Last night’s downgrade of the US’ triple-A credit rating was the political equivalent of blood in the water for Republican presidential candidates, who immediately pounced on President Obama’s handling of the economy, reports Politico. A taste of the blood-letting: Michele Bachmann: “The United States has had a AAA credit rating…
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Finance ministers from G7 countries hold urgent talks to try to prevent loss of confidence in world’s biggest economy World leaders are battling to prevent panic from spreading across financial markets as the sudden downgrading of the US credit rating triggered fears of global turmoil when stock exchanges open. Finance ministers from the G7 leading industrial countries – many of them away on summer holiday – agreed to a series of urgent weekend telephone talks to try to prevent a loss of confidence in the world’s biggest economy. But the uncertainty grew when the Saudi market dropped a massive 5.5%. French finance minister Francois Baroin, whose country holds the G7 presidency, said he been in contact with colleagues for 24 hours. “We’ll be carefully watching the evolution of what might happen on Monday,” he said. Chancellor George Osborne, holidaying in California, held talks with his G7 counterparts and David Cameron, who is in Tuscany. Officials said Osborne would be ready to interrupt his holiday if a full G7 meeting was called. Treasury sources said the chancellor had been using the discussions to address the interconnected problems of the debt crisis in the eurozone as events unfolded in Washington. Osborne was reported to be urging richer eurozone states such as Germany and France to back the radical step of issuing so-called “eurobonds”, meaning they would underwrite the debt of poorer eurozone nations in return for gaining a formal say in the future running of their economies. The European Central Bank will hold a conference call of its governing council to discuss its response to the eurozone’s debt crisis, an ECB source said. Italy’s pledge to speed up austerity measures and whether the ECB should buy Italian government bonds are expected to be discussed. S&P’s downgrading of the US credit rating on Friday added to fears over debt levels and economic growth in the world’s biggest economy and in large European nations, like Italy and Spain. As the effect was felt across the globe, China, the largest foreign holder of US debt, issued an extraordinary demand that Washington change its economic ways and address its “debt addiction”. It said the rating reduction would be followed by more “devastating credit rating cuts” and global financial turbulence if the US failed to learn to “live within its means”. “China, the largest creditor of the world’s sole superpower, has every right to demand the United States address its structural debt problems and ensure the safety of China’s dollar assets,” it said. It also insisted the US should slash its “gigantic military expenditure and bloated social welfare costs”, and repeated its demand for a new global reserve currency to replace the dollar. In London, opinion was split between those who believed the markets would take the US credit decision in their stride and others who believed it could trigger a series of events that would do untold damage to the global financial system. Paul Dales, senior US economist at thinktank Capital Economics, said the loss of the AAA rating “shouldn’t be a complete disaster” and that any adverse reaction should prove temporary. However, he added: “The downgrade comes at a time when the financial markets and advanced economies are very fragile. The extra uncertainty could easily prolong the latest slide in equity prices. In the worse-case scenario, this could prove to be the trigger for another financial crisis that sends the US and other western economies back into recession.” Erik Britton, director of Fathom Financial Consulting, a City-based consultancy, said there was a fear that the US downgrade “will trigger a chain reaction across global bond markets that could culminate in an Italian or Spanish sovereign default and a systemic banking crisis”. He said that US government debt had been viewed as “risk free” by the markets, but that had now changed, meaning that the yields on US bonds would rise and their price would fall. Because other bonds would be similarly affected, massive problems would result for banks worldwide which would be left holding bonds of declining value. “A small further rise in the Italian government bond yield, which could be triggered by the US downgrade, would make a default there inevitable. And that would present a systemic threat to the global financial system that would make Lehmans look like a walk in the park,” said Britton. The Treasury said the US credit rating decision was a “complete vindication” for the government’s robust approach to cutting the deficit: “When this government came to power, Britain’s AAA rating was on negative outlook from S&P, but thanks to the decisions we’ve taken to deal with out debts and support a sustainable recovery our rating has been reaffirmed, helping to keep borrowing rates down for taxpayers, homeowners and