New rules could see end of close-up polar bear photos in cruise brochures
Akvile Marozaite, chief executive of UK-based global representative body Expedition Cruise Network, said limits on how close ships can get to the animals means the sector must change 'how we communicate' with travellers.
Polar bears are a key draw for people embarking on sailings to Norwegian-ruled archipelago Svalbard, as they can be observed in their natural Arctic habit.
But concerns about interference from humans means the government has banned ships in the region from being closer than 500 metres from the animals.
Ms Marozaite said the sector is partly paying the price for 'always talking about polar bears' in relation to Svalbard trips.
She told the PA news agency: 'Of course they are something that people want to see, but expedition cruising to Svalbard is actually an incredible opportunity to experience a lot of other things about the destination.
'There is incredible human history, beautiful scenery, other species of wildlife.'
Ms Marozaite said cruise lines are continuing to show their guests polar bears, some by sailing closer to Greenland.
The impact of Norway's distance rule is 'more to do with how we communicate', she said.
'The communication around Arctic voyages is going to change.
'Companies hopefully will no longer be putting close-up images of polar bears on the brochure.
'That's a good thing, because finally we will start talking about the destination the way it should be talked about.'
But expedition leader and photographer Paul Goldstein criticised the new regulations.
He told The Independent's travel podcast: 'This is a classic example of what I term 'conservation fascism'.
'I have led small ship charters in the region since 2004.
'Never once have I seen a single incident where tourists intimidate or affect the behaviour of polar bears.'
He added that if a camera lens 'the size of a Stinger missile' is required to see polar bears then most visitors will miss out.
Norway's minister of climate and environment Andreas Bjelland Erikse previously said the rules are necessary as climate change is 'leading to more difficult conditions for polar bears on Svalbard'.
He went on: 'It is important for them to be able to search for food, hunt, rest and take care of their cubs without interference from humans.
'That is why we must keep a good distance.'
The minimum distance will be reduced to 300 metres from July 1.
The Norwegian government said visitors to Svalbard have 'a duty to retreat to a legal distance' if they encounter a polar bear that is too close.
Ships are also banned from carrying more than 200 passengers in the region.
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Telegraph
10 minutes ago
- Telegraph
The Corbynista activist behind the militant pro-Palestinian group that targeted an RAF base
In 2016, Huda Ammori experienced a political awakening. She'd had a call from her mother, urging her to join the Labour Party. 'Coming from my Iraqi mother, this was quite confusing given that Tony Blair, under the Labour government, led the invasion and destruction of Iraq.' But for pro-Palestine activists, change was in the air on the left. 'The renewal of hope was alive, with Jeremy Corbyn, a committed anti-imperialist activist and politician, elected as leader of the Labour Party,' she wrote in The New Arab, a London-based Arab news outlet, in 2022. Corbyn's Labour presented an opportunity as 'the most promising and frankly the only avenue of implementing an embargo [on Israel] through political parties'. Now was the time to get a bigger platform for their message via the opposition benches. 'Many of us fought long and hard for [an arms embargo] by passing motions, speaking at Labour meetings, lobbying several MPs, and in 2018 the Labour conference voted to sanction and freeze all arms sales to and from Israel.' Then came Corbyn's defenestration after the 2019 election, and with it an end to their direct line to Westminster. 'The options for implementing social and environmental justice through the political system were non-existent,' she said. Left out in the cold while the embers of Corbyn's Labour were snuffed out, she co-founded a new movement, an activist group modelled on Extinction Rebellion, called Palestine Action. 'From the black hole of politics, a new light through direct action and grassroots mobilisation took its place', she wrote. It was time to stop 'asking and begging' the government, she said. Instead, they'd use 'our own bodies'. 'For me, the option is clear, my only regret is not seeing it sooner.' And so, as Jeremy Corbyn's vision for Britain's left died, a new militant movement was born. In the five years since, the group has gone from ram-raiding factories and vandalising buildings to last night causing a major security breach when two of its members broke into RAF Brize Norton and damaged two military planes. Video footage shows two people on electric scooters shooting over the runway towards a Voyager – a so-called 'petrol station in the sky' used to refuel midair and to transport prime ministers and members of the Royal family. In an attack that has raised serious questions about the security at Britain's largest RAF station, the group seem to have managed to escape undetected after attacking two planes with crowbars and repurposed fire extinguishers. In the video, you can hear the splutter of spray paint as they fire red paint into the plane's engines. On Friday, it emerged that counter-terror police were leading the investigation into the incident. Shortly afterwards, the BBC reported that Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, was preparing to proscribe Palestine Action, which would make membership of the group illegal. It comes after the group – whose militant actions have already seen several of its members arrested or jailed – warned it would be escalating its activities. Palestine Action was co-founded in 2020 by Ammori, now 31, a former campaigner at the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and Richard Barnard, 51, a