Experts warn that care home provider could soon collapse into administration The crisis at troubled care home provider Southern Cross has deepened after the company slashed its rent payments in an effort to keep its 750 residential homes running. Healthcare specialists warned on Wednesday that Southern Cross could collapse within months if it cannot hammer out a credible restructuring plan with its banks and landlords. The ongoing turmoil has left the company’s 31,000 elderly residents and their families facing an uncertain future , prompting fierce criticism of its management and strategy. “Southern Cross certainly could go under,” William Laing, health economist at Laing and Buisson, told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme, speaking after Southern Cross unilaterally decided to hold back 30% of its rent payments over the next four months. Southern Cross has been in serious trouble for several months, and has already breached key conditions imposed by its bankers. It has blamed public spending cutbacks for reducing its earnings from local councils – a key source of revenue, along with rising rents and increased care costs. City analysts, though, say the company is paying the price for poor decisions taken when it was owned by a private equity company. Laing believes that most of Southern Cross’s care homes would keep running if it slumped into administration, as they are more valuable as operating business than empty buildings. There is concern, though, that local authorities may struggle if they were suddenly handed control of the company’s sites. Peter Hay, the president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, said the situation at Southern Cross was extremely worrying, and suggested that a small number of its homes may have to close. However, he moved to reassure residents and their families. “Underneath there is a viable business that can be structured … there is no need to talk about mass closure, or the mass movement of people in these homes.” Southern Cross was floated on the stock market in 2006 by private equity firm Blackstone. Southern Cross had enthusiastically followed a strategy of buying up nursing homes, then selling them onto landlords, and relying on affordable borrowing costs to pay its rents. This approach began to unravel in 2007, when the credit crunch struck. Laing criticised the company for effectively mortgaging itself to the hilt in the run-up to the financial crisis. “The company did make some strategic errors,” he said, while Hay claimed that the company had failed in the past to make the care and security of its residents its top priority. The GMB union has been a vocal critic of Southern Cross, and on Wednesday it said that the UK government must now step in. “These are not factories facing closure, they are a vital part of the social fabric of every community,” said GMB general secretary Paul Kenny. Twenty four MPs have signed a recent early day motion urging ministers to get ready to intervene in the Southern Cross debacle. Rent payments deferral Southern Cross itself warned last month that it is now in a “critical financial position”, after seeing rent payments rise faster than its income. The firm, which leases most of its properties, estimated that the number of admissions from local authorities has dropped by 15% over the past year. On Tuesday it announced that it will defer 30% of its monthly cash rental payments from 1 June to 30 September 2011, creating what it called a “summer platform” during which it could agree a restructuring package. “The objective will be to emerge with a stable and sustainable business model for the continuing care of our residents. Our primary concern is the continuity of care to all our 31,000 residents,” said chairman Christopher Fisher. However, none of its landlords have yet said whether they back the plan. Southern Cross made a pre-tax loss of £310.9m in the six months to 31 March, and its auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers recently warned there was “significant doubt” over its ability to keep running . Southern Cross Healthcare Healthcare industry Social care Long-term care Health Older people Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Experts warn that care home provider could soon collapse into administration The crisis at troubled care home provider Southern Cross has deepened after the company slashed its rent payments in an effort to keep its 750 residential homes running. Healthcare specialists warned on Wednesday that Southern Cross could collapse within months if it cannot hammer out a credible restructuring plan with its banks and landlords. The ongoing turmoil has left the company’s 31,000 elderly residents and their families facing an uncertain future , prompting fierce criticism of its management and strategy. “Southern Cross certainly could go under,” William Laing, health economist at Laing and Buisson, told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme, speaking after Southern Cross unilaterally decided to hold back 30% of its rent payments over the next four months. Southern Cross has been in serious trouble for several months, and has already breached key conditions