HAVANA: Months of investigations into so-called sonic attacks on American diplomats in Cuba, which have soured Washington-Havana relations for most of the past year, have turned up nothing.
Cuba said last week it found no evidence to support US claims that several American diplomats in Havana were harmed in what US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called surreptitious “health attacks.”
In a saga seemingly ripped from the pages of a Cold War spy novel, at least 21 US officials and a smaller number of Canadians have received treatment for a variety of symptoms including brain trauma and hearing loss.
Questions linger over whether they are the result of targeted attacks, sabotage, or an accident.
Suspicions were first aroused in late 2016, but Washington waited until August 2017 to announce that several of its embassy employees had fallen victim to mystery health problems that remain unexplained.
US officials have told reporters they believe some kind of inaudible sound weapon was used on its staff either inside or outside their residences in Havana.
The labor union representing US diplomats said their diagnoses of those treated included mild traumatic brain injury and permanent hearing loss.
On September 14, the number of employees affected was 21, with the latest incident being reported last month, US officials said, adding that monitoring of their staff in Havana was ongoing.
A source close to the Canadian embassy told AFP that more than five families had been affected, including several children, but that none of those cases appeared to be serious.
Washington expelled two Cuban diplomats in May and Tillerson raised the possibility of closing the US mission.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla warned against that move, saying: “It would be unfortunate if a matter of this nature is politicized.”
“With so many families affected at the same time, it’s not trivial,” said the source close to the embassy. “It cannot be a coincidence.”
Using an inaudible sound device for a stealth attack “is quite plausible from a technical point of view,” said Denis Bedat, a specialist in bio-electromagnetics.
“Ultrasonic waves, beyond the acoustic capacity of humans, can be broadcast with an amplifier, and the device does not need to be large, or used inside or outside a house,” the French expert said.
He cited the example of the Active Denial System (ADS), an anti-riot gun used by US police forces that pulses out electromagnetic waves that produces a sudden unbearable burning sensation.
It is unclear who would have carried out such an attack, and for what ends.
Numerous observers doubt that Cuba would risk antagonizing its neighbors at the end of 2016 — when relations between the former Cold War enemies were thawing, before they deteriorated under President Donald Trump.
Likewise Canada, the biggest source of big-spending tourists to Cuba. According to Canadian diplomats, Ottawa does not suspect senior Cuban officials of involvement.
Rumors are rife on both sides of the Florida Strait, including a plot by rogue Cuban agents aiming to derail rapprochement with Washington.
Others suspect a third country with the same aims, such as Russia or North Korea.
But the most common hypothesis is that the health issues may be purely accidental, an unfortunate consequence of defective and outdated listening systems — a theory reinforced by Cuba’s reputation for having “big ears.”
Several experts undermine that view however, saying eavesdropping systems are typically receptors, and not emitters, of signals. And, according to US media, investigators have turned up nothing suspicious in meticulous searches of the victims’ residences.
“We have no definitive answer on the origin or the cause of the incidents,” a State Department official said on Tuesday.
Havana meanwhile said that it had taken additional measures to protect American diplomats and their families.
“The issue is that there are people who are not doing well,” the source said. “And we still do not know why.”
Cuba sonic mystery deepens after fruitless probes
Cuba sonic mystery deepens after fruitless probes
Primary schools empty as smog persists in India’s capital New Delhi
- New Delhi and the surrounding metropolitan area, home to more than 30 million people, consistently tops world rankings for air pollution in winter
- The smog is blamed for thousands of premature deaths each year and is an annual source of misery for residents
Delhi and the surrounding metropolitan area, home to more than 30 million people, consistently tops world rankings for air pollution in winter.
The smog is blamed for thousands of premature deaths each year and is an annual source of misery for residents, with various piecemeal government initiatives failing to measurably address the problem.
All primary schools were shut by government order on Thursday night with young pupils – particularly vulnerable to smog-related ailments due to their age – instead moving to online lessons.
“I have an eight-year-old kid and he has been suffering from a cough the past couple of days,” Delhi resident Satraj, who did not give his surname, said on the streets of the capital.
“The government did the right thing by shutting down schools.”
Thursday’s edict also banned construction work, ordered drivers of older diesel-powered vehicles to stay off the streets and directed water trucks to spray roads in a bid to clear dust particles from the air.
Delhi’s air quality nonetheless deteriorated to “hazardous” levels for the fourth consecutive day this week, according to monitoring firm IQAir.
Levels of PM2.5 pollutants – dangerous cancer-causing microparticles that enter the bloodstream through the lungs – were recorded more than 26 times above the World Health Organization’s recommended daily maximum shortly after dawn on Friday.
Critics have consistently said that authorities have fallen short in their duty to tackle a crisis that blights the city each year.
“We haven’t responded to the emergency with the same intensity with which we are facing this crisis,” Sunil Dahiya of New Delhi-based advocacy group Envirocatalysts said.
The acrid smog over New Delhi each year is primarily blamed on stubble burning by farmers in nearby states to clear their fields for plowing.
