EXCLUSIVE

Elizabeth Warren blasts the EPA for neglecting environmental justice

Grist / ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP via Getty Images

By Zoya Teirstein on Oct 21, 2020 

Climate change and environmental degradation don’t affect all Americans equally. Extreme heat, flooding, drought, and other consequences of our warming planet tend to hit low-income and nonwhite communities hardest. And pollution from highways and industry activity has long affected those communities most, too. These patterns are known as environmental injustice.

In 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency under President Obama established a tool called EJSCREEN to literally map the factors that create environmental injustice. The map shows how 11 environmental indicators — things like “proximity to a Superfund site” or “lead paint indicator” — affect any given zip code in the U.S., overlaid with general demographic information about each area. (Disclosure: EJSCREEN was co-created by Lisa Garcia, the senior advisor to the administrator for environmental justice at the EPA under Obama. Garcia is now the Fix program director at Grist; she played no role in assigning or editing this article.) In recent years, some states — namely California, New York, Washington, and Maryland — developed their own, more comprehensive mapping tools, often based on EJSCREEN, to help them figure out where to direct attention and resources.

A tool like EJSCREEN could play a crucial role in helping to administer an environmental justice–informed climate plan like the $2 trillion plan Democratic nominee Joe Biden is proposing. Biden has promised to devote 40 percent of the benefits of his plan to disadvantaged communities, and his plan actually describes a tool that sounds quite a bit like EJSCREEN. Such a tool could help guide federal and state decisions around permitting for factories and power plants, funding for climate resiliency projects, and state environmental regulations.

The problem is, the Trump administration has been neglecting EJSCREEN and the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice, which houses it. President Trump’s fiscal budget for 2021 proposed a 71 percent cut to the EPA’s environmental justice program. And EJSCREEN itself has limitations. Namely, the tool doesn’t provide a granular view of the environmental issues facing communities, and the federal government does not incorporate the tool’s findings into its decision-making process. Critics of the tool also say it fails to accurately represent the unique suite of environmental justice issues that each state represents, as it uses the same 11 indicators to evaluate the entire country. What’s more, EJSCREEN doesn’t currently take climate change into account.

In a scathing letter to EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler shared exclusively with Grist, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts expressed concern about the way the EPA has handled matters related to environmental justice, including EJSCREEN. “The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has highlighted the public health impacts of environmental injustices, such as the placement of pipelines and factories that expose low-income communities to more pollution, which disproportionately affects communities of color,” Warren wrote in the letter. “In order to combat these injustices, we must identify and help these communities, and the EPA has existing tools to do so that remain unused.”

“Will you commit to provide us, in no later than 2 months, with a staff-level briefing on your plan to improve the EJSCREEN program and expand its use in federal environmental decision-making?” Warren asked Wheeler. It’s unlikely that the EPA head will agree to her request. But on Wednesday, a pair of progressive think tanks unveiled a roadmap to a new, more effective national equity mapping program to improve on EJSCREEN.

In a policy memo titled “Designing a New National Equity Mapping Program,” Evergreen (an environmental policy group started by a bunch of former Jay Inslee campaign staffers) and the progressive policy shop Demos propose a federal mapping tool that builds on the gains that states have made in recent years. The groups suggest that the federal government should use such a tool to identify disadvantaged communities, using a definition of “disadvantaged” that not only takes the multiple environmental burdens that a community faces into account, but also considers the health and economic well-being of the people who live there. In other words, the government should recognize that environmental burdens don’t exist in a vacuum; they pile up in a cumulative fashion.

The new and improved mapping tool, the memo says, should be updated every three years to make sure it includes the best available data. “The Map, at its core, is an accountability tool,” Evergreen and Demos say. “The federal government must face the harms that discriminatory policies have caused and track whether current policies are remedying those harms or exacerbating them.” And the memo says that any federal mapping program should include not only climate data, but also granular information on race and other social demographic indicators.

In a statement expressing support for the policy memo, Warren said, “The federal government can and must better identify at-risk communities, prioritize resources to support them, and remediate historic injustices.”