businesses,” said a spokesman. But the shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, said the plan to reduce the deficit was not working because there was no growth in the economy. “The problem in Britain is that George Osborne’s plan is not working. By trying to go too far and too fast, confidence has been knocked and last year’s recovery has been choked off,” he said. Global economy United States US economy Europe Economics Euro Financial sector Market turmoil Stock markets Saudi Arabia France George Osborne David Cameron European Central Bank Economic policy Toby Helm Nils Pratley Tania Branigan guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …If you’re in the market for a car no one else has, try the Chevy Volt. GM’s July sales figures are out, and a piddling 125 Volts were sold. Writing for the Weekly Standard, Jonathan Last goes on to share his favorite bit of GM news: To keep up with…
Continue reading …A helicopter crash in Afghanistan’s eastern Wardak province has killed 31 US special operation troops and seven Afghan soldiers, Hamid Karzai said today. It was the highest number of casualties recorded in a single incident in the decade-long war. NATO confirmed the overnight crash and said it was conducting a…
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• Send your thoughts to alan.gardner.casual@guardian.co.uk • Click here to view our live scores service • Here for 26-league stats centre, with in-running tables • Go do some commenting on our Football League blog 54 min: Never mind their socks, Leeds’s metaphorical pants are now round their ankles. Their little behinds are being tanned! GOAL! Southampton 3-0 Leeds (Connolly 52) Ah, that’s another really good goal. Connolly was allowed space to turn on the edge of the box and he flipped the ball into the path of the lurking Lallana before ferreting his way into the box to pick up the return pass. The striker took a moment to compose himself, before stroking a low, side-footed effort into the far corner. 50 min: Well, what I can say for sure, is that Leeds’s socks are definitely up around the knees, where they should be. 49 min: Southampton corner. Cleared. “Hi Alan, this is my first message to the Guardian, and while I don’t care much for either Leeds or Southampton, I felt compelled to write in regarding your mention of metaphorical sock pulling. I was wondering whether it’s the socks that are metaphorical (since they would appear to be wearing real ones) or the act of pulling that is in fact metaphorical. Thoughts?” 47 min: Ross McCormack is then released into the area on the right. He does a bit of scampering and then unleashes a low shot that stings Davis’s palms, but nothing more. 46 min: Andy O’Brien lumps it forward and Leeds immediately lose possession. A smart tackle on Guly enables the visitors to have another go and this time the long ball forward effectively bisects the Southampton back two. Gradel goes motoring in behind them but a combination of luck and judgement between Fonte and Harding enables them to bundle the ball out of the Leeds man’s path and back to the goalkeeper. Peep! Peep! The two teams are back out and ready to engage in some association football. And away they go. Play up, everybody! Peep! Peep! The teams go in to suck on their oranges/have tea cups thrown at them/check their iPhones. It’s Southampton 2-0 Leeds , and I’ll be back to grind through the gears again in 15 minutes. Here’s a Football League blog . Go read it. 45+1 min: “It’s one of those scores, 2-0 – pretty awkward,” observes Iain Dowie in the Sky commentary box. He’s got a degree in chemical engineering, or whatever, so I won’t argue with him. And after comebacks from Brighton, Burnley and Reading today, no one should be chicken counting yet … 44 min: Kisnorbo is penalised for dragging over Lambert, who then takes the free-kick himself, firing a dipping effort over the wall and into the side netting. The home crowd thought that was in. It wasn’t. But it was close. 43 min: Are there any Swedes out there who can give po’ Bob Green are hug? “I live in Sweden these days… maybe ‘disappointment and despair’ is more relevant to my feelings each time I go to a game here… it’s usually worse than anything that Leeds have served up since the day that Woodgate was sold all those years ago. Oh dear, it’s 2-0 now… maybe not…” 41 min: The good news for Leeds is that Southampton haven’t mustered a shot on goal in that last 10 minutes. The bad news: they don’t need to. Still, the men in blue have at least pulled their metaphorical socks up. 39 min: Lallana picks the pocket of right-back Paul Connolly. He also takes the ball off him but can’t quite find space to initiate another attack. Leeds respond with Gradel wriggling through a gap on the left but his cross flies straight into the outstretched arms of Davis in goal. 36 min: The sun is dipping behind the west stand at St Mary’s, giving the pitch a two-tone look, split right down the middle. Southampton appear happy to let Leeds have the ball for a wee while. They haven’t looked like inflicting much damage with it so far. 34 min: Gradel forages with some success up the left, winning a corner with a deflected shot. But again Snodgrass’s delivery fails to find a team-mates in the box. 32 min: A Lallana volley from the edge of the area whistles past the far post. Leeds are being pwned right now. 31 min: Leeds look rattled, they’re being closed down very quickly by the home side and just cannot wrest back the momentum, particularly in midfield. If you were asked to pick which was the newly promoted side, you wouldn’t pick Southampton. 