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Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour. To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis. Help us build the better media Britain deserves The UK Government is being taken to court by climate campaigners over its controversial Jet Zero Strategy (JZS), arguing that the policy encourages aviation expansion at the expense of legally binding climate commitments. Climate charity Possible and the Group for Action on Leeds Bradford Airport and their legal teams at law firm Leigh Day have filed judicial reviews against the Department for Transport (DfT), challenging the JZS for "failing to present a viable plan to reduce aviation emissions in line with the UK's Net Zero targets." They are concerned that the far-off promise of 'Jet Zero' - the long-distant hope of emissions-neutral air travel - is being used as an excuse to expand airports today, complete with a major increase in carbon emissions here and now. The strategy was launched by the last Conservative Government, which claimed it would allow travellers to fly "guilt free". The strategy has continued post-election, with the Chancellor Rachel Reeves announcing in January that the Government will support the construction of a third runway at Heathrow. Ministers have delayed a final decision on Gatwick airport expansion to October this year to assess the climate impact - but suggest they are "minded to approve" expanding the London hub. In its announcement on Heathrow, the Government said they would "engage [with] the Climate Change Committee on how aviation expansion can be made consistent with our net zero framework." And defending Gatwick expansion, a transport minister, Mike Kane, used Jet Zero efforts to bolster his claims: "We continue to work together with industry to consider the best ways to support the aviation industry to de-carbonise, including through the jet zero taskforce." ENJOYING THIS ARTICLE? HELP US TO PRODUCE MORE Receive the monthly Byline Times newspaper and help to support fearless, independent journalism that breaks stories, shapes the agenda and holds power to account. PAY ANNUALLY - £39.50 A YEAR PAY MONTHLY - £3.75 A MONTH MORE OPTIONS We're not funded by a billionaire oligarch or an offshore hedge-fund. We rely on our readers to fund our journalism. If you like what we do, please subscribe. He added: "Airspace modernisation can help us to reach our target by reducing delays and allowing aircraft to fly in more direct routes. That should result in far less fuel burn, and therefore reduce our carbon omissions and potentially the noise impact of flights." But the International Energy Association says decarbonisation efforts for aviation are "not on track," adding: "In 2023, aviation accounted for 2.5% of global energy-related CO2 emissions, having grown faster between 2000 and 2019 than rail, road or shipping." The legal challenge on Jet Zero begins today (April 1) at the Royal Courts of Justice, with both challenges being heard alongside each other, and is expected to last for four days. Both legal cases argue that the JZS relies on speculative technological solutions while ignoring the need for demand management measures, despite clear recommendations from the Government's own statutory advisors, the Climate Change Committee (CCC). Challenging airport expansion earlier in Parliament earlier this year, Green Party MP Sian Berry said: "The Government's arguments that I have seen appear to rest on the idea that there are new technologies ready to go that will cut carbon emissions and allow large airport expansions. In reality, does the Minister accept that such innovations, many of which are still not ready for commercial use, cannot be relied upon?" Virgin Atlantic's '100% Sustainable' Flight is just a Greenwashing Gimmick say Ex...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour. To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis. Help us build the better media Britain deserves Senior figures in British fossil fuel and water companies are having to deal with a form of workplace stress unfamiliar to most British workers - the possibility of being placed under citizen's arrest. The Citizens Arrest Network (CAN) is targeting various executives at UK water and oil and gas companies, serving them with legal documents and attempting to place them under citizen's arrest as part of a campaign to "hold those making the decisions driving the worst environmental pollution to account". The group has attempted citizen's arrests on eight people from five firms including Thames Water since 18 March. A videographer who followed the activists in the course of their citizen's arrests shows Gilles d'Argouges, Chief Financial Officer for Perenco, an Anglo-French oil and gas firm, phoning his colleagues during the encounter. "I need some help, I'm outside the office and I have been put under… citizens' arrest. So I'm just looking to reach out to someone from Legal to get some counsel" he can be heard saying. The video also shows Dr Kathy Fallon, a retired GP turned climate activist present d'Argouges with what she claims is "a dossier of evidence" of "indictable criminal offences" that the network accuses d'Argouges of having committed through his work at Perenco. d'Argouges reacted calmly to the arrest, and spoke to the activists. Amjad Bseisu, CEO of Enquest, by contrast, ran from the woman trying to citizen's arrest him who shouted: "If you're innocent Amjad, why are you leaving?". Gail Lynch, a spokesperson for the Citizen's Arrest Network told Byline Times that previous attempts to use the law to hold fossil fuel firms and polluters accountable "became part of business as usual." "They would go to court, or settle out of court and then go back to doing exactly what they were doing. These fines and costs simply become part of the business model and so there needed to be a shift towards individuals so they face consequences they don't want to face." David Whyte, a professor of Climate Justice at Queen Mary University of London told Byline Times that "normally directors, senior managers, CEOs are able to hide behind the 'corporate veil'." "When you are a director or a senior manager there is an almost de facto corporate veil because in most instances of wrongdoing, it will be the company that's