HISTORIC ACCEPTANCE OF LGBTQ RITES

Pope says homosexuals should be covered by civil union laws



By Philip Pullella


ROME (Reuters) - Pope Francis says in a new film released on Wednesday that homosexuals should be protected by civil union laws, in some of the clearest language he has used on the rights of gay people.

“Homosexual people have a right to be in a family. They are children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out or be made miserable over it,” he says in the documentary “Francesco” by Oscar-nominated director Evgeny Afineevsky.

“What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered. I stood up for that,” he said.

The pope appeared to be referring to when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires and opposed legislation to approve same sex marriages but supported some kind of legal protection for the rights of gay couples.

According to papal biographer Austen Ivereigh, his comments in the film released on Wednesday were some of the clearest language the pope has used on the subject since his election in 2013.

The pope spoke in a section of the film about Andrea Rubera, a gay man who with his partner adopted three children.

Rubera says in the film that he went to a morning Mass the pope said in his Vatican residence and gave him a letter explaining his situation.

He told the pope that he and his partner wanted to bring the children up as Catholics in the local parish but did not know how they would be received. It was not clear in which country Rubera lives.

Rubera said the pope telephoned him several days later, telling him he was moved by the letter and urging the couple to introduce their children to the parish but to be ready for opposition.

The film shows Rubera giving the letter to the pope. He says he and his partner took the pope’s advice and are happy they did.


Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Gareth Jones and Giles Elgood

Jewish director sends message of hope in Pope Francis film

By Philip Pullella

ROME (Reuters) - After tackling war in Syria, Oscar-nominated Evgeny Afineevsky wanted his next documentary to send a message of hope, so he chose as its subject the only world leader he believes capable of uniting humanity: Pope Francis.

Afineevsky, a Russia-born Jew, depicts Francis as the great connector, and “Francesco”, which premiered at the Rome Film Festival on Wednesday, places the pope at the heart of a narrative that casts a wide net over some of the world’s most pressing problems.

“The main thread of this movie is more about us as human beings, who are creating disasters every day. And he (the pope) is the one who is connecting us through these threads,” Afineevsky, now a U.S. citizen, said in an interview.

Using the coronavirus as a launch pad, the two-hour film starts with footage of a deserted, rain slicked St. Peter’s Square on the evening of March 27, when Francis led a surreal and solitary prayer service for relief from the rapidly spreading pandemic.

It then cuts to empty streets the world over to drive home the pope’s message that “we are all in the same boat”.

Afineevsky was nominated for an Oscar in 2016 for “Winter on Fire”, about the popular uprising in Ukraine. After “Cries from Syria”, a subsequent film on the civil war there, “brought me to the darkest side of humanity,” he felt compelled to produce something uplifting.

“Just like Pope Francis brings attention to the horrible situation that we as humanity have created, I wanted to find hope, light and love and give this hope to people. Through his (the pope’s) actions, I found this,” he said.

“It’s the story of us, and him helping us, understand these things.”

The film tackles other topical issues such as the growing rich-poor gap, racism, climate change, sexual abuse, migration, human trafficking, political polarisation and relations between Christians, Moslems and Jews.

The viewer sees them through the pope’s eyes, his pronouncements, his writings, his Tweets, his trips, and newspaper headlines. It also features Afineevsky’s interviews with Francis and appearances by Catholic Church experts, refugees, sex abuse victims, a homosexual couple, a Holocaust survivor, rabbis and Moslems.

Footage of bombs in Syria, migrant boats sinking in the Mediterranean, typhoons in the Philippines, melting ice caps, the separation of families at the U.S. Mexican border, a refugee camp in Greece, and blacks killed by police in the United States, are interspersed with papal comments.

While positive in its overall evaluation, the film avoids the overt hagiography of documentaries of Francis made by religious groups.

It highlights the fact that he completely misjudged the scale and severity of the Church’s sexual abuse crisis, and that he later publicly recognised his mistake and apologised.

“It is beautiful to see a leader in his position, and just a humble human being, who is able to say: ‘I am sorry, I am wrong,’” Afineevsky said.


Reporting By Philip Pullella; editing by John Stonestreet

'Not even the pandemic' will stop Colombia protests, leaders say

By Nelson Bocanegra

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Thousands of union members, teachers, students and indigenous people are set to participate in a national strike in Colombia on Wednesday to protest the social and economic policies of President Ivan Duque, the killing of human rights activists and recent police violence.