30 min: The first booking of the evening goes to Michael Brown. Surprised? 27 min: And Lonergan now makes a tremendous block to deny Lallana a second! Southampton streamed forward again, Guly pulling the ball back from the byline for Lallana to fire off a shot from inside the six-yard box … but Lonergan got his angles right and spread himself starfish-style to make the stop from close range. GOAL! Southampton 2-0 Leeds (Lallana 25) A sumptuous finish from the young Saints midfielder and Leeds’ misery deepens. Southampton sprung quickly into attack after regaining possession in midfield, with Lambert dropping deep and then picking out Lallana’s run into the box on the right … He checked back inside, then curled a left-footed effort precisely into the far corner, across the flailing Lonergan. There was a touch of the Terry Henrys about that finish, I tells thee. 24 min: Last man Andy O’Brien almost gets caught in possession by David Connolly but manages to nick the ball away from the Southampton striker at the last. 22 min: A clumsy challenge some 30 yards from the Southampton goal gives Leeds a free-kick in a central area. Snodgrass, though, nails the chance straight into the wall. That was pretty pap. 20 min: “I was about to email you and ask you to include an ‘auto-refresh’ button to click on… but as a Leeds fan and being a goal down I’m not so sure now… surely it won’t be another season of disappointment and despair for Leeds? Last season apart we’ve had too many of those in recent times.” I dunno, Bob Green. You haven’t been relegated in, what is it, at least four seasons now? 19 min: A dinked Gradel ball to the back post is shepherded out for a corner. Decent delivery that. The set-piece is cleared by Southamptonh via the aerial application of head to ball. 17 min: But Southampton break like quicksilver, with Adam Lallana gliding up the left wing, past one, two Leeds players before he finally runs out of space. 15 min: … though slow down a bit, pal, as my fitness has waned during the close season. Leeds have regained their shape after that ragged opening and are beginning to probe, though the likes of Max Gradel and Robert Snodgrass. 13 min: Southampton are forced to clear their lines following a corner to the visitors. There’s quite a lively atmosphere in the ground now. Hello football, my old friend … GOAL! Southampton 1-0 Leeds (Hammond 10) That’s a cracking strike from the Southampton captain, a left-footer that Le Tissier himself would have been proud of! Hammond picked the ball up in space in midfield before advancing on the box and whipping a low shot into the bottom left-hand corner. No one came to him, though Andy Lonergan may feel he should have got a hand on it. 8 min: At the other end, a Johnny Howson snap shot from inside the area is beaten out by Kelvin Davis. This is breathless stuff! 7 min: Brown, who’s a niggly little tinker if ever there was one, goes in late again. Still no cards from the ref, though. And there’s nearly an opening for Southampton, as Lambert plays in Guly, whose ball into the box slightly wrong foots Connolly at the back post. 5 min: Another foul, this time committed by Michael Brown in the centre circle, allows Southampton to launch an attack forward from the back. Leeds have started in tasty fashion [he says euphemistically]. 3 min: Lambert picks himself up to thump the free-kick into the wall … 2 min: Patrick Kisnorbo has gone crunching through David Connolly from behind and is a little lucky to get no more than a talking to. It’s a first appearance in over a season for Leeds Australian centre-half, who certainly looks a little rusty in the challenge. Peep! Ah, right, kick-off was a 5.20pm then. We’re off! So, football’s back, Southampton are back, Leeds, er, were back last year. There’s a Premier League revival feel to proceedings at St Mary’s, though these teams have met several times during their respective slides down the League ladder. Preamble: I think you’ll find plenty to pique your interest in the Saturday clockwatch … Teams Southampton: Davis, Richardson, Fonte, Martin, Harding, Do Prado, Hammond, Cork, Lallana, Connolly, Lambert. Subs: Bialkowski, Schneiderlin, Butterfield, Chaplow, De Ridder. Leeds: Lonergan, Connolly, Kisnorbo, O’Brien, O’Dea, Snodgrass, Brown, Clayton, Howson, Gradel, McCormack. Subs: Rachubka, Paynter, Sam, Nunez, Bromby. Referee: Kevin Wright (Cambridgeshire) Championship Southampton Leeds United Alan Gardner guardian.co.uk
