SYDNEY, Australia: The South Pacific nation of the Solomon Islands is felling its tropical forests at nearly 20 times a sustainable rate, according to research by an environmental group published on Thursday, driven by insatiable Chinese demand for its lumber.
Export volumes of the archipelago’s single largest export commodity leapt more than 20 percent to just over 3 million cubic meters in 2017, central bank figures show, worth $3 billion Solomon Islands dollars ($378 million).
Environmental and rights group Global Witness said this was more than 19 times higher than sustainable levels, and if continued could denude the country and soon exhaust the single biggest contributor to the Solomons’ economic growth.
Deforestation also removes wild fruits and vegetables that are a local food source and destroys the habitats of animals.
Global Witness’ analysis of import data also found that the overwhelming majority of the lumber was sent to China, the world’s top importer of timber, which it said underscored the urgency for Beijing to regulate imports and probe their origins.
“The scale of the logging is so unsustainable that natural forests will be exhausted very soon if nothing changes,” Beibei Yin, who led the research team that compiled the report, told Reuters by phone from London where Global Witness is based.
“The Chinese companies which import most of the wood are so significant that if all of them together stop buying there is still a chance to revert back,” she said.
Global Witness took 155,000 cubic meters as a sustainable log export volume from the Solomons, which is the lowest but most recently calculated of several government and expert analyzes, with the highest being approximately 300,000.
It gave no date of its own for the possible exhaustion of forests but cited a preliminary estimate of 2036 which was made in 2011 by the Solomons’ forestry ministry.
The Solomon Islands Prime Minister’s office directed Reuters to the secretary for the Forestry Minister, who did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
China’s commerce ministry did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment.
The Solomon Islands has more than 2.2 million hectares (5.4 million acres) of forest covering approximately 80 percent of its land area, which is spread over some 990 islands.
Though the country’s forestry ministry has previously said it had toughened regulations to combat illegal logging, Global Witness said a lack of enforcement capacity increased the risk of loggers cutting more than permitted.
Global Witness’ satellite analysis of logging roads showed 669 km (416 miles) lying above 400 m (1,300 feet) elevation, where logging is nominally restricted.
Interpol estimates the global trade in illegal lumber to be worth more than $50 billion annually. ($1 = 7.9381 Solomon Islands dollars) (Reporting by Tom Westbrook in SYDNEY; additional reporting by Elias Glenn in BEIJING Editing by James Dalgleish)
Solomon Islands’ forests felled fast to feed China demand — Global Witness
Solomon Islands’ forests felled fast to feed China demand — Global Witness
- Export volumes of the archipelago’s single largest export commodity leapt more than 20 percent to just over 3 million cubic meters in 2017
- Global Witness said this was more than 19 times higher than sustainable levels
Canada is already examining tariffs on certain US items following Trump’s tariff threat
Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico if the countries don’t stop what he called the flow of drugs and migrants across southern and northern borders. He said he would impose a 25 percent tax on all products entering the US from Canada and Mexico as one of his first executive orders.
A Canadian government official said Canada is preparing for every eventuality and has started thinking about what items to target with tariffs in retaliation. The official stressed no decision has been made. The person spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly.
When Trump imposed higher tariffs during his first term in office, other countries responded with retaliatory tariffs of their own. Canada, for instance, announced billions of new duties in 2018 against the US in a tit-for-tat response to new taxes on Canadian steel and aluminum.
Many of the US products were chosen for their political rather than economic impact. For example, Canada imports $3 million worth of yogurt from the US annually and most comes from one plant in Wisconsin, home state of then-House Speaker Paul Ryan. That product was hit with a 10 percent duty.
Another product on the list was whiskey, which comes from Tennessee and Kentucky, the latter of which is the home state of then-Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell.
Trump made the threat Monday while railing against an influx of illegal migrants, even though the numbers at Canadian border pale in comparison to the southern border.
The US Border Patrol made 56,530 arrests at the Mexican border in October alone — and 23,721 arrests at the Canadian one between October 2023 and September 2024.
Canadian officials say lumping Canada in with Mexico is unfair but say they are happy to work with the Trump administration to lower the numbers from Canada. The Canadians are also worried about a influx north of migrants if Trump follows through with his plan for mass deportations.
Trump also railed about fentanyl from Mexico and Canada, even though seizures from the Canadian border pale in comparison to the Mexican border. US customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border last fiscal year, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border.
