ROME: Nations cheered a last-gasp deal to map out funding to protect nature Thursday, breaking a deadlock at UN talks seen as a test for international cooperation in the face of geopolitical tensions.
Rich and developing countries hammered out a delicate compromise on raising and delivering the billions of dollars needed to protect species, overcoming stark divisions that had scuttled their previous meeting in Cali, Colombia, last year.
Delegates stood and clapped in an emotionally charged final meeting that saw key decisions adopted in the final minutes of the last day of rebooted negotiations at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters in Rome.
COP16 President Susana Muhamad of Colombia hailed the fact that countries worked together for a breakthrough, enabling progress “in this very fragmented and conflicted world.”
“This is something very beautiful because it’s around protecting life that we have come together, and there cannot be anything higher than that,” she added.
The decision comes more than two years after a landmark deal to halt the rampant destruction of nature this decade and protect the ecosystems and wildlife that humans rely on for food, climate regulation, and economic prosperity.
Scientists have warned that action is urgent.
A million species are threatened with extinction, while unsustainable farming and consumption destroys forests, depletes soils and spreads plastic pollution to even the most remote areas of the planet.
The agreement on Thursday is seen as crucial to giving impetus to the 2022 deal, which saw countries agree to protect 30 percent of the world’s land and seas.
Talks were also seen as a bellwether for international cooperation.
The meeting comes as countries face a range of challenges, from trade disputes and debt worries to the slashing of overseas aid — particularly by new US President Donald Trump.
Washington, which has not signed up to the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity, sent no representatives to the meeting.
“Our efforts show that multilateralism can present hope at a time of geopolitical uncertainty,” said Steven Guilbeault, Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Ousseynou Kasse of Senegal, speaking on behalf of the Africa Group, also threw support behind global cooperation.
“We believe that this is the way that can save the world, and we must continue down this path,” he said.
Countries must be “accountable to our children, to the generations to come,” he added, saying he was thinking of what he would tell his own son when he returns home.
“I will give him good news that we have a compromise, we have a deal.”
The failure to finalize an agreement in Cali was the first in a string of disappointing outcomes at environmental summits last year.
A climate finance deal at COP29 in Azerbaijan in November was slammed by developing countries, while separate negotiations about desertification and plastic pollution stalled in December.
Muhamad, who has resigned as Colombia’s environment minister but stayed on to serve until after the Rome conference, was given a standing ovation as the talks drew to a close in the early hours of Friday.
Countries have already agreed a goal to deliver $200 billion a year in finance for nature by 2030, including $30 billion a year from wealthier countries to poorer ones.
The total for 2022 was about $15 billion, according to the OECD.
The main debate in Cali and later Rome was over developing countries’ calls for the creation of a specific biodiversity fund, which has seen pushback from the EU and other wealthy nations, who have argued against multiple funds.
Thursday saw intense closed-door talks based on a “compromise attempt” text that Brazil put forward on behalf of the BRICS country bloc that includes Russia, China and India.
The agreement reached in Rome leaves it to the 2028 COP to decide whether to set up a specific new fund under the UN biodiversity process, or to name a potentially reformed existing fund to play that role.
Georgina Chandler, Head of Policy and Campaigns at the Zoological Society of London, said the finance roadmap was a “key milestone,” but stressed that money is needed urgently.
Other decisions sought to bolster monitoring to ensure countries are held accountable for their progress toward meeting biodiversity targets.
One achievement in Cali was the creation of a new fund to share profits from digitally sequenced genetic data from plants and animals with the communities they come from.
The fund, officially launched on Tuesday, is designed for large firms to contribute a portion of their income from developing things like medicine and cosmetics using this data.
Delegates in Cali also approved the creation of a permanent body to represent the interests of Indigenous people.