imposed by its bankers. It has blamed public spending cutbacks for reducing its earnings from local councils – a key source of revenue, along with rising rents and increased care costs. City analysts, though, say the company is paying the price for poor decisions taken when it was owned by a private equity company. Laing believes that most of Southern Cross’s care homes would keep running if it slumped into administration, as they are more valuable as operating business than empty buildings. There is concern, though, that local authorities may struggle if they were suddenly handed control of the company’s sites. Peter Hay, the president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, said the situation at Southern Cross was extremely worrying, and suggested that a small number of its homes may have to close. However, he moved to reassure residents and their families. “Underneath there is a viable business that can be structured … there is no need to talk about mass closure, or the mass movement of people in these homes.” Southern Cross was floated on the stock market in 2006 by private equity firm Blackstone. Southern Cross had enthusiastically followed a strategy of buying up nursing homes, then selling them onto landlords, and relying on affordable borrowing costs to pay its rents. This approach began to unravel in 2007, when the credit crunch struck. Laing criticised the company for effectively mortgaging itself to the hilt in the run-up to the financial crisis. “The company did make some strategic errors,” he said, while Hay claimed that the company had failed in the past to make the care and security of its residents its top priority. The GMB union has been a vocal critic of Southern Cross, and on Wednesday it said that the UK government must now step in. “These are not factories facing closure, they are a vital part of the social fabric of every community,” said GMB general secretary Paul Kenny. Twenty four MPs have signed a recent early day motion urging ministers to get ready to intervene in the Southern Cross debacle. Rent payments deferral Southern Cross itself warned last month that it is now in a “critical financial position”, after seeing rent payments rise faster than its income. The firm, which leases most of its properties, estimated that the number of admissions from local authorities has dropped by 15% over the past year. On Tuesday it announced that it will defer 30% of its monthly cash rental payments from 1 June to 30 September 2011, creating what it called a “summer platform” during which it could agree a restructuring package. “The objective will be to emerge with a stable and sustainable business model for the continuing care of our residents. Our primary concern is the continuity of care to all our 31,000 residents,” said chairman Christopher Fisher. However, none of its landlords have yet said whether they back the plan. Southern Cross made a pre-tax loss of £310.9m in the six months to 31 March, and its auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers recently warned there was “significant doubt” over its ability to keep running . Southern Cross Healthcare Healthcare industry Social care Long-term care Health Older people Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Experts warn that care home provider could soon collapse into administration The crisis at troubled care home provider Southern Cross has deepened after the company slashed its rent payments in an effort to keep its 750 residential homes running. Healthcare specialists warned on Wednesday that Southern Cross could collapse within months if it cannot hammer out a credible restructuring plan with its banks and landlords. The ongoing turmoil has left the company’s 31,000 elderly residents and their families facing an uncertain future , prompting fierce criticism of its management and strategy. “Southern Cross certainly could go under,” William Laing, health economist at Laing and Buisson, told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme, speaking after Southern Cross unilaterally decided to hold back 30% of its rent payments over the next four months. Southern Cross has been in serious trouble for several months, and has already breached key conditions imposed by its bankers. It has blamed public spending cutbacks for reducing its earnings from local councils – a key source of revenue, along with rising rents and increased care costs. City analysts, though, say the company is paying the price for poor decisions taken when it was owned by a private equity company. Laing believes that most of Southern Cross’s care homes would keep running if it slumped into administration, as they are more valuable as operating business than empty buildings. There is concern, though, that local authorities may struggle if they were suddenly handed control of the company’s sites. Peter Hay, the president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, said the situation at Southern Cross was extremely worrying, and suggested that a small number of its homes may have to close. However, he moved to reassure residents and their families. “Underneath there is a viable business that can be structured … there is no need to