The disappointment issuing from hearing the news that the ALBA party is ‘likely’ unable to stand a candidate in the May elections has been met with concern, empathy and disappointment by the party’s membership and non-members alike. But the reason is, that around £70,000 was pauchled, (stolen) from its funds, and the man investigated is none other than their previous general secretary, the normally clumsy and crass Chris McEleny.
ALBA leader and former Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill (not a politician to cheat and think all is safe) states the Party’s financial difficulties are the result of it being defrauded. Police Scotland has been investigating alleged “irregularities” in the party’s finances since May last year.
In consequence, and holding out for a miracle funding donation, he announced last weekend that the pro-independence party was unlikely to field candidates in May’s Holyrood election because of a lack of funds. MacAskill told BBC Radio Scotland’s ‘Breakfast on Monday‘ that the party was in a “very difficult position. He said, “You can have a great deal of wishful thinking but you also have to have a practical reality. And unfortunately as a result, we believe, of a fraud perpetrated upon us, the ALBA Party finds itself in a very precarious position.” He added that ALBA had asked the Electoral Commission about the possibility of fielding candidates, but that the situation was “very difficult”.
Four senior ALBA members have offered to take over the party to ensure it can contest the election: on Sunday, four ALBA members – Tommy Sheridan, Angus MacNeil, Christina Hendry and Suzanne Blackley – said the party leadership had “left the door open for a transition team to take the party forward”. Ever the democrat, MacAskill told the BBC: “The decision to stand as ALBA Party is a decision for the party and will be made by the national executive committee. It will not be made by any individual. It will be for the national executive committee – not from me as an individual or indeed from Tommy Sheridan or Angus Brendan MacNeil – it’s for the national executive committee collectively.”
MacAskill risks losing members who will stand as Independents, but past history warns an Independent candidate without a party backing them is a lost deposit at the election. Voters want to be assured an MSP’s voice will not be lost in Holyrood, continually ignored and out-voted.
The alleged police investigation followed a dispute between the party and its former general secretary, Chris McEleny, who was dismissed last year accused of gross misconduct. His firing is linked to the alleged sum of £70,000 missing from the party’s funds. The dispute is complicated by persistent reports that McEleny is in a relationship with MSP Ash Regan, she a once trusted colleague of Alex Salmond and Kenny MacAskill. She left the ALBA party when she lost the leadership election. Her action was generally seen as petulant and counter-productive. Since then, she has maintained a high profile as an independent MSP. Recently, she presented the meretricious but unsuccessful ‘Prostitution (Offences and Support)’ Bill to Parliament that fell at the first vote.
When the police probe was reported in October, a source close to McEleny said he was “completely content that the finances of the party under the leadership of Alex Salmond were both sound and compliant”. The investigation will, however, be obliged to check invoices submitted by McEleny to the party accountant. One of the oddities of this defeat of a democratic process, is what McEleny was doing out in Ohrid, Macedonia when Salmond died. Did the party’s finances allow him the luxury of a flight to join Salmond’s close assistant Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh?
Salmond, Scotland’s former first minister, launched ALBA in 2021, aiming to win a “super-majority for independence”. These last months have seen the party reach figures rise to a point where standing candidates on the Regional vote in May’s election would bring results, according to pollster Professor Sir John Prentice. He forecast at least three MSPs. This latest crisis will dent the party’s popularity, the malicious claiming the party ‘is dead’.
For the next few days, the finger pointers, denouncers, House Jocks, our colonial newspaper columnists and the irrational, will be happy to see dedicated people for Scotland’s liberation jeered and derided. The fair-minded will call for unity among small parties in the face of London’s colonial politicians gaining more seats in Scotland’s Parliament, and skewering Chief Bald Eagle Swinney’s hollow and repetitious promise that “Independence is close”.
The importance of ALBA, and other smaller parties, ought to be obvious. In addition to ‘holding a nationalist government’s feet to the fire,’ as Alex Salmond counselled, they offer a sanctuary to disillusioned and disenfranchised SNP supporters, while simultaneously uniting them all to vote ‘Yes’ first opportunity offered. Those people are not lost to the Cause of Scotland’s rights, crushed by defeat. Their motivation remains fired up. They have not succumbed to a defeatist attitude.
If Swinney has a plan at all, it includes the SNP policy of shutting out all small independence parties from our own Parliament, a criminal betrayal the SNP will pay for in lost votes. Hence, small parties must be radical in policy and vociferous in making news, to be considered contenders by the electorate.
And as the past has shown us, the chances of the SNP gaining a single List seat by telling voters ‘SNP 1&2’ is as likely as a seagull flying upside down to defecate upon on itself, an act the SNP is adept at achieving.
Taransay is a 790-hectare island off the west coast of Harris in the Outer Hebrides
Scotland’s largest uninhabited island has become the focus of a major restoration project as its original Atlantic rainforest biome is set to be re-established.
Taransay, a 790-hectare island off the west coast of Harris in the Outer Hebrides, is to undergo a major transformation as those behind the project say the Atlantic rainforest, once common on the western seaboard, has become one of the country’s most forgotten and fragmented habitats.
The island’s owners, Adam and Cathra Kelliher, say they have taken a “deliberate” decision to step away from short-term commercial development and instead pursue a future grounded in ecological recovery and local employment.