World agrees hard-fought nature funding plan at UN talks
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World agrees hard-fought nature funding plan at UN talks
- The agreement on Thursday is seen as crucial to giving impetus to the 2022 deal, which saw countries agree to protect 30 percent of the world’s land and seas
- Countries have already agreed to deliver $200 billion a year in finance for nature by 2030, including $30 billion a year from wealthier countries to poorer ones
Australian PM says battle ahead to win election
- Polls have suggested 10 or more unaligned crossbenchers could yet hold the balance of power
- Albanese is promising modest tax cuts, cheaper health care and new homes for first-time buyers
Surveys give Albanese’s left-leaning Labour Party a narrow lead over the conservative opposition on a two-party preferred basis.
If they are right, Albanese, 62, could lead his party to a majority in the 150-seat parliament.
“On polls there’s a lot of undecided voters. We have a mountain to climb,” Albanese said Friday.
“My job is to maximize Labor’s vote in the next 48 hours. That’s what I’m intending to do.”
Albanese has promised to embrace renewable energy, tackle a worsening housing crisis and pour money into a creaking health care system.
He warned of “cuts and chaos” under a right-leaning coalition led by former police officer Peter Dutton, 54, who wants to slash immigration, crack down on crime and ditch a longstanding ban on nuclear power.
Dutton, leader of the Liberal Party, has predicted “a lot of surprises, seat by seat” on Saturday night.
“I haven’t met an Australian on this campaign who said that they’re better off today than they were three years ago,” he said.
A result could come as soon as Saturday night, unless the vote is very tight.
A total 18.1 million voters have enrolled for the election. More than a third of them have cast an early ballot, the election authority says.
Voting is compulsory, enforced with fines of Aus$20 ($13), leading to turnouts that top 90 percent.
Sizzling snags (sausages) cooked by local fundraisers also entice voters at more than 1,000 polling sites, searchable at democracysausage.org.
High prices are the top voter concern, polls show.
Albanese is promising modest tax cuts, cheaper health care and new homes for first-time buyers.
Dutton says he would slash fuel tax, curb gas prices and invest in infrastructure for half a million homes.
Both sides have had to grapple with US politics too.
The six-week election campaign had barely started when US President Donald Trump unveiled his trade tariffs, with a 10-percent levy on Australia.
Some polls showed Dutton leaking support because of Trump, who he praised earlier this year as a “big thinker” with “gravitas” on the global stage.
As Australians soured on the US president, both Dutton and Albanese took on a tougher tone, promising to stand up for Australia’s interests.
Coal mining superpower Australia will choose between two leaders with sharply contrasting ideas on climate change and emissions reduction.
Albanese’s government has embraced the global push toward decarbonization, warning of a future in which iron ore and polluting coal exports no longer prop up the economy.
Dutton’s signature policy is a $200 billion scheme to construct seven industrial-scale nuclear reactors, doing away with the need to ramp up renewables.
Growing disenchantment among voters has emboldened independents pushing for greater transparency and climate progress.
Polls have suggested 10 or more unaligned crossbenchers could yet hold the balance of power — making a rare minority government a possibility.
Hard right wins local UK election in blow to PM Starmer
- The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics
- Labour won Runcorn with 53 percent of the vote last year, meaning it was one of its safest seats, while Reform got just 18 percent
RUNCORN: Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour party on Friday in local elections that dealt a blow to Britain’s two establishment parties.
Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities including one mayoralty.
The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics.
“For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big moment indeed,” Brexit champion Farage said of Reform’s first-ever by-election win and Starmer’s first electoral loss since he took office last July.
Reform also picked up dozens of council seats from both Labour and the Conservatives as Britain’s political landscape shows signs of splintering.
In the fight for six mayoralties, Reform won Greater Lincolnshire with Labour holding three. Labour, however, only narrowly held the North Tyneside mayoralty after a 26-percent swing to Reform.
New Greater Lincolnshire mayor Andrea Jenkyns said the “fightback to save the heart and soul of our great country has now begun.”