sued, it will be the company that is held liable for a regulatory offence, not an individual. "Effectively what the CAN is doing is attempting to pierce the corporate veil. They are trying to overcome the problem that directors, senior managers and CEOs can use the company to mask decisions that they make as individuals. I think it's quite an important approach to thinking about legal accountability," he said. Whyte added that the Police and Criminal Evidence Act of 1982 enshrines the right of citizens' arrest to prevent a person "causing physical injury to himself or any other person…or causing loss of or damage to property." Because climate breakdown causes wildfires and extreme weather, displacing people and damaging property, he argued that fossil fuel executives continuing to expand production are "intentionally or recklessly causing public nuisance." Just Stop Oil Has Called It Quits, but They Say Their Fight Is Far From Over The climate movement has announced an end to its direct action campaigns. The group's spokesperson tells Josiah Mortimer what's next Josiah Mortimer One of the group's targets was Alistair Cochrane, who was the Chief Financial Officer of Thames Water when he was placed under citizen's arrest for multiple counts of Public Nuisance. Activist...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour. To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis. Help us build the better media Britain deserves The county of Essex has long-established links with the United States of America. Christopher Martin, governor of the Mayflower which sailed west with the 'Pilgrim Fathers' in 1620 haled from Great Burstead, George Washington's great-great grandfather was the vicar of All Saints Church at Purleigh and William Penn, who founded the state of Pennsylvania spent much of his youth on his family's country estate in Wanstead. During WWII and well into the 1990s, the county was home to over a dozen USAAF air bases and thousands of US service personnel. While touring the North side of the Thames estuary in 1971, President Richard Nixon gave a famous speech at Basildon Town Hall in which he declared that since Essex was: "To all intents and purposes, the easternmost bulwark in our fight against communism, I don't see why we shouldn't just plant a flag and make it the 51st State!" And now, it would seem, that the Trump administration is taking Nixon's idea seriously. For White House insiders, quoted in Washington based political journal, The Quatsch, have revealed that the president's team are in advanced talks with UK diplomats and Reform UK go-betweens regarding the prospect of taking out a 300-year lease on the Essex seaboard in return for a favourable trade deal with Keir Starmer's Labour government. 'Panic, Misinformation and Hysteria About Freeports is Drowning Out the Real Concerns' Chris Grey disentangles the myriad alarming claims being made about 'special economic zones' and freeports in order to focus on the real risks Chris Grey "The Essex coastline between Harwich and Jaywick sits in a prime geopolitical and strategic hotspot known as the 'candyfloss rim'," one aide told The Quatsch, "and since the time of Henry VIII, it's been said that 'they who control Walton-on-the-Naze, control the North Sea'. So, it makes strategic as well as economic sense for America to take out a lease on the region." The area is rich in London clay deposits - which contain pyrites, smectite and selenite - a vital ingredient used in the manufacture of EV vehicles, suggesting that Elon Musk, too might have one eye on the county. Byline Times can now reveal that Nigel Farage's eight (at time of writing) visits to the USA since he was elected MP for Clacton in August 2024 had an actual purpose and that he has been at the forefront of the proposed deal. "Nigel has repeatedly said that he is representing Clacton on the world stage!" A Reform Party source tells us, "And in the next few weeks, people are going to see that he's as good as his word. He and Trump's team have been working on this for the last three months, and Starmer is willing to listen - if it gets him that much-needed trade agreement." Farage allegedly has high hopes of becoming the Senator for the State of North Essex as it enters an exciting new phase in its history. The proposals include the development of a gigantic freeport on the current site of Clacton's famous pier, built in 1871, which will be dismantled and sold for scrap. "Donald suffers from chronic gephyrophobia - an irrational fear of old bridges, tunnels and seaside promenades," the Reform source tells us, "So everyone has agreed that the pier has to go as a first step before we can even show him photos." Under the terms of the US lease, the Tendring peninsula will be transformed into 'the Singapore of East Anglia' and the hope is that nearby Frinton, with its famously lively nightlife and nearby mini golf course, will become the Mar-a-Lago of Eastern England. Locals have mixed views on the development, and restaurant manager Ivor Maditup, at La Fir Polo on Marin...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour. To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis. Help us build the better media Britain deserves A Labour MP has condemned his party's "failure of imagination" after the Government rejected his calls to overhaul the ownership of the scandal-plagued water sector in England. Government-aligned MPs lined up on Friday to oppose his proposals for a citizens' assembly, for the public to determine how to fix England's water crisis amid decades of privatisation and as the biggest supplier, Thames Water, teeters on the brink of collapse. Left-winger Clive Lewis MP has proposed a Water Bill, which, if passed, would launch a representative citizens' assembly to determine the future of the sector, following years of large dividends and bonuses being taken out of the system by England's privatised water firms. Treasury select committee chair Dame Meg Hillier told the Commons: "We are elected to make hard decisions and defend difficult issues. We cannot make the world like the land of milk and honey - certainly not after the inheritance we received from the last Government after 14 years of mismanagement. "We have very big challenges and we need to tackle them. It would put heavy pressure on