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• Send your thoughts to alan.gardner.casual@guardian.co.uk • Click here to view our live scores service • Here for 26-league stats centre, with in-running tables • Go do some commenting on our Football League blog 54 min: Never mind their socks, Leeds’s metaphorical pants are now round their ankles. Their little behinds are being tanned! GOAL! Southampton 3-0 Leeds (Connolly 52) Ah, that’s another really good goal. Connolly was allowed space to turn on the edge of the box and he flipped the ball into the path of the lurking Lallana before ferreting his way into the box to pick up the return pass. The striker took a moment to compose himself, before stroking a low, side-footed effort into the far corner. 50 min: Well, what I can say for sure, is that Leeds’s socks are definitely up around the knees, where they should be. 49 min: Southampton corner. Cleared. “Hi Alan, this is my first message to the Guardian, and while I don’t care much for either Leeds or Southampton, I felt compelled to write in regarding your mention of metaphorical sock pulling. I was wondering whether it’s the socks that are metaphorical (since they would appear to be wearing real ones) or the act of pulling that is in fact metaphorical. Thoughts?” 47 min: Ross McCormack is then released into the area on the right. He does a bit of scampering and then unleashes a low shot that stings Davis’s palms, but nothing more. 46 min: Andy O’Brien lumps it forward and Leeds immediately lose possession. A smart tackle on Guly enables the visitors to have another go and this time the long ball forward effectively bisects the Southampton back two. Gradel goes motoring in behind them but a combination of luck and judgement between Fonte and Harding enables them to bundle the ball out of the Leeds man’s path and back to the goalkeeper. Peep! Peep! The two teams are back out and ready to engage in some association football. And away they go. Play up, everybody! Peep! Peep! The teams go in to suck on their oranges/have tea cups thrown at them/check their iPhones. It’s Southampton 2-0 Leeds , and I’ll be back to grind through the gears again in 15 minutes. Here’s a Football League blog . Go read it. 45+1 min: “It’s one of those scores, 2-0 – pretty awkward,” observes Iain Dowie in the Sky commentary box. He’s got a degree in chemical engineering, or whatever, so I won’t argue with him. And after comebacks from Brighton, Burnley and Reading today, no one should be chicken counting yet … 44 min: Kisnorbo is penalised for dragging over Lambert, who then takes the free-kick himself, firing a dipping effort over the wall and into the side netting. The home crowd thought that was in. It wasn’t. But it was close. 43 min: Are there any Swedes out there who can give po’ Bob Green are hug? “I live in Sweden these days… maybe ‘disappointment and despair’ is more relevant to my feelings each time I go to a game here… it’s usually worse than anything that Leeds have served up since the day that Woodgate was sold all those years ago. Oh dear, it’s 2-0 now… maybe not…” 41 min: The good news for Leeds is that Southampton haven’t mustered a shot on goal in that last 10 minutes. The bad news: they don’t need to. Still, the men in blue have at least pulled their metaphorical socks up. 39 min: Lallana picks the pocket of right-back Paul Connolly. He also takes the ball off him but can’t quite find space to initiate another attack. Leeds respond with Gradel wriggling through a gap on the left but his cross flies straight into the outstretched arms of Davis in goal. 36 min: The sun is dipping behind the west stand at St Mary’s, giving the pitch a two-tone look, split right down the middle. Southampton appear happy to let Leeds have the ball for a wee while. They haven’t looked like inflicting much damage with it so far. 34 min: Gradel forages with some success up the left, winning a corner with a deflected shot. But again Snodgrass’s delivery fails to find a team-mates in the box. 32 min: A Lallana volley from the edge of the area whistles past the far post. Leeds are being pwned right now. 31 min: Leeds look rattled, they’re being closed down very quickly by the home side and just cannot wrest back the momentum, particularly in midfield. If you were asked to pick which was the newly promoted side, you wouldn’t pick Southampton. 30 min: The first booking of the evening goes to Michael Brown. Surprised? 27 min: And Lonergan now makes a tremendous block to deny Lallana a second! Southampton streamed forward again, Guly pulling the ball back from the byline for Lallana to fire off a shot from inside the six-yard box … but Lonergan got his angles right and spread himself starfish-style to make the stop from close range. GOAL! Southampton 2-0 Leeds (Lallana 25) A sumptuous finish from the young Saints midfielder and Leeds’ misery deepens. Southampton sprung quickly into attack after regaining possession in midfield, with Lambert dropping deep and then picking out Lallana’s run into the box on the right … He checked back inside, then curled a left-footed effort precisely into the far corner, across the flailing Lonergan. There was a touch of the Terry Henrys about that finish, I tells thee. 24 min: Last man Andy O’Brien almost gets caught in possession by David Connolly but manages to nick the ball away from the Southampton striker at the last. 22 min: A clumsy challenge some 30 yards from the Southampton goal gives Leeds a free-kick in a central area. Snodgrass, though, nails the chance straight into the wall. That was pretty pap. 20 min: “I was about to email you and ask you to include an ‘auto-refresh’ button to click on… but as a Leeds fan and being a goal down I’m not so sure now… surely it won’t be another season of disappointment and despair for Leeds? Last season apart we’ve had too many of those in recent times.” I dunno, Bob Green. You haven’t been relegated in, what is it, at least four seasons now? 19 min: A dinked Gradel ball to the back post is shepherded out for a corner. Decent delivery that. The set-piece is cleared by Southamptonh via the aerial application of head to ball. 17 min: But Southampton break like quicksilver, with Adam Lallana gliding up the left wing, past one, two Leeds players before he finally runs out of space. 