UN says Pakistan has food ‘emergency’, but donors look elsewhere
Updated 24 June 2013
Reuters
PESHAWAR: Hunger in Pakistan is at emergency levels after years of conflict and floods, but funding has dwindled as new crises such as Syria grab donors’ attention, the United Nations food aid chief said yesterday.
Fighting in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan compounded problems caused by three consecutive years of floods that destroyed crops and forced millions of people to temporarily abandon their homes.
Although most have now returned, about half of Pakistan’s population still does not have secure access to enough food, up from a little over a third a decade ago, the UN World Food Program (WFP) said. Fifteen percent of children are severely malnourished, and some 40 percent suffer from stunted growth.
“This is an emergency situation, both from the food security side as well as from the malnutrition side,” WFP chief Ertharin Cousin said. “We need to raise the alarm.” At a center for treating acute malnutrition in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, visited by Cousin on Sunday, a young mother called Zainab clutched her underweight 2-month-old baby and waited for a high-nutrition food ration.
“When the area was evacuated, we left our cattle and our homes, when we came back our cattle were dead and our homes were destroyed,” said Zainab, who wore a black burqa.
There is growing concern that international donors will lose interest in the unstable border areas after the withdrawal next year of US-led foreign forces from Afghanistan.
Already, Cousin said, the rising cost of the refugee crisis in Syria meant it was harder to attract funds to Pakistan.
WFP’s Syria-related operations currently cost $19 million a month, and are forecast to rise as high as $ 42 million a month by the end of the year, putting a strain on Western donors.
North Korea is even worse hit by funding shortages, Cousin said, partly due to a drop in donations noticed at the beginning of this year, when Pyongyang threatened to launch a nuclear attack on the United States.
“We are significantly under-funded in DPRK going into this lean season, and we are very concerned about what that means,” said Cousin, who called off a visit to North Korea during the tensions in March. She said she still planned to visit.
Philippine VP made ‘active threat’ on Marcos’ life: palace
The statement followed an expletive-laced press conference in which Duterte alleged she was the subject of an assassination plot
Updated 2 sec ago
AFP
Manila: Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos’ security detail has been put on alert over what his office is calling an “active threat” against his life by Vice President Sara Duterte, the palace said Saturday. The statement followed an expletive-laced press conference in which Duterte alleged she was the subject of an assassination plot and said she ordered a member of her security team to kill the president should it succeed. The Duterte and Marcos families have seen their alliance unravel in spectacular fashion in recent months, trading accusations of drug addiction and increasingly extreme rhetoric ahead of next year’s mid-term elections and presidential polls in 2028. “I already talked to a person in my security. I told him if I get killed, kill BBM (Ferdinand Marcos), (first lady) Liza Araneta and (the president’s cousin) Martin Romualdez. No joke,” Duterte said at a press conference that began after midnight. “I said, if I die, don’t stop until you have killed them.” Hours later, the palace communications office said it had referred “this active threat to the Presidential Security Command for immediate proper action.” “Any threat to the life of the President must always be taken seriously, more so that this threat has been publicly revealed in clear and certain terms,” it said in a statement. Duterte is facing the threat of impeachment in the House of Representatives, led by Marcos’s cousin Romualdez, who is widely expected to run for president in 2028. She has also had a messy falling out with the president’s wife Liza Araneta-Marcos, who has accused her of laughing at a January event where her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, accused Marcos of being a “drug addict.” Duterte called her late-night press conference after House officials said they would transfer her chief of staff — detained after being cited for contempt — from the lower chamber’s detention center to a correctional facility. Zuleika Lopez was detained on Wednesday after being accused of “undue interference” in House proceedings focused on Duterte’s spending of public funds. Duterte stepped down from the cabinet post of education secretary in June as relations between the two families reached a breaking point. Months earlier, her father had accused Marcos of being a “drug addict,” with the president the next day claiming his predecessor’s health was failing due to long-term use of the powerful opioid fentanyl. Neither provided evidence of their allegations. In October, Duterte said she felt “used” after teaming with Marcos for the May 2022 election, which they won by a landslide. Duterte remains the constitutional successor to the 67-year-old president.
US restricts food, metal imports on Uyghur forced labor concerns
Goods wholly or partially made by the sanctioned firms will be restricted from entering the US, says the Department of Homeland Security
China is accused of incarcerating over 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, although officials strongly deny this
Updated 23 November 2024
AFP
WASHINGTON: The United States said Friday that it is barring imports from dozens more China-based companies — ranging from businesses in the metals to food industries — citing worries over forced labor.