citizens' juries to do that." She and other Starmer-aligned MPs also said some citizens would find it hard to attend an assembly. Gateshead Labour MP Mark Ferguson said even if a citizens' assembly was held, as suggested as an option, in Birmingham, it would be "[even] more difficult than London to get to from my constituency." "I do not believe [the problem] is about the specific geographic place; it is about how we get people together from all corners of the country, to make sure we have a regional spread." Lewis gave the arguments against a citizens' assembly on water short shrift: "We put men on the moon. The British state can figure it out." Government figures point to the party's recent Water Special Measures Act, which gives regulators new powers to take "tougher and faster" action against water companies that damage the environment or fail customers. The Environment Agency now has increased powers to bring forward criminal charges against water executives who break the law, with tougher penalties, including possible imprisonment, for water executives who obstruct investigations. Just Stop Oil Has Called It Quits, but They Say Their Fight Is Far From Over The climate movement has announced an end to its direct action campaigns. The group's spokesperson tells Josiah Mortimer what's next Josiah Mortimer Regulator Ofwat now has the power to ban the payment of bonuses to water bosses if they fail to meet environmental, customer or company standards. Dame Hillier told colleagues: "There has been endless discussion about how to resolve this situation, and stasis in the Government. We now have a Government [which] has begun to tackle some of these huge challenges." Labour and Conservative MPs rejected nationalisation, typically on the basis that it would hit UK pension funds and other investors, and cost a large amount of money for the public purse. Lewis rejected the claims: "If [they'd] done their research, they'd know that British pension companies have abandoned England's privatised water sector. "The vast majority are either sovereign wealth funds, private equity, or vulture capital. They're not UK pension companies, who make up just a very small fraction, less than 10%." He said Labour needed a stronger vision for the scale of change needed - and that failure to overhaul the system's structure was "negligent" and a sign of his party being "intransigent." In an interview with Byline Times after the debate, Lewis said: "The water debate is a small part of the story about something s...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour. To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis. Help us build the better media Britain deserves On 23 December 2013, five men broke into a house in Switzerland. Prowling the villa's hallways, situated on the uber-exclusive shores of Lake Geneva, they took only photographs, later releasing the images to the world as a cursory catalogue of the building's contents. Among those items were hand-woven oriental rugs, an 18th-century jewel-encrusted Quran, and priceless paintings by celebrated Soviet-era artists - many of them believed to have been lifted from the State History Museum in Tashkent, more than 6,000km away. The men were no ordinary burglars, but dissidents opposed to the tyranny of Uzbekistan's then-president, Islam Karimov. The home was one of many belonging to the premier's daughter, Gulnara Karimova, herself a businesswoman, diplomat, popstar and, as was fast emerging, alleged head of a criminal syndicate at the heart of one of the largest corruption cases in history. Precipitated by a bitter rift with her father, Karimova's fall from grace was swift. Chief among the allegations to come would be that her organization, known only as 'The Office', had solicited hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes from Russia's largest telecoms provider, Mobile Telesystems (MTS), in exchange for access to the Uzbek market. So damaging were the revelations that investors later sued MTS, with one UK private equity group - Hunnewell Partners, headquartered in the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea - leading a charge through the US courts after claiming to have sustained losses to its stake in the Russian communications giant as a result of the scandal. The problem? Technically, it hadn't. Drawing on leaked corporate documents, public records and court proceedings, Byline Times can now reveal the London firm appears to have in fact been acting on behalf of one of Vladimir Putin's most trusted confidants: Roman Abramovich. Not only shedding fresh light on the former Chelsea FC owner's long-running efforts to conceal his interests from Western authorities, these findings further provide a window into Abramovich's apparent ties to yet another autocratic, post-Soviet regime. Because Hunnewell isn't just a British private equity group. Its founders are also close enough business partners of Georgia's very own 'pro-Russian' ruling oligarch, Bidzina Ivanishvili, for critics to view the firm as a crucial enabler of the spiralling human rights crisis that has engulfed the South Caucasian country since the outbreak of war in Ukraine. "Hunnewell Partners is primarily a political player in Georgia," said Hans Gutbrod, a professor of public policy at Tbilisi's Ilia State University. "Exercising a significant hold on the Georgian economy, it's a company that could only operate with Ivanishvili's blessing, and in turn also works directly for his interests." The Fall of Googoosha Born 1972, Gulnara Karimova was once one of the most powerful people in Central Asia. The eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who ruled the repressive former Soviet Republic with an iron fist until his death in 2016, she rose to become not only her country's Deputy Foreign Minister, but also its Permanent UN Representative. At one time tipped as her father's most likely successor, her passions were perhaps more varied than your average dictatorial heir-apparent. A self-styled "poet, mezzo-soprano, designer and exotic Uzbekistan beauty," per her Twitter bio, she would also establish her own fragrance, fashion and jewelry lines, penning ill-fated screenplays and releasing duets with the likes of French actor Gérard Depardieu. It was just four months after the launch of her debut album (Goog...