Early work by the pair has focused on relieving the grazing pressure on the island and have now partnered with nature restoration specialist RESTORE, a UK-based company that delivers large-scale nature-first restoration projects. The firm is working with the owners to design and implement a phased programme of restoration that spans land, coast and sea.
Although uninhabited, Taransay sits within a region that “urgently needs” new, resilient jobs for younger generations, those behind the project said. They hope the programme will create permanent roles linked to land management with further opportunities emerging as the island’s recovery progresses.
Already, the island is supporting early employment to a local 19-year-old site manager, with the long-term aim of creating up to ten full-time equivalent roles rooted in the local community on Harris. Over time, carefully managed ecotourism, alongside marine activities such as kelp and oyster farming linked to a recovering coastal environment, could support additional livelihoods.
The project will also use carbon credits and 30×30 RESTORE Units, as those behind the programme aim to ensure that corporate investment translates directly into measurable progress towards the conservation of Taransay.
Nickly O’Malley, CEO of 30x30UK said: “Taransay is a beautiful location and a great example of restoring nature at scale. At 30×30 UK, we are proud to be working alongside RESTORE on a project that shows what’s possible when long‑term stewardship, community benefit and ecological ambition come together.”
NOTES
Original article by Alasdair Ferguson from the Nationalnewspaper.
It was just after dusk last Thursday when a small fleet of unmarked police cars drew up at Wood Farm on king Charles’s private Sandringham estate in Norfolk. The officer in charge must have known about “Airmiles” Andy’s extravagance, freeloading and general boorishness, which has been publicised for years. Did Mountbatten-Windsor’s staff and royal protection officers know of his other alleged proclivities?This scandal is set to continue for years.
If they knew and nothing was done, it took deference to him and the late queen too far. As Elizabeth well knew, the monarch’s chief duty is to preserve the institution for the succession. She seems to have protected her favourite son and paid at least some of his huge debts at a cost to Charles’s inheritance. There is now talk that she held onto the throne overlong to protect Randy Andy, and indeed, undermined the length of time left for Charles to reign. His life has been overtaken with prostate cancer, an old man’s cancer that allows five years of addition life at most if not caught early enough.
England’s royal household have had quite a few scandals and disasters to cover up over its eons of existence. For example, Edward II of England was forced to abdicate in in 1327 following an invasion by his wife, Queen Isabella, and her lover, Roger Mortimer, which shattered his extremely unpopular reign, he disliked by the poor as well as the barons. Under duress, he relinquished the throne kicking and screaming to his 14-year-old son, Edward III, and was subsequently imprisoned at Berkeley Castle, where he likely died of murder later.
A few too many annus horribilis shook the English monarchy in the 20th century. Some elderly readers may recall. there was the small matter of Prince Edward VIII’s love of the high life and partying, his wish to marry an American divorcee, and his dalliance with Hitler’s Reich, all of which removed him from privilege ever after. But the disgust took time to reach his royal ears. Younger readers will remember Princess Diana, whom Charles married because his dad, Prince Philip suggested she’d make a ‘good filly’ for his children, though Charles did not love her, and continued a relationship with his long-term squeeze, Lady Camilla.
Diana died a traumatic death soon after a high speed car crash in a French motorway underpass with her then lover, Dodi Fayed, the son of Harrods owner, followed by a mysterious roundabout journey in an ambulance to reach a hospital. She was 36-years-old. The Queen, disgruntled as hell at Diana’s televised kiss-and-tell revelations, forgot to instruct that the Union Jacks on Buckingham Palace be flown at half-mast, until the baying crowds at the palace gates told her to get a grip.
The monarchy took a hole below the waterline for the way they had treated a young woman whom they had concertedly misled, and then abandoned. It took a year for the royal family to be represented to the nation in all their finery, gold braid, epaulet’s, medals, and military uniforms on the palace balcony, feeling secure in the knowledge they were forgiven for their heartlessness, ready to serve the nation again as if nothing bad had happened. And the Queen let the Scots know she truly loved life in Scotland’s Balmoral Castle and intended to stay there until her death.
These few, paired to the bone, examples only remind us how quickly, how adept is the monarchy to handle crisis, circle the wagons, hold out against marauding natives, and come out smiling again to wave to the faithful lining the streets. Only recently this site had a dispute with a reader who claimed the King and Queen Camilla, (a greased slide from consort to queen engineered expertly) were cheered by Scots when they paraded in a gold carriage up Edinburgh’s Royal Mile. This writer was there too and saw only tourists taking iPhone photographs. By then, the first Scot had dared to shout out ‘Not my King’, and was arrested by the Scottish police for his patriotism and use of free speech. Since then, the number of protesters multiplied ten-fold, heckling happens regularly whenever Charles is on a meet the people handshake trip.
These last two years have seen the leaders of Commonwealth countries state publicly they wish to throw off the subservient old way of the empire and become a republic. Some countries ask for reparations for the years they endured of colonialism, Scotland has not yet a government with a backbone to do similar, but the clamour for self-determination has increased as all movements for civil rights do, accompanied by similar cries for Scotland to become a republic. Little did anyone perceive that the monarchy would be laid low by its favourite son, a dissolute, womanising paedophile and royal boor.