talk about mass closure, or the mass movement of people in these homes.” Southern Cross was floated on the stock market in 2006 by private equity firm Blackstone. Southern Cross had enthusiastically followed a strategy of buying up nursing homes, then selling them onto landlords, and relying on affordable borrowing costs to pay its rents. This approach began to unravel in 2007, when the credit crunch struck. Laing criticised the company for effectively mortgaging itself to the hilt in the run-up to the financial crisis. “The company did make some strategic errors,” he said, while Hay claimed that the company had failed in the past to make the care and security of its residents its top priority. The GMB union has been a vocal critic of Southern Cross, and on Wednesday it said that the UK government must now step in. “These are not factories facing closure, they are a vital part of the social fabric of every community,” said GMB general secretary Paul Kenny. Twenty four MPs have signed a recent early day motion urging ministers to get ready to intervene in the Southern Cross debacle. Rent payments deferral Southern Cross itself warned last month that it is now in a “critical financial position”, after seeing rent payments rise faster than its income. The firm, which leases most of its properties, estimated that the number of admissions from local authorities has dropped by 15% over the past year. On Tuesday it announced that it will defer 30% of its monthly cash rental payments from 1 June to 30 September 2011, creating what it called a “summer platform” during which it could agree a restructuring package. “The objective will be to emerge with a stable and sustainable business model for the continuing care of our residents. Our primary concern is the continuity of care to all our 31,000 residents,” said chairman Christopher Fisher. However, none of its landlords have yet said whether they back the plan. Southern Cross made a pre-tax loss of £310.9m in the six months to 31 March, and its auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers recently warned there was “significant doubt” over its ability to keep running . Southern Cross Healthcare Healthcare industry Social care Long-term care Health Older people Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Experts warn that care home provider could soon collapse into administration The crisis at troubled care home provider Southern Cross has deepened after the company slashed its rent payments in an effort to keep its 750 residential homes running. Healthcare specialists warned on Wednesday that Southern Cross could collapse within months if it cannot hammer out a credible restructuring plan with its banks and landlords. The ongoing turmoil has left the company’s 31,000 elderly residents and their families facing an uncertain future , prompting fierce criticism of its management and strategy. “Southern Cross certainly could go under,” William Laing, health economist at Laing and Buisson, told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme, speaking after Southern Cross unilaterally decided to hold back 30% of its rent payments over the next four months. Southern Cross has been in serious trouble for several months, and has already breached key conditions imposed by its bankers. It has blamed public spending cutbacks for reducing its earnings from local councils – a key source of revenue, along with rising rents and increased care costs. City analysts, though, say the company is paying the price for poor decisions taken when it was owned by a private equity company. Laing believes that most of Southern Cross’s care homes would keep running if it slumped into administration, as they are more valuable as operating business than empty buildings. There is concern, though, that local authorities may struggle if they were suddenly handed control of the company’s sites. Peter Hay, the president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, said the situation at Southern Cross was extremely worrying, and suggested that a small number of its homes may have to close. However, he moved to reassure residents and their families. “Underneath there is a viable business that can be structured … there is no need to talk about mass closure, or the mass movement of people in these homes.” Southern Cross was floated on the stock market in 2006 by private equity firm Blackstone. Southern Cross had enthusiastically followed a strategy of buying up nursing homes, then selling them onto landlords, and relying on affordable borrowing costs to pay its rents. This approach began to unravel in 2007, when the credit crunch struck. Laing criticised the company for effectively mortgaging itself to the hilt in the run-up to the financial crisis. “The company did make some strategic errors,” he said, while Hay claimed that the company had failed in the past to make the care and security of its residents its top priority. The GMB union has been a vocal critic of Southern Cross, and on Wednesday it said that the UK government must now step in. “These are not factories facing closure, they are a vital part of the social fabric of every community,” said GMB general secretary Paul Kenny. Twenty