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this unifying narrative introduced an Olympic and Paralympic Games that in reality are not all that inclusive. (...) To make these Games happen, Paris had to undertake a programme of intense social cleansing.

According to an investigation by a collective named Le revers de la médaille (The other side of the coin), 12,545 people (including 3,434 minors) were evicted – some of them forcibly – across the Paris region between April 2023 and May 2024, which is a 38.5% increase on the 2021-22 period (twice as many as last year, and almost three times more than in 2021-22 for the minors)
(...)
Another odious policy that has accompanied preparations for the Olympics and Paralympics is that homeless people have been hidden or driven away by such measures as the installation of anti-homeless urban furniture. Almost 1,000 students were forced to vacate their university accommodation (provided by the official student services organisation) for police officers, firefighters and healthcare workers on duty during the Games. Many of them reported their shock at being met by utterly squalid conditions, including cockroaches, mould and mice. In addition to the filth, what is shocking is that it has taken the Olympics to expose the living conditions of students, despite repeated denunciation by their unions. (...)

The surveillance extends well beyond QR codes. The legalisation of algorithmic surveillance, which allows for real-time behaviour analysis using AI to anticipate supposedly suspicious acts, is a “violation of the right to privacy”, according to Amnesty International. This system, fuelled by human biases against certain populations, will be amplified. Moreover, it will persist beyond the Olympic Game.

The influence of the Atlas Network – a web of libertarian and ultraconservative think tanks funded by billionaires such as the Kochs – has been well documented in the US, the UK, and more recently Argentina following the election of Javier Milei. Its growing presence in the EU has been less examined. But the next EU elections could deliver a political landscape even more favourable to their ideas. This article takes a look at some of the Atlas Network’s partners in Brussels and their activities.

(...) To “change the climate of ideas”, the Atlas Network and its partners use a range of influence strategies that sometimes involve manipulation, such as offering falsely neutral expertise or ‘astroturfing’. With these methods, the Atlas Network’s partners have scored important political victories all over the world: spreading climate denialism, influencing referendum outcomes (the Voice in Australia, the referendum on the Chilean constitution, Brexit, etc.) and electing Javier Milei in Argentina. British journalist Georges Monbiot recently asked in The Guardian: “What links Rishi Sunak, Javier Milei and Donald Trump?” Answer: the Atlas Network.

(...)

Just as it has in Argentina, in France, and around the world (read our recent investigation in French), the Atlas Network supports, nurtures and promotes its partners throughout Europe. Wherever its influence is felt it promotes a ranch of ultra free market policies that inevitably involve tax cuts for the rich, slashing public spending, massive deregulation, and opposition to climate justice, backed by well-resourced but mostly hidden funders. The politics it is promoting in Europe are no exception, and reflect a similar alliance between extreme neoliberal policies and radical conservative causes, as seen in the US .

(...) Free Trade Europa: labour rights as a “violation of freedoms”?

Although verbal violence is not uncommon on X (formerly Twitter), it is unusual to see a lobbyist publicly rejoicing at the failure of an EU Council Presidency initiative. And even less praising other Member States for giving the Spanish government a ’bloody nose’ when it failed to find a consensus on a law giving employment rights to platform workers [29]. Yet that is exactly what Free Trade Europa did, amply demonstrating the extent to which, at the end of December 2023, on the issue of the legal status of platform workers, two diametrically opposed visions of the world were clashing.

It was in particular Emmanuel Macron’s France that, in alliance with Estonia, Greece and Germany, defeated the platform workers directive, and Glen Hodgson – head of Free Trade Europa – seems to be congratulating them in his tweet. The initial draft directive drawn up by the European Commission offered the possibility for platform workers – so, people making deliveries for Deliveroo, driving for Uber, etc – to claim the status of employees with the corresponding social rights, which they do not enjoy under a self-employed or freelance status: accident insurance, paid holidays, a minimum wage and union representation. The law was approved after a long lobbying battle [30], but then blocked at the last minute at the Council of the EU, at the behest of France in particular. It was eventually greenlighted in an even more watered-down version in March.