Last week, on Andrew’s horse riding estate, where he could glare at ferreting journalists with contempt, plainclothes officers stepped out into the late winter drizzle. They were readied for an historic act that the advisers of the royal family might well have been dreading for weeks, and failed to tell Andrew what was in store for him in the early hours. It was the day of his sixty-sixth birthday. Inside the house, the over-indulged and renamed Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was perhaps sitting down to a full English birthday breakfast, his collection of his teddy bears laid out as he expected, with no variations. By 8am and his arrest he was whittled down to plain Andy, and by cheeky writers, as Randy Andy.
Andrew – no longer a prince, and ostracised by many members of his family – was about to face the ignominy of being arrested and taken into police custody before being released almost 12 hours later. it is not known if he was handcuffed, a probable deference shown to a prince. The world was shocked, but not the women who had been trafficked and raped by him.
It was, said Major General Alastair Bruce – a direct descendant of Scotland’s warrior king Robert Bruce, currently governor of Edinburgh Castle, but maybe not for too long – an historian and royal watcher for Sky News, the “most shocking day for the British crown. For once, an army man used to uttering hyperbole to demand new weapons for wars, this was an understatement. A former “prince of the blood was arrested”. The arrest was “about as critical as the institution could face”, he added.
As the news of the royal arrest catapulted across the globe, police embarked on searches at Andrew’s former home, Royal Lodge in Windsor and his properties in Norfolk, England. Without naming the man at the centre of their actions, Thames Valley police said: “We have today arrested a man in his 60s from Norfolk on suspicion of misconduct in public office …” Scots could not have organised a more humiliating train wreck for England’s disliked monarchy.
Andrew’s brother, King Charles, was not informed in advance of his brother’s arrest, although it can be expected that the news reached him quickly. Charles was quicker to react over Andrew’s plight than his mother was over Diana. After a short period of silence, Charles made his position crystal clear. “The law must take its course,” he said in an official statement issued at noon.
The thud of that verdict when it fell upon the marble floor was the signal that Andrew was the sacrificial awkward cuss that will protect the continuation of the monarchy, and all its faults, dark money, political interference in new laws and Scotland’s Referendum. The police had the royal family’s formal “full and wholehearted support and co-operation”.
King Charles terse statement read like a judge’s verdict: “I have learned with the deepest concern the news about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and suspicion of misconduct in public office. What now follows is the full, fair and proper process by which this issue is investigated in the appropriate manner and by the appropriate authorities. In this, as I have said before, they have our full and wholehearted support and co-operation.Let me state clearly: the law must take its course. As this process continues, it would not be right for me to comment further on this matter. Meanwhile, my family and I will continue in our duty and service to you all.” Normally, the powerful and the elite will fight to the death to keep their privileges, of which being above the law is paramount.
The prince and princess of Wales moved swiftly to say they supported Charles’s statement. Well, they would, wouldn’t they? The prime minister – on his way to the ermine cloak – was robust on the subject. “Nobody is above the law,” surely a phrase that will haunt Starmer in the weeks to come.
Among Epstein’s vast network of powerful friends and associates was the former prince. The files are still being combed through for what they reveal about Epstein’s activities and associates. But among the early discoveries were emails that show Andrew, then an official UK trade envoy, forwarding sensitive government documents and commercial information to Epstein. One email, dated November 2010, was forwarded five minutes after being sent by Andrew’s then special adviser, Amir Patel. Another, on Christmas Eve 2010, appeared to send Epstein a confidential brief on investment opportunities in the reconstruction of Helmand province, Afghanistan. Under official guidance, trade envoys have a duty of confidentiality over sensitive, commercial or political information about their official visits. Andrew was either negligent, or dumber than dumb by passing on state secrets.
For an institution that prides itself on service to the nation and promoting Britain’s interests, the royal family’s discovery that one of its sons had used his official role as trade envoy, to potentially benefit Epstein and his associates, was a huge blow. He claims he is an innocent man.
In a statement on Thursday, the family of one key victim of Andrews compulsive vice, Virginia Giuffre, said their “broken hearts have been lifted with the news that no one is above the law – not even royalty … He was never a prince. For survivors everywhere, Virginia did this for you.”
In November, after years of swirling allegations and rumours, Charles finally took the strongest action available to him against his brother. Mountbatten-Windsor was stripped of his title of “prince” and was given notice to vacate his 30-room home in Windsor that he occupied on a peppercorn rent. He was excluded from the traditional royal Christmas celebrations at Sandringham, and his daughters are thought to have cut off contact with him. One can be sure he would have argued his case arrogantly knowing he is still technically eighth in line to the English throne. The king cannot take away Andrew’s royal bloodline. That will require a Bill passed at Westminster, approved by the House of Lords, and every country in the Commonwealth. “Here’s another nice mess you’ve got me into”.
Buckingham Palace has said will not oppose plans to remove Andrew from the royal line of succession. This is plainly a tactic to protect the monarchy, a crisis from which it is already planning a ‘new look’ to please the people, and secure its wealth. How many more scandals will the royal family survive? How many more renewals can it engineer and still present the same faces and the same expensive traditions? The age of deference is past. It’s done. Accountability is paramount if no one is ‘above the law’.
One can hear Randy Andy now, “Infamy! Infamy! My family have got it in for me!”