four MPs have signed a recent early day motion urging ministers to get ready to intervene in the Southern Cross debacle. Rent payments deferral Southern Cross itself warned last month that it is now in a “critical financial position”, after seeing rent payments rise faster than its income. The firm, which leases most of its properties, estimated that the number of admissions from local authorities has dropped by 15% over the past year. On Tuesday it announced that it will defer 30% of its monthly cash rental payments from 1 June to 30 September 2011, creating what it called a “summer platform” during which it could agree a restructuring package. “The objective will be to emerge with a stable and sustainable business model for the continuing care of our residents. Our primary concern is the continuity of care to all our 31,000 residents,” said chairman Christopher Fisher. However, none of its landlords have yet said whether they back the plan. Southern Cross made a pre-tax loss of £310.9m in the six months to 31 March, and its auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers recently warned there was “significant doubt” over its ability to keep running . Southern Cross Healthcare Healthcare industry Social care Long-term care Health Older people Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Experts warn that care home provider could soon collapse into administration The crisis at troubled care home provider Southern Cross has deepened after the company slashed its rent payments in an effort to keep its 750 residential homes running. Healthcare specialists warned on Wednesday that Southern Cross could collapse within months if it cannot hammer out a credible restructuring plan with its banks and landlords. The ongoing turmoil has left the company’s 31,000 elderly residents and their families facing an uncertain future , prompting fierce criticism of its management and strategy. “Southern Cross certainly could go under,” William Laing, health economist at Laing and Buisson, told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme, speaking after Southern Cross unilaterally decided to hold back 30% of its rent payments over the next four months. Southern Cross has been in serious trouble for several months, and has already breached key conditions imposed by its bankers. It has blamed public spending cutbacks for reducing its earnings from local councils – a key source of revenue, along with rising rents and increased care costs. City analysts, though, say the company is paying the price for poor decisions taken when it was owned by a private equity company. Laing believes that most of Southern Cross’s care homes would keep running if it slumped into administration, as they are more valuable as operating business than empty buildings. There is concern, though, that local authorities may struggle if they were suddenly handed control of the company’s sites. Peter Hay, the president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, said the situation at Southern Cross was extremely worrying, and suggested that a small number of its homes may have to close. However, he moved to reassure residents and their families. “Underneath there is a viable business that can be structured … there is no need to talk about mass closure, or the mass movement of people in these homes.” Southern Cross was floated on the stock market in 2006 by private equity firm Blackstone. Southern Cross had enthusiastically followed a strategy of buying up nursing homes, then selling them onto landlords, and relying on affordable borrowing costs to pay its rents. This approach began to unravel in 2007, when the credit crunch struck. Laing criticised the company for effectively mortgaging itself to the hilt in the run-up to the financial crisis. “The company did make some strategic errors,” he said, while Hay claimed that the company had failed in the past to make the care and security of its residents its top priority. The GMB union has been a vocal critic of Southern Cross, and on Wednesday it said that the UK government must now step in. “These are not factories facing closure, they are a vital part of the social fabric of every community,” said GMB general secretary Paul Kenny. Twenty four MPs have signed a recent early day motion urging ministers to get ready to intervene in the Southern Cross debacle. Rent payments deferral Southern Cross itself warned last month that it is now in a “critical financial position”, after seeing rent payments rise faster than its income. The firm, which leases most of its properties, estimated that the number of admissions from local authorities has dropped by 15% over the past year. On Tuesday it announced that it will defer 30% of its monthly cash rental payments from 1 June to 30 September 2011, creating what it called a “summer platform” during which it could agree a restructuring package. “The objective will be to emerge with a stable and sustainable business model for the continuing care of our residents. Our primary concern is the continuity of care to all our 31,000 residents,” said chairman Christopher Fisher. However, none of its landlords have yet said whether they back the plan. Southern Cross made a pre-tax loss of £310.9m in the six months to 31 March, and its auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers recently warned there was “significant doubt” over its ability to keep running . Southern Cross Healthcare Healthcare industry Social care Long-term care Health Older people Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk
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• Click F5 to refresh and post your thoughts below • Whistleblower Blazer ‘sacked’ • Fifa must postpone election, says FA chairman 9.30am: And so the unquestioning support for Blatter continues. The man from Benin announces: “We must be proud to belong to Fifa. We must massively express our support to President Blatter. Please applaud!” Cue loud applause. 9.25am: Now it’s the turn of a delegate from Haiti, who makes a candy-floss sweet five-minute paean to Blatter. As does the head of the Congo FA, who makes also makes a direct criticism of the English FA: “He who accuses must provide evidence,” he fumes. Has he been living on Mars in the past week? And there’s more: “A single candidate sometimes proves that people are satisfied with that candidate,” says the Congo FA man, to loud applause from the floor. 9.15am: FA chairman David Bernstein is called to the stage and makes a short – but direct speech – calling for a delay in the Fifa presidential election. “A lot of people have warned me I shouldn’t be making this speech,” he begins, “but Fifa is a democratic organisation” [cue no laughter at all from the delegates]. Bernstein continues: “The election has turned into a one-horse race. Only with a contested election will the winner have…a proper, credible mandate. We are faced by an unsatisfactory situation & universal criticism from governments, sponsors, media and public.” He is applauded by roughly three people as he leaves the stage. 9.10am: This from our reporter David Conn: Swiss FA president is saying sports bodies are here because it is welcoming. Demonstrators outside say it’s for tax breaks. Not everyone outside is demonstrating, mind. This from Richard Conway of Sky Sports: “Page 3 girls from The Sun offering cash to FIFA members on arrival.” 9.00am: Fifa’s general secretary Jérôme Valcke, making his first public appearance since his claims that Qatar “bought” the 2022 World Cup were made public, takes a roll call of members at the congress. “Afghanistan: present; Albania: present …” An hypnotic 10 minutes later he breaks the torpor by announcing, “The 208 member associations are all present, Mr President.” Yes, even Libya. Cue applause from Fifa delegates. 8.45am: Sepp Blatter opens the final day of the 61st Fifa congress with his usual rambling platitudes and appeals to Fifa’s ‘family’, and a nod, at least, to the choppy waters that Fifa suffered in recent days. “The Fifa ship must be brought back on the right route,” says Blatter. “And I am the captain. And I can only do it with your help.” Good morning and welcome to our live blog on the Fifa presidential election, writes Sean Ingle. Over the next 10 hours or so we will bring you the latest news and reaction from the final day of the Fifa congress, plus analysis and comment from our reporters David Conn and Matt Scott on the ground. Yesterday the Football Association proposed that the election be postponed , but few rallied round their tattered flag; Michel Platini declined to risk a last-minute challenge to Sepp Blatter , and Concacaf’s acting president, Lisle Austin, first attempted to sack the whistleblower and Warner’s chief accuser, Chuck Blazer, only for the confederation to issue a statement an hour later saying he had no authority to do so. So what will today bring? The unopposed election of Sepp Blatter, sure, but perhaps the odd moment of discomfort for Fifa along the way too. Fifa Sepp Blatter Sean Ingle Paul Doyle guardian.co.uk
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A cyclone in Western Australia in February disrupted iron ore shipments while another cyclone and flooding in eastern Australia last November disrupted production at a majority of coal mines Unprecedented flooding and storms that hit key exports such as coal and iron ore caused Australia’s economy to shrink by 1.2% in the first quarter of this year compared with the last quarter of 2010, government data showed Wednesday. It was the largest quarterly contraction in GDP since 1991, when Australia experienced its last recession. It is also the first time that GDP has fallen since the last quarter of 2008, at the height of the global financial crisis. Treasurer Wayne Swan said he was not surprised by data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics that showed flooding and cyclones had slowed annual growth to 1 % through March 2011. That was down from 2.7% in calendar year 2010. Lost production totaled A12bn (£7.7bn), with A$6.7bn of that in the March quarter alone. Swan predicted a “strong rebound” in the quarter ending in June, due to the underlying strength of the economy. A cyclone in Western Australia state in February disrupted iron ore shipments while another cyclone and flooding in eastern Australia last November disrupted production at a majority of