The $16m New York penthouse fit for a UK civil servant

The apartment occupies the entire 38th floor of the Norman Foster-designed 50 United Nations Plaza building. Photograph: PR Image

Rupert Neate @RupertNeate-Tue 26 Mar 2019

Exclusive: Luxury apartment next to UN headquarters to be used by senior diplomat charged with seeking post-Brexit trade deals

The government has bought a $15.9m (£12m) seven bedroom luxury New York apartment for a senior British civil servant charged with signing fresh trade deals in a post-Brexit world, the Guardian can reveal.

The foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt oversaw the purchase of a 5,893 sq ft (574 sq metre) apartment as the official residence for Antony Phillipson, the UK trade commissioner for North America and consul general in New York. The apartment occupies the whole of the 38th floor of 50 United Nations Plaza, a 42-storey luxury tower near the UN headquarters in Manhattan.

The 167 metre tower, designed by the firm of celebrated British architect Norman Foster is described as “the ultimate global address”, and was also home to Nikki Haley when she served as the US ambassador to the UN until December 2018.

 A bedroom in the apartment in 50 United Nations Plaza. Photograph: PR Image

The apartment, which is called Penthouse 38, boasts a 73.6ft by 21.3ft living area complete with a dining room, living room and library. Chefs will be able to whip up a feast in the kitchen, which features both a double oven and a “speed oven”, as well as two dishwashers, an icemaker and wine cooler.

New York City records seen by the Guardian show that “Her Britannic Majesty’s Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs” bought the apartment for $15,900,000 (£12m) on 15 March.
A spokesman for the FCO said: “We have secured the best possible deal and value for money on a property that will help promote the UK in the commercial capital of our largest export market and trading partner.

“As well as being the consul general’s residence, it will also be used to support his work to help British businesses as Her Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for North America. We are in the process of selling the consul general’s current residence.”


50 United Nations Plaza floor plan Photograph: PR

The apartment was bought from the tower’s developers – the super-rich Zeckendorf family and Eyal Ofer, a Monaco-based Israeli real estate tycoon with an estimated $10.5bn personal fortune that makes him the 132nd richest person on the planet.

The apartment features five large ensuite bedrooms, as well as two further rooms labelled “staff bedrooms” on the floorplan.

One of the staff rooms works out at 6.3 sq metres – only slightly larger than the minimum legal size of a prison cell. One of the apartment’s three walk-in wardrobes is larger than both the staff rooms.

The ensuite bathroom comes complete with a freestanding French marble bathtub. Photograph: PR Image

The master bedroom is 6.6 times larger than the staff room at 42 sq metres, not including the ensuite bathroom, which comes complete with a freestanding French marble bathtub in the window overlooking the New York skyline, as well as a separate shower and steam room.

The Guardian understands the staff rooms will be removed and Phillipson will not have live-in staff.
Living next door to the UN headquarters, Phillipson will be in prime position to wine and dine dignitaries from around the world to encourage countries to sign fresh trade pacts with Britain in the event of the UK’s departure from the European Union.

Phillipson, who joined the civil service in 1993, served as director of trade and partnerships in Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU) until November 2017 when he moved to New York.

The developer of the tower boasts that a “stroke of genius” allowed the creation of a 75-metre black marble-lined swimming pool, which is 50% longer than an Olympic-standard pool and promises a “new level of aquatic extravagance” in “the most glamorous pool in Manhattan”. Nearby is a “temple of wellness” with fitness centre, steam room and sauna.

50 United Nations Plaza’s black marble-lined swimming pool. Photograph: PR Image

The building, which is known by locals as 50UNP, also promises its residents “an extraordinary level of privacy, security and serenity”. There is a 24-hour gated-security entrance and residents-only valet parking.

A spokesman for Zeckendorf Development and Ofer’s Global Holdings Inc said: “We are delighted with this full floor penthouse sale to Her Britannic Majesty’s Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and thrilled that 50 United Nations Plaza is now over 83% sold.”

The Qatari government bought four apartments in the 50 United Nations Plaza tower for $45m in 2015. Brochures for the building describe luxury including “vast expanses of glass, warm gold bands and stainless steel detailing distinguish this new architectural statement for the city – always at home in the world”.