15 min: … though slow down a bit, pal, as my fitness has waned during the close season. Leeds have regained their shape after that ragged opening and are beginning to probe, though the likes of Max Gradel and Robert Snodgrass. 13 min: Southampton are forced to clear their lines following a corner to the visitors. There’s quite a lively atmosphere in the ground now. Hello football, my old friend … GOAL! Southampton 1-0 Leeds (Hammond 10) That’s a cracking strike from the Southampton captain, a left-footer that Le Tissier himself would have been proud of! Hammond picked the ball up in space in midfield before advancing on the box and whipping a low shot into the bottom left-hand corner. No one came to him, though Andy Lonergan may feel he should have got a hand on it. 8 min: At the other end, a Johnny Howson snap shot from inside the area is beaten out by Kelvin Davis. This is breathless stuff! 7 min: Brown, who’s a niggly little tinker if ever there was one, goes in late again. Still no cards from the ref, though. And there’s nearly an opening for Southampton, as Lambert plays in Guly, whose ball into the box slightly wrong foots Connolly at the back post. 5 min: Another foul, this time committed by Michael Brown in the centre circle, allows Southampton to launch an attack forward from the back. Leeds have started in tasty fashion [he says euphemistically]. 3 min: Lambert picks himself up to thump the free-kick into the wall … 2 min: Patrick Kisnorbo has gone crunching through David Connolly from behind and is a little lucky to get no more than a talking to. It’s a first appearance in over a season for Leeds Australian centre-half, who certainly looks a little rusty in the challenge. Peep! Ah, right, kick-off was a 5.20pm then. We’re off! So, football’s back, Southampton are back, Leeds, er, were back last year. There’s a Premier League revival feel to proceedings at St Mary’s, though these teams have met several times during their respective slides down the League ladder. Preamble: I think you’ll find plenty to pique your interest in the Saturday clockwatch … Teams Southampton: Davis, Richardson, Fonte, Martin, Harding, Do Prado, Hammond, Cork, Lallana, Connolly, Lambert. Subs: Bialkowski, Schneiderlin, Butterfield, Chaplow, De Ridder. Leeds: Lonergan, Connolly, Kisnorbo, O’Brien, O’Dea, Snodgrass, Brown, Clayton, Howson, Gradel, McCormack. Subs: Rachubka, Paynter, Sam, Nunez, Bromby. Referee: Kevin Wright (Cambridgeshire) Championship Southampton Leeds United Alan Gardner guardian.co.uk
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Chess chief claims he was barred from presenting prizes at British championships because of his Stonewall T-shirt The president of the English Chess Federation has said he was barred from presenting prizes at the British chess championships in Sheffield because he was wearing a gay rights T-shirt. The red shirt bore the slogan “Some people are gay, get over it”, used by the gay rights group Stonewall in its educational literature. CJ de Mooi, an actor and a regular on the BBC quiz show Eggheads, claimed on Twitter that he had been prevented from presenting prizes to young winners because of the T-shirt, and said the decision was “disgusting”. He said: “I’ve worn this T-shirt regularly. There’s no dress code so do what you want – I thought chess was supposed to be educational and inclusive. “I’ll make an official statement when play is over. I stress this was not an ECF board (the members here were supportive) or venue decision.” Laura Doughty, deputy chief executive of Stonewall UK, said she was puzzled by the apparent ban. “We think our T-shirts are lovely and don’t see why anyone would object to anyone wearing one, least of all chess players.” Leonard Barden, the Guardian’s chess correspondent, said: “There has never been a dress code before. Its not something that happens in chess, its supposed to be non-discriminatory.” No one from the ECF or the Sheffield venue was available for comment. Gay rights Chess Tracy McVeigh guardian.co.uk