former member of Extinction Rebellion. Ammori, from Bolton, was born to a Palestinian father, a surgeon, and Iraqi mother and studied international business and finance at the University of Manchester. Her great-grandfather was, according to an interview the pair gave with the magazine Prospect last year, involved in the 1936 uprising and killed by British soldiers. Barnard was raised Catholic and once belonged to a Christian anarchist group called the Catholic Worker. He has almost 30 tattoos, the magazine reports, including Benedictine mottos, Buddhist chants, an Irish Republican slogan, 'freedom' in Arabic, 77 in Roman numerals and 'all cops are bastards'. S ince 2020, the group has claimed responsibility for more than 300 incidents at universities, government buildings, British-based defence and engineering firms, banks and insurance companies. Among the group's members are artists, musicians and dancers. Its website bears profiles of the people (most of them young) who have been imprisoned on behalf of Palestine Action. One of the group's most prolific activists is Audrey Xiarui Corno, 22, a dancer who studies at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in Belsize Park, north London. Corno teamed up with Youth Demand, an organisation consisting of different pro-Palestinian and environmentalist groups, to spray red paint over the Ministry of Defence headquarters in Whitehall in April 2024. She and other protesters were also arrested after occupying GRiD Defence Systems, a firm near High Wycombe which they claimed supplies arms to Israel, in June last year. Corno, whose Instagram account is filled with rainbow emojis and personal pronouns, was released from prison earlier this month after being on remand for two months for the GRiD incident. A recent post on her account's story showed a group of her friends, many wearing keffiyehs, outside Aylesbury Crown Court holding up their middle fingers towards the building. The group has hardly been discreet about its intentions. Amid the protests that followed the October 7 attacks, it emerged that Palestine Action had published an 'Underground Manual', a start-to-finish guide for their followers on how to conduct 'an action', on its website. The pamphlet was still on their website last year, and much of the advice would, it seems, have been useful to the pair who managed to get into Brize Norton. The first step, the manual says, is to 'create a cell'. Next, you are to 'pick a target'. 'Head to our website to find a list of secondary and primary targets who enable and profit from the Israeli weapons industry in Britain. Making your job to pick one a slightly easier process!' comes the cheerful instruction. Then you are to 'prepare for action'. Recces of the site you plan to hit are 'vital'. You should assess the security, the CCTV, the surroundings, any police patrols. Then it's a case of working out how to arrive and leave undetected, all while 'documenting your action'. When the manual was uncovered, the then policing minister Chris Philp (now shadow home secretary) warned the group was encouraging activists to 'smash up businesses with sledgehammers' and said he would personally report the group to the authorities. Lord Walney, then the Government's independent adviser on political violence and disruption, said the manual would become an important 'test case' of the police's willingness to take action against 'pernicious militants'. In 2022, the Jewish Chronicle went undercover at a Palestine Action meeting where activists discussed an attack that had taken place on a property in Oldham used by the Israel-based defence firm Elbit Systems, the group's main target. At the meeting, the paper reported, 'they set out their secret plans for a nationwide wave of mayhem and destruction'. 'Sporting an Arabic tattoo across his neck, Mr Barnard explained what was coming,' the paper reported. 'A sustained, intense series of 'direct actions' against Elbit offices was the objective. And as for tactics, think extreme. 'Activists could lock themselves under vans and break into factories to cause 'high-level damage' to machinery.' Advice, the paper said, was offered on how to cope with being arrested, including an instruction to wear old shoes. 'A person standing at the front backed this up by saying that the worst part about being arrested at a previous action had been the confiscation of their vegan leather Doc Martens.' After the Oct 7 2023 attacks, Barnard urged activists to 'smash Israeli weapons factories'. He appeared in court in September last year on charges of encouraging criminal damage and expressing support for Hamas at two pro-Palestinian rallies in October 2023. He claims that the case 'is part of a wider intimidation campaign against Palestine Action, and a crackdown of the wider movement.' A fundraising page for his case, set up last year, states: 'My trial is scheduled to last one week from April 14th at Manchester Crown Court ... Pushing back against the state intimidation campaign at every opportunity is crucial to defending free speech on Palestine.' In April, Palestine Action said his trial had been delayed until March 2026. Analysis by The Sunday Times showed the number of incidents for which Palestine Action was responsible increased from 17 in 2020 to 170 in 2024. In the past year, the group has pledged to escalate action. In November, activists stole the wrong statue in a raid on Manchester University, mistaking a bust of a professor for that of Chaim Weizmann, the first president of Israel. Meanwhile, their rhetoric seems to have grown increasingly aggressive. Ammori was filmed speaking at a concert alongside the rapper Lowkey, a staunch Palestine Action supporter, in November. The rapper was criticised by Sir William Shawcross, whose independent review of the Prevent counterterrorism scheme alleged that his lyrics promoted 'what I regard to be an antisemitic conspiracy theory about the 'Zionist lobby''. At the concert, Ammori told a riled up crowd: 'We drive vans through their gates. We drive vans through their