coal mines while damaging railway lines and ports. While Australia was the only wealthy country to avoid recession during the global economic crisis, the data point to a weak spot in an economy heavily reliant on Chinese hunger for raw materials. China and other emerging Asian economies are major importers of coal, Australia’s biggest export. Opposition Treasury spokesman Joe Hockey said while the result was expected, it also demonstrated that the economy was not robust enough to withstand government plans to impose new anti-pollution taxes on mining company profits or on high income earners to pay for flood reconstruction. “What is clear is this – if the mining boom has a cough, the Australian economy can suffer pneumonia,” Hockey said. Global economy Australia Economics guardian.co.uk
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Scotland Yard launches ‘cyber flying squad’ as British public warned to be more alert to online criminality The British public needs to snap out of its complacency about cybercrime or risk becoming victim to increasingly sophisticated criminal networks that are operating online, the head of the country’s e-crime unit has warned. Janet Williams, who takes the lead on cybercrime at the Association of Chief Police Officers, said people seemed to think that being technophobic was quaint and slightly comical. She was drumming into her detectives that this was no longer acceptable and that the public needed to change its way of thinking too, she said. “What worries me is that people still think of cybercrime and cyber-attacks as being a little bit like maths. If you go to a dinner party, someone might say that they don’t really get maths and everyone laughs and titters. “Not being able to understand it is the equivalent of not being able to read. “It is unacceptable now and on that basis I have been saying to detectives that if they don’t understand what is happening with cybercrime then they shouldn’t be a detective. I really mean that.” Williams added: “Most of my working life has been in CID and counter-terrorism. I don’t think that in the future detectives will be equipped to be able to deal with these things if they don’t understand the nature of cybercrime and I think that multinational organisations, public and private organisations, need to ensure that they understand the threats to their organisation.” Asked whether she thought the public also needed to make more effort to understand the dangers, she replied: “Absolutely.” Williams, one of the most senior officers at Scotland Yard, said business leaders should be ensuring that their firms were properly protected against the theft of valuable intellectual property. “Chief executive officers need to be personally reassured the controls and protections are in place. Intellectual property rights are very important to the UK.” She said she was particularly concerned that industry and universities had not completely understood the new landscape. “[They] need to think it through. I don’t think there is sufficient appreciation of the risks,” she said. Williams has set up a “cyber flying squad” based at Scotland Yard, and said her team of 35 detectives and specialists were having significant success. But she conceded that she needed the help of some of the biggest multinational corporations. Most had sophisticated cyber defences and the ability to track criminals around the world. In many cases, she said, “their intelligence systems are better than ours”. Williams has asked the Home Office to consider pressing for changes to the system of commission rogatoires – the letters of request for legal or judicial assistance sent by one country to another. With online criminals able to move across borders in the blink of an eye, police have found that the traditional ways of seeking assistance from other countries are outdated. “We have made recommendations to the Home Office,” Williams said. “We have outlined the nature of the problem. But it is up to them to find a solution.” During last week’s visit by the US president, Barack Obama, the UK ratified the Budapest convention on cybercrime, which should speed up investigations in some European countries and the US. Reliable figures about the scale of crime online are difficult to assess, but GCHQ, the government communications headquarters at Cheltenham, estimates that “a figure well into billions” is credible. One study earlier this year estimated that cybercrime costs the UK more than £27bn a year. Police know of hundreds of hacking forums, on which thousands of stolen UK credit card details are available for sale for as little as £1.50. Whitehall officials said that there was a “noticeable spike” in the use of such forums on Friday and Saturday nights, possibly because people returning home from an evening out might have their guard down and were surfing sites they would otherwise ignore. Internet scams • Nick Webber, 19, was jailed for five years this year for masterminding a multimillion-pound “cyber supermarket” where criminals could order stolen credit card details or learn how to make illegal drugs – and even bombs. Webber, of Hampshire, ran GhostMarket.net, which at its peak had more than 8,000 users. He was caught out by a ”compromised” credit card. • In 2005, an audacious hi-tech scam to plunder £220m from a London-based Japanese bank was foiled at the 11th hour. The Israeli gang was reported to have hidden spy software on the bank’s computers to steal passwords of accounts. • The bank accounts of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Oprah Winfrey were targeted by an internet scam artist based in New York in 2002. Abraham Abdallah, a restaurant dishwasher, was caught trying to transfer $10m into his account. Jason Rodrigues Hacking Data and computer security Internet Identity fraud Police Crime Consumer affairs Scams Nick Hopkins guardian.co.uk