NOTES
Sarah Ferguson: While the spotlight has been on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, his arrest has prompted questions about what is next for his ex-wife. Ferguson, known by the tabloids as Fergie, married the then prince Andrew in 1986 and was divorced from him 10 years later after she was accused of an alleged affair with an American financial adviser – Epstein. It was one of multiple scandals in the 1990s and 2000s involving the former duchess, who was widely considered an embarrassment to the royal family. Ferguson has stood by Andrew through waves of allegations produced by his links to Jeffrey Epstein, though she was yet to comment on his arrest on Thursday.
Trump-Epstein Saga: Jon Stewart is on his week’s break, so let’s take a look at some of Epstein’s victims, no, not the thousands of young girls he trafficked, raped or used for reasons of blackmail, the politicians he ‘assisted’. The Sun King shows his hatred of women, and conveniently wipes his hands clean of the Epstein situation before his alleged one million mentions are revealed, Kaitlan Collins’s question about victims sparks a presidential rant that she should “smile more,” Trump shows some surprising love for Bill Clinton, and Howard Lutnick turned off his disgust for Epstein when he took his family for lunch on Epstein Island. The video extract is 12 minutes long.
Here is our customary selection from the show’s Internet Comments section, and our editorial:
“Remember when presidents did their jobs, and only made statements when it was necessary? He makes a statement every hour of every day. Such a tool.” Fancy Fingers
“Let’s impeach and arrest these monsters asap! I don’t want more seasons or 100 parts of Trump- Epstein Saga with no consequences for anyone in the US!” Marcy
“And yet these people are still in office, still in control, and still enriching themselves day after day after day. When does this situation reach tipping point?” The Mighty Antar
“Why am I not surprised that Trump doesn’t know the difference between a question and an answer? Straight in there. She was asking a question. “You know why you’re not smiling? Because you know you’re not telling the truth.” She was asking a QUESTION, idiot. How is it possible to ask a dishonest question?” Goldilocks
“‘I’ve been totally absolved!” Yes, if we just ignore the 3 million pages of documents with your name on them a million times that you are so desperately trying to hide.” Chuck
Completely blind-sided by the US’s Supreme Court’s decision to trash Trump’s random, at a whim, draconian tariff impositions, he has now reverted to sticking a standard 15% on ever country, and probably the moon too, he is that much irrational. Top associations of American businesses are demanding to be repaid for back all his previous tariffs following Friday’s supreme court ruling. The US National Retail Federation, that represents a number of US retailers, from Walmart to small brands and manufacturers, called for “a seamless process to refund the tariffs to US importers” The refunds will be used (they say ‘serve’, as an economic boost and allow companies to reinvest in their operations, their employees and their customers. The US Chamber of Commerce, too, called for swift return of an estimated $133bn in collected tariffs covered by the ruling. Its chief policy officer, Neil Bradley, said: “Swift refunds of the impermissible tariffs will be meaningful for the more than 200,000 small business importers in this country and will help support stronger economic growth this year.“We encourage the administration to use this opportunity to reset overall tariff policy in a manner that will lead to greater economic growth, larger wage gains for workers and lower costs for families,” Bradly added. The court said Trump had exceeded his authority, but it also left lower courts to sort out the issue of repayments, which many observers say could be a mess. Dan Anthony, director of the business coalition ‘We Pay the Tariffs’, noted that the impact of the tariffs has been particularly hard on small businesses, which have taken out loans, delayed hiring and canceled expansion plans to accommodate import tariffs. Refunds, he predicted, would allow businesses to reverse those trends. In a sentence, trump has been made to look the dangerous fool that he is, and while the ruling has the issue of refunds thrown to litigation, the mid-term elections will see the owners and workers of the small firms he damaged, vote away his power base in the months ahead. The Sun King is on his downward slide.
The Lord Advocate’s decision to appeal Judge Lake’s judgment in its entirety means Hirst’s team face additional and unavoidable court costs. However, they are confident they can rebut the basis of her appeal as they did not rely on immunity in their initial pleadings. That aside, regardless of what the Inner House rules, the legal team will approach Europe for a remedy. They hurdle to overcome is crowd-funding donations for this next step. Here is Mark’s statement:
This has been a long and ongoing legal battle but the case I brought in 2021 is now close to securing a major and significant victory. But to achieve that goal I am reluctantly having to appeal for fresh donations to my legal defence fund. I am hugely grateful to my supporters and all those who seek a fair and just legal system in Scotland, and who have donated so far. However, we need one major push over the line for reasons that are set out below.
As many of my supporters will recall, at the start of this month (February 2026) Lord Lake made what has widely been regarded as a landmark and historic judgement. This followed the legal case I brought seeking damages and costs from Scotland’s prosecutor, the Lord Advocate and the Chief Constable, for my malicious prosecution in 2021.
Lord Lake’s judgement that “viewed objectively there was no reasonable and probable cause to commence the prosecution (against Mark Hirst) – no case fit to be put before a court,” in 2020, is a very significant and serious legal statement that, in effect, confirms the basis of my legal claim.
However, Lord Lake was unable to allow my claim to continue because he also found the Lord Advocate is immune from any legal remedy in a summary case where there has been no conviction and imprisonment, and a pursuer claims they have been maliciously prosecuted. This is despite the case of ‘Whitehouse’ establishing that the Lord Advocate is liable for malicious prosecution in solemn cases, whether there has been conviction and imprisonment or not. Consequently. Lord Lake issued a formal legal declaration that my human rights have been breached.