FILE PHOTO: People participate in a demonstration called by Colombian indigenous people to demand the government to protect their territories, stop the assassinations of social leaders, and the implementation of a peace agreement, at a meeting called "Minga" in Bogota, Colombia October 19, 2020. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez/File Photo

The marches are the latest in a sporadic series of protests that began late last year, including September demonstrations against police brutality that led to 13 deaths.

The government has warned that crowds create a high risk of coronavirus infections. Colombia, which held more than five months of national lockdown to stem the virus, is set to top 1 million confirmed infections later this week.

Protesters are demanding a variety of government concessions, including a guaranteed income for those who lost their jobs because of coronavirus, more funding for health and education and steps to stop gender-based violence.

Protest leaders, including indigenous representatives, have also demanded a meeting with Duque to discuss the murders of activists, whose deaths the government attributes to criminal gangs and leftist rebels.

“We march jointly today for the negotiation of an emergency petition, which will include health, life, farmer production, the rights of women, of vulnerable populations,” said union head Diogenes Orjuela during a Tuesday press event with indigenous leaders.

Some 10,000 indigenous people have arrived in Bogota this week, principally from the country’s southwest, appealing for Duque to meet with them.

“Not even the pandemic will stop our movement,” said Hermes Pete, head of the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC). “There is no other path but to keep fighting.”

The marches’ crowds could be “tomorrow’s outbreaks,” Duque warned on his nightly television broadcast on Tuesday.

Business leaders have called for protests to be suspended on fears they could damage nascent recovery after lockdown. The government estimates the economy will contract 5.5% this year.

Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Steve Orlofsky

Analysis: Google antitrust case to turn on how search engine grew dominant - experts

By Paresh Dave, Jonathan Stempel

A Google sign is pictured on a Google building in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., October 20, 2020. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

OAKLAND, Calif./NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. government’s antitrust case against Alphabet Inc’s Google appears strong, but could face an uphill battle from a business-friendly judiciary that may question whether a free search engine beloved by consumers has actually left them worse off, several legal experts said.

Google was accused in the long-anticipated lawsuit filed on Tuesday of harming competition in internet search and search advertising through distribution agreements and other restrictions that put its search tool front and center whenever consumers browsed the web.

To win, the U.S. Department of Justice must prove that Google gained or maintained monopoly power through abusive conduct, or something beyond competition on the merits.

Several legal experts said Google’s alleged misconduct appears similar to allegations the government leveled in the 1990s against Microsoft Corp. That landmark case was settled in 2002, and a consent decree required the maker of the Windows operating system to stop retaliating against computer makers that used non-Microsoft software.

Rebecca Haw Allensworth, a professor at Vanderbilt Law School, said the Justice Department appeared wise to offer credible and narrow arguments in its 59-page complaint.

“They are not jumping on the bandwagon of we have to restructure antitrust law for tech,” she said. “They are sticking to the existing law.”

Eleven U.S. states joined the government’s lawsuit, and New York Attorney General Letitia James said her state and six others may soon file their own lawsuit.

Experts said the federal government is unlikely to back away from the case, and in fact might press harder, if Democrat Joe Biden wins the presidency over Republican incumbent Donald Trump in the Nov. 3 election.

Google is expected to argue that the government overestimated the company’s power by defining its market too narrowly.

But some experts said Google’s ubiquity makes the case more likely to hinge on whether its dominance stems from consumers preferring it to rivals, or whether the Mountain View, California-based company steered them away from those rivals.

“We know Google has a large share of that market,” said John Lopatka, a law professor at Pennsylvania State University. “The question is why.”

Shubha Ghosh, a law professor at Syracuse University, said the government alleges Google is blocking more consumer-friendly search engines, such as ones that do not collect user data to personalize ads, from gaining popularity. But he said Google could argue simply that its search engine was effective at generating results that consumers want, and was “not meant to be exclusionary.”

Or, as Lopatka put it: “It could say, we were an admired scrappy firm and we did really good work, and that’s why we became as dominant as we are.”

Skyrocketing prices often show that customers have been hurt by anticompetitive behavior.

But Google provides its search services for free, adding to the Justice Department’s challenges.