“Now that Reform is in a place of power, we can help start rebuilding Britain. Inch by inch,” she said.
The polls were the first since Starmer became prime minister and Kemi Badenoch took over the reins of the struggling opposition Conservatives last year.
Just 1,641 seats across 23 local authorities were up for grabs — only a fraction of England’s 17,000 councillors — but early results suggested Reform was transferring leads in national polls into tangible results at the ballot box.
“The big question we wanted to know after these results was are the polls right in suggesting that Reform now pose a significant challenge to both the Conservatives and the Labour party? The answer to that question so far is quite clearly yes,” political scientist John Curtice told the BBC.
The centrist Liberal Democrats and left-wing Greens also expected to make gains, as surveys show Britons are increasingly disillusioned with the two main parties amid anaemic economic growth, high levels of irregular immigration and flagging public services.
Reform, which has vowed to “stop the boats” of irregular migrants crossing the English Channel, is hoping that winning mayoralties and gaining hundreds of councillors will help it build its grassroots activism before the next general election — likely in 2029.
British politics have been dominated by the center-left Labour party and center-right Tories since the early 20th century.
But “British politics appears to be fragmenting,” Curtice wrote in the Telegraph this week.
He said Thursday’s polls were “likely be the first in which as many as five parties are serious players.”
Labour won a huge parliamentary majority in July with just 33.7 percent of the vote, the lowest share for any party winning a general election since World War II.
The Conservatives won just 24 percent of the vote, securing only 121 seats in the 650-seat parliament as the party endured its worst election defeat.
Reform picked up five seats, an unprecedented haul for a British hard-right party, although one of those now sits as an independent. After Friday’s win, their tally now stands at five again.
The Liberal Democrats in July won 61 more MPs than at the previous election and the Greens quadrupled their representation to four.
Labour won Runcorn with 53 percent of the vote last year, meaning it was one of its safest seats, while Reform got just 18 percent.
At a result declared shortly before 6:00 am (0500 GMT) Friday, election officials said Reform’s Sarah Pochin secured 12,645 votes to 12,639 for Labour candidate Karen Shore. Turnout was 46 percent.
The vote was sparked after sitting Labour MP Mike Amesbury was convicted of assault for punching a man in the street.
Labour spokesperson said by-elections are “always difficult for the party in government” and the events surrounding the Runcorn vote made it “even harder.”
On Tuesday, Reform UK topped a YouGov poll of voting intentions in Britain with 26 percent, three points ahead of Labour and six up on the Conservatives.
Labour has endured criticism over welfare cuts and tax rises that it claims is necessary to stabilize the economy.
As Labour edges rightwards it is facing a growing challenge from the Greens on the left.
Under threat from Reform on the right, the Tories are also being squeezed on the left by the Liberal Democrats, the traditional third party, which was eyeing gains in the wealthy south.
Donald Trump to rename world war anniversaries as ‘Victory Day’
- ‘I am hereby renaming May 8th as Victory Day for World War II and November 11th as Victory Day for World War I’
- No executive order or proclamation enumerating the holiday name changes has been formally issued yet by the White House
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Thursday expressed his intent to rename both May 8 and November 11 “Victory Day” in his latest attempt to alter the country’s nomenclature.
“I am hereby renaming May 8th as Victory Day for World War II and November 11th as Victory Day for World War I,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Victory Day, observed by the European Union on May 8 and in former Soviet countries on May 9, marks the anniversary of the formal acceptance of Germany’s unconditional surrender.
The war continued in Asia until the surrender of Japan in early September 1945 after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Though some in the United States mark the occasion, May 8 is not a public holiday or celebrated as widely as in Europe.
“Many of our allies and friends are celebrating May 8th as Victory Day, but we did more than any other Country, by far, in producing a victorious result on World War II,” Trump’s post said.
