Trump and give birth to the future president. The Trump course with the most storied lineage is in Turnberry, on the western coast of Scotland. But golf's biggest prize has been out of reach since Trump acquired it. His Aberdeen courses, which son Eric Trump calls the best 36 holes in the world, are on the eastern coast. Trump bought Turnberry for $60 million in 2014, reportedly spending $200 million improving it. Now, he wants to use it to host one of the crown jewels of pro golf, the British Open, sometimes called simply the Open. 'He's very proud of it. I've even heard some of the professional players like Rory McIlroy say: "Why are we not having more big tournaments here?" said Tuberville. Two-time winner Bryson DeChambeau, has also crowed about the course while putting in a plug for Trump. 'It's one of the best golf courses in the world, and I'd love for it to be a part of the rotation,' said DeChambeau, who celebrated with Eric Trump and Trump Organization execs after winning the U.S. Open at Trump's club in Westchester, New York. (He also visited Trump at the White House.) Trump's purchase of the Ayrshire resort has brought controversy, and the course hasn't hosted the open since 2009 – before Trump owned it. The course finally made a profit in 2022, and the Open with its estimated 300,000 visitors could help. Turnberry hosted the famous 'Duel in the Sun,' Tom Watson beat Jack Nicklaus. But the The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, which controls the tournament, has raised doubts about 'logistical challenges.' There are reports Trump has asked previously asked British government officials to pressure the R&A to select Turnberry for a future Open. Trump gets two such opportunities on his trip – which gets official status thanks to his meetings with British PM Keir Starmer. The two men will meet and dine at Turnberry, then travel aboard U.S. Government aircraft to Trump's Aberdeen club. Starmer isn't known to be much of a golfer, but he is seizing the opportunity to bond with Trump at his Scottish properties. Both events will give him the opportunity to hail his courses while answering questions about news of the day – which based on Trump's flurry of actions from taking on the Fed to accusing Barack Obama of Treason , he would prefer not include a focus on Jeffrey Epstein. There are already clear signals that Trump's trip will bring protests, and locals are already complaining about the police costs and disruptions as he inaugurates the new Balmedie course. David Milne, who lives next to Trump's Aberdeen course, and whose home Trump has dubbed an eyesore, is back to grousing about the 'most expensive round of golf ever.' Trump, who the White House revealed days ago was diagnosed with Chronic Veinous Insufficiency, has made plain with his travel schedule that he plans to continue his golf hobby. According to Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington, he has made 99 visits to his own properties this term, with 62 to golf courses – a 37 per cent spike from his first term.
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Israel tries to deflect blame for widespread starvation in Gaza
Israel is pursuing an extensive PR effort to remove itself from blame for the starvation and killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza in the face of overwhelming evidence that it is responsible. As dozens of governments, UN organisations and other international figures have detailed Israel's culpability, officials and ministers in Israel have attempted to suggest that there is no hunger in Gaza, that if hunger exists it is not Israel's fault, or to blame Hamas or the UN and aid organisations for problems with distribution of aid. The Israeli effort has continued even as one of its own government ministers, the far-right heritage minister Amichai Eliyahu, made comments this week describing an unapologetic policy of starvation, genocide and ethnic cleansing which Israel has suggested is not official policy. Amid evidence of a growing number of deaths from starvation in Gaza including children, and shocking images and accounts of malnutrition, Israel has tried to deflect blame for what has been described by the head of the World Health Organization as 'man-made mass starvation'. That view was endorsed by a joint statement this week by 28 countries – including the UK – which explicitly blamed Israel. 'The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths,' the statement said. 'The Israeli government's aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazan's of human dignity. 'We condemn the drip-feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food.' Some Israeli officials have been marginally more cautious in public statements, including the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has promised vaguely that there 'will be no starvation' in Gaza. But a recent off-the-record briefing for journalists by a senior Israeli security official has pushed a more uncompromising position, stating that there 'is no hunger in Gaza' and claiming that images of starving children on front pages around the world showed children with 'underlying diseases'. David Mencer, an Israeli government spokesperson, told Sky news this week: 'There is no famine in Gaza – there is a famine of the truth.' Contradicting that claim, Médecins Sans Frontières said that a quarter of the young children and pregnant or breastfeeding mothers it had screened at its clinics last week were malnourished, a day after the UN said one in five children in Gaza City were suffering from malnutrition. Israel's attempts to deflect blame, however, are undermined by its single and overarching responsibility: that, as an occupying power in a conflict, it is legally obliged to ensure the provision of means of life for those under occupation. And while Israel has consistently tried to blame Hamas for intercepting food aid, that claim has been undermined by a leaked US assessment seen by Reuters which found no evidence of systematic theft by the Palestinian militant group Hamas of US-funded humanitarian supplies. Examining 156 incidents of theft or loss of US-funded supplies reported by US aid partner organisations between October 2023 and May 2025, it said it found 'no reports alleging Hamas' benefited from US-funded supplies. Israel has also recently intensified efforts to blame the UN for the problems with aid distribution, citing a 'lack of cooperation from the international community and international organisations'. Israel's claims are contradicted by clear evidence of its efforts to undermine aid distribution. Despite international warnings of the humanitarian risks posed by banning Unrwa, the main UN agency for Palestinians and the organisation with the most experience in Gaza, from Israel, its operations were closed down, complicating aid efforts. Instead Israel, backed by the US, has relied on the private, inexperienced and controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, whose sites have been the focus of numerous mass casualty incidents, where desperate Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers. And Israel's efforts to hamper with aid efforts have continued. Last week it said it would not renew the work visa of Jonathan Whitall, the most senior UN aid official in Gaza; and a UN spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, told reporters on Thursday that Israel had rejected eight of the 16 UN requests to transport humanitarian aid in Gaza the previous day. He added that two other requests, initially approved, led to staff facing obstruction on the ground as he described a pattern of 'bureaucratic, logistical, administrative and other operational obstacles imposed by Israeli authorities'. All of which has injected a new sense of urgency into the catastrophe in Gaza as UN agencies warned that they were on the brink of running out of specialised food needed to save the lives of severely malnourished children. 'Most malnutrition treatment supplies have been consumed and what is left at facilities will run out very soon if not replenished,' a World Health Organization spokesperson said on Thursday. More starvation deaths appear inevitable.