(...) After the final vote on the European law on platform workers, Glen talked with Pieter Cleppe, a journalist close to Flemish far-right party the NVA, and castigated the European Union for “regulating, regulating, regulating”. Free Trade Europa is one of a growing number of members of the Atlas Network in Brussels who are determined to roll back regulation, and are counting on the forthcoming European elections and the rise of the right and far right to find more allies in the institutions. The experience of the directive on platform workers shows that on certain issues they can also find common ground with liberals and some EU governments, particularly that of France.

With far right parties on the rise all over Europe, there are reasons to fear that after the June elections, the EU will tilt further towards a conservative, anti-climate and anti-regulation political agenda. Given the Atlas Network’s decades-long mission of “changing the climate of ideas” and pushing back on social justice and progressive environmental policies it appears to be seeking new allies and more open doors in the EU. With the Europe Liberty Forum which recently took place in Madrid, where 191 organisations from 47 countries were represented, it demonstrated its increased strength in Europe, including in Brussels. After Argentina, the UK, and many other countries, it now has the EU in its sights.

Excerpts from the article :

A total of 16 women have accused the actor Gérard Depardieu of sexual assault, including rape. While Depardieu has firmly denied the allegations, a French television documentary investigating the claims this month revealed hitherto unseen footage of his lewd behaviour. Amid the outrage sparked by the documentary, 56 showbiz stars this week signed an open letter denouncing the “lynching” of Depardieu. But the most notable of those who have leapt to the actor’s defence is Emmanuel Macron, who slammed what he called a “manhunt” against the actor, even wrongly suggesting the incriminating recording in the documentary had been doctored. In this op-ed article first published in French last week, Lénaïg Bredoux and Marine Turchi analyse the French president’s ill-judged intervention.

Speaking on December 20th on public TV channel France 5, in the round-table discussion programme “C à vous”, French President Emmanuel Macron jumped to the defence of Gérard Depardieu over a string of rape and sexual violence allegations made against the actor, whose lewd behaviour towards women, and obscene comments about a young girl, were exposed in a recent documentary. (...)

Macron’s defence of the actor on C à vous on December 20th came just 24 hours after his government’s highly controversial new hardline legislation on immigration, which enshrines the practice of “national preference” was approved in Parliament, thanks to support from conservative and far-right members of the chamber. The transformation of what had been initially rejected draft legislation into a law that reflected the programme of the far-right split Macron’s ruling Renaissance party and led to the resignation of the health minister.

(...)

Conspiracy theory and attacks upon the media

In a disturbing move, Emmanuel Macron relayed the idea, already put about by Depardieu’s family and the rightwing Bolloré media group (notably CNews, the Journal du dimanche, and the “Touche pas à mon poste” TV chatshow), that the France 2 documentary had doctored the 2018 recording of the actor’s comments made during his visit to North Korea. On four occasions, Macron referred to “controversies” and created doubt as to whether the documentary footage had been manipulated by journalists in order to deliberately deceive viewers. “I am wary about the context, I’ve understood that there have been controversies about reports […], about words that were out of sync with the images,” said Macron, adding that “people will have to debate this”.
(...)
Meanwhile, France Télévisions announced that it had appointed a huissier de justice (a bailiff with legal power to serve as witness) to watch the rushes in question. In his report, the huissier attests to the fact that the images showing a girl aged about ten riding a pony and the lewd comments made by Depardieu are part of the exact same sequence, thus invalidating both the accusation by Depardieu’s family that it was the result of “fraudulent editing” and the doubts cast over the sequence by the French president.

(...)

It is not the first time that the French president has targeted journalists, and is in fact the latest in a long list of attacks since he first came to office in 2017. But this latest example is situated within the context of a rapprochement between Macron and French media and publishing tycoon Vincent Bolloré. The two men have put aside their previously frosty relationship and in September held a secret meeting at the Elysée Palace, according to French daily Le Monde, which suggested that Bolloré sought Macron’s help over a European Commission probe into one of his recent acquisitions. (...)

