Controversial, senator, warlike, mining leader. All adjectives for a single name: Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, Secretary General of the National Union of Miners. An economist by trade, heir to the union leadership through his father Napoleón Gómez Sada, now also Senator from Morena, he can boast of having been the leader of the miners for more than 21 years. However, his leadership was marred by allegations of alleged misappropriation of funds, frontal opposition from large corporations such as Grupo México, and a 12-year self-exile in Canada. And despite all this, Gómez Urrutia continues to lead one of the country’s most important unions, with a pool of 14,000 members.

The 78-year-old union leader’s latest fight erupted this week when mining company Grupo México, the country’s largest copper producer, accused him of being behind the labor lawsuit brought against them by the United States over alleged violations of freedom of speech. union federation. The company, owned by millionaire Germán Larrea, assured that Gómez Urrutia’s accusation was staged in order to create a new political space for itself and thus avoid paying $55 million in compensation that it allegedly owed to its subsidiaries owes.

Gómez Urrutia ignored the inflammatory accusation, preferring to use the time these days to congratulate the recently appointed Labor Minister, Marath Bolaños: “I am confident that he is committed to this new task of solidifying change in the work culture. The being and prosperity of Mexican workers,” he wrote via his Twitter account. A significant gesture considering that a few hours earlier, during his morning conference, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had revealed the bad relationship between former secretary Luisa María Alcalde and the mining boss.

Another controversy surrounding a character that hasn’t gone unnoticed since he took over as head of the Syndicate in 2002. He was born in Monterrey Nuevo León, studied economics at Unam and has studies at Oxford. His political career began in the labor sector of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). In 2002, with the death of his father Napoleón Gómez Sada, he took over the post of general secretary of the mining union, a position he continues to hold with great support from workers.

Gómez Urrutia does not shy away from confrontation, but uses it to his advantage. In 2006, after a Grupo México mine collapsed in Pasta de Conchos, Coahuila, killing 65 miners, the union leader was one of the first to directly blame Larrea for the tragedy. The union leader has been one of the most critical voices against the mining company and its owner over working conditions and alleged negligent practices on environmental issues.

Gómez Urrutia’s career has also garnered its own controversies, accusations, and complaints. In the same year as the Pasta de Conchos tragedy in 2006, he was charged with alleged resource evasion for an alleged $55 million fraud against miners. Following the allegations against him, Gómez Urrutia went into exile in Canada. From there he exercised his union leadership, meeting with other union federations and throwing darts at his critics. After 12 years abroad, he returned to Mexico in 2018 through the mediation of López Obrador, who offered him a seat in the Senate. Upon his return, Gómez Urrutia reiterated in style that he had been the victim of “political persecution” by the Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón PAN governments and by mining entrepreneurs.

From his post in the legislature, the mining leader has not maintained his outspoken opposition to the big mining companies, to the point of promoting the recent reform for the sector, which reduces the prerogatives of concessions and permits for companies of the draft Grupo México, Minera Frisco and Fresnillo. The changes were not in vain considering Mexico is the largest silver producer in the world and one of the largest gold and copper miners. The more than 200 mining companies operating in the country employ more than 300,000 people directly.

Manuel Fuentes, an expert on labor law, acknowledges that the miners’ leader is a controversial character, but warns that his popularity has allowed him to continue the union abroad. Fuentes cites one of the greatest successes of his leadership as having achieved salary increases for his union members above the national average. “The mining union is one of the most active in the struggle for contract ownership, it’s a vibrant and combative union,” he says.

Gómez Urrutia, despite all the complaints and controversy against him, continues to enjoy support from miners for receiving salary benefits and better working conditions for his affiliates. “His personal image has been greatly enhanced over the years and it seems to me that this attribute has contributed to a leadership that has held the union together,” concludes the lawyer.

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Hollywood stars like Olivia Colman will read lines from more than 50 years of King Charles’ speeches on the environment.

Ms Colman – who played the Queen in ‘The Crown’ – will appear alongside 18 other actors and environmentalists in a short film released today.

Glenn Close, Woody Harrelson and Idris Elba were also caught reading the King’s words to celebrate the launch of a new YouTube channel for his RE:TV website.

A new short film entitled The King’s Speech, which will be released today, will feature the landmark speech given by young Prince Charles to the Countryside Steering Committee on February 19, 1970, when young Prince Charles was only 21 years old was mistaken for Wales.

