Government urged to take over private jail
01 Apr 2021
Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre is privately run, by MTC, on the same site as two prisons. MPs want the Government to take over this detention centre, where children are kept in their cells for all but thirty minutes a day. MTC had previously been told to improve. The House of Commons justice committee said the Government should act by June 2020 if conditions tantamount to solitary confinement are not addressed. MP Sir Bob Neill said, ‘The experience of the inspectors over the past year has shown that some of the promises made by MTC are worth less than the paper they are written on. The ministry of justice has failed in its oversight of this private contractor.’ The centre holds 87 boys and girls convicted or awaiting trial for serious offences. They have complex behavioural problems or other vulnerabilities, such as self-harming.
Psychiatrists have warned that ‘cuts to addiction services for young people risk condemning them to a lifetime of dependence and poor health or even an early death’. The Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) reported that between 2014 and 2021 budgets were cut by over a third (37%), amounting to £26 million, leaving thousands of young people with limited access to drug and alcohol treatment or specialist help. It is asking the Government to inject £43 million into public health funding for councils, to bring spending on youth addiction services back to 2013/14 levels. RCP said we need to wake up to the fact that money spent on addictions services saves the NHS a lot more in the long run, whether in A&E or in other mental health services. The second most common substance abuse after cannabis is alcohol.
EU threaten UK over AstraZeneca jabs
01 Apr 2021
Brussels will not export AstraZeneca’s (AZ) vaccine manufactured in the EU to the UK until it meets its vaccine commitment to the EU. Its internal market commissioner, emphasised, ‘there is nothing to negotiate’ referring to EU’s ongoing talks over vaccine production. He said coronavirus vaccine production from Belgium and the Netherlands matches vaccine commitment made by AZ to the EU and thus must be reserved for them. ‘If AZ does more, we don’t have any issue, but as long as it doesn’t deliver its commitment to us, the doses stay in Europe - except for Covax (a vaccine programme delivering vaccines to poor countries).’ He said they are trying to ensure that AZ’s contract with the EU is delivered. In August AZ agreed to supply 300 million doses, with an option for another 100 million doses. Unfortunately, the supply has been slow, and they slashed their commitment to 30 million in the first quarter.
EU sounds alarm for Great Barrier Reef
01 Apr 2021
The EU’s environment commissioner, Virginijus Sinkevičius, said he was deeply concerned by the threats facing the Great Barrier Reef. ‘As long as we do not change our behaviours, things will not improve,’ he said. He hopes Australia will sign up to the 84-country Leaders’ Pledge for Nature - a document that calls for a ‘green and just’ recovery from the Covid-19 crisis and stronger political will to act against the ‘crises of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation and climate change’. The leaders’ pledge backs the objective of achieving net zero emissions by 2050. The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, has said this is his preference, but he has resisted making a formal commitment amid divisions within his government over climate policy. Coral reefs are threatened because of human activity - unsustainable ways of living, producing, and consuming.
Brazil: who controls the ‘lungs of Earth’?
01 Apr 2021
Those fighting to halt climate change call the Amazon rainforest the ‘lungs of Earth,’ and Brazil's current president has made his country a chain-smoker. A healthy Amazon is crucial for the fight against climate change. Human activity is pumping unsustainable amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, trapping enough heat to warm the planet and profoundly disrupt the climate. Trees, and the soils they grow in, store carbon that might otherwise reach the atmosphere, but cutting down or burning them releases more carbon into the air, making Amazon deforestation a problem for the entire planet. President Jair Bolsonaro has made matters much worse for the remaining 60% of Amazon tree cover. He deprived environmental protection agencies of funding and manpower, allowing farmers to cut and burn trees to open land for farms and cattle ranches. But now Joe Biden’s climate envoy is engaged in an international effort to raise $20 billion for Brazil's environmental protection agency, only to be given if deforestation is reduced.
Myanmar: murder and airstrikes
01 Apr 2021
On 27 March security forces killed over fifty protesters who defied a warning that they could be shot ‘in the head and back’ if they came out while the country's generals celebrated Armed Forces Day. ‘Today is a day of shame for the armed forces,’ said Dr Sasa, a spokesman for the anti-junta group of deposed lawmakers. Local media reported that around 3,000 people from Karen state have left the country and crossed the border into Thailand to escape the violence. Airstrikes that sent villagers fleeing into the jungle show the Myanmar situation is ‘much worse’, a humanitarian worker said. At least 114 people were killed by security forces on 29 March, including a five-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl. Despite the bloodshed, protesters returned to the streets. Citizens are living amid increasing violence. People are being beaten and shot; now they face multiple airstrikes. Myanmar has not had airstrikes there for over twenty years.
Nigeria: Christian missionaries kidnapped
01 Apr 2021
Eight Christians have been abducted while on their way to evangelise in Kaduna state. The group of members of the Redeemed Christian Church of God were travelling towards the town of Kafanchan when gunmen intercepted the bus, according to International Christian Concern and the Nigerian Tribune. Eje Kenny Faraday, a witness, posted a picture on Facebook showing the empty bus saying, ‘All passengers in the bus are just kidnapped along Kachia Road, Km 63 from Kaduna.’ The kidnappers have demanded the equivalent of £88,000 for their release. A search for the members has been launched by security agencies including the police and the military.
Curtis Hayes, a community activist running for city council in Charlotte, said, ‘We have some of the most horrific mass murderers of our time in custody without a scratch, but this black man who allegedly uses a counterfeit $20 bill loses his life. They have got to convict the former police officer accused of killing George Floyd by sitting on his neck for over nine minutes. The officer came to a situation which he should have de-escalated and given out a ticket in the worst-case scenario. Are we going to hold him accountable for his actions? This is a chance for America to show exactly what it represents: giving everybody liberty and justice. If you don't convict him, you're simply telling black and minority Americans that we do not care for you: this is a white America and you're going to get down or lay down. Now people are fighting for equality, but they could soon be fighting for revenge.’