front doors. We occupy their rooms. We break inside and we destroy every single weapon.' Lowkey is one of the most foul racist extremists of all. Of late, his top cause is "Palestine Action", the nasty racist vandals. See him warmly welcome Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori at a wild hatred rally. "Intifada!" Artists who line up with him are a disgrace. — habibi (@habibi_uk) November 15, 2024 She continued: 'Let me tell you, anyone who works at Elbit Systems they are also a target.' The group has denounced Sir Keir Starmer, but its connection to Corbynista MPs persisted. In 2021, Ian Byrne, the 2019-intake Labour MP for Liverpool West Derby, spoke at the same event as Ammori. Later in 2021, John McDonnell, the former shadow chancellor, spoke at a protest alongside Ammori in Liverpool. In December 2024, McDonnell used a debate in Parliament to state: 'The last Government even came forward with proposals and discussions about proscribing Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. I hope this Government are not going anywhere near that.' He said that Palestine Action activists who had been arrested were 'young people, a lot of them young women—some of them just starting out at university. They exercised their influence and power because we failed to exercise ours.' Kim Johnson, the MP for Liverpool Riverside, also attended a protest alongside Ammori, against an electronic arms fair in her constituency. Today, the group's abiding message is to keep going at all costs. In an interview with the journal New Left Review in April, Ammori spoke of destabilising 'the Zionist project itself'. 'By being security-conscious and working in small groups, we can make it difficult for the authorities to respond to individual actions by targeting the movement as a whole – such that Palestine Action can continue to grow, even in hostile conditions.' In a statement emailed to The Telegraph, the group said: 'Under Section 1 of the Genocide Convention, Britain is obliged to prevent and punish the crime of genocide ... When our government fails to uphold their moral and legal obligations, it is the responsibility of ordinary citizens to take direct action. The terrorists are the ones committing a genocide, not those who break the tools used to commit it.' The Campaign Against Antisemitism expressed concern about the escalation of the group's activities in Britain. Like politicians such as Robert Jenrick and Nigel Farage, they think the time has come to proscribe it as a terror organisation. 'Palestine Action has escalated from vandalising corporate property to targeting Jewish businesses and charities, and now sabotaging RAF aircraft,' said a spokesperson for the Campaign Against Antisemitism. 'They've even staged grotesque mock beheadings and destroyed works of art. This is a group fuelled by hatred and driven by destruction. 'They deliberately spread fear, disrupt public life and attack the very institutions that keep this country safe. Their actions aren't just intimidatory – they're a direct assault on British values and democracy. 'The Home Secretary must act now and proscribe this dangerous organisation before it can harm or sabotage further. We have provided her with the relevant background and legal case for a ban. There is no time to lose.'
The Independent
42 minutes ago
- The Independent
Palestine Action to be banned after break-in at RAF base
The Home Secretary is preparing to ban Palestine Action following the group's vandalism of two planes at an RAF base, the PA news agency understands. Yvette Cooper has decided to proscribe the group, making it a criminal offence to belong to or support Palestine Action. The decision comes after the group posted footage online showing two people inside the base at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire. The clip shows one person riding an electric scooter up to an Airbus Voyager air-to-air refuelling tanker and appearing to spray paint into its jet engine. The incident is being also investigated by counter terror police. The Home Secretary has the power to proscribe an organisation under the Terrorism Act of 2000 if she believes it is 'concerned in terrorism'. Proscription will require Ms Cooper to lay an order in Parliament, which must then be debated and approved by both MPs and peers. Some 81 organisations have been proscribed under the 2000 Act, including Islamist terrorist groups such as Hamas and al Qaida, far-right groups such as National Action, and Russian private military company Wagner Group. Another 14 organisations connected with Northern Ireland are also banned under previous legislation, including the IRA and UDA. Belonging to or expressing support for a proscribed organisation, along with a number of other actions, are criminal offences carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison. Friday's incident at Brize Norton, described by the Prime Minister as 'disgraceful', prompted calls for Palestine Action to be banned. The group has staged a series of demonstrations in recent months, including spraying the London offices of Allianz Insurance with red paint over its alleged links to Israeli defence company Elbit, and vandalising Donald Trump's Turnberry golf course in South Ayrshire. The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) welcomed the news that Ms Cooper intended to proscribe the group, saying: 'Nobody should be surprised that those who vandalised Jewish premises with impunity have now been emboldened to sabotage RAF jets.' CAA chief executive Gideon Falter urged the Home Secretary to proscribe the Houthi rebel group and Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, adding: 'This country needs to clamp down on the domestic and foreign terrorists running amok on our soil.' Former home secretary Suella Braverman said it was 'absolutely the correct decision'.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Judge says he will order Columbia University protester Mahmoud Khalil freed from detention
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