Players for Norway’s national team will not be penalised by Fifa for championing human rights in Qatar  when they wore T-shirts that read “Human rights On and off the pitch”.

Laws of the game prevent players from using equipment that bears “any political, religious or personal slogans”, but on Thursday Fifa said they would be taking no action regarding the protest.

“Fifa believes in the freedom of speech and in the power of football as a force for good,” a spokesperson for the governing body said. “No disciplinary proceedings in relation to this matter will be opened by Fifa.”

The Dutch FA said it would not boycott the tournament, in line with Amnesty’s recommendations, but would “use the current spotlight on the World Cup and make our own contribution to efforts to improve the plight of migrant workers in Qatar”.

On Thursday the English FA issued a statement saying it intended to engage with the tournament in a “socially responsible” manner and that there was “still much more to be done” on human rights in the country.

 A Guardian report said that more than 6,500 migrant workers have died in the country over the past decade. 

Fifa takes no action over Norway protest as FA voices Qatar concerns | World Cup 2022 | The Guardian

 Pandemic

A long pandemic of capitalism

Infects the world. Credit cards, bitcoin, cash

Are the viruses causing the rash

Of hopes dashed, the often deadly schism

Between abundance and falling wages,

Between the multi-billionaire

And all with more than a fair share of despair:

The contagion of capital rages.

Worker’s lives are made precarious

By profit trumping well-being and health,

Common weal succumbing to private wealth.

While political quacks prescribe various

Palliatives, there’s but one vaccine for all

The world, the working class taking control.

D. A.

The highlights from the last 12 months of billionaire wealth growth:

– The combined wealth of the nation’s 657 billionaires increased more than $1.3 trillion, or 44.6 percent, since the pandemic lockdowns began. Over those same 12 months, more than 29 million Americans contracted the virus and more than 535,000 died from it. As billionaire wealth soared over, almost 80 million lost work between March 21, 2020, and Feb. 20, 2021, and 18 million were collecting unemployment on Feb. 27, 2021

– There are 43 newly minted billionaires since the beginning of the pandemic, when there were 614. A number of new billionaires joined the list after initial public offerings (IPOs) of stock in companies such as Airbnb, DoorDash, and Snowflake.

– The increase in the combined wealth of the 15 billionaires with the greatest growth in absolute wealth was $563 billion or 82 percent. The wealth growth of just these 15 represents over 40 percent of the wealth growth among all billionaires. Topping the list are Elon Musk ($137.5 billion richer, 559 percent), Jeff Bezos ($65 billion, 58 percent) and Mark Zuckerberg ($47 billion, 86 percent).

 Acute hunger is likely to soar in more than 20 countries in the next few months, the UN has warned.

 34 million people are struggling with emergency levels of acute hunger known as IPC (Integrated food security Phase Classification) 4, meaning they are ‘one step away from starvation’. Northern Nigeria, Yemen and South Sudan top the list of places facing “catastrophic” levels of acute hunger. Some are in other regions, from Afghanistan in Asia, Syria and Lebanon in the Middle East and Haiti in Latin America and the Caribbean. Latin America is the region hardest hit by economic decline and will be the slowest to recover, the report found, while in the Middle East, Yemen, Syria and Lebanon are seriously affected by rapid currency depreciation and rocketing inflation.

“The magnitude of suffering is alarming,” said FAO director-general Qu Dongyu.

“We are seeing a catastrophe unfold before our very eyes,” said WFP executive director David Beasley. “Famine – driven by conflict, and fuelled by climate shocks and the Covid-19 pandemic – is knocking on the door for millions of families.” Three things were needed to stop “millions from dying of starvation”, he said – a halt in fighting, increased access to vulnerable communities and a step up in donations. 

7 million people across South Sudan are projected to face crisis levels of acute food insecurity during the period from April to July, the report found, while more than 16 million Yemenis are expected to be experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity by June, an increase of 3 million since the end of last year. Other countries identified as among the worst hunger hotspots are Burkina Faso, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Sudan and Syria.

Over 30 million people ‘one step away from starvation’, UN warns | Hunger | The Guardian

 The gap in life expectancy between the most and least deprived parts of Wales has increased, particularly for women. The study, carried out by Cardiff University and Public Health Wales, covers the years before the Covid crisis.

Women in the most deprived parts of Wales can expect to live approximately six years less (life expectancy 79 years) than those in the least deprived areas (85). For men, there was a seven-year gap between the most and least deprived areas (74 v 81 years).

Female life expectancy in the most deprived areas rose by 1.2 years between 2002 and 2018 but in the least deprived areas the increase was 2.53 years, the research concluded. For men in the most deprived areas, life expectancy rose 1.97 years, whereas in the least deprived areas it increased by 3.02 years.

For women, the gap in life expectancy was driven by deaths from respiratory disease, cancer, circulatory conditions, drug and alcohol-related deaths, the report said.

For men deaths from respiratory conditions, digestive disease, drug and alcohol-related conditions, suicides/accidents and circulatory conditions were to blame.

The lead author, Jonny Currie, a primary care and public health doctor, said, “Our analysis highlights crucial areas for action to consider as Wales recovers from the pandemic – both to build a fairer society for our population and one that is resilient to any future pandemics.”

The study’s co-author, Ciarán Humphreys, a consultant at PHW, said: “Many conditions contribute to the gap in life expectancy between the least and most disadvantaged communities. This shows that we must look beyond simple medical explanations to the root causes and to the wider conditions in which people live.”