A report by broadcaster NDTV on Friday said that more than 7,000 individual farm fires had been recorded in Punjab state, to the capital’s north.
Emissions from industry and numerous coal-fired power stations ringing the city, along with vehicle exhaust and the burning of household waste, also play a part.
“Since we haven’t yet carried out any systemic long-term changes, like the way we commute, generate power, or manage our waste, even the curtailed emissions will be high,” Dahiya said.
Cooler temperatures and slow-moving winds worsen the situation by trapping deadly pollutants each winter.
A study in The Lancet medical journal attributed 1.67 million premature deaths to air pollution in the world’s most populous country in 2019.
World’s most polluting cities revealed at COP29 as frustration grows at fossil fuel presence
- Cities in Asia and the United States emit the most heat-trapping gas that feeds climate change, and Shanghai is the most polluting
- That’s according to new data that combines observations and artificial intelligence to quantify emissions around the world
BAKU: Cities in Asia and the United States emit the most heat-trapping gas that feeds climate change, with Shanghai the most polluting, according to new data that combines observations and artificial intelligence.
Nations at UN climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan are trying to set new targets to cut such emissions and figure out how much rich nations will pay to help the world with that task. The data comes as climate officials and activists alike are growing increasingly frustrated with what they see as the talks’ — and the world’s — inability to clamp down on planet-warming fossil fuels and the countries and companies that promote them.
Seven states or provinces spew more than 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases, all of them in China, except Texas, which ranks sixth, according to new data from an organization co-founded by former US Vice President Al Gore and released Friday at COP29.
Using satellite and ground observations, supplemented by artificial intelligence to fill in gaps, Climate Trace sought to quantify heat-trapping carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, as well as other traditional air pollutants worldwide, including for the first time in more than 9,000 urban areas.
Earth’s total carbon dioxide and methane pollution grew 0.7 percent to 61.2 billion metric tons with the short-lived but extra potent methane rising 0.2 percent. The figures are higher than other datasets “because we have such comprehensive coverage and we have observed more emissions in more sectors than are typically available,” said Gavin McCormick, Climate Trace’s co-founder.
Plenty of big cities emit far more than some nations
Shanghai’s 256 million metric tons of greenhouse gases led all cities and exceeded those from the nations of Colombia or Norway. Tokyo’s 250 million metric tons would rank in the top 40 of nations if it were a country, while New York City’s 160 million metric tons and Houston’s 150 million metric tons would be in the top 50 of countrywide emissions. Seoul, South Korea, ranks fifth among cities at 142 million metric tons.
“One of the sites in the Permian Basin in Texas is by far the No. 1 worst polluting site in the entire world,” Gore said. “And maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised by that, but I think of how dirty some of these sites are in Russia and China and so forth. But Permian Basin is putting them all in the shade.”
China, India, Iran, Indonesia and Russia had the biggest increases in emissions from 2022 to 2023, while Venezuela, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States had the biggest decreases in pollution.
The dataset — maintained by scientists and analysts from various groups — also looked at traditional pollutants such as carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, ammonia, sulfur dioxide and other chemicals associated with dirty air. Burning fossil fuels releases both types of pollution, Gore said.
This “represents the single biggest health threat facing humanity,” Gore said.
Climate talks wrestle with fossil fuel interests
Gore criticized the hosting of climate talks, called COPs, by Azerbaijan, an oil nation and site of the world’s first oil wells, and by the United Arab Emirates last year.
“It’s unfortunate that the fossil fuel industry and the petrostates have seized control of the COP process to an unhealthy degree,” Gore said. “Next year in Brazil, we’ll see a change in that pattern. But, you know, it’s not good for the world community to give the No. 1 polluting industry in the world that much control over the whole process.”
Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has called for more to be done on climate change and has sought to slow deforestation since returning for a third term as president. But Brazil last year produced more oil than both Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
On Friday, former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, former UN climate chief Christina Figueres and leading climate scientists released a letter calling for “an urgent overhaul” on climate talks.
The letter said the “global climate process has been captured and is no longer fit for purpose” in response to Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev saying that oil and gas are a “gift of the gods.”
UN Environment Programme Executive Director Inger Andresen said she understands much of the frustration in the letter calling for massive reform of the negotiation process, but said their push to slash emissions fits nicely with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ constant prodding.
One key benefit of the UN climate talks process is it is the only place where victim small island nations have an equal seat at the table, Andersen told The Associated Press. But the process has its limits because “the rules of the game are set by member states,” she said.
An analysis from the Kick Big Polluters Out coalition said Friday that the official attendance list of the talks featured at least 1,770 fossil fuel lobbyists.
At a press conference with small island nations chair Cedric Schuster said the negotiating bloc feels the need to remind everyone else why the talks matter.
“We’re here to defend the Paris agreement,” Schuster said, referring to the climate deal in 2015 to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit). “We’re concerned that countries are forgetting that protecting the world’s most vulnerable is at the core of this framework.”