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• Send your thoughts to alan.gardner@guardian.co.uk • Click here to view our live scores service • Here for 26-league stats centre, with in-running tables GOAL! Stranraer 0-1 Alloa (McCord pen 2) The first goal in this specific segment of the afternoon comes north of the border. It was a penalty, taken from 12 yards, as is traditional. More on that when we get it. 3.02pm: Okay, so we’re off. Although Sky are running some adverts, so I’ll have to assume some football is being played somewhere. They’re really giving this the treatment, aren’t they! 2.59pm: You’ve all failed the first test, so I’ve randomly picked one set of line-ups as a token gesture. Port Vale v Crawley Town Port Vale: Tomlinson, Yates, McCombe, Collins, Green, Rigg, Griffith, Roberts, Loft, Pope, Richards. Subs: Martin, Taylor, Dodds, Haldane, McDonald. Crawley Town: Shearer, Howell, Dempster, McFadzean, Hunt, Simpson, Bulman, Torres, Smith, Tubbs, Barnett. Subs: Kuipers, Thomas, Akinde, Wassmer, Neilson. Referee: David Webb (County Durham) I know it’s early in the season, but you lot have got some work to do, I tells ya. 2.56pm: Hey up, that’s a result (literally). Infostrada Sports has the skinny: AC Milan win record 6th ever Italian Super Cup and 1st since 2004. Inter also lost 1st ever #supercoppa final in Beijing in 2009. 2.52pm: Ooh, look, Brighton have got a new stadium. Let’s hope they cleaned the Seagull doings off before letting the crowds in today. Anyway, given the amount of games being played, I won’t endeavour to post all the line-ups (even though it’s my primary skill, even I can’t cut and paste that fast). But, the first person to email in their teams request will get lucky*. *Not that lucky 2.45pm: There will be 31 Football League fixtures kicking off in approximately 15 minutes’ time and if that’s not enough for you, there’s also some hot Bundesliga action that’s recently got underway (no goals as yet). You can follow all the goals as they go in with our live score centre . And in the Italian Super Cup, it’s Milan 2-1 Inter, with Kevin-Prince Boateng putting the Rossoneri ahead after Zlatan Ibrahimovic had equalised Wesley Sneijder’s strike. Oh, and the game’s being played in Beijing. Obviously. Today’s 3 of the clock icebreakers Championship Brighton v Doncaster Bristol City v Ipswich Burnley v Watford Derby v Birmingham Middlesbrough v Portsmouth Nottm Forest v Barnsley Peterborough v Crystal Palace Reading v Millwall League One Brentford v Yeovil Carlisle v Notts County Charlton v Bournemouth Huddersfield v Bury Milton Keynes Dons v Hartlepool Oldham v Sheff Utd Preston v Colchester Sheff Wed v Rochdale Stevenage v Exeter Tranmere v Chesterfield Walsall v Leyton Orient Wycombe v Scunthorpe League Two Bradford v Aldershot Gillingham v Cheltenham Macclesfield v Dag & Red Morecambe v Barnet Northampton v Accrington Stanley Port Vale v Crawley Town Rotherham v Oxford Utd Shrewsbury v Plymouth Southend v Hereford Swindon v Crewe Torquay v. Burton Albion Preamble: Hello, and welcome to football. It’s a great game, anyone can play – even the ladies. All you need is a Twitter account and a pair of diamond ear studs. Anyway, it’s been a long hot summer and we’ve all taken grateful refuge in the culturally rich and diverse world that surrounds us missed that 3pm Saturday feeling. The Soccer Saturday boys are back to tangle their tongues, giggle like playground miscreants, and occasionally miss the action . But even in these times of 24-hour media, instant reaction and corner-flag-to-corner-flag coverage, it’s important to remember where we came from . All hail Des and the vidiprinter! Anyway, you’re probably doing something impossibly urbane and sophisticated like shopping for shoes or sitting on the sofa and eating a cheese sandwich, but please do get involved. Send us your hopes, fears and top tips. And we can even discuss the football. To get you in the mood, why not have a gander at James Dart’s Football League weekender ; while Scott Murray is currently reporting on a storming opener to the League Two season between AFC Wimbledon and Bristol Rovers . Football’s back and there’s no escaping it. You might as well jump on board. Football League Alan Gardner guardian.co.uk
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This once self-sufficient community suffered from the excesses of oil firms and corrupt officials. Now, the villagers are blamed for everything and the arms dealers are having a field day Goi is now a dead village. The two fish ponds, bakery and chicken farm that used to be the pride and joy of its chief deacon, Barrisa Tete Dooh, lie abandoned, covered in a thick black layer. The village’s fishing creek is contaminated; the school has been looted; the mangrove forests are coated in bitumen and everyone has left, refugees from a place blighted by the exploitation of the region’s most valuable asset: crude oil. Last Thursday, a long-awaited and comprehensive UN study exposed the full horror of the pollution that the production of oil has brought to Ogoniland over the last 50 years. The UN report showed that oil companies and the Nigerian government had not just failed to meet their own standards, but that the process of investigation, reporting and clean-up was deeply flawed in favour of the firms and against the victims. Spills in the US are responded to in minutes; in the Niger delta, which suffers more pollution each year than the Gulf of Mexico, it can take companies weeks or more. “Oil companies have been exploiting Nigeria’s weak regulatory system for too long,” said Audrey Gaughran of Amnesty