“The trend in judicial doctrine in Supreme Court decisions involving dominant firms has been to give big companies broad freedom to choose business strategies they prefer,” said William Kovacic, a law professor at George Washington University and former chair of the Federal Trade Commission. “If you’re a plaintiff, including a government plaintiff, that’s hard to overcome -- not impossible, just very difficult,” he added.

Experts said that even if the Justice Department proved Google was a monopoly and abused its monopoly power, a court might struggle to fashion measures to improve competition in searches.

“Making a search engine isn’t easy,” said Chris Sagers, a law professor at Cleveland State University. “It seems extraordinarily unlikely any other firm is going to challenge Google meaningfully.”

Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Paresh Dave; Editing by Greg Mitchell and Leslie Adler

'Digit' robot for sale and ready to perform manual labor

by Bob Yirka , Tech Xplore
  

Credit: Agility

Robot maker Agility, a spinoff created by researchers from Oregon State University, has announced that parties interested in purchasing one of its Digit robots can now do so. The human-like robot has been engineered to perform manual labor, such as removing boxes from shelves and loading them onto a truck. The robot can be purchased directly from Agility for $250,000.

Most of the robots that have been built in recent years are for research purposes. Scientists all over the world are striving to give them more and better capabilities. On their web page, the team at Agility claim that it is time for robots to start getting out of the research lab and into the real world where they can start doing useful things. They note that Digit has been engineered to do just that, and it is ready right now, for customers.

Digit is vaguely human-shaped. It has two arms and two legs and can walk around. Its toeless feet are flat and its knees bend backward compared to humans. Also, it has no head or hands. But it does have strength and durability, and a computer that allows it to carry out tasks autonomously and without a tether. Digit looks the part of a robot ready to perform laborious tasks. Its frame is thick metal and it moves like a person who does manual labor. It can bend over and pick up a box, carry it to a desired destination (including climbing stairs if need be) and leave it there, repeatedly.

 

The team at Agility notes that current events make Digit ideal for businesses looking to replace human laborers with robot laborers. Human labor in the U.S. and other parts of the world, they note, is in short supply due to a variety of factors, not least of which is the current COVID-19 pandemic. They also note that Digit has been engineered to work in the real world; users do not need to alter the work environment to suit its needs; it can work anywhere human beings are already working. The team at Agility also note that they aim to be in the robot-making and selling business long-term. They just recently received an infusion of $20 million in funding from a variety of investors. They also recently struck a deal with Ford Motor Company for robots that can be used to load and unload boxes from self-driving vehicles.




Bipedal robot Digit seen as final step in autonomous delivery system
More information: Agility Robotics: www.agilityrobotics.com/

Agility raises $20 million to build and deploy robots for work in human spaces: www.businesswire.com/news/home … Work-in-Human-Spaces

© 2020 Science X Network

Cathay Pacific to cut workforce by nearly a quarter

by Jerome Taylor, Su Xinqi

Cathay Pacific has become the latest airline to announce mass job losses

Cathay Pacific announced plans Wednesday to cut its workforce by nearly a quarter and close one of its short-haul airlines in an effort to survive the "devastating" impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.


Across the globe, airlines have been hammered as the pandemic has slashed international travel, and they face a long, hard winter after a much-hoped-for rebound failed to materialise.

Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong's flag carrier, published a corporate restructuring plan on Wednesday that will lead to 8,500 job losses in total—nearly a quarter of its workforce—and one of its airlines to disappear completely.

"The global pandemic continues to have a devastating impact on aviation and the hard truth is we must fundamentally restructure the Group to survive," CEO Augustus Tang said in a statement.

Cathay said 5,300 redundancies would be made among the airline's Hong Kong-based employees with a further 600 overseas.

The remaining losses would come from a recruitment freeze and natural attrition.

Cathay Dragon, a subsidiary that primarily flies shorter-haul flights within Asia, will cease operations.

The company is seeking regulatory approval to absorb some of Dragon's routes into Cathay Pacific and its budget airline HK Express.

Dismal year

The news of cuts was embraced by investors with Cathay's battered shares trading four percent up in afternoon trade.

But employees reacted with dismay, noting the proportion of jobs going was higher than many competitors.