The legal immunity that the Lord Advocate currently enjoys in summary cases, and that was codified in legislation passed by the UK Parliament in 1995, denies my rights under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to secure a legal remedy and therefore the right to a fair hearing.
It is now very clear that Lord Lake’s judgement was not the decision the Lord Advocate wanted. This is despite the fact that in effect Lord Lake has dismissed my claim against the Crown Office for the reasons stated above, namely the Lord Advocate’s immunity that renders Scots Law incompatible with ECHR. It is a curious, and many suggest, absurd situation that will need to be addressed definitively.
As a result, we are now left in the bizarre situation where the Lord Advocate, the defender in the case that I brought, is seeking to appeal the judgement of Lord Lake to the Inner House of the Court of Session. I have no option but to participate and challenge any grounds the Lord Advocate may set out for justifying their appeal. We have a high degree of confidence we can do so.
My lawyers had already begun preparing an application to the European Court of Human Rights (HCtHR) to seek a proper legal remedy following Lord Lake’s declaration and, if successful, this will ultimately force fresh legislation to be passed to make Scots law compatible with European human rights legislation.
But because of the Lord Advocate’s appeal to the Inner House of the Court of Session we are now in a position where we will need to see the process through. But in doing so we are going to incur unavoidable additional Court costs.On the other hand, the Lord Advocate has unlimited resources. By contrast I only have the generosity of those who have supported my case, my own limited resources and those who want to see justice prevail.
After five long years of fighting this legal battle, it is obvious that the Lord Advocate has sought to grind us down with delays, additional processes and rising court costs. The fighting fund we established in 2021 is now exhausted and we will need additional donations in order to have chance of securing the ultimate win against them.
Things are tough economically at present for us all, but I would not make this appeal if my legal team did not believe we are close to a major victory. Anything you can give will be deeply appreciated.
Thank you again.
Mark Hirst
Youcan donate to this legal fighting fund by clicking HERE
A forest fire burning in the Patagonian region Argentina.Photo: Gonzalo Keogan
The world is closer than thought to a “point of no return” after which runaway global heating cannot be stopped, scientists have said. A domino-like cascade of melting ice, warming seas, shifting currents and dying forests could tilt the Earth into a “hothouse” state beyond which human efforts to reduce emissions will be increasingly futile, a group of leading climate scientists has warned.This grim prospect is sketched out in a journal paper that considers the combined consequences of 10 climate change processes, including the release of methane trapped in Siberian permafrost and the impact of melting ice in Greenland on the Antarctic.This is No 66 in our Climate Crisis series.
Continued global heating could trigger climate tipping points, leading to a cascade of further tipping points and feedback loops, they said. This would lock the world into a new and hellish “hothouse Earth” climate far worse than the 2-3C temperature rise the world is on track to reach. The climate would also be very different to the benign conditions of the past 11,000 years, during which the whole of human civilisation developed.
At just 1.3C of global heating in recent years, extreme weather is already taking lives and destroying livelihoods across the globe. At 3-4C, “the economy and society will cease to function as we know it”, scientists said last week, but a hothouse Earth would be even more fiery.
The public and politicians were largely unaware of the risk of passing the point of no return, the researchers said. The group said they were issuing their warning because while rapid and immediate cuts to fossil fuel burning were challenging, reversing course was likely to be impossible once on the path to a hothouse Earth, even if emissions were eventually slashed.
It was difficult to predict when climate tipping points would be triggered, making precaution vital, said Dr Christopher Wolf, a scientist at Terrestrial Ecosystems Research Associates in the US. Wolf is a member of a study team that includes Prof Johan Rockström at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and Prof Hans Joachim Schellnhuber at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria.
“Crossing even some of the thresholds could commit the planet to a hothouse trajectory,” said Wolf. “Policymakers and the public remain largely unaware of the risks posed by what would effectively be a point-of-no-return transition.
“It’s likely that global temperatures are [already] as warm as, or warmer than, at any point in the last 125,000 years and that climate change is advancing faster than many scientists predicted.”
It is also likely that carbon dioxide levels are the highest they have been in at least 2m years.
Prof Tim Lenton, an expert on tipping points at the University of Exeter in the UK, said: “We know we are running profound risks on the current climate trajectory, which we can’t rule out could turn into a trajectory towards a much less habitable state of the climate for us. However, we don’t need to be heading towards a hothouse Earth for there to be profound risks to humanity and our societies – these will already be upon us if we continue to 3C global warming.”
The assessment, which was published in the journal One Earth, synthesised recent scientific findings on climate feedback loops and 16 tipping elements. The tipping elements include the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, mountain glaciers, polar sea ice, sub-Arctic forests and permafrost, the Amazon rainforest and the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (Amoc), a system of ocean currents that strongly influences the global climate.
Tipping may already be happening in Greenland and west Antarctica, with permafrost, mountain glaciers and the Amazon rainforest appearing to be on the verge, the scientists said.
“Research shows that several Earth system components may be closer to destabilising than once believed,” they concluded. “While the exact risk is uncertain, it is clear that current climate [action] commitments are insufficient.”