In the speech – which the king said people at the time called “limp” and “completely stupid” – he predicted the plastic waste catastrophe, declaring: “Considering that every human being produces about 2 pounds of garbage a day, and. “As we are 55 million people on this island using single-use bottles and plastic containers, it’s not hard to imagine the mountains of rubbish we have to sort of deal with.”

Hollywood star Olivia Colman – who played the Queen in ‘The Crown’ – will join 18 other actors and environmentalists in a short film released today

In the speech – which people at the time, according to the king, judged as “shabby” and “completely stupid” – he predicted the catastrophe of plastic waste

In a preview clip for the new film, in his opening remarks at the World Economic Forum’s 2020 Annual Meeting in Davos, where he met environmental activist Greta Thunberg, the Voice of the King warns that: “Global warming, climate change and the.” “The devastating loss of biodiversity is the greatest threat humanity has ever faced.”

His voice is then joined with that of Luther star Idris Elba, who utters the same words today.

The video is interspersed with footage of the effects of climate change, including wildfires, floods and drought, as well as locations such as the greenhouses at Kew Gardens and the ancient woodlands of Burnham Beeches.

RE:TV was launched three years ago during Climate Week as a short film content platform with Charles as Editor-in-Chief.

More than 100 films have been produced highlighting innovations in response to the climate and biodiversity crisis.

In 2020, to mark the 50th anniversary of his first major environmental speech, Charles said she was met with confusion, adding, “I was considered pretty stupid, to say the least, for even suggesting these things, kind of like when I started.” a reed sewage treatment system in Highgrove – that was considered completely insane.

“Everything I suggested was apparently complete nonsense.”

The Chron has long been committed to the fight against waste with our Turn the Tide on Plastic campaign.

Gardener Danny Clarke (pictured: left) has joined a list of celebrities including actor Woody Harrelson (pictured: right) to help environmentalists launch a new RE:TV YouTube channel

The preview of the new video also includes the King’s speech from the opening session of the important COP21 climate conference in Paris in 2015, in which he said: “By damaging our climate, we become the architects of our own destruction.”

“While the planet can survive the scorching of the earth and the rising of the waters, humanity cannot.”

Oscar winner Olivia Colman, star of “The Crown”, then takes up other key points of the speech and declares: “We have the knowledge, the tools and the money. All we lack is the will.’

Also in the video are BBC gardening presenter Danny Clarke, author Charlie Mackesy, YouTube environmental activist Jack Harries and climate activist Leah Thomas.

At the end of the preview clip for the video, titled The Speeches: 50 Years of Speaking Up For The Planet, the king from the original 2020 RE:TV launch film is shown and concludes, “There’s real hope, but we just have to pull ourselves together.’

Vladimir Putin vowed to punish Yevgeny Prigozhin for “treason” related to the warlord’s armed insurgency. Instead, the former Kremlin caterer and his Wagner group appeared to have escaped harsh consequences after Russia’s first attempted coup in three decades.

Prigozhin’s failed coup ended abruptly, but it still exposed deep flaws at the heart of Putin’s regime, cast serious doubts about the Russian president’s invasion of Ukraine, and raised the specter of a state collapse should unrest boil over again, people, those close to the Kremlin told the Financial Times.

“Of course, this is a great humiliation for Putin. It’s obvious,” said a Russian oligarch who has known the president since the 1990s. “Thousands of people are moving from Rostov almost to Moscow without any resistance, and nobody can do anything about it. Then [Putin] announced that they would be punished, but they did not. That is definitely a sign of weakness.”

The cause of the rebellion lay in frustration within the Russian armed forces over how Putin had handled the full-scale invasion of Ukraine – to the point that a dispute between paramilitaries and regular armed forces nearly brought down the state. Russia’s army and security services failed to prevent Prigozhin’s uprising.

The ease with which Wagner launched his uprising, the lack of resistance from other security forces, and the enthusiastic reception his fighters found in the southern city of Rostov when they rejected “damages.” [Putin’s] “It has a good reputation domestically,” said Alexei Venediktov, the well-connected former editor of radio station Ekho Moskvy.

“Turns out you can start a revolt against the President and be forgiven. That means the President isn’t that strong.”