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International Atomic Energy Agency report says weak emergency protocols intensified crisis after Japan earthquake International nuclear inspectors have criticised the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant for failing to prepare for a tsunami of the size that slammed into the facility on 11 March, sparking the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl. In a preliminary report issued on Wednesday, inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] said Tokyo Electric Power [Tepco] had underestimated the risk of a giant tsunami, and urged authorities to closely monitor the health of plant workers and members of the public. The team, led by Britain’s chief nuclear safety official, Mike Weightman, said lack of preparedness had contributed to the crisis at Fukushima, where workers are still trying to restore cooling systems to reactors, three of which suffered meltdowns soon after they were struck by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and 14-metre tsunami. Weightman dismissed speculation that the earthquake had caused substantial damage before the tsunami arrived. “In terms of the cause it is clear – the direct cause was a tsunami, associated with an earthquake, of tremendous size,” he told reporters. The three-page report said Tepco had failed to heed warnings by government experts and its own scientists of the possibility of waves big enough to breach the plant’s 5.7-metre protective wall. “We had a playbook, but it didn’t work,” said Tatsujiro Suzuki, the vice chairman of Japan’s Atomic Energy Commission. The IAEA report said: “The tsunami hazard for several sites was underestimated. Nuclear plant designers and operators should appropriately evaluate and provide protection against the risks of all natural hazards.” The inspectors said the global nuclear industry should regularly review the risks posed by natural disasters and “harden” its ability to respond to emergencies. They said “simple, effective [and] robust equipment should be available [at all nuclear plants] to restore essential safety functions in a timely way for severe accident conditions”. Despite the criticism, Tepco will have been encouraged by the IAEA’s appraisal of its post-disaster response. “The response on the site by dedicated, determined and expert staff, under extremely arduous conditions has been exemplary and resulted in the best approach to securing safety given the exceptional circumstances,” it said. The team delivered its report to the prime minister, Naoto Kan, who was expected to face a no-confidence motion in parliament later on Wednesday, over what some regard as his poor handling of the nuclear crisis. Voting on the motion will take place on Thursday. Kan is expected to survive, unless the main opposition party can persuade enough rebels in his own party to vote for the motion. The IAEA inspectors will present their findings at a meeting of member-state ministers in Vienna later this month. The need to improve their ability to withstand earthquakes and tsunamis could lead to more nuclear plant closures in Japan while they undergo maintenance work. In the worst-case scenario, all of Japan’s 54 reactors could be closed by the middle of next year, according to some reports, removing almost a third of the country’s power generation and raising the possibility of long-term power rationing. The IAEA inspectors urged Japan to step up efforts to monitor the health of Fukushima workers and people living nearby. The accident has forced more than 80,000 people living near the plant to evacuate their homes, while concern is rising over the effects of accumulated radiation on the health of those living in the wider Fukushima region. While it described the evacuation and attempts to protect the public as “impressive and extremely well-organised,” the team said “a suitable and timely follow-up programme on public and worker exposures, and health monitoring would be beneficial”. Japan disaster Japan Nuclear power Natural disasters and extreme weather Justin McCurry guardian.co.uk