Cathay Pacific has become the latest airline to announce mass job losses

Zuki Wong chairwoman of the Cathay Pacific Flight Attendants Union, said members were "severely disappointed".

"We all feel very sad because the colleagues being laid off are all very dear to us," she told reporters.

Hong Kong's government came to the rescue of Cathay with a taxpayer-funded bailout of US$5 billion earlier this summer.

But Cathay CEO Tang said the airline was burning through up to HK$2 billion ($260 million) in cash each month during the pandemic.

"This is simply unsustainable. The changes announced today will reduce our cash burn by about HK$500 million per month," he said.

Airline revenues plunged 80 percent in the first six months of the year, according to industry body IATA, but they still had fixed costs to cover—crew, maintenance, fuel, airport levies and now aircraft storage.

Repeated efforts to reassure passengers that air travel is safe have failed to make much of a difference while government restrictions, including quarantines of up to 14 days for returning passengers, have only added pressure.

Dozens of major airlines have slashed jobs in response.

Half capacity next year

Cathay, much like regional rival Singapore Airlines, has no domestic market to fall back on.

But even before the pandemic, Hong Kong's marquee carrier was in a tight spot.

Cathay Pacific expects to run at half its pre-pandemic capacity next year

Months of huge and disruptive democracy protests in the city last year led to a plunge in customers, especially from the lucrative mainland Chinese market.

The airline also found itself punished by authorities in Beijing because some of its employees joined or voiced support for the protests.

By the time the pandemic hit at the start of the year, Hong Kong was already in recession and Cathay Pacific in the red.

There is scant hope on the horizon.

In a note to investors on Monday that detailed its most optimistic scenario, Cathay Pacific said it expected to run at half its pre-pandemic capacity next year.

One of the biggest disappointments for airlines has been the absence of highly lucrative business class travellers who prefer now to rely on tele-conferencing rather than run the risk of catching the virus.

Airlines are hopeful that better testing procedures at airports and "travel bubbles" between countries might encourage more people to fly.

Work on the latter has been slow, especially as the virus surges for a second time in Europe and North America.

Last week, Hong Kong and Singapore announced plans for a "travel bubble".

Under the scheme, passengers who test negative for the virus will be able to travel on dedicated flights and not need to quarantine on arrival.


Explore furtherLow-cost airline HK Express resuming flights in August

© 2020 AFP

 

Settlement expansion announced in West Bank, first since Gulf deals

By The Palestine Monitor - October 15, 2020

Israel has approved the construction of 2,166 new illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, ending an eight-month hiatus on expansion.

The expansion announcement comes less than a month after the United Arab Emirates and Israel normalised diplomatic relations, of which a stipulation saw Israel pledge to halt annexation of parts of the West Bank.

Jordanian Foreign Ministry spokesman Daifallah al-Fayez slammed the announcement in a statement, saying Israel’s plan is “a unilateral and illegal step that undermines the chances of a two-state solution”. 

Al-Fayez urged the international community to put pressure on Israel to end its illegal activities that undermine peace efforts.

Settlement construction in the West Bank is seen as a major obstacle for a feasible two-state solution, and is considered illegal under international law.

According to rights group Peace Now who monitors settlement activity in the West Bank, the uptick in settlements signals Israel’s rejection of Palestinian statehood and deals a blow to hopes of a wider Israeli-Arab peace.

“Far from a 'settlement freeze,’ the right has been complaining about, the expected settlement approvals announcement next week prove that the settlement enterprise under Netanyahu is moving ahead at full steam toward solidifying the de facto annexation of the West Bank,” the statement read.

It said about 2,000 more homes were expected to be approved on Thursday 15 October.

According to the group, there are currently around 650,000 settlers living illegally across 266 outposts and settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.  

Critics see the spike in expansion as driven by strong diplomatic relations between the Netanyahu government and US President Donald Trump whose administration has reversed decades of US policy in a swathe of controversial moves since his election in 2016.

Trump administration has said it no longer considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem illegal, has recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in late 2017 and subsequently relocated their embassy to the divided city, cut funding to the Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, and closed down the Palestinian Liberation Organisation mission offices in Washington in response to the Palestinian Authority’s refusal to enter into US-led talks with Israel. 