November 11 was originally named “Armistice Day” by former US president Woodrow Wilson to mark the anniversary of 1918 armistice ending the armed conflict in World War I.
It is now a public holiday celebrated in the United States as “Veterans Day” and meant to honor Americans who have served in the US armed forces.
“We won both Wars, nobody was close to us in terms of strength, bravery, or military brilliance, but we never celebrate anything – That’s because we don’t have leaders anymore, that know how to do so!” Trump continued. “We are going to start celebrating our victories again!”
During World War II the Soviet Union, in which Russia was the largest of 15 republics, was allied with Britain and the United States against Nazi Germany.
The USSR suffered the greatest number of casualties in the war, with more than 20 million killed.
No executive order or proclamation enumerating the holiday name changes has been formally issued yet by the White House.
Trump in his second term has repeatedly sought to rename parts of US public life, whether it be a national holiday – such as changing “Indigenous Peoples’ Day” back to “Columbus Day” – or a geographical feature, like renaming the “Gulf of Mexico” as the “Gulf of America.”
Pakistani Kashmir orders stockpiling of food as India tensions flare
- India blames Pakistan for the attack on civilians at the tourist site of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22
- The two nuclear-armed countries have exchanged gunfire for eight consecutive nights along the militarized Line of Control
MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan-administered Kashmir called on residents near the de facto border with the Indian side of the region to stockpile food on Friday as tensions flare between the arch-rivals following a deadly attack last month.
India blames Pakistan for the attack by gunmen on civilians at the tourist site of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22 that killed 26 men. Islamabad has rejected the charge.
The two nuclear-armed countries have exchanged gunfire for eight consecutive nights along the militarized Line of Control, the de facto border, according to the Indian army, and the uneasy neighbors have issued a raft of tit-for-tat punitive diplomatic measures.
“Instructions have been issued to stock food supplies for two months in the 13 constituencies along the Line of Control (LoC),” the prime minister of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Chaudhry Anwar ul Haq, told the local assembly on Friday.
The regional government has also created an emergency fund of one billion rupees ($3.5 million) to ensure the supply of “food, medicines and all other basic necessities” to the 13 constituencies, he said.
Government and privately owned machinery was also being deployed to maintain roads in the areas along the LoC, he said.
The attack in Indian Kashmir and subsequent tensions, including expulsions and closed border crossings, have raised fears of a conflagration between India and Pakistan.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday gave the military “complete operational freedom” to respond to the attack.
Pakistan has denied any involvement and has said it has “credible evidence” that India is planning an imminent military strike, vowing that any attack would be met with a response.
Fearing a military escalation, authorities in Pakistani Kashmir shut more than 1,000 religious schools for 10 days on Thursday.
India and Pakistan, which both claim Kashmir in full, have fought over the Himalayan territory since the end of British rule in 1947.
10 killed in Philippines when passenger bus slams into vehicles at a toll booth
- More than two dozen others were injured in the multiple-vehicle collision in Tarlac city, north of Manila
- The bus driver was taken into custody and initially told investigators that he dozed off shortly before the crash
MANILA: A speeding passenger bus slammed into a row of vehicles lined up at a highway toll booth Thursday in the northern Philippines, killing 10 people, including children, police said.
More than two dozen others were injured in the multiple-vehicle collision in Tarlac city, north of Manila, at a heavy travel time on May Day holiday, police said.
The bus driver, who was among the injured, was taken into custody and initially told investigators that he dozed off shortly before the crash, Tarlac police chief Lt. Col. Romel Santos told reporters.
The bus crashed into a van, which was lined up with three other vehicles at the toll booth. Eight of the dead, including children, were in the van, which was pinned between the wayward bus from behind and another car in front, police said.
A couple died in a car in the collisions that happened around midday in the scorching summer heat, police said, adding that many of the injured were bus passengers.
Vehicular accidents are common in the Philippines because of poor enforcement of safety and traffic regulations, faulty vehicles and reckless driving.
