“Tony Blair always envied how much money Clinton had gathered,” says Meghnad Desai, a former Labour politician and London School of Economics professor. “So he set up his consultancy and advised Central Asian dictators…”

The day Tony Blair left British politics in June 2007 he became the special envoy to the Quartet on the Middle East, during which time he set up Tony Blair Associates (TBA). All profits from TBA went to support his work in areas such as the Climate Group, Faith Foundation and Africa Governance Initiative, all of which offer consultancy on their respective topics. The mechanism was similar to Blair’s Third Way philosophy in the 1990s, except on a bigger scale: Make nice with big money, give it what it wants and then spread a little of its wealth to areas that do good things. 

Blair also spent much of the profits on a multi-million property empire for himself and his children. The financial crash of 2008 put an end to the Third Way foible in the liberal West. When the credit crunch shifted from Wall to Main Street, it was public services that were cut rather than bankers’ bonuses. Blair is said to be worth around $60 million (€53 million).

The completion of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) — which began delivering its first gas from Azerbaijan to Italy on December 30 — has shone light back on the role played by ex-UK Prime Minister Tony Blair in brokering the deal with one of the world’s brutal dictators. In July 2014, Blair was hired to advise a BP-led consortium to export natural gas to Europe from Azerbaijan. On December 31, 2020, Azerbaijani gas from the Shah Deniz deposit in the Caspian Sea flowed for the first time along the Southern Gas Corridor.  

All TBA income was reportedly paid to Windrush Ventures 3, one of several companies Blair set up to manage his business interests that allowed him to avoid publishing full accounts. “[This is] sort of the ‘revolving door syndrome’ just cross-national rather than within the same country,” says Anna Mikulska from Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Likewise, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, as chairman of the board of directors of the Nord Stream 2 project, is helping the Kremlin in its bid to finish the pipeline linking Russia and Germany. German Social Democrat (SPD) Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (1998–2005), has been working for the Russian energy industry since he retired from politics in 2005.

“Since then, he has become one of Putin’s most effective Trojan horses in Europe speaking out against Transatlantic sanctions and policies aimed at countering [President Vladimir] Putin’s hybrid threats toward the West, while the current CEO of the pipeline is none other than Putin-confidant and ex-Stasi officer, Matthias Warnig,” Benjamin L. Schmitt, a researcher at Harvard University, says. Schröder received $600,000 in salary for 2019. Since 2017, Schröder has also served as an independent director of the board of Russia’s biggest oil producer, Rosneft.

Schröder’s pro-Russia stance, is in part a hangover from one of his SPD predecessors, Willy Brandt and his policy of detente toward the USSR from the early 1970s. “The truth is that German and Russian utilities/gas companies have a very long working relationship and Germany somehow sees this as a market relation,” Mikulska says.

“Projects like the Kremlin-backed Nord Stream 2 pipeline are used within the Russian Federation as a means of enriching contractors with close ties to Putin and is not limited to domestic allies of Putin,” Schmitt says.

Both Blair and Schröder built a brand of center-left politics termed the Third Way in the mid-1990s. “They transformed their parties into winners by effectively giving the leading industries in their economies exactly what they wanted — light-touch regulation of finance in the UK and labor market reform for the car sector in Germany to keep a lid on wages and hence improve export competitiveness,” says Brown University’s Mark Blyth. “Where they are now is where they would have been anyway had they never governed — high up corporate — at the dodgy end of energy and money.”

2 former European leaders and their post-Soviet power plays | Business| Economy and finance news from a German perspective | DW | 12.01.2021

 In March of 2020 the Everyone In scheme to temporarily house rough sleepers in self-contained accommodation during the first wave of the pandemic, including in newly deserted hotels and hostels, was implemented. About 15,000 rough sleepers were housed in the following months, 

The homelessness charity Crisis called it extraordinary, while others lined up to congratulate the government on its unusually bold course of action to shelter thousands of society’s most vulnerable people. An article in the Lancet estimated that the measures prevented more than 21,000 infections and 266 deaths. Simply put, Everyone In saved lives.

Yet by early June, it was reported that funding had been withdrawn; the government pointed to the £3.2bn given to local authorities to deal with the fallout of the pandemic (though none of this figure was specifically given over for homelessness).  In September, £91.5m of government funding was split between 274 councils for their own rough sleeping plans. This was eventually joined by £10m announced on Friday. But it remains to be seen what effect this approach will have compared with the straightforward, fully funded initiative that made such a difference in spring 2020.

 UK’s network of winter shelters faces difficulties as they scramble to provide Covid-safe accommodation. Every winter sees a spike in avoidable deaths among homeless people, as temperatures plummet. In 2021, the threat isn’t just from the cold but a new variant of Covid-19.

