LONDON: An animal rights group trying to get real fur out of the bearskin caps worn by King’s Guards at Buckingham Palace took aim Thursday at the cost of the ceremonial garb.
The price of the caps soared 30 percent in a year to more than 2,000 pounds ($2,600) apiece for the hats made of black bear fur, the Ministry of Defense said in response to a freedom of information request by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
“Stop wasting taxpayer pounds on caps made from slaughtered wildlife and switch to faux fur today,” the group said in a statement.
A luxury fake fur maker has offered to supply the army with free faux bear fur for 10 years, PETA said.
The military said it was open to exploring alternatives if they pass muster in durability, water protection and appearance. But “no alternative has met all those criteria to date,” a ministry spokesperson said in a statement.
The distinctive tall black hats, worn by guards in bright scarlet tunics, are seen by millions who watch the regular changing of the guard ceremony at the palace. They also appear at other royal events including the annual Trooping the Color ceremony honoring the monarch’s birthday in June.
The cost of the caps rose from 1,560 pounds ($2,035) each in 2022 to 2,040 pounds ($2,660) in 2023, the ministry said. More than 1 million pounds ($1.3 million) was spent on them in the past decade.
The price went up because of a contract change for fur that comes from bears killed in licensed hunts in Canada, the military said. Each cap requires one bear pelt, PETA said.
PETA, hich has been pushing for more than two decades to scrap the fur hats, said each cap requires one bear pelt. The group claimed that the defense department is propping up the “cruel” Canadian bear-hunting industry.
The ministry denied that charge and said if it stopped buying the pelts, it would not reduce the numbers of bears being killed.
Parliament debated the issue in July 2022 after an online petition with more than 100,000 signatures called for using fake fur in the caps.
“This hunting involves the violent killing of bears, with many bears being shot several times,” Martyn Day, then a Scottish National Party member of Parliament, said at the time. “It seems undeniable, therefore, that by continuing to purchase hats made from the fur of black bears the MOD is funding the suffering of bears in Canada by making the baiting and killing of those animals and the sale of their pelts a profitable pursuit for the hunters.”
Day said a poll at the time found 75 percent of the UK population found real bearskins were a bad use of taxpayer money and supported replacing the hats.
He noted that the late Queen Elizabeth II had ceased buying fur for her wardrobe.
Earlier this year, Queen Camilla, wife of King Charles III, pledged to buy no more fur products.
Animal rights groups object to Buckingham Palace guard’s distinctive bearskin caps
https://arab.news/5m39h
Animal rights groups object to Buckingham Palace guard’s distinctive bearskin caps
- Price of caps soared 30% in a year to more than 2,000 pounds apiece for the hats made of black bear fur
- “Stop wasting taxpayer pounds on caps made from slaughtered wildlife and switch to faux fur today,” PETA said
Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters arrested outside New York Stock Exchange
The protesters chanted “Let Gaza live!” and “Up up with liberation, down down with occupation!” in front of the stock exchange’s landmark building in lower Manhattan.
“The reason we’re here is to demand that the US government stop sending bombs to Israel and stop profiting off of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,” said Beth Miller, political director of Jewish Voice for Peace, the group that organized the demonstration. “Because what’s been happening for the last year is that Israel is using US bombs to massacre communities in Gaza while simultaneously weapons manufacturers on Wall Street are seeing their stock prices skyrocket.”
A handful of counterprotesters waved Israeli flags and tried to shout down the pro-Palestinian chants.
None of the pro-Palestinian protesters got inside the exchange, but at least 200 made it inside a security fence on Broad Street, where they sat down and waited to be taken into custody.
A spokesperson for the exchange declined to comment on the protest.
Police arrested the protesters one by one, cuffing their hands behind their backs with plastic ties and leading them to vans. Some demonstrators went limp and were carried by three or four officers.
A police spokesperson said there were about 200 arrests. She did not have details on the charges they faced.
The protest happened a week after the world marked the anniversary of Hamas’ surprise Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the start of Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza, which has since spread to Lebanon and beyond.
The Lebanese Red Cross said an Israeli airstrike hit an apartment building in northern Lebanon on Monday, killing at least 21 people.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military and it was not clear what the target was.