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Female-centred comedies such as Bridesmaids are great, but male-run Hollywood and male-dominated audiences just don’t get the joke When Harry Met Sally , possibly the last great American comedy to depict men and women not just as adults but as vaguely compatible, famously claimed that men and women can’t be friends. While my respect for this film or, indeed, any film in which the main characters do karaoke to The Surrey With a Fringe on Top will always be sky high, on this point I have long disagreed with the film’s writer, Nora Ephron . I have plenty of male friends with whom “the sex thing”, as Harry memorably refers to it, has never got in the way, but maybe that’s just because none of them know the lyrics to Oklahoma! But Ephron and I were both wrong: not only can men and women not be friends, they can barely stand to be in the same movie with one another. This summer, ye olde battle of the sexes is being played out in cinemas with The Hangover Part II in one corner, and, for the ladies, Bridesmaids in the other. The Hangover Part II is hilarious only in its disregard for its audience: it is exactly the same as The Hangover, with the only nods to novelty being that Bangkok has been swapped for Vegas, a monkey for a baby and a missing brother-in-law for a missing groom. Bridesmaids opened in the US two weeks ago with heavy responsibility on its taffeta shoulders. “Bridesmaids: Women Can Be Funny Too?” snarked the snarky website Gawker . Happily, Bridesmaids, which is smart and joyful, has proved that having a vagina is no bar to having comic timing. Something, though, is missing from both movies: the other gender. One is almost entirely female and the other – as is usually the way with American comedies – is almost entirely male. This is odd in itself (audiences in the 1930s and 40s could cope with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant snapping out one-liners on the same screen) but it’s the way these movies effect gender segregation that underlines the real problem female comic actors face today. In Bridesmaids, the men are sidelined but have personalities and pose no threat to the bond between the women. In The Hangover Part II, the women have no roles other than the shrewish wife and the hot if silent babe, and only when the men get away from their wives and girlfriends can they be themselves – which in this film involves (SPOILER ALERT) having sex with a male prostitute. In a gymnastic leap of logic, the movie uses this jaunt as proof that the character is worthy of his bride. Now, to look too closely at the gender politics of The Hangover Part II is to risk getting butterfly fragments in one’s eye as it splits on the wheel. But they do highlight a common trope in American comedies: the adult relationships are not so much husband and wife as Mean Mommy and Infantilised Man Child. Another comedy opened last week in the US that’s weirdly similar to The Hangover Part II in that respect: Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris . Gil, played by Owen Wilson, is only able to write his novel when he gets away from his horrible fiancee, played by Rachel McAdams. Wilson and McAdams also starred in Wedding Crashers . Midnight in Paris could almost be that film’s sequel as they are playing the same parts: she is the daughter of wealthy parents; he is Owen Wilson. But McAdams has morphed from the sweet thing in Wedding Crashers to the dream-crushing bitch that, according to American comedies, women become once they ensnare their man. Two more films out this summer, Crazy Stupid Love and The Change-Up , are also predicated on the idea that life as a single man is the dream and life as a married man is equivalent to castration. It’s hard to know who should be more insulted by the cliche: women for being portrayed as humourless bitches or men for getting the overgrown baby role. For too long, American comedies have struggled to conceive of a role for women other than soul-sucking wife or smoking hot chick. This is partly because only 17% of directors, producers and writers in Hollywood are women, according to a recent survey, and films that feature women in full possession of a brain are pretty much always written or directed by women. It would be easy to blame Judd Apatow , creator of the bromance genre, for this trope, and some have seen Bridesmaids, which he produced, as his atonement. But Apatow’s biggest success, Knocked Up , emphasised that the misbehaving men are wrong and the complaining wife is totally right. Yet he, like all male comedy writers, reserves the funny lines for the men. “I’m a dude . . . so I lean men, just the way Spike Lee leans African American,” he told the New Yorker . Yet there is another factor and it’s not, contrary to Christopher Hitchens ‘s claim, that women aren’t funny, but that funny women seem to repel male audiences. Thus, female actors often get shunted into humourless roles. In the same New Yorker article, producer Michael Shamberg said: “If you make a guys’ comedy you can get the girls, but if you make a girls’ comedy the guys will go, ‘That’s just chick stuff.’” This is depressingly true. Despite excellent reviews for Bridesmaids, and terrible ones for The Hangover Part II, the former made less than a third of what the latter did in its opening weekend. And this is why Bridesmaids will be the exception and The Hangover Part II the rule. What do you know, Harry was right: the sex thing just got in the way. Judd Apatow United States Comedy Hadley Freeman guardian.co.uk
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