In comments made during a meeting with European legislators on Tuesday, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said the last four years of the Trump administration have greatly harmed the Palestinians.

“If we are going to live another four years with President Trump, God help us, God help you and God help the whole world,” Shtayyeh warned.

As Palestinian 'Cause' Loses Steam, Only Unity Among Factions Can Revive Its Importance, Expert Says

© AP Photo / Khalil Hamra

OPINION 05.08.2020 by Elizabeth Blade

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has lost its centrality in the eyes of the Palestinians as well as regional and international players, says a Ramallah-based expert, attributing the change in attitude to the rift between Fatah and Hamas and a number of global developments.

Only a month ago, the Palestinian issue was grabbing headlines around the world, triggered by Israel's plan to extend its sovereignty over parts of the West Bank.

But as the initiative has been put on the back burner (for the time being), the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has lost its centrality, making room for other local and regional issues.

In the past, this wasn't the case. For nearly a century, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been at the forefront of discourse on the Middle East, with politicians and experts linking regional stability to the resolution of the decades-long saga.

Each Arab state emphasised the centrality of the conflict for its own political reasons. Jordan, for example, with its vast Palestinian population, has always positioned itself as the defender of their cause. Syria, under former President Hafez Assad, viewed the entire area as part of Greater Syria, while Egypt, which considers itself the "mother of [the Arab - ed.] world" and wants to unite the region under its leadership, has also placed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the top of its agenda.

So did the international community. From 1945 to 2016 the United Nations passed 80 resolutions on Israel and in 2019 the international body made 18 declarations against the Jewish state, more than twice the number directed at other countries.

Yet, Nidal Foqaha, Director General of the Palestinian Peace Coalition-Geneva Initiative in Ramallah, says both interest in and the "centrality of the Palestinian cause" has dropped significantly over the last few years and although the change cannot be attributed to a certain date, he does point to a number of regional and international factors that contributed to the shift.

Local Upheavals?

The first factor was the stalled peace process that collapsed in the early 2000s, when then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak could not come to terms with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat primarily on the issue of Jerusalem, borders, and the status of refugees.

Then there was another upheaval. The death of Arafat in 2004 which left the Palestinians without a strong leader. Two years later Palestinians went to the polls and Hamas, a group that embraced a more aggressive approach towards Israel and slammed the ruling elite of Fatah for its peace talks with the Jewish state, won, gaining 74 out of 123 seats.

That victory bolstered Hamas’ position and one year later it ousted the Fatah officials who previously controlled both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, establishing full control over the area and causing friction with the Palestinian Authority, a conflict from which the two factions haven't been able to recover.

"That split has had a bad impact on our national project. We promised our people an independent state but so far we've failed to keep that word, and that gap between the leadership and ordinary citizens ended up hurting our credibility in the eyes of the Palestinian people".

Foqaha's words are backed up by numbers. In 2016, a public opinion poll found that 64 percent of Palestinians were unhappy with the conduct of the current PA President Mahmoud Abbas, who at times is held responsible for exerting little effort in bridging the gap between Fatah and Hamas.

And in 2019, another survey found that he stood no chance against such leaders as the imprisoned Marwan Barghouti, who is serving a life sentence for carrying out terror attacks against Israelis, or the chief of Hamas Ismail Haniyeh, both of whom enjoy public popularity.
They Don't Really Care About Us?

The Fatah-Hamas split caused by the ouster of the PA from the Strip has also led to another dire repercussion, namely the stance of the Palestinians in the eyes of the international community.
"It weakened our leverage on the global arena, prevented us from forming a unified front, and that inevitably affected the way the world looks at us".

Although in 2020, the European Union has allocated more than $20 million to the Palestinians, there have also been reports suggesting that several states considered reviewing their assistance to the PA, meaning a cut in cash flow.

A similar challenge has also been posed by the Americans under the Trump administration who in 2019 stopped all assistance to the PA, citing its involvement in terror, and by several Arab donors that steered their attention away from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict following the eruption of the Arab Spring in 2011.

"We are now facing a new reality. The Europeans are busy with the refugees they have absorbed and the economic crisis, regional stakeholders are now looking into their own interests, whereas in Washington, we face quite a biased administration that prevents us from getting any help".