India and Canada expel top envoys in Sikh separatist killing row
- Murder of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar crashed country’s diplomatic relations with India
- Trudeau previously said there were “credible allegations” linking Indian intelligence services to the crime
NEW DELHI: India and Canada each expelled the other’s ambassador and five other top diplomats, after New Delhi said its envoy had been named among “persons of interest” following the killing of a Sikh separatist leader.
New Delhi said it was withdrawing its six diplomats from Canada, but an Ottawa government source told AFP they had been expelled, not withdrawn.
The 2023 murder of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar crashed the country’s diplomatic relations with India after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there were “credible allegations” linking Indian intelligence services to the crime.
The expulsion of the diplomats — the most senior envoys on both sides — is a major escalation in the row.
India “decided to expel” Ottawa’s acting High Commissioner Stewart Wheeler, his deputy and four first secretaries, ordering they leave before midnight on Sunday.
Ottawa announced similar measures in return, with Canadian police saying they had “evidence pertaining to agents of the government of India’s involvement in serious criminal activity” in Canada.
Nijjar — who immigrated to Canada in 1997 and became a citizen in 2015 — had advocated for a separate Sikh state, known as Khalistan, carved out of India.
He had been wanted by Indian authorities for alleged terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder.
Four Indian nationals have been arrested in connection with Nijjar’s murder, which took place in the parking lot of a Sikh temple in Vancouver in June 2023.
New Delhi had earlier said it had “received a diplomatic communication from Canada suggesting that the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats are persons of interest” in the ongoing investigation.
It said their envoy, Sanjay Kumar Verma, a former ambassador to Japan and Sudan, was a respected career diplomat and that the accusations were “ludicrous.”
New Delhi’s foreign ministry said it had told Verma to return home.
“We have no faith in the current Canadian Government’s commitment to ensure their security,” it said in a statement.
India on Monday called allegations it was connected to the killing “preposterous” and a “strategy of smearing India for political gains.”
Last year, the Indian government briefly curbed visas for Canadians and forced Ottawa to withdraw diplomats, and on Monday threatened further action.
“India reserves the right to take further steps in response to the Trudeau Government’s support for extremism, violence and separatism against India,” the foreign ministry said.
The foreign ministry also summoned Canadian envoy Wheeler, who said that Ottawa had given India the evidence it had demanded.
“Canada has provided credible, irrefutable evidence of ties between agents of the Government of India and the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil,” Wheeler told reporters after leaving the ministry.
“Now, it is time for India to live up to what it said it would do and look into all those allegations. It is in the interest of both our countries and the peoples of our countries to get to the bottom of this. Canada stands ready to cooperate with India.”
India then announced his expulsion.
Canada is home to around 770,000 Sikhs, who make up about two percent of the country’s population, with a vocal minority calling for an independent state of Khalistan.
In November 2023, the US Justice Department also charged an Indian citizen living in the Czech Republic with allegedly plotting a similar assassination attempt on US soil.
Prosecutors said in unsealed court documents that an Indian government official was also involved in the planning of that attempt.
WHO approves Bavarian Nordic’s mpox vaccine for adolescents
- The US Food and Drug Administration has also approved Bavarian’s shot, but only for use in adults 18 years and older, although it granted Emergency Use Authorization for its use in adolescents during the mpox outbreak of 2022
GENEVA: The World Health Organization said on Monday it had approved Bavarian Nordic’s mpox vaccine for adolescents aged 12 to 17 years, an age group considered especially vulnerable to outbreaks of the disease that has triggered global concern.
The WHO said it gave the Jynneos vaccine prequalification for adolescents on Oct. 8. The organization declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years in August after a new type of the virus spread from the Democratic Republic of Congo to its neighbors.
The UN agency approved the use of the vaccine in September as the first shot against mpox in adults, making it easier for badly hit African countries to access the vaccine.
SPEEDREAD
• The WHO said it gave the Jynneos vaccine prequalification for adolescents on Oct. 8.
• The organization declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years in August.
Children, adolescents and those with weakened immune systems have been particularly vulnerable to mpox, a viral infection that typically causes flu-like symptoms and skin lesions filled with pus.
WHO’s latest decision comes after the EU approved the drug for the vaccine for adolescents in September.
The Danish biotech firm is also preparing to conduct a clinical trial to assess the vaccine’s safety in children aged two to 12, potentially extending its use.
The trial, partially funded by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, is expected to start in October.