Life expectancy gap rises between most and least deprived in Wales | Wales | The Guardian

 The numbers of young people out of work in the UK have reached new highs – with young people accounting for nearly two-thirds of job losses since the pandemic.

 437,000 fewer 16- to 24-year-olds were in paid employment, a 10% fall in 12 months. In all, more than half of under-25s have been furloughed or lost their jobs.

“There’s nearly half a million fewer young people in work than a year ago,” said Laura-Jane Rawlings, the chief executive of Youth Employment UK. “The pandemic has simply raised the barriers and put the hopes of thousands of young people on hold.”

It would take 1,000 new jobs and training places a day to get back to pre-pandemic levels by October 2021 and avoid a 50% rise in the numbers of 16- to 24-year-olds not in employment, education or training.

“The government needs to be honest with young people. We simply cannot create enough job opportunities,” said Leigh Middleton, the chief executive of National Youth Agency. “Without concerted action, we fear youth unemployment could rise to over 1 million when furlough ends.”

Students who would normally have worked in the hospitality sector have not signed on as unemployed, they have disappeared from the employment register altogether. This has the effect, along with other young people who give up trying to find a job, of bringing down total participation rate to 79% in the three months to January. Then there are the number of workers not being paid while their job is on hold.

Tony Wilson, the head of the Institute for Employment Studies, explained that new hiring by companies outside the very largest firms is continuing to fall back and all of the improvement is being driven by fewer people leaving work rather than more people getting new jobs.

“This is proving to be a disaster for young people, who now account for nearly two-thirds of the fall in employment and none of the recent growth,” he said.

The lockdown and government support schemes mask a weakening labour market and when the furlough scheme ends in September, a spike in unemployment will follow.

Almost two-thirds of people who lost jobs in UK pandemic are under 25 | Unemployment | The Guardian

UK furlough scheme cushions Covid blow, but job losses loom | UK unemployment and employment statistics | The Guardian

The Court of Appeal has overturned the convictions of 14 men sentenced for their involvement in pickets in 1972. Two dozen trade unionists who picketed during the national builders’ strike were charged with offences including unlawful assembly, conspiracy to intimidate and affray.

The actor Ricky Tomlinson was convicted and jailed for two years. He said: “Whilst it is only right that these convictions are overturned, it is a sorry day for British justice. My thoughts today are with my friend and comrade Des Warren.”

 Six of the 14 who brought the action have since died, including Dennis Warren, who was jailed for three years.

Arthur Murray, who was convicted of affray and unlawful assembly and sentenced to six months, said: “We were innocent all along, yet it has taken us nearly 50 years to clear our names.” He added: “Serious questions need to be asked about the role of the building industry bosses in our convictions and the highest offices of government who all had a hand in our trial and conviction. Make no mistake, our convictions were a political witch-hunt.”

Tomlinson echoed his remarks, saying: “We were brought to trial at the apparent behest of the building industry bosses, the Conservative government and ably supported by the secret state. This was a political trial not just of me, and the Shrewsbury pickets – but was a trial of the trade union movement.”

Terry Renshaw said: “The police and the prosecuting authorities used every trick in the book to secure guilty verdicts, even if it meant trampling over our rights and manipulating the evidence.”

 The media was full of headlines about Bristol rioters protesting the new Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill who were using the slogan ‘Kill The Bill’.

As always the case, the news reporting was slanted and one-sided.

For those who wish to know what really happened from the side of the demonstrators, the blog recommends this link for an account of what actually took place.

What actually Happened in Bristol – and How a Narrative is Built (libcom.org)

 “They always find something more important. Whether it’s in Germany, whether it is in France, or in the United Kingdom. Give me one European country whose government is known for taking a principled vocal position on human rights? The examples are too few and far between.” 

  Agnès Callamard, former special rapporteur for extrajudicial killings at the United Nations and now newly appointed secretary general of Amnesty International 

 WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was “shocking” how little had been done to avert an entirely predictable “catastrophic moral failure” to ensure the equitable distribution of vaccines worldwide.

The gap was “growing every single day, and becoming more grotesque every day,” he told a press conference.

“Countries that are now vaccinating younger, healthy people at low risk of disease are doing so at the cost of the lives of health workers, older people and other at-risk groups in other countries,” Tedros said. “The inequitable distribution of vaccines is not just a moral outrage. It’s also economically and epidemiologically self-defeating.”

He continued, “Some countries are racing to vaccinate their entire populations — while other countries have nothing.”

Tedros said rich countries were giving themselves a false sense of security. The UN health agency chief said the more transmission of the virus, the more variants are likely to emerge — and the more of those that spring up, the more likely they are to evade vaccines.

Tedros said countries were in a race against time to bring down transmission and wealthy nations needed to match their promises of solidarity with action on getting vaccines to poorer nations.

“Unless we end this pandemic as soon as possible, it can keep us hostage for more years to come,” he warned.

56 percent of the doses have been administered in high-income countries accounting for 16 percent of the global population. Just 0.1 percent have been administered in the 29 lowest-income countries, home to nine percent of the global population.

WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said nations were grasping at straws, thinking that simply administering lots of vaccine doses would be a “golden solution” to end the crisis.

“I’m sorry: it’s not,” Ryan said. “The disease is on the march again in countries where we have an opening up, natural fatigue, low vaccination coverage, poor surveillance and control measures in place,” he said, calling the combination “a recipe for larger outbreaks”.

“I’m afraid we are investing way too much in this (vaccines) as the only solution to fix our problems,” he said.

Covid-19: Growing global vaccine inequity ‘grotesque’, says WHO (france24.com)