Separating ‘transgression’ and sexual assault

By stepping onto the moral ground, Macron – who said the Légion d’honneur “is not a moral order”, and that “there can continue to be transgressive people in it” – contributed to making the behaviour of Depardieu supposedly ordinary. This excuse of “schoolboy humour” and comments like “Oh it’s OK, it’s Gérard”, which Mediapart heard so often during its investigation into the accusations against Depardieu by 13 women who accuse him of sexual violence, is today adopted by the French president. Yet the controversy is not about an issue of “transgression”, but one of allegations of rape, sexual assault and harassment, and therefore about potential crimes.

Depardieu is currently formally placed under investigation in a judicial probe into his suspected “rape” and “sexual assault” of actress Charlotte Arnould, which was opened after she filed a formal complaint against him. Depardieu denies the accusations. A total of 15 other women have recounted in the media how they fell victim to sexual assaults by Depardieu (13 of them detailed their accounts to Mediapart in an investigation published in April, and two others similarly accused the actor on France Inter radio in July).

(...)

“When he says ‘I won’t take part in a manhunt’, he is judging the women who have filed complaints, the women who have given their accounts,” added Mailfert. “He is saying that it is them whose approach is reprehensible.”

How Macron publicly supported ministers accused of rape

It was not the first time that the French president brought up the issue of the presumption of innocence – a fundamental principle under French law of a person’s innocence unless found guilty in a court of law, and which no-one in the debate about Depardieu places in question. In the past and separate cases of three serving ministers facing rape allegations – current interior minister Gérald Darmanin, ecological transition minister from 2017-2018 Nicolas Hulot, and Damien Abad, minister in 2022 for autonomy and the handicapped – Macron chose to keep them in office in the name of the presumption of innocence (the cases against Darmanin and Hulot would finally be dropped).

(...)

McKinsey & Company pushes fossil fuel interests as advisor to UN climate talks, whistleblowers say

The world's top management consultancy McKinsey & Company is using its position as a key advisor to the UN's COP28 climate talks to push the interests of its big oil and gas clients, undermining efforts to end the use of the fossil fuels driving global warming, according to multiple sources and leaked documents.

Issued on: 07/11/2023 - 17:45Modified: 07/11/2023 - 17:43 - read 7 min

Behind closed doors, the US-based firm has proposed future energy scenarios to the agenda setters of the summit that are at odds with the climate goals it publicly espouses, an AFP investigation has found.

An "energy transition narrative" drafted by the firm and obtained by AFP only reduces oil use by 50 percent by 2050, and calls for trillions in new oil and gas investment per year from now until then.

McKinsey -- whose big oil clients range from America's ExxonMobil to Saudi Arabia's state-run Aramco -- is one of several consultancies giving free advice to the United Arab Emirates as it hosts the critical negotiations, which start on November 30.

(...)

'Written by oil industry for oil industry'

Some of McKinsey's rival consultancies operating in Dubai have worked in the spirit of finding genuine climate solutions, according to three sources who have taken part in high-level preparatory meetings, who asked not to be named as the proceedings were confidential.

"But it was very clear from an early stage that McKinsey had a conflict of interest," said a source who took part in COP28 presidency discussions.

"They would give advice at the highest levels that was not in the best interest of the COP president as the leader of a multilateral climate agreement, but in the best interest of the COP president as the CEO of one of the region's biggest oil and gas companies."

(...)

The 2015 Paris Agreement calls on nations to cap warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius, and the UN's scientific advisory body has said the world economy must be carbon-neutral by 2050 to stay below that.

But analysts said the pathway McKinsey suggested to Jaber for the COP talks would allow fossil fuel firms to continue to pump way too much oil and gas to hit "net zero".

"On average, 40-50 MMb/d (millions of barrels per day) of oil is still expected to be utilized in 2050," compared to about 100 MMb/d today, McKinsey's narrative said.

That is twice the amount allowed in the International Energy Agency (IEA) net zero roadmap, said Jim Williams of the University of San Francisco, a top modeller of decarbonisation trajectories.

The IEA says CO2-removal technologies must scale up 100,000-fold by 2050 to stay on track for a net zero world -- a mind-boggling challenge with no guarantee of success.