Prof William Ripple, at Oregon State University, US, who led the analysis, said: “The Amoc is already showing signs of weakening, and this could increase the risk of Amazon dieback. Carbon released by an Amazon dieback would further amplify global warming and interact with other feedback loops. We need to act quickly on our rapidly dwindling opportunities to prevent dangerous and unmanageable climate outcomes.”
Scientists warned in 2018 of the prospect of a hothouse Earth. In this scenario, global temperature stays significantly above the 4C rise of current worst-case climate scenarios for thousands of years, driving a huge rise in sea level that drowns coastal cities. The scientists said then that the “impacts of a hothouse Earth pathway on human societies would likely be massive, sometimes abrupt, and undoubtedly disruptive”.
NOTES
In Argentina, wildfires broke out in early January, affecting the Unesco-listed Los Alerces national park in Patagonia, home to ancient alerce trees that can live for more than 3,000 years. The damage is thought to have been worsened by large budget cuts to fire management services by the government led by Javier Milei, who has called the climate crisis a “socialist lie”. Dr Juan Antonio Rivera, of the National Scientific and Technical Research Council in Mendoza, Argentina, who is part of the WWA team, said: “Ancient forests were devastated, as was the unique biodiversity in the area. These are ancient giants that have stood undisturbed for thousands of years.
The climate crisis inflamed deadly wildfires that left 23 people dead in Chile and devastated forests in Argentina that host some of the world’s oldest trees, scientists have found. The hot, dry and windy conditions that enabled the fires to blaze across huge areas in January were made about three times more likely by global heating.
The American Super Bowl is not a game this site follows. Some readers may share that disinterest and not be sure what Stewart is satirising. But as soon as he gets onto the subject of racism, it all comes together. This week, Stewart digs into MAGA’s hair-trigger outrage at anything that doesn’t align with their narrow set of values, from boycotting Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show with TPUSA’s own “English”- language mediocrity fest, to the president setting a new racism high score with a social media post dehumanizing the Obamas, to dressing down a U.S. Olympic skier for expressing less than a fraction of the disdain for America that Trump himself has doled out. The video lasts for 27 minutes.
Here’s our customary selection of posts on the show’s Comments page, an our editorial:
“I’m from Puerto Rico, combat veteran. My father, brother, father in law, brother in law and various uncles are veterans. We have a long and proud military tradition in the US Armed Forces. The 65th Infantry Regiment was an all Puerto Rican regiment unit that fought in WW1, WW2 in Africa, France, and Germany, and in the Korean War.Trump dodged the draft five times and none of his spoiled soft sons ever remotely considered joining.” AM Elderly
“They have the White House, the senate, the house of reps, the supreme court, and the majority of state governor seats, ICE deportations, Doge firings, tariffs and a weak press media afraid to do their jobs. Yet, they are perpetually angry and whining!!” Jeff
“I wonder if Andrea Bocelli did the halftime show in all Italian if MAGA would talking about it. They would probably be horrified to learn that as a child in my church choir they tried to indoctrinate me by singing multiple songs entirely in Latin – not a single word of English in Ave Maria, mind you! When is Fox News going to take on operas??? They’re so divisive!” KD Kun
“That country “singer” who did a song about everything he loves to do, but then said “Trans people mean I can’t do this” is everything wrong with MAGA. At no point will a trans person stop you feeding your dog, wearing your boots, mowing your lawn, catching fish. Leave em alone!” Sax Pack Abs
“I am a 50+ year old peckerwood white guy on the Oregon Coast originally from Eugene(Go Ducks!) and I have been wanting to learn Spanish for at least the last 20 years. The Bad Bunny show has re-enforced my desire to learn Spanish.” Brian Hoefer
“I’m noticing the Right is willfully ignoring the traditional family values they so often invoke, portrayed during the half time show. I mean there was even a real wedding! I thought family values and weddings between a man and a woman was their righteous outrage song? Even with that, it wasn’t enough for them because the music was in Spanish. Their hypocrisy and ignorance knows no limits.” Down Ward
The Sun King has yet to apologise for his racist video posted on his social media account, depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. We won’t ever hear him admit ‘mea culpa‘. This is more evidence, if we need more, Trump is insane. He, or an embarrassed aide, deleted the racist image, but he was the one who instructed the image was tagged onto the end of one of his customary wacky narcissistic tirades. The clip appeared during one of the 79-year-old headbanger’s increasingly frequent late-night posting sprees to his Truth Social account, and shows the laughing faces of the former president and first lady superimposed on the bodies of primates in a jungle setting, bobbing to the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight. His post was talking about his persistent false claim that he won the 2020 election, when in fact he lost to Joe Biden. The conspiracy-theory video is a repost of content stamped with the logo of the website Patriot News Outlet, a site supportive of mad dog Trump. The White House initially defended the video in a statement from the press secretary, and then lied that it had been posted, ‘without the president’s knowledge, by an aide’. How much longer decent Americans will tolerate their president tearing up the Constitution, is another question. He doing all he can to keep attention off his long-time friendship with the paedophile blackmailer and Mossad agent Epstein. We shall have to wait until he loses the lower House in the mid-term elections. That will be an opportunity for the Democrats, and any Republican with a conscience, to begin impeachment proceedings. Hell knows what small country he will bomb to secure a diversion from his criminal acts.