Canadian officials argue their country is not the problem and that tariffs will have severe implications for both countries.
Canada is the top export destination for 36 US states. Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian ($2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day. About 60 percent of US crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85 percent of US electricity imports are from Canada. Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the US and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and investing in for national security.
“Canada is essential to the United States’ domestic energy supply,” Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said.
Trump has pledged to cut American energy bills in half within 18 months, something that could be made harder if a 25 percent premium is added to Canadian oil imports. In 2023, Canadian oil accounted for almost two-thirds of total US oil imports and about one-fifth of the US oil supply.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is holding a emergency virtual meeting on Wednesday with the leaders of Canada’s provinces, who want Trudeau to negotiate a bilateral trade deal with the United States that excludes Mexico.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday that her administration is already working up a list of possible retaliatory tariffs “if the situation comes to that.”
Musk calls for abolishing consumer finance watchdog targeted by Republicans
The comment on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) follows Musk’s recent appointment to a government efficiency role, further amplifying the influence of the world’s richest man, who donated millions of dollars to helping Trump get elected.
“Delete CFPB. There are too many duplicative regulatory agencies,” Musk said in a post on social media platform X.
The CFPB did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will co-lead a newly created Department of Government Efficiency, an entity Trump indicated will operate outside the confines of government.
The CFPB was created as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law to police and regulate consumer financial products following the 2008 crisis and only Congress has the power to eliminate it.
Separately, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing sources, that the consumer finance watchdog is moving ahead with rulemaking in the final weeks of Joe Biden’s Democratic administration, in a bid to advance consumer protections before Trump overhauls the agency.
Republicans have sought to curtail or eliminate the agency from the outset, but legislative efforts to either scrap it altogether, or place stricter limits on its funding and leadership structure, have failed to gain traction in the years since its creation.
Banking industry executives and lawyers also anticipate the incoming Trump administration will likely place significant limits on the CFPB.
Trump turns to outsider to shake up Navy, but his lack of military experience raises concerns
- The appointment comes at a critical moment for the Navy, which has been stretched thin with deployments around the world
WASHINGTON: President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be secretary of the Navy, John Phelan, has not served in the military or had a civilian leadership role in the service. While officials and defense experts said the Navy is in sore need of a disruptor, they cautioned that Phelan’s lack of experience could make it more difficult for him to realize Trump’s goals.
Trump late Tuesday nominated Phelan, a major donor to his campaign who founded the private investment firm Rugger Management LLC. The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment on his qualifications. According to his biography, Phelan’s primary exposure to the military comes from an advisory position he holds on the Spirit of America, a non-profit that supports the defense of Ukraine and the defense of Taiwan.
Not all service secretaries come into the office with prior military experience, but he’d be the first in the Navy since 2006. Current Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth similarly does not have prior military service. She, however, has spent her career in a host of defense civilian positions.
The appointment comes at a critical moment for the Navy, which has been stretched thin with deployments around the world and must contend with a shrinking fleet even as the naval forces of its main rival, China, are growing. Trump has campaigned on expanding the Navy and would need to fight bureaucratic inertia to do so. But it’s uncertain whether a secretary with no military experience — either in uniform or as a defense civilian — would be well-positioned to lead that effort.
“It will be difficult for anyone without experience in the Pentagon to take over the leadership of a service and do a good job,” said Stacie Pettyjohn, a senior fellow and director of the defense program at the Center for a New American Security. “Services are sprawling organizations with distinct cultures, subcultures and bureaucratic interests, and where decisions are made through many formal processes. To change a service’s plans, one must understand this Byzantine landscape.”
Experts said Phelan’s nomination reflects that Trump is seeking service branch heads who will not push back on his ideas — but that Phelan’s lack of experience is likely to create issues and delays of its own, They say the Navy can’t afford to lose time. One of the Navy’s biggest challenges is preparing for a potential military confrontation with China over Taiwan, a self-ruled island that China claims as its own.
“The stakes are high,” said Brad Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “The success or failure in addressing key problems in the US Navy over the next couple years may have a decisive effect on war and peace in the Taiwan Strait and elsewhere.”
Trump has called for a 350-ship Navy since his 2016 presidential campaign, but he experienced first-hand the difficulty in realizing that goal, given the challenges to shipbuilding and the erratic and often delayed congressional budget process.