Officials are adding around 30 entities to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act entity list, meaning that goods wholly or partially made by these firms will be restricted from entering the United States.
The new additions bring the total number on the list to 107, said the Department of Homeland Security.
The reason is that the companies were found to either source materials from China’s northwestern Xinjiang region or work with its local government “to recruit, transfer, and receive workers, including Uyghurs, out of Xinjiang,” said the US Trade Representative’s office.
Beijing has been accused of incarcerating over one million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in a network of detention facilities in Xinjiang, although officials strongly deny this.
NEW: Today, DHS, on behalf of the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force (FLETF), announced the addition of 29 companies based in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) Entity List – bringing the total number of entities on the UFLPA… pic.twitter.com/NPlRnA3Kdb
The newly-targeted companies make goods ranging from agricultural to aluminum products, along with polysilicon materials.
They also mine and process metals like copper, gold and nickel, the USTR statement added.
Among them are companies tied to Chinese electric vehicle battery manufacturer CATL and China-linked Gotion too, a bipartisan US congressional committee noted on Friday.
Earlier this year, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and others flagged CATL and Gotion’s ties to two businesses, Xinjiang Nonferrous and Xinjiang Joinworld.
Both were included in the latest update.
The committee’s chairman John Moolenaar and other lawmakers released a statement saying: “While we are pleased with this initial step, we remain concerned that CATL and Gotion’s supply chains are deeply tied to the Xinjiang region.”
The rule comes into effect on November 25.
“Companies should not secure unfair advantages by exploiting workers,” said US Trade Representative Katherine Tai.
“We will enforce our laws to address forced labor and prevent companies that violate workers’ rights from benefiting from the US market,” she added in a statement.
The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act was signed into law in 2021.
Trump plans to assemble investigative teams to look into 2020 election, Washington Post reports
Updated 23 November 2024
Reuters
WASHINGTON: US President-elect Donald Trump plans to assemble investigative teams at the Department of Justice to search for evidence in battleground states that fraud tainted the 2020 election, the Washington Post reported on Friday, citing a source.
Trump, who won the 2024 election but lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden, has falsely claimed that he lost the 2020 election due to extensive voter fraud, a view shared by millions of his supporters.
Trump was indicted last year on federal charges for his attempts to overturn the election. The charges stemmed from an investigation by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
The Washington Post, citing two people close to Trump’s transition team, reported that Trump plans to fire the entire team that worked with Smith.
Dutch court weighs a lawsuit against arms sales to Israel
Opening the case at the court in The Hague, Judge Sonja Hoekstra noted: “It is important to underline that the Dutch State does not contest the gravity of the situation in Gaza, nor is the status of the West Bank”
Updated 23 November 2024
AFP
THE HAGUE: Pro-Palestinian groups took the Dutch state to court on Friday, urging a halt to arms exports to Israel and accusing the government of failing to prevent what they termed a genocide in Gaza.
The NGOs argued that Israel is breaking international law in Gaza and the West Bank, invoking, among others, the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.
“Israel is guilty of genocide and apartheid” and “is using Dutch weapons to wage war,” said Wout Albers, a lawyer representing the NGOs.
“Dutch weapons are killing children every day in Palestine, including my family,” said Ahmed Abofoul, a legal adviser to Al-Haq, one of the groups involved in the suit. Israel furiously denies accusations of genocide as it presses on with the offensive in Gaza.
Opening the case at the court in The Hague, Judge Sonja Hoekstra noted: “It is important to underline that the Dutch State does not contest the gravity of the situation in Gaza, nor is the status of the West Bank.”
“Today is about finding out what is legally in play and what can be expected of the state if the state can be expected to do more or act differently than it is currently acting,” she added.
She acknowledged this was a “sensitive case,” saying: “It’s a whole legal debate.”
The lawyer for the Dutch State, Reimer Veldhuis, said the Netherlands has been applying European laws in force for arms exports.
Veldhuis argued the case should be tossed out.
“It is unlikely that the minister responsible will grant an arms export license to Israel that would contribute to the Israeli army’s activities in Gaza or the West Bank,” said Veldhuis.
The case comes one day after another court based in The Hague, the International Criminal Court, issued arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister and former defense minister.