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Archive: Ambassador Nikki Haley

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Enjoying the holidays with sweet friends...#TisTheSeason

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“Global architects Foster + Partners have custom-designed every detail of 88 spectacular condominium residences,” the advertising states. “The quality of space, light and views is unprecedented, creating the truest sense of arrival and the modern and timeless luxury of New York living.”

Foster + Partners said: “Every apartment is focused on the series of floor-to-ceiling bay windows and the interiors are luxurious, with generous space for entertaining. Adding a touch of elegance to every detail, the powder room walls are fitted with glazed silk panels in a choice of either bold primary or natural colours.

“A spa in the basement incorporates a large exercise pool for residents, and the penthouse features an infinity pool, dramatically cut out from the top level of the building.”

The FCO is also spending £55m refurbishing the British embassy in Washington DC. The repair and refurbishment project includes the 6,000 sq metre Ambassador’s Residence, the 2,000 sq metre Old Chancery Building, and the more modern 10,000 sq metre New Chancery Building.

The Ambassador’s Residence on Massachusetts Avenue was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and built in 1928. The work is due to start in July, with a projected completion of late 2021. Sir Kim Darroch has been the UK’s ambassador to the US since January 2016.

The mothers sending their boys to Somalia to escape gangs and knife crime

Fatima Manji-26 Mar 2019Reporter

What do you do if you are a parent of teenage boys and you’ve seen youngsters you know fall victim to the growing problem of knife violence?

For some mothers from the Somali community in London the answer has been to protect their teenage boys by sending them to Somalia or Kenya to get them away from gangs.

But that drastic measure is not always straightforward or safe.

Erasing the Erasure: On the Trail of Canada’s Biggest Cover Up by Sarah J. Webster

Preamble: A Personal Note from the Author

By Kevin Annett-March 25, 2019

In writing this piece I’ve done something unusual for me, and that is to adopt a pseudonym. I’ve only ever done that once before, in a situation of abnormal danger. That was in Africa in the midst of a civil war. My efforts to construct the story of the Canadian Indian residential school cover up and the professional destruction of Kevin Annett have been no less perilous. I have been met with not only an unexplained eyebrow-arched discouragement from colleagues, but the loss of friends and family and at least one job opportunity. After beginning my research I have also experienced more overt intimidation, gang stalking, late night death threats and at least one “unofficial visit” by the RCMP.

Erasing the Erasure On the ... by on Scribd

Henry Giroux Puts a Lens on the Nightmare of Neoliberal Fascism

Alt-right demonstrators clash with counterdemonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., in August 2017.

 (Steve Helber / AP)

 

JUN 11, 2018

Is there a chance to defeat the forces of neoliberal fascism? Henry A. Giroux explains why we must understand the historical and contemporary context of fascism to understand what we are up against.

Mark Karlin: Why is it important to have an historical understanding of fascism to shed light on the age of Trump?

Henry Giroux Puts a Lens on... by on Scribd

Policymakers need to understand what drives women to radicalisation

 

Why do women adopt the Jihadi ideology? Source: Shutterstock

25 Mar 2019

BRITISH-born ISIS bride Shamima Begum and American Hoda Muthana are a hot topic at home and abroad, their faces splashed across newspapers and television screens.

For governments and the media, the focus has been on questions of revoking citizenship. Far less attention has been afforded to the reasons why these women adopted Jihadi ideology and left their homes and families behind in the first place.

As a young teenager that had freshly migrated to Australia in the 1990s, I found myself caught up in Jihadi ideology.

In my case, it was social exclusion and feelings of alienation in my new surroundings that pushed me down this path.

SEE ALSO: What makes a mother blow up her own child?

Many young people from migrant families experience the isolation that I went through. Language barriers, cultural and religious differences, and the restrictions placed on them from families can all frustrate their ability to assimilate into their new surroundings.

My parents were not conservative in Pakistan but became so after moving to Australia. The change in their thinking was the influence of the Pakistani Muslim community in Australia, our new social circle.

My only outlet was to extend my relationships within the Muslim community. I wanted to please my parents and my society, therefore, I started becoming more religious – more religious, even, than my parents expected.