Another jewel heist set in Los Angeles, this one with four central characters, two male, two female, none at one with the world they have chosen to inhabit. January to March is when the American studios off-load their not-so-good projects, Oscar season over, the cinemagoer takes a chance on quality and risk wasting their ticket money on a dud. But in this Hemsworth-led movie the lead role played by Chris Hemsworth is not stupidly burdened by carrying a heavy hammer around as a superhero. Good news: this crime thriller is watchable. It tries to be different. Okay, I’m up for that, I’ll give it a viewing.
Let’s look at the main characters first before summarising if the film works. The central character, Davis (Chris Hemsworth), is a jewel thief who takes great care to choose his marks carefully, and that they have insurance to cover their losses. Though he carries a gun, he is proud never to have used it to harm anyone. He lives near the 101 highway, (the numerals in the title) his getaway route, and from where most of his robberies take place. He has an old grizzled friend Mr Money played by an aged, gruff Nick Nolte who tips him off when diamond shipments are arriving through LAX airport. Their relationship is suitably love-hate. Hemsworth plays his robber mean, moody, taciturn and edgy, a no mates lonely guy who uses sex workers to chill out. He’s very watchable, hunky is the right description, but I did not find him an interesting character, too hollow and self-centred
The jewel thief, Chris Hemsworth, and the police detective, Mark Ruffalo
Using the 101 freeway for his robberies and his escape, his pattern is picked up by his nemesis, Lou Lubesnick, (Mark Ruffalo), a smart LAPD detective. But how to catch him? Ruffalo – an actor whose presence signals the film will be of a high standard – plays doughy, unshaven, dragging around a beer belly, and always needing a haircut. He shuffles to work, and in good Columbo fashion, drives an old crap car that his colleagues think a wreck. He is the customary dedicated police detective we know and love, and as is mandatory, his love life is falling apart. He navigates his way around his department’s corruption – his boss keen on faking statistics to look good. The LAPD has become a corporation, and the pressure to close cases whether solved or not, is a stress he doesn’t want. Lou, is the old-school knight. He has integrity no one wants. He is viewed by his colleagues as a loser, a perception we’re invited to share when his long-time girlfriend, (Jennifer Jason Leigh) dumps him.
Halle Berry is the sex interest, only she is playing fifty-three, (she’s actually 59) a long way from her 007 days bare breasts money shot. She is miserably unhappy, railing against being demoted by her insurance company bosses because they want to entrap rich insurance clients by sending younger dolly girls to seduce a contract out of them. Her Sharon Coombs is a high-end insurance broker who hawks pricey policies to wealthy clients, sugaring her pitch with a hint of seduction, sexual allure fast dissipating. She hates the job, same as Davis the robber. She has hit the glass ceiling and every day, every deal make her angry and angrier. She wants out, Davis wants one last job. When they join forces you don’t quite believe it. Nevertheless, I suggest you roll with the conceit. Yes, it’s a shoogly link, but Berry makes it emotionally credible.
llalle Berry contemplates her future, and it’s unexciting
The last major character is Ormon, an anagram of moron, played by Barry Keoghan, the thug hired by Nolte’s Mr Money to terrorise his former protégé, Davis into submission, and to make sure that any robbery ends with the money in the correct pocket – his. Ormon is a character we have seen so often before – the psychopath no one with half-a-brain would employ in the real world, a contrivance in plots to be the spanner in the works, the upsetter, the malicious, the arrogant, the volatile, and ultimately the whacko who gets everyone into trouble. Keoghan plays most of his scenes hidden under a motorcycle helmet and biker’s jacket, you can only see his eyes, yet the actor manages to convey menace by using his wild stares and sweaty skin to warn of double trouble.
The writer-director, Bart Layton, shoots L.A. with flyover drones following cars like beetles in the streets below, and he takes shots at night at traffic build up on the 405, an expansive style that fits the anonymous aspect of the city well. I disliked the add-on travelling shots of homeless living in tents under bridges. A quick glance at L.A. poverty comes too late and is not part of the storyboard.
Layton knows how to have the camera linger on scenes that matter, such as Davis’s first date with Maya, played by Monica Barbaro, an intelligent interpretation of a cagey woman checking out her date very carefully. They meet when she shunts into the back of his car, a dent never seen thereafter. (And nor is Nolte’s Mr Money see again. He’s left hanging.) The musical score is all Japanese drumming to raise tension. I blocked it out on wide shots to test how interesting the images were without the overlay of mad thumping timpani, and the answer is, average.
All these characters, their classy acting chops, and few subsidiary roles written too black and white, make the film work. The main characters have background, Davis, raised as a foster child, is trying to construct an ordered world for himself. He breaks with Mr Money over the prospect of a Santa Barbara jewelry-store robbery he considers too risky – which doesn’t stop the loose-cannon Ormon from taking on the assignment and making a complete arse of it.
‘Crime 101′ is an underworld drama in expensive suits and dresses, sometimes straining to be different and sometimes managing the challenge. It’s got a couple of car chases through Los Angeles that look unchoreographed, that is, shot guerrilla fashion, on the move. They last only a few minutes each. The stunt drivers make us believe the characters are figuring out at the last moment where to turn next, but take my word for it, it’s not an action movie.