How COP29 outcome may impact countries most affected by climate change
UN Climate Change Conference in Baku brought together policymakers, researchers and environmentalists from 200 countries
Discussions covered energy transition, climate finance, loss and damage funding and environmental cost of geopolitical tensions
Updated 22 November 2024
Haifa Alshammari
BAKU, Azerbaijan: The 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference concluded in the capital of Azerbaijan on Friday with climate activists, world leaders and investors reflecting on climate change’s global impacts and the urgent need for actionable solutions.
This year’s event emphasized financing mechanisms, particularly to alleviate the suffering of vulnerable nations, and especially the developing countries most affected by climate change.
COP29 — the 29th Conference of the Parties under the United Nations climate organization UNFCCC — ran from Nov. 11 to 22 and brought together policymakers, researchers, and environmentalists from 200 countries.
A dominant theme was energy transition, as fossil fuel emissions remain the biggest driver of global warming.
The UN reports that burning coal, oil, and gas accounts for more than 75 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and roughly 90 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions.
“War creates a climate crisis not just where it happens; it pollutes air, water, and land,” said one of the participants at COP 29. (AN photo by Abdulrahman bin Shalhoub)
Policymakers argued that reducing reliance on traditional fuels and adopting modern energy solutions could significantly shrink the global carbon footprint and bring the world closer to net-zero targets.
The University of Exeter’s Global Carbon Budget recently projected total CO2 emissions to rise from 40.6 billion metric tons in 2023 to 41.6 billion in 2024.
COP29 has been called "the finance COP," referring to the significance of funding to put an end to the rapid increase of global temperatures. (AN photo by Abdulrahman bin Shalhoub)
Sharing his perspective on the COP29 negotiations and the change he hopes to see, climate activist Philip McMaster, known on social media as SustainaClaus, told Arab News he is campaigning for a a healthier environment for children.
“The message of SustainaClaus is ‘Make childhood great again.’ Why? Because we all had a childhood before,” he said on the sidelines of the conference. “It was either great or not, but it was a very important period of time, and that is what these negotiations should be about: how we make the world a better place for the next generations.”
He added: “I hope to see global change.”
DID YOUKNOW?
• In the first week of COP29, as a step to foster sustainable energy, Saudi Arabia signed an executive program with Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan to strengthen collaboration on renewable energy development.
• The COP29 agenda included energy transition, finance, urbanization and Article 6.
• Climate finance was the main topic discussed in Baku, along with the need to raise funds for vulnerable nations.
Military activity also emerged as a significant environmental threat. Olga Lermak, communications lead at Greencubator, a Ukraine-based cleantech accelerator, noted the ecological devastation caused by war.
“War creates a climate crisis not just where it happens; it pollutes air, water, and land,” she said.
Harmony among people is a top priority to maintain a healthier environment, according to some activists. (AN photo by Abdulrahman bin Shalhoub)
Ukraine accounts for 35 percent of Europe’s biodiversity, including 70,000 plant and animal species, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature. Among its endangered animals are the sandy blind mole-rat, the Russian desman, and the saker falcon.
The country’s ongoing conflict with Russia has caused significant damage to that biodiversity, according to Lermak.
“I hope that the negotiations held here bring great solutions, something that will help us to move forward,” she said. “I hope it is not just conversations, not just talking, but real action after this.”
Opinion
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Another key issue debated at COP29 was loss and damage funding — addressing “unavoided” damage caused by climate change in the most vulnerable countries as well as “unavoidable” damage such as that caused by rising sea levels. Investment in emissions reduction was one of the key solutions put forward for dealing with unavoided damage.
Researchers from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change estimate that the loss and damage needs of vulnerable countries will amount to between $130 billion and $940 billion in 2025 alone.
Gloria Bulus, team lead at Nigeria’s Bridge that Gap Initiative, emphasized that beyond highlighting loss and damage, there must also be a focus on delivering investment and implementing concrete solutions.
Gloria Bulus, team lead at Nigeria’s Bridge that Gap Initiative. ( AN photo by Abdulrahman bin Shalhoub)
“We are expecting a lot to be (invested) in terms of the loss and damage, so that it goes beyond the speeches,” she said.
Highlighting some of the pressing environmental challenges her country is facing, Bulus expressed her hope for “fair” negotiations.
“Negotiations have been very slow for us,” she said. “What we want is action. What we want is an outcome that favors people, where we have renewable energy transition.”
Among other steps, COP29 promised to secure “the highest ambition outcome possible,” proposing that wealthier countries contribute $250 billion annually to developing nations to support their efforts in tackling climate change.