The pathways to radicalisation are different for everyone but our thinking is similar. Restrictions imposed by immigrant parents can be one of the contributing factors, as well as a fear of losing cultural and religious identity.

It’s important to understand that terrorists know the cultural challenges Muslim women face in these circumstances and they know how to make us feel empowered.

Empowerment was the key reason I started attending Salafi Jihadi sessions near Lakemba mosque. I was led to believe that I was following an ideology which was superior to other schools of thought of Islam. The messages promoted by the Jihadi Salafi groups were “we are the chosen ones” and that we are the “ambassadors of Allah”. Therefore, our duty was to fight the West who are killing our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan and Palestine.

The hate and intolerance promoted by terrorists and the empowerment they give to the people experiencing social isolation are key in moving towards violent extremism.

I am glad that I didn’t go as far as Shamima Begum and Hoda Muthana, but the thought crossed my mind several times to leave the comfort of my home to join a militant group in Afghanistan.

Alienation and disempowerment

Feelings of alienation and disempowerment within a community can drive dysfunction, criminality and radicalisation.

Muslim women can experience this in the wider Australian society, as well as within their own Muslim and cultural diasporas.

Many Muslim women feel that the broader Australian community demonises their religion, and that they are disenfranchised from engaging in conversations regarding Islam, in favour of commentators with a limited understanding of or connection to it.

Just as any other young Australian can be troubled by issues relating to alcohol, drugs, sex, sexuality and mental health, so can young Muslims. However, the feelings of alienation and isolation may be enhanced by the stigma from within their communities given the strong cultural taboos surrounding these issues.

There is also a disconnect between figures of authority in the countering violent extremism (CVE) space – such as Australian Government representatives and Muslim leaders – and the people they are trying to reach: Muslim women at risk of radicalisation to violent extremism.

Without consultation and dialogue, we risk pushing people into further isolation and reinforcing their distrust and avoidance of people in authority.

SEE ALSO: To fight radicalisation in Southeast Asia, empower the women

The hardline approach

Despite efforts to counter radicalisation, governments have failed to confront the challenges of preventing young women and men moving to the path of violent extremism.

They have failed because they have swatted away Muslim grassroots organisations that have approached the Government for support for projects which focus on preventing violent extremism and address the drivers of radicalisation in their communities.

The top-down, hardline approach is not sustainable. A successful counter-terrorism strategy must engage at the grassroots level. It must work with local Muslim organisations to ‘debunk’ Jihadi ideology and terrorist propaganda. It must work with Muslim youth to understand the ‘push factors’ to radicalisation. Grassroots organisations have the networks and the trust of Muslim communities to lead this engagement.

It is critical to understand that Muslim women who are in the process of radicalisation are not well connected to the Imams or religious leaders who promote messages of tolerance and respect. Therefore, blaming Islam or Muslim communities is only going to create further hatred.

As counter-terrorism expert, Greg Barton, said, “rather than attack and potentially alienate the Muslim community, engaging with them for the purpose of targeted outreach could deliver far better results”.

The Government often portrays Islam as a single shade of grey. Some go so far as to propagate the idea that the Islamic State (ISIS) is practising a ‘puritan’ version of Islam. This is blatantly, and offensively, untrue.

Islam and terrorist propaganda

Islam is a complex, multifaceted religion. Just like in any other religion, there are amateur preachers, and there are well-respected scholars. However, just like in other religions and ideologies, often these amateur preachers are the most skilled at slick online propaganda.

These amateur preachers and terrorists are skilled at using the hate fired at Muslims as ammunition. Islamic State sees these divisions in society as fertile ground to grow their ideology. Islamic State has created the illusion in some online spheres that their Jihadi interpretation of Islam is the only true version.

Many respected and authoritative voices on the interpretation of the Quran, the qualified Muslim Scholars, are not so skilled at harnessing social media to connect with youth.

The Islamic community has many well qualified, reputable Islamic Scholars and clerics that do not find support for violence or the violation of the laws of foreign lands in the Quran. But these peaceful interpretations of the holy book are not being harnessed by the Government to fight the ideological war with Islamic State.