There are just under 300 battle force ships in the fleet — vessels that have a direct role in conducting combat operations.
“The Navy is stretched covering Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific. Strategists have wanted to pull back from Europe and the Middle East, but recent conflicts have prevented that,” said Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “So the next secretary will have a shrinking fleet, expanded overseas commitments, and an uncertain budget environment.”
The Marine Corps has called for 31 amphibious warships to help it maintain a close-to-shore presence around the globe. The Navy regularly has had to extend the deployments of its aircraft carriers and escorting destroyers, for example, to respond to the unstable security situation in the Middle East.
Each extension can create rippling effects: Ships don’t get maintained on schedule, and forces get tired of the lack of predictability for their families and leave the service.
Service branch chiefs spend vast amounts of time not only responding to the White House but also appeasing members of Congress in frequent hearings on Capitol Hill, shaping budget requests, holding constant meetings on service member issues, attending industry conferences and filling speakers requests. That all requires a nuanced understanding of the service that a secretary is leading, because major change in any of the branches often involves a lengthy process to review directives and past policy. Any changes to the many weapons systems the Navy and Marine Corps need and pursue are subject to lengthy contract award challenges.
“The Navy’s problem here is money,” Cancian said. “Even if the defense budget goes up, there will only be a relatively small increase available for shipbuilding. (If) the budget stays steady or goes down, then the Navy will have a major problem. The fleet will continue to shrink.”
Trump has signaled through multiple appointments, such as his selection of SpaceX founder Elon Musk to co-lead a nongovernmental Department of Government Efficiency, that he seeks to cut through red tape. But the service secretary can’t do that without moving through Congress, which has produced many of those regulations and processes the military must follow.
“It might help that he has a personal relationship with the president. However, his lack of experience in defense and the Pentagon will hurt the Navy,” Cancian said. “It will take him a while to learn the levers of power.”
Watchdog refers 40 UK charities to police over Israel-Hamas war
- Charity Commission opens further 200 regulatory cases related to the conflict in Gaza
- Head of the organization says it is cracking down on antisemitism and hate speech
LONDON: Regulators in the UK investigating breaches of rules by charitable organizations during their activities linked to the war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza have referred 40 cases to the police since the Oct. 7 attacks last year.
The Charity Commission also opened 200 regulatory cases related to the conflict during the same period, the watchdog’s chairperson, Orlando Fraser, said.
The figures offer further evidence of the extent to which the fighting in the Middle East has led to polarization and hateful rhetoric in Europe and the US. In the UK’s charity sector, where many of the organizations have religious affiliations, the conflict has resulted in hundreds of cases the Charity Commission has felt the need to investigate.
The watchdog has moved robustly to take action against “perpetrators of concerning activities linked to the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza, including antisemitic and hate speech,” Fraser said during a speech at the commission’s annual general meeting on Tuesday.
The 200 regulatory cases related to the war it has looked into involved charities “with different views on the conflict,” he added. The 40 referrals to the police were made in cases where the commission considered criminal offenses might have been committed.
“We are clear that charities must never become vehicles for hate and we have robustly enforced that position,” Fraser said.
UK counter terrorism police arrest seven over ‘PKK activity’
- British police said they were carrying out searches at eight premises across London, including the Kurdish Community Center in the north of the capital
LONDON: British police said they had arrested seven people and were searching a Kurdish community center in London as part of a counter terrorism investigation into suspected activity linked to the banned Kurdistan Workers Party, known as the PKK.
Those arrested were five men and two women, aged between 23 and 62, police said, adding there was no imminent threat to the public.
“This activity has come about following a significant investigation and operation into activity we believe is linked to the terrorist group PKK,” said Acting Commander Helen Flanagan.
“These are targeted arrests of those we suspect of being involved in terrorist activity linked to the group.”
The PKK, a militant group founded in southeast Turkiye in 1978 with the aim of creating an independent Kurdish state, was banned in Britain in 2001. The group has been involved in a 40-year conflict, leading to more than 40,000 deaths.
British police said they were carrying out searches at eight premises across London, including the Kurdish Community Center in the north of the capital, which is likely to be closed to the public for up to two weeks.
Flanagan said later on Wednesday that the police understood the arrests had caused concern among some local communities, especially those in the Kurdish community.
“I want to reassure the community that our activity is being carried out to keep everyone safe from potential harm, including those within the Kurdish community itself,” Flanagan said.