International. “They do not adequately prevent environmental damage and they frequently fail to properly address the devastating impact that their bad practice has on people’s lives.” Goi, 40 miles (70km) from Port Harcourt, is a typical case. Just a few miles from where Shell first found oil in Ogoniland in 1958, it is only 20 miles from Bane, the ancestral home of Ogoni writer and leader Ken Saro-Wiwa. People from Goi joined the great Ogoni protest march of 1994, when one in three people from the small kingdom of 900,000 rose peacefully against the company, preventing it from working any of its 30 wells in the area. Two years later, Saro-Wiwa and eight Ogoni leaders were tried on a fabricated murder charge and executed. A quiet fishing community of fewer than 100 people, Goi was steadily weakened and then broken by a series of oil spills that, over 20 years, made the network of swamps, lagoons, rivers and creeks around it unusable. “People used to drink the water in the creek, fish, cook and swim in it. It was a perfect place,” says Dooh. “We wanted for nothing, but the spills came, the tide washed in pollution from elsewhere and in 1987 a massive oil fire burned uncontrolled for weeks. By 2008, most people had left.” Dooh and the last people of Goi then finally gave up. “We kept being polluted. We could not stay any longer,” says his eldest son, Eric. “Shell said they would fix things, but a contractor came and scooped some of the oil up and that was it. The spills just got bigger and bigger.” In 2009, a third large spill made the last house uninhabitable. Whether Dooh or anyone ever returns now depends on a court case in Holland. Together with Friends of the Earth Netherlands, Dooh is suing Shell in The Hague for negligence. The Shell pipeline close to the village pumped 120,000 barrels of oil. It burst in 2004 with devastating consequences. The company claims that it was sabotaged by youths stealing oil to process in rudimentary home-made refineries – a process called bunkering. Dooh blames corrosion of the 50-year-old pipeline. On Wednesday, Shell formally accepted responsibility in British law for two significant spills in nearby Bodo. Those were rare victories. More than 1,000 court cases have been taken against Shell for pollution in the last 30 years, but almost all are rejected, settled for a few dollars or remain mired in the legal system for years. Even when the courts rule against the company and fine it millions, it is possible for it to appeal, with legal delays draining communities of cash. One case against Shell taken by people in Goi is still in the courts after 14 years. Ogoni chiefs admit that some spills have certainly been the result of bunkering by youths determined to cash in on the region’s one natural asset. “It was the negligence of Shell which compelled people to steal,” Groobadi Petta, the president of the Bodo city youth federation, told the Observer . “When livelihoods are destroyed, the youth go to places where they learn how to bunker. They are desperate. They learned from others to steal. It has been to survive.” But corporate claims that Shell had been responsible only for 2% of the spills were an insult, he said. The consenusus on the delta is that bunkering and oil theft on a grand scale are condoned, protected and encouraged by a web of organised crime which colludes with government and political elites, the security services and people within the oil companies. “This is a mafia. They have godfathers. There is no way so much oil could be stolen without protection. Communities get the blame for the spills and the thefts, but the top people are taking far more and are well aware of what is going on. The navy patrols the creeks and main rivers, so there is no way boats they could get past checkpoints without their knowledge,” says Kentebbe Ebiaridor, a field officer with the Port Harcourt-based Environment Rights Action group. At the lowest level, villages throughout the delta have set up illegal DIY oil refineries. These rudimentary stills, consisting of a few old pipes and drums welded together, were first used to provide fuel in the Biafran war. However, they have become part of the survival strategy of many comunities too poor to pay for electricity or transport. A few drums of crude are tapped off from old company manifolds, and the oil is boiled up in drums. The fumes are collected, cooled and condensed in a simple distilling process and the result is a low-quality diesel good enough for generators and some cars. But they often catch fire, pollute small areas and every so often are regularly identified and destroyed by the military – only to start up again in days. Government agencies condone them and take a small fee. “The fact that these operations are proliferating in full view of the enforcerment agencies is indicative, at best of a lack of preventative measures and, at worst, of collusion,” said the UN Environment Programme report this week. The brio with which the oil is stolen on a larger scale is breathtaking. Reports allege that top naval officers have private pipelines that which serve as conduits through which they siphon crude oil, load on to vessels and ship to refineries in other countries