Homelessness in all its forms has skyrocketed since 2010 under various Tory administrations. Austerity has butchered welfare and community services. And though the newly announced extra funding is better than nothing, new figures compiled by the Observer show that more than 70,000 households have been made homeless since the start of the pandemic – despite the housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, pledging in March 2020 that “no one should lose their home as a result of the coronavirus epidemic”. It is clear proof of a failing “strategy” masked by sporadic U-turns and hurried concessions.

The end of the eviction ban may have been kicked down the line again until February, redundancies are soaring and the number of young people sleeping rough in London stands at a record high, as do the numbers of deaths among homeless people in England and Wales.

In the first lockdown, England proved it could end homelessness. Why not now? | Homelessness | The Guardian

Though the Everybody In scheme didn’t “solve homelessness”, and had its imperfections, it was clearly effective, in part because of its clarity of purpose. 

 Epidemiologist Salim Abdool Karim could be considered South Africa’s equivalent  to America’s Anthony Fauci. As co-chair of the South African Ministerial Advisory Committee on Covid-19, he is the government’s top adviser on the pandemic and has become the country’s face of Covid-19 science. He also sits on the Africa Task Force for Novel Coronavirus, overseeing the continent’s response to the global crisis. Karim, who directs the Durban-based Centre for the Aids Programme of Research in South Africa and is a professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, has long advocated for science and speaking truth to power. For three decades, along with his wife and scientific collaborator, Quarraisha Abdool Karim, he has been at the forefront of the fight against South Africa’s substantial HIV and tuberculosis epidemics and in the early 2000s was one of the scientists who spoke out against the government’s Aids denialism.

We can therfore view him as a person with vast experience and knowledge so his message should not be ignored nor neglected. 

He was asked, “Are you worried that low- and middle-income countries won’t get enough vaccines?”

He answered, “Vaccine nationalism is a concern. There are countries – like the US – that believe they will be safe while the rest of the world is not. It’s a fundamental fallacy. None of us are safe if one of us is not. We have mutual interdependence. We need the whole world to be part of Covax: all the drug companies should have committed all their vaccine doses to Covax, which could then equitably provide the vaccine so all healthcare workers can get vaccinated. It will be terrible if the US is vaccinating low-risk young people while we in Africa cannot vaccinate healthcare workers.”

He pointed out that South Africa,  doesn’t “…have money to buy 10m doses and then not use it if it’s inappropriate.”

Salim Abdool Karim: ‘None of us are safe from Covid if one of us is not. We have mutual interdependence’ | Coronavirus | The Guardian

More than a third of the UK’s poorest families have seen their already meagre incomes squeezed during the pandemic because they have had to spend more on food, gas and electricity, and home schooling, a study by the Resolution Foundation thinktank found. 

While UK household spending broadly dropped and financial savings increased during the Covid crisis, this was not the case for many low-income families, who saw basic living costs surge. While higher-income groups were able to save money they would ordinarily have spent on commuting, eating out or holidays – and often spent this windfall on luxuries – those in the lowest income cohort often struggled to make ends meet, the study found. Many poorer families found the extra costs of feeding and entertaining children at home pushed up spending when schools closed, as did the need to equip school-age sons and daughters with laptops and broadband access for online learning.

Normal coping strategies employed by poorer families – visiting friends and families for occasional meals, or using the library for free internet access, and charity shops for cheap clothes – became harder as a result of household mixing restrictions and the closure of libraries and non-essential retail.

The government had failed to provide effective support for the poorest families, it said, and with the third lockdown expected to last months, it urged ministers to retain the £20 pandemic top-up to universal credit beyond April, as well as boost other benefits for the low-paid.

“The study shines an unforgiving light on the absence of targeted, adequate support for families on a low income, who today face the combined insecurity of Covid-19 and increased financial pressure,” said the study. This added pressure came after years of weak growth in living standards for the poorest households, in turn leading to a general worsening of mental health, it added. It said: “Financial worries have been added to the general stress and anxiety of the pandemic for many families with children.”

Dr Ruth Patrick, a lecturer in social policy at the University of York, who leads the Covid Realities research programme said: “While the need for the lockdown is clear, there is an equally urgent need to address the additional financial pressures that families on a low-income face through greater income support to families with dependent children.”

Poor families’ living costs have surged during pandemic, UK study finds | Society | The Guardian

 B&M benefited from being classified as an essential retailer which allowed it continue trading through the tiered system of restrictions and the subsequent lockdown while non-essential stores were forced to close. Sales have also been helped by having shops at out-of-town retail parks which have been busier than high streets during the pandemic. Sales rose 22.5 per cent to £1.4bn in the 13 weeks to 26 December. The company during the period opened 18 new stores, taking its total to 673.