But the McKinsey scenario would likely require at least double that, experts said.

(...)

Internal revolt

In 2021, McKinsey's work for fossil fuel clients sparked a rebellion within its own ranks.

More than 1,100 of the firm's employees signed an internal letter seen by AFP warning that "there is significant risk to McKinsey and our values from pursuing the current course."

"Our inaction on (or perhaps assistance with) client emissions poses serious risk to our reputation" and "our client relationships", they wrote.

(...)

A 2022 McKinsey document promoting private carbon markets seen by AFP identified several of its important clients, including oil firms Chevron and BP, power firm Drax, and mining giant Rio Tinto.

"If we want to ensure a managed decline of fossil fuel production, we can't do so if those helping (companies) make money from fossil fuel production continue to have a seat around the table," Pascoe Sabido, a researcher at the Corporate Europe Observatory think tank, told AFP.

He said there was a regulatory "blind spot" over consultancies' role in handling the climate crisis.

"The lobbying and the fixing that happens under the radar... is much more dangerous because there's much less accountability."

(...) Multiple investigations have shown that oil and gas giants were aware of the likely trajectory and impacts of global warming as early as the 1970s based on research by their own scientists, while at the same time sowing doubt on climate science that had come to the same conclusion.

McKinsey is "capable of doing good work helping clients navigate the energy transition, but that work pales in comparison to what it is doing for oil and gas," said one former McKinsey consultant, who asked not to be named due to a non-disclosure agreement.

"They serve the world's largest polluters," he argued. "The firm is best understood as possibly the most powerful oil and gas consulting firm on the planet posturing as a sustainability firm, advising polluting clients on any opportunity to preserve the status quo."

publication croisée depuis : https://slrpnk.net/post/3845438

The South Asian country's 3,500 garment factories account for around 85 percent of its $55 billion in annual exports, supplying many of the world's top brands including Levi's, Zara and H&M.

But conditions are dire for many of the sector's four million workers, the vast majority of whom are women whose monthly pay starts at 8,300 taka ($75).

A government-appointed panel raised wages on Tuesday by 56.25 percent to 12,500 taka, but striking workers demand a near-tripling of the wage to 23,000 taka.

"Police opened fire. She was shot in the head... She died in a car on the way to a hospital," said Mohammad Jamal, the husband of 23-year-old sewing machine operator Anjuara Khatun, a mother of two.

Wage protests pose a major challenge to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has ruled the country with an iron fist since 2009. A resurgent opposition has challenged her rule as she readies for elections due before January.

The South Asian country's 3,500 garment factories account for around 85 percent of its $55 billion in annual exports, supplying many of the world's top brands including Levi's, Zara and H&M.

But conditions are dire for many of the sector's four million workers, the vast majority of whom are women whose monthly pay starts at 8,300 taka ($75).

A government-appointed panel raised wages on Tuesday by 56.25 percent to 12,500 taka, but striking workers demand a near-tripling of the wage to 23,000 taka.

"Police opened fire. She was shot in the head... She died in a car on the way to a hospital," said Mohammad Jamal, the husband of 23-year-old sewing machine operator Anjuara Khatun, a mother of two.

Wage protests pose a major challenge to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has ruled the country with an iron fist since 2009. A resurgent opposition has challenged her rule as she readies for elections due before January.

publication croisée depuis : https://slrpnk.net/post/3791125

Excerpts :

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Publicly presented as climate-friendly legislation, the CRM Act has turned into an “open bar” for industry, which has actively lobbied to make sure that the metals they were interested in would enjoy the same public support and environmental deregulations as those that are really useful for the climate transition.

Corporations and lobby groups from the defence and aeronautics sectors such as Airbus, Safran or ASD have been particularly active at all stages of the CRMA legislative process, through meetings with decision-makers, events and sometimes opaque working groups. They have been actively supported in their lobbying by allies within the Commission itself (notably Commissioner Thierry Breton and DG DEFIS), as well as by Member States such as France and Spain.