The US Food and Drug Administration has also approved Bavarian’s shot, but only for use in adults 18 years and older, although it granted Emergency Use Authorization for its use in adolescents during the mpox outbreak of 2022.
Another mpox vaccine, LC16, made by Japan’s KM Biologics, can already be given to children, according to the Japanese regulator, although it requires a special kind of needle.
Bavarian Nordic did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the prequalification.
British royal left tearful after visit to Sudanese refugees in Chad
- Duchess of Edinburgh hears stories of mass slaughter, sexual violence
- ‘What they do to the children is … I can’t even use the words,’ she tells The Times
LONDON: Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, was brought to tears during a visit to survivors of the ongoing Sudanese genocide on the border with Chad.
The duchess told The Times that she had private audiences with female survivors of the violence, which included stories of rape in return for safety and food for their families.
“What they do to the children is … I can’t even use the words,” she told the newspaper. “These women have no option but to leave.”
The duchess spoke to one refugee, Hadidah Abdullah, in the town of Adre on the Chadian border with the war-torn Darfur region.
Abdullah, cradling her 9-month-old baby Bayena, said they had traveled for 60 km to reach safety.
Around 230,000 refugees are in Adre, with many comparing the situation to that of the previous genocide in Darfur over 20 years ago, which killed 300,000 people.
The region, which is being fought over by the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, is also experiencing famine, with millions at risk of starvation.
One woman who arrived at the camp in Adre during the duchess’s visit with five children in tow said she had not seen her husband since the outbreak of the conflict in April 2023.
Others talk of the RSF forcing young men and boys into service, and killing people who refuse to cooperate.
The duchess has traveled to numerous conflict zones, including Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Ukraine and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as part of her work helping victims of sexual violence in war.
After meeting five women at a hospital in Adre, one of them told The Times that she and her family had been trapped in the city of Geneina where they witnessed RSF atrocities, including rape and looting.
She said: “If you tried to go out … some can kill you or threaten sexual violence. More than 10 people were killed at a time and they took whatever from the houses.”
She added that her teenage son was taken by the RSF alongside her brothers to fight, and that when she and her remaining relatives escaped, they saw bodies stacked “like a wall” in the streets.
The duchess told The Times that the experience of talking to the women about their ordeals had left her feeling “quite wobbly.”
She said the international community’s attention is “focused very much on other conflicts around the world,” and she wants to “shine the light” on the crisis in Sudan which, The Times said, “aid organisations rank as the world’s gravest” humanitarian crisis.
“This is a human catastrophe that is vast and Chad is having to pick up the pieces when it can ill afford to do,” Sophie said.
“The organisations are saying they are seeing budgets being pulled back and things like that because the money is being siphoned to go elsewhere.
“And, again, whose need is greater? Everybody’s need is great but this is pretty desperate. We’ve got to keep the attention on this.”
Far-right Danish-Swedish politician on trial for Qur’an burnings in Sweden
- Paludan, leader of the Danish Stram Kurs (Hard Line) party, is the first individual to stand trial in Sweden in connection with Qur’an burnings
LONDON: Rasmus Paludan, a far-right Danish-Swedish politician known for burning copies of the Qur’an, went on trial in Sweden on Monday facing charges of incitement against an ethnic group.
Paludan, leader of the Danish Stram Kurs (Hard Line) party, is the first individual to stand trial in Sweden in connection with Qur’an burnings.
He faces two charges of incitement against an ethnic group and one charge of insult, stemming from public gatherings held in Sweden in 2022 and 2023.
During an event in April 2022, Paludan made statements that allegedly incited violence against ethnic groups, leading to riots in several cities, including Malmo, where about 20 percent of the population identifies as Muslim.
In a separate incident in September 2022, he was accused of verbally attacking “Arabs and Africans,” resulting in the insult charge, which can carry a penalty of up to six months’ imprisonment.
And in January 2023, he was involved with Qur’an burnings outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm, which sparked diplomatic tensions between Sweden and Muslim-majority countries. The furore delayed Sweden’s bid for NATO membership, political commentators said.
Paludan has denied all charges.
He appeared via video link at Monday’s hearing from an undisclosed location, saying he feared for his safety if attending the Malmo district court in person.
Law professor Vilhelm Persson from Lund University highlighted the significance of the trial as the first related to Qur’an burnings, though he noted that a ruling from the Swedish supreme court would be necessary to establish legal precedent, The Guardian newspaper reported.