SEE ALSO: Indonesian kindie draws flak for children’s jihadi-styled costumes

If we neglect approaches that address issues of alienation and disempowerment experienced by those at risk, we will continue to battle extremism.

It is integral for a counter-terrorism strategy to also fight terrorism on the ideological and intellectual front. Muslim grassroots organisations and outreach programs have a deep understanding of the cultural and religious practices of Muslim communities and their unique set of concerns.

To address radicalisation and terrorist propaganda, the Government should collaborate with Muslim grassroots organisations who understand the cultural challenges facing Muslim girls and women.

By working together, with a top-down and a bottom-up approach, we can offer a different way forward for women and youth than choosing to walk the path of radicalisation.

By Anooshe Mushtaq, consultant, a social commentator, and the founder and chairperson of The Raqib Taskforce—an organisation that builds social inclusion, dispelling extremist messages from the public domain. This piece was first published at Policy Forum, Asia and the Pacific’s platform for public policy analysis and opinion. 

China Is Burning Away Its Ecological Future

Chinese cities have a garbage problem — but incineration is no solution.

Two men walk through smoke from burning plastic waste in Beijing on January 11, 2012. (LIU JIN/AFP/Getty Images)

BY ANDREEA LEONTE

 | MARCH 26, 2019, 1:21 PM
China’s industrialization has put heavy pressure on the environment. For decades, China was the fastest-growing country in the world, powered by heavy industry that transformed it into the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases. The ecological degradation at home caused public outcry, but the desire to catch up with the West overrode that concern. The damage was so bad that over 1.6 million people in China are estimated to have died in 2013 from air pollution alone. According to a Greenpeace report, water pollution has also reached an alarming level, with more than half the water in major rivers in eight Chinese provinces deemed “unsuitable for human contact” as of 2015.

Today, China is attempting to reposition itself as a green power. After much criticism, the government publicly declared war against pollution, announcing its intention to create an “ecological civilization.” Traditionally, China’s pollution problem was caused by heavy industry. Now that China is ready to rebalance its economy toward a consumption-led model, it hopes to reduce the environmental burden. However, with cities as large as midsize European countries and a population eager to consume, China faces a new environmental dilemma: what to do with the municipal waste generated by consumerism.

As recently as the 2000s, the majority of Chinese still lived in the countryside; in 1990, just 26 percent of them officially lived in the cities. But decades of remarkable urbanization have, according to the China statistical yearbook of 2016, left 56.1 percent of Chinese living in cities. But with cities comes trash—as of 2004, China was already the world’s largest municipal solid waste generator, according to the World Bank.

In China, garbage is commonly handled via landfills (60.16 percent) or incineration (29.84 percent), and sometimes untreated discharge (8.21 percent), with the proportion of each shifting every year. Because landfills can no longer keep up with the demands of growing cities, incineration is on the rise. Some argue that incineration is more economically efficient, as it reduces the volume of waste after burning by up to 90 percent, while reducing the weight by 70 percent, thus saving a lot of land resources. Coupled with energy recovered through incineration, waste-to-energy power plants have spread throughout China’s new cities. Although the Chinese government has tried to promote such facilities as a clean way to get rid of waste, civil society has often opposed the construction of new incinerators, for fear that they will lead to even more pollution. Protests have broken out across China, in Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Hainan and elsewhere, against plans to build new incinerators.

According to the “13th Five-Year Plan on the Construction of Urban Domestic Waste Harmless Treatment Facilities,” China has promised to reduce the proportion of landfill disposal to 43 percent and increase the proportion of waste incineration to 54 percent, with 60 percent of the increase in trash incineration taking place in China’s densely populated east. The goal is to increase the incineration capacity to 442,200 tons per day by the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan. Some analysts estimate that the incinerated solid waste may even reach 591,400 tons per day in 2020, as opposed to 235,200 tons per day as it was in 2015.