The defence and aerospace sectors have made sure in particular that the official EU list of critical minerals would indeed include aluminium and titanium, two metals that are essential to their interests but of limited use (especially titanium) for the climate transition.

The criteria for classifying minerals as “critical” have been made more flexible, and there are provisions allowing new minerals to be added to the list of “strategic” minerals in the future without public scrutiny.

The CRM Act contains no provisions for discriminating between the different uses of so- called “critical” minerals or for prioritising “green” uses of metals over problematic sectors.

(…)

An ‘open bar’ for the defenceand aerospace industry. Almost all of the public conversation around the CRM Act has revolved around the urgent need of minerals for the green transition. In reality, if you listened closely to industry insiders and EU leaders, the Act is about a lot more than that. It is also about fostering the digital transition, supporting European competitiveness in general, and also boosting the defence and aerospace sectors. The latter industry has been extremely active and influential with regards to the CRM legislation. (…) Furthermore, for the moment, the CRM Act does not impede exploration and extractive projects in protected areas, Natura2000 sites, the Arctic, and the deep sea. The argument of the need for a green transition is even used to weaken

The climate crisis and the general consensus on the need for a secure supply of minerals critical to the green transition, seems to have given the mining industry a new aura of respectability, which is evidenced by the smooth adoption of the EU Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA). Everybody seems to agree that we need more minerals, and more mines including perhaps in Europe, even if it means bringing more support to corporate players and rolling back environmental safeguards. This report reveals that industrial sectors which have little to do with the energy transition – most prominently the defence and aerospace industry – have been allowed to shape the CRMA to reflect their own interests, often in direct contradiction to the EU’s climate objectives and to the image of the EU as a peace project.

At the Commission, the Council and the Parliament, the adoption of the CRMA has turned into an open bar for industry lobbyists. Under the radar, a number of new minerals such as aluminium and titanium have been deemed “strategic” at their behest, even though their use in the energy transition is modest at best. Nevertheless, they will benefit from the same financial support and environmental deregulations. Supporting arms manufacturers and exporters has been made equivalent to putting Europe on the path of a carbon free future. Under the convenient pretext of the energy transition, the European Union is preparing to write a blank cheque to mining companies and questionable industries without asking the necessary questions about which minerals are actually critical and for which uses and which objectives, and without prioritising and discriminating between uses.

This cannot but ultimately jeopardise the EU’s climate objectives. Significant resources will be wasted on supporting sectors that have nothing to do with the Green Deal, or which have significant climate impacts that are in direct contradiction to its objectives. This will increase the cost of change for taxpayers and consumers. The uncritical pressure to open new mines, which will inevitably trigger social resistance, will also undermine the social acceptability and legitimacy of the Green Deal both in Europe and in the rest of the world.

Weeks of mounting political tension have erupted into protests and bloodshed in Bangladesh, leaving the country on edge ahead of general elections due in January.

Several senior opposition leaders were arrested last Sunday, a day after a massive rally against the government turned violent, resulting in the deaths of at least two opposition supporters.

The rejuvenated main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has intensified protests calling on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign.

The BNP and its allies want a neutral interim government ahead of the general elections, arguing that free and fair polls are not possible under Ms Hasina. The government led by her Awami League has rejected this demand.

The BNP rally in the capital Dhaka attracted tens of thousands of people - one of the biggest gatherings seen there in a decade.

But things soon turned violent.

Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas while opposition supporters threw stones and bricks. Some roads in the capital were strewn with exploded sound grenades, tear gas shells and broken glass.

Both sides accuse each other of starting the violence.

---

Happening at the same time in Bangladesh Striking Bangladesh garment workers clash with police as factories reopen

Striking Bangladesh garment workers clashed with police on Saturday near the capital as factories reopened in defiance of a protest campaign demanding a near-tripling of wages.

Bangladesh's 3,500 garment factories account for around 85 percent of the South Asian country's $55 billion annual exports, supplying many of the world's top names in fashion including Levi's, Zara and H&M.

But conditions are dire for many of the sector's four million workers, the vast majority of whom are women whose monthly wages start at 8,300 taka ($75).