The climactic robbery that unfolds in a suite of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel is the location where all the characters and their ambitions come together and collide. Accepted as a thriller, ‘Crime 101′ has weaknesses, but for the most part it reminds of you of ‘Taken’, the crime thriller starring Liam Neeson, and like that film will end up on late night television for months to come. Three-and-a-half stars.
Stars – Three-and-a-half stars
Director: Bart Layton
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Barry Keoghan, Monica Barbaro, Halle Berry
Writer: Bart Layton from the novel ‘Broken’ by Don Winslow
Cinematographer: Erik Wilson
Composer: Blanck Mass.
Editor: Jacob Secher Schulsinger, Julian Hart
Adult Rating: R
Duration: 2 hours 19 minutes
RATING CRITERIA
5: potential classic, innovative. 4: Outstandingly good. 3.5: Excellent but flawed. 3: Good if formulaic. 2: Straight to DVD. 1: Crap; why did they bother?
Fergus Ewing, the former Scottish Government Cabinet Secretary, now an independent MSP today, raised the judgement of Lord Lake in the case Mark Hirst Vs The Lord Advocate and the Chief Constable at the Scottish Parliament calling on the Scottish Government to issue an urgent ministerial statement.This is his speech. The point he is making is Scots Law does not follow human rights law.The video is almost 6 minutes long.
Mark Hirst posted on social media: “This afternoon Angus Ewing raised my case in the Scottish Parliament and ask what ScotGov plan to do to ensure Scots law becomes fully compatible with ECHR (human rights) legislation in light of Lord Lake’s landmark ruling.“
Oxygen Conservation and landowners exploit loophole. Photo: Murdo MacLeod
Land reform campaigners are alarmed at the increasing use of a legal loophole that allows landowners to conceal the price paid for Highland estates from the public register.Andy Wightman, a land reform analyst, said the loophole meant the prices paid in more than £300m-worth of Highland property transactions were not disclosed on the register.
Discovery Land Company, an Arizona-based luxury resort operator building a Highland resort at Taymouth in Perthshire, used the mechanism when it paid £21.4m in 2022 for the adjacent Glenlyon estate, famous for its hill walks and deer stalking.
Wightman’s latest sales survey reports that Oxygen Conservation, the “capitalist” rewilding firm aiming to be the UK’s largest private landowner, also used the mechanism to withhold the fact it paid £42.75m for two of its Scottish estates from the public land register.
To the surprise of land reformers, the John Muir Trust (JMT), one of the UK’s best-known wild land charities, used the tactic when it paid £1.73m for a holiday chalet park and £75,000 for 166 hectares of adjacent land at Kylesku near Assynt in north-west Scotland.
The firms involved insist this tactic is legal but Wightman, the Scottish Land Commission and Community Land Scotland have urged ministers to tighten up the law, arguing it undermines attempts to make the land market much more transparent.
The commission, set up by Scottish ministers to reform the country’s highly concentrated land market, says the tactic “does not demonstrate good practice in responsible ownership” as it obscures prices, yet is being increasingly used. Transparency in land market data – including accurate sales values – is vital to provide a robust evidence base to inform sound policy and effective legislation.”
“Land is a shared natural asset,” said Josh Doble of Community Land Scotland. “It is simply unacceptable that those acquiring the largest pieces of land can obscure transaction details, when any homeowner has to provide that information publicly for comparatively minuscule property transactions.”
The loophole involves buyers opting not to put the price paid for the land into the box marked “monetary consideration” in the registration form given to Registers of Scotland, the agency that records property transactions. Instead they insert the legal term “implementation of missives” in the box marked “non-monetary consideration”. That means the purchase price does not appear in the title deeds for that property and therefore does not appear on the public land register.
In order to find out the price paid, people need to write to Registers of Scotland to ask specifically for the application form used to register the sale and pay a fee of £25 plus VAT. Wightman, who used crowdfunding to pay for the application forms used in his report, said he was writing to Scottish ministers to change the law to make it mandatory for the sales price to be put on the title deeds.
He said landowners and agents were using the loophole to “consciously” conceal the price paid. “Scottish ministers need to amend this legislation to make it clear that where a price is paid, that price is disclosed on the title sheet,” he said. The Scottish government said it was investigating options to change the rules. A spokesperson said the keeper of the registers of Scotland, Jennifer Henderson, had no power at this time to instruct someone to put the price into the title deeds. “The Scottish government is currently working with the keeper to identify the potential scope to improve transparency in these cases,” they said.
Oxygen Conservation said it fully supported transparency but said confidentiality on sales prices was often requested by the seller of the land. “Oxygen Conservation complies fully with the current legal framework and do not believe it is appropriate to characterise lawful registration practices as concealment,” it said.
JMT said it believed this approach was standard practice but would now investigate whether it could now make the sales prices publicly available on the land register. “The John Muir Trust is committed to transparency and openness in all areas of its operations and governance,” it said.
Par Equity, which paid £35.3m for Glen Dye grouse moor in 2021 and did not put that in the “monetary consideration” box, said: “It is sometimes the case that purchase or selling price is subject to confidentiality agreement at the behest of the seller.”
NOTES
This news article is by Severin Carrell of the Guardian newspaper.
Grouse Beater 
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