Nevertheless, Foqaha says the Palestinians will not give up on their struggle but the key to success, he believes, lies in unity, not in division.

"We need to move towards a genuine political partnership that brings together all factions under one umbrella. Even if we disagree on the future tools that will be used to achieve that unity. Only then will we be able to restore the image of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation in the eyes of our people and then the world".

The views and opinions expressed in the article do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.

 

Israel stops renewing visas for UN human rights workers By The Palestine Monitor - October 21, 2020 Print: Work visas for UN human rights workers in Palestine have been discontinued by the Israeli government, effectively forcing the top body of staff to leave the country.  Nine of 12 foreign staff from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) – including country director James Heenan – had to leave Israel and the Palestinian territories for fear of being undocumented after Israeli authorities refused to renew their visas. Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the OHCHR, told Middle East Eye the lack of UN staff will have a huge impact on their humanitarian work in the region. “The absence of international staff from the occupied territory is a highly irregular situation and will negatively impact on our ability to carry out our mandate,” Colville said. “We continue to hope that this situation will be resolved soon, and we are actively engaged with various relevant and concerned parties to that end.” The OHCHR writes regular reports highlighting alleged Israeli rights abuses in occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip. United Nations employees across the world are supposed to be automatically granted access to visas to carry out their work. In February, Israel announced it was suspending ties with the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) after a report highlighted more than 100 companies that work in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The report, which highlighted Tripadvisor, Airbnb and the truck and digger maker JCB, among others, was welcomed by Palestinians but sparked Israeli ire. Omar Shakir, director of Human Rights Watch for Israel and Palestine, who is currently based in Amman after being expelled from Israel after claims he supported calls for a boycott, told Al Jazeera this move is part of a wider trend in which other human rights activists are being denied entry due to their criticism of Israel’s human rights record. “Forcing [out] human right monitoring groups is part of a clear strategy that aims to muzzle documentations of Israel’s systematic repression of Palestinians,” Shakir said.  “The reality is that silencing human rights activists …  often only brings more attention to those issues,” he said, suggesting that if Israel’s goal was to silence criticism it had failed, as human rights activists continue to do their work as “strongly” as before. “In an era with COVID-19, where people are finding alternative ways to engage with local partners and to understand the reality on the ground, we just continue our work,” Shakir added.

UK

RSPCA says recession could spark 'animal welfare catastrophe'

By Emily Liddell @em_liddellApprentice reporter
 

MORE than 170 horses were involved in welfare incidents in Hampshire during lockdown.

The RSPCA received 173 welfare calls regarding horses across Hampshire sparking fears a recession will bring a "welfare catastrophe".

As the microchipping of horses becomes compulsory in England this month, the RSPCA fears it will not be enough to prevent an impending horse welfare catastrophe.



As the charity launches its month-long rehoming drive, Adoptober, it reveals that nationally the number of horses in its care is already three times what it was at the start of the last recession in 2009, and said it is braced for huge numbers of abandoned and neglected horses as the country plunges into an even deeper financial downturn.


During the lockdown period of March 23 to September 8 alone, the RSPCA dealt with 4,479 incidents involving horses.

Last year the charity rehomed 242 horses, but almost 760 remain in the charity’s care to date, desperately needing new homes.

The RSPCA is expecting more horses to be abandoned or neglected as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic and the deepening recession and is urging people who are looking to take on a horse to think about adopting one from the charity.




The charity is currently look for a loving home for four-year-old Welsh pony Poppet, who is currently at the RSPCA Millbrook Animal Centre in Southampton.

Poppet was born in RSPCA care in 2016 after her mum was rescued by RSPCA Inspectors.

She is a sweet natured little mare who we think would make a lovely family pony as once she loves you she will do anything for you. She is looking for an experienced home where she can settle in and get to know her surroundings before she starts any ridden work.

Also in the Millbrook centre is one-year-old Piebald Cob gelding Jerry.

Jerry is a super sweet piebald yearling, cob, gelding. Jerry is good to catch, groom, lead and have his feet picked out.

He was rescued from Suffolk after being abandoned in a field earlier this year. He has so far proved to be a very straight forward young pony.