such as South Africa. Last year, a Shell man was reportedly sacked after it was found he had set up a gang to destroy well-heads and then get his contacts to clean up the pollution. In 2003, the Nigerian tanker African Pride was impounded after being found carrying 11,000 barrels of stolen oil and was held in custody by the Nigerian navy. Within months it had mysteriously escaped. Organised crime now dominates the theft of Ogoniland oil, says Patrick Naagbanton, co-ordinator of the Amnesty International-backed Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development. “The pollution has led to the proliferation of small arms, making the delta now one of the most dangerous places on earth. The arms come through porous borders. You can get AK-47s, Chinese, South African, Italian, German and Belgian arms.” Naagbanton conducts a regular survey on the availability of arms on the delta and receives regular death threats. “The arms trade in the delta is dominated by Ukrainian and Russian dealers who swap automatic weapons for illegal bunkered oil. It is driven by political ambition combining with an illegal economy and fed by oil bunkering, creating both direct and indirect drivers of violence in the Niger Delta region,” he says. “Every community now has a silent army. If the problems of proliferation are not addressed, the non-state armed and warlords operating in the region will undermine the region and turn it into a dangerous conflict zone where the gangs will rule at the expense of legitimate authority, development, security and progress of all,” he says. Back in Goi, Chief Dooh’s son, Eric, was this week preparing to go to Holland to represent his father in the case against Shell. “The human cost of all this pollution is too high. After the spill, dad’s business collapsed, mother died because there was no money to treat her illness and my brothers and sisters had to come out of school. I am not fighting for myself. This is a test case. Perhaps Shell will now sit up and be corrected after this week. I am fighting for communities across the delta.” Royal Dutch Shell Oil Oil spills Nigeria John Vidal guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …US suffers worst loss of life in Afghan war when helicopter crash kills 38
August 6, 2011 No Comment
Seven Afghan and 31 Special Forces soldiers die after insurgents reportedly shoot down Chinook with rocket The United States suffered its worst loss of life of the nearly 10-year war in Afghanistan last night when a helicopter carrying 31 elite Special Forces soldiers crashed in the east of the country. Both the Taliban, via a spokesman reached by telephone, and Afghan officials in Wardak province, to the west of Kabul, said insurgents had successfully shot down the huge Chinook helicoter with a rocket. Publicly Nato would only confirm that “there was enemy activity in the area” and that the US-led alliance was still trying to work out what happened. US Air Force Captain Justin Brockhoff, a Nato spokesman, said: “We are in the process of accessing the facts.” However, a western official did give a figure of 37 people on board, who were all killed. Afghan president Hamid Karzai, in a statement of condolence, said 31 were US Special Forces, while another seven were members of the Afghan National Army (ANA). It is very unusual for Nato deaths from a single incident to reach double figures. The previous most deadly day for foreign troops was in June 2005 when 16 US soldiers were killed when a Taliban rocket hit a Chinook in the eastern province of Kunar. The crash happened at 3am when the helicopter was hovering over the town of Tangi Joi Zareen in the district of Saidabad, according to a spokesman for the provincial governor. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said Nato attacked a house in the district where insurgent fighters were gathering. He said eight insurgents also died in the fighting last night. Special Forces from many nations, including the UK, conduct up to half a dozen such operations every night, usually targeting mid-level insurgent commanders whose whereabouts is pinpointed by high-tech intelligence gathering teams. The successful downing of a helicopter, quite apart from the massive loss of life, will alarm war planners who rely heavily on Nato’s air superiority in the fight against the Taliban. They will want to discover whether the aircraft was downed by a lucky shot from rocket propelled grenade, a highly inaccurate weapon, or something more sophisticated. The Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s was greatly hindered by portable “Stinger” missile systems provided by the US and the far less effective “Blowpipe” provided by the UK. Nato forces have intercepted so-called “Manpads”, or “man-portable air defence systems”, illegally smuggled from Iran and there have been recorded incidents when they have been used. Classified military reports released by Wikileaks last year showed that the US military covered up a reported surface-to-air missile that shot down a Chinook helicopter over Helmand that killed seven soldiers. Afghanistan US military United States Nato Jon Boone guardian.co.uk
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