Simon Arora and his family are the biggest shareholders of B&M via an offshore trust which scooped a £44m payout just two months ago. The founder and chief executive of B&M  handed himself a £30m dividend.

B&M Bargains boss pays himself £30m after bumper lockdown sales | The Independent

The government  announced that it was extending the ban on bailiff evictions that has been in place since the first lockdown in March, covering most tenants for another six weeks. The eviction ban has allowed landlords to go ahead with evictions in exceptional circumstances, such as when tenants were sitting on extreme levels of rent arrears. However, an important loophole has been placed in legislation that will for the first time give landlords the power to evict people for not paying their rent during lockdown.

“Substantial” rent arrears were previously defined in law as equivalent to nine months’ rent, but debt accrued since the first lockdown on 23 March  2020  was not allowed to be counted in the total. This rule was to make sure people who lost their jobs during the pandemic were not made homeless because the government had forced their workplace to close. But the new legislation published  removes this protection and redefines “substantial arrears” to cover many more people.

Now, a tenant can be evicted if they have been unable to pay their rent for just six months, and most crucially, rent accrued since the pandemic began is no longer excluded.

Housing activists warned that the new loophole leaves in tatters the government’s promise that no one will lose their home because of the pandemic. 

Citizens Advice estimates that around half a million tenants are in arrears, with the average amount owed being £730.

Government sneaks ‘cruel’ new loophole into eviction ban | The Independent

 When it comes to comprehending the extent of the wealth held by the mega-billionaires, we, ordinary mortals, have some difficulty in imagining it. 

If Musk’s wealth was ranked alongside the GDP of every country in the world, he would be the 50th richest country in the world.

Deutsche Bank agreed to pay fines and penalties of more than $124 million (€1.02 million) to avoid criminal prosecution in the United States on charges it participated in a bribery scheme to win business in Saudi Arabia. Previously, the bank has agreed to a Securities and Exchange Commission fine of $16 million to resolve separate allegations of corrupt dealings in Russia and China. The Frankfurt-based lender has also agreed to pay the state of New York $150 million to settle claims that it broke compliance rules in its dealings with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. There also were reports last year that the bank gave expensive gifts to senior Chinese officials and others to establish itself as a major player in China’s financial industry.

It also faced a commodities fraud charge arising from precious metals futures traders, who were accused of placing fraudulent trades, known as spoofing, to induce other traders to buy and sell futures contracts at prices they otherwise would not have.

Court papers alleged that Deutsche Bank bribed intermediaries to make deals in Saudi Arabia, labeling the payments of up to $1.1 million as “referral fees.” Other intermediaries demanded financing for a yacht and for a house in France as compensation, the papers said.

Deutsche Bank handed $124 million in bribery fines by US court | News | DW | 08.01.2021

The experts predicted an increasing number of extreme weather events which will accompany the climate crises and sadly they have not been proved wrong. 

America suffered  a record number of weather and climate-driven disasters in 2020, such as extensive wildfires, hurricanes in quick succession and extreme heat, a new federal government report has shown.

A total of 22 major disasters, defined as each causing at least $1bn in damage, swept the US last year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa). At least 262 people died, with $95bn in total damages recorded.

A total of 10.3m acres burned in wildfires in 2020 across the US west, an area larger than Maryland and well above this century’s average. California recording five of the six biggest fires in its history, an outbreak that destroyed thousands of homes and caused the sky to turn an apocalyptic orange over the San Francisco Bay Area.

On the eastern seaboard and Gulf of Mexico, a record 12 tropical storms made landfall during a year. Seven of these caused more than $1bn in damage, including hurricanes Laura and Sally, which hit the US south in quick succession in August and September. Three hurricanes and two tropical storms hit Louisiana alone.

A major drought and heatwave happened in the US west last year and it was the fifth hottest on record across the contiguous US, which follows a longer-term pattern of national and global heating – all of the five warmest years on record in the US have occurred since 2012.

There were three major tornado-related disasters and a highly destructive derecho, which is an event driven by fast-moving thunderstorms, that downed power lines, damaged houses and flattened crops in the midwest. 

Scientists have found that the strength of storms is increasing as the atmosphere and ocean heats up, while the area eaten up by fire has grown as rising temperatures dry out soils and vegetation.

“The record number of climate change-exacerbated weather disasters this year drives home the fact that, as I like to say, the impacts of climate change are no longer subtle,” said Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Penn State.

 22 disasters, 262 dead, $95bn in damages: US saw record year for climate-driven catastrophes | Climate change | The Guardian