On July 18, 2018, the Wuhu Ecology Center released its fourth observation report on the “Information Disclosure and Pollutant Discharge of 359 Domestic Waste Incineration Plants.” According to the report, China is currently host to 359 waste incinerators, distributed across 29 provinces, direct-administered municipalities, and autonomous regions. In private, experts say that by 2020, China will have about 500 incinerators, although this information has not been made public by any government official. On the other hand, the number of landfills is expected to peak at around 2,400, and then slightly decrease to about 2,000, as some of them will soon reach saturation point.
This is a potential environmental disaster. Waste-to-energy is erroneously promoted as a circular economy solution. The argument used is that the process of burning trash allows cities to recover some energy, while getting rid of the waste. But the real picture is more complex.

Incineration does not eliminate the waste, it only reduces its volume, creating about 0.3 tons of bottom ash for every ton of burned waste. Whereas 90 percent of the ash is nontoxic (bottom ash, collected under the furnace), the other 10 percent is considered hazardous waste (fly ash). The pollutant discharge includes leachate, boiler and economizer ash, grate siftings, air pollution control residues, and fly ash, and is created at various stages in the incineration process.

Waste-to-energy technology is not environmentally friendly, as it requires very high temperatures that in turn maximize the production of the pollutant dioxin, making energy recovery technologically incompatible with reducing dioxin emissions. Dioxin is a persistent organic pollutant that can easily get into the food chain and is highly toxic. Although sophisticated filters are used to prevent its release in the air, no available technology can stop dioxin formation, which is a natural result of combustion. Dioxin can be found in the fly ash, alongside other hazardous substances such as furans, heavy metals, and nanoparticles. The treatment of fly ash is thus extremely important. Even in the most technologically advanced countries, fly ash is mainly dumped in impermeable bags in special landfills, such as salt mines in Germany. Other countries try to stabilize the ash by mixing it with other substances, such as cement, creating solid blocks that can be used for paving sidewalks, in construction, and so on.

In China, the pollutant discharge is mainly treated by landfilling. According to the 13th Five-Year Plan, if a province does not have enough land for new landfills, the incineration residue will be stored in neighboring provinces, which will be “encouraged” to “build incineration residues and fly ash centralized treatment and disposal facilities through regional joint construction and sharing.” As the Wuhu Ecology Center report shows, this is a worrying situation. There are some regulations to control fly ash, but the implementation is, unfortunately, very poor. In many cases, the toxic ash is dumped alongside normal waste in landfills without any supervision or appropriate signaling. The report further says that China’s environmental law mandates that waste incineration facilities should be included among key pollutant discharge units and should actively disclose their environmental information. In practice, such information is not made available to the public and has to be actively sought.

Although tempting at a first glance, the energy recovery myth is dangerous for China.The current governmental approach gives a green light to an entire industry worth $16.3 billion that will need at least 15 years to recover their investment. Incineration is a short-term solution, capable of inflicting much more damage on the environment. Incineration does not eliminate the use of landfills. What it does, instead, is fill them with residue 10 times more harmful than regular waste that can lead to a much worse environmental crisis over time. Nonetheless, waste-to-energy investment sabotages cleaner industries based on “zero waste” principles and on the concept of circular economy.

As a rising tech superpower, China could invest more in research in order to develop its own personalized garbage treatment that does not require the use of incineration. Instead, even though China is reducing the number of industrial polluters, it now risks increasing pollution and contamination through incineration of waste, a byproduct of its new stage of economic development. However, in the absence of central and local authorities’ interest in developing and deploying environmentally friendly waste treatment facilities and of rigorous public education about recycling, it’s hard to keep Chinese cities clean without incinerators. Under the current approach, China is sacrificing tomorrow for the comfort of today, leaving the responsibility for the dream of building up an “ecological civilization” on the shoulders of the next generation.

Breast ironing awareness 'needed in school'

'Simone' explains how her mum ironed her breasts aged 13

Victoria Derbyshire

26 March 2019

Breast ironing awareness should be made part of the mandatory school curriculum to protect young girls from abuse, the National Education Union has said.

The practice involves ironing a girl's chest with hot objects to delay breasts from growing, so she does not attract male attention.

Conservative MP Nicky Morgan said teachers must also be educated, as they have a "very important role to play".

The Home Office said teachers have a duty to report concerns.

'Not allowed to cry'

"Kinaya" - whose name we have changed - lives in the UK.

Her family descends from west Africa - where breast ironing originates - and she was subjected to it aged 10.

She said her mother told her that "if I don't iron them, men will start coming to you, to have sex with you".

It is often the child's mother who will undertake the breast ironing, which usually involves heating a stone or spoon on a flame then pressing, massaging or flattening the breast.

This can go on for months.

"Time does not erase that kind of pain," Kinaya explained.

"You're not even allowed to cry out. If you do, you [are said to] have brought shame to your family, you are not a 'strong girl'."

"Kinaya" and her daughter

Kinaya is now an adult with daughters of her own.

When her eldest turned 10, her mother proposed that she be breast ironed.

"I said, 'No, no, no, none of my children are going to go through what I went through, as I still live with the trauma."

She has since moved away from her family, believing there was a real risk they would have performed breast ironing on her daughters without her consent.

Some girls are also made to wear an extremely tight strap around their chest

It is thought that around 1,000 girls in the UK have been affected by breast ironing.

But while awareness is growing around female genital mutilation (FGM), there are fears that few people know about breast ironing.

One woman told the Victoria Derbyshire programme she only realised breast ironing was not normal when she discovered her body looked different to her classmates during a PE class at her UK school, which led her to become distressed.

Her sister had breast ironed her from age eight, but her teachers failed to notice when she became withdrawn and stopped wanting to take part in PE lessons.

"If my PE teacher had known, if they were trained, I could have had the help I needed growing up," she said.

Kiri Tunks, joint president of the National Education Union, is now calling for school staff - and in particular PE teachers - to be taught how to notice the signs.

She also wants it to be covered in schools in the same way as FGM will be from 2020, as part of compulsory relationships and sex education classes in secondary schools.

Ms Morgan said issues such as breast ironing should be "tackled, addressed, talked about and stopped".

She added that the curriculum should be kept "under review as different areas of practice, custom or abuse come to light".

Those working with girls and young women should also be taught to recognise that breast ironing is taking place in the UK, she continued, and to be able to "advise the young person on what action they need to take".

A heated stone is often used in breast ironing

One woman, "Simone", told the Victoria Derbyshire programme she was breast ironed aged 13 when her mum found out that she was gay.

"According to her, maybe I was attractive because of my breasts, so if she can iron them and I'm flat, then maybe I'll be ugly and no-one will admire me."

In her case, the breast ironing went on for months.

Like many young girls, she was also made to wear an extremely tight strap around her chest to suppress them even more - which caused her difficulty breathing.

A few years later, when she had a baby to the man she was forced to marry, the long-term damage became apparent.

"When it comes to breast feeding, it's so strenuous, like there's a knot inside," she explained.

"It seemed like maybe some of the nerves were destroyed."

'Hidden crime'

There is no specific offence for breast ironing, but the Home Office described it as a form of child abuse and said it should be prosecuted under general assault laws.

Angie Marriott, a former gynaecological nurse who now works as a safeguarding lecturer for Cheshire Police, said that the true scale of breast ironing in the UK was being obscured because of under-reporting.

She described it as a "sensitive, hidden crime", with women afraid to speak out for fear of being "ousted from their communities".

"I know this is happening because people have divulged it to me," she said.

"And they've said it's the first time openly that they've ever spoken about what's happened to them, and they felt ashamed."

Angie Marriott says many women are too scared to report they have had their breasts ironed

Simone still bears the scars from the abuse she endured, and wants to raise awareness of the crime.

"To say the least, it's an abuse. It hurts, it dehumanises you," she said.

"You are not a human being."

'Album of Persecution: Justice, Despair, Tears' - Jaffna photo exhibition

190315 Kumanan photo exhibition NG 3.jpg

The long running campaign by families of the disappeared across the Tamil homeland was highlighted in a moving photo exhibition, 'Album of Persecution: Justice, Despair, Tears', in Jaffna last week. 

24 March 2019

The photographs by the prominent Mullaitivu based journalist, K Kumanan illustrated the anguish of the families who have campaigned for over two years for the truth about their loved ones who were disappeared in the final stages of the armed conflict. 

Their campaign has been widely supported across the North-East, with businesses, university students, faith leaders and civil society groups, as well as Tamils in the diaspora expressing solidarity with their plight.