Freelance journalist based in New York, and regular IRIN contributor
NEW YORK, 6 October 2016
Records detailing as many as 181,000 rounds of depleted uranium munitions shot in 2003 by American forces in Iraq have been unearthed by researchers, representing the most significant public documentation of the controversial armament's use during the US-led invasion.
A council has tried to forcibly evict a group of homeless people from the centre of Leeds by taking them to court. The Labour-controlled city authority also wanted an injunction to stop them living anywhere else. But the council has come under heavy criticism, because the people are not on private property, but sleeping in tents, in public spaces.
The court, however, has granted the group of around 60 homeless people six weeks on another site in the city, and ordered Leeds city council to ensure that the people are accommodated in this time.
A battle of statistics
Leeds “Tent City“, as it is known, was originally set up on 21 September outside the city’s art gallery. It consists of salvaged tents and sleeping bags from Leeds’ summer music festival. When it moved to its second site in Park Square, which is home to many of the city’s law firms, the council stepped in with court action. But today’s ruling will see it move again, to the former site of the international swimming pool.
Leeds Homeless Action Group (LHAG), who have organised the Tent City, claim they are providing a safe space for the city’s homeless, as well as protesting against the lack of action by the council to tackle homelessness. It is continuously staffed by volunteers, who distribute donated clothing, food and hot drinks to homeless people sleeping in the tents.
Saturday, April 9 was the first-ever day where more electricity was generated in the UK by solarthan by coal. May 2016 was the first-ever month. The three months from June through to September was the first-ever quarter. And now the six months to September is the first half year.
The UK's pioneering community energy project, Westmill Solar Park and Wind Farm in Oxfordshire, England.Richard Peat via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND)
These firsts reflect the changing face of UK electricity supplies, with solar capacity having nearly doubled during 2015. They also reflect historic lows for coal-fired generation, driven by changes in wholesale energy markets and the carbon price floor. Carbon Brief runs through the numbers.
The occupiers of the wealthy property guardians Camelot HQ have released a statement in response to recent mainstream media misinformation over their ongoing occupation raising awareness of the growing UK housing crisis.
Squatters occupying the former headquarters of a property management company that works to keep squatters out of empty buildings say they have rejected the offer of a deal to end their protest.
The group moved into the former head office of Camelot Europe in Shoreditch, east London, a week ago to highlight housing inequality. The company provides property guardians who look after empty buildings, generally at lower rents. The squatters say property guardians do not get a good deal from companies such as Camelot and do not have full tenancy rights. The activists say they also want to shine a light on Britain’s homelessness crisis.
Frank Freeman, one of the squatters, said at the time: “We are doing this on behalf of dispossessed, homeless people and guardians who are being exploited. We hope to run art workshops, yoga classes and exhibitions. London is built on culture, but artists and creative people can no longer afford to live here. It is becoming a sterile and unaffordable place.”
Camelot’s chief operating officer, Mike Goldsmith, offered the squatters a deal: leave the occupied building in return for permission to use it as an arts and culture space. However, on Monday the squatters did not attend a meeting with Camelot bosses to discuss the offer, and said they had rejected it.
Freeman, 29, said: “The occupation continues and we will resist any attempts by Camelot to remove us. Hundreds of activists have come down to the building to support us and our new neighbours have been very supportive too.
“What Camelot didn’t make clear when the deal was first offered was that we had to agree to a number of restrictions. The first would have been to remove any displays about the issues of homelessness and property guardianship – the reasons for occupying this office in the first place. We want to see sustainable solutions to the housing crisis, such as use of 3D printers to build houses made of hemp.”
‘From TV shows like Benefits Street showcasing Britain’s poor as if they were a circus act to the use of ‘shirkers and strivers’ by politicians, prejudice is increasing.’ Photograph: Advertising Standards Authority/PA
This week Nottingham city council’s poster campaign on homeless begging – suggesting that money to beggars funds booze, drugs, and fraud – was banned by the Advertising Standards Authority for being discriminatory. The ruling is good news, but the fact that these posters existed at all is indicative of the way in which it has become increasingly acceptable to berate the less well-off. From TV shows like Benefits Street showcasing Britain’s poor as if they were a circus act to the use by politicians of language like “shirkers and strivers”, such prejudice is increasing.
The UK's pioneering community energy project, Westmill Solar Park and Wind Farm in Oxfordshire, England.Richard Peat via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND)