Daesh group gunmen kill politician in Pakistan
- Attackers escaped after shooting the Islamist politician in Bajaur district, near the border with Afghanistan where militants remain active
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Gunmen from the regional branch of the Daesh group have killed a politician in northwest Pakistan, police and the militants said Friday.
“Jamaat-e-Islami Bajaur leader Sufi Hameed was leaving the mosque after offering prayers after sunset (Thursday) when two masked men on a motorcycle opened fire on him,” senior police official Waqar Rafiq said.
The official said the attackers escaped after shooting the Islamist politician in Bajaur district, near the border with Afghanistan where militants remain active.
Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K) said its “soldiers shot an official of the apostate political party,” in a message on Telegram.
The local chapter of the Daesh group accuses religious political parties of going against strict religious preachings and supporting the country’s government and the military.
IS-K has recently carried out several attacks against political parties, including a suicide bomb blast at a rally in Bajaur last year which killed at least 54 people including 23 children.
“In this year alone, they have killed at least 39 people in targeted attacks and bomb explosions” in Bajaur, a senior local security official said on the condition of anonymity.
In both Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where Bajuar is located, and Balochistan province in the southwest, armed Islamist or separatist groups regularly target security forces and state representatives.
Militants operating in Pakistan include Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the country’s homegrown Taliban group.
Pakistan has seen a sharp rise in militant attacks in regions bordering Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in the country in 2021.
Fire breaks out at a Spanish nursing home, killing at least 10 people
- Authorities were alerted of the blaze early Friday morning in Villa Franca de Ebro
- Fire took place just weeks after devastating flash floods in Valencia killed more than 200 people
MADRID: At least 10 people died in a blaze at a nursing home in Zaragoza, Spain, before firefighters managed to extinguish it, local authorities reported on Friday.
Authorities were alerted of the blaze early Friday morning in Villa Franca de Ebro, about 30 minutes from the northeastern city.
The cause of the fire was not yet known, local media reported.
Jorge Azcon, head of the regional government of Aragon, whose capital city is Zaragoza, confirmed the deaths and said on X, formerly Twitter, that all government events in the region were canceled for the day.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez also expressed his shock over the fire and deaths.
The fire took place just weeks after devastating flash floods in Valencia killed more than 200 people and destroyed thousands of homes. The floods were the worst natural disaster in Spain’s recent history.
South Korean opposition leader handed suspended jail term
- Case concerns statements Lee Jae-myung made on the campaign trail, when he narrowly lost to incumbent President Yoon Suk Yeol in 2022
SEOUL: A South Korean court handed the country’s opposition leader a suspended prison sentence Friday for violating election laws — a ruling that may prevent him from running in the next presidential election.
The Seoul Central District Court found Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, guilty and handed him a suspended one-year jail term, a court spokesperson told AFP.
The case concerns statements Lee made on the campaign trail, when he narrowly lost to incumbent President Yoon Suk Yeol in 2022.
Prosecutors had asked for a two-year prison sentence, saying Lee made a false statement in a TV interview in December 2021 that made people think he did not know Kim Moon-ki, a key figure in a controversial development project.
Kim had been found dead days earlier, although police found no evidence of foul play.
Lee was also accused of lying during a parliamentary hearing in 2021 in connection with another controversial development in Seongnam, where he was previously mayor.
The court ruled that the fact Lee made false statements on TV “greatly amplified their impact and reach,” it said in the written verdict.
Supporters wept outside the court after the verdict was announced, and Lee immediately vowed to appeal.
“The verdict is very difficult to accept,” he said.
If it is upheld on appeal, Lee will be stripped of his parliamentary seat and prohibited from running for public office for the next five years — which would include the 2027 presidential election.
Lee is seen as a leading contender in South Korea’s upcoming presidential election, due for early 2027, but the 60-year-old faces a slew of legal cases.
His other trials relate to corruption involving the Seongnam development project, an illegal $8 million cash transfer to North Korea, and pressuring a former mayoral secretary to provide false court testimony in his favor.
A former child factory worker who suffered an industrial accident as a teenage school drop-out, Lee rose to political stardom partly by playing up his rags-to-riches tale.
But his bid for the top office has been overshadowed by a series of scandals. He has also faced scrutiny due to persistent rumors linking him to organized crime.
At least five individuals connected to Lee’s various scandals, including late official Kim, have been found dead, many in what appeared to be suicides.
In January, Lee was stabbed in the neck by an attacker — who said he wanted to prevent him from “becoming president.”
Despite strict legal time limits, Lee’s cases are moving slowly through the courts, and public, acrimonious, drawn-out appeals could cause “considerable chaos in the political landscape,” Shin Yul, professor of political science at Myongji University, said.
“The Democratic Party is set to significantly escalate its attacks on the ruling party,” in a bid to convince the public their leader is not guilty, he said.
“However, it is also probable that the South Korean public will not be entirely supportive of Lee Jae-myung. Once a one-year prison sentence is issued, most people are now likely perceive him as guilty.”