The extraordinary events have prompted even ardent supporters of the invasion to publicly question Russia’s rationale for the invasion and fear that further convulsions could follow.

“The whole world has seen that Russia is on the brink of a serious political crisis,” wrote Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin spin doctor and MP, on Telegram. “Yes, the putsch was unsuccessful, but putsches have fundamental reasons. And if these reasons persist, the coup could happen again. And it could be successful.”

The Kremlin says it has quashed Prigozhin’s threat for now after the warlord agreed to leave Russia for Belarus in exchange for a promise not to prosecute him or Wagner’s fighters.

On Sunday, Russian state media tried to let life continue as normal. City workers poured out to repair highways damaged by Wagner’s advance, while Russian forces retook the command center in Rostov, which Wagner had briefly taken over the day before.

But Russia’s attempt to downplay the incident as an inconvenient incident belies the major problems that the invasion of Ukraine has created for Putin’s rule.

“You can only see it as a sign of weakness and dysfunction,” said Ekaterina Schulman, a Russian political scientist. “This is not an unexpected, one-off event or an external shock. It’s an integral part of the war,” she said.

The Kremlin on Saturday insisted that Prigozhin’s uprising would have no impact on its conduct of the war. But Wagner’s prominent role at the front was itself a consequence of Russia’s mishandling of the invasion.

Originally created to fight covertly in conflicts around the world, Putin moved Wagner’s men to Ukraine when the invasion plan failed. He then allowed Prigozhin to increase his ranks by personally signing pardons for convicted criminals who had banded together to fight.

“They started a war they shouldn’t have had, they couldn’t fight it properly, and they decided to go to the extreme by letting it round up an army of prisoners,” Schulman said. “He became a political actor and they had to deal with that. One thing leads to another.”

Putin’s reluctance to end Prigozhin’s months-long public feud with the Defense Ministry appears to have convinced the former caterer that he has the power to succeed in his attempt at mutiny, people close to the Kremlin report.

But the episode also proved damaging for Prigozhin, after he failed to secure the resignation of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu or Valery Gerasimov, commander of the Russian invasion forces.

Some of Wagner’s troops would sign contracts with the Defense Ministry, the Kremlin said. That comes as a humiliation after Prigozhin declared his group would never submit to Shoigu – a move that would deprive him of the money and influence that came from being answerable only to Putin personally.

When the uprising began, Prigozhin apparently had no idea how to successfully endure it, according to a person who has known the warlord since the early 1990s.

“I don’t think he had anything in particular in mind. He just decided to convince Putin to let him keep all the money they took from him,” the person said. “Then the situation got completely out of hand.”

“At some point he realized he didn’t know what to do next. You come to Moscow and then what? You open the doors of a dozen prisons, some unimaginable freaks come out, the country goes bust, and then you get to the Kremlin. . . and you don’t know what to do.”

The humiliating episode will likely prompt Putin to dismantle Wagner and ensure he can no longer threaten the state, said Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.

“They promised not to touch anyone, but I think it’s entirely possible that someone could go to jail or die under mysterious circumstances to scare the rest,” Gabuev said. “Putin must have realized by now how vulnerable the system is and will try to fix it.”

Much remains unclear about exactly how Russia persuaded Prigozhin to resign, and many members of the Russian elite suspect that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who allegedly brokered the deal, was a proxy for powerful figures in Russia.

“Everyone wanted to call [Prigozhin] and make a deal. And in the end they found a more sensible middleman in Luka, who offered both sides a way to resign,” said the person close to Prigozhin.

However, on Monday state media reported that charges were still being brought against Prigozhin, adding to the uncertainty after a feverish weekend.

Having failed to stop the insurgency, the Russian elite are unlikely to escape unscathed as Putin is now aware of the threat to his own power.

“It was a colossal failure of counterintelligence. The CIA knew this was coming, and your own intelligence agencies didn’t know or didn’t report it. So he will tighten the screws and keep the elite on their toes,” Gabuev said.

But even sweeping changes may not be enough to restore order, the oligarch said. After Russia’s war effort stalled last year, many members of Russia’s elite began discussing the likelihood of a “period of troubles,” a repeat of the long, violent political crisis of the early 17th century when different factions vied for the throne.

But even then, according to the oligarch, “I expected that the army would step in immediately if it did start.” And they